Doc stared at her, eyes wild, water dripping on the floor. His left hand clutched a towel around his hips. “What, now?” He pointed at the wall clock. “It’s six AM!”
“Yes, now! It’s urgent. I need to tell you something, or I will explode.”
He threw the door wide open. “Do explode—just not in here.”
She didn’t move from her spot, only glared at him, trying to find a good way to say what she had to say.
There wasn’t one.
“There’s something wrong with Dave’s blood,” she said at last.
Doc scoffed. “Oh, I’m sorry, Doctor. Have you been secretly running tests in my laboratory?”
“No, you have. Look at all the good it did you, if you haven’t realized it by now.”
“Realized what?” Doc threw up his hands.
“The towel, Doc, the towel!” She grimaced as he grabbed the towel at the last moment and tied it on his trim waist. “Here’s a question for you: How many days did I spend in the infirmary after getting shot full of bullets?”
“You know exactly how many. Six days.”
“And how many days did Marco spend healing after…” she cringed, “I saved him the same way you saved me?”
Doc shrugged, fidgeting with his towel. “I don’t know, two weeks?”
“Two weeks. With much simpler injuries. And what was different between the two of us?”
“Everything!” He sighed, exasperated. “It’s not exactly scientific, you know. What happened with you and Marco was accidental, and you didn’t even realize you’d had a breakdown because of it. It was Chad who told me about it, not you. I could’ve done it in a whole different way, for all I know. I passed out afterwards, and my hands are still shaking.” He held out a tattooed, trembling hand.
She took a step back, her mouth snapping shut. “I didn’t know that,” she said after a moment.
Doc didn’t even seem to hear her. “I’m all… all over the place, and I can’t even make a shield. If men could PMS, it would be like this. Look!” He pointed at the mess around them. “I can’t focus for five minutes to get my stuff in order.”
She just looked at him, for once out of arguments. He rubbed his tired face and stared out the window.
“It’ll pass…”
“You don’t know that,” he cut her off. He turned back to her, eyes desperate, and she changed the topic.
“Even if it was just you, I would’ve healed right away and woken up. Why the six days? Except if something was working its way through my system. Think about it. You kept me from dying, but it was Dave’s blood that made me heal so fast.”
A long minute passed in silence. Doc processed what she’d said, still as a stone, then blew out a weary breath. He ran a hand through his wet hair, looking out the window again. “No, it can’t be. 1942, Dr. Andrew Stennard—”
“I know, I know. There’s nothing in our blood to make us different from humans physiologically. But how about energetically? What if it’s something you can’t see through a microscope? You used it on me—you should know.”
Doc opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. The stubborn set of his jaw sent worry racing through her. She saw it in his eyes, how he put it all together and realized she was right. When he blinked and switched his gaze somewhere else, it was too late. She had already guessed what he was thinking.
“You saw it,” she whispered. “You saw it that night, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“I don’t,” he bit off.
“Stop lying. We have to talk it over before we tell Dave anything.”
“I’m not— Wait, what? You’re gonna tell Dave about this?” He stepped closer, his wide eyes demanding an answer, and she couldn’t help but back away.
“Don’t you think he should know about this?” Doc only spread his arms wide, his face incredulous. “Why?”
“It’s not safe for him!” His voice lowered to an urgent whisper, since the door had been left carelessly open. “Someone will find out, and they’ll hunt him for the rest of his very long life. There’s no place in the world safe for a universal donor with… miracle blood.”
She stiffened, shocked at her own stupidity. His blood type, of course. She hadn’t stopped to think when she’d run out of Chad’s room. And now, she was just glad she hadn’t blabbed about this to Chad the moment he woke up.
But still, the way Doc had put it didn’t sound right.
“We have to tell him,” she muttered, making Doc take another step forward. “I get it, okay? I agree with you, but dammit, he deserves to know something so huge about himself!”
“Why? What difference does it make, except putting him at risk?”
She backed off again, only to find herself trapped between the wall, Doc’s looming form, and the wardrobe. With a sigh, she continued anyway, not hoping to win the argument by now. “We will only tell him, no one else. He won’t need to tell anyone. I already know about it. He can talk to me if he wants to.”
To her utter shock, Doc laughed, the sound hoarse and a little bit psychotic.
“What?” she growled.
“He? Talk to you?” he managed to say between laughs. “I don’t think so.”
“Oh, screw you!”
She shoved him away, suddenly outraged at the whole situation. But before she could slip out, Doc’s arm flew up to trap her against the wall.
“Not so fast. Promise you won’t tell anyone. Not Dave, not Chad, and not even your sister.”
Eyes wide, she looked down at the fingers gripping her elbow. “I can manage myself,” she hissed in his face.
