2.03.15

The next morning we took the first step together into this coma trial, there were all kinds of stories of completely recuperated humans that were once vegetables. Not one trace of damage, like they had gone into a deep sleep like sleeping beauty to wake up one day like nothing had happened in them just the whole entire world around them.

"What do you need me to do?"

"We have a certain amount of time with these people to come up with the right stimulants to wake them up, we will be working on rats first because we don't want to risk damaging any functions on the patients."

"Seems like we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves."

"Yes, we do," he treated me dryly like so many times I had wished he would.

"Where do I start?"

"Here are the patient's files," he gave me a pile of manila folders about the people in coma and as a professional I was finally pleased with his attitude.

Becoming acquainted with people who weren't really with us was kind of odd but one world changing trial at a time got me up cutting through the stratus of white air. And I put my faith in a favorable outcome because Dr. Herzberg was spearheading this trial, wondering what exactly we could achieve. 

For the rest of the day we barely looked at each other's face keeping the distance, though for him it looked like a tense work day. Though strangely by the end of the day my back was all in knots probably from the night before replaying how he dismissed my career; just a nurse, humph.

"Before you go, peace offering," the scientist came in and placed a gift bag in front of me.

"Oh hi," I was caught off guard by his presence, "what is this?"

"Well although life is a box of chocolates, I'd thought you'd prefer this..." He said and I took out what was inside the bag, but it was another bag that read...

"Fazenda Santa Ines?"

"My favorite cup of coffee, thought a fellow addict would appreciate it."

"Ah so the verdict's been reached on that," I kept trying to think if it was okay to accept it.

"Well I thought of buying you a box of donuts to go along with it but didn't think that'd be very polite."

"Not polite but accurate, thank you."

"Well it comes with conditions you know, this isn't a selfless act."

"Of course anything that's too good to be true..."

"Exactly, so if you accept this, you must forgive me for yesterday, and for being the usual arrogant self-centered surgeon that I really am deep down beneath the ice."

"Ah well since it's such a lovely proposition..."

"Well I was never a good negotiator."

"I bet," he was probably unwilling to bend like any good self-assured Brit.

"So?"

"What if I say I forgive you only because I want the coffee though?"

"If you can deceive me into believing it I'll take that."

"Okay then I forgive you," I put the coffee back into the bag and got up from the stool.

"My pleasure," he smirked looking at me putting away the coffee in my bag. "And tomorrow I'll teach you what to inject the rats with okay?"

"Can't wait," I said and he chuckled at my genuine enthusiasm for rats.

"Have a goodnight Stella," he shook his head and I closed the lab door ready to go home.

The way the scientist smiled with the corners of his so symmetrical mouth and how his eyes connected to mine gave me the stupid flirting face. Although I wiped it off as soon as I noticed what had happened inside, how I flirted with him without knowing better than to stop.

"I'm gonna be in so much trouble," I said putting on my coat on to leave for home.

February (Friday) the 13th 2015 

Marie and Sybelle were the names of the two people hooked up to machines, two girls, no more than 25 by the looks of it, one brunette Sybelle, the other a red head, Marie. I knew creating an attachment to the comatose patients wasn't right but we also knew many patients had excellent recall of what they heard during this state. So I talked to them about the news hoping they'd familiarize with my voice and presence near would but they looked frozen in time.

"Alright girls how about some music? Any particular taste, boy bands? Classic rock? Jazz?" I scrolled through my phone and put on some Ray Charles in a way to bring back Dr. Fitz and his presence back and just then I saw a finger movement on Sybelle and jumped back letting my phone fall on the floor.

"Stella is everything alright in there?" The scientist yelled and I reached down to grab my phone.

"Uh yeah fine, just my phone dropped," I said and kept the movement under wraps thinking it was just a floozy. It would only be smart to report something if I saw it a second time so the entire day I waited for the second sign but nothing happened so I guessed my mind played a little trick on me.

We had begun our research on rats and we were getting closer to the answer, some of the rats had given small motor reactions then nothing like Sybelle. So we kept on making all possible variations and quantity of the drug ingredients he had narrowed down as most useful.

As per usual the rumors after I began working exclusively with the scientist grew more rooted; I could never get away from the daily scrutiny of the staff. They thought I was sleeping with the renown neurosurgeon in the absence of Dr. Fitz and I was getting scared of working so closely with the scientist. Day in and out alone with the scientist gave me some ideas of the type of interaction I was allowed to have with him for my safety, so these were my rules.

1. Don't touch or let the scientist touch you.
2. Listen intently but avoid his eyes.
3. Keep the personal talk to a minimum of zero.
4. Do not accept any help from him.
5. Do not exchange phone numbers.
6. Keep a busy mind and all forms of romance stuff such as movies, books, talks and etc... miles away.

These six rules were keeping me on track at the lab though they were hard to preserve I did not lack the will to follow through. Something inside me knew if I wanted to maintain this life, my peace, exactly the way it was going I had to keep him away so I did it.

"Good morning Stella," Dr. Herzberg walked in the door.

"Good morning."

"Another late night?" He asked.

"Yeah well you know me," I joked but how did he know I hadn't slept the whole night? He said the same thing yesterday and he was right but how? Oh God how bad does my face look in the morning?

"Another TV show addiction taking your sleeping hours?"

"Now how could you possibly know that?"

"I don't, I just make very well educated guesses, coffee?"

This was third time this week he had brought me coffee which I felt too guilty to turn down especially after a sleepless night, damn it Netflix for giving me dark circles.

"Thank you," I said getting the coffee from his hand which he held on to for a moment and when our hands touched I felt his warmth on my freezing hands.

"You're cold."

"It's fine," I said and he went to the locked AC/heater unit of the room though he couldn't change the temperature too much it was best for hospitals to keep a cool environment to prevent infections and such.

"Hopefully it'll help," he said and I backed away stopping myself from getting pulled into another mind boggling situation with him.

"Of course, I'm gonna get going on those rats, the check up I mean."

"I'll be waiting for the results," he waved and I just turned around before I began to blush at his way of making me act like I knew nothing, not even my own name.

We went back to work separately as I stayed overlooking the file cases, he fidgeted with a neuroscience program for sleeping patterns of criminals, the next project with Dr. Fitzgibbons and a geneticist called Dr. Coppewebb then I walked in on him picking up the phone in a weird tone of voice.

"Good afternoon this is Dr. Herzberg," he said on the phone then his tone changed.

"What? No, it's none of your concern anymore... I meant what I said and stop calling me, you know how important my job is... Fine do as it pleases you just stop checking up on me, you know I hate it when you hover, yes kisses, goodbye."

The scientist hung up the cell phone quite disturbed from the phone call, and well whoever he was sending kisses to meant there was someone in his life, and just because he lived alone didn't mean he was alone.

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Copyright: All Rights Reserved to A. Sena Gomes.