Author: Milady Dragon
Disclaimer: same as always…
Author's note: Hello everyone and thank you for reading and reviewing. It really makes my day! And I'm really glad I'm making it fairly easy for those not familiar with some of the concepts to understand…
Chapter Ten
The worst part of not knowing what was going on was the waiting. It was quite possibly the one thing that was in common with Cameron's previous and current lives, and it was what she hated the most about both.
And so, she went back to work.
She was tired. All that running around last night had exhausted her, and on top of that she'd gotten very little sleep worrying over Elena's disappearance. She'd only known the other woman for a few days but they'd become very close in that time. It had been easy to give Paul the advice to wait, but taking it herself…
Tim had been able to confirm that Elena had, indeed, been taken from the Intellex complex; apparently the security installed by the current security was extremely lax compared with the actual and original system. While that made Cameron feel a little better about being right – the aliens had kidnapped her – it scared her to think that the woman was in the hands of an unknown enemy.
But there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it…except to mope around the hospital.
They didn't even have a patient at the moment. Their last one had been interesting, but he'd made a full recovery. So, it was either join her co-workers in the conference room, where they'd found something to keep them busy; go down to the clinic and be harassed by people who didn't know a pimple on their ass from a hemorrhoid…or find a useful corner to hide herself in.
The problem was, she wasn't House…who'd probably had all the good places sussed out within ten minutes of being hired into the hospital. Cameron found herself in the lab, running slides, simply because the usual technician was out sick. Well, it kept her occupied and out of the way.
She was actually dozing off over the microscope when Tim called for her. "Allison?"
"Yes, Tim?" Cameron rubbed her eyes.
"John's vital signs are rapidly changing." The computer rattled off the current set of signs.
Cameron's heart jumped. "Can you jaunt me there?"
"Yes, the room next door is clear."
She waited for the lab to fade out, and the empty ICU room next to come into view. Then she was around the corner and into John's room, where Paul was sitting.
"What is it?" he asked, surprised, half rising from his chair.
Cameron hurried around to the head of the bed, her eyes reading what Tim had told her over their rapport. She looked at Paul, unable to keep the smile from her face. "He's waking up."
Paul actually jumped up, pumping his arm in victory. Then he sobered. "But I still can't feel him, Allie."
Cameron knew what he meant: John's mental presence wasn't there. "He's had a severe head trauma. It's to be expected that his powers won't be back yet. Don't worry too much, okay?"
He nodded, satisfied.
And when she turned back to monitor John, she was greeted by a pair of unfocused, very confused dark eyes.
"Go and have the nurse page House, won't you?" she asked Paul, without breaking away from that gaze.
Cameron slipped her hand into John's. "Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can."
There was a very weak pressure on her fingers.
Her heart soared, and she knew she was grinning like a maniac. "You're in the hospital. There was an accident. Do you understand?"
Another faint squeeze.
"Do you know who I am?"
He did, even after so long.
"You can't use your powers, John. You've had a head trauma, and you can't risk doing any more damage. All right?"
He understood. Was his grasp getting a little stronger?
"House is on his way," Paul reported, somewhat breathlessly.
"Dr. House has been taking care of you. He knows, John. You can trust him. Okay?"
John squeezed her hand once more.
Paul was on the other side of the bed. "Hey there! Ready to rise and shine?"
It had to have been Cameron's imagination, that John rolled his eyes at Paul's comment.
"John," she said, bringing the injured man's attention back to her, "I'm going to count from one to ten. I need you to stop me when you think I've reached your level of pain."
He squeezed his understanding.
And he squeezed again when she hit eight.
Cameron knew well enough to add at least two to that; John was infamously stubborn about admitting how much pain he was actually in. The memory of the time that he'd been shot, and hadn't said a thing about it until he'd lost so much blood he'd passed out, came back to her.
"What have we got?" House's brisk voice interrupted the memory.
She reported to him; the older doctor gave a pain medication order to the nurse, who had accompanied him into the room. He then gently moved Cameron out of the way, telling her that he'd take care of it now.
Cameron moved, joining Paul in the farthest corner of the room. Together, they watched as House ran a series of simple cognitive tests, using the same method of confirmation that Cameron herself had. When he was satisfied, he let the nurse inject the medication; in mere seconds, John's eyes were fluttering shut once more.
"Let's get the breathing tube out of him," House ordered.
The nurse hustled to obey; Cameron was well aware of House's reputation among the staff, and couldn't blame her for hurrying.
"Why couldn't you take it out before now?" Paul wanted to know.
"Because they wanted to make absolutely sure he wasn't going to need it," Cameron answered, " and the only way to do that was to wait until he woke up."
Once the tube was removed – and Paul had made this terrible gagging noise as it was yanked free of John's throat – House ordered oxygen once more, and the nurse handed him the tubing and canula. All in all, having short little prongs stuck up one's nose was a lot more comfortable than a full-out breathing tube…
"He'll sleep for a while," House said, after he'd arranged things to his satisfaction.
"Hasn't he slept enough?" Paul asked worriedly.
Cameron wanted to elbow the younger man, and only the fact that her boss was standing right there stopped her from doing it.
"Sleeping is different from being in a coma," House explained slowly, in a tone that intimated that Paul as an idiot.
"What a prick," her fellow TP 'pathed to Cameron.
She agreed, but in this situation the doctor in her sided with House. She'd watched as House had performed the tests, and had been encouraged by what she'd seen. "He seemed to be responding very well," she said, trying to break the tension.
"He is," House agreed grudgingly. "I'm going to order an MRI and an EEG. I want to see if there's anything in the old brain-box we should be worried about, shall we?"
Cameron smirked. He'd been positively salivating when Tim had matter transmitted John's personal medical records several days ago. In fact, according to Tim, he'd stayed at the hospital all night long, talking to the biotronic computer on the phone and asking all sorts of questions, trying to find out what made a Tomorrow Person tick. She was willing to bet that, as of now, Gregory House was the foremost authority on Homo Superior on Earth at this moment.
Of course, that was because it was yet another mystery for him to puzzle over. It wasn't every day that someone got to examine an entirely new species, let alone a species of human.
House limped out of the room, to order the tests he wanted done. She and Paul stayed, Cameron giving Tim the good news about John's return to consciousness. The computer was overjoyed, but also had news to impart.
"I have finally identified the aliens from last night," he said to both of them.
"Great!" Paul enthused. "We can see about rescuing Ellie!"
Cameron wasn't so sure, and while she didn't communicate her doubt, she was fairly certain Tim was aware of it. "What can you tell us?"
"They are from a race called the Sharrion," he answered. "They are not actually a member of the Federation, which is the reason it took me so long to find the information."
"That's okay, Tim," she replied. "Just give us what you have."
"The Sharrion are a reclusive race from the Antarean region of space. While the Federation has attempted to negotiate their entry many times, the Sharrion have always refused, preferring to be left on their own. That led the Federation Council to declare their planet a closed world."
"Then how did their technology get here?"
"That is a good question, Allison. I wish I had the answer to it."
"Hey," Paul put in, "you've given us more than we had before!"
"Have you been able to find out when they actually arrived here?" Cameron asked.
"According to readings taken by an American weather satellite, there was an unexplained burst of gamma radiation above the Northern Hemisphere two days after the explosion at Intellex. This could indicate a cloaked ship entering Earth's atmosphere."
"Then House was right: the explosion most likely brought them here."
"That is a most viable hypothesis, yes."
"Any idea where they landed?" Paul asked.
"As of yet, I have not been able to determine that. However, we can safely assume that it would be close to the source of the signal that brought them here."
Paul was frustrated; the emotion radiated from him like a fever. Cameron put her hand on his arm, in support. She felt the same way he did; knowing that Elena was out there, being held somewhere, and they weren't able to contact her…while it wasn't as bad as waiting for John to wake up, it was close.
"When John awakens again," Tim said slowly, "and he notices that Elena is not there, what do you intend to tell him?"
Cameron chewed her lip. Even though she'd been the one who initially wanted to hide the Tomorrow People from House, she basically thought that being honest was the way to go. Her decision to keep things a secret was born out of instinct; the knowledge that there were people out there who'd exploit them all at the drop of a hat, and if protecting a helpless John meant she'd had to lie, then that's what she'd do. Secrecy about the Tomorrow People had been drummed into her since the very beginning, and it disturbed her that she seemed to be getting good at it all over again.
It was just one more thing she hadn't missed.
Should they tell John about Elena's abduction? Cameron remembered how he'd been, back in the "good old days" when something had happened to someone they'd been friends with: while he might not have always been the first one going to the rescue, inevitably he'd been the one who came up with the plan that they'd ended up using. That had been his job, as their leader.
The problem was, with John incapacitated and Elena gone, that left Cameron and Paul to come up with the plan. She knew that the younger TP was a little too hotheaded, that he'd want to go running into danger and damn the consequences. And Cameron admitted to herself that she couldn't be in charge, for one major reason: her lack of experience. It had been far too long since she'd been involved in anything like this.
And, if she were completely honest with herself, she didn't want the responsibility.
She glanced over at the sleeping form of her friend and mentor, and didn't envy him in the least. John had been born to do this; Cameron hadn't. It was just that simple.
Wasn't it?
Finally she sighed. "I think that's going to depend on his condition. House is going to run some tests, and we'll know more then."
Okay, so her answer was a complete cop-out…