Healed (The Found Book 3) (22 page)

“That was amazing,” Sarah said. Maricel didn’t seem to notice or care, she was already rushing along the corridor intent on getting to her daughter.

“Maricel, not so fast,” Sarah cautioned in a loud whisper. The woman slowed.

They got to the elevator and went up one floor. Someone was getting on when they were getting off. She looked at them strangely, but didn’t say anything. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. That was the beauty of coming at lunchtime. Hunger wins out.

They passed two more people on the way to the door that the receptionist indicated, but they just ignored them. Maricel reached for the handle, but Max forestalled her. “Let me go in first.”

Sarah and Maricel waited five long minutes, and Max walked out with a young man. “Have a great lunch Greg. I’ve got you covered.” He waited until Greg got on the elevator until motioning Sarah and Maricel into the room. Sarah stopped short as soon as they got inside.

It was heartbreaking, there was no other way to describe it. Half of the room was an isolation room, with one entrance. The lights were on, and you could see a playpen and a crib. Alma was in the playpen, she was listlessly banging on a toy that played music.

“Almacita,” Maricel cried as she rushed to the window of the room. Alma looked up confused. “It’s me, Mama.” Sarah had to pull at Maricel to get her to come away from the window. She spotted the quarantine suits hanging up near the room.

“Come on Maricel, let’s suit up.” Sarah handed her the proper gear to wear so they didn’t compromise Alma’s immune system.

“I hate these.”

“I know, but soon they shouldn’t be necessary,” Sarah said as she stepped into the suit.

They went into the room, at least it was warm. Alma paid no attention to them. They didn’t expected this. They should have.

“This is no good. She will never open herself up to the possibility of healing, if I touch her while in this suit.” Sarah agreed with Maricel’s assessment. What’s more the plan was to heal her, even if it meant they were harmed in the process. Maricel took off the suit, headgear and mask. Alma perked up. Maricel crouched in front of the crib, and Alma pushed herself up and toddled to the far corner of the playpen with a look of dismay.

“Oh God Sarah, she’s walking away from me.”

“What’s wrong, baby girl? It’s me, mama. It’s Mama.” Maricel reached her arm through the rungs of the playpen.

“No, don’t touch her,” Sarah warned. “We stick with the plan.”

Sarah took off her protective gear as well, and went around the playpen to crouch beside Alma. She scrabbled away from her.

Maricel stood up, and bent over Alma and spoke to her in low soothing tones. She kept saying over and over everything would be all right, her mama was there now. Sarah watched as the baby’s lower lip trembled and quiet tears fell. Sarah thought it was heartbreaking. She didn’t even have a meltdown like a normal child, she just cried desolate tears.

“Alma. You’ll hurt your Mama if you put your hands on her, won’t you? Is that why you’re crying?”

Her tears fell faster. At long last she nodded. Thank God, she understood.

“We’re going to teach you a new kind of touching. It will make you feel good, and you can touch us this way and make us feel good. Would you like to learn how to do this?” Sarah wasn’t sure she would understand so many words. But she shook her head wildly and curled up into a ball. Sarah hated this, because she was going to have to hold Alma against her will.

Max suggested Sarah go first, because Alma would be traumatized if she hurt her mother. Maybe Alma could learn from Sarah that some touching was good, and then try to use good touching on Maricel. It was a good theory.

In the meantime, chances were damn good Alma was going to suck a lot of energy from Sarah. The hope was Maricel could heal Sarah after Alma drained her, and if Maricel couldn’t, then Max could. Max was their fallback, since he had some healing powers as well. However he said they weren’t his strongest gift, so Sarah worried about his ability to fix what Alma did.

Sarah took a couple of deep breaths, and pictured a depleted immune system. She reached out and picked up Alma, hating it when the baby shrank away from her. A tornado of gray sludge sucked all the air from her lungs. Sarah desperately tried to take in air, but she couldn’t. Alma looked up at her. She saw her fear mirrored in the baby’s big brown eyes. She tried to stay motionless, but she landed hard on her ass. She looked down at the baby in her arms thankful that she hadn’t dropped her, which was her last sane thought as Alma seemed to float above her hands and she dropped down into a deep abyss.

More gray surrounded her, it was getting darker. No air. No light. Just the look of horror and sadness in a baby’s eyes, as Alma floated towards her face. Enough! If she couldn’t fight for herself, she would for Alma. She wouldn’t let this beautiful little girl think of herself as a killer. Dammit, she was stronger. Alma had taken her by surprise, and she had let her. Sarah felt herself gain strength, and realized it wasn’t just her own, but Nate was with her. That’s when she knew she could do this, she fought the waves of weakness and breathed in again, gaining some power and pushed. Finally Sarah felt small pulses passing from her hand into Alma’s warm body.

“Stop. Let go,” Maricel insisted.

“S’good. We fine,” Sarah gritted out to Maricel. She no longer felt like her spleen was being pulled out of her mouth. Sarah brushed her thumb along the side of Alma’s side, and felt the vibrations start, she felt them up her arm, up Alma’s ribcage. God, the poor baby was so sick, her system was so wrong. The pulses and vibrations grew stronger and Sarah felt the heat. She watched as Alma’s eyes began to brighten, as gray turned to white, and white to all the colors of the rainbow. The pulses from her heart grew to vibrations, and she felt energy floating into Alma’s system, finding and healing.

Alma let out a screech, then waves of emptiness threatened to swallow Sarah whole. She was jerked and her head crashed hard onto the tile floor, Alma laying on top of her.

“Sarah. Answer me. Sarah. Max, get in here.” She felt herself lifted into a lap.

“Maricel, your daughter is scared, go to her. It’s okay, you can touch her.” It was Max’s voice. She felt a hand on her forehead. Not Nate’s. She tried to brush it off.

“Be easy, Sarah.” Max’s voice.

“She’s fine. I can feel her, her immune system is healed.” She could see Maricel holding her limp daughter. Then she closed her eyes, again, needing to rest for just a minute more.

“Why isn’t she moving.”

“It was pretty traumatic. Give her a few minutes. How are you Sarah? Are you okay?” Max asked.

“Yes.” He pressed his thumb and pinky on either temple, and she felt a lush wave go through her whole body. It felt like she was floating above the floor. She had to force her eyes open, but she managed it, she wanted to see if she was closer to the ceiling. She caught Max’s twinkling blue eyes above her. She was still on the floor, her head in his lap. She pushed up off the floor.

“Are you sure?” Max asked, concern in his voice.

“I thought healing wasn’t your strongest ability,” Sarah commented as she eyed her guardian.

“It isn’t.”

“Can I hold her?” Sarah asked. Maricel looked down at her sleeping daughter. “Just for a moment Maricel,” Sarah assured her.

“For a moment.”

“Has anyone ever told you, you’re a control freak?” Max asked as he helped her up off the floor. “I know you want to check she is well.”

“Yes I do.” Sarah knew her immune system was healed. She also noted her power to drain energy wasn’t happening which made sense. Sarah’s ability to heal only happened when she was awake, so Alma’s ability would only kick in when she was awake.

“Sarah, we need to speed things up,” Max whispered, she kept her eyes on Alma but nodded a response. “Can we get out of here now?” Max asked as he stood over her with Maricel beside him. Sarah grinned. She hugged Alma close.

“We can leave.” Alma was starting to rouse. She looked around and then that all hell broke loose. Alma looked up at Sarah with a look of horror and pushed away, nearly breaking her hold. She screamed and kicked.

“Almacita, what is it baby? What’s wrong?” One moment Alma had gone from a sleeping baby to thrashing and struggling like her life depended on it.

“Oh God, we can’t leave like this. People will notice for sure.” Maricel gasped. She took Alma from Sarah despite her struggles, which ] made Alma scream louder. “God, they’re going to hear.”

Sarah looked frantically around the room, and she finally saw what she was looking for. It was a cabinet full of medicine. She pulled it open and found vials of drugs including sedatives. She measured out the appropriate dosage and had Max and Maricel lay Alma down on the changing table and administered the drug. Soon Alma was sleeping.

Somehow Max got Sarah, Maricel and Alma back to the suite. Sarah was despondent their plan hadn’t worked, but it wasn’t close to the despair Maricel was feeling. Alma was still sleeping, and she assured Maricel the drug would wear off in four to five more hours.

It was obvious the baby thought she was a danger to them, and they didn’t know how they were going to convince her otherwise.

“Nate, she’s okay.” She heard Sierra talking on the phone as the woman pulled off her shoes and helped her into the bed. “She’s just tired.”

“Sarah, you need to talk to him.” Sarah had trouble holding the phone, and Sierra put it on the pillow next to her on speaker.

“Angel? Can you hear me?” he asked tenderly.

“Nate, love you.”

“Love you too. Are you all right?”

“Sleep time.”

She felt Sierra pull the comforter over her.

“Nate, she’s all right, just wiped out. I’ll have her call you when she wakes up.”

“Nate?”

“Go to sleep Sarah,” Sierra said as she turned out the light. “He’ll talk to you when you wake up.”

****

God, how could she be opening her eyes from a nap and feel exhausted? Sarah stretched, and realized the room was dark, and it looked like the late afternoon outside. The events of the day passed through her head as she yawned and stretched again.

Desolation swept through her as she thought about little Alma. She pushed off the covers and went to the door.

The only one in the living area of the suite was Max.

“Where is everyone?”

“Cyrus and Sierra went to their own rooms, and Maricel and Alma went to take a nap when you did.”

“Max, what happened? She was so happy? You could see that she was actually believing us when we told her she wouldn’t hurt us, and then she had such a meltdown. It was heartbreaking. Did you sense anything?”

“No I didn’t. I’m wondering if Gabriella would, since technically Maricel and Alma are her charges.” Sarah yawned again.

“How are you doing, I know it took a lot out of you. Was your nap long enough?” She looked at this man whom she had met when she was in high school. He really hadn’t changed a bit, only now she knew she was
found
, and he was her guardian. Sometimes it all struck her as surreal.

“Yeah, how about you, didn’t you need a nap after healing me?” She watched as he ducked his head.

“Geez, how strong are your abilities Max.”

“Where we come from we’re in touch with pretty much all of our capabilities, we use our whole brain. I didn’t lose it when I came over.” He looked her straight in the eye.

“Why did I?” She was really curious.

“Nurture versus nature. You grew up thinking you didn’t have the capacity, so you didn’t exercise those parts of your brain.”

“Why am I now?”

“Because you’re coming into contact with others who are, and you’re seeing your full potential.”

“That’s one hell of a lot of potential you have going there Max Lawrence. I think you saved my life.” He powered down his laptop and stood up.

“Actually I’ve been waiting for you to get up. I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s go take a walk.”

They headed downstairs to the hotel gardens. It felt good to be outside at sunset, so Sarah didn’t push Max to start talking. They found a bench near the rose garden and sat down. Sarah had a bad feeling all of a sudden.

“This isn’t about Alma is it? You don’t think something is wrong with her do you? After Nate takes care of Stovers they shouldn’t be after her anymore.” God, what was he worried about? It wasn’t like Max to be concerned. He gripped her fist.

“I didn’t mean to worry you Sarah. I’m sorry, I should have gone about this better. No this isn’t about Alma. I wanted to talk to you about your future.”

“My future?” She looked into his steady blue eyes.

“You’ve been so caught up in staying out of the hands of Rixitron, I don’t think you’ve considered what you might want to do once you’re no longer in hiding.” She looked at where their hands met. At first she thought he was talking about Nate, and then she realized he wasn’t.

Looking up she said, “I definitely want to practice medicine again.” He grinned.

“I never doubted that. But have you decided
how
you might want to go about that?”

There was a trick to this question, she was sure of it. She sat for a while, looking out at the sunset, breathing in the scent of the roses. One of the things that had made her better than her peers were her skills as a diagnostician. Now she had come into her
found
abilities as a healer, she understood why. She understood, at a visceral level, what was going on in a patient. But wasn’t some of this trainable? Yeah, she was blessed with gifts very few, if any, others had, but weren’t there aspects to what she did that she could impart to others?

“Max, what exactly does Dianysis do? I know it has a pharmaceutical arm. But it has a lot more than that, doesn’t it?”

“Yep. We’re bringing in some of the best and brightest in all arms of medicine, to help take patient care to a new level. This means nursing, surgery, aftercare, obstetrics, pediatrics which I know is your field. But one of the things we are really working hard on is diagnostics. The better we can get at diagnosing things fast and accurately, the better we can be at providing better outcomes.”