"Cut off!" Jill squeaked with horror.
John nodded. "Yes, painful but necessary. I'll have to cut parts off and see if they change on their own or die and see if the appendage will grow back or your cells simply displace to replace it."
"Well, I've heard enough," Mac said dryly.
"Hmmm," Lou murmured. The psychiatrist came to his wife's side and whispered something that made her nod and move silently out of the room. The moment she was gone, Lou offered John a smile. "These sound like fascinating experiments, John. Science has always fascinated me, would you tell me more?"
He moved carefully forward as he spoke, his movements slow and cautious, his expression nonthreatening.
John frowned, looking uncertain, but it seemed keeping this all to himself for so long had been terribly difficult. He was eager to tell someone.
"I have a whole list of experiments I wish to try," he blurted, excitement edging into his expression. "I need to test her in cold temperatures and hot to see if it affects her ability to change, and see if she can now withstand freezing temperatures better than normal people. I had a huge walk-in freezer installed for that one," he admitted proudly.
Jill shuddered at the thought. Cutting parts off, freezing her… None of it sounded appetizing. She was doubly glad she'd escaped him that morning.
"Jesus."
Nick's soft horrified whisper drew her gaze to see that he'd gone pale. It seemed he was equally distressed at the "tests" she'd barely escaped.
"Yes, of course," Lou was saying solemnly his gaze moving to the door as Maggie slid back into the room. She nodded at her husband and his gaze then slid meaningfully to Mac before he put a hand on John's shoulder to turn him away. Walking him toward the windows, he said, "I can see how these would all be necessary. Tell me more."
Jill watched as Maggie and Mac started to move silently forward. It wasn't until they moved past her and Nick that she spotted the syringe the woman held in the hand that had been behind her back since entering. Eyes widening as understanding sank in, she glanced back to John as the man continued his explanations.
"Well," he was saying, "I'll have to see how chemicals affect her now too: poisons, radiation, etc. We have to know just how her cellular basis has been altered and—Hey!" John tried to whirl around but Lou and Mac both grabbed him and held him in place as Maggie pushed down the plunger on the needle she'd just jabbed into his arm.
"What are you doing? Stop that!" John tried to struggle free, but it was too late, Maggie had finished administering the shot and now backed away, leaving the two men to hold the struggling scientist.
"It's all right, John," Lou was saying soothingly. "This is just something to help you relax."
"I don't need to relax. What did you give me?" he asked, his eyes widening with horror as his words began to slur.
"As I said, it's just something to help you relax."
"But you said you understood. You wanted to hear about—" He gasped as his legs suddenly gave out. If not for Mac and Lou holding him, he would have fallen she was sure, but the men were holding him and shifted their holds to catch him under the arms and half drag, half carry him to the couch.
"I am most interested in hearing what you have to say, John," Lou assured him. "And we'll have plenty of time for you to tell me all your plans and tests at the hospital when you wake up."
"Wake up? Hospital?" John's voice was soft and confused, then his eyes blinked closed and he appeared to go to sleep.
"Well," Mac said straightening slowly away from the now unconscious man. "It's handy your being the head of a psychiatric hospital, Lou. I can't think of a better candidate for the place."
"Hmm." Lou nodded solemnly. "The man is obviously delusional. Has he always been?"
Jill's eyes widened as the two men turned in her direction in question. She quickly shook her head and said, "I don't know. I don't know him. I've heard of him, but never met him before today."
"How did you hear of him?" Mac asked with a frown.
Jill glanced nervously at Nick. When he nodded encouragingly and squeezed her hand, she said carefully, "He worked with my brother several years ago on some experiment, but it didn't work and they closed down the lab."
"Hmm." Lou turned back to the man. "Well, his attacking you, plus what he said here is enough to lock him up for seventy-two hours observation. I suspect what he says once he wakes up will be enough to keep him locked up for a while, at least until we can find a drug treatment plan that will stabilize him and rid him of the delusion that you're a witch or shape-shifter or whatever it is."