Chapter 2

In the past week Jason had been poked, prodded and pinched in every medical manner possible (and a few impossible). He bore it all with good grace and a smile that had become his calling card around the hospital.

"Well Jason. Are you ready for the results of all these tests that we have abused you with?" asked Dr. Barbara Stinson with a slight grin.

Grinning just as wide as the doctor, Jason shot back "Sure, as long as you don't try to tell me that I have to start preparing a will!"

They both laughed over that. One of their earliest tests was to verify if the tumor that had been diagnosed before was still actually there. When it hadn't showed up on scans, every administrative big wig and surgeon on the hospital's staff had screamed to be allowed to do an exploratory surgery to verify the findings. Tumors didn't just fade away.

Intervention by Dr. Stinson and Janet Andrews had quickly smacked the surgeons and other quacks back into their cages, but they still wanted to get their hands on Jason. All the commotion caused by the change in his condition had made Jason rethink quite a few things, the first of which being 'reading' the thoughts of people coming into his vicinity. Most of the people were concerned about his well being, but there were a few that saw dollar signs and wanted to 'own' a piece of him.

After his initial pangs of conscience, Jason only had a few encounters that required him to 'read' the other person. Two people had actually attempted to abduct him. He carefully considered the situation and then asked his power if it could "watch out and warn him of people that were bad for him and his family". Curiously, every time Jessica came into the room, his alarm bells went off.

Thinking about the two would be abductors made Jason *very* uneasy. In addition to the evil nature he felt, it was as if they weren't really all there. The consciousness he had touched seemed artificial in nature, but their intentions bled through the façade. Another troubling part to the two was the fact that both of their attacks were almost identical. He caught onto them both when they tried to take him away from his tests.

Each man came at a different test, but the manner in which they came was disconcerting. They both had a syringe of some drug in their back pocket, they both had the same "persona" and the weird part was the same strange medallion around their necks. Slipping into the office of each testing site, he had called security and told them some strange guy dressed in hospital orderly clothes was hanging around him. In each case, security came and took the would-be orderlies into custody. It was easy to escape them once he knew they were there to take him, but the fact there were two that got to him had left him slightly unnerved.

Coming back to the present, he asked Dr. Stinson "Well. I take it that our time here has come to an end?"

"Quite so. I can honestly say I have never been so glad for a misdiagnosis. It seems that whatever the problems were to begin with, they are gone now."

"In that case, may I ask a favor, doc?" Jason inquired.

"By all means, please ask whatever you like. I don't know if I can grant it, but we will try to do our best by you." stated Dr. Stinson. One of the other effects of the commotion caused by his miraculous recovery was that the powers above (hospital administration) had decided to assign Dr. Stinson to Jason Andrews for the duration of his stay.

"Well, I really do appreciate everything you and the hospital have done for my family and me." Jason stated. Glancing at his mother, he continued "But, there have been some problems with security. Those two guys that were trying to abduct me, well, they made me see that I need better privacy. I was wondering if the hospital could lose my information and id. Basically make it so I was never here."

Dr. Stinson sat back and let out a deep sigh "Jason. Officially you know that the hospital can never accommodate such a request. However, I think that with the proper circumstances, your files could 'walk away'. I will be the first to say, I have wondered about that since the trouble you had. Unofficially, of course." She said with a little smile.

Jason grinned at her, about to drop a bombshell in the room "You mean like those files you have 'walking' in your bottom left hand drawer?" He had known, of course. He had planted that suggestion to her last week. Hearing the gasp from the doctor, Jason hurried on "I just want my family safe. If someone was willing to come after me here, would they come after me at home?" He knew the truth that he was a safe as he could be now, but he needed to make the good doctor think about his family's safety too.

Shaken, Barbara Stinson realized that this boy knew that she carried off a few of his records. How he knew was troubling her. "Well. It seems that you have things under control now. So, what are you going to do now?" She inquired.

"I think it is time for my family and me to go home. Honestly, I think we've been in this place too long." He said with a grin.

"Ok. I happened to agree. You are becoming too big a flirt with our nursing staff" she grinned back at him "It's time to consider this a done deal. Thank you Jason. I've rarely had the pleasure of knowing a young man such as you."

"The pleasure has been all ours, Doc. What else do we have to do to get out of here?"

"Nothing. We will start getting the rest of the paperwork out of the way and finalizing the billing. Hopefully, by this evening, we can have you on your way and in your own bed for tonight. Does that sound good?"

"Excellent Doc. Now, where are those fine nurses I have been flirting with? I need to say goodbye!" Jason joked with her. He felt good, knowing that in a few short hours he was headed home.