The Blue Zone

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

“So that’s how it is.” Kate shrugged, her fingers wrapped around Tina’s curled fist in her private room. “It’s been a couple of weeks. We’re working on the trust thing. He came through for me, Teen. I don’t know, I think maybe it’s going to be okay.”

Kate brushed her friend’s smooth, white face. Tina’s eyelids quivered. Her mouth twitched every once in a while. But that was something they’d come to expect. Over the past weeks, her condition had improved. Her intracranial pressure was down. The bandages were gone. The breathing tube as well. She was breathing on her own now. Her Glasgow reading had risen all the way up to 14. She was going to wake up, of that the doctors were fairly sure. In a month or in a day.

But then what? That was the question no one could answer.

“I’m back at the lab,” Kate said. She stared blankly at the monitors by Tina’s bed: the steady yellow wave of her heartbeat, the reading of her BP. “It feels good. Packer’s got me finishing up on Tristan and Isolde. Two hundred and sixty-four trials, Teen. Can you believe that? We’re starting to write it up. The P & S Medical Review’s agreed to publish it. And I’ve even been working on my thesis. You better get your ass in gear. Any longer, you’re gonna wake up and have to address me as ‘Doc’-”

Kate felt a tug on her hand. Just a reflex, the doctors said. It happened often. Kate looked. Tina’s eyelids twitched.

So much had gone by, how could Kate possibly tell her everything?

“It’s weird, Teen,” Kate said, staring out the window, “but I’m okay with it, what happened to Dad. At least it’s over. In a strange way, Greg probably did me a favor. Dad got what he deserved. But I asked myself, would I have pulled it, Teen? That trigger. If Greg hadn’t come.

“And I think the answer’s yes, I would have. That was my father lying there. I would have-for him!”

Still, when Kate thought of it, it always came with tears. “You knew him, Teen. He was quite a guy. And he was right. You can’t just erase twenty years.…”

Kate felt a tug again. She just kept staring.

But this time the finger wrapped around her thumb.

Kate shot Tina a glance. Holy shit! She almost jumped out of her skin.

Tina was staring back at her.

With open eyes.

“Oh, my God, Tina!” Kate leaped up, starting to scream for the nurse. But before she could, Tina’s mouth moved ever so slightly and the faintest smile of recognition edged onto her lips.

Kate could barely contain herself. “Tina, it’s me, Kate! Can you hear me? You’re in the hospital, baby. I’m here!”

Tina blinked and tugged on her hand again. She moistened her lips, as if she wanted to speak.

Kate bent close, her ear inches from Tina’s lips. They barely quivered, releasing only a single, murmured sound.

Kate couldn’t believe what she heard.

“Leukocytes…”

Tina’s eyes locked on Kate’s. There was a flicker of life in them. Of laughter. Then the corner of her mouth curled into a familiar smile.

“Yes, leukocytes.” Kate nodded, giddily. Leukocytes!

She leaned on the green nurse’s button. Tina squeezed her hand again, motioning Kate to come close again. Her eyes darted around, struggling to sort out where she was, why the tubes were in her arm. Clutching Kate’s arm, she mouthed, “You still watch them? All day?”

“Yes.” Kate nodded, her eyes filling up with tears. “All fucking day!”

Tina blinked at her and whispered, “You gotta get a life, Kate.”

She was all right! Kate could see it in her eyes.

Her friend was going to be okay!