As they came up to Nurse Von Trier in the hall, Mariella said, "Hi, Carrie," as pleasantly as always. Paul, ever playful, saluted her in Keeper fashion. Carrie, as was her habit, slumped down in a dead faint. "Welcome to the floor again, Carrie," she added, irritated, stepping over Nurse Von Trier's prostrate form.
"She seems to like it down there," Paul remarked idly as they continued down the hall toward Stegman's office. "Ooh," he said, hearing crashes from within. "The good doctor is displeased. Shall we give him aid and succor?"
"Watch your words," she warned him, knocking on Steg's door. "Doctor Stegman?" More resounding crashes ensued. "Doctor Stegman, it's Doctor Evans from Pediatrics. I need to speak with you. It's very important."
Paul rolled his eyes with impatience and pushed the door open. "I brought you a present, Steggie," he said over the din.
"Reprisals," Steg was muttering as he threw his belongings into a cardboard box. He paused long enough to give Mariella little more than a cursory glance. "That's not a present, that's a girl," he stated before resuming his so-called packing.
"She's much more than a girl, Steggie," Paul told him with an impish grin. "She's your ticket to freedom."
"The only ticket I'm buying," Steg countered, "is back to Boston. I've had enough of you lunatics."
"I can fix Mona Klingerman's nut," Mariella told him flat out.
"Idiocy," Steg contested. "That's absurd. Next you'll say that aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico. Will you get this clinically insane candy striper out of here? I'm packing."
Dr. Evans grabbed Stegman's arm with surprising strength, drawing him against herself, her hand splayed upon his cheek, covering the wounds that Dr. Abelson, in her rage, had left there the night before. A white light emanated from the palm of her hand and an itchy, tingling feeling spread across his face, fading almost as soon as she released him from her grip. "Look in the mirror," she instructed.
Paul produced one from who-knew-where and handed it to him so he could look at himself. "Impossible," Stegman muttered.
"She's a Healer, Steggie. A natural one. She's Anubis's real enemy... He just doesn't know it yet," Paul told him, chuckling.
Stegman eyed the slender red-haired girl suspiciously. She didn't look a day older than that Cammie or Candy or whatever her name was that was continually fainting underfoot. "So what are you doing in this hell hole?" he asked her, rubbing at his freshly healed skin distractedly.
"Biding my time until I was called to a higher purpose," she told him.
"Called by whom?"
"The Big One," Paul said jokingly, expecting him to argue that Steg was the big one. Instead, Steg cupped his hand to his forehead in the shape of an eye. The Eye of the Crimson King.
"Yes," Mariella agreed calmly. Paul, though, was unnerved. The meddling old woman hadn't closed the door after all. Instead it was standing wide open.
