Maggie arrived at David's cabin as requested to talk further on his plans to continue his Orpheus research. More importantly she was still hoping to dissuade him from using himself as a guinea pig; especially as he was expecting her to wield the needle.

The cabin looked very homely from the outside but Maggie walked into a fully equipped laboratory that would put most universities to shame.

"I still can't believe that you have all this in here." she muttered.

"After my old cabin went up in smoke it made sense to rebuild it properly." said David looking up from his computer screen. "Do you want a coffee? I just made a fresh pot."

"I'm good thanks." said Maggie. David looked like he needed more than coffee to keep him going. He looked exhausted.

"How is the blood work going?" she asked, joining him to look at his research.

"It's as I expected." said David. "But it's still not telling me why another virus or illness would affect how the body reacts to the serum."

Maggie took a seat beside him.

"Maybe if you could tell me what you're looking for I could be of more help? What are you expecting the serum to do?"

"You want to steal my formula?"

"I'm here to help remember. If you're going to trust me with your life surly you can trust me with your formula."

David sighed, he looked drained. Maggie patted his arm.

"Why don't I grab you another coffee, you take a break and we just talk." she suggested

…

Maggie settled on the couch opposite David.

He took a long swig of coffee.

"Well," he said, "What do you want to know exactly?"

"Why not start from the beginning?" suggested Maggie.

David put down his drink and gave Maggie a long look as if trying to judge how much he trusted her. Maggie just smiled back.

"Orpheus started as a way to save my daughter's life." said David, sitting back in the couch. "Leora was so near death and I couldn't let her go. I developed the serum as a stable base for transferring stem cells, but it turned out to do more than that. It prevented organ rejection and even helped promote healing and tissue regeneration. But it wasn't enough to heal my baby."

"But you saved others? Greenlee, Dixie, Stuart… Your drug is already a miracle."

David pulled a disgruntled face.

"They were a means to an end. I had to find out how to make the serum work for my baby girl. But every new patient just left me with more questions. Why did it work one moment and not the next? Why were my patients always so near death before Orpheus finally did what it was supposed to? The fight it took to bring Stuart back and Dixie… her aphasia and amnesia lasted so long after her body was cured I thought I'd failed in healing her brain tissue all together." David punched the arm of his chair in frustration. "And then there was Bianca… I knew she held the answer and she did. She was the last missing piece. If I'm right then what I've been missing all these years is that the serum doesn't work to cure the sick, it works because they are already sick."

"If you know this why are you so keen to experiment on yourself?"

"Because I need to know what it is about healthy tissue that rejects the serum. It's that last missing piece."

Maggie gasped at the realisation.

"You still want to heal Leora!" she exclaimed.

…