Page 13 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
“A medical doctor?” She frowned. “Why the switch?”
“The uh… ambience didn’t agree with me,” he replied. “I took a break after my residency to be away from hospitals and… patients for a while. One thing led to another and here we are…” he trailed off again
“Okay then, let’s continue.” Nori nodded after a pause before she straightened in her chair and resumed going through the procedure with him, no longer bothering to dumb things down or skirt around the more technical stuff. “I’ll ask the medical team to schedule some tests over the next few days. After that, you’ll start a daily dose of p-biotics—the Phage based antibiotic-replacement that I mentioned earlier—so your body gets used to those first.
“Then we’ll do the chip insertion. Well, the team of medical doctors will do it while I watch from the viewing gallery. I’m not a surgeon. And once you’re awake, I’ll administer the mites to carry my code through your system. They’ll work together with the chip and stabilize your heart. Once this works out, there won’t be a need or market for bionic hearts at all. Or for regular pacemakers.”
“You mean if I make it out alive withyourwork, Dr. Hina and Amit’s work would essentially go down the drain,” he said. “That explains the hostility.”
“There are plenty of other fields they can pivot to with their expertise in bionic devices. I’m sure they’ll get over it soon.” Nori shrugged. “Anyway, what’s good here? I’m starving.”
They ordered two portions of pasta and soup that were marked as chef’s special on the menu.
As Nori blew on a spoonful of soup before putting it in her mouth, a stray curl sprung free from her bun to bob around with each subsequent movement of her head. She looked up from her food, and her eyes widened as they met his.
He’d been staring again.
Realizing, he hurried to duck his head over his plate.
Nori
After an anxious couple of weeksof prep work, tests, and more prep work, it was finally D-day. If Vir was nervous, he showed no signs of it as they wheeled him away for surgery.
Nori’s eyes met his briefly, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a reassuring smile.Hewas trying to reassureher.
Excuse me?
Nah. Some people were just weird like that, smiling randomly for no reason at all. It made her want to smile back, nonetheless.
She pressed her lips into a thin line and waited till Vir was fully out of sight before starting for the viewing gallery. A little way away, she turned at the sound of her name to find Fehim sprinting through the corridor.
“Nori!” he huffed, coming to a halt in front of her. “Did I miss him?”
“They just took him away, sorry.”
“Ah, I wanted to wish him luck.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Well, you too, actually. Good luck.”
“Thanks. I’m on my way to the gallery. I’m sure they’ll allow you in, if I ask.”
“I’ll walk with you.” He grinned. “You look pretty relaxed, though. I would’ve been a ball of nerves if I were in your place.” He did look nervous.
“I’m not.” Nori shrugged, glad she was born with the outward emotive range of a rock. Nobody other than herself needed to know how she was mere seconds away from barfing out the single burnt piece of toast she’d managed to force down her food pipe earlier. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s a high-precision job but minimally invasive; won’t even take that long. The real challenges lie in the next few months, depending on how his body responds to the mites.”
She kept talking, more for her benefit than anyone else’s, explaining little details to the guy like they were actually important to him, while they took the lift up to the viewing gallery. To his credit, Fehim listened attentively, bobbing his head the entire time. It wasn’t long before they stepped out of the lift and reached the end of the second-floor corridor.
Nori paused in front of the door labelled, “Cleaning Supplies.”
“Wait.” She turned, confused. “It was supposed to be right here. Second floor, last door on the left.” The only other door there was the fire exit nearby.
“It’s my first time in this building.” Fehim rubbed the back of his neck. “But I’m pretty sure the viewing gallery is on the third floor.”
“An intern told me earlier it was on the second floor.” She was sure she hadn’t heard it wrong. Or had she? The contents of her stomach swayed dangerously near barf-zone. “Let’s go.” She pushed through the fire exit, scaling the steps two at a time, with Fehim right behind her.
The suspicion that Hina and Amit had something to do with this squirmed uncomfortably at the back of her mind. They’d been relentless the past two weeks, jamming their disapproval down anybody’s throats who’d stop long enough to listen. After the first few days, she’d disengaged and just settled for ignoring them.
What would they get out of delaying her reaching the gallery by a few minutes? She wasn’t the one performing the insertion, the laparoscopic surgeon and their team were. It was so silly. She pushed the thought away.
“Over there.” Fehim exclaimed, pointing towards the correct door as they burst out of the fire exit and onto the third-floor corridor.
