The logistics of letting a human guinea pig out for a day wasn't nearly as difficult as I imagined. The hard part was convincing the man I adored to believe that my mom and I were more than capable of going house hunting while manning a cellphone armed with alarms set for each of my manual dialysis scheduled without getting distracted by shiny things.
"Billy," I was doing a bang up job of NOT rolling my eyes during this, the fourth attempt to convince him that he was better off at work, "you need to type up those reports, and Mom and I BOTH have the alarms set, PLUS she had Dad have the car company add it into their online system just in case. And I KNOW for a fact that the doctors here are planning on calling to make sure I don't forget, and you'll probably check in during the day too." I was trying to smile. I really was, but honestly. "I'm not writing the reports again." There it was, the gauntlet. Tossed at his feet.
Billy's lips quirked in a way that said he wanted to argue, but knew he couldn't. Not without looking like he was shirking work. "Fine, but I plan on calling every-"
"Single time I'm due for a treatment," I finished for him, leaning in to kiss him deeply. "I don't doubt it for a moment." I winked at him when I broke the kiss. "Still overprotective and ridiculous."
"Still fucking proud of it," he nudged my nose with his and dipped in for another kiss, arms around my lower back, holding me lightly since I was hooked up to the regular machine still. My heart rate monitor skipped a few beeps, but no one came running because that was a common occurrence with Billy around. "Gonna at least send me photos of our new house?" I smiled up at him, loving the fact that he was being more agreeable with the entire idea of it all.
"I plan on sharing videos of the ones that look promising so we can go back and look again together, Mr. Butcher." I bit my lip when his eyes widened. "What?"
"You want me to go with you, again?" I nodded, and his smile lit up his face, making him go from slightly frightening bear of a man to breathtaking saint who may make a girl's panties ignite.
"How can we make a final decision if you don't see them yourself?" I tilted my head to study him, thinking that I wanted to see him smile more, all the time if possible.
"Veronica Taylor, and you say I surprise you," he shook his head and moved one hand so he was holding my cheek. "You're a marvel."
"Our house, Billy. You said it, OURS." I smiled up at him.
Funny little thing about a dialysis catheter, no matter if it's 'temporary' or not, finding something to wear while leaving it somewhat available isn't the easiest of tasks. Luckily, my mom, with MY key, was up to the challenge. She came back with more than one option, knowing that I liked to make my own choices. She also thought it smart to stick to flats, for which I wanted to and acted on the urge to hug her.
"Ronnie, calm down." I was grinning when I pulled back and she rolled her eyes. "What? It's not a terrible nickname." My mother had HATED nicknames when I was little, it's why I'd never really had one until Billy gave me one. And here she was using it.
She took a seat while I changed, the doctor had removed my lead from the machine moments after Mom arrived. A duffle filled with the necessary equipment was taken to her car waiting by the curb, while she was in my room with me in case I ran into trouble getting dressed in real clothing for the first time in forever.
I'd gotten a shower the night before. Billy had helped, much to the nurses' amusement, and I even managed to get clean. Inside and out. So my hair was nice and smooth, my skin had a rosy glow, and I could ALMOST forget that I wasn't leaving for good. Soon, I promised myself, as I slipped my feet into my shoes, soon.
The realtor Mom had chosen was a friend of one of Dad's clients. She met us at the entrance of the gated community and we followed her through to the first of five houses available in this area, but she had another four nearby if we weren't excited by what we saw.
As Mom drove through the neighborhood, I was surprised when she made a dismissive sniffing noise. Turning toward her, she glanced at me and smiled. "It's just, this isn't really YOU, Ronnie." I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Took her long enough, but hot damn, I think my mom was finally figuring out just who the fuck I was.
"I'm trying to keep an open mind, Mom." I muttered, managing through sheer will to not crack up laughing. We pulled into the first driveway, behind the very perky agent and I got out my phone as Mom kept hers at the ready for the alarm.
Mom was right, of course we both knew she would be once we drove through the gates and were surrounded by McMansions. Luckily, the agent, after waiting while I dosed myself during a video chat with Billy, took us to the other offerings nearby and further from other houses. Billy, typing while chatting through our tours, and my treatments (which Mom helped with on the third and fourth goes), helped me narrow the second trips to three houses. The agent, with the patient of a saint or a woman who saw a sale coming, smiled and confirmed that she'd keep an opening the following afternoon, since Billy refused to wait longer. Single minded, remember? And one more treatment, lunch at Mom's insistence, and I was back at the clinic before Billy finished his own work day.
Billy came to see me after work, because even with a running commentary throughout the morning, and even with a day planned for the following day, he couldn't stay away. I shook my head when I looked up from my laptop where I'd been going over his reports. Editing out a few of his sentence enhancers before sending them in, I smiled as he took the chair across from me.
"Ronnie," glancing up, I saw that he looked like a cat who ate a canary and sat back. "How are you feeling, love?" I raised an eyebrow, feeling suspicious of whatever had Billy looking like He solved the hardest riddle in the world. Wait.
"You did it?" He stared at me. "You found a way to get Homelander caught and tried and maybe publicly executed." OK that last part might have been revenge porn on my part, but could you blame me?
His smugness dropped and he shook his head. "No. I haven't pinned the Caped Cunt to the wall, yet." Damn it. I felt a frown form, but then the doctors came in smiling and asked if he'd told me. Wait. What? "Not yet, she tried to guess, but-"
"Ah," the head quack was still grinning and he gestured for me to get back on the bed. Shrugging I did as I was asked. "Well, Dr. Taylor, we have amazingly good news." Yeah, sure, I thought. Like the time you had great news about the green jello. "We finally managed to isolate it." It? I must have looked as stupid as I felt because he continued and explained. "The variation that you were given, we isolated it. The traits were completely muddled because the person who introduced them to your system mixed TWO variations." WHAT?! "After all the testing, one of our interns chose to think outside the box, so to speak, and asked a question that we hadn't."
I was laying down as one of the other doctors approached and took a moment to check the lead that would normally hook into the dialysis machine, but hadn't, since we'd planned on trying out the night machine that I'd be switching to eventually anyway. Another tech had three syringes filled with God only knew what, but the doctor was explaining to me, and Billy that once the intern had realized that they'd only looked at single variations and NOT coupled or tripled ones, they started testing those combinations. The antidote, they hoped, was in the three needles that they were about to inject into my catheter.
Billy stopped them. Always vigilant and careful, he had questions, which I was thankful for because my brain was still playing catch up. While he'd been smug and excited when he came in, he was also cautious. He wanted them to make me understand why they were sure they figured it out, and as they explained more fully, I watched Billy and it dawned on me. He thought I'd gone quiet and stupid because of my slip into madness and fear that he'd kill me. Jesus.
"Guys?" The doctors were on a roll and clearly enjoyed the sound of their own voices and their own intelligence, but I repeated my call for a moment. "I get it. You figured it out. Could you shoot it in and get me out of here already?" Shit, enough. Billy's eyes were on mine, but I rolled mine. "Overprotective and ridiculous." I muttered, as the first injection was given.
Discharge wasn't immediate. I mean, I'd nearly gone thermonuclear before. I'd have to stay for observation and I told Billy we still had to go to the appointment with the realtor anyway, who knew, maybe he'd love one of the houses more than the one we lived in currently and it would be truly OURS. Since the necessity for a machine was moot, or at least mootable, we squeezed together on my bed, refusing to spend the first night of what could be our future without fear hanging over our heads apart.
The beeping of my heart monitor lulled us to sleep and I didn't steam, or feel too warm, or get dizzy all night long. I woke up needing to pee, and after I extradited myself from Billy's arms, I trudged off to the bathroom, happy to find no blood anywhere. No spots in my vision came as I headed back into the room, and I felt hopeful. Even when the doctor joined us once Billy was up and marginally less rumpled than first waking and told us that I'd have to take the supplies with me same as the day before as a precaution and return for a check up after, I still felt positive.
They took blood, more tests, but this time it was to see if an actual antidote worked. It was to see how much longer I'd have to be under observation. Then they sent us on our way, to at least partial freedom, and at that point, I'd take it. Because it was a pathway to the real full one, and that made all the difference to me.