xp_logs | (no subject)

Terry answers the phone and finds herself speaking to the only man who can save Haroun.

The mansion felt like it was holding its breath. No one knew what was going on down in the medlab but there were enough signs that it was something worse than just the regular "really, really bad". Terry had taken to hiding in the front room, playing her guitar. She was slowing picking her way through a Mozart piece when the phone started ringing. She picked it up automatically, "Xavier's?" Not quite the standard greeting but Terry wasn't feeling particularly polite.

"Yes, my name is David," the voice came over the phone, calm and bearing slight traces of a German accent. "I am a... friend of Elisabeth Braddock's. To whom am I speaking?"

"Terry Cassidy. Miss Braddock is… busy right now, can I take a message?" She set her guitar aside and moved to grab the notepad and pen that lived next to the phone. She didn't actually know where Betsy was but she would bet that it was someplace off limits to her right now.

"Terry," David said with a small laugh. "For Theresa, I would expect. Theresa, I happen to know that Elisabeth has a friend who is in dire straits, and that you most likely have doctors attending to him right now. His condition will not improve without treatment, and I am going to need you to write down exactly what I am about to tell you. Do you understand, Miss Cassidy?"

Terry's heart stuttered for a second as she scribbled what he'd said so far. "It's… just Terry," she replied numbly. She took a deep steadying breath, certain somehow that this man wasn't joking. "Go ahead. I'll make sure she gets it word for word."

"First he will need a steady dose of methyltricyclate, careful not to overdose him. His immune system will go into shock, but that will be needed for the next stage. Repeat that back to me, Terry."

David continued speaking, enumerating various stages of treatment; drugs, radiation, the constant importance of monitoring the patient's immune response. Six notepad pages later, he stopped his narrative.

"This is what is needed to fully kill all remnants of the foreign presence in his system. Tell me, Terry - this man, this Haroun, is he a good man?"

Haroun? Terry nearly dropped the phone. Oh god, Alison… "He's stubborn. And he can be harsh and unbending. He… yes, he's a very good man. " Her voice shook, "Is he going to be okay?" She sounded very young for a moment.

A long pause was the only answer for a while, then a small sigh. "Take that paper to the doctors, Terry Cassidy. Do this, and he may yet live. Give Elisabeth my regards, and my thanks."

A barely discernible click, then dial tone.

Terry replaced the phone very carefully, recapped the pen. She took a deep breath, trying to stop shaking. Then another. Then ran like mad for the medlabs.