“I assure you, Dr. Broussard, I can read a simple meter.” Randy’s tone reflected the hurt he felt.
Broussard paced the small lab, his hands clenching and unclenching. “Something isn’t right.” He turned to Carol. “Please tell me that you double checked the strength of the drugs?”
Her face fell and she gave him a hurt look. “Of course. I triple checked.”
“Can psychedelics go bad?” Irene asked.
Broussard shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Hold on!” David called out. He trotted from behind the cells and grinned at Irene. “Something is happening.”
“Something good, I hope,” Andre muttered as he pushed his way out of the lab and to the cells. “What is it?”
“Look.” David pointed to a rear cell. “He’s chill.”
A man in a tattered and shit smeared business suit was leaning against the cell wall, shaking his head and rubbing at his eyes. “Can I get a glass of water?” he croaked.
“Oh hell.” David groaned. “The manifold.” He pointed to the aluminum manifold that all the hoses branched from.
Broussard stared up at the device and shook his head. “I don’t see it. What’s wrong?”
“The rubber hoses.” David dumped the blankets and snapped his fingers at Tammy. “Gas mask.”
She tossed it out of the door and he quickly put it on, pulling the straps tight. “I don’t want to get dosed by the LSD,” he muttered as he tiptoed and pushed the rubber hoses tighter onto the manifold. “These three weren’t on good.”
Broussard sighed animatedly and leaned against the wall of the lab. “Hit them again. Let’s start at five hundred.”
Randy cursed under his breath. “The meter is reading the first cell. That’s where the senator was. We put it in there because there was no risk of getting attacked.”
“That’s fine,” Broussard sighed. “Let’s start over. Ventilate the first cell then push it to five hundred. We’ll see how they respond then.”
Carol sat down next to him and held her hand out. “That scared the shit out of me.” She felt her voice crack as she spoke. “All I could imagine was Green having us shot for failing.”
“We’ve figured out the problem, cherie. Let’s pray that there are no more.”
“Doctor Broussard!” David called from outside the lab. “You need to see this!”
“How does it feel?”
Simon shrugged, unable to take his eyes off of her. “It’s better.”
Veronica glanced at him and smiled. “Don’t do that.”
“What?”
“That.” She nudged him with her arm. “Don’t stare at me like that.”
Simon sat back and smiled at her. “Tell me you regret it.”
She blushed and shook her head. “You need to push it from your mind.” She smeared an antibiotic ointment on the wound then placed a piece of gauze over the stitches.
“I can’t.” Simon sighed and leaned back. “Tell me that it was just releasing tension. Tell me it meant nothing to you.”
“Shush.” She felt her cheeks redden again as she cut a larger piece of gauze and wrapped his arm. “We have to pretend it didn’t happen.”
“Why? Because I’m living with a batshit crazy woman?”
Veronica paused and sighed heavily. “Simon, it never should have happened.”
“Let me guess…you can’t date your patients.”
She froze and turned to him. “Normally, yeah. But considering the state of the world, I think I can scratch that off my list.”
“Then what?”
She sighed heavily and sat down next to him, the gauze still dangling in her grip. “Mainly because you are with Lana.”
“And you know what’s going on there.” Simon leaned back and stared out of the window towards his RV. “I had such real feelings for her; at least, they felt real.”
“I know.” She began to wrap his arm then paused. “I think that’s partly why I was so attracted to you. The depth of your feelings.”
“Why did she have to change?”
Veronica shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t.” She wrapped the last of the gauze and cut a short strip of tape. “Maybe she was always like that and you just didn’t know.”
He shook his head and sucked between his teeth. “Tell me what we did was ‘just sex’ and I’ll never bring it up again.”
She ripped open a fresh ACE bandage and began to unroll it around his arm. “I want you to leave this on for a few more days, then remove it all. The wound shouldn’t be draining anymore after that, and you really should let it get air.”
“Tell me it was ‘just sex,’ doc.”
She paused and looked up at him. “You know it wasn’t.”
“Then I can’t let it go.”
“You have to.” She wrapped his arm then used the small stainless clamps to lock it into place. “When you remove this, I want you to keep applying the triple antibiotic to the stitches.”
“Hey.” He reached out and turned her chin toward him. “We need to talk this out.”
“No, Simon. We don’t.” She leaned back and gave him a sad smile. “It shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did.” He slid his hand across the table and laid it softly on top of hers. She quickly pulled her hand away and shook her head.
“No.” She patted his hand then stood. “It was a one-time thing.”
“Not for me.” He stared at her and could see how she hid her form under the multiple layers of clothing. “It made me realize that I can’t fix Lana. And life is too short to—”
“It can’t happen again.” She stepped away and hid her face. “It shouldn’t have happened the first time.”
Simon sighed and lay his head back. “Ya know, Vee…I used to be somebody that I wasn’t proud of. There was a time that I don’t think I was capable of actually feeling for somebody else.” He leaned forward and hung his head. “Then I met Lana and I thought everything had changed.”
“You love her.”
He looked up at her and gave her a sad smile. “I think I was in love with the idea of her. Somebody who knew I was rotten inside but chose to stay with me anyway.” He groaned
