Syndrome

'Oh yeah? So how'd it go?'

'Well, I met Dr. Miracle. . ' She paused. 'I don't know quite how to handle you, Stone. Are we having some kind of reunion? The affairredux. Are we friends all over again? Two days ago, all we had were memories. Then I start getting phone calls from you. I still don't know what I'm supposed to think.'

'I'll tell you whatIthink. We're playing this by ear. I don't know what you've been doing for the years that I haven't seen you. I don't know what you know about me. So this is kind of like a blind date with a lot of baggage.'

'I agree,' she said, then hesitated. Her resolve was melting. 'I might as well say this. Is it too late to come down and talk? I thought I was tough enough to handle this on my own, but I definitely could use psychological support.'

'Give me the address. I could use a little support myself. I got threatened today, I think, by somebody who would like to crush me like a bug. And easily could. I'll spare you the ironies, but you and I may have more in common than you think. My interest in the Gerex Corporation has just gotten extremely personal.'

After she hung up, she felt energized and she decided to give Jennifer a call after all. In truth, she wanted to tell her about Stone and to get her take on whether seeing him was a good idea. Aren't these second-time-around things always doomed?

'Hi, Jen. I'm home and I'm making all kinds of fateful decisions.'

'So what happened? Are you going to be a guinea pig for that clinic?'

'Is that what you think it amounts to?' She couldn't tell how serious Jennifer intended to be. 'I'm still debating it Mom loved the place.'

'Well, good. Good for her. But you're still not sure aboutyou?'

'I'm leaning. .' She paused. 'Jen, somebody I used to see in college is on his way down here right now. He's a medical reporter, but the truth is, I don't know why I asked him.'

'I guess if I were your shrink, I'd ask, 'How do you feel about that?''

'If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't need you to be a one-woman support group.' She bit her lip. 'He's doing a book about stem cell procedures. So in a way it's a lucky break that he appeared exactly when he did.'

'Yeah, Ally, if you ask me, it sounds like it was a lucky break in more than one way. An old flame reappearing can be a positive sign. It's high time something happened in your life.'

You're righter than you know, she thought. I'm ready for this, whether I admit it to myself or not.But is there going to be any chemistry when we actually see each other?There used to be a lot.

The embarrassing thing was, her first thought was to wonder if he was still terrific in bed. She remembered thinking he was very adroit back then, but back then she didn't have much experience to compare him with. Mainly, thinking about him now made her painfully aware she was overdue for some closeness.

Tuesday, April 7

10:22 PM.

What's she going to think of me?Stone wondered as he knocked gently on the door. She'd buzzed him up from the lobby without a word.

More to the point, he thought, what am I going to say if she wants an opinion about whether she should undergo the procedure or not? So far, the only evidence I have that the clinical trials are working is circumstantial, the patients who've been through the sequence and discharged. So how can I, in good faith, advise her one way or the other?

But, he then concluded, I'm getting way ahead of myself. She may take one look at me and decide she was right to dump me the first time.

Nice building, though. Housing for grown-ups, not like the one-bedroom starter setup I've been reduced to.

He knocked-he always hated the idea of ringing a bell on an apartment door-and a second later, it opened.

Alexa Hampton and Stone Aimes just stood awkwardly for a moment and stared, taking each other in. Finally. .

'You look… great.' They both said it simultaneously, and that served to make the moment even more awkward.

'Well,' he said finally, into the silence, 'youdo.' And he meant it. There was, however, a lot of strain on her face, in her eyes. The mark the years had left seemed more psychic than physical.

'You don't look so bad yourself.'

'God, it seems like a lifetime ago when we went to our separate corners,' he said after another long, contemplative pause. Then he stepped in and she closed the door. He didn't try to peck her cheek, for which she looked relieved. ”Tell me how you're doing, really.'

'You really want to know? Okay, this afternoon I had a heavy-duty heart checkup. Nobody wants to put odds on this thing, but my condition is getting worse.' She led him through to the living room.

'Then we should talk,' he said looking around. 'I love your loft, by the way. You make me envy you. You should see the makeshift quarters I live in. I'm sort of waiting for my ship to come in.'

'The truth is, Stone, that I no longer know the first thing about you or your life. And I think I'd like to.'

'Had we but world enough, and time,' he smiled 'We'll get around to the catching up, but I don't flatter myself that you asked me down at this hour to reminisce about our respective pasts.'

'You've already got me figured out.' She made a face. 'I don't know whether I like that or not. By the way, would you care for something? You used to like scotch, right?'

'The operative part of that statement is 'used to.' These days I try to avoid anything harder than beer. I was starting to have an ethanol dependency problem. I think it's a common occupational hazard for a reporter.'

'I don't keep beer around. It's fattening. How about some diet cranberry juice?'

'Maybe I'll have that scotch after all.' He laughed. 'I have a feeling it might be more suited to the occasion.'

'Know what, I think I'll join you.' She walked into the kitchen and started making the drinks. 'On the rocks, right?'

'Good memory.'

'Stone, I asked you down because I've got to make a big decision.' She was bringing the drinks into the living room. 'Tonight. You're the closest thing I've got to a knowledgeable sounding board. You have some idea of the risks and rewards here. So do I check into the Dorian Institute and let them start injecting doctored-up stem cells into me or not? Turns out that's what Van de Vliet wants to do.'

'We're in worse trouble than we thought.' He took a scotch. 'You've at least seen the place. I don't have a shred of actual physical evidence that those clinical trials are producing results. I can make inferences from what I see on the Web site, but it's nothing you can take to the bank.' He ventured a sip, then looked up. 'By the way, did you get a chance to ask about the patient who got dropped?'

'Oh shit, I forgot.' She sighed. 'There was so much going on, with Mom and all the rest, that it completely slipped my-”

'Don't worry about it,' he said with a sigh.

Come on, Ally, she thought,this could be really important. You've got to get focused.

'I'll try to remember tomorrow.'

'I do think it's kind of vital. But be careful not to mention my name. I've … I've just acquired some problems of my own with the Gerex Corporation.'

'What kind of 'problems'?'

'Let me take a rain check on answering that. Suffice to say, they're not thrilled about the idea that I'm doing a book in which they're prominently featured.' He paused. 'Look, Ally, there's a lot going on here. Including that patient who was dropped for some reason that nobody wants to disclose. But if you do decide to do it you couldn't have a better physician. Karl Van de Vliet is quite possibly the world's leading researcher in stem cell technology.