“How are you feeling today?” Betty asked. Betty has been Jennifer’s nurse since she arrived. She was an older woman, in her mid forties. She was tall and skinny, although her belly was starting to become rounder. She had short curly brown hair with only a couple of gray strands.
She was cheery today, just like every day. Jennifer almost hated her for it, or more precisely forcing her to act cheery all the time too, so she could bond more effectively with her. It had worked though. Even after only a few days they were like best friends.
Jennifer also worked hard to develop a report with Malcolm, the guard that was stationed in her room. Malcolm didn’t talk very much, Jennifer suspected he was under orders not to. She had talked for days before he would say anything other than one word answers to direct questions. Finally she found an in, his daughter. He would talk for hours about his daughter.
“Better than yesterday,” she said, answering with a big smile. “How are you today? Is your daughter still causing you trouble?”
“You know how pregnant woman are. I’m going to be a grandma I still can’t believe it,” she said. “How about you? Are their interviews still wearing you out?” She was taking Jennifer’s blood pressure.
“It’s getting easier,” she replied. “They haven’t come up with any new questions the last couple times. They just ask the same old questions in different ways. You know how it is.” Jennifer lifted her arm so Betty could take her pulse. There was silence as Betty was counting heartbeats.
“Your blood pressure is getting much better. Does it still hurt?” she said. She went over to the cabinet and grabbed a syringe.
“It’s getting better. Slowing but surely,” Jennifer said. “I’m sure I’ll be able to make your daughters baby shower if that is what you’re worried about.” Betty looked taken back, but Jennifer gave her a big smile. She thought it was a little underhanded, reminding her that she was a prisoner here through no fault of her own. But Jennifer had to convince her to risk her job, and possibly her freedom to help her and Myra to escape.
“Well we don’t want to take it too fast,” she said. “You just take your time healing. I’ll bring you pictures of the baby if you’re not out and about by then.” Jennifer could sense her uneasiness under her smile, but she gave her a big smile back.
Betty had just finished injecting Jennifer’s IV with medication. She had opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Secretary Stone barging in the room. He gave Jennifer an angry look as he walked up to her bed. He then looked at Betty and forced a smile, “Can you give us a minute, Ms. Cunningham?” he said.
She considered it for a moment. Jennifer could tell she wanted to tell him no, but couldn’t figure out a good excuse for doing so. Finally she relented. “Of course,” she said with a pleasant smile.
She headed towards the door. Duke then turned to Malcolm who was standing at attention with his rifle at his side. “Ensign, I’m going to need you to wait outside as well,” Duke said.
“Yes sir,” Malcolm said immediately. He then saluted and followed Betty out the door.
Once the others left, he turned back to Jennifer. She suspected what was going to come next, but didn’t say a word. “I need you to tell me who you really are,” he said.
Jennifer considered how to answer the question. She wasn’t concerned with herself, but her answer could have significant consequences for Myra. “I’m the same person you fell in love with and the same person you married,” she began. “Just because you don’t love me anymore, doesn’t mean I’m a different person.” She had known Duke hadn’t loved her for a long time now, but admitting it allowed caused a little piece of her to die.
“I’ve seen the test results!” he yelled. “I know you’re not the same person. You’re a clone of some sort. Admit it. I need to know!”
Jennifer had never seen this reaction from him before. She thought he was going to beat her until she did admit it. He had never hit her before, although it would have been far less painful than everything else he had done to her.
“I’m me, regardless of what your tests say. I’m sure there is some other explanation for your tests,” she said.
“What explanation could there be?” he yelled again.
“I don’t know, but I am me. You have to believe me,” she yelled back.
“I’m sorry, but too many lives hang in the balance. How am I supposed to take that chance?” he asked rhetorically.
Jennifer looked at the door. She was sure Betty was listening. Betty was rather nosey. “Regardless of what you think of me, you have to believe Myra is really Myra. She needs our help. She needs her father to protect her,” Jennifer said.
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he said and shook his head. “She is speaking and writing in a language nobody on Earth knows. How is that possible, unless she is really one of them?”
“Please. I’m worried about what the others will do to her. She just isn’t well. She needs our help,” Jennifer said. She knew it wouldn’t persuade him, but right now, he wasn’t he audience. She was pretty sure she had lost the battle with him already.
“There isn’t anything I can do,” he said. She remained silent.
Betty burst in. “I’m sorry, but I need to draw some blood and get it to the lab before they leave for the day,” she said. “I’m afraid your time is up.” He didn’t argue. He just turned and left.
Jennifer wanted to crawl up in her bed and cry herself to sleep. She wished she had died on that ship. She had always known her marriage was dead, but she had deluded herself into thinking it wasn’t, that Duke still loved her deep down. Now, even the delusion was gone. She convinced herself that nobody had ever loved her, not even him. To make matters worse, a man that might actually harm her daughter replaced the only man she ever loved, and there was nothing she could do about it.
She could feel her tears collecting in her eye, but she forced it away, and put on a big smile for Betty. She would get Betty’s sympathy if she cried, but would loose her respect. She needed her respect right now more than anything.
“So what did you over hear?” Jennifer asked Betty. “It’s ok, you can tell me. I won’t tell anyone you were ease dropping.” Malcolm also entered the room. Jennifer looked at him, and tried to think of a way to get him to leave. She gave up and added, “And I’m sure Malcolm won’t tell anyone either. Will you Malcolm?”
“To tell you the truth, I was eavesdropping right along side of her,” he said with a big smile. “Although I’ll have to admit, there was no really need. That man has some powerful lungs when he gets upset like that.”
“So do you think he will really harm Myra?” she asked.
“No,” Malcolm said. “There’s no way any father would allow their daughter to be hurt like that. I know I never would.”
“Your probably right,” Jennifer said. “I just hope they don’t go around him. Nobody believes we are who we say we are anymore. I guess I don’t blame them.” She turned to Betty. “Betty, have you seen the tests he was talking about? Do you know what’s on them?”
Betty gave her a look of concern. Jennifer could tell she was trying to decide how much, if anything, she should be telling her. “Well, I haven’t seen them. I just heard your DNA wasn’t normal anymore,” she said. “Like it had been changed or something. What did they do to you anyways?”
Jennifer considered how to answer the question. “I don’t know to tell you the truth. I don’t remember. I suppose they could have run experiments on us while we slept. Don’t you think that is possible?”
“Yes,” Malcolm interrupted. “Yea, that must have been what happened. But if you are really you, then how did they change your DNA. I mean your DNA is what makes you, you right?”
“I don’t know,” Jennifer said. “Betty, you’re the medical professional here. Do you think it’s possible? I mean could it be just a side effect of an experiment, or maybe a false positive?”
Betty considered the question. “Yes I suppose. I mean cancer is a mutation of your DNA isn’t it? I suppose their experiments could have given you a weird form of cancer.”
“Yea, that would explain what happened to Myra,” Jennifer said. She had Betty. She could see it in her face. She just needed one last push. “I can understand why they are holding us prisoner. They can’t know for sure either way. But Myra is sick. That should be obvious to anybody. She needs their help, and they are doing nothing about it.”
The next day when Betty was taking Jennifer’s blood pressure, she leaned in and whispered, “I checked on Myra.” She looked at the camera in the corner of the room. “She is doing ok, but you’re right. They aren’t doing a thing to help her.”
“Please, can you continue to look after her whenever you can. I’m worried what they might do to her,” Jennifer whispered back. Malcolm looked like he over heard, but didn’t say anything. Jennifer was sure, while he might not approve, he wasn’t going to turn either of them in.
For the next couple of days, Betty gave Jennifer regular updates on Myra. It seems there was nothing-extraordinary going on. They would question her daily, just like everyone else. She seemed to be more or less back to her old self.
The third day, Betty gave different news. At first she denied it, but Jennifer could tell she was lying and prodded her to tell the truth. “Well, I saw that they have a brain biopsy scheduled. I’m sure they just found something that concerned them, and they just want to check it out.”
“You know that isn’t true,” Jennifer whispered back. “They are looking for confirmation that she is an alien spy or whatever. They’ll find it too. You watch. I don’t trust the lot of them anymore. They are too desperate to appear to be doing something, anything to calm the public down.”
Betty seemed taken back. So Jennifer was right. The people were desperate for their governments to act against the alien threat, even though there was nothing their governments could do. Jennifer pushed just a little harder.
“Don’t trust what they say. It might be partially true, but they will make Myra the scapegoat. They will harm her, and possibly torture her for no reason if that makes it appear they are doing something. Never trust politicians.”
Betty considered it for a moment. “Yes, you might be right. I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do, but they won’t even let me see her, or any of the others for that matter.”
Jennifer held back a smile. “Well, I have a friend in the press. If you could deliver a note anonymously to her, maybe we could shed some light on the situation. The people have a right to know what they are doing here.”
“I’ll find a pen and paper for you to write on. I’ll bring it the next time I check your vitals later on today,” Betty said. She was nervous. Jennifer wished there was someway of getting her to bring the pen and paper now before she changed her mind, but pushing her to hard might cause her to change her mind. Besides it would look suspicious, and that is the last thing she wanted.
A few hours later Betty brought the pen and paper. She snuck it to her out of view of the camera. Malcolm saw what they were doing, but he over heard them talk about it. Jennifer was sure if he were going to stop them, they wouldn’t have gotten this far.
“Thank you,” Jennifer mouthed to Betty. She nodded back to Jennifer. Jennifer thought about what to write, and who to write it too. She decided on Anglia Lopez. She was the kind of reporter who would sell her children for a story. She was perfect.
“Anglia Lopez of the New York Times,” Jennifer wrote. “I’m hoping you can help me. I was one of a group of people that was taken aboard the alien spacecraft. We managed to escape by causing the ship to crash. We are now being held against our will in a military base. The military are performing dangerous medical procedures on my daughter. I was hoping you could tell our side of the story. If you do, we would all be happy to sit down and talk with you about our experiences as soon as we are able.”
Jennifer had only met Anglia a few times, but she was still pretty sure she would understand the last sentence as meaning, “Get me out of here and I’ll give you an exclusive.”
Jennifer handed the paper back to Betty. Betty slide it into the pocket of her coat. She glanced over at Malcolm. He was busy pretending to look some place else. So she gave Jennifer a smile and finished her work. A few minutes later Jennifer watched as she walked out the door, and hoped her plan would work, for Myra sake.
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