The Skylar Experiment : Beginnings

Atlanta City, 2000

Harris began to animate the lion on the first page. When Riley was busy pawing at the fur, Jocelyn spoke up. 

"Dr Marino mentioned those experimental nanoparticles. The FDA is close to approving them." She tested the temperature of the tea carefully. 

"If it's more direct, it's harder on the healthy cells, too."

"We have to try something. I won't let her die because we couldn't be more open to what the doctors are putting on the table."

He peered up from the book. "And if we get on with this option and the FDA finds something wrong?"

"Every day we don't do something, she's closer to dying. You know what the doctor said," she snapped, and her eyes welled once more. Her whisper was barely audible. "Look how skinny she is."

Harris felt her tiny hand in his as she helped him turn the page. Soon, her lids fluttered. The screams, the vomiting, the seizures, they wiped her out. He thought about it again, the idea of going through the experimental routes with unknown chances. 

"We'll discuss this with him during the appointment. If it's anything like Doxil, it's going to hurt her more."

She sipped from the mug. "Then we discuss about all the options. A lot of them come with the surgery."

"Jocelyn," he called amid Riley's quiet chirps. "It's late."

She gripped the arms of the chair, sucking her lower lip, and sank into the cushion. She brought a nail to her teeth as she watched the baby against his chest. Soft sobs spilled out of her. 

"We'll find something," Harris added, inwardly reproaching himself for being like this. "I promise."

They stayed in the room with the light bears projected on the ceiling, consuming the sight of Riley with the book, drinking up her sparse, content noises. Eventually, the tea in Jocelyn's mug was halfway gone, and she dropped her forehead into a hand. 

▲

As soon as Jocelyn's head flopped and she didn't answer, he rose from the bean bag with the sleepy baby. His note was left on the nightstand if she ever woke up. 

"I know," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her bald noggin. "You're so tired."

The door clicked shut. Footsteps light and quick, Harris glided down the stairs and bundled Riley in the entrance hall. She sneezed. He prayed it wasn't even a slight cold. Her only playmate was another sick kid with careful parents and who didn't have contact with daycares. 

He pinched her nose, this time with a tissue. "At least you make it sound cute." He picked her up over his shoulder. "Now, let's go for a ride to daddy's office. How about that?"

With the bag of travel necessities in one fist and Riley safely tucked, he ventured into the night and opened the car's back door. After clipping the car seat harness, he jogged to the other side and turned the motor on. 

Since he stopped with the overseas missions, he'd had to find work that could let him stay close to the baby and Jocelyn. This private military company reached out. It needed more engineers, so he gave up the sea, air and land life and dusted off that degree. 

He glanced in the rear-view mirror. Riley was watching the cityscape shadows out the window, quiet as a mouse. 

They drove in silence, without the lullaby CD. The deserted traffic lights and sidewalks turned into a long stretch of smooth, damp road from the last rain. Behind the wooded land, he met a front gate flanked by surveillance cameras and a monument sign.