"Excellent. I imagine you haven't eaten." Her tone suggested that she knew why they hadn't.
"No, ma'am. Waking up took longer than expected."
Dr. Waverly guffawed. "What a lovely way to put it. Well, I've been to the coffee shop and bought breakfast."
"Great. We'll be there in about five minutes."
"I'm waiting out front. Can't miss me." She hung up.
"I'll hop in back when we pick her up."
"No problem, babe."
She patted his thigh. He put his hand over hers as he drove.
"In case you didn't notice, I had a wonderful time last night—this morning," she said, blushing.
"I noticed that," he replied with a smirk. "And in case you didn't notice, I was right there with you, having the time of my life." He kissed her fingers as he pulled up in front of the hospital.
He got out and walked around to open Blythe's door so she could get in back, but Dr. Waverly wouldn't let him.
"Don't be silly. She has longer legs than I do. Besides, I got Malachi's medical records and Blythe's tests to go over as we drive. Coffee and danish first, then conversation." She eyed Elam, smirking. "You had a very good time, didn't you." It wasn't a question.
"Oh, yes, ma'am. Best I've ever had." He adjusted his cuffs and straightened his tie, looking proud of himself.
"And does the lady feel the same?" she asked in a low voice.
Elam's eyes flickered to where Blythe sat. She was talking on the phone.
"That's a pretty definitive yes."
Dr. Waverly patted him on the cheek. "Good man."
Elam held the coffee, danish and briefcase while she got in the car. Once she was settled, he walked around to the driver's side again.
"That was Jessamine. She said she drove up last night, and she's got a couple things to do, but she'll be there on time to meet us."
"Cool. Want to bring Doc up to speed?"
"Oh, sure. It seems the woman who helped me after my accident, is actually Malachi's fiancée. Or she was, they broke up just before his accident. We asked her to join us, hoping her presence might resonate."
"What a good idea! I've looked over his records, and I honestly can't find a reason for his coma. He had a concussion after the accident, there was plenty of chest trauma, he lost a lot of blood—but it's like he simply shut down. Did he know that his brother died?"
"They told him at the scene," Blythe confirmed. "I don't know how much of that news he retained, though."
"I'm of the opinion he just shut off," Dr. Waverly said. "There is nothing organically wrong with him. He's healthy, and sustained very little brain trauma."
"Aren't there people who react to stress like that?" Elam asked as he merged onto I-95. "I had a buddy who would sleep whenever he got stressed. No one could wake him. Slept through the birth of his child."
"His divorce too, probably," Dr. Waverly commented airily. "Yes, that's well documented. This could be an extreme version of that. He lost his fiancée and his brother in less than a week. Rather than cope with it, he went into a deep sleep. It will be interesting to see what happens when she speaks to him."
"Kind of like Sleeping Beauty," Blythe said. "Oh, I know it's not a fairy tale, but wouldn't it be wonderful if he woke up for her?"
Dr. Waverly smiled, enjoying the younger woman's romantic enthusiasm. "Yes, it would. Now, about you, my young miss. You'll be happy to know there are no tumors, lesions, cysts or swelling. You have a beautiful, healthy brain. However, your MRI showed some really wonky activity when you fell asleep."
"Define wonky," Elam interjected with a sly grin. "That's not a medical term I'm familiar with."
Dr. Waverly blew raspberries at him. "Smart ass. Wonky, is this case, means that your brain waves change. It's like you've got the waves of another person. I indulged myself in an OCD moment and compared your reading to Malachi's, since you said you were dreaming about him when the test was going on."
"Yes, that's right."
Dr. Waverly folded her hands on the back of the seat, leaning forward excitedly. "What I found was really bizarre and I don't know if I quite believe it myself. There were remarkable similarities between your brain wave pattern and his!"
"What?" Blythe couldn't believe it. "I didn't think that was possible."
"It isn't. Brain waves are individualized, more so than fingerprints. In more than one place, they were so similar, they looked like they were made by the same person."
"How is that possible?"
"I have no idea. And I don't know how we'll find out. We certainly can't compare to the others you've dreamed about. We may never know. Did you have any bad dreams over the last couple of nights?"
©2022 Dellani Oakes
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