CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Doctor

Sylvie shivered as she walked down the long hallway. Her footsteps echoed loudly off the walls, the bare, unadorned shaft echoing like her dream. She wished she had her rifle.

At the far end stood two swinging doors; painted the same horrid shade of hospital white, with shiny brass plates where handles should be, and two small rectangular windows with the wire mesh shot through the glass. In effect, the door of every hospital horror story or show ever written.

Sylvie almost turned around right then, but the promise of more aid to the town stopped her. Besides, there could even be the smallest chance that they could be made human again. Surely that would be worth the risk?

Screwing up her courage, she pushed through the door.

Inside, she found the set from Doctor Joe; there were couches and chairs, a warm blue rug that dominated the floor, cushions scattered everywhere, a bookshelf groaning under the weight of what seemed to be hundreds of medical textbooks, journals and periodicals, and a large table on the left side where medical instruments were laid out with exceeding care. On the far side of the room from her was a modest desk made of what she suspected to be oak, containing a tall pigeon hole shelving unit, another bookshelf on one side, a monitor, and three table-surfaces that surrounded the main desk.

The desk's occupant stood up delightedly at her entrance, and she focused on the elderly gentleman as he walked around the side of his desk and strode forward eagerly, his wizened and kindly face beaming.

"Sylvie! Come in dear, come in! I am delighted to meet you in person, simply delighted. My name is Doctor Merrick. Won't you sit down?" He gestured to a chair before correcting himself and pointing instead to a large blue cushion. Sylvie nervously went over and folded her legs, forcing herself down to the floor. She felt a tiny portion of her mind note that the cushion felt like memory foam, and was exceedingly comfortable.

"We have so much to discuss!" the doctor said cheerfully as he grabbed a notebook and pen from the corner of his desk and sat down, forgoing the big padded chairs and instead chose a simple, three-legged wood stool he pulled from a corner where she'd missed seeing it.

Sylvie found herself grinning, and even laughing at the doctor's antics, which was no doubt his entire point, she mused. Still, she found it impossible to see anything sinister in him; he seemed more like someone's kindly uncle then an arch-villain, Or rather a quintessential absent-minded professor. He was dressed in a brown suit whose style had gone out at of fashion in the fifties, his thick white hair had a wavy, unkempt look about it, and he peered eagerly from behind thick-rimmed glasses.

"Now, I know you must be eager to get all this over with." He began. "But I beg you to be patient for just a little while longer. There'll be one more joining us presen--ah! Here she is now. Good morning doctor!"

The door opened and emitted a woman in her late forties, with blond hair that had been done up in a neat ponytail and wrapped around her head where it remained pinned. She wore a neat blouse under her doctor's coat and looked sharply at the doctor, her blue eyes taking in everything at once. Her thin hands held a clipboard, on one shone a ruby wedding ring, and her manner seemed annoyed.

Sylvie did a double take, surprised. "Doctor McMillan!" she exclaimed, startled to see her family doctor there.

"Morning Sylvie," she said warmly. "Doctor Merrick" she said much cooler.

Dr. Merrick took no notice, and instead gestured to a chair. "Please sit down, doctor, and we can begin."

Dr. McMillan sat in a padded leather chair as close to Sylvie as she could get and not put herself in the way of Dr. Merrick.

Sylvie found her mind awhirl with wonder at seeing her there. How did she get there? Why was she there?

Abruptly, a fragment of memory form her conversation with Wolfe two weeks ago came to her: …providing a medical representative for you and our team.

A medical representative indeed! At once, Sylvie relaxed and found herself looking forward to these sessions; she didn't have any fear of the doctor here!

Dr. Merrick cleared his throat. "Sylvie, I want you to characterize your feelings for me. Or, more accurately, your sensations. Is it similar to what you felt before, as a human, or is it much different?"

Of all the questions Merrick could have asked, Sylvie thought wonderingly. She'd expected a "What was it like being changed?" or a "What is your strength compared to being human?" or something like that. Those questions were coming, she knew, but now she had to really think about her answers.

"Uh…well I haven't really thought much about it." Sylvie admitted, glancing at Dr. McMillan. Her blue eyes were narrowed in thought as she watched Merrick closely. I guess that shows she was caught off guard as well, Sylvie realized.

"To be honest with you, I had a lot more things to think about. I mean, after the change everything felt...well weird I guess. I mean, I'd never had a tail before and suddenly feeling it move (she demonstrated) felt different. Strange, yet normal too, I guess.  I mean, after the shock I could move normally and move easily..." she fell silent, frustrated at not knowing quite what to say.

"That's all right dear." Merrick said absently as his pen whizzed across the notebook. "We may come back to that later, but then again we might not! Now, you spoke of disorientation and pain, could you describe that for me?"

"Not well." Sylvie admitted. "The pain was gone in a very short period of time, and felt like...well...I guess like if you'd jumped into a bath of very hot water without letting yourself acclimate to it first. It would hurt, but eventually the pain would go away. This happened immediately. Mostly, it was pulling sensations, like someone trying to pull something out of me." She said somberly. She continued to fumble with words to describe the violations she felt, but it was so hard, like trying to catch soap bubbles just out of her reach.

Dr. McMillan put her hand on Sylvie's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Sylvie was grateful; Dr. McMillan had been her doctor for as long as she could remember. Once, when Sylvie had fallen from a tree she'd been climbing late at night, she'd driven to their house to fix her broken leg. Other times, she'd let them into the clinic after hours to tend their hurts whenever she or Taryn had done something stupid or painful. She did that for everyone, Dr. McMillan. She had a heart as big as the city, her dad remarked once, and would care for anyone no matter their situation or past.

"Interesting." Dr. Merrick mused when Sylvie had fallen silent. "Very interesting, my dear."

"What do you think it could be, Doctor?" McMillan asked coolly.

"Hmmm? Oh! It is a very interesting case." He spoke cheerfully, but Sylvie noticed his eyes had a far-away glint that showed him hard at work on the problem. "I shouldn't help but wonder how it was done! If it had something to do with this costume, then I should suggest a bio-engineered nanite shell that used the raw materials available to change the molecular structure of these girls to their present form."

"There are several hurdles to that theory doctor.' Dr. McMillan objected immediately, but not harshly. More like bringing information to the table, Sylvie thought. "One, there wasn't any nanites to be found in her blood, and we looked hard at it to find an explanation! Two, where did the biological mass of her body come from? She has fully functioning organs, skin, sweat glands, fluids and bones, none of which was in the costume at all. If she'd been changed in such a fashion, there would have to be a corresponding mass somewhere for the nanites to use."

"Quite correct, doctor." Merrick nodded. "And you are forgetting a third factor; time! If her sense of time was not skewed (always a possibility with such traumatic events, dear), then the change happened in seconds, possibly even moments. Which would rule out viruses, or other biological means of transformation as those would take a great deal of time to enforce changes, and they would be slow and cumbersome."

He shook his head. "No. I am absolutely convinced that this event was artificial in origin. It is the only logical explanation. Now, all we have to do is discover the how. It must have taken tremendous energy to fuel such reactions, but how was that generated?" he mused thoughtfully. "How indeed. It had to be relatively compact, or he would never have been able to get out in so short a time as to make it seem he vanished."

"But what about the store?" Sylvie asked, interested.

"Yes, making an entire store vanish like that is quite the trick." The old man nodded. "But not a wholly impossible one like you might think. Stage magicians have been doing it successfully for a while. The usual method, I believe, is having a room below the victim that looks identical to the one they are in. The victim is distracted, probably with dazzling lights or some sort of sleight of hand that they are focused on disproving, and then dropped via trapdoor to the waiting room below. Then all this person would have to do is drop a fake wall in place of the door and poof! I daresay no one counted the steps back outside? And why should they? They are frightened, confused and, probably, hadn't counted the steps they'd taken to get down, so they have no idea if the next count they take is the right one or not. Poof! The store is instantly gone!"

Sylvie wondered, deep down, if that was what happened. It would make perfect sense, she admitted, but somehow she didn't think that was the case.

Roland is magic, real magic, not a street performer. How else could he change me into a centaur, and especially one that already knows how to move!

Out loud she repeated her thought.

"Ah, now we come to the crux of the matter again!" Merrick nodded. Dr. McMillan bobbed her head until she caught herself and stopped.

"There is a slim possibility that having that particular body gave you certain muscle memories associated with it, common in the babies of quadrupeds that give them the ability to move and run moments after being born. The gazelle, for example, is particularly good at this, and no wonder! Look at the dangers it faces the moment of its birth. Lions, cheetahs, leopards, all of these animals are hunting them, and the babes must be able to outrun them, or become dinner."

Sylvie frowned, a little lost. Did that mean that her body came with instructions because the creature it was made from was a prey animal? It could account for some of her behavior, she thought. The need to be with Taryn, the desire not to be alone anymore, the determination to protect family and friends to the point of losing all reason...perhaps the doctor had a point.

"Well!" The doctor at last sighed. "There is much to do! But our time today is nearly up. Doctor, if you would be so kind as to obtain a fresh blood sample from her? I'd like to check out my nanite theory, or look for other irregularities that might have been missed!"

Dr. Merrick went to his desk and pulled out fresh paper and started going over his notes and talking quietly to himself for a while before falling into a deep silence.

Dr. McMillan threw a puzzled glance at him as he got up, but went to the medical table, motioning Sylvie to follow. With a sigh (the bed had been really comfortable) she got up and stood quietly as she performed a routine checkup and drew blood samples.

"I'm sorry for all this Sylvie." She said quietly as she worked. "But I agree that it is necessary. I just don't have the equipment for a deep analysis and..."

"It's okay doc," Sylvie interrupted. "I would have wanted you here for this if I'd thought about it. I guess they wanted me relaxed and at ease, so they brought you along."

"Well, at least this way I can keep an eye on you. How's your mom?"

"She's fine." Sylvie squirmed at the cold stethoscope until her doctor warmed it up with her breath. "She's trying to get the last of the rioters jailed and catch that snake Jacob. The only problem is he's disappeared very thoroughly and even Ben has doubts if he could find him."

"Well, if anyone can, it's Ben. By the way, what do your parents think of all this?"

Now Sylvie squirmed for a different reason. "They don't know." She admitted in a whisper. "They want to protect me from the government, but it doesn't work and the feds threatened to pull their funding. This way, they promised to boost their relief efforts for the town." She continued. "Wolfe's money went through and Bengal killed the investigation."

"Sylvie!" Dr. McMillan scolded. "You have to tell your parents about this! It's important."

"I know." Sylvie sighed. "But they would be furious and might try to stop me...the town needs the money doc. We're already a hundred times over-budget now and we've only started rebuilding homes and such. If the money gets pulled now...we'll go under. We can't afford to give up now!"

Dr. McMillan still looked angry, but she stayed quiet to finish her work.

Checking the Band-Aid, Sylvie felt relieved that the appointment was done. She turned to leave.

"Wait a minute." McMillan held up a restraining hand, looking tired and worn. She looked back behind her.  "Doctor, when is her next appointment?"

"Hmm? Oh! Next Tuesday, I think. Would that be all right with you, Sylvie?"

"Sure, Doctor Merrick." Sylvie nodded. "That will be fine."

"Have a good day, my dear!" Dr. Merrick smiled.

Pushing open the door to the outside, Sylvie slipped out through the dingy, dirty closet door that led out of the maintenance door of the parking garage and strode confidently into the sunshine, passing no one as she made her way back into the mainstream.

Wolfe had done more then delivered when he'd promised her a discreet entrance and exit. The maintenance door was very Hollywood, in her opinion, but the advanced system of monitors behind it showed when people were on the street and when it was clear. She simply had to time her exit to a point when no one was nearby.