Chapter 7: Diagnosis
#7 of A Shockingly Pleasant Change
Diagnosis When we got to the hospital, we went to the emergency section. We didn't go to the Woodstock Hospital like I expected. Instead we went to the London hospital. I was hoping to see Em in there somewhere, but then I remembered that she was on vacation, plus she worked in the children's wing. That was a definite shame. I'm sure she'd love to see me like this. "Em works here." I told my mother. "What does she do?" Mom asked as dad signed me with the receptionist. "She's a nurse in the children's wing." I told her. "Oh, that's right. You told me that once." She smiled and nodded, hugging her purse. Many people were staring at me, but I didn't care. I only paid them attention because it felt like their eyes were burning holes in me. This wasn't casual glancing, this was flat out staring. I bet most people thought it was a suit. "It's not a suit." I said aloud so that people would hear me. "Keep it down." Dad hissed. Sam looked to a man in a wheelchair. "It's not a suit." He confirmed. "Sam, shut up!" Dad growled. With all his hissing and growling, I'd mistake him for a furry. The receptionist gave dad a sheet of paper and told us to sit down. She too was looking at me with a sideways stare. "It's not a suit." I reassured her. This didn't stop her from staring. The four of us all sat down in the waiting room, and Dad had to start up with me. "You know, getting a job is going to be hard looking like that." He stated matter-of-factly. "I know dad, I'm not too worried about it." "You could get it fixed." He said. "No I can't, and I don't want to." I said dryly. "Rick, leave him alone!" My mother scolded him. He shut up. I guess he didn't want a fight in the waiting room. I didn't either, frankly, I didn't want to hurt someone if he pissed me off too much. The staring continued. "So, you think their eyes have tractor beams in them?" I asked my brother, loud enough for those around me to hear. He just laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. You must be pretty sexy." I laughed with him. "Yeah, drop dead sexy." I don't even think anyone noticed that I wasn't wearing any clothes aside from my cloak, which was actually open, my genitalia out for all to see. Well, metaphorically, technically I had a sheathe, so nobody saw the shaft. Maybe they saw the balls but weren't paying attention. After a grueling 25 minutes in the staring...no, waiting room, the nurse came out and told us to come in. The nurse took us down the boring, regular, everyday hospital rooms until she instructed us to go in a small room with a small bed and a few chairs for the family. She tried to be polite, but even she stared at me. I wasn't sure if I liked this attention or if it was making me go a little batshit. "We should have taken you to the vet." My father said as the nurse left. "Richard!" My mother backhanded him playfully and she laughed. "Dad, that's enough. I know this is funny and fucked up to you, but you have no idea what's really going on do you?" "What do you mean? It looks to me like you're somehow a giant walking, talking tiger now." "Well, there's that, and there's a few other things." I said. Mom looked at me sideways. "What kinds of other things?" She asked inquisitively. "Yeah Gordon, what kinds of other things?" Sam asked. "Telekinesis? Mind control? What else? I know there's more!" I grinned, not sure if I should disclose what I could do. I figured the healing was something good enough to show them, but not too fantastic. "Okay, do either of you have a knife or anything on you?" I asked them. Sam reached into his pocket to get one of the small folding knifes dad made when he worked in a factory. "I do! Here." He handed it to me. I opened the knife and pressed it against my arm, but my mother lunged at me. "Gordon, no!" She shrieked as she tried to grab it from me. I just pulled away. "No, trust me and watch." I said calmly as I pressed the blade into my flesh beneath the fur and gave it a quick tug, a gash opening down my forearm. Not in the veins though. Again, there was very little pain, no more than if I'd scratched myself with my nails. Mom gasped a little and looked away, Dad cringed a little. Sam just stared at the open wound with renewed interest. "Cool!" He said enthusiastically. "See?" I reassured as I held out my arm to my parents. The gash had already stopped bleeding, and the little bit of blood that seeped out had already been soaked up in my fur. From the depths of the gash to the top, it sealed itself and scabbed over, the scab quickly drying up and falling to the ground in what appeared to be a pile of ash. "Oh my god." Mom said, "That...it healed almost instantly!" I smiled. "Well duh, that's why I did it." Dad just stared, still mesmerized by the speed of the healing of the wound. "Now tell me that's not a useful talent." I taunted him. He just shook his head in disbelief. "What are you going to do? Heal yourself on the street corner for money?" I just shook my head in frustration. He just wasn't getting it, was he? I guess it was a father's job to remind you how inadequate you are. I should really thank him for being a jackass someday, I guess he's just hoping I'll be stronger and more able in the real world. You can't really blame him for that. And in all fairness, I wasn't a normal human being anymore. I gave back the knife to Sam, who went to slice himself open. "Sam!" I growled as I knocked the knife out of his hands. It was really intimidating growl. "Don't do that!" "Sam, why would you do that?" Mom asked, her breathing now rapid with fear. "I was gonna see if Gordon could heal me too." Sam said. I just shook my head. "I haven't tested that theory yet, I don't know if I can heal others or not, and I don't want to risk it with you. And I'd prefer if you kept your mouth shut about what I can and can't do." He just slumped back in his chair with a deep sigh. I don't blame the kid, but at the same time, I didn't want to see him hurt. I knew deep down inside that he knew what Runa could and couldn't do. I needed to make sure he knew not to tell everyone what Runa was capable of, or I'd be expected to entertain guests. It wasn't a pretty thought. Sam sat beside me and began poking me repetitively. I found it kinda annoying, but at the same time, I knew his curiosity. Had he turned as well, he would have become a black fox, and that was kinda cool. A few minutes later, the door opened. "Well, I can see from this report that you have an abnormal HOLY HELL!" He yelled as he got a glimpse of me mid sentence. "What is it doctor, am I going to make it?" I asked mockingly. He held his forehead with one hand and backed up, eyes wide. "I, I've never seen this before." He said. I rolled my eyes. "Of course you haven't." I said coolly. "That's why I'm here. Do some tests, see what's made me this way." He just looked around, absolutely shellshocked at what he saw before him. "Yeah, um, okay. Mr...Gordon.
? Can you please come with me?" He asked. "We have to take some blood, if that's okay with you." "Sure, I think I can do that. Does my family come?" "If they really want to." He said, then left the room. We all followed. Down more and more hallways until we reached another room. Here, he took a blood sample and some hair of mine. He also took my blood pressure, checked my eyes, checked my ears (which he had a hard time examining, due to their shape,) and asked me a bunch of questions that I was sick and tire of hearing. "How long have you been like this?" "Two days." "How do you feel?" "Like I could bench press a Buick." "Any symptoms before the change?" "Felt a little nauseous." As it turns out, my symptoms were completely new and had never been seen before. Go figure. As it stood though, my blood pressure was high, but he said that given my partially feline physiology, it was expecte. My eyesight was phenomenal, well beyond anything he was capable of testing. My hearing was also quite versatile, able to hear far higher and far lower frequencies than the human ear. He tested my reflexes, superhuman. He tested my agility, superhuman. That was all to be expected. I even showed him how I could cut myself and heal. He was awestruck, but in a good way. I could almost feel the gears working in his mind. He actually asked me for a hunk of flesh so he could examine it later. I happily obliged. That kinda hurt though, and it took a rather long time to fully heal over. A total of like 15 minutes to heal loss flesh. That was a good thing to know, the difference in wound healing times. A gash can be sealed up in about a minute, but replacing flesh was a considerably more detailed agenda. When we were all done, the doctor shook my hand and told me he would get back to me. Dad still was unimpressed. "You're still a cat, nobody's going to hire a cat." he said as we left the testing room. "Look dad, give it up. As far as I'm concerned, I'm physically superior to any human being. Frankly, I'm sure there's some dude out there who would get past my obvious physical differences to accept my for my qualities. And think of..." I was about to tell him about all the possibilites, but I was cut off by yelling in the halls. "Move! Move!" I heard a woman say. "Blood pressure is dropping, his vitals are failing doctor!" Another woman said. "Get me to the OR, this man needs medical attention!" Obviously it was an emergency. I saw a convoy of men and women pushing a stretcher down the halls towards us. "Out of the way!" One of them yelled at me. My mother and father quickly ducked into a room with Sam, and tried to take me with them. I brushed them off and stayed in the hall. I could see what happened clearly with my feline eyes. His leg was broken in two places, his face was mangled, and he had a gash up his side that they were trying to keep closed until they got to the OR. Probably a car wreck. "Yo kid, I said MOVE!" One of the nurses yelled at me, impervious to my fur. My parents tried to grab me again to pull me into room, but I resisted, and stayed in the hallway. I breathed in heavily a few times, nervous for what I was about to try. I was, after all, a Jysar now, and we Jysar help one another. We always help the needy when they need us. It was Jysarian nature to help. Annoyed with me, one of the nurses rushed forward and tried to push me out of the way a second before the stretcher got to me, but I pushed her out of the way and intercepted the stretcher. I held it still for a moment despite the yelling that was directed at me. I drowned out all the yelling and concentrated on the man on the stretcher. I had three nurses trying to pry me away, but I was too strong. I reached down to the cart and pressed my hand on the patient and focused on the feeling I got when I healed my wounds. The patient, a young man no older than myself, breathed in deeply, eyes open. I heard a loud crack as his leg rearranged itself. The sound was so loud, I heard my family poked their heads out in curiosity, but they stopped when they saw what I was doing. His face stopped bleeding immediately, and the skin began to heal over, the scabs and blood disappearing beneath healthy human skin. The gash closed shut within seconds, and the bleeding instantly stopped. The scabs crusting over like my own wounds. In the course of less than a minute, the man was breathing normally, eyes open, staring at the ceiling. Partially aware, but still in shock. I released my hold and fell back. My arms felt weak, like I'd been holding weights out for too long. I also felt a little dizzy. I gave one of the nurses a quick wink, then I let myself fall. "Vitals are stabilized doctor." One of the nurses said quietly. "His breathing is regular." I stood up with the aid of my family as the doctors and nurses pushed the stretcher past me and to what I assumed was the operating room. One of the doctors looked back at me with a puzzled look, but continued on his path without really slowing down. "What did you do?" My mother asked quietly. "The right thing to do." I responded, sounding almost drunk. I looked my father right in the eyes. "Still going to tell me I'm useless?" I asked. He didn't answer. "I have to get the fuck out of here." I told them, "it's too cramped in here." I walked away, leaving the three of them stunned in the hall. Sam caught up to me after a moment of hesitation. "That was awesome! You can do it!" He said, glee oozing from his glowing face. "Yeah, I guess I'm motherfuckin Jesus, huh? Take me to your cripples!" I laughed. Sam laughed too. We both laughed together, and we left the hospital, getting a sea of stares again. And these people in the waiting room didn't know what I did. As we were all leaving for the car, my parents too awestruck by what happened to talk, I heard a doctor yelling at me, chasing us down. "Hey you! Yeah, you!" he said as he ran down the parking lot at me. "What?" I asked, for some reason too tired to really focus on being polite. "What did you do in there?" He asked, a wild look in his eyes. "The right thing to do. That's just how it is. But don't tell anyone, I can't be on call 24/7." He just stared at me, puzzled. "But, you...you're....you're a miracle worker!" He said, barely stopping to catch his breath. "I didn't think that young man would make it, and now it's like nothing happened!" I shrugged. "Well, let's pretend nothing happened, and please don't bring him out here, I don't really need to be anyone's hero." I said wryly. He just stared at me, not knowing what to do. "Gordon, don't be so rude!" My mother said before she stepped into the truck. I also obliged. I didn't talk to the doctor any more, I just left him standing there as dad drove the truck out of the parking lot. We were halfway home before anyone said anything. "You could be a doctor." Dad said.