I woke up suddenly. I looked around the room. I was in a hospital room with my mother, Rose, sitting beside me. She was holding my hand. "Mom?" She was asleep. I shook her with my other arm. I noticed that I had an IV injected in my arm near my wrist. She blinked a couple of times until she finally recognized I was awake. "Cori, you're up," she said softly. I tried to remember why I was there but I couldn't think. "Mom, what happened," I asked. "You passed out Cori, but you'll be okay now." She let go of my hand and sat upright. I looked around the room again. There was a bathroom next to the entrance of the room and a TV in front of me.

There was a window to my right. The view wasn't the greatest. It was a bunch of generators. Past the generators was the black night sky. I looked around for a clock as a doctor came in. He was in the whole get up with the white coat and a stethoscope around his neck. He had short black hair with grey streaks and thick glasses. "Oh good you're awake," he said, "If you don't mind I'd like to ask you some questions." Mom answered for me, "We don't mind." The doctor sat down in a chair and said "Now we think that you salmonellosis or salmonella for short, but we need to ask some questions first. Recently have you been dehydrated or thirsty? Any cramps? Feeling hot? What about loose stool?"

I nodded my head for all of them but I frowned a little for the last one. It was an awkward question. "Yeah, you have salmonella. You probably just ate something that wasn't sanitized. Now while we were drawing blood, we found something unusual," the doctor said, "I've told your mother this but there was normal blood cells and then there was… something else." "Something else?" "We don't know what it quite exactly is but we'd like to test it and we would like to know if you would be willing to let us research about it." "I'm being a test rat," I said as I folded my arms. "No but your blood is. This thing that's inside your blood, we don't know what it could do or what it is. It could be a new gene or an immunity to something. We'd like to know more about it to see if it can accomplish any good for the medical field," he said.

I looked away from him and didn't say anything. I don't know if I liked the idea of being tested on. I never had to go to a doctor for anything but checkups. I don't know how I'd feel for anyone to mess around with my genes. "I'll let you sleep on it," the doctor said as he got up and left. After he left I said "Mom, do you know where my phone is?" "Cori, I don't want you staying up all night on it," her mother said. "Mom I'm not I just want to talk to my friends to tell them I'm all right." I fluttered my eyes and said "Please?" she sighed and pulled it out of her jacket pocket.

I grabbed the phone from her and was about to dial for Donnie when my mom said "You know, that isn't the phone I gave you." "It's because it's a phone cover," I lied, "It makes it look different." She didn't look convinced but she went with it. I checked the time on the phone. It was 3:36 AM. I turned to my mother. Even though I was too tired to go through her mind and see if she was tired, I could see it on her face. Her dark brown hair was messy and she had bags under her eyes. "Mom," I said, "Go home. You're tired. You need sleep."

"No, I'm not leaving you," she protested. "Please mom. If you won't sleep I won't. Please, just go home." She opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She leaned over and kissed me on the forehead and left the room. She closed the door behind her. I relaxed when she closed the door and attempted to call Donnie. My finger slip and instead I called Raph. I didn't want to wake him up so I was about to cancel the phone call when he answered.

"Cori, is that you," he said with a yawn. "Yes Raph. Listen I—" "Why are you calling me so early? We just got back from patrol and we ran into the Kraang. Can't you let us sleep for just tonight?" "No, Raph listen, I'm in the hospital—" "What! What happened?!" "Nothing and would you just shut up for a minute. I passed out and I'm in the Mount Sinai Hospital. I don't think—" "Which wing are you in?" "I don't know I'm near the generators. But tell the others and April where I am so they don't freak." "When I tell them they are gonna freak!" "Yes but just tell the others okay? I got to go now." "Alright, just take it easy. Tell us if you need anything." "Goodbye," I said as I hanged up on him. I put the phone beside me and leaned back, trying to get some sleep.