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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Timeline – This prequel to Season One takes place about one year before Jarod’s escape and includes flashbacks to the children’s’ past.
Summary: Dr. Patrice introduces herself to Alicin. Alicin doesn’t trust Sydney. Angelo witnesses a startling display of emotion and receives a shocking revelation.
Alicin Wonderland
By Lizz
Part 7: Visiting Hours
1996—Day 1
Alicin’s Room
Evening
Alicin sat up with a start when Dr. Patrice entered the room. “I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to alarm you. My name is Dr. Patrice. I’ve been taking care of you. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been drugged and thrown down an elevator shaft, not necessarily in that order,” came the flat reply.
“You’ve had a rough couple of days, judging from your injuries. I’ve ordered something for the pain. Let the nurses know when you need it. Would you like something now?” The doctor walked to the meds cabinet and started to unlock it.
“No.” Alicin feigned interest in the blanket binding and did not look at the doctor when she replied. Her eyes grew wide and her heart started to pound when Dr. Patrice produced a syringe and a vial of clear liquid from the cabinet. She scrabbled to the headboard of the bed and crouched as if ready to break for the door. “What is that for?” she croaked. Fear was apparent in her voice.
“It’s an antibiotic. Some of your injuries were infected.” The young woman was not persuaded. “Here, see for yourself,” she said and held out the small bottle for Alicin’s inspection.
“Strong medicine, considering I don’t feel any stinging anywhere. So why?”
“Most of your injuries were cuts and scrapes, some of them showing early signs of infection. But you have two wounds on your left shoulder that are definitely bite marks and definitely of human origin. By comparison, an animal bite is much less dangerous in terms of infection. So you get broad spectrum until I’m satisfied that nothing took root, so to speak. How about you give me your hand and I’ll inject directly into the IV?” The patient proffered her hand. As the doctor slowly administered the medication, she thought of the other reason for it, namely the prevention of any STD the attacker may have passed on.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Dr. Patrice continued to talk to her patient. “Alicin, do you remember what happened to you? Any part of it? Who did this to you?”
Alicin shook her head and said nothing.
“There’s no one here to be afraid of, Alicin. We want to help you get well and part of getting well is talking about what happened.” The doctor paused, waiting for a reply. “Alicin?”
No response.
“Perhaps later, then,” the doctor concluded.
‘Not likely,’ she thought.
Just then the door swung open and Alicin jumped again as Sydney stepped into the room. She leaned close to her doctor and hissed, “Why is he here? Mr. Raines took me to him. He works for him. I don’t want him here. Make him leave!”
Dr. Patrice answered in a soft voice, “Sydney doesn’t work for Mr. Raines. He’s works in the Simulation Labs. Your group provides research for them, doesn’t it?”
The young woman nodded. So he works with Pretenders, Alicin thought. She grew up with pretenders, a fact she shared with no one. She worked with a pretender, in point of fact. His ability deemed not strong enough to warrant full-time assignment as a pretender, Eddie was found to be a first-rate researcher and was assigned to Alicin’s panel. They had become friends even before that, although she couldn’t remember when. The doctor’s voice recalled her attention. “Then you also know that project protocols require separation of the two entities to avoid bias.”
Sydney stepped to the foot of the bed to address Alicin. “I hope you will not find me guilty by reason of association with Mr. Raines. In my job, it is difficult to avoid crossing paths with him. We rarely see eye to eye on matters we discuss. That is most often due to our very different philosophies of science.”
Alicin studied him for a moment. “You don’t like him either, do you, Doctor?” She said at last with a wry smile.
“My opinion of Mr. Raines is not relevant to my work.”
“Well, it’s relevant to mine!” she shot back and then quickly reined in her emotions. He may not have raised his hand to her personally, but Raines surely had permitted everything that had happened to her in the last six months. And now the very man Raines had handed her over to was asking for her trust! What caliber of idiot did this man take her for? Hot tears rose to her eyes, but were held in check by the sheer force of her will. She summoned enough sarcasm to spit out, “Why don’t you just find what’s wrong with me and fix it, Doctor, and send me back!” Sydney was taking it all in with a practiced eye.
Dr. Patrice spoke to Alicin. “I should leave the two of you alone to work this out…”
“NO! I want him out of here. NOW!”
The two doctors exchanged looks of surprise and frustration, and then Sydney crossed to the door. He turned and said, “I understand your hesitation, Alicin. But I give you my word, I want to help you in any way you will permit. Should you change your mind, please let Dr. Patrice know.” And with that, he was gone.
“You were pretty hard on the old guy, don’t you think?” The doctor started with amusement in her voice.
“Oh, shut up!”
“Alicin!”
“Go To Hell! And take the old guy with you!”
“Alicin, please, just-”
“Get Out!” The doctor stood motionless in shock. “I Said Get Out! GET OUT!” An enraged Alicin was standing on the mattress, stabbing a finger at the door as she screamed. As Dr. Patrice moved toward the door, she was hit in the back by a pillow, and then another, and another. She turned to chide her patient just in time to dodge a plastic water pitcher that splashed its contents on the wall behind her. The doctor beat a hasty retreat to the hall.
In the hallway, Patrice leaned against the wall next to Sydney and exhaled sharply. “That went well, I thought,” Sydney said quite seriously, casting a sidelong glance at his friend. She punched him in the arm—hard—and walked into her office without a word.
Shouts and the sound of wood and plastic bouncing off walls could be heard in the hall. Sydney rubbed his arm and looked at Joanna and her staff standing around the duty desk, trying their best to look as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. They stood frozen like four rabbits on predator alert. He smiled, walking over to them. “I’m not certain which room is the more dangerous now,” he stated with an air of mild amusement. “Give her some time,” he said nodding in the direction of Alicin’s door, “to get the anger out. When the tantrum slows down, make sure she hasn’t hurt herself. In the meantime, you could look in on your boss…?”
Four sets of hands rose to decline the offer, accompanied by four heads vigorously agreeing with the hands. Then four sets of eyes watched Sydney walk into the den of the lioness.
=====
Patrice was standing at the door that joined her office to Alicin’s room, listening to the angry screams turn into frustrated shouts and then into weary sobbing. The doctor’s eyes were moist. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. “This is the hardest part of the job, Syd, just waiting.”
“It requires more discipline than anything else we do. Come, have a seat and let the ‘old guy’ fix you a drink. I happen to know where the mistress hides her liquor.” His voice was smooth and inviting. Patrice followed him to the fireplace and sat while her old friend lit the small fire and crossed to the antique walnut cabinet to pour them each a brandy. Returning, he handed her the drink and seated himself across from her. They drained the snifters slowly, looking at each other now and then but never uttering a word.
=====
Angelo pressed his hands to his ears and was near panic as he felt Alicin’s anger erupt into a destructive fit of temper. He hugged himself and rocked as her anguish unfolded in front of his teary eyes. It caused him physical pain to see and feel such turmoil, yet he could not will himself to leave her. He would stay hidden and wait. And then he would decide what to do next.
=====
Joanna ventured into her patient’s room once the racket had stopped and all she could hear were the last of the young woman’s frustrated shouts as she gave herself over to long, heart-rending sobs. Alicin was curled into a corner of the chaise lounge, rocking herself gently with her body turned to the colorful glass lampshade. The IV port was still taped to the back of her hand although the bag of glucose solution and the line that connected her to it lay on the floor across the room. Joanna assessed her patient to be uninjured and covered her with a blanket from the bed. Without a word, the PA sat at the very foot of the chaise and studied the figure before her. Woman, child, vulnerable, aggressive, fearful, volatile, hostile, needy, unapproachable, likeable, smart. What a bale of contradictions! ‘We can’t help you until you let us, she thought.
“I wish I knew what to say that would prove to you how much I—all of us—want to help you,” she softly pled aloud, “to get you away from Raines. The man’s overdue for payback. What he let happen to you is criminal. Word on the grapevine is he’s not going to walk away from this one. And neither is the man that attacked you.”
“Men.”
“What?”
“Men…suits …two of them,” she said faintly. Alicin fixed her gaze on the stained glass lampshade. Her voice was hollow.
The PA was distressed by the words and sat quietly for at least ten more minutes, waiting—hoping—that she would get more information, only to find that Alicin had finally fallen asleep. She turned the knob on the lamp that switched power to the faint nightlight in its base and quietly exited the room.
=====
He dropped into her room on cat feet and turned the knob on the lamp until it ‘snicked’ off and the room was pitched into darkness. The only light now was a slice of ‘noon on the equator’ that spilled under the door from the hall. He made sure that the door to the doctor’s office was locked before he approached the sleeping figure on the chaise.
Angelo needed to see her memories again and he knew the chance he was taking should she awaken. There was no sedative to keep her asleep this time, but he felt compelled to be here, to do this despite her earlier display. Cautiously, he grasped the edge of her blanket, concentrating on the friend emotions he had felt. He searched, attempting to encounter the smiling face she remembered. He dared to lay a hand on her back and was rewarded with a few scraps of the remembered warmth. Focusing on that warmth, Angelo sank deeper into awareness and felt himself being swept along on a wave of emotion that was quite pleasant. He recognized the woman in blue swinging a much younger version of Alicin in her arms. Her fatigue is allowing this, he thought. This is a good thing. More warm. Friend feelings. Laughing now. Children laughing. Where are they? Air tunnels. Eddie. Jarod. Miss Parker. Alicin. Alicin. Alicin. Someone else. The smiling boy! Alicin. The smiling boy. Alicin and the smiling bo-” As if by force, Angelo was thrown onto his back on the carpet!
He sat up, eyes wide, trying to understand what Alicin had just revealed to him. He crawled to the edge of the chaise, shock in his eyes. The ambient light in the room revealed her profile, her upturned nose and long eyelashes and pouty albeit chapped lips. “Alicin?” he whispered, not aware that he was speaking out loud. “Alicin long time ago. Knew Eddie. Knew Miss Parker. Knew Jarod, too. Smiling boy is…is…Timmy!” He held his head, trying to draw out his own memory of those days. Those days before Raines had decided to tamper with the natural order. The days before the little chair. The days before Angelo. The days of Timmy. Of Timmy and Alicin and the others. The memories were there, ready to dawn on his awareness. He needed help to get them out. Later. Right now he wanted to share in the friend feeling, in a time when he was Timmy instead of Raines’ freak.
He settled himself at the foot of the chaise, his head, shoulders and arms resting on the cushion, memories drifting back like a mist while he watched the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept. He hadn’t meant to, but in the warm glow of what he had just experienced, Angelo drifted into deep, peaceful sleep. Hours later he wasn’t even aware that the door had opened and someone had quietly stepped inside.
End Part 7
TBC
Feedback is always welcome.
You know where to find me!
Summary: Dr. Patrice introduces herself to Alicin. Alicin doesn’t trust Sydney. Angelo witnesses a startling display of emotion and receives a shocking revelation.
Alicin Wonderland
By Lizz
Part 7: Visiting Hours
1996—Day 1
Alicin’s Room
Evening
Alicin sat up with a start when Dr. Patrice entered the room. “I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to alarm you. My name is Dr. Patrice. I’ve been taking care of you. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been drugged and thrown down an elevator shaft, not necessarily in that order,” came the flat reply.
“You’ve had a rough couple of days, judging from your injuries. I’ve ordered something for the pain. Let the nurses know when you need it. Would you like something now?” The doctor walked to the meds cabinet and started to unlock it.
“No.” Alicin feigned interest in the blanket binding and did not look at the doctor when she replied. Her eyes grew wide and her heart started to pound when Dr. Patrice produced a syringe and a vial of clear liquid from the cabinet. She scrabbled to the headboard of the bed and crouched as if ready to break for the door. “What is that for?” she croaked. Fear was apparent in her voice.
“It’s an antibiotic. Some of your injuries were infected.” The young woman was not persuaded. “Here, see for yourself,” she said and held out the small bottle for Alicin’s inspection.
“Strong medicine, considering I don’t feel any stinging anywhere. So why?”
“Most of your injuries were cuts and scrapes, some of them showing early signs of infection. But you have two wounds on your left shoulder that are definitely bite marks and definitely of human origin. By comparison, an animal bite is much less dangerous in terms of infection. So you get broad spectrum until I’m satisfied that nothing took root, so to speak. How about you give me your hand and I’ll inject directly into the IV?” The patient proffered her hand. As the doctor slowly administered the medication, she thought of the other reason for it, namely the prevention of any STD the attacker may have passed on.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Dr. Patrice continued to talk to her patient. “Alicin, do you remember what happened to you? Any part of it? Who did this to you?”
Alicin shook her head and said nothing.
“There’s no one here to be afraid of, Alicin. We want to help you get well and part of getting well is talking about what happened.” The doctor paused, waiting for a reply. “Alicin?”
No response.
“Perhaps later, then,” the doctor concluded.
‘Not likely,’ she thought.
Just then the door swung open and Alicin jumped again as Sydney stepped into the room. She leaned close to her doctor and hissed, “Why is he here? Mr. Raines took me to him. He works for him. I don’t want him here. Make him leave!”
Dr. Patrice answered in a soft voice, “Sydney doesn’t work for Mr. Raines. He’s works in the Simulation Labs. Your group provides research for them, doesn’t it?”
The young woman nodded. So he works with Pretenders, Alicin thought. She grew up with pretenders, a fact she shared with no one. She worked with a pretender, in point of fact. His ability deemed not strong enough to warrant full-time assignment as a pretender, Eddie was found to be a first-rate researcher and was assigned to Alicin’s panel. They had become friends even before that, although she couldn’t remember when. The doctor’s voice recalled her attention. “Then you also know that project protocols require separation of the two entities to avoid bias.”
Sydney stepped to the foot of the bed to address Alicin. “I hope you will not find me guilty by reason of association with Mr. Raines. In my job, it is difficult to avoid crossing paths with him. We rarely see eye to eye on matters we discuss. That is most often due to our very different philosophies of science.”
Alicin studied him for a moment. “You don’t like him either, do you, Doctor?” She said at last with a wry smile.
“My opinion of Mr. Raines is not relevant to my work.”
“Well, it’s relevant to mine!” she shot back and then quickly reined in her emotions. He may not have raised his hand to her personally, but Raines surely had permitted everything that had happened to her in the last six months. And now the very man Raines had handed her over to was asking for her trust! What caliber of idiot did this man take her for? Hot tears rose to her eyes, but were held in check by the sheer force of her will. She summoned enough sarcasm to spit out, “Why don’t you just find what’s wrong with me and fix it, Doctor, and send me back!” Sydney was taking it all in with a practiced eye.
Dr. Patrice spoke to Alicin. “I should leave the two of you alone to work this out…”
“NO! I want him out of here. NOW!”
The two doctors exchanged looks of surprise and frustration, and then Sydney crossed to the door. He turned and said, “I understand your hesitation, Alicin. But I give you my word, I want to help you in any way you will permit. Should you change your mind, please let Dr. Patrice know.” And with that, he was gone.
“You were pretty hard on the old guy, don’t you think?” The doctor started with amusement in her voice.
“Oh, shut up!”
“Alicin!”
“Go To Hell! And take the old guy with you!”
“Alicin, please, just-”
“Get Out!” The doctor stood motionless in shock. “I Said Get Out! GET OUT!” An enraged Alicin was standing on the mattress, stabbing a finger at the door as she screamed. As Dr. Patrice moved toward the door, she was hit in the back by a pillow, and then another, and another. She turned to chide her patient just in time to dodge a plastic water pitcher that splashed its contents on the wall behind her. The doctor beat a hasty retreat to the hall.
In the hallway, Patrice leaned against the wall next to Sydney and exhaled sharply. “That went well, I thought,” Sydney said quite seriously, casting a sidelong glance at his friend. She punched him in the arm—hard—and walked into her office without a word.
Shouts and the sound of wood and plastic bouncing off walls could be heard in the hall. Sydney rubbed his arm and looked at Joanna and her staff standing around the duty desk, trying their best to look as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. They stood frozen like four rabbits on predator alert. He smiled, walking over to them. “I’m not certain which room is the more dangerous now,” he stated with an air of mild amusement. “Give her some time,” he said nodding in the direction of Alicin’s door, “to get the anger out. When the tantrum slows down, make sure she hasn’t hurt herself. In the meantime, you could look in on your boss…?”
Four sets of hands rose to decline the offer, accompanied by four heads vigorously agreeing with the hands. Then four sets of eyes watched Sydney walk into the den of the lioness.
=====
Patrice was standing at the door that joined her office to Alicin’s room, listening to the angry screams turn into frustrated shouts and then into weary sobbing. The doctor’s eyes were moist. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. “This is the hardest part of the job, Syd, just waiting.”
“It requires more discipline than anything else we do. Come, have a seat and let the ‘old guy’ fix you a drink. I happen to know where the mistress hides her liquor.” His voice was smooth and inviting. Patrice followed him to the fireplace and sat while her old friend lit the small fire and crossed to the antique walnut cabinet to pour them each a brandy. Returning, he handed her the drink and seated himself across from her. They drained the snifters slowly, looking at each other now and then but never uttering a word.
=====
Angelo pressed his hands to his ears and was near panic as he felt Alicin’s anger erupt into a destructive fit of temper. He hugged himself and rocked as her anguish unfolded in front of his teary eyes. It caused him physical pain to see and feel such turmoil, yet he could not will himself to leave her. He would stay hidden and wait. And then he would decide what to do next.
=====
Joanna ventured into her patient’s room once the racket had stopped and all she could hear were the last of the young woman’s frustrated shouts as she gave herself over to long, heart-rending sobs. Alicin was curled into a corner of the chaise lounge, rocking herself gently with her body turned to the colorful glass lampshade. The IV port was still taped to the back of her hand although the bag of glucose solution and the line that connected her to it lay on the floor across the room. Joanna assessed her patient to be uninjured and covered her with a blanket from the bed. Without a word, the PA sat at the very foot of the chaise and studied the figure before her. Woman, child, vulnerable, aggressive, fearful, volatile, hostile, needy, unapproachable, likeable, smart. What a bale of contradictions! ‘We can’t help you until you let us, she thought.
“I wish I knew what to say that would prove to you how much I—all of us—want to help you,” she softly pled aloud, “to get you away from Raines. The man’s overdue for payback. What he let happen to you is criminal. Word on the grapevine is he’s not going to walk away from this one. And neither is the man that attacked you.”
“Men.”
“What?”
“Men…suits …two of them,” she said faintly. Alicin fixed her gaze on the stained glass lampshade. Her voice was hollow.
The PA was distressed by the words and sat quietly for at least ten more minutes, waiting—hoping—that she would get more information, only to find that Alicin had finally fallen asleep. She turned the knob on the lamp that switched power to the faint nightlight in its base and quietly exited the room.
=====
He dropped into her room on cat feet and turned the knob on the lamp until it ‘snicked’ off and the room was pitched into darkness. The only light now was a slice of ‘noon on the equator’ that spilled under the door from the hall. He made sure that the door to the doctor’s office was locked before he approached the sleeping figure on the chaise.
Angelo needed to see her memories again and he knew the chance he was taking should she awaken. There was no sedative to keep her asleep this time, but he felt compelled to be here, to do this despite her earlier display. Cautiously, he grasped the edge of her blanket, concentrating on the friend emotions he had felt. He searched, attempting to encounter the smiling face she remembered. He dared to lay a hand on her back and was rewarded with a few scraps of the remembered warmth. Focusing on that warmth, Angelo sank deeper into awareness and felt himself being swept along on a wave of emotion that was quite pleasant. He recognized the woman in blue swinging a much younger version of Alicin in her arms. Her fatigue is allowing this, he thought. This is a good thing. More warm. Friend feelings. Laughing now. Children laughing. Where are they? Air tunnels. Eddie. Jarod. Miss Parker. Alicin. Alicin. Alicin. Someone else. The smiling boy! Alicin. The smiling boy. Alicin and the smiling bo-” As if by force, Angelo was thrown onto his back on the carpet!
He sat up, eyes wide, trying to understand what Alicin had just revealed to him. He crawled to the edge of the chaise, shock in his eyes. The ambient light in the room revealed her profile, her upturned nose and long eyelashes and pouty albeit chapped lips. “Alicin?” he whispered, not aware that he was speaking out loud. “Alicin long time ago. Knew Eddie. Knew Miss Parker. Knew Jarod, too. Smiling boy is…is…Timmy!” He held his head, trying to draw out his own memory of those days. Those days before Raines had decided to tamper with the natural order. The days before the little chair. The days before Angelo. The days of Timmy. Of Timmy and Alicin and the others. The memories were there, ready to dawn on his awareness. He needed help to get them out. Later. Right now he wanted to share in the friend feeling, in a time when he was Timmy instead of Raines’ freak.
He settled himself at the foot of the chaise, his head, shoulders and arms resting on the cushion, memories drifting back like a mist while he watched the steady rise and fall of her chest as she slept. He hadn’t meant to, but in the warm glow of what he had just experienced, Angelo drifted into deep, peaceful sleep. Hours later he wasn’t even aware that the door had opened and someone had quietly stepped inside.
End Part 7
TBC
Feedback is always welcome.
You know where to find me!
