"You know you're an assistant not a bodyguard right?" I told Kyle who was constantly hovering over me.
"I was told to shadow you, I'm shadowing," he replied.
"Well, I don't need to be shadowed whilst I pace so take a seat," I pleaded with him until he finally sat down. I was in the lobby of Arielle's building waiting to see her. She was currently busy, despite the fact that she had urged me to come immediately. Considering the fact that most of her patients are dead, you'd think they could wait a few seconds.
I heard frustrated arguing coming from behind the door and finally Blaire and Arielle stepped through the doorway.
"What took you so long??" I asked them.
"I needed a second opinion before I confirmed my, um, diagnosis of Eric," she looked at Blaire who just shook her head.
"Diagnosis? So he is sick? How can we treat him?" I asked question after question, like unstoppable verbal diarrhea.
"Charlee just calm down for a second, ok? We need to talk," Arielle whispered, grabbing a hold of my hand and leading me towards the door and away from the lobby. She looked around as we walked, as if scared of who might be watching us.
We walked silently past rooms similar to the pathologist's room where my parents' bodies had been studied back in New York. She finally stopped in front of a black door with a plaque on it that read Daniella R. Cordova M.D.
"This is Dr. Cordova's office, my boss," Arielle stated, allowing us in. She gave us a chance to sit down in the chairs in front of a mahogany desk before she took out a file. In her shaky hands, she held out scans.
"Look, Dr. Cordova is currently out of town handling another case so I'm in charge of the practice while she's gone. It's how I was able to cash in a favor with a friend who works at a nearby hospital. He ran standard brain scans on Eric and sent them over to me," she began, her voice steady but cautious.
"What did you find?" I asked scared.
"It's more of what we didn't find," she said nervously looking down at the scans.
"Arielle, you're killing her. Just explain it already," Blaire urged her, taking my hand.
"You know how stupid this sounds. I'm a damn doctor and I don't know how to explain this," she trailed off muttering to her self and the scans.
"What's going on?" I pleaded.
"Charlee, they couldn't find a brain," Blaire said.
"What the fuck?" I screamed getting out of my seat.
"Is your friend stupid? How could he not have a brain, he'd be dead if he didn't have one," I continued to scream at Arielle which snapped her out of her mutterings.
"No, no hold on. Blaire didn't explain that right," she shook her head glaring at Blaire who shrugged her shoulders.
"When my friend took Eric to get the typical scans, a CT scan, an EEG, stuff like that weird things were happening with the machines. They couldn't get proper readings of his brain. When the results came out, he was baffled. He was sure there had been a mistake. It's not that he doesn't have a brain. It's that he doesn't have a complete physiological brain. It's um, something man-made in there," she explained handing me the scans as if I knew how to read them.
"I still don't understand what you're saying," I shook my head.
"That's why I went to get a second opinion," she continued. "It's never been seen before, it should not be medically possible for him to be alive and functioning without a normal human brain. This is some sort of replacement," she seemed just as baffled as I was.
"So you're saying someone did this to him?" I asked. How could it be possible for someone to completely alter his brain.
"Well yes, I saw his medical history. His old brain scans were normal so clearly someone has altered his brain somehow," she reasoned.
"We have to reverse it,"
"That's the problem, this has never been encountered before. If we take him to a regular hospital the press will be all over it. This is an insanely rare case, doctors would be dying to get in there," she shook her head.
"So that's it then? I just take my murdering bionic boyfriend home, hoping he won't kill me in my sleep tonight?" I was back to screaming.
"No, I want to go in and check it out myself," she corrected me.
"No offense, but isn't your area of expertise dead people? Last time I checked her murdering bionic boyfriend is very much still alive," Blaire interjected.
"Yes, I'm a pathologist, but I'm still a doctor. I know what I'm doing. And no offense to you, but I'm honestly your only shot right now unless you want everyone to know what's going on. And judging by the lengths you went to sneak him around, I'm guessing you don't want anyone to know about this," Arielle deadpanned.
She was right about us being out of options but this was crazy. It was borderline stupidity. No, fuck the border. This was stupidity.
"Charlee, I know this is an extremely important decision but Eric is already sedated and the longer he's kept under the more dangerous it is for him," Arielle interrupted my thoughts. I nodded my head.
"Fine, do it," I had no other option. There was nothing I could do for Eric myself. Without another word Arielle hurried out of the door and out of my sight. My head felt numb... I have no idea what's going on anymore.
Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days as we waited.
.
.
.
.
.
"Charlee? Wake up Charlee," Blaire shook me awake and I jolted up in my seat. The office was now only illuminated by a desk lamp seeing as the sun had set and light was no longer entering the office windows.
Maybe it was the lack of light that gave me the ominous sensation in the pit of my stomach but as I looked up to the assistant now in the room, I knew she only had bad news to tell me.
"Mrs. Alonzo?" she asked in my direction. I bit my lip trying not to cry.
"No, I'm not-" I shook my head, my voice cracking. I cleared my throat and composed myself.
"Eric isn't my husband, we hadn't gotten married - yet," I clarified for her.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Um, Dr. Chang is ready to see you now," the assistant clarified and guided us down a blur of hallways and turns until we found ourselves in front of another room. The assistant opened up the door and allowed us into the room. Arielle was standing beside Eric's bed, not meeting my gaze.
I ran to Eric's side but even though his eyes were open, he lay completely still as he stared off somewhere beyond my reach.
"What did you do," I asked her, holding up my hands to cover my mouth to stop myself from crying out.
"Charlee, in all my years, I've never-" she began but I cut her off.
"What. Did. You. Do."
"We opened him up Charlee and what I saw in there...that wasn't possible. Whatever they did to Eric, I can't explain. There were organs and physiological parts but there was also metal and wires. Charlee that's not Eric. Whatever they did to him, he's not Eric. That thing in there, was some sort of experiment," Arielle shook her head looking down at him in fear.
"No, no, no," I cried out holding Eric's hand. How could she just call him a thing. He still had to be in there somewhere. I was sobbing now, as the door opened once again and a short woman walked into the room.
She put a strand of her straight black hair behind her ear and looked at me with kind brown eyes as she approached us cautiously.
"This is Sanaara. She's here to explain what I can't. I'm sorry, I really am," Arielle said walking away. I wanted to fight her.
"I know that I don't know the full story, and I don't need you to explain it because I know it's personal but Arielle called me to help you," Sanaara sat beside me and placed a her hand on my shoulder.
"How could you help?" I asked between sobs.
"I'm a computer engineer and mechanic. When Arielle saw the inside of Eric's body she called me. Let me at least help explain what I understand," she offered. Somehow she convinced me to gather myself together and listen to her, shooting one last look at Eric on the way out of his room.
"This is my temporary office," Sanaara indicated allowing us into a small room lined up with computers, hardware, and other numerous items that are unbeknown to me.
"Eric is a computer," she began
"Excuse me?" I asked indignant.
"Let me finish ok?" she said, calming me down. I nodded my head and allowed her to computer.
"Eric is like a human computer. His body is literally composed of computer like products and his brain is like the hard drive. It is what controls him and wires him to do what he does. When Arielle went in there she was scared to touch anything, so I did," she stopped to look at my face and when I didn't say anything she continued.
"I'm no doctor but I can assure you I am an excellent computer engineer and his brain was structured just like one. All I took out, was this," she reached towards her desk and handed me a large chip.
"This was... in his brain?" Blaire asked raising a brow.
"You have to understand that it wasn't just a chip inside a mushy brain. His brain was part organ part metal and wires. Like Arielle said, what they did to him isn't humane or anywhere near medically possible as far as anyone has seen. This is both incredible and terrifying," she shook her head.
"The reason I'm telling you this is because I think that the key to understanding what they did to Eric is in this chip. But you should know that without the chip he is basically brain dead," Sanaara explained cautiously.
"Oh god," I sighed and Blaire held my hand.
"I believe that this chip is what gives him the instructions or alters his personality," she further continued.
"Well can't you just put another chip in? One that reverts him back to normal?" Blaire asked her and I looked up hopefully.
"I had hoped so but we don't have the knowledge that the people who created him did. This isn't just any computer chip you can buy. What I'm saying is that I have no idea how to override the chip," she sighed.
"Can we find out what is in the chip?" I asked
"That's what I'm hoping," she said grabbing a laptop off the desk.
"I want to place the chip into a computer and see what it does. It might have more information that will help us find out who is behind this but I need your consent," Sanaara asked, looking at me. I nodded my head and, with uncertainty, Sanaara placed the chip inside the laptop.
The screen went completely dark and for a few seconds it remained that way. Maybe the chip had too much information for the computer handle. I was ready to give up when all of a sudden the computer began flickering to life again.
The image of a young man popped up. He was wearing a white lab coat and sitting in a chair. The background was completely blank with no windows, clocks, or anything to tell us where he was.
"Hello, Agent Wynters, I presume?" he smiled as he looked in my general direction.
"How did-" I begun to ask but the man cut me off.
"Please don't bother speaking as this is a prerecorded clip, therefore I cannot answer your questions. However, you agents are all very predictable so I'll most likely be able to answer your questions along the way," he smiled, fixing his tie.
"My name is unimportant and so is my location. What is important is that you found this clip which means my little package has arrived successfully to your doorstep. I'm glad," he chuckled.
"Anyways Agent Wynters, I hear you're the head of R.I.P. now so listen closely because I'm about to make a very important deal with you," he folded his arms in front of him and smirked.
"Are you ready to listen?"
~~~
thoughts?
also this chapter is dedicated to samihasiddiqui who commented and won the dedication contest on the Just Undercover instagram page (@ lornaslibrary) Congrats!! This one is for you :)
Now I know that not all of you follow or have an instagram so to make it fair I'll have contests both here and on the insta page. So comment and tell me who your favorite ship is from the whole series and why to win a dedication and follow from me for next week.
~Lorna~