Gwendolyn
The hospital was chaotic. People were sick and coughing, the air quality in the area was getting worse. People were seen walking around with masks over their noses and mouths.
I’d woken up this morning with a tickle in the back of my throat, which worried me that I was falling victim to the blasphemous algae.
Thankfully my cozy robots were once again performing as they should be. Patients were happy again, and I felt confident that they would become permanent fixtures in human life now. I just needed to fix the issue of people giving them viruses. Nothing else had happened, fortunately, but I needed time once they were done with their trial to add in firewalls and other protected measures so they couldn’t be tampered with.
Phillip was working nonstop, trying to figure out what could be done about the water toxicity. More dead fish and even a dolphin washed up on shore this morning. Things were taking a turn for the worse.
Once I checked over the robots once more, I headed to the office. I had other projects and research to work on. My floor had been given a job to figure out how to make artificial kidneys, which scientists have been trying to create for years. The problem no one can solve is keeping blood flowing smoothly to the area and not clotting.
We were getting close, but no one had yet to make a true breakthrough.
I hadn’t heard from anyone as I holed up in my office with my work. Arthur texted saying he couldn’t get together tonight, that he had a family thing to deal with.
That was not something I would even offer to be a part of right now. From what he told me, his family sounded like a piece of work; they reminded me of my parents and would probably look down on the poor autistic girl he chose to be with right now.
He hadn’t said anything about my confession in his SUV four days ago. Though I could tell he loved me, even without the words. He hadn’t made anything weird between us. He knew I loved him, and we were okay.
I was permanently his—which made his statement a few days ago very odd. I already was his. So, I shrugged off his comment and went on with life. We hadn’t been able to see each other during the day, only at night. We spent time hanging out then the rest of the night in one of our beds.
Sex with Arthur was amazing. He was patient and willing to try new things. But would also be there to help relax my mind when it was too much.
I hated that we had to leave each other. It may seem to some like moving too quick in a relationship, but I wanted him around me all the time. Like I loved waking up with him and falling asleep next to him. I didn’t even need my metal ball to help relax me to sleep. He was becoming part of my routine, and I was completely fine with it. He worked well with me, and hopefully that was enough for us.
My phone beeped a few times, and I hit ignore when I didn’t recognize the number calling. They didn’t leave a voice message, so I assumed it wasn’t very important.
I managed to leave my office around 11:00 p.m. with drawings of Pops and Cora updates I thought they would like. Both of them needed to charge and had seemed sluggish today. I wondered if I needed to give them a checkup.
They went straight for their stations as soon as we got home, and I made myself a cup of tea and heated up leftovers for a very late dinner.
My throat kept tingling, and I took sinus medication to help with the drainage that was going on back there.
I managed to fall asleep easily, and then was woken up with a terrible cough a few hours later.
Crap.
Dialing the number for the Hero Society’s nurse, Esme, she told me to meet her at HQ so she could look me over. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital right now. It was already messing with my head that I was becoming a victim to the algae.
Pops and Cora were still charging, and I didn’t want to disturb them to go with me to get checked out. They didn’t always go with me everywhere, but soon I would be upgrading them so they could withstand any and all hero work with me, plus everyday life.
I kneeled down in front of Pops, who looked powered down, but I made sure to fire him back up and let him know I was leaving.
“I’ll come with you.”
“I’ll be right back, and when I get here I’m probably going to need lots of rest. So, we can hang out all day, and I’ll even let you pick the movies we watch,” I offered, hoping my words would help him not worry about me. He agreed and then powered himself back down for maximum charge.
The roads were very quiet this early in the morning, and only Mina and Esme were up at HQ when I got there. Esme was a nurse who had the power to heal anyone, even bring them back from the brink of death. But with every use of that power, she neared death herself. Hence, she didn’t use it much. I’d heard the story briefly, through rumors, that she had fallen for the villain that tried to destroy the world before turning good for her, and she’d used all her power to save him, thereby sacrificing herself. She was revived when they went back in time, just like Arthur. I didn’t know if the rumors were true. If so, that made her a true superhero in my eyes. She saved everyone by using her real power—love. Love saved mankind.
I doubted love would save the ecosystem problem we had, but it would be nice if it were that easy.
Mina was chewing on some beef jerky when I arrived. She was a nice woman, quirky, doing whatever she wanted, including wearing crazy onesies and hoodies and ruling over Seahill with her genius brother and Phillip. A tough cookie.
“Esme’s in the medical room waiting—come on and join the night shift.” She greeted me at the elevators and walked me over to Esme, who was waiting there with a sweet smile on her elf-like face.
All the girls here were so beautiful. Each unique in their own way. I was honored to be a part of them and truly felt like I was becoming one of the family.
Esme was gentle as she looked me over, and her diagnosis was unfortunately easy. Upper respiratory infection. So, my earlier thoughts were true. I was getting sick from being in the water. Even with antibiotics, I wouldn’t get better until the irritant was gone.
As soon as I got in the car to go home and rest, drink lots of fluid as Esme told me to, I noticed my phone had a voicemail on it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Arthur
“Try again.” Draco was trying to work with me to see if my powers over the water could help fix the issue with the algae and toxins in it. So far all I’d done was push it around, as if I was holding a large spoon and stirring it.
Of course, my physical body was here and trying to remedy this issue, but my mind was on Gwendolyn. She’d texted me at two in the morning three days ago and told me she was going out of town and would be back soon. That was it, and I was freaking out at having not heard from her. Phillip was too busy trying to save the earth—I didn’t want to ask him to pry into her futures to see if anything bad was going to happen to her. I didn’t care that she’d left, but the radio silence was killing me. Plus, I missed her.
“We’ve been at this for hours, and the most I’ve done is pushed it around. Probably making shit worse.” I was frustrated. Water was my thing, but I couldn’t do anything to fix this. People of Seahill were getting sicker by the day, and they were starting to panic. Can’t live somewhere that is hazardous to your health. Terratrex was taking a bit of a PR hit, and still they ignored the problem. Denying it was their prime preoccupation right now.