Chapter 29
''You're overreacting,'' Jaime sighed.
''Sweetheart, you didn't even see it!'' Steve reminded her.
''Because there was a breeze! It blew that branch onto the track, 'cause it wasn't there my first time around!''
''Steve's right,'' Rudy said in his usual gentle voice. ''While it may have just blown into your path, it's not like you to miss things - or to trip and fall. I'm going to admit you to Clayton for a few tests and -''
''What? No! Rudy, no disrespect,'' Jaime told him, ''but I am not going back in the hospital! I've had enough hospitals for this lifetime, thank you - for ten lifetimes! And besides that - I feel fine!''
Steve and Rudy exchanged glances, as if trying to decide exactly whose problem it might be to try and argue with that firmly-set jaw this time.
''NO hospital!'' Jaime repeated. ''I'm not sick and I'm not injured. I. Am. Okay!''
''You're at least coming back to the lab, to let me test your vision,'' Rudy said firmly. ''Period. I would say 'end of discussion', but there will BE no discussion. I'll have Steve carry you over his shoulders if necessary! Understood?''
Jaime's stuck-out lower lip had absolutely no effect on the doctor. Resigned to following his orders, when they got there she walked into the lab with her arm around her husband - instead of riding over his shoulder. Vision tests (and everything else Rudy threw at her) came back normal. Jaime's endurance tests were off the chart for someone who wasn't bionic (yet).
While Russ was dispatched to see what he could do about fetching Hansen, Michael and Mark pulled chairs into Anna's cell and sat down. The 'power stance' of having two very tall men standing over her while she was seated hardly seemed necessary while she was being so cooperative. Mark though that sitting with her instead might invoke a more informal, 'chatty' mood in their subject. He was right.
''This could all have been the reverse, you know,'' she began with the same slight smile at Michael, ''and you'd have been sitting here instead of me...if Doctor Wells' choice had gone the other way.''
Michael shook his head. ''I'd have simply come back and tried again the next year - or the year after that.''
''No; we're of the same mind, you know.''
''Except I can control my own,'' Michael pointed out.
Mark leaned in closer. ''Anna, was Michael the only one who was able to resist what you tried to do to him?''
''But he didn't! He did some truly delicious, FUN things before he took his own thoughts back.''
''But were there others?'' Mark persisted. ''People you simply couldn't control?''
''Well...I'm not sure about Jack, since that method was completely different, easier to resist...but yes, even with my machine, there were several.''
''And who were they?''
''The biggest one was one of the most important: Steve's wife. Jaime. She was one of the initial people hit, in the hospital - and I even had Grant hit her again at the park. A direct hit!'' Anna marveled. ''I don't know how she did it!''
Mark and Michael both knew that Jaime's ear had deflected the rays, but they weren't about to offer up that information. ''Anyone else?'' Mark pressed.
''Well...you.''
Mark absorbed that info like a punch in the solar plexus, thinking of the potential damage that could have been caused if she'd been successful. ''Okay,'' he continued calmly, ''and what made Jack Hansen's method different?''
''First off, he had no machine.''
''So he could only give more general orders,'' Michael deduced, ''rather than specific commands?''
''Of course. Like when the plane came down; oh...that could've been fun! But instead he could only tell your minister friend to plant the device in a diaper bag.''
''The one Jess - Becca's nurse - carried.''
Anna nodded, still with that slight (completely complacent) smile. ''Of course. Worked, too.''
''With your machine - and the fact that you were putting actual thoughts into you victims' heads -''
''Subjects'' Anna corrected.
''Victims. Did that make their eyes look different...or could it?''
''Of course, since I was truly inside their heads; telling them what to think!'' Anna boasted. ''SO similar to what you both do every day; you're both able to really get into their heads. Such a delicious feeling, isn't it?''
When Anna was finished, Michael joined Oscar to make the rounds of all of Anna's former victims. Everyone was doing well. Jess and the minister had been released from Clayton Memorial with Mark Conrad to help them try and pick up the pieces. Finally, Oscar caught up with Rudy.
''How's our girl?'' Oscar wondered.
''Stubborn!''
''Back to normal, then,'' Oscar chuckled.
''I have a few concerns but I think it's safe to say that the Jaime we know and love is finally back,'' Rudy told him.
''So you'll be tuning her up soon, then?''
''Gradually, to watch closely how her body adjusts. She seems eager to get started.''
''That's great! Let's you and I go and see her before we call it a night!''
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