Second Chances (23 page)

"And he cried."

"He what?"

"Not balling his eyes out crying, but he had tears in his eyes and on his cheeks."

Doris was quiet. She again shifted her gaze to Jason, her lips pursed in thought. After a few moments she patted Sarah on the arm again.

"Maybe you are looking at it all wrong. This might well be something positive."

"What? How would me bad mouthing Ms. Murphy and making him cry be a good thing?"

The older woman smiled and a gentle laugh passed her lips. "Because it means he is still in there. Yeah it might have been better if you could have gotten him to respond with a smile or a coherent word or two, but you did get a response. That means he may still comprehend the world around him, the words spoken to him. Doesn't that sound like something to be happy about?"

Sarah was quiet for a moment while she considered Doris' words. She finally nodded and while she couldn't manage a smile, her frown at least disappeared.

"You may be right."

"Now I wouldn't suggest we implement a new treatment plan where we berate the residents in hopes of eliciting a response, but I don't think you need to beat yourself up over this."

Sarah did smile at her words this time and nodded. She looked over at Jason. She hoped he understood why she had said what she had. Was he still there enough to comprehend that?

"Do you think you could keep an eye on him for a minute? He seems content where he is for the moment and I want to go put together his lunch."

Doris looked and her watch and then nodded. "Certainly, you go right ahead. Besides, its been quite a while since I've spent any one-on-one time with Mr. Kimball." She began to walk away from the desk before adding, "Who knows, maybe I can elicit a response as well."

Sarah chewed softly on her lower lip as she watched her boss walk away. She took a step after her but then stopped, shook her head, dismissing the notion that flashed through her head, and headed off to the kitchen.
 

Nathan remained quiet while Paige drove. He tried to watch her without being too obvious, tried to appear to be looking at the scenery. She drove slowly, her eyes sweeping back and forth. He noticed a bit of a frown on her face from time to time. He got the sense she wanted to say something, but held back. They moved out of Newport, into Middletown and then he saw a sign for Portsmouth. He wondered if she was planning on heading off the island entirely.
 

They were traveling down East Main Road when Nathan noticed her frown disappear as they passed the Newport Vineyards and then a nursery and gardening center. She even loosened her grip on the steering wheel a little. They continued for another few minutes, entering into Portsmouth. She slowed as they neared the State Police station and she nodded to herself. Then her grip on the wheel tightened again as they passed a small strip of stores and her frown returned as well. Nathan had decided to say something when she clicked on her turn signal and then crossed over the middle of the road turning into a small gravel parking area.

He looked at the building before them, the sign read Wayside Grille. To Nathan it looked like it might have once been a barn that had been converted into a restaurant. They parked in front of the building. Two large windows looked into the restaurant, and he could see a few people sitting at the tables by the windows and some further back at the bar. Above the red awning he could see more windows but not what was up there, though he suspected it was more dining area.
 

He looked over at Paige, who was staring at the building. The silence stretched for several minutes. He watched her, there was a bit of a scowl on her face and she seemed in deep thought. He was getting nervous.

"Good food?"

She twitched at the sound of his voice, startled out of her intense scrutiny of the building before her.

"Umm..what?"

"Just asking if they have good food? Was this one of your favorite places?"

He didn't think she had any clue how long they had been sitting in the car. He didn't know where her mind had been for the last few minutes but he knew it had been far away from here.

"Umm...no. I mean I don't know how the food is. I can't remember ever eating here.

"Just some place you always meant to try?"

 
Nathan didn't think she heard him because she didn't answer, but she did kill the engine.

Lunch passed in near silence. They both ended up ordering fried clams. Nathan enjoyed his but wasn't sure that Paige ever tasted hers. She broke up the clams into pieces and moved them around on her plate but he couldn't recall her even lifting her fork to her mouth. He tried to engage her in conversation but she seemed lost in thought and constantly had to ask him to repeat what he'd said.

When they left the restaurant it was Nathan who took the keys and slid behind the wheel.
 

"How about we go to the hotel and check-in and then we can wander around the Brick Market Place. It's right near the hotel."

She stared at him for a moment before saying, "I thought you said you'd never been here."

"I haven't, but Paige, my Paige, talked about it plenty."

She nodded, satisfied with the explanation. He noted that she had resumed her grip of the door handle.

"But hearing about it and seeing it are two different things. And finding it is a third. So navigator, think you can get me there?"

He was rewarded with a slip of a smile and a nod. Moments later they were heading back to Newport. Her directions were spot on and she seemed to relax a bit with each successful set of instructions. He caught her frowning from time to time, but could not tell at what.
 

They reached the hotel and parked. Nathan retrieved Paige's luggage and then they entered. They moved quickly through the lobby. He noted the nautical theme, intricate model sailboats seemed to be on display everywhere. At the front desk he was greeted by an older woman in a blue blazer.

"Welcome to Bayside," she said as Nathan approached.

He inquired about their reservation and was told that their rooms were indeed ready. The woman was tapping away at the keyboard when Paige took Nathan by the arm and pulled him away from the desk.

"Something wrong?"

She looked at her feet, her grip still strong on his arm. Almost strong enough to mask the tremors she was having, but not quite. He had a few theories about her tremors and the possible reason they might be getting a bit more pronounced now, but kept them to himself.

"Paige?"

She leaned in close and whispered to him. She glanced and saw the woman behind the front desk waiting for Nathan to return and complete checking in, but Paige ignored her.

After a minute or two of discussion, Paige nodded her head, released her hold on him and he returned to the woman at the desk.

"Would it be possible to change rooms."

"You haven't seen them yet, but want to change already?"

"Umm, room type. Instead of the two rooms, can we get only one?"

The woman tried to hide her smirk, but failed miserably. "A king?"

"No, double please."

Nathan almost laughed at the woman's puzzled expression. He was certain he'd known what she'd been thinking and his request had definitely caught her off guard.

A few minutes later he was handed his room keycard. He thanked her and then he and Paige headed for the room. No, it definitely wasn't what the woman thought. He suspected it might be the same reason for Paige's nervousness. They were a stones throw from her school. Tomorrow they would be going there and that terrified her. Terrified him as well if he was honest with himself. They both believed that the answers to their questions would be found there, though exactly why they were both certain, neither could say.
 

What was all this about? What could the answers be and were they prepared to deal with those answers?

They dropped Paige's luggage in the room. They intended to head out and walk around the shops of the Brick Market Place in search of some clothes for Nathan and hopefully a pleasant afternoon distraction. They both knew tonight they would have to get down to the business of confronting their mystery, but perhaps for a few more hours they could forget about it and pretend that things were normal.
 

As Nathan shut the door behind them he was unable to keep his thoughts in check. Questions rattled around inside his head.

What if he couldn't deal with the truth? What if Paige couldn't? Worst of all, what if they didn't find any answers? What would they do then? What could they do then?

She slammed her hands on the keyboard then shook her head and started tapping on the delete key. It had definitely been the most used button of the day. She normally hated working on the reports, but today was worse than normal. Her hands refused to cooperate, she was having trouble reading her own hand written notes and none of the numbers in the various tables seemed to make any sense.

She pushed back from the desk and slouched down in her chair. She closed her eyes and gently massaged her temples. For the thousandth time today she wondered how he was doing. She wanted to call and check up on him but knew that would be a mistake. As it was, she actually feared she might get a call from them with reports of new behavior. She ran the calculations in her head again, even though she already knew there was no way for her to know if they would be right. There had been no actual testing on humans and certainly no testing period on anything that had been exposed to the drug for so long.

"What the hell have I done?"
 

"Hopefully nothing too serious," said a voice from the doorway.

She let out a startled yelp and opened her eyes. Cameron was standing in her doorway. He smiled at her response to his interruption. She wanted to yell at him for not knocking, it would have been her typical response. However, given the stress she was feeling, she wondered if she hadn't accidentally left the door open. She decided it was better to avoid a confrontation.

"Is there something you need, Cameron?"

He took her words as an invitation and stepped into her office.

"No. Not really. I was just on my way out to the airport and noticed you working away in here. You looked a little stressed. Computer problems?"

"Airport? Going somewhere?" She tried to keep the hope out of her voice. The thought of Cameron leaving town was almost too good to be true.

"No. I am picking someone up."

"Oh really?" She said it softly, almost conspiratorially, hoping he might elaborate. It was either personal or someone big was coming to town. Cameron would not run out to the airport if he could simply send a car. She wondered exactly who it was that had gotten him to undertake such a mundane task personally. Unfortunately he merely nodded, no explanation forthcoming. She considered pressing a bit, even being playful about it, but she didn't think she could pull it off, especially in her current mental state and she did not want to do anything to make him suspicious. Or rather, any more suspicious than he normally was.

"What is giving you trouble there?"

"Trying to translate the latest round of tests for the monthly report, but my fingers and mind seem to be working against each other today." She smiled and hope it sounded natural. She was so wound up she wasn't sure how she would normally be acting. Should she be admonishing him for interrupting her work? Was that how she'd normally be?

"You should know better than to try and work now. You never can concentrate after seeing Jason."

He said it so off the cuff, so matter-of-factly. She shuddered and looked at him. His words sent chills of fear and anger racing through her. Fear won out and she remained silent.

He let out a soft chuckle. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. After our discussion the other day, he was on my mind and I called to check in on him. They told me you were with him."

She said nothing. Julie didn't believe a word he said.

"So," he said taking a seat. "Tell me, how is he doing?"

The fake sincerity, long practiced and likely quite convincing on most people, caused her anger to overtake her fear, but she forced herself to keep it in check. Come on keep it together, let him think you believe him.

Julie took a slow deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.

"Not well. They had to bring him out in a wheelchair today." She knew the distress in her voice was convincing because it was, in fact, quite real. She merely had to think about the morning and seeing Jason in the wheelchair.

"Does he still recognize you?"

She held up her hands and shrugged.

"I'm not sure. He looked at me, but...it just doesn't seem to be the same. I think he's in there enough to know he should recognize me, but I am not sure he does." She wiped at her eyes.

"Maybe we should dial down the dosage a bit," Cameron mused.

"What? Really?" She couldn't hide the shock in her voice. She hoped he took it as a sign of hope. "Do you mean that?"

"Maybe. After all, our deal doesn't mean much if he isn't there, now does it?"

Again her anger flared and this time she did nothing to hide it. This was classic Cameron and she knew exactly how to respond. He was jabbing her with a knife and twisting it to make sure she remembered just who was in control.
 

He stood and walked to the door. He paused, turned and smiled.

"When is the next dose due?"

She knew he was fully aware of the schedule, but said, "In a week."

He nodded, took half a step out of the office and turned back to her.

"Okay, then I have time to think about it. I'll let you know if you can dial it back before it is time for his next injection." Without waiting for a response he was out the door and down the hall.

She slammed her right hand on the desk hard enough to hurt her wrist. She winced and massaged it with her left hand. A sudden chill ran through her. He was obviously screwing with her, he never passed up an opportunity. But was it more this time? Was this his subtle way of letting her know that he knew what she was up to? Was that possible? How could he? And if he did, then what did that mean now? She had already set things in motion, it was too late to stop now.