Thorn in my side
First and foremost, a short hour is spent in Denis' remarkably clean room. For a man in a state of constant disarray, his apartment was completely out of character. He bundled several things out of a neat wardrobe and into a sizable dufflebag while Karen sat quietly next to an unobtrusive power point (more essence!) watching the news.
The noteworthy events involved the river Jordan running red, a lengthy report of an outbreak of Pneumonia in East Africa, more shots of the explosion area in LA, reports of the Amazon Jungle burning across a four hundred kilometer stretch, an 8 person murder suicide in Utah, and a spree killing in Darwin, Australia with 12 deaths, and the person responsible not found.
Finding the news to be too much to think about, she turned away eventually, and found Melanie sharing with her a gaze of peculiar understanding and pain. Then she looked away, she muttered "better change that bandage."
As she did so, she clucked unhappily. "We really better have a doctor look at this. It is not healing at all... The only positive thing I can say is that there is no evidence of infection."
Karen agreed totally, keeping the bandage off the wound for a while once Melanie removed it. She looked closely at the wound.
Nothing foreign in the wound. But, perhaps, if she had access to a lab, tissue samples might reveal something, with a bit of luck.
She tried to see if there was anything special about it on the celestial level. As she sat quietly for a while she did notice that her Aura was wounded as well. This was not normal. In fact, the Panther image that was her projection of self into the celestial plane was limping on its right fore paw. Normally physical wounds do not mess with aura.
In Karen's long lifetime she had heard of other demon-caused injuries refusing to heal. But usually wounding someone's celestial form requires holy or unholy relics, or items of the Ethereal Mythos gods. It is possible that the thorn was some sort of relic. But unfortunately mythology is not one of Karen's specialties.
Karen also called out to Denis and asked him if he knew anything about botany.
Denis poked his head out of his back room, where he was still putting together his bag. "Botany? No, sorry. Advanced Biochemistry, yes, Botany, no. Have a friend who works in Applications of New species in the lab who knows a bit. Why?"
Karen mused for a moment "In the lab? the lab you work in?"
"Well... yes... in the lab I work in." He repeated, eyebrow up.
She then explained "You see I was wounded last night by a most unusual weapon. It appears to be a large thorn of some kind, but I have very little clue about such things. At least it's not any plant that I�ve ever heard of. I kept it to investigate at a later point once I had a moment, but in the 20 or so hours since the wound was made, it hasn't even started to coagulate. Even with my small knowledge of medicine I know that there's something seriously wrong with the wound, so I was trying to figure out if there was anything special about the thorn that might shed some light on why the wound is behaving in such a manner."
He seemed both interested and taken aback.
"We have a little time before the plane leaves, perhaps we could drop by the lab and see if your friend is there? Perhaps he or she might know something that could be useful? At least until I can go and get some tests run on the wound itself."
"Well... I don't really know. Have you taken it to a Doctor? They would probably have a better idea of what is going on." He moved over to her, but stood well back. There was a pause.
Karen shrugged, looking again at the wound "I was going to get Jason to have a look at it when we went to see him. He works as a paramedic, doesn't he?" She looked up to Melanie to confirm her memory, who nodded at her. She then smiled and shrugs "Anyway...he's one of the best healers I know� slight shadow of expression as both Karen and Melanie were reminded of the loss of Raphael �...and we're on our way to see him, so we might as well wait until then."
He nodded, even though he did not catch half of the meanings here.
"I wouldn't mind having a look, though..." pause again. "I should warn you, however, that I have HIV. So if you didn't want me getting anywhere near your cut, I understand. Really."
Karen nodded as he told her, showing no surprise or any other reaction than simple acknowledgment that she understood what he was saying, then chuckles softly as she held her hand out to him "While I�d appreciate a bit of foreknowledge if you were intending to exchange bodily fluids with me in any way.... I can't see there being any problem with you looking at my wound. After all, I�m the one likely to bleed all over you." She paused, still smiling "And just so you know...to my knowledge I don't have any diseases that can be transmitted by blood."
Denis smiled at her. "Ta. I always have to remind myself about that part." Shrug. Her calm acceptance of the situation had apparently done a great deal to improve his trust. He moved over to her side and took a gentle and careful look at the slowly bleeding wound. "You are right, I have no idea what could be wrong. Unless there was some form of anticoagulant in the thorn that is still in the wound... but it looks too clean for that."
Pause again. "But I could give my friend a call. She tends to be in the lab all hours. I'm sure she wouldn't mind."
Karen nodded and gestured for him to go ahead "That would be great. Anything we can do to find out more about this thing can't hurt."
"OK." He went over and dialed a number. After a brief conversation, he said. "Yeah, she says that's fine. We can go around there now if you like."
Melanie nodded. "Let's do that." She said, binding the wound again.
And so, they piled into the hire car, and off to the lab at the university.
Several minutes walk from the parking area, a white building opened into sterilized neon light and off white corridors clogged with unusual protrusions of concrete and machinery, and a low hum of electronics.
In a corner lab, a young woman of Asian background in a white lab coat and goggles blinked up from her table, and smiled. "Denis. How are you?"
�Fine Michelle. I would like you to meet Karen MacKinnon and Melanie Lonard of the Washington Police..."
She stood, lifted her goggles, removed her gloves, and held out her hand. "Pleasure. Denis tells me you have some form of weird plant causing a cut without coagulation. How can I help?"
Karen and Melanie exchanged greetings and handshakes with the young woman, then Karen nodded and pulled out the thorn in its silver amulet. Before unwrapping it she repeated the story as she told it to Denis. "So you see, if there is anything you can tell me about the thorn, then it would probably help me to no end... if it doesn't start coagulating soon, then I�m going to be in serious trouble. I'm having a friend who is a healer look at the wound this evening, but I didn't know anyone who knew about plants."
The woman nodded. "Well, let us see what we can see." And she gently took the thorn, and turned it over several times in her hands carefully.
Part the way through her current conversation, Karen's phone rang, and she instinctively picked up.
"Karen, we seem to have some news, Lynne found the Doctor who saw Nathaniel, and it seems that a Shedim was involved in a pretty elaborate setup. We're going to meet back at my place in about half an hour. Do you want to meet us, or should we give you a call? I think we are going to have to get some more help soon."
Karen seemed somewhat disturbed and distant, as if her concentration was focused on something else, but she said "That's great...but did you find Nathaniel himself? Or any sign of him? Oh and sure... I�ll meet you there, although we still have a flight before us before we reach New York. I should be back at about 7 pm. Oh and I�ll be bringing someone with me... the man Denis Shiel, who I may or may not have told you about."
"I'm not sure, I'll know more when I see the Doctor. Talk to you tonight."
"It is quite old." The researcher said after a moment. She then took the thorn itself from the housing and placed it on a slide then under a microscope. After looking at it for several moments, she grunted in dissatisfaction. "I am not sure." she said quietly, her voice conveying that this was an unusual circumstance.
Then she took a small scalpel and scraped some of the surface material off the thorn onto another slide, and had another look. And grunted again softly.
Finally she sat up. "Well. That is most remarkable." she said shortly.
"What?" asked Denis.
"Hrm. The thorn is quite desiccated, and yet very solid. I would guess it is from a plant that was picked at least a year or two ago, but it is also remarkably containing many still living cells. But... Here, look for yourself."
Denis took a peek into the microscope. "What am I looking at?"
"There are human blood cells in this scraping. And they are still alive. And not coagulating. Further, the thorn's cells have a peculiar look to them. I would have to say that I cannot identify the plant, not without a genetic test. It does not appear familiar to me at all. Further, unless I did a proper chemical test on the scrapings I would not be able to tell you what form of toxins it might be producing." She frowned, then smiled. "Most interesting indeed."
"Last, but by no means least, looking at the thorn itself, at the scraped portion, I find that under the surface, the plant matter is still alive even after however long the thorn has been clipped... and red. I think it has blood inside it instead of sap..."
Karen listened to this and nodded, a frown fixed firmly on her face "So does that mean that if any of the thorn is still within my wound - even the smallest amount - it could still be alive in there?"
The woman's expression mirrored Karen�s. "I doubt it. But one never can tell. I would take that to a doctor as soon as I possibly could, if I were you. Now, in fact."
Karen stepped forward towards the microscope "Would you mind if I had a look as well?" She looked at the sample... looking to see what they have described, then concentrating on trying to see the diabolical aura really close up to see if there was anything that would shed more light on the situation.
They stood back and let Karen have a peek. What she saw was quite vague, but mirrored what they had described. She could sense nothing from it, but then her senses were not what they used to be, and her own wounded aura did get in the way of locating celestial effects. Perhaps one of the other angels might have a better chance, she thought. Melanie had a look also and muttered something about a peculiar scarlet effect around the thorn, but as to what that meant, neither she nor Karen could tell.
"Well, I could run those tests... in fact I would like very much to run those tests, if I may. This is quite a peculiar case indeed. The chemical tests would take tonight to perform, the genetic testing a few days at least, probably till Thursday." She held out the thorn to Karen. "May I?"
Karen nodded and agreed "Do you need more samples from the thorn than you already have? If so, is it possible for you to take the samples from the thorn in time for me to take it with me. I'd really like to show it to the person we are going to see tonight." Karen also agreed to testing to her wound and sat for samples to be taken from her.
"I will do it right away. Some of the living cells would be all I need." She said, and got to work with extreme gentleness with a scalpel. That done, she handed the evidence back to Karen, and Denis and her say their good-byes.
"I should be back tomorrow or the latest the day after..." he said. "But I will call regardless to let Melinda know what I am doing. Can you cover for me with her till then?"
"Sure. Take care now." Said the helpful scientist after writing down Karen's numbers.
"Melinda�s my supervisor." he muttered to Melanie at her inquiring glance.
And onward they went. The three of them make their way back to the airport and, after a bit of waiting, onto the plane and back to NYC. A cab charge later, they arrived at the ground floor of Jason's apartment.
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