A Complicated Web

Chapter Fifty Five: Not My Problem

(A general note to all my readers: I will not be posting a regular chapter mid week this coming week as I will be away from my computer, though I will likely post another chapter around the 16th. Just thought you should know in advance.)

Dr. Bosch furrowed his brow as he looked at the test results. This was simply impossible, he decided. There was no way, in any natural sense he could think of, that this could have happened. But he knew the results didn't lie. Something had changed with Kally's entire structure. Her bones were denser, as were her muscles. And her entire neural system seemed to have ramped up in several areas as well. And there was no logical way to explain it away.

Well, if he made a stretch, he could say that whatever it was that had triggered her "seizure" of sorts had somehow caused some dormant gene to activate. He just had no idea what the trigger was or how it had been triggered. Well, either way, what was done was done. It had provided the necessary reprieve from having to start the practical side of the DNA testing they wanted. Now he just had to find a way to manipulate the test results so he could continue to stall the inevitable. Worse to worse, he could always put his foot down. But then they'd probably bring in someone else who would comply with orders, regardless of their ethicacy. If that were the case, he'd be out of the picture, permanently.

There were other things to worry about as well. Loki had popped in long enough to tell him he'd made contact with whomever on the outside, which meant he needed to get the both of his patients ready for extraction. And Hiro still hadn't regained consciousness after his impromptu ice bath. A full forty-eight hours had passed since then. And while it wasn't entirely unprecedented, all things considered, it was somewhat concerning that he hadn't. Despite that, part of him contemplated the idea of reinserting the feeding tube and inducing a medical coma once more. The teen probably could use it.

The doctor picked up the nearest tablet and pulled up the data from Hiro's monitors. Nothing seemed to have changed. His vitals were strong, even in their sedate state. And his brain waves didn't show anything out of the ordinary. Chances were good he was in stage three sleep. That seemed to be the only thing that really changed. He'd been in stage four earlier.

Well, either way, it was time to see what was going on with Kally again. She'd been awake when Loki had popped in, or at least that's what the man had told him. It was time to assess her once more. He just hoped he'd come up with a good excuse for her being out of commission indefinitely while he was at it. At least as far as the demanded experiments were concerned.

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Cass Hamada woke feeling somewhat refreshed. She'd slept for most of the day, even sleeping through a few intrusions into the room by Natasha. But now she stretched, feeling a bit out of it still, but not as tired as she had when she'd dragged herself into the room in the first place.

It took her a moment to locate her bag, but once she did, she went through her usual morning routine of showering, brushing her teeth, and getting ready for the day. Once she felt more or less ready to face people, she stepped out into the hallway and instantly felt lost. "Now where did I see everyone else?" she wondered out loud as she looked down one side of the hallway, followed by the other. She could barely see the slight alcove where the elevators were and decided to head in that direction. Now the only question was had she gone up this morning or down?

"If you are looking for the others," JARVIS spoke up as the elevator door opened and she hesitated over the buttons, "I would suggest going to the penthouse level." In fact, rather than risk her getting lost, he activated the appropriate function to take her there, the doors closing before she could protest.