Olivia stood in the operation room weighting for the anesthetic to kick in. She had all her tools ready to begin the procedure in a few minutes. Once Marisa was unconscious, they flipped her and Olivia shaved two very small spots at the back of her head then drilled two small holes where she had shaved. She injected the accelerated stem cell extract and then stitched the small holes up. She did a few hours of the laser therapy then brought her in for a CT scan. The results were positive and there was significantly less damage in the occipital lobe. They brought her back to the recovery room to rest for the remainder of the day. Olivia went back to her hotel after the surgery and showered and ordered room service before she dialed Fitz and waited for him to pick up. She turned on the tv, they were still showing footage of Fitz at Gerry's football game. She thought it was so cute of Fitz to wear Gerry's jersey. Fitz wasted no time, he picked up on the first ring.
"How was surgery?"
"Successful, so far, the stem cells immediately began repairing the ruptured lobe. I think I'm still getting used to the fact that the procedure works, I mean these are things that are impossible but they are being done, it's a little surreal."
"I find it shocking that other doctors haven't adopted it and started performing it on their own, especially since it's so successful."
"They've tried but unfortunately accelerator labs are rare in the U.S., there are only three accelerator labs in the U.S. and two of those three are university labs that mostly run experiments and test hypothesis. There are thousands in Europe though. The national accelerator lab has a backlog that runs for months and it also just doesn't have the capabilities to accelerate stem cells. The Benancourt lab in France is the only lab in the world with the technology that can accelerate stem cells."
"Why is that?"
"Because Daniel and I built the machine so that it was especially capable to accelerate human cells without completely eviscerating it's genetic information and damaging the cells which is what a typical particle accelerator would do, you see, accelerators are made to accelerate mostly subatomic particles like protons and electrons. It's funny because when I actually came up with the idea - no - not really idea, the theory that we could accelerate human cells to stimulate self healing in a way that had been thought impossible every single scientist laughed. They thought I was absolutely unhinged. It was amazing. We worked on the machine for months, at first we used a typical particle accelerator machine and thought we could retrofit an added compartment for stem cells but that was a bust so we had to start from scratch."
She paused, she was a little worried that she was boring him.
"So wait, what does the accelerator actually do to the stem cell that makes it heal someone so quickly?"
She smiled, he was paying attention.
"Well you know how stem cell uses differentiation to give rise to other cells right?"
"Yes, that about as much as I know about stem cells," he said with a chuckle.
She laughed.
"Okay, well when you accelerate the stem cells, to put it simpler terms, it's like dropping a 'supercharger' into each cell and keep in mind that there are billions of cells and then a sort of frenzy begins where the usual process of differentiation is done at an exponential rate so much so that once the stem cells are reinjected into the body, it is able to regrow tissue, muscle, bone, nerves, etc, really whatever it needs to be at the moment."
"Wow, I can't believe you thought of that. Can you imagine what would happen if more people performed your procedure?"
"Then it would be a wonderful world but unfortunately the kind of machine Daniel and I built cost billions, billions that most countries would rather use to buy an arsenal of f-15 raptors and m-16's than build a lab with, and when I say most countries the U.S. is included."
Fitz chuckled.
"You are so very subtle, you know that?"
She laughed.
"I try to be."
She paused.
"You know Fitz, I tell you a whole lot about myself but you haven't told me anything about you that I couldn't look up on wikipedia."
"Like what?"
"Like what are you afraid of? Seriously afraid of?"
Fitz pondered.
"I guess I'm afraid of not being able to protect the people I love."
Olivia smiled, she could tell he was being honest.
"What were you like at 15 years old?"
Fitz laughed.
"Let's see, at 15, I was playing football, I was a pain in the ass to Gerry more than I am right now, all we did was fight. I was on a mission to get a blow job by anyone who was willing, I was a mess."
She laughed so hard, it made Fitz chuckle. Once she calmed down, she began questioning him again.
"Name one thing that you've wanted for years but didn't get?"
"You want the truth?"
"Absolutely!"
"I've always wanted another child."
"Really?" she asked with a smile.
"Yea but you know…"
"I want kids too, I want a boy first then a girl, I think it would be cool if my daughter had a big brother who could beat people up for her."
Fitz laughed.
"Gerry is very capable of beating up anyone for his little sister."
She smiled at how he always seemed to include her in all his future plans.
"What are your plans after the presidency?"
"I think, I'll spend about a month being a bum just sitting on the couch, no laying on the couch, watching movies and drinking scotch, then I want to start practicing law again but not corporate law, human rights law, I could travel the world and make sure people human rights aren't being trampled on. You've sort of inspired me in that way."
"We could be a team, you could try the war criminals and thugs for their crimes and I could heal all the people that they hurt."
"I think we have a deal."
"Yes we do."
"Okay so let me ask you something."
Fitz began.
"How many languages do you know, I've always been curious?"
"Do you really want to know because at some point it becomes showing off."
"Humor me."
"Well let's start with dead languages,"
"Wow this really is showing of," Fitz chuckled.
"Shut up you asked. I know 10 dead languages: Akkadian; the language of ancient mesopotamia, which I learned so I could read the epic of gilgamesh and cuneiform, I learned biblical hebrew so I could read the bible in it's original syntax, coptic; It's basically the Egyptian language written using the Greek alphabet, which is pretty cool - uhm Aramaic, Sanskrit, ancient Egyptian, Latin, old Norse and ancient Greek, which I really only learned so I could study the works of the greats like Socrates, Homer, Aristotle and Plato."
"What about modern languages?"
"Not including english, I know 30 modern languages."
Fitz mouth dropped open.
"Name them."
"Arabic, Polish, Thai, Urdu, Norwegian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Punjabi, German, Javanese, Japanese, Kurdish, Somali, Sudanese, Swahili, Zulu, Icelandic, Italian, Czech, Turkish, Yue, Bengali, Hindi, Hausa, Malay, Vietnamese, Tamil and Romansh."
"Why did you need to learn that many languages, how long did that take?"
"Most of the languages I learned a week or two leading up to visiting the country in which it was spoken. I need to be able to understand what a patient is telling me in order to help them."
Olivia's sleep alarm went off.
"I have to go Fitz that was my sleep alarm, I need to wake up early to get back to the hospital."
"Okay, tell me how it goes. Goodnight."
"Goodnight babe."
The next morning, Olivia arrived at the hospital at 7am. Immediately she began running test on Marisa to gauge how much repair had been done to the brain. It was several hours before Marisa woke up. Olivia had bandaged her eyes to avoid Marisa straining her eyes by trying to see without Olivia's instructions but once she was up, it was time for the ultimate test. She removed the bandages from her eyes. She didn't expect 20/20 vision, not yet but at least some return of her sight was expected.
"Keep your eyes closed," Olivia instructed.
Marisa nodded nervously.
Olivia examined around her eyes and when everything was normal she decided it was time.
"Marisa can you go ahead and open you eyes slowly for me,"
She could see Marisa's parents standing by nervously. Marisa stared blankly at first but then her eyes began to scan the room.
"What do you see?"
Suddenly tears began to trickle down Marisa's cheeks.
"Everything is blurry, I can't see your faces but I can see your shapes. I can't believe it."
Her parents ran over and hugged her and they all cried happy tears together. Olivia stood by and watched proudly.
"Your vision will get clearer and clearer as the days go by. I won't be here but Dr. Wen will give you an eye exam in two weeks to gauge the quality of your vision, don't worry though I'm 95 percent sure that your vision will be restored to what it was before just be sure not to strain your eyes; no reading, writing, watching t.v. or web surfing."
Marisa looked up and smiled.
"Dr. Pope can I give you a hug?" Marisa asked.
Olivia smiled.
"Of course."
Olivia walked over and gave her a tight hug, moments after she felt the entire family join in.
After a few minutes, Marisa's parents asked Olivia to speak privately, so they all stepped outside in the hallway.
"Dr. Pope, we just really wanted to impress on you how grateful we are for what you've done for our daughter. She's been dreaming of going to the olympics since she was 5 years old and a few weeks ago it was impossible but now…"
"You are very welcome."
"We just wanted to let you know that the loan that we took out to pay the bill delayed on the bank's part but once it goes through, we will pay it right away. We hope the delay doesn't pose an issue for you."
Olivia pondered for a second.
"It doesn't but I'll waive my charge."
"What?" Maria's mother and father asked in unison.
"Yeah, don't worry about it, it's pro bono."
"Are you kidding me?" Marisa's mom asked, "come here."
She pulled Olivia in for another hug and immediately Olivia thought "wow, they really like to hug.'
"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't tell you what this means to us. Come on let's share the good news with Marisa."
They entered the hospital room, this time Marisa's parent entered with the widest smiles on their faces. Marisa sat on the bed talking on the phone but once her parents entered, she ended the call and gave them her attention.
"Guess what sweetie?"
"What?" she asked.
"Dr. Pope is going to waive the charge for the procedure. It's free."
"Oh my god mom, seriously?"
"Yes."
"Really Olivia?"
"Yeah, you just focus on recovering and then kicking butt at the olympics."
"I promise, I will," Marisa said with a smile.
"Dr. Pope, when do you leave?" Marisa's mother asked.
"In the morning."
"I was hoping you would join us for a home cooked meal. I wanted to go home and whip something up, it's the least we can do to thank you."
"I'd like that very much, I'm nothing if not greedy."
They all chuckled.
"Perfect, you'll fit right in around here," her father joked.
"So, what do you say we meet you back here at 7pm."
"Perfect. I'll see you then."
Olivia headed back to her hotel shortly after and called Fitz as soon as she walked into her room.
"So, how did it go?"
"It work," she announced excitedly.
"Yes. I knew it would."
She could hear his excitement over the phone, it made her smile.
"Yes, her parents want to thank me by inviting me to dinner."
"They're gonna take you out to dinner?"
"No, they don't live too far from the hospital, the mom went home to cook, she's gonna bring it back to the hospital so everyone can eat and of course I agreed because I'm-"
"Greedy, yes I know," he finished.
"They seem very thankful, that's nice of them."
"Yes well that's because I waived my fee."
"Wow, that was very generous."
"Yes, they were gonna have to take out a loan to pay the bill and they seem like really nice people so I waived it. It's not exactly like I'll be struggling if they don't pay me."
"How much would it have been?"
"Well, a regular autologous bone marrow transplant cost around $350,000, but of course it wasn't a regular transplant it was a brain transplant, then add the cost of shipping stem cells to France and energizing the cells at the lab is another $200,000 plus laser therapy and that doesn't include the cost of my services."
"So who's paying that 200,000 to the lab?"
"I'll have Daniel waive it, no problem."
"Of course," he said in an annoyed tone.
She laughed.
"So what's up with you?"
"I'm in the oval, I have about 5 different packets I have to read. I'm waiting for Cyrus to call me for this meeting"
"So basically you're having a party?"
"Basically…"
"How is Cyrus?"
"He's working like a dog, as always."
"I hate his guts."
Fitz erupted in a fit of laughter so loud that Olivia almost dropped her phone.
"Oh my god Fitz, you're so loud."
"I'm sorry, that just caught me off guard."
She chuckled.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"It's the way you said it that was funny."
She shook her head.
"Whatever."
"When are you coming back to D.C.?"
"Tomorrow, I have an early flight."
"Then?"
"Then I'm gonna put in some hours at James Madison."
Cyrus walked in.
"Cyrus is here, I have to head to my meeting now."
"Bye tight buns."
"Shut up," he said with a chuckle before hanging up.
"Who was that?" Cyrus asked.
"None of your business."
"You are my business."
"I feel a speech coming on Cy and I'm not in the mood so save it."
"Alright but don't forget I always have your best interest at heart."
"You have my best interest at heart only when it's in your best interest, don't pretend you won't drop me the second I'm dead weight."
Fitz didn't wait for Cyrus' reply he just made his way out and down the hall.
Olivia made it back to the hospital a few minutes before 7pm. Marisa and her family were waiting for her in the hospital room. She could hear the excitement as she entered the room.
"Wow, it smells great in here," she complimented as she walked in.
"Thanks to my peach cobbler, old family recipe."
Marisa's younger brother walked over and handed her a gift.
"For me?" Olivia asked.
"Yes."
"Thank you."
Olivia opened the gift, it was a box of chocolates and cookies among other goodies. She thanked them and they began their meal together.
"So honey, are you excited? You'll be able to start your gymnastics again soon," Marisa's dad said.
"I am but I'm scared. What if I fall again?"
"The biggest hurdle most athletes face when coming back from an injury is overcoming the fear. Your body knows what to do, it's just your mind that you have to convince that you are safe," Olivia said.
"How can I do that?"
"You can run through your routines in your mind, go through all the motions in your mind and you'll feel the same sense of accomplishment as if you were doing it physically. Why don't you give it a try?"
"Okay."
Marisa smiled and closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Where are you?" Olivia asked.
"I'm standing in front of the beam," she said with her eyes closed.
"Good," Olivia replied, "begin your routine."
"I start with a round off lay-out lay-out. I do a little dance move and then I do a triple turn into tuck stand. I stand on the beam and then I do a tucked arabian into a back handspring. The crowd cheers and I smile. I do a little salsa move and shimmy my way to the other end of the beam then I do two back handsprings and a layout full into a korbut. I stand and do a front aerial and a back pike. The crowd cheers again. I do a double turn split and a switch ring leap into a layout, step out and a sheep jump then I do the patterson dismount and I stick it and everyone cheers."
Marisa opened her eyes.
"It worked, I did it and it felt really good."
Olivia smiled.
'So keep doing that, for each of your routines and when it's time for you to train again, you'll be ready."