A Complicated Web

Chapter Forty-Five: This Should Be Fun

Dr. Bosch let out a sigh as he reentered the medical suite. Not much seemed to have changed in his absence, though the nurse who should have been by Hiro's side wasn't there. He'd have to get after her later for that. He went over to the bed and checked the monitors. All seemed to be in order. And Hiro was still asleep. Either he hadn't woken up yet or he'd fallen back asleep. A quick look at the tablet told him it was the former.

The doctor pulled over the swivel stool and sat down. Nothing seemed out of line on any of the charts, which was good. The anesthesia should have worn off by now, but that didn't mean the teen would wake for a while. He had suffered a lot of trauma lately.

"You don't know how lucky you are not being awake right now," Bosch mused as he observed how Hiro's chest rose and fell. "The upper management wasn't exactly happy to hear about your little incident. But their disappointment was overshadowed with elation when they heard your and Kally's DNA will match up, at least on a basic level. They've approved my team to go ahead and start looking at simulated sequencing to see what kind of outcomes they might expect should they move forward with it. Since your DNA is so unusual, it might take them a while. And, to be quite honest, I've never seen anything quite like it, which makes me a little scared of the potential outcome if they succeed."

Something clattered in the background and Dr. Bosch turned towards the direction of the sound. No one was in sight, but he noticed a box of gloves had somehow fallen to the ground. He went to pick it up and put it where it belonged before returning to Hiro's side, wondering how the box had fallen in the first place.

He leaned closer to Hiro's bed, using an almost conspiratorial tone. "You know, to be honest, I'm half tempted to try and sabotage the test. I didn't used to be the way I am now. I had two young children, but was persuaded to give them over to "science". They were part of an elite program to manipulate DNA in the hopes of creating a super human. After they couldn't steal the serum used to create Captain America, they went through all kinds of lengths to try and make their own. My children didn't survive. And I'll be damned if I let them do the same thing to you."

A dark shadow loomed up behind the doctor, stretching out past what would have been normal given the lighting in the room. "You probably shouldn't admit to those kinds of feelings out loud. It might get you in trouble."

Dr. Bosch practically jumped off the stool, his heart pounding at the unexpected interruption. He swung around, one hand reaching for something in his lab coat pocket, his face only paling more at the sight of one of the guards. "I wasn't... I didn't mean... I was only trying..." He spluttered before weakly sinking back down on the stool. He was in trouble and he knew it.

The guard, who had unusually long, black hair, gave him a disapproving look. "What kind of doctor are you if you can't even tell when another person's in the room? I thought they trained you on situational awareness. My but things have fallen off, haven't they?"

"I have no excuses," Dr. Bosch admitted as he hung his head. He still had his hand in his pocket as he fumbled for an unused syringe he kept there for emergencies.

An almost laconic smile crossed the guard's face as his uniform transformed from polyester to dark leather. "If I were a real guard, you'd probably be hauled off by now. But since I'm not, I'll overlook the little slip up." Loki couldn't help but look a little smug at his subterfuge.

The sound of fabric rustling came from the bed and both men turned towards it as Hiro tried to sit up, using his good arm as a sort of prop.

"You shouldn't be moving around too much," Dr. Bosch admonished as he got up and tried to gently press the boy back down. "You've sustained massive injuries." He immediately disregarded the idea of using the syringe on his unusual visitor in favor of caring for his patient.