“I don't have to help you, either,” Seth said.
“Just tell me what you want me to do,” Heather said.
“Use whatever influence you do have to make it seem like Jenny isn't a threat,” Seth said.
“I'll try, but I've already filed reports—”
“Tell them your reports were wrong.”
“They'll think I'm crazy.”
“That's fine with me.”
“Will you help her now?” Heather asked. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.
“If I do this, you work for me from now on,” Seth said. “If I need you to steal information from your job, you'll do it. If I need you to falsify reports, you'll do it.”
Heather looked at her daughter. “Of course I will,” she whispered.
“If I need you to commit a crime, kill somebody, or soak yourself in gasoline and light a match, you'll do that, too.”
Heather gaped at him.
“I'm not joking,” Seth said. “If I save her, you owe me everything.”
Heather frowned, but she nodded her head. “I'll do anything for her.”
Seth stared at her for a minute longer, then he took a breath and turned toward the little girl in the bed. He took one of Tricia's hands, and Tricia winced at the pain of being touched. Her eyes opened.
“Are you a doctor?” Tricia whispered.
“Not exactly,” Seth said.
“It's okay, honey,” Heather said.
Seth could feel the healing energy flow out of him and into the girl. He pushed it harder—the girl would need a lot of help.
Tricia gasped and squeezed her fingers tight around his. Seth took her other hand and concentrated.
Her little green eyes grew wide as the color returned to her skin. Her heart monitor accelerated its beeping. Seth could feel the energy draining from him, filling up the girl, dissolving the disease inside her.
After a few minutes, he staggered back and dropped into one of the room's chairs, exhausted. Tricia sat up in bed, smiling, looking radiant.
“Tricia?” Heather asked. “How do you feel, honey?”
“I want to go to Six Flags,” Tricia said.
Heather laughed and hugged her daughter.“You look so good, sweetie.”
“That should do it,” Seth said. “Have them test her as soon as you can, so she can get off the chemo.”
“Oh, thank you.” Heather turned to Seth, her face covered in tears now. She leaned down and hugged him tight, inadvertently burying Seth's face in her breasts. “Thank you so much.”
“Just remember our agreement.” Seth's voice was muffled against her shirt.
“I won't forget. Anything you want.” Heather beamed at him for a minute, then turned back to her daughter, who was wide awake and cheerful, talking about a dream she'd just had involving a Panda bear and a roller coaster.
When Seth felt a little better, he stood up and stretched. He walked around the curtain, to where the other little girl lay sleeping. She looked like she was wasting away.
Seth touched the girl whose name he didn't know, and again felt the healing energy drain out of him, repairing and healing her body.
He glanced back at Heather, who was talking happily with her daughter. Then Seth wandered out of the room.
He moved into the next room, and then the next, healing every cancer-stricken child in the ward. By the time he finished the last one, his body felt hollowed out, his eyes sunken, his muscles like scraps of rags.
As he stumbled out of the last room, two nurses confronted him.
“Can we help you?” one asked.
“Oh, no,” Seth said. “I'm fine.”
“I've just seen you go in and out of three different rooms,” the nurse said. “What are you doing?”
“Just visiting the kids,” Seth said. He was so exhausted that he was about to pass out. He wondered how he looked to them—like some crazed drug addict, probably. He leaned against the wall, working to keep his balance.
“We're going to need you to leave this hospital,” the nurse said. “Immediately.”
“No, wait,” Seth said. “Heather, tell them I'm okay. Heather?”
Tricia's room was at the other end of the hall, though, and Seth was too tired to speak very loudly. It looked like he was speaking to an imaginary person, which didn't help increase his credibility with the nurses.
“I'm paging security,” the nurse said.
“No, I'll go,” Seth said. “Just tell Heather I'm outside.”
The nurses stayed close behind him until he stepped onto the elevator. Seth made it to a bench outside the hospital's sliding front doors, and then he sat and waited.
Heather emerged about twenty minutes later. “Getting some air?” she asked.
“I got kicked out.”