Chapter 4 - One Moving Toe
Hannah walked into the sitting room before Claire could come looking for her.
"There you are," Claire said.
Her hands were empty now.
"Did you need something?" Hannah asked.
"I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Nicholas's midnight medication."
Claire smiled.
"Already handled."
"By me, from now on."
The smile thinned.
"You seem very territorial for an employee."
"Medication isn't territory. It's responsibility."
For the next six days, Hannah controlled every dose herself.
Nicholas did not have a single blackout.
His blood pressure stabilized. The shaking in his hands eased. He slept through two full nights for the first time in months.
That should have relieved him.
Instead, it frightened him.
"Say it," he told Hannah one afternoon in the rehabilitation room.
"Say what?"
"The thing you're trying not to say."
She set down the resistance band.
"You got better when the pills stopped changing."
Nicholas stared at his legs.
"Claire wouldn't poison me."
"Then somebody else is using her silver case."
He looked up sharply.
"You saw it?"
Hannah realized she had gone too far.
"I saw her near the medication cabinet."
"That's not the same thing."
"No. It isn't."
He wheeled away from her.
"We're done for today."
"Nicholas--"
"We're done."
Hannah let him go.
The next morning, physical therapist Luis Ortega arrived for a session Claire had tried to cancel twice. Luis tested Nicholas's reflexes, strength, and sensation, then frowned at the old neurological report.
"Who wrote this?"
"Dr. Merritt," Nicholas said.
"It says complete functional loss below L1."
"That's what he told me."
Luis pressed two fingers lightly against Nicholas's right foot.
"Tell me if you feel this."
"Nothing."
He moved higher.
"This?"
"Pressure. Maybe."
Hannah watched Nicholas's face.
Luis tapped the outer edge of his shoe.
The big toe moved.
Barely.
But it moved.
Nicholas stopped breathing.
"Do that again," he whispered.
Luis repeated the stimulus.
The toe twitched a second time.
Nicholas gripped the armrests so hard his knuckles whitened.
"Why didn't anyone tell me this was possible?"
Luis looked uncomfortable.
"Recovery after an incomplete spinal injury can be complicated. Progress isn't guaranteed. But I would want updated imaging."
Hannah turned toward Nicholas.
For the first time since she met him, hope appeared on his face before he could hide it.
Then Claire walked in.
She saw the three of them staring at his foot.
Her expression changed for less than a second.
Too little for Nicholas to notice.
Long enough for Hannah.
Claire stepped forward.
"What's going on?"
Luis smiled.
"Good news. I think we should repeat his neurological workup."
Claire's hand tightened around the strap of her purse.
May you like
"No," she said.
And this time, Nicholas noticed.
