The pillar to Heaven built in Hell

"Of course, you have your own lives to attend to. Orion isn't going to be completing anything in the next day, we have time."

Cebra said though with little conviction. In truth he didn't know anything yet, nothing relevant until he could go through the data. He managed to gleam a bit back in the complex but nothing big. In the mean time Cebra would check up on Francine, he didn't like that she'd not responded yet. Maybe she was just taking time off work and keeping a low profile. All the same he would go to her house after Sam had gone. He thought twice about leaving Jeannie alone in his place. The image of candy littering the floor, food everywhere and a huge mess came to mind. Maybe it'd be wise to drag her along.

"There are a few things I'd like to look into as well as the data we recovered. When you're ready return here and I'll brief you on what I've learned."

The other thing that bothered Cebra was the two assassins that came after him. How much did they know about Cebra? Were they sent by Orion? And did they know where Cebra and his allies were staying? These questions we're being dissected in his mind as he looked out the large window to the streets below. Perhaps it was time once again for Cebra to change safe houses, something less gaudy and opulent.

"Jeannie... How about you and I go out for a little drive? There's someone I need to talk to."

oh yeah your doctor school stuff, ok well have fun and do good on your test stuff

yay road trip with Mr. cyborg!
jeannie jumps around excided wondering where they would be going maybe Disney land.

Sam was relieved Cebra didn’t mind her leaving. He had always been so focused on his plans to stop Orion, that she didn’t know how he’d respond to someone having other priorities too. Fortunately, he took it well.

It worried her though that he was planning to take Jeannie for a ride. He made it sound very innocent, but her intuition told her it wouldn’t be a destination Jeannie was so existed about. Sure, Jeannie could take care of herself. She had proven it again today by keeping the Orion troops busy in her own, unique way.

But she wasn’t so sure about Cebra. He seemed to trivialise his injuries. Didn’t he get how close it had been? A few minutes later and he might have bleed to death! He should be resting, at least for a couple of days. Not taking Jeannie, or anyone else for that matter, for rides. If Orion were to catch him in his current state, he wouldn’t be fair so well. Hopefully he’d be careful. For his as well as Jeannie’s sake.

“Right, I better get going than,” Sam said. “See you soon.”

With these words she jumped out of the window, and made her way home. She calculated that if she pushed hard enough, she’d have enough time to change before flying to the hospital.

Cebra waved at Sam as she left then sat back down feeling the ache of the wound. Being something people could depend on meant being strong, being strong meant never showing you were hurt. Cebra deep in his mind knew Sam was right and he should relax, but that wasn't in his nature. Cebra was the type to push himself endlessly. He would be the type to push the mountain until he broke his body.

"We're going to Everett, it's North of here maybe an hours drive or so. You dont need to pack anything."

Cebra looks at Jeannie trying to spot if she has any food on her, Cebra wasn't fond of having food in the car he was travelling in. He had a reason of course this wasn't some arbitrary rule he made up to be an ass. Cebra had gotten in quite a few high speed situations in his occupation, this resulted in objects flying around in the car.

"And you can leave the snacks behind as well Blondy. We're going to check on a Francine... I didn't think Sam needed to worry about this. She has her own responsibilities, but we can handle this. I can still move around fine enough..."

Cebra turns his head away and mutters under his breath

"I think."

jeannie was disappointed when he said no snacksno snacks? but what if I get hungry?whose Francie, is she a friend of yours? huh maybe she'll have snacks when we get there

The flight back went much smoother than she had anticipated. In about half an hour she had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and had reached the outskirts of Brussels. She slowed down for the last part of her flight. This mean she was still going much faster than most people would ever go in their lives, but considering what she was capable of, it was almost a snail’s pace.

Within moments she had reached their apartment where she came to a full stop. Her sightings around here had been so frequent that only a couple of children bothered to look up and wave at her. She politely waved back at them, much to their joy, before she disappeared inside though an open window in the living room.

“Anyone home?” she asked.

When she didn’t get an answer, she concluded that Arielle wasn’t in and had only left the window open in case she’d show up. Or forgot to close it when she left, which was possible too.

On the way to the staircase she spotted a yellow pots-it note in the exact centre of the table. It read: ‘Gone fishing’ in Arielle’s handwriting. She didn’t stand still to wonder what this could mean, as far as she knew Arielle hated fishing. It probably was just her idea of a joke of some sorts. Sam put the note back and hurried to her bedroom.

She tossed away her worn clothes and grabbed a new attire from her closet. A green sweater, shirt and brown pants would have to do.  It didn’t matter what she picked, she’d have to change again anyway when she arrived at the hospital. She slipped into her new clothes and hurried back downstairs where she closed the window, grabbed her handbag and left though the front door.

Once out on the street, she immediately took off and flew straight to the hospital where she arrived a few minutes later. She landed in the back, and hurried to the nearest entrance. In her hurry to get in, she dropped her badge.

Once she was in, she hurried to the dressing room. There were only two other women present whose shifts had already ended and where using the place to catch up before returning home. They didn’t notice her presence. Quickly Sam changed into her blue loose-fitting shirt and pants and a white lab coat. Her belongings disappeared into her locker before she made her way to doctor Janssen’s office. With only a minute or so to spare, she knocked the door to the office.

Cebra sighs in a defeated manner.

"I promise we cant stop at a restaurant on the way back ok?"

Cebra grabbed a set of keys off the wall and his coat. The sinking feeling in his gut grew as he thought about how everything had nearly fallen apart. None of his other contacts knew what Cebra was up to, or at least they shouldn't. The only possibility is that Francine gave them the information. Cebra had been talking with Francine for a while about his plans to infiltrate Orion. He knew that she had ill feelings towards Cebra that were well deserved, but would she betray him like this? The alternatives being Orion monitored her or worse have her captive.

"Cmon, get your butt movin. We can hopefully get there before ten o'clock."

ok! Jeannie smiles happy there were snacks in the plan and skips along after him. huh why ten?

“Ah, Sam,” doctor Janssen greeted her from behind her desk when she entered. “I was afraid you wouldn’t show up. Not after that phone call I got from your friend. She made it sound like you’d be away for at last several days.”

Being away for several days, that was indeed what she had instructed Arielle to tell doctor Janssen. Ad what she intended before worry about not passing got to her. And perhaps a little bit of guild too, for having to disappoint doctor Janssen by not showing up too.

“A change of plan,” Sam answered without going into further detail.

“A fortunate one,” doctor Janssen answered when she rose up from her chair. “We’ve got a busy day ahead of us.” She grabbed her lab coat and put it on. “By the way, have I told you I’ll be at a conference starting tomorrow for the rest of the week?” Sam shook her head. “Well, now you know, then.”

“Does that mean, I get to take care of your patients all by myself for the rest of the week?” Sam asked, a bit too eager which earned her a frown from doctor Janssen. “I mean, if that’s okay with you?”

“It is, but the decision wasn’t mine to make. Doctor Peeters is taking over during my absence.” There was something vile about how she pronounced that name. That doctor Janssen and Peeters couldn’t stand each other was an open secret no one was willing to address in their presence. No one even knew why they didn’t get along. For some reason they just didn’t.

That she couldn’t take care of the patients on her own saddened her, but that doctor Janssen would have allowed it, meant the heaven to her. She wasn’t easily impressed.

“I see,” was all she said in response.

“So that means you’ll be off for the rest of the week,” doctor Janssen continued as if she hadn’t stopped. “I didn’t want to saddle you with him. But before you start thanking me, it means I’ll be expecting you here every weekend for the rest of the month.” Sam nodded. “Now then, let’s go check on our patients, shall we.”

Driving along the highway was relatively uneventful, there were some helicopters overhead. No doubt still responding to the raid on the Orion facility. Orion knew Cebra was involved but they never did admit this to the police. They needed to maintain plausible deniability against any connection to Cebra. At the same time they would spend any amount of money it took to recover him. The fact that Sam and Jeannie were helping Cebra made things more dangerous in a way. Orion had no hesitation in kidnapping metas off the street, another body to experiment on in order to further their weapons research.

The light was dying and the street lights turned on. Cebra and Jeaanie arrive in Everett, the city is quite lively. Cebra drives downtown to an area with a bunch of apartment complexes. He pulls up and parks next to a brick apartment complex and cuts the engine.

"Alright Jeannie, let's go."

jeannie fell asleep on the way there,huh oh were here ok then, go where?

By noon Sam and doctor Janssen has finished half of their scheduled tour. It felt good to Sam being away from all that fighting for a while and being able to concentrate on something constructive for a change. Especially the smile from the last kid they’d looked after had brought joy to her heart. It was these things that brought meaning to her life, much more than beating up a criminal.

“I hope the spaghetti’s better than last time’s,” doctor Janssen said while they made their way to the canteen to catch a quick lunch before they finished the rest of their tour.

Sam nodded. The last time the canteen had served spaghetti, it had been poorly received. It has been so spicy; most customers had turned up their nose at it. And even today casually mentioning they’d bee serving spaghetti today was enough to empty the canteen as fast as the fire alarm did.

Before they had reached their destination, the duo bumped into Jan Klaassen, the hospital’s own police officer. The otherwise cheerful man had a worrisome expression on his face as his eyes moved from one side of the corridor to the other. He appeared to be looking for something, but seemed unable to find it. When he spotted them, he immediately came their way.

“Ladies,” he greeted them with a nod. “Haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary, have you?”
“Can’t think of anything, no,” doctor Janssen answered while Sam just shook her head. “Why, is there something wrong?”

Klaassen sighted. “It might be nothing, really. It’s just that the security staff told be someone left one of the back doors open, that’s all. The thing is, no one has used that door all day. We checked the badge files and the security camera. And it was closed yesterday, that we’re sure of. Could be a simple technical malfunction, but… Anyway, we’re all checking just to be sure.”

“Do you want me to help?” Sam asked, feeling that Klaassen had just addressed them because he had recognized her.

He shook his head. “No, you just keep doing whatever it is you’re doing. We’ll gave a shoot if we do need you.”

"We have to head up to the fourth floor, Francine is in four oh seven."

Cebra steps out of the car and shuts the door. In the alley a few people gather taking drinks from a bottle in a brown bag and eyeing Cebra and Jeannie. Cebra opens the door for Jeannie looking back at the people staring. He dials Francine's number and waits... no answer. He tries again hoping that she was just in the shower or somewhere she couldn't hear it, though the anxiety was building in him. When she fails to answer a second time Cebra decides to stop waiting and be proactive. He touches the door and melts the lock, he turns to Jeannie.

"Let's keep that little trick between you and me. Alright let's go."

The elevator arrives on the bottom floor and carries the two up to the fourth floor. The hallway is small and dimly lit, one of the lights flickers a bit as they come up to apartment 407.

oh where going to see your friend Sammie went to see she follows him and is amused by his melting the door neat remind me to call you next time I lose my keys.

huh kinda creepy, well good thing I can see in the dark

Roughly forty minutes later, after a quick lunch, Sam and doctor Janssen continued with their tour. With the most urgent cases handled before noon, only the routine visits were left. These children were still not well enough to be allowed to return home, but couldn’t be called really sick either. Most of them were well-behaved, but as always there were a few of them who were bored because they had to stay in their bedroom for most of the time, and kept pestering whoever came into their room in order to drive away the boredom. Once they recognized Sam, they wouldn’t let her go until she had at least spent some time playing with them. Which she did, with doctor Janssen’s approval.

These events were the reason they finished their tour much later than expected. By the time they had left the last patient, it was past six and had already gone dark outside. Sam left doctor Janssen in her office, who still had a few administrative matters to take care of regarding the approaching conference, and returned to the dressing room. On the way back, she bumped into Jan Klaassen. He still had the same worrisome expression on his face.

“Still worried about that door?” sheasked him.

He didn’t immediately acknowledge her presence. “What? Oh, I’s you. Yes, and it’s doors now. About an hour ago we had a similar case. A different door was opened and again nothing on the camera’s. but apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Maybe it really was a malfunction in the locking mechanism. Anyway, there’s a specialist coming tomorrow. He should be able to give us a definite answer.”

With these words Klaassen returned to his normal activities and Sam resumed to the dressing room. She figured there was still enough time to return home for a decent meal before flying back to Cebra’s place. One hour more or less wouldn’t make the difference.