Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
A/N A chapter a week? What was I THINKING? No guarantees about when the next update will come, so make the most of this one!
"It's plot exposition. It has to go somewhere." –The Great Muppet Caper
Jess did her best not to cry as she finished heaving up the rest of her breakfast into the toilet. Extreme stress always affected her this way. She'd learned not to eat before tests, school programs, visits to the dentist and balancing her checkbook, but counseling sessions were a new experience for her.
Staggering over to the bed, she crumpled onto the mattress and curled into a ball, gritting her teeth against the gnawing pain in her stomach. Jess was uncertain how long she lay in half conscious misery before a knock on the door preceded the entrance of Joni.
"Jessica dear, time for...oh DEAR!" Joni stared in horror at the shivering, and very obviously ill, girl. Fortuitously, one of Joni's talents was stating the obvious. "My dear, are you SICK?"
Jess moaned.
"Oh dear, oh dear, I must fetch the doctor." Joni backed nervously away from the bed and all but ran out the door.
Scant minutes later she returned, a rather pale looking Dr. Istar in tow. He cleared his throat nervously as he approached. "What seems to be the matter Jessica?"
"Stomach," she managed to groan.
"Perhaps the eggs were not quite right this morning," murmured the doctor, wiping beads of sweat from his brow. "I'm not feeling very chipper myself."
Had Jessica not been afraid that opening her mouth too wide might have disastrous consequences, she could have informed him that her condition had nothing to do with the eggs and everything to do with his method of treatment. She continued to lie in an apparently semi-comatose state.
The two adults retreated to the window. "Doctor, what if she is seriously ill?" came Joni's hushed and very worried inquiry. "She should be under professional medical care."
"We cannot release her until the treatment is completed. You KNOW that. Our orders are very clear," Dr. Istar hissed back.
"But perhaps if we were to explain the situation..."
"Early release could be highly disastrous. Would YOU like to explain to HIM why the entire operation came crashing down because of US?"
Jessica listened to the whispered conversation with a sort of dazed detachment. The doctor was under orders from a higher authority. One he apparently feared. That this was important information registered in one part of her agitated mind.
Merethwen crouched on the wide windowsill, pressed against the rough stone for concealment as she strained to hear the hushed conversation taking place within the shadowed room. The information would be crucial to guessing the enemy's next move, and guessing the next move was imperative. The entire company was walking straight into a trap, one Merethwen feared they would never be able to escape. Still, hopeless as the situation seemed, she had sworn to protect, by her life or death...
An overwhelming wave of nausea doused the erstwhile heroine. Rolling off the bed, she staggered for the bathroom.
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