Chapter 3
Wes could hear her coughing through the wall. He knew the whole fight had been a theater, played in order to get him out of the room for the night. Jessica wasn't the kind of person who liked to have someone caring about her; she claimed she didn't know how to deal with that.
When he had first met her, he had been attracted to her because she looked like Jen, the way he looked like Alex. She was even bossy and stern, like Jen had been when he had first met her, but Jessica had green eyes and red hair.
Wes had convinced her to go out on a date with him after months of asking, but she had been harder to convince than Jen. If he had thought Jen was workaholic it was because he hadn't met Jessica Smith yet. Jessica lived for Bio-Lab. She ate, dreamed and lived Bio-Lab, if somebody took the enterprise away from her, he was certain she wouldn't know what to do with her life.
The dating had been hard, with all the work they had ahead of them to help Bio-Lab recover from the past years, when it had had a lot of losses, thanks to projects like the Raimei tank, and with the Silver Guardians working for the city for free. Wes felt a little guilty about the last one, but it was overall a good thing for the city.
Jessica and he had been married eight months ago, and he loved her deeply, for who she was, he no longer loved her resemblance to Jen. He knew he loved Jessica, as bossy and cold to him as she was. Not a lot of people understood how he could marry a woman as cold as Jessica, claimed she didn't seem to love him as much as he loved her, and complained that the best show of affection she had for him was picking up his clothes every morning.
But Wes knew better. He knew Jessica loved him deeply, as much as he loved her. He knew that if it came to it, she would do anything for him, anything at all, even giving Bio-Lab away, which to her was the most sacred thing in the world, as she had inherited the position of vice-president from her father, the way Wes had inherited the president's chair.
Jessica had been an affectionate girlfriend, not the most loving, but caring enough. And then her mother had come back from a trip around Europe she had taken after Jessica's father had died. Jessica had visited her often, always returning to him tense and upset. The day of their wedding, the old woman had taken her daughter away from the party right before they left on their honeymoon. After that conversation, Jessica had been growing colder and harsher to him, up until that day.
She coughed louder and harder. She sounded out of breath. Wes began to get worried about her, but had doubts about going to check on her, she was very independent and hated to make other people worry about her, and she actually got mad at the people who did. She would rather die alone than asking anyone for help, mostly because she thought it bothered the person who was asked, and because no matter what it was, she could do it on her own.
So that night, she had told him off because of some deal they were to make with a Brazilian company, and after a lot of yelling, she had asked him to please get out of the room and sleep in one of the guest rooms. He had silently picked up his briefcase and left the room, not really understanding what he had done wrong.
Now he understood. He was very caring to Jessica and she didn't like it, or that's what she wanted him to believe. She kept coughing. Wes got out of bed and walked out of the room, towards the next room, where his wife was sleeping. He entered without knocking. She was lying face up on the bed, and she seemed out of breath.
"Jess," he called. She coughed louder. He approached the bed.
"Wesley," she began, and coughed some more. "I'm sorry; I tried to keep it down. I didn't want to wake you up."
"It's okay," he said, caressing her forehead softly. She was really hot. "Jess, you are burning up," he told her.
She shook her head. "I'm fine," she said again, interrupted by coughing. "It's nothing. I'll be fine, go to sleep, we have a meeting with the Canadian representative tomorrow, rest, I'll be fine," she told him, between coughs.
"No, I'll see if we have something for the fever," he said walking to the bathroom.
"Wesley, honestly, I'm fine," she called after him.
Wes opened the medicine cabinet and frowned. They had nothing but aspirin. He was going to have to go out for something, he wasn't sure aspirin would help her with the fever, but he was sure it wasn't going to help her with the coughing. He put on a pair of pants and a shirt and walked out of the bathroom.
Jessica was seated on the edge of the bed. He ran to her and kneeled next to her, pushing her shoulder back softly.
"Hey, hey," he said tenderly. "Lie back, you need to rest." He helped her back to her pillows.
She took his hand in a surprisingly tender manner. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"I'm going to get you some medication," he said. She shook her head and grabbed his hand even harder.
"Please, don't. I didn't mean to bother you, go back to sleep, I'll be fine." She hadn't actually finished saying that, when a fit of coughing took her, and she grasped both of Wes's shoulders as she coughed her lungs out. She could barely breathe, and Wes, not knowing what else to do, wrapped his arms around her waist, as she collapsed against his chest.
"I think I won't need to go and get you medication," he said softly.
"Thanks," she said, believing he meant he was going back to sleep.
"I'll get your coat, we're going to the hospital," he said, putting her back on her pillows, as she grasped his shirt.
"No, please, no," she begged.
"Jess, you need it."
"I'm fine!" she said forcefully, which made her cough some more.
"You are not!" Wes snapped back. She shrank back on her pillows. "You have fever, and you can barely breath, we are going to the hospital and that's it!" he said with a surprising amount of discipline in his voice. Jessica looked away from him and continued her coughing.
He found her some clothes and helped her into them. She seemed definitely made uncomfortable by his caring. She kept squirming away from his arms, whenever she could.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"You know I don't like to be touched much," she answered. "And I could have put on my own clothes."
He helped her get downstairs, and into the car. He turned on the car and started his way to the hospital.
"Why are you driving?" she asked with thick voice.
"Because I thought you wouldn't want to wake Philips too," he said, smiling at her. She gave him what he chose to think was a smile. "We'll be there in no time at all," he assured her.
That time, she did smile weakly.
Samantha Drake looked at the picture that displayed to her from her computer. It was a picture taken from a newspaper database through the time stream investigation department.
It showed a blond man and a red haired woman smiling at a camera as they stood in front of the logo of an enterprise. The caption read: "An accident at Bio-Lab took Jessica Collins to the verge of death, but experiments by the enterprise she inherited along with her husband have miraculously saved her life."
"Well, well, well," she said cheerfully. "Curious turn of destiny, now it appears both Alexander and that farm girl apparently came from the same union. How sweet." She said it bitterly, with marked sarcasm. She looked at the other file she had opened. It contained more information about the Collins marriage, and stated they were on the verge of divorce due to irreconcilable differences. It also stated they had had no children. "Then, maybe they don't come from the same place," she added. "If that's the case, it's up to me to keep that redhead from reproducing with any other man. I guess the best I can do is keep that 'miraculous recovery' from happening,"
To be continued.
