A/N: Wow, thank you all so much! I posted the last chapter...not expecting much of a response (hello, I didn't really deserve one what with the four billion month break I took from writing!). But, surprise! People reviewed. YOU reviewed. Thank you so much! I know that many of you understand that reviews keep writers motivated and that's exactly what you did, motivated me! So, take a moment to congratulate yourself and give yourself a pat on the back because gosh darnit, you deserve it. :) Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Quintessential Bliss
Chapter 28
Phil's eyes felt like they were full of sand and there was a strange sharp pain behind his right eye, probably from staring at the computer screen for six straight hours. His back was cramped and his neck was sore from hunching over his laptop. Vanessa had gone to sleep hours ago but Phil couldn't let it go, he had to find the missing pages of the document. He just knew that they would hold the key to Frank's illness.
Standing up to stretch, Phil yawned loudly before sitting back down on the couch. He had searched all of the documents he had managed to pull over from the secret file and had found nothing. Finally, he resigned himself to the fact that he would have to hack into the source again to get the rest of the missing pages.
He waited for the rest of it to download and started to search the new pages. He didn't have time to work through all of the encryptions so he picked spots at random, hoping he'd get lucky and find the spot he would need.
It happened an hour later when he found the missing page. "Eureka," Phil muttered and his fingers flew across the keyboard, his exhaustion forgotten. He read through the remaining document and his hopes soared.
"I found it," Phil murmured. "I found the cure!"
"Nancy! Nancy, wake up!" Vanessa sat on the side of Nancy's bed and gently gave her shoulder a shake. "Nancy!"
Nancy jolted out of sleep, chased by the dreams that had plagued her all night. "What happened?" She looked around in confusion, her eyes puffy from crying the night before. "Frank?"
"Frank's fine," Vanessa rushed to reassure her, "but Phil thinks he's found something, a possibility for a cure for Frank."
"What?" Nancy asked dumbfounded. She pushed the hair out of her face and threw back the covers, "Really? He does?" She seemed to only be able to speak in short syllables as she ran to the closet to change out of her pajamas.
"He thinks it's fairly legitimate. He found it in some hardcore Russian gangster mob file thing." Vanessa waved her hand impatiently, "Doesn't matter. He's pretty sure he found the original documents for the toxin invading Frank's body and the documents provide information to help Frank."
"He's pretty sure?" Nancy stuck her head out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth. "How sure?"
"Like, 97 percent," Vanessa smiled when Nancy's eyes grew wide, daring to be hopeful.
"97 percent?" She whispered.
"Yep," Vanessa confirmed.
"What's the cure?" Nancy asked.
"Um," at this Vanessa hesitated. "Well, Phil only has a name for the cure."
Nancy stepped out of the bathroom, "I don't understand. Has Phil found the cure or not?"
Vanessa stood up, "I'm not explaining this well at all." She sighed quickly, "Phil found the name of the cure, the antidote that was created when the toxin was developed. He has a few ideas where it's being kept." She watched Nancy's shoulders sag a little and she rushed to continue. "But, he did find a study!"
"A study?" Nancy asked.
"When they were studying the affect of the toxin they did numerous things to the subjects...some of them not so pretty" at Nancy's shocked look she rushed on, "I'm really messing this up, I told Phil he should explain it to you!"
"Vanessa!" Nancy interrupted, running out of patience. "Has Phil found something to help Frank or not?"
"Yes," Vanessa replied. "In all subjects tested, having a bone marrow transplant significantly decreased the side effects of the toxin and in most cases, erasing some of them completely. But..."
"But what?" Nancy asked.
"It didn't cure them," Vanessa was whispering now. When Nancy continued to stare at her she continued quietly, "eventually, all the subjects who weren't treated with the antidote succumbed to the toxin."
Nancy was silent for a moment as she absorbed the information, "Oh," she finally said.
"Yeah," Vanessa moved to lay a reassuring hand on Nancy's shoulder. "Listen, Nancy. This is good news. We have a name and an idea of something that will help Frank."
"You're right," Nancy squared her shoulders and smiled, "Let's get to the hospital and spread the good news."
"Phil's already called Fenton and Laura and they're talking to Frank's doctors about it now," Vanessa followed Nancy out of the room. They met Phil at the bottom of the stairs.
"Phil," Nancy smiled and gave him a hug, "Thank you."
"Frank's my best friend Nancy," Phil smiled "and it turns out I kinda like you too."
Nancy laughed, "I kinda like you too Phil."
"Nancy," Phil paused as if collecting his thoughts. "How much do you know about bone marrow transplants?"
"I guess not much," Nancy replied. "Usually a donor is a member of the recipients family right? And it can be a painful and slow going process."
"Yeah," Phil nodded. "Fenton and Laura are already getting tested but typically a donor is found in a sibling of the person who needs the transplant."
"Joe," Nancy stated.
"Exactly," Phil nodded.
"Well, let's call him," Nancy turned to Vanessa.
"I've been trying all morning, Nancy." Vanessa replied, her eyes full of apology. "He's not answering."
Nancy didn't know how many more setbacks she could take. She sighed and grabbed her keys where she had dropped them the night before, "Well, we'll keep trying him and in the meantime head toward the hospital and hope that either Fenton or Laura is a match."
Joe liked camping and hiking and being one with nature as much as the next guy. Really, he did. He and Frank went camping with their friends a lot during the spring and summer, sometimes stretching the camping season as far into fall as they could.
But this, this was not what Joe considered fun. Rain, tennis shoes, mud and cold wind did not combine for a pleasant outdoor experience. "I hate the woods," Joe muttered to himself as he traipsed around the building he believed Beatrice to be in. "I hate the outdoors," he wiped at the water dripping off his face. "I hate being cold," he complained out loud to no one, "I hate the trees," he slipped in the mud and would have face planted if a tree he professed to hate hadn't caught his fall. "Okay," Joe muttered, "maybe I don't hate trees that much but I hate mud. I really hate mud."
Joe continued his surveillance around the outside of the house. His phone beeped in his pocket, indicating he was going out of range of cell service. A few yards further into the woods his phone beeped again, back in the range of a cell tower. This continued all the way around to the back of the building before Joe got frustrated.
"You're as bad as the mud!" He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and put it on silent before shoving it back in its place. Looking back at the house he crouched low when the back door opened and a man came out on the porch to light a cigarette. Joe watched the man smoke lazily for a few minutes before another man came out to join him.
"Hey Mark," the first man nodded at his companion.
"Hey," the man named Mark replied and lit up his own cigarette. "Hate it when she's here," he said after a few minutes, "its all rules and no fun."
The other man chuckled, "Beatrice has always been a stickler for rules. She was raised at the height of the Cold War."
Joe suppressed a victory yell, Beatrice was inside that building. He was almost one step closer to helping Frank. Now all he had to do was devise a way to get inside, not get caught, find Beatrice and...something. He'd figure out the rest when he got there.
It wasn't his most well thought out plan, but then again his usually weren't, that was Frank's job. Joe watched as the two men flicked their spent cigarettes out into the mud and headed back inside.
Joe didn't think beyond getting to Beatrice. She held the key to Frank's illness. As Joe stood getting wetter and wetter in the dark woods his phone rang and rang, silent, in the pocket of his jacket.
"I'm sorry Mr. Hardy...you're not a close enough match to your son. We can't risk a bone marrow transplant using your cells in his weakened condition." Fenton nodded his head solemnly and the doctor turned to Laura, who held her breath. "I'm sorry Mrs. Hardy; you're not a close enough match either."
Laura nodded once and gripped her husband's hand tightly. "What do we do now?" she asked.
"We can search for an outside match from one of the donation centers, but I'm hesitant to use bone marrow not directly connected to your son by family. In the documents you provided me, it seems that each person received bone marrow from a relative with a fairly close match. I don't think your son could go through the stress of an unsuccessful transplant. You have another son, correct?"
"Yes," Fenton nodded, "We've been trying to reach him all day."
The doctor nodded. "Continue trying. There is a strong chance your son is a solid match for Frank, siblings usually are. If there is any chance of getting your son here with the next few days I'd prefer to go that route. If not, we'll start exploring other options."
"In the meantime," the doctor continued, "We'll start preparing Frank for the donation. He'll be even more susceptible to infection than he already is. One positive side effect of the toxin in his system is that it has already greatly reduced the amount of cells we would normally have to use chemotherapy to reduce in order to prepare him for the donation. We'll have to do some additional tests but we may only have to do a single round of radiation before he is able to receive the donation."
"Radiation?" Laura looked concerned, "Won't that make him very weak?"
The doctor nodded, "Yes, but trust me this is the best case scenario. If we can get away with only one round, your son will be in better shape than most recipients of a bone marrow transplant. Frank is strong, but we really need to reach your other son."
"Thank you doctor," Fenton replied. "We'll keep trying."