Chapter 9: The Test

"Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein." -- Proverbs, 26:27


Sydney reentered Vaughn's room and returned to her place on the edge of his bed. She took his hand and ran a hand through his hair. That seemed to soothe him considerably and his eyes began to flutter. He was just about to drift off when the door opened and Weiss loudly entered followed by a much more composed Jack. Vaughn's eyes jarred open at the sudden noise and his body jerked as well. Sydney immediately saw the wince and the pain that crossed his features and she silently cursed and wished that the doctor had waited longer.

"Hey Mikey! How're you feeling? Ready to play some hockey?" Weiss seemed to have no tact whatsoever when it came to hospital patients. Not only was he incredibly loud but he bounded over to Vaughn's bed and was just about to hug him.

Sydney saved Vaughn by holding up her hand and saying, "Easy there Eric, he's not ready for bear hugs…and try to keep your voice down, ok?"

Weiss looked slightly offended, but recovered and settled for a nudge on Vaughn's shoulder. However, Weiss picked the left shoulder, and this only caused Vaughn to arch on the bed and flinch at the touch. Weiss immediately backed off, "Hey, I'm sorry Mike…I didn't know that was your bad shoulder…" He approached again and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder but Vaughn flinched again and gravitated closer to Sydney.

Jack had watched the scene from the foot of Vaughn's bed and decided he should probably say his hellos and get Weiss the hell out of there before he hurt Vaughn any further.

"Well," he started in a soft tone, "it's nice to see you awake again Vaughn. I hope you're feeling better…it's good to have you back…" Vaughn managed a smile from under his mask and Jack smiled back. He looked at Sydney who was silently pleading for him to take Weiss out of there. Jack seemed to get the message and said, "Well, I suppose we better let you rest. We'll stop by again later to check up on you, all right? Weiss? Shall we?"

Weiss looked at Jack and rather hurriedly left the room. Jack gave Sydney a reassuring smile as he shut the door.

Sydney barely had time to look at Vaughn when the x-ray technician entered, pushing equipment into the room. He was followed by a nurse, who Sydney assumed assisted with the tasks. Vaughn looked over at them and she saw the look of fear in his eyes again. She squeezed his hand. "It's ok, I'm not going anywhere…"

He smiled up at her, but she really didn't think that her words had much effect. He got even tenser when they started to position his ankle for the film. They seemed oblivious to his anxiety and talked amongst themselves while they readied the machine. Thankfully, they didn't make Sydney move, they allowed her to stay where she was, holding Vaughn's hand through the whole ordeal. When the finished, they left just as they had entered, and Sydney and Vaughn were alone once again.

She looked down at Vaughn who again seemed calmer now that they were alone. She placed her hand on his cheek and eased the mask of his face. "Hey, are you ok?"

He smiled an almost sad smile, "In what way?"

She looked at him concerned, "Vaughn, do you want to talk about it?"

He was silent for a moment, "Not really, not right now…I'm really tired Syd."

"Of course you are, sweetie, I'm sorry…why don't you try to sleep, get some rest, ok? We'll talk later…"

She placed the mask back on his face and stroked his hair again. In a few minutes, he was sleeping peacefully.

She made sure he was sleeping soundly and then quietly left the room. Her father saw her come out and headed in her direction.

"Where did Weiss go?"

"He said something about Vaughn's dog and headed off…I think he was a little surprised at Vaughn's reaction to him."

"What did he expect? He's been through hell, he's not just going to be able to shake something like that off!"

"Honestly Sydney, I don't think he really understood the extent of Vaughn's injuries until just now…I don't think it really sunk in until he was able to see him for himself."

Sydney was quiet for a moment, "I've got to find Dr. Kerns…"

"Why is that? Is something wrong?"

"He wanted me to let him know how Vaughn reacted to people he knew…he reacted to Dr. Kerns kind of like he reacted to Weiss."

"Do you want me to come along?"

"Yeah, dad, that'd be nice."

Father and daughter walked off in search of Dr. Kerns.

A short time later, Dr. Kerns, Sydney and Jack were all seated in the waiting room.

"We tried your experiment Dr. Kerns," began Sydney. "It went pretty much like your experience went. Vaughn seemed uneasy with other people in the room and he had a similar reaction to being touched. Of course, Weiss also made the mistake of hurting his shoulder, so I think that just scared him more. He seemed ok with my dad in the room, but he stayed at the foot of the bed and never made any attempt to touch Vaughn or approach him…I really don't think that Vaughn is reacting this way because doctors did something to him as we talked about before and I don't think he's suffering from post-traumatic stress. I think he's afraid of being touched, I think he's reacting to the act of being touched, it makes him uneasy, and I think he's got a general aversion to people right now."

"I would have to agree with Sydney. He's lucid and he acknowledged my presence. I didn't cause him any stress because I wasn't confronting him. I kept a distance and I didn't pose any threat to him. Weiss was very bold, he really didn't take into consideration the fact that Vaughn actually was put through torture, he treated it as though this was a regular hospital visit – like Vaughn was ill or something." Jack paused and looked at his daughter and then continued, "I think Sydney acts as a buffer to the outside world right now. She's safe for him. Their relationship allows her to reach him in ways that we can't. He trusts her completely…"

Sydney smiled inwardly at her father's assessment of her and Vaughn's relationship.

Dr. Kerns seemed lost in thought and then said, "It's obvious that Mr. Vaughn is very dependent on Sydney. In my opinion, if she can keep him calm, then I'm not going to interfere. And as long as you're willing to provide that Sydney, I see no reason why I shouldn't let you continue in the capacity you've assumed."

"I'll do whatever is necessary to help him through this…I'd like to ask though that your staff be sensitive to Vaughn's aversion to people. Perhaps you could have a set schedule of people that would come in to check IVs and stuff like that. And perhaps you can continue to do the exams since he's at least already had you do one…that is if it would fit into your schedule…"

"I'd be happy to continue the exams, in fact, it will allow me to monitor his progress more closely and I'll try to work it out with the nurses so that only a few go in and out of the room."

They were finalizing plans when they heard a disturbance coming from down the hall.

They all moved into the hall to see what was going on. Sydney's heart fell when she realized that the commotion was coming from room 418. She instantly had a flashback to Vaughn crashing into arrest when he was infected with the virus several months ago. She ran…