Roman once again goes to the nurse's station. He leans forward on the counter, close to the brunette with the softest face. "Hi." He smiles at her to cover his anger. It's not her fault.
"Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Godfrey?"
"Yes, actually. Would you mind calling down to Dr. Pryce again?"
"Of course not," she says, happy that this interaction has gone more peacefully than she worried it would. She had heard from her coworkers that Roman tended to have a short fuse, but he had been nothing but pleasant to her. It almost worries her. Picking up the phone, she dials the extension to a level of the building she has never been to. She doesn't even have security access to it.
"And would you tell them to pass a message along to him?" She nods. "Have them tell Pryce that if he's not up here in fifteen minutes he should start packing his office," he says in a hauntingly calm voice. As he finishes speaking the line picks up.
"Hi, this is Amanda up in the general care unit." Again? She's careful in her replies. The person on the other side of the line is lucky they're not audible to Roman. "Mhm, yes. I have Mr. Godfrey with me asking for Dr. Pryce." I'm doing the best I can, I haven't been able to get a response from my pages. "I know, I know," she says back. Roman nods for her to continue. "Mr. Godfrey would also like you to tell Dr. Pryce that if he isn't here in the next fifteen minutes he should start packing his office." Jesus Christ. What a maniac. "Thank you."
"Thank you," he says once the phone is back on the receiver. The nurse, Amanda, smiles at him as he walks away. Once he's facing the other direction she and the other nurse on duty share and a look. Leaning closer to her, the other nurse whispers "I have never been so terrified and turned on at the same time."
Roman opens the heavy door. It shuts with a soft click and he comes to stand in the center of the room. His arms cross dramatically and one foot bounces subtly. "Pryce should be here soon," he tells Emma for the fourth time. He'd spent the majority of the time she'd been here in the hallway harassing the nurses to find Pryce.
She wasn't in a particular rush for the man to arrive. She'd prefer a regular doctor- or any doctor- instead of him. He'd let one doctor in to make sure she was stable- whatever that means. Roman watched the other man like a hawk. He was watching so closely that she became tense for the doctor.
"It's really not that bad," she insists. "You're overreacting."
"It is exactly that bad," he counters. He looks her over for extra emphasis. In her defense, though, Roman himself had seen worse days. Even with a nasal cannula, IV, and various heart monitors, she looked healthier than he had at Christmas.
"I throw up and get nose bleeds all the time," Emma shrugs. "I have for a while. It's kind of my thing."
"Do you regularly cough blood, or is that a recent development?" He asks a bit sharper than he meant. "Because that was far from throwing up and a nose bleed. In fact, neither of those things happened."
"I want to go home," she mumbles and looks down at the blankets. "Besides, the pain medication is making me feel worse."
"What feels worse? I'll get a nurse." Emma puts her hands to her face and takes a deep breath.
"Will you please sit down," she groans into palms. Roman obliges but doesn't seem to calm down.
"Will you please stop acting like this is normal?"
The next ten minutes that pass are painfully long. Using his personal phone this time, he gives Pryce one last chance to answer. It goes to voice mail and grinds his teeth while waiting to leave a message. "If you think for one fucking second that I was anything less than serious about my last warning you are incredibly wrong. I will personally see that every fucking thing in your office is destroyed if you are not here in the next five minutes."
Roman is on his way back to the nurse's station when Pryce finally emerges from the depths of the basement hallways. His white lab coat has a considerable amount of blood on it. Whatever he had been working on was clearly much more than 'machinery issue. He gets off the elevator looking terrified and paranoid.
"Where have you been?" Roman barks at him, scaring the few that are nearby.
"Roman, a word. In private," he says with a motion the nurses. Roman follows his direction with a scowl. Once they're in the semi-privacy of the hallway he explodes.
"What the fuck is going on? Where have you been?"
"I've been here, Roman. And a bit busy, mind you."
"A bit busy?" Roman scoffs. "A bit busy? Well, I'm so sorry to bother you with my tiny problem. The thing is: my friend is coughing blood and having trouble breathing. So maybe you might try and find the time-"
"Roman," Pryce says seriously. "This is no time for sarcasm. That is the least of your worries."
"Oh! Is it?" Roman continues with his sarcasm.
"She is stable and her oxygen levels are rising," Pryce explains. "What you should be worried about is your mother."
"My mother? Where is she?" Roman asks.
"I am not sure," Pryce admits. "She's killed Prycilla."
"Killed?"
"Yes," he confirms solemnly.
"Where's Shelley?"
"She's safe. She doesn't even know yet." Pryce's face shows genuine sadness for the young woman's loss. He had promised her, had worked her whole life to give her this new body. "I thought you should be the one to tell her."
"Olivia should have to," he says venomously. "Why did she... Why would she... Were you not going to tell me?"
"It's been incredibly difficult to keep this under wraps. It's a mess downstairs," Pryce tries to explain. "I believe she thought the stem cells would heal her cancer." Roman doesn't fully catch what he's saying. He's far down the hallway by the time Pryce is done speaking. He races through the hallways until a locked corridor stops him. Pryce tries to keep up with him.
"Unlock it!"
"I am," Pryce replies calmly. He scans his badge and the doors click open. Roman pushes past him and towards the elevator. Down several floors is Shelley's room. Once they're close it becomes evidently clear that they're too late. The sound of Shelley's wails echo through the empty hallways. Roman's speed slows down, his stomach drops.
The follow the sounds until they find a trail of blood. It's coming from the room Pryce had taken him to a few weeks earlier- the room where he stores Prycilla. The trail seems so out of place on the clean, white floors. It leads them to his sister. She sits on a pool of blood and cradles Prycilla in her hands. The body looks so small and fragile in comparison to his sister.
Roman slowly approaches, crouching lower and lower to Shelley's level. She only cries harder at the sight of him. He doesn't dare to move closer. Prycilla is practically ripped to pieces. Her ribs are exposed, and all of her intestines spill out. "Is the building locked down?" He asks Pryce. He speaks slowly and quietly, trying to no upset Shelley more. Pryce gives him a barely noticeable nod.
Roman stands and meets Pryce face to face. "The lower levels are locked down," Pryce explains. "We have been searching for her. We couldn't lock down the upstairs without causing a panic."
"I'm going to go find her. You need to make this right."
.....
When Roman had left her room to find Pryce she thought he'd be back soon. When 30 minutes passes Emma gets worried. Her phone calls go unanswered. Another 30 minutes pass when she realizes she can't wait anymore. He wouldn't leave her this long unless something serious was happening.
She unclips her pulse oximetry from her finger, setting off a loud BEEEEEEEEP. Without hesitation, she yanks off the tape and pulls the IV from the back of her hand. She pulls her out her cannula and holds ill-fitting hospital gown closer, all. She stumbles into the hallway without a plan.
Somehow walking hurts. It radiates from her ribs and vibrates down her spine. She moves a few steps at a time the stops to catch her breath. She's barely down the hall when a nurse comes rushing around the corner. "What are you doing up? You gave us a scare when your monitor flatlined." She asks with fake concern. She's only scared about the repercussions she would face if something had gone wrong. "Let's get you back to bed."
"Where's Roman?" Emma asks, still staggering forward.
"Mr. Godfrey is with Dr. Pryce right now," the nurse says as she comes closer and tries to guide her back to her room. "I'm sure he'll be back soon." Emma doesn't let her deter her. She ignores the woman's hands and the slow dizziness that's building in her head. "Please, come with me back to your room."
"I need Roman," Emma says, mostly to herself.
"He'll be back soon." The grabs ahold of her waist and steadies her. "Please go back to your room. Please," she begs. The day had been bad enough as is. This was a Saturday for crying out loud. It should be an easy day of caring for a few over-night patients. Baby deliveries, surgery recoveries, observations, but this was unexpected. This wasn't an emergency room.
The stress of a new patient with no diagnosis was bad enough as is. When you factor in Roman's presence it's almost unbearable. He had watched every nurse and every doctor that came near closely. When she had inserted the IV the first time she felt tense under his observation. She can't imagine his reaction if she had messed up.
She had been one of the nurses that brought her up here. He felt that they were too rough when moving her to the gurney. Then they were pushing too quickly causing a small, yet unavoidable when crossing the evaluator threshold. All the while, he is complaining that they aren't moving fast enough. It wasn't until today that all of the medical staff realized how lucky they were that Mr. Godfrey didn't pay much attention to them. He was a total control freak with a bad temper.
So, no, she couldn't let the girl wander around. The last thing she needed was for Mr. Godfrey to fire her for or worse- for him to publically reprimand her because of something stupid his friend did.
The desperation in the other woman's voice pulls at her gut. That, mixed with the growing nauseousness, makes her feet take her back to her room. She focuses her attention on the nurse trying to find a vein to reattach her IV. Fresh with a new bag of saline and needle.
"I'll page the other nurses. If they see him they'll let him know you're looking for him, okay?"
"Thank you."
.....
"You are evil," Roman says at the sight of his mother. He had known almost instantly where she went. She's sitting in his chair, in his office, smoking his cigarettes. "This is the worst thing you've done by far. That is very impressive."
"I doubt that," Olivia says.
"I knew you were full of shit. I had hoped for Shelley's sake that maybe you'd try harder, but I was so wrong. She trusted you! Do you have any feelings at all?"
"I do, sweetheart," Olivia says before putting out her cigarette. She stands and saunters towards him. "I was going to die and leave you here all alone."
"I would love that," he growls. "We'd all be better off if you had stayed dead."
"That's not true." Olivia tries to touch Roman's arm, but he pushes it away. "You need me alive, and here for you. I did what I had to do."
"You did this for you," he spits back at her.
"You're not caring care of yourself," she says sympathetically and with a tiny pout. "Look at your skin, you're nearly grey. You're not feeding-"
"I don't need you to tell me how to take care of myself."
"I just want to make sure you're healthy. That concoction Pryce has you on isn't working. I want to be a better mother, and I want time with Shelley." She's being so gentle that Roman almost considers that maybe she might be telling the truth. That she had done this because she thought he needed her and that Shelley needed her. He wants that to be the truth. But it isn't.
"If you cared about Shelley you would have never-"
"Shelley didn't want that silly thing anyway," she snaps then quickly composes herself again. "She'd- Shelley had convinced herself that it was alive. That it had developed a soul."
That runs through his mind quickly. There's no way Shelley could have thought that. Sure, Shelley was sweet and a bit naïve, but Roman had seen that thing first hand. It only sat there, colorless and motionless. It had no physical features much less mental. It only spoke the words Shelley had spoken to it first.
"She wasn't wrong," Olivia interrupts his memory. He looks at her with his head cocked to the right. He feels his throat settle in his stomach, unsure of what to say. "It was, in every practical sense, a fully developed person. I couldn't let Shelley go through with that. She wouldn't be able to live with herself."
"So you killed it instead?"
"What do you think Pryce would do?" Olivia quips. "When he found out Shelley wouldn't go through with it, what do you honestly think he would do with it? He can't keep things like that around, it's a huge ethical liability. No, no." She shakes her head solemnly. "He would have gathered his research and take his samples. Then that thing would be pulverized and in your refrigerator and you would never know."
Roman doesn't speak. He feels sick to his stomach hearing her speak this way. Olivia had raised him on lies. Every word she had ever spoken to him he had doubted its honesty. He has no doubts right now. He has no doubts that Olivia's reasoning for her actions is a lie. She can deny it all she wants but he knows it's self-serving. She wanted to live.
"That's a lie," he finally says. "I've seen that thing. There's nothing there."
"How long ago was that?" She asks. As difficult as it is to admit, Roman can see the sincerity in her eyes. She wasn't lying. "Because if you had seen it yesterday you would feel the way I do- the way Shelley does. It could read, and write, and learn. It was alive."
"It was for Shelley."
"Yes, it was, but she didn't want it and you need me. My granddaughter needs me."
"The only thing I need is for you to go away. Don't come by my house again, don't come to this building again, and don't come near my family ."
"Your family?" She laughs. "What cast of characters. A gypsy dog, and a that live in hooker. Congratulations, you moved up from your car."
"Don't talk like that."
"My granddaughter deserves better than that street trash," Olivia insists. "You two are Godfreys and it's time you behave like it."
"You're not a Godfrey," he reminds her venomously. "You have no place in telling me or my daughter what that name means. Stay away from my family."
"Your family won't survive without me," Olivia tells him sadly. "You need to learn the way. I need to teach you how to live. One day you'll understand why I do the things I do, dear. It's to survive- survival is in our nature."
"It's not our nature," he says. "I'm not like you- in a month I'll be human again. And when my daughter is old enough she'll go through the procedure."
"You can't do that," she shakes her head rapidly in a panic. "You can't- that is cruel. You can't mutilate my grandchild. She could die."
"Anything to get your blood out of her veins," he snickers. "She'll be like me, like JR- a real Godfrey."
"What do you mean? Weak? Indecisive? Suicidal?"
"He chose a bullet in his head over being married to you."
"If he loved you as much as you think he did, why would he kill himself?" She asks him.
"Because of you. What does that say about you?" He asks, closing in on her face to face. "Because of you I never knew my father. If you loved me so much why would you deprive me of that?" He pauses. "Hm?"
Olivia just stares back into his eyes. They soften and her usual smirk fades away. Roman, feeling victorious, turns to leave. "JR's not your father." Her voice vibrates through him.
"What?" He turns to face her again.
"Didn't have it in him," she shrugs. "I know you've always thought he was some sort of a genius. It was the company line, and I didn't want to ruin your little fantasy. JR's only genius was recognizing it in others. He met a medical student one summer in New York. And he met a brilliant woman in London. Pryce and I made this company what it is. JR couldn't have created this. Much less give me a proper child." Her lip curls in disgust of remembering the dead man that she never loved.
Roman understands now. He knows what she means. It's so clear now. "That means..." He gulps in disgust as the last puzzle piece falls into place. "That means Letha-" He grabs at her throat, rage fully engulfing him. Olivia grabs him back and lifts him a foot off the floor.
"How's your humanity going for you know?" She asks patronizingly. Roman gasps for air until she throws him across the floor. "Not so great, huh?" He pants and tries to catch his breath as she leaves.
"One day," he says followed by a harsh breath. "One day I'm going to kill you again- if you don't from cancer first. There will be no one to bring you back. No one will remember who you were but me, you will be nothing."
Once he's able to stand again Roman grabs the phone from his desk. He is directed by security to Pryce. It's a private office in the public health wing. He's digging through his filing cabinets like a mad man. "Where's Shelley?" Roman asks and leans against the open door.
"She's sedated for the time being," Pryce says.
"I want to be with her," he tells him. "Take me to where she is."
"Roman," Pryce sighs and stands up fully to speak. "I think it would be best for her to be left alone. She needs a completely peaceful environment to wake up to."
"I need to be there for her. She would want me there."
"I know she would, and therein lies our problem. She doesn't need to think about anyone but herself... You may see her after she's awake and calm," Pryce offers. "Not a moment before, though. She might react differently if you are there."
"What are you doing?"
"There is essential patient information and research in here," Pryce says, returning to his search. He finds one of the files and sets it on the desk. He moves on to a new cabinet. "I need to make sure Olivia never sees it."
"Is she looking for it?" He asks, growing more and more irate. A few doctors walk by them, chatting loudly. The slow down at the sight of Roman being in this area. They find it strange that two men were in the office of their coworker, but don't say anything about it.
"Not that I know of, but I wouldn't put it past her." Pryce finds a file and pulls it out. "You can never underestimate her."
"You're just now realizing this?" Roman scoffs and slowly approaches. "You're the one who brought her back. I should have killed you the moment I found out. I did the world a fucking favor by killing her!"
"I didn't know it would go this far."
"You should have! What did you expect to happen?" He asks, his voice growing louder. "That she would come back a better person? That she'd change?"
"She is essential to the function of this company Roman," Pryce says but never stops digging. "I know that is hard to understand right now. But, believe me, I didn't know she would-"
"You have known that she would do anything to keep herself alive! Anything!"
"Shelley-" Pryce stops digging again to face Roman and defend his actions.
"Don't you dare forget who killed Shelley first," Roman growls, backing Pryce into a corner. "She never gave a shit about her."
Pryce is searching for a response when there's a little knock at the open-door. "I'm so sorry to interrupt."
"Don't be," Pryce says honestly. "What can I do for you?"
"Actually I'm here for Mr. Godfrey," she says. Her face is puzzled and she is nervous over what she had just walked into. Roman turns slightly to look at her. "Ms. Parker has been asking for you."
"Oh, shit," Roman says, startled. It felt like days had passed, had all of this really happened in a day? That's impossible. No, no. Surely this wasn't all happening back to back. He puts his hand to his forehead and pulls at his hair.
"I have everything I need from here, we could head there now," Pryce says. Roman nods but knows this conversation is far from over. The doctor was far from off the hook.
They walk side-by-side as if they hadn't just been in a very heated conversation. "We'll keep her for observation," Pryce announces. "I'll tell her it's blood in her stomach- just ulcers."
"What is it?" Roman asks. Pryce doesn't answer immediately.
"I don't know, Roman," he admits. "It might actually be a stomach ulcer."
"It would happen that fast?"
"Not typically, no," he says. "From what has been communicated to me, I would say some of her symptoms are similar to cardiac arrest. Not enough of them, though, and she's certainly not in the demographic of carried arrest... I'll need to do an examination to rule them out. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary?"
"Not anything particular." Roman tries to think back over the week, but much like today day, it seems to have formed into one long blur.
"Fatigue? Weight loss? Change in diet? Headaches?" Roman shakes his head at all of them. "Panic attacks can have similar symptoms of cardiac arrest."
"Do people cough blood during panic attacks?" Roman returns to his sarcasm defense.
"It's uncommon, but they can," Pryce says with his signature fake kindness. "I'm not a psychologist, but anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder can trigger physical illness. Perhaps an eating disorder?" Roman quirks his head before his face sours. "It could be completely psychological."
"She's not a fucking mental case. Something is seriously wrong and you're wasting time."
"Alright, alright," he sighs as the stop outside of Emma's door. "I'll do my best. I've got some time before I need to go check on Shelley." Roman crosses his arms over his chest and follows Pryce back into the room.
Emma sits up quickly at the sound of the doorknob turning. She's so relieved to see that it isn't another nurse coming to 'check in' on her.
"How are you feeling?" Pryce asks Emma without a greeting. If it's anything like she looks, it's not great. She's laying on an uncomfortable hospital bed with her sock covered feet elevated by pillows. Underneath the layers and layers of sheets and blankets, she wears that damned scratchy hospital gown. Her eyes open wide at the sight of blood on his white jacket.
"I'm fine." She knows she looks worse than she did when Roman left, but she does really feel better. She had just grown stressed and anxious waiting on him to come back.
"Em," Roman says sternly. He looks down quizzically at her elevated feet. He couldn't remember if they had been like when he left. How long had he been gone? He quickly glances at the analog clock on the wall. He'd been gone almost four hours.
"I'm fine," Emma assures him. She doesn't trust Pryce. She looks to Roman and he can see clearly the distrust in her face. "Roman, I'm fine."
"Well," Pryce says with an annoying smile. "You'll need to stay overnight for observation. We want to make sure another episode doesn't happen."
"Really, I'm okay. I'd like to go home," she insists even though her body screams at her for it. Even if something was wrong she didn't want to stay here overnight. She'd hated staying overnight after her arm was broken. She couldn't sleep and the hallways were noisy and she couldn't lock the door.
"No," Roman tells her sternly. "You're not okay. You're staying here until it's safe to leave." She huffs and crosses her arms, but doesn't push back. She glares at him for his scolding. You're not my fucking dad.
"Have you had any complications leading up to this?" Pryce asks and continues approaching her.
"No." She looks at him nervously. Without warning, he presses his hands down to her stomach and begins pushing down. Emma shifts away uncomfortably but it doesn't help, he just follows.
"Are you having any pain when I press down?" She shakes her head but bites back pain as his hands rise higher on her abdomen. "I can't help you if you aren't honest."
"It hurts a little," she concedes.
"Alright, it seems like you might have stomach ulcers. We should plan for an endoscopy tomorrow-"
"That's not possible," Emma interrupts him. "There's no way a stomach ulcer would appear out of nowhere and without symptoms."
"Well," Pryce says sharply. "According to your record I have for you, you have had a fairly severe fluctuation of weight-"
"I'm not eating at a college dining hall anymore."
"Nevertheless, a stomach ulcer is most likely the culprit." He snaps her file closed. He refuses to argue with two children in one day. He's the doctor for god's sake. "You're young, healthy, and will recover smoothly. We'll run a couple of blood tests just to be safe." Pryce gives Roman a nod and leaves the room.
Roman stays against the wall with his arms crossed. Emma waits for him to speak but he just gives a half-hearted shrug. "He's full of shit," Emma says.
"He usually is," Roman mumbles.
"Why don't I go home? I'll come back on Monday, okay? I'll see a different doctor," she bargains. "If it really is stomach ulcers I'll be okay at home until then."
"Maybe," Roman replies hesitantly. "You still look like shit right now."
"Everyone keeps saying that to me," she groans with a laugh. "And it's not very nice."
"Well, it's true," he says with the slightest bit of a tease.
"Where have you been?"
"There were some machinery issues downstairs," he says falling in line with Pryce's own lie. "I should have had someone tell you where I was... But it was very stressful and I didn't realize how long I'd been gone."
"What about your treatment?" She suddenly remembers the real reason they are there. "Did I ruin that?"
"No." He grimaces. "Pryce ruined it."
"What happened?"
"Nothing." Emma raises an eyebrow skeptically. "Nothing happened for you to worry about, okay? You should just rest and relax." She doesn't push back. Roman takes the seat next to her bed and takes the attached remote from her bed and flips through TV stations. He settles for Jeopardy and pretends to be very interested in it.
"Look," she starts after a few minutes of the show. "I really wasn't trying to upset you earlier, or fight with you, or whatever. I'm just worried and I didn't understand why you didn't understand, but while you were gone I thought about it."
"What do you mean?"
"I've been back for a few months now..." she says without looking away from the TV. "You have this whole new life now. I thought that I was helping you by trying to tell you how I felt about... things. But, I wasn't. It's your life, Roman, and I want you to be happy." She doesn't want it to be an either me or her choice and she denies it, but the whole time a voice yells out pick me "When it's safe, I'm going to leave and go back to school. And it will be okay."
"No, it won't."
"Sure it will," she says trying to convince herself. "Just because things are different doesn't mean they're bad. When you're in Philly we can still hang out, if you want. But, you are going to have to explain to my mom that you won't be at Thanksgiving. She'll take it better from you." She tries to lighten the mood. Roman laughs just the slightest bit.
A light knock at the door breaks up their 'break up' of sorts. It felt like they were in the middle of a custody battle for themselves. This is the only way it could work. At least it could work for a little while.
The same nurse from the hallway comes in carrying a couple of paper packages and vials. "Hey," she says in her friendliest voice. "I just need to grab a couple of samples."
Roman sits silently, once again watching with great intensity as the woman ties the tourniquet around her arm. Emma doesn't feel much when the needle goes in, but Roman looks as though he can. "I'm going to go," he says at the sight of blood. He clears his throat and looks away. "I'll be back, okay?"
"Okay," Emma says somewhat understandingly. He's usually good about being around blood, but maybe it had been a few days since her fed.
"Is he scared of blood?" The nurse asks.
"Extremely."
.....
It doesn't take long for the nurse to finish up and for Roman to return. He stays for a while. They've just brought her dinner when he seems to get antsy. The vibration of his phone grabs his attention. It's Pryce telling him he can come downstairs to see Shelley. Emma doesn't know that, though. She assumes that it's either Miranda or Peter asking him to leave. The voice in her head definitely assigns the blame to Miranda. Roman wouldn't leave for Peter- at least she doesn't see that as something he would do.
"I have to go," he says. Even though she had anticipated it, it still makes her blood boil. You have to go? She thinks. You made them admit me into the fucking hospital and you won't even stay with me?
"No!" Emma sits up. She intends to sound stiff and assertive but it comes out sounding desperate and pathetic. "Don't leave me here alone again."
"I'm not leaving," Roman says. "I have to run downstairs and sign off on some things from this morning. You need to get some sleep, anyways."
"Can't they bring it up to you?" She asks, not buying his excuse.
"It's a security issue," he explains. He's struggling to balance all the things that are happening at once. It was too much for him to carry. "I promise, I'll be back." He doesn't know when, but he knows he will come back. He doesn't have the slightest idea of what to expect with Shelley.
He never makes it downstairs to find out either. He's just gotten off the elevator when his phone rings with yet another emergency.
Emma doesn't 'rest' as Roman had instructed. She's still staring at the television. Her arms are crosses and a deep scowl is on her face. You have you go? She continues to think to herself. She grows angrier and angrier the longer she thinks about it. And to think I had just apologized to him and then he runs off to-
The thoughts circle and circle around until they're stopped by the door opening. She almost feels bad for being mad at Roman- he had come back quickly like he promised, but it isn't Roman.
"You're scared of me, aren't you?" Pryce asks as the door closes behind him. As he approaches her she notices him pull something from his pocket.
"No," Emma asserts as he reaches for it.
"Stubborn child." Pryce taps at the syringe. "I can see it in your face. Every time you look at me like I have something sinister planned."
"You always look like you have something sinister planned." Pryce laughs heartily.
"I am anything but sinister," he says. "Perhaps a bit unethical at times, but not sinister."
"You killed Letha," she counters.
"I didn't kill Letha."
"You didn't keep her alive."
"Like I said," Pryce says and tries to bury how irritated he truly is becoming. "Unethical? Yes. Sinister? Not intentionally. That's more of Olivia's forte. After all, I've only delivered one child like that before and it was Roman. No one could have kept Letha alive." He comes to her bedside and begins fiddling with the needle in her hand. "Now, does that calm your fears a bit?"
"Not at all," she replies stone cold. Of course, it didn't make her feel better.
"That's a shame."
"What's that?" She sits up to ask. "What's in it?"
"Relax," he says with a forced smile. Emma tries to pull her hand from his grasp but is in no position to fight back. "I'm not going to hurt you. I prefer having my throat left in my neck. It's just some valium to help you rest."
"I'm not tired," she says.
"That is exactly why I'm giving it to you." Emma fights it off as long as she can, which isn't long. Pryce waits until he's sure it's taken effect and leaves her. He walks down to the nurse's station. He almost pities them, having known the amount of time they had to spend with Roman that morning. They still greet him with a smile, though, and kindly take his order for an MRI scan.
Here we go my guys!! Next chapter is the last then a little epilogue and I'll link everyone to the next story. I hope you all come along for that one as well. I think everything is going to tie up pretty nicely and I'm really excited and also very to share it with you guys. I have no idea what to do once I'm done with Emma and Roman, I've been writing them for like a year now and it's been a ride for sure.