{+}+{+}+{+}+{+}+{+}+{+} CH 7
In the days that followed, Violet would learn to be grateful for those moments of laughter with Nayeli and Elisa.
The following week found her basically living in the lab, napping at her desk more than actually sleeping in her bed. Between working with those blood samples and attempting to isolate whatever it was about Nayeli's blood that had caused the reaction and running test after test on the clones' blood, she'd barely taken breaks to eat.
After the first two days, the clan began making nightly visits armed with food. They couldn't make her sleep, they'd said, but they could make sure she at least ate.
On the morning of the fourth day, the Xanatos family got into the act, plying her with fresh fruits and having meals delivered to her from various restaurants in the area.
By that night, she had three people come knocking on her door. Dr. Bradley James came with his two assistants, Kiersten and Margaret. They assisted her with the mundane chores of cleaning, readying the samples for the microscopes, notations and comparing results.
By day seven, they were all disheartened.
Not with Nayeli's blood samples. Those were a bright spot, as they were making some headway in that sector. Using blood samples from all of them, they observed similar results to the ones she'd observed with Thailog, though not as immediate.
Violet had to make a decision, however. She felt that with her concentration fractured with so many projects at once, she wasn't doing anyone any good, and the clones needed her help first.
Their rate of deterioration almost seemed as if it were speeding up.
So much so, that she and the clinic's medical staff were making multiple trips a day, and in even that short of time, there were obvious differences.
Whenever she went down to the labyrinth, she was met with suspicion and hostility from Claw. So much so that Violet began asking others to go in her place.
Everyone else was very supportive, and that helped to keep her going, though.
She wished she could figure out Nayeli's blood to help the clones, but they would almost need a full blood transfusion a piece, possibly two, and there was no way Nayeli could donate that much…
And there was no way violet was going to ask.
With the endless support and resources afforded to her through her association with Xanatos Enterprises, she was able to use what she had to separate out enough of her plasma to help a little with the clones' cells and the oxygen circulation, but that was all she could do.
By the end of the week, she sat at her table facing the three exhausted medical professionals, and they all came to the same conclusion with that evening's blood samples.
The clones were visibly tired, almost unable to move by then.
Violet hung her head. With all that they had, with all of their combined knowledge and resources, they were out of time.
They could make the clones comfortable to ease their suffering a little, but that was all they would be able to do.
"Thank you," Violet said, her voice more than a little husky with emotion and lack of sleep. "For all that you've done. Go home," she urged, "and see your families."
Dr. James nodded solemnly and took his wife by the shoulders to steer her to the doors.
"What are you going to do?" Margaret asked softly.
Violet sighed, rubbing her temples, "I'm going to go talk to the clan," she said softly. "Then I'm going to go to the labyrinth." She lowered her hands and gave Margaret a tired smile. "I know that there's nothing we can do, but… I just don't want them to be alone."