At the hospital, we approached the nurse at the front desk. “Can I help you,” she asked, eyeing me. “We’re with the Sandlake police department. We’re helping the department here. We were hoping to talk with Michael Eden. His store was robbed.” Roy showed her his badge. The nurse checked her computer. “He’s with the doctor at the moment.” “Can you tell us what he was drugged with?” Roy asked the nurse. “I’m sorry. The doctor might tell you more, but I can’t. I can only talk to emergency contacts or family. Somehow, I don’t think either of you are family, so unless you’re an emergency contact I can’t help you. I wish I could.” “Mike doesn’t have any family,” I said. “Can you tell us who the emergency contacts are? Maybe one will help.” The nurse hesitated. “I shouldn’t. What I can do is make some calls and see if one will come and help you out.” “That would be great,” Roy agreed. “If you two want to have a seat while you wait,” she gestured to some chairs. “Thanks.” Roy led me to sit down. “I know patient’s privacy needs to be protected but sometimes it makes life difficult.” I nodded. Usually, I was the one complaining about laws that hampered us. Maybe he was trying to distract me. After being held captive by the army and experimented on and then being laid up when I broke my leg, I wasn’t comfortable in hospitals. “What would you do Underhill in this situation?” Roy asked. “Oberon wouldn’t make laws preventing people from talking to police. If I were to run into some place that had a policy not to talk to outsiders, I’d go to Oberon and get his help.” “Somehow, I don’t think the president…” My phone rang. “Hold that thought. Hello?” “Is this Sean Reilly?” “Yes.” “This is Hartdale Community Hospital.” I turned to the desk to see the nurse on the phone. “One moment, ma’am.” I went over to the desk. “Sean Reilly is a contact?” The woman frowned. “You read lips?” “You called me.” I showed her my phone. The woman raised an eyebrow. “You’re Sean Reilly?” I got the feeling she wasn’t comfortable with me being in her hospital. “It’s one of the names I go by. When I knew Mike, I went by Yessie Knight. My name is Yesanith Wysanorin.” She glanced at her computer again. “Mike really wanted you to be contacted. He had all three names listed. This is the last one you said, isn’t it?” She turned the screen to show me the list. I was the top three out of the four people on Mike’s list. “It is.” I wondered how Mike knew my real name or my current one. Who I was got out but, to my knowledge, none of my previous aliases had been published. I showed her my ID. Roy joined us. “What’s going on?” “Apparently, I’m one of Mike’s contacts.” “How well did you know him?” “I didn’t think that well. I’d talk to him sometimes when I passed the shop on my runs, and he stayed with me for a few weeks.” I turned back to the nurse. “What can you tell us about Mike’s condition?” “He had some health problems because his mom had done drugs while she was pregnant with him. What he was given last night is exasperating some of the problems.” “Can we see him?” I asked. “Let me call up.” While she made the call, I wondered again about Mike knowing what I was. I’d been careful when he’d stayed with me to always use a glamour. Had he seen my picture online and made a guess? Why hadn’t he believed I was dead? The nurse gave us directions and we went up to his room where we found the doctor. “Can I help you?” he asked. “We’re with the Sandlake police department. We’re helping here with the thefts.” Roy explained. “We were hoping to talk with Mike.” “I’m one of his emergency contacts, Yesanith Wysanorin. Do you need to see some ID?” I offered. “No, if you can say that name that easily, I’ll believe you. Unfortunately, Mike’s in no condition to talk.” “Can we at least see him?” I asked. The doctor stepped aside. Mike was either unconscious or asleep. He wasn’t on any kind of respirator, but he was hooked up to several monitors. It reminded me of when I’d woken up in the hospital after my accident, trapped by a cast in bed, after being trapped under the boxes that had crushed my leg. “Hey, Mike, it’s me, Jessie, back from the dead. I’m going to do something to see if I can help you. You kept track of me for a reason. I figure this is why.” I laid a hand on his forehead. As I focused on him, I could tell what was happening in his body. I could see what problems had been caused by his mom and where the drugs were causing problems. I can enhance the body’s healing ability and speed along any healing a body might do on its own. I could increase his metabolism to get the drug out of his system faster, but there would be risks. I explained all of this to the doctor. “What kind of risks?” the doctor asked. “He’ll spike a fever, the more I push, the higher it’ll go. Right now, the drug is spread out throughout his body. He’s slowly filtering it out. This will push more of it to his organs at once. How much depends on how fast I try to go. I could cause organ damage. Because of the drugs his mom did, the risk is greater. And that would be something I can’t help.” “Then definitely not. I won’t put a patient at risk on an experimental procedure when it’s not necessary.” I nodded. “He should recover on his own in time and it would be safer.” “Can I ask how you know Mike?” The doctor asked. “I met him when he was a boy. We’d talk sometimes. He stayed with me for a few weeks once. I’m surprised he listed me as a contact.” “Did he know what you can do?” Roy asked. “Not to my knowledge, but I didn’t know he knew my real name, either.” “We should probably get back to the station,” Roy decided. I nodded. “Will you call me if there’s any change?” I asked the doctor. “Make sure your number is with the desk.” As we were heading down the hall, I looked up and saw the elevator. My heart skipped. As we drew closer, it started pounding. My stomach twisted and I couldn’t breathe. My legs felt like lead but they kept moving me towards it, as if they had a mind of their own. Someone pulled my arm. “This way, Yessie.” I was drawn away from the elevator and through another door. “Easy now, Yessie. You’re okay. The stairs are better for us.” I realized it was Roy speaking. I made an effort to calm down using the breathing exercises I’d been taught. As I was able to focus again, I saw we were in a stairwell. “Are you okay now?” Roy asked. I sagged against the wall. “I think so.” “What happened?” “I saw the elevator. I panicked.” “The elevator? But you’d been doing better. You rode up in the thing.” I rubbed my sweaty hands on my pants. “I know. I think it was seeing Mike hooked up to all that equipment. It reminded me of last fall.” “Which was too reminiscent of your time with the army.” I nodded. “When’s your next appointment with Dr. Beckette?” “Tuesday, if we’re back,” “No, if this case is causing you problems, you’ll go back early. You don’t want to relapse.” I nodded again. My time as a prisoner of the army, drugging me and experimenting on me had taken a toll and I’d developed claustrophobia. Getting trapped and crushed had only exacerbated the problem. I was seeing a psychiatrist and it seemed to be helping, at least until today. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up about it,” Roy said. “There’s no magic cure. It takes time and you’ll have setbacks. You just have to remember a setback isn’t a failure. It’s part of the process.” I sighed. “I know.” He grinned. “Besides, Oberon’s Gods Blessed Champion isn’t going to let a little room beat him, is he?” I scowled. “Don’t call me that.” “Just a reminder that you’ve never lost a fight before. This isn’t the time to start.” “I don’t plan on it.” “Good. Let’s go.” Fortunately, he led me down the stairs and didn’t insist I try to use the elevator.