Casey sighed. “I figured it was something like that. Look, I know we need Lily to help Kate, but don’t think we’re helpless here. Since that time when you weren’t well, I learned a lot about caring for someone who’s sick. I’ve even signed up for a class next week so that I can get officially certified to do CPR and to learn more first aid. I know I’m not a doctor, but I can help. We’re doing what we can. Just try to relax. You can’t do more just by worrying about it.”
“I know, I just…” Lex trailed off, digging her thumb into her forehead now as the pain in her head increased in intensity.
A moment later, Lex gasped wordlessly as a massive bolt of pain shot through her entire being, starting with her head. Her eyes flew open, and she noticed Casey saying something that she couldn’t hear as the world went dark a second later.
Some time later, Lex woke up in her room. At first, she thought maybe someone had decided to demolish the building, or play some noisy music at the highest volume possible. As she adjusted to it, Lex realized that the pain had gotten so intense that not much of anything else could make it through her overloaded senses. Her lamp had been switched off, but the light through the drawn blinds felt so painful that Lex threw the covers over her eyes and closed them tightly. She saw Casey just before she did, leaning over her with a look of concern. Then the pain flared up again and there was nothing.
Darkness surrounded her, for which Lex felt grateful for some reason she couldn’t remember. She walked through the black nothingness when suddenly she saw a pair of eyes. They seemed brownish but with an odd red cast, and as she looked, they seemed to catch fire, their gaze seeming to pierce through her–
Lex gasped as she awoke, the last shreds of the dream disappearing. She could tell from the faint orange streetlight glow that night had arrived, and she felt cheered that the light coming through the blinds didn’t feel painful and the feeling of loud noise seemed to be gone. She sighed in relief, then jumped afterwards as she sensed movement nearby.
“Is someone there?” she asked, her voice sounding weak and hoarse in her own ears.
“Yeah, Lex, it’s me,” Casey said, and Lex could see her friend as she stepped closer to the bed, rubbing a hand over her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“A lot better, thanks. The headache seems to have gone away; I’m just hungry now.” Lex kept her voice hushed, conscious of her other friends sleeping in the rooms nearby.
Casey sighed, and Lex could hear relief in the sound. “Do you want me to make you something?”
“You don’t have to do that,” Lex said, shaking her head in embarrassment. “You look really tired, why don’t you go to bed?”
“I’ll go downstairs with you, at least,” the larger woman said, moving behind Lex as if to support her as she stepped out of the bed.
Casey didn’t speak again until they got down to the kitchen. “You know,” she said as Lex dropped some bread into the toaster, “Lily wanted to know if anything like this happened once you were up and about.” Shaking her head, Casey continued. “She said there’s a possibility that you may have grown, as she put it, new structures. Your digestive system seemed involved in the process, but since it seemed like your head and brain got hit the hardest, Lily said that if you grew anything new, it was likely to be there.”
Lex bit her lip, considering. “Do you know what she meant? New structures?”
Casey shook her head a little. “The way she explained it was like if you dropped your fingernails and re-grew them as claws, stuff like that. External things would be easy to spot, but not if you grew new organs, unless they can use imaging tools to see inside you. Apparently, they scanned everyone at…that place all the time. She wanted to be able to scan you before we left, but she couldn’t figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t draw attention.”
“I see,” Lex said, nodding and feeling as if something heavy came to sit in the pit of her stomach. “There probably won’t be any way to be able to do it this time, either, but I’ll tell her what happened when she comes back. I don’t want to distract her from her work with Kate, though; that’s what’s most important. You know I’ve had these headaches before,” Lex concluded, her voice weakening because she knew what Casey would say next.
“Yes,” Casey said, hands now on her hips, “you did have headaches before, but nothing like what you just had! The only other time you had one like that was probably around the time the drugs they gave us at the facility really kicked in and started to mess your system up.”
“I know,” Lex nodded, “but I’m wondering if this isn’t just a side-effect of the new things I can do. Maybe this is just the price I pay. The migraines I had before weren’t fatal.”
Casey sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Maybe,” she said, shaking her head.
Lex came around the counter and hugged her friend. “It’ll be OK,” she said as she pulled back. “Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. Now, get some sleep and please tell Lou that I’m sorry to have taken you away from spending time with him.”
“OK,” Casey said with a smile she’d been unable to hold back. “Just don’t stay up so late that your headache comes back, because I won’t be here to catch you this time.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lex said with a smirk, watching her friend disappear in the direction of the room she shared with Lou.
Lex put peanut butter on her toast and had almost taken a bite when she saw Riss appear at the top of the stairs. Her friend silently made her way down and sat across from Lex at the table. Putting her toast back on the plate, Lex gave Riss a little smile.
“I’m feeling a lot better,” Lex said. “I’m really sorry for worrying everyone.”
Riss just shook her head. “Casey said you were getting stressed out.”
“I know,” Lex said as she picked up her toast once more, “I’ll try not to do it again.”
Riss only gave a small smile in return. After Lex had finished eating and was headed back to her room, the two of them parted in the hallway.
“Thanks for coming to watch over me,” Lex said with a wave in her friend’s direction.
“Just get some more sleep,” Riss replied as she turned away. Lex spotted the small smile on her face as she did.
To Lex’s relief, everyone managed to remain healthy until the next time Lily arrived. The group had been waiting for about an hour when Serena and Lily suddenly appeared in the main room.
“I’m very sorry,” Lily said before anyone could ask anything. “I couldn’t get away as soon as I thought I’d be able to, and so we’re late.”
Serena smiled and stretched. “Fine by me, because I got to spend a little extra time in Hawaii. Of course, I had to go before I could finish talking up that ripped surfer girl, though.”
Lily shook her head, but Lex thought she could detect the hint of a smile. “Thanks for the ride, Serena. Kate, are you ready to get started?”
Kate nodded but spoke before Lily could turn towards the stairs. “You’ll need to have a look at Lex while you’re out here, too. Do you want to do that later, or now?”
Eyebrow raised, Lily looked at Kate first, then Lex. Lex sighed and then gave a brief account of her latest headache. As Lex finished the story, she watched Lily close her eyes and sigh. “I’d hoped you’d be over those after you recovered fully.” She shook her head, then looked at Lex again. “Let’s go upstairs and have a look at what I can. I’m probably not going to be able to tell much more than last time, though.”
As they walked up the stairs, Lily quizzed Lex to get further details about what had happened, the time and intensity, and how long it lasted. “You know,” Lex mentioned, “I did have migraines before they even gave me the experimental drugs, but far less intense.”
Lily sighed again as she sat Lex down on her bed and rummaged through the bag she carried to bring out a few instruments. “Did you notice any other changes after you recovered?”
“Yes,” Lex said, trying not to sound guilty. She quickly described to Lily the new voice talents she and her friends had discovered that Lex possessed. Lily’s eyebrows raised, then she nodded with a smile.
After a moment, Lily asked, “Did you sing at all before this?” When Lex nodded in reply, Lily smiled as if she’d unlocked a puzzle piece. “It sounds like what has happened is that the drugs worked to amplify some of the things that you already did before. I’ve found that’s what occurred for others, as well.”
Lex nodded in reply and Lily continued. “It sounds like you ended up with enhanced voice talents…and migraines. I wonder if we’re in for any more surprises,” she finished, her voice trailing off as she looked toward the ground, her brow furrowed.
Finally, Lily looked Lex in the eye again. “Could you please lie down for a moment, Lex?” she asked, gesturing to Lex’s bed. “There’s something I’d like to try. I might be able to detect if you’ve grown a new structure in your brain using this method, but there’s no guarantee.”
“All right,” Lex agreed, getting comfortable. “What’s the big deal about growing some new organ, though?”
“Well,” Lily said as she put her hands on Lex’s head, “maybe nothing, but my real worry would be that if you grew a new part of your brain inside your cranium, well, it’s an enclosed space…”
Lily trailed off, but Lex gulped, suddenly quite aware of what the problem could be.
“All right,” Lily continued slowly, as if she was concentrating on something, “just try to relax, Lex. You might feel something warm where my hands are.”
Lex closed her eyes and tried to relax as she sank into the mattress, but she found it impossible as Lily’s hands seemed to go from warm to hot to almost boiling. Her hands had dug themselves into the covers and she could feel sweat dripping down her face by the time she heard Lily sigh and felt the other woman sit back.
“Sorry about that. I tried to push myself to see if I could find out what’s going on up in your head, but I couldn’t make it work. Sometimes I can picture what’s happening in someone’s body if I try that trick, but you turned me away somehow. All right, sit up and let’s go through the normal part of the exam.”
Lex patiently did everything that Lily requested, listening as the doctor sighed afterwards. “As I guessed, I couldn’t find anything new, so I’m going to give you some advice most doctors would give their patients who have migraines.”
Lily went through a list of dos and don’ts, finally asking, “Did my grandfather ever meditate with you?”
Nodding, Lex replied, “Yes, we practiced fairly frequently.”
“Good. I want you to start meditating every day. Since your headaches have become so severe, we need to do what we can to prevent you from having them. I’ll also write down some medications you could use; I know some you might have already tried, but if there are any you haven’t or any that have worked for you in the past, ask Riss to help you get these filled. Many doctors these days have automated systems for prescriptions, so I don’t think it should be too hard for the two of you to get it done, OK?”
“OK. Thanks, Lily,” Lex said as she stood, smiling at the doctor as the two of them began to walk back downstairs. “Also, I wanted to thank you for coming out here to help Kate. I don’t know what we would have done otherwise.”
Lily gave an extended sigh. “Please, don’t thank me Lex,” she replied softly. “I’m doing this because I owe you, all of you, all of us. I do what I have to in order to keep my family safe. I know it’s wrong, but I don’t know what else to do.”
Lex kept quiet as they reached the rest of the group, but mentally promised herself and the Chens that she’d find a way to get them free.
Kate and Lily had been about to climb the stairs when Victor appeared to have a quiet conversation with them before handing Lily something that looked like a pair of sunglasses and a small box. Serena, who’d continued to hang out because she wanted to talk to everyone, spoke up as Victor walked by on his way back to his laboratory.
“What was that?” she asked, looking at him curiously.
Victor smiled. “It was something I’ve been working on since I heard about what Kate and Lily would be doing,” he said. “The glasses have a small camera system on the side that goes toward the eye on Kate’s bad side. It can act as a microscope that projects what’s seen onto the glasses lens so that someone can see it from the outside. There’s a remote I gave Lily to allow her to focus in on what she wants to see so that they can tell what progress they’re making on healing Kate.”
“That’s excellent!” Serena said, voicing the enthusiasm that most of them seemed to feel at that moment. Casey and Lex grinned at each other, and then so did Lou and Casey.
As Victor went back into his lab, the rest of them dispersed into the front room. Lou worked on some of his bass parts for the band’s songs, sound turned down very low, while Casey did some research online. Riss sat near Casey, also doing something on her laptop.
“So,” Serena asked in a quiet voice as she and Lex sat at the table with some tea, “what are you guys going to be up to for the next week?”
“Well,” Lex replied, “I’m guessing we’ll all try to be quiet, and I think we’ll be doing a lot of cooking. Kate and Lily will both be using a lot of energy, so they should be eating and sleeping a lot. Otherwise, I guess we’ll just be crossing our fingers.”
They both exchanged a concerned look, then Serena smiled and changed the topic. Lex smiled in return, appreciating her friend’s attempt to lighten the mood, and they chatted for about an hour before Serena got up to go.
“OK, so you’ll email me if you need me before next week at this time?” she asked, and Riss nodded in response.
“Don’t worry, we will,” Lex agreed, hugging Serena before stepping back to let the other woman go.
“You’d better watch that,” Serena replied with a grin, “or I won’t want to leave.” She laughed then and waved to everyone. “All right, see you in a week,” she finished before disappearing.
The remainder of Lily’s visit fell into an uneasy pattern. The rest of the house, aside from Riss, got up before Kate and Lily. Lou, Casey, and Lex all worked out before Lily would come to the head of the stairs. She always looked exhausted, but when Casey, Lex, Victor, or Lou brought some breakfast upstairs for the two of them, they would usually find that Kate looked even more tired, although she’d always showered and dressed by the time they saw her. The people who brought up breakfast would have an opportunity to visit while Lily and Kate ate, and then the two would shut themselves up in Kate’s room for the rest of the day. Someone brought up food periodically and removed any empty dishes. The rest of the household worked on various projects downstairs, but none of them could help looking towards the stairs periodically, wondering. Kate and Lily seemed too wiped out to reappear in the evenings in general, although once or twice Lily had come downstairs for a few minutes, informing them that everything was going as well as could be expected.