Chapter Thirty-Eight: Migraine

Hiro couldn't help but stare as Kally was practically dragged into the medical suite like some kind of corpse. He'd finally managed to walk around the area without help; something he knew was a minor achievement in comparison to everything else. He gaped at her pale and sweaty face. One thing for sure, she did not look good.

"Over here," Dr. Bosch instructed as he saw the two guards bring Kally in. He indicated the same examination table he'd had her use only two days ago. Concern reflected in his eyes as he took in her pallor and pain-filled eyes. With the guards' help, he got her lying on the table, though she clutched at her head like it was going to split open. "What happened?"

The first of the two guards took a step back. "She threw up in her lab," he briefed, his face stony.

"Reports indicate atypical behavior before she began vomiting," the other guard offered.

Dr. Bosch rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can see that. Can you tell me anything helpful?" His back tensed in irritation as he turned to examine his new patient. When he flashed a light in her eyes, she cried out in pain. Well, that eliminated several different possibilities.

"She seemed faint before it happened," the first guard admitted. "She was staring at the computer screen before closing her eyes and leaning back against her chair. She sat that way for about ten minutes before pushing away from the work desk and and then threw up violently on the floor."

When Kally groaned in misery, Hiro couldn't help but empathize with her. From what they'd described, he could come up with a few possibilities. Neither of them sounded pleasant, though definitely not life threatening. Realizing he'd been standing in the same spot for several minutes now, Hiro found his knees shaking a bit. He reached for the nearest chair, which happened to be a wheeled stool, and sat down. The doctor hadn't been lying when he'd told him he'd be weak.

Dr. Bosch took Kally's vitals, noting her temperature was slightly elevated, but not to any point to draw too much concern. Her blood pressure, on the other hand, was higher than it should be, as was her pulse and respirations. "Thank you," he said, realizing the two guards were still there. "You may leave now."

"Can you turn off the lights, please?" Kally whimpered. Her plan had gone a little too well and the light only seemed to make the pain worse. It had been a long time since she'd last purposely called on a migraine. It was something she'd learned to do as a child when she wanted to get of doing something, like going to school. Once a headache manifested, the rest was fairly easy if she focused on it, especially since she always seemed to be in a constant state of stress.

The doctor complied, dimming the lights nearest her. He knew the cameras wouldn't be effected by the change so didn't worry about what certain people might say. He took his best medical stance, arms folded as he evaluated his patient. "You have a history of severe migraines," he stated. It was in her medical history, after all. And all the symptoms matched.

Kally grimaced. She'd really overdone it this time. Chances were good this one would last quite a while. "Yeah," she managed as she curled into fetal position, her back against the wall, hands still pressing against her head. "It's genetic."

"Hmm." Dr. Bosch frowned as he called up her medical history. He knew migraines could be debilitating, though the timing was certainly interesting. But, all things considered, it probably wasn't unexpected. Her medical history indicated her migraines may have been triggered by an overload of stress. At least one neurologist had noted that as a possible trigger. There were, unfortunately, no records for medications prescribed to treat them.

Hiro wobbled his way over. He'd had a little rest while watching things unfold. He'd only ever had the one migraine in one of his repeating timelines so he had some idea of what she might be going through. By the time he'd made it over to her side of the room, however, he was panting and had to lean against something. This totally sucked, like when he'd had the appendix episode. Totally not cool.

Hearing Hiro all but wheezing, Dr. Bosch went to move the same stool he'd used earlier to the teen's side. "You might want to sit down for a while," he advised. Sure the boy was situated, he returned to the problem at hand. "Just how have you treated your migraines in the past? Your medical history is pretty blank on that end."

Kally winced at the unintentionally loud tone the doctor used. Even the vibration of moving hurt. Now why had she gone and gotten herself into this situation? Oh yeah, she'd hoped to get some answers. "Sleep," she sighed. "Wait for the pain to pass." Now that she thought about it, every time she'd had one, induced or naturally occurring, had sucked. And she'd usually felt like crap for days afterwards. The price had seemed small to pay back when she was avoiding school, but now she wasn't so sure. Chances were good her overseers would be less than happy with this turn of events.

She groaned as her stomach threatened to rebel again. "I think I'm going to be sick," she announced.

Dr. Bosch reached for a small plastic basin in case she made good on her declaration. He watched her retch, not able to immediately do anything to relieve her misery. Medication usually was prescribed after certain blood tests were completed, which he hadn't thought to do. Her blood samples had been used primary for DNA sequencing. He could offer anti-nausea meds or caffeine to aide in blood vessel dilation, though caffeine was a trigger for some people. But without further tests, he didn't feel comfortable offering more than that.

With nothing else in her stomach to expel, Kally's abdominal exercises didn't last long, but they left her sweating and feeling weak. She dabbed at her mouth, eyes watering. "Ugh, I hate this." And it was the truth. She'd never liked the sensation of throwing up.

For his part, Hiro found himself focusing back on his one-time migraine as well. Of course there had been a lot more going on at the time, like the complete breakdown of his mind as he headed towards total system failure. They just hadn't known it at the time. And if it hadn't been for the Doctor's timely intervention, he might not have made it out of that loop at all. In fact, he could almost feel the exact same sensations that event had caused...

Hiro found his vision began to swim as his mind traveled back to that occurrence. His head had pounded so badly he'd wanted to smash it in with a sledge hammer. Not unlike now, if he thought about it. He knew it couldn't be real. He'd already reintegrated all of those memories. But, despite that knowledge, he couldn't help but feel himself sinking deeper into the memory.

Why was it so dark? Where was Tadashi? Wasn't he supposed to be somewhere? He lurched off the stool like a drunken man, stumbling forward in a blind haze. Where were the stairs? He should be heading down the stairs to find Tadashi. Why couldn't he find them?

Dr. Bosch turned in time to see Hiro launch himself off the stool and onto the floor, where the teen stumbled to his knees in a manner that was likely to leave bruises. The stool tipped over with the motion. He heard a drastic change in breathing as Hiro tried to navigate his way to some unknown goal. Looking at the teen's eyes suggested Hiro was no longer aware of where he was. It was something he'd seen in many before, especially those who were reliving a traumatic experience. Something obviously had to have triggered one, though he had no idea what.

Hearing the loud sound of a crash, the two guards from before reentered the room. They'd stationed themselves just outside the doors in case of trouble and immediately went on guard the moment they heard, what to them, were sounds of trouble. They went to intercept Hiro, deciding he was the immediate threat, likely thinking he was trying to escape.

"Don't touch him!" Dr. Bosch called out before they could lay a finger on the struggling teen. "He's not trying to escape. At least not from here."

Against her better judgment, Kally looked up sharply at that announcement, wishing she hadn't as her head pounded even more. What was going on with Hiro? He'd looked a bit winded when she'd first come in. She'd had enough mental acumen to notice that. But he hadn't exhibited even the potential for anything like this. Before she could contemplate further, though, she had to lay her head back against the firm padding of the examination table, hands pressed against her temples.

Hiro wheezed, his body betraying him in more ways than one. Where were the stairs? Why couldn't he find the stairs? "Ta-tadashi..." He lifted his head to try and see where he was, but his vision remained vague, his head feeling as heavy as a millstone. What was happening to him? His limbs gave out from under him and he went down, knocking his chin against the hard floor.

Dr. Bosch moved to kneel next to the youth. "Hiro, I don't know where your mind has taken you, but you need to try and focus." He refrained from laying so much as a finger on him, not sure if it would make things worse or not. Without knowing what kind of memory was triggered, he felt it best not to press anywhere he didn't have to.

Hiro reached out one hand, as if he was trying to grab something in front of him, letting out a grunt with his effort. "Why? Why Tadashi? Why?" Sobs ripped from Hiro's chest. "Help me!"

"Hiro," Dr. Bosch said more firmly. "Try to remember where you are. I don't know where you think you are but you're not there. You're here, in the medical suite at Hydra base seven."

Kally's head shot up at that, but again, she regretted it the moment she'd move. Her body convulsed into fresh spasms of pain as her stomach tried to expel everything she'd ever eaten in life. But the dropped piece of information didn't shake loose from her mind as she mentally held on to it like a lifeline. She knew she knew that name and she wasn't about to let it go. She just couldn't immediately understand why she knew it.

Hiro continued to stare ahead, his mind fighting with itself. On one hand, he could totally see himself in his room, desperately trying to reach the stairs and help. On the other, he could feel the cool tile of the medical suite floor, hearing Dr. Bosch's voice in his mind telling him to focus. He closed his eyes and grimaced from the pain. He knew he had to choose one or the other. And neither seemed like a good option.

"Hiro."

The voice was unexpected as any other in his tortured mind. "Baymax?" For the briefest of moments, Hiro felt warm vinyl picking him up and cradling him in large robotic arms.

"There, there. It will be all right."

"Baymax?" Hiro reached out with a trembling hand, his voice just as unsteady. "Is that you, buddy?"

Regardless of whether he was hearing things or not, the voice steadied him. He could feel his chest loosen as his breathing returned to a more normal pace, along with his heart rate. Part of him knew this couldn't be real, though the majority of his mind shrugged that notion aside.

"Do not worry, Hiro. We will find you. It will be all right."

Dr. Bosch watched as Hiro somehow managed to calm himself. The fact that he'd called out to some entity he didn't know about was interesting, but if this Baymax somehow acted as his anchor, he wasn't going to question it. At least not for the moment. Figuring the worst was over, he moved in to help Hiro back into an upright position. And when Hiro didn't veer away from his touch, he gently helped him to his feet so he could direct him back to the bed. "That's it," he encouraged. "Easy does it." The youth was all but limp in his hands.

By the time Dr. Bosch had gotten Hiro back onto the stiff mattress, the two guards had moved back to the door. They stood to attention as it slid open and Ms. Kendrick strode in, a scowl on her face. "Just what, exactly, is going on in here?" she demanded, noting the doctor pulling the sheets back over Hiro's body. The youth had drifted off to sleep the moment his head touched the flat pillow, though he kept murmuring something so low no one could hear him.

Dr. Bosch acknowledged Ms. Kendrick's presence with a nod of his head. "As you can see," he indicated the room with one sweeping gesture, "I have the situation under control. I don't recall asking for you to come down."

Ms. Kendrick resisted the urge to tap her foot, arms stiff at her sides, back tense. "I didn't ask if you'd called for me. I asked what was going on." The fact that two of her charges were in the med lab was disconcerting enough. The fact that Hiro Hamada seemed in no better condition than the last time she'd entered the room was even more so.

There was no hiding it as Kally continued to retch into the small basin they'd given her. "Kally Carmichael is suffering from a severe migraine, probably induced by the constant stress she's been under. Hiro Hamada just experienced a triggered flashback to some unknown trauma and is recovering from it. As I said, I have everything under control. Your shouting will not help the situation so would you please lower your voice?"

The woman looked more than a little taken aback. It had been some time since someone of equal or lesser rank than her had taken that tone. "I came for your report," she warned in a modulated tone.

Ah yes, Dr. Bosch thought, recalling why he put up with that woman. He glanced quickly at his two patients to make sure they were at least stable for the moment. He'd have to reattach the leads to Hiro's chest, but he could do that in a moment. "This way," he indicated, heading for his office. "My associates are still working on determining the compatibility between those two's DNA, but I have the basic report on Ms. Carmichael."

The door shut to the doctor's inner office, cutting off anything else Kally might overhear. Her last bit of retching was a little less real than the other times, though it left her no less exhausted for it. However, she'd been coherent enough to catch the mention of her DNA and compatibility. She could only assume Dr. Bosch meant her compatibility with Hiro, as he was the only other one she knew of who was under the doctor's current care. And if that were the case, it confirmed some of her suspicions, though she still had no idea why they'd be so adamant about their potential match. Hopefully, given some time, she'd figure it out.