“Don’t tell me what my wife is trying to do! Who are you exactly? Why are you here?” The man’s voice was rising in anger, and Cecilia watched with a fascinated kind of horror. The man wasn’t acting rationally at all. Was this how the magic worked? First with laughter, as if everything was a joke, then with misplaced anger. Hank hadn’t done anything, and yet Peter was suddenly furiously aggressive. And on a man of Peter’s size and build, Cecilia ought to be afraid.
Except she wasn’t. Hank stood between her and Peter, a large, intimidating presence all his own. But instead of adding to the tension, he remained a quiet mountain of stability simultaneously protecting her and speaking in soothing tones.
“I understand your concern,” he began. “But you need to focus on your wife. See her clearly.”
Peter frowned, his gaze hopping to Abby and back. Abby who, incidentally, looked absolutely normal as she finished off the glass of water that had been set to the side earlier. So now the woman had a big dose of whatever was tainting the water. Just what did that mean? Was she about to sprout fur, too?
Abby turned to her husband and spoke in a level tone. “There’s something I’ve kept from you, Peter. It’s about my family.”
“Stop this!” Peter commanded. “We’re here for Brittany. I don’t want to hear about anything else right now.”
Abby took a deep breath as she looked to Cecilia. “How long will it take?”
Like she knew? “We don’t even know if that’s the real cause.”
The woman nodded, her arms wrapped tightly around her belly as she turned to her daughter. “Brittany, honey, I’m not going to let you go through this alone. I’ve never done this before either. If this is the only way to get you to see, then I’ll do it. I don’t care if I have to drink an ocean, I’m going to be right beside you the whole way.”
A touching statement of strength. Cecilia’s heart melted at the words, especially since she understood a little of what kind of danger the woman was in. Abby had a lot more shifter DNA than her daughter. And if Brittany had turned into a hybrid, then what would happen to her? A full shift? A half shift? Most of the hybrids lost cortical control, meaning they got massive brain damage and lost rational thought. The last thing they needed was a crazed hybrid here. Or worse, a crazed bear.
“Let’s all just take a breath,” Cecilia said in her most official tone. “Peter, Dr. Hank here is a well-respected authority on the Detroit Flu, and I trust him completely. His insights have been invaluable in finding a cure for your daughter.”
Hank turned slowly to give her a heavy look and no wonder. She’d just changed his first name to his last and given him a doctorate to boot. Thankfully, people tended to respect people with extra letters after their name, so Peter appeared to settle down, helped no doubt by the fact that absolutely nothing was happening to his wife. She was standing beside her daughter’s bed, her entire body tight with worry, but with no physical changes.
Kind of anticlimactic, actually. Cecilia glanced at Hank who shrugged. He had no more idea how long it would take than she did. And in that moment of indecision, Brittany lost interest.
Her head went back into her phone. A minute later, she was chuckling. “Mom, look what Mr. Delgado posted on Instagram.” She turned her phone so her mother could see. “It’s supposed to be a math joke, but it’s just lame.”
Abby turned to look. “Um, okay. Oh, I get it.” She chuckled, though it sounded forced. “Funny.”
Brittany rolled her eyes. “No, it’s not. Regular people won’t get it. Smart ones will just think it’s dumb.”
Abby smiled. “Well, I guess you’re one of the smart ones, then.”
And just like that, everyone settled. Peter stopped bristling. Brittany kept scrolling through things on her phone and showing them to her mother. Cecilia and Hank just stood there awkwardly.
Cecilia touched Hank’s arm. “Should we leave?”
He shook his head. “I can’t. If she changes…”
He needed to be here. He was the only one somewhat prepared for what would happen.
“And you need to be ready to sedate Brittany.”
Cecilia started. “What? She’s fine.”
“But she’ll get frightened if her mother changes. And then…”
“And then she’ll shift, too.” The last thing they needed was for Brittany to start screaming again. “But it’s also possible that nothing will happen, right?”
Hank didn’t answer except to shrug. No surprise there. Cecilia was the one with multiple PhDs, and all she’d done so far was stand behind Hank and watch. Then something even worse happened.
A knock sounded on the door. Everyone turned as Brittany’s other doctors came pushing in. They must have heard—or seen on the video feed—that she’d reverted to normal. And anyone who was even tangentially involved in Brittany’s case was bustling in to see. They wanted to inspect Brittany’s arms and face, take new blood, run new tests, and so on. Cecilia was glad. She wanted all those tests done. She wanted to see how the girl’s blood chemistry may or may not have changed. And cell slides would be fascinating. Not to mention a bit of analysis of the few stray hairs that had fallen to the floor when the girl had changed back to full human.
But what about Abby? Just how long did they have until the tiny hospital room was bursting with bears?
