The Empath Cycle: 2001 It Takes One - Book 2

"I know. I spoke to your Director and he told us that he couldn't support your project because of cuts in government funding. He said someone with your background and specialization is wasted 'changing bedpans', as he put it. He thinks you could do so much better."

"With all due respect, sir, I feel I'm making a difference for my patients and if I have to help the support staff occasionally, I don't mind. They're good people and we make great strides under difficult circumstances. If you're offering me a job, I'm afraid I must decline. I'm fine where I am, working with my team. I won't abandon my patients."

"I see the reports on your dedication weren't exaggerated, doctor, and I respect that. So we will end this meeting now so you can make it in time for supper at your brother's. I've been pulled over three times this morning, once by the Chief himself, to pass on the message and I shudder to think what would happen if we kept you too long."

The woman laughed wholeheartedly, laugh lines temporarily replacing the stress stamped on what must be a beautiful face when relaxed.

"His wife must have put him up to it. She says I don't visit often enough."

"Béatrice, that woman is on the edge of a major burn-out. She needs a serious change of pace." The Chairman told the woman seated at his right. "Would you do your magic and figure a plan to pry her away from her present situation?"

"Sure thing, Jack. I could see she needs us as much as we need her easily enough." She told her cousin. "It may beneficial to us in more ways than one too. Lucia needs a boost in self-confidence and this project of hers could be just the thing."

"I agree. Keep me appraised of your progress. Now, I propose we adjourn this special meeting of the Board. There are children waiting at my house for their grand-father to spoil them outrageously."

"Hear! Hear!"

The thick door crashed against the wall making the people in the office jump in their seats.

"ROBERT, YOU JACKASS! HOW MANY TIMES TO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO BOTHER ME WHEN I'M WORKING!" The woman who had almost taken the door off its hinges roared. "Mrs. Béland is in crisis and that set off Mr. Éthier across the corridor. I have only fifteen minutes to settle them both before the group session with my schizophrenics. So you can take your Budget Committee or your Planning Committee or whatever else and shove it up your ass. Or, better yet, get Desjardins to do it. He's probably in his office making his damned black tea or humping Nurse Blakeley."

She was on her way out when the presence of her boss' visitor registered. She searched her memory for a name to put to the familiar face. Then it dawned on her.

"Hello, Mrs. Bearclaw. It's nice to see you again, but I'm afraid you wasted your time. As you can see, I'm busy and I already told you and your Board that I'm fine where I am."

"No, Claude, you're not." Her boss said kindly. "And this outburst is yet another proof. So, sit down while we talk. It's not a request, Claude."

Doctor Xavier looked ready to explode, but the calm looks directed at her defused her temper. She took a deep breath and consciously opened her tightly clenched fists before she walked to the offered seat.

"Claude," her boss and friend said, "you're overworked. You haven't taken a vacation in all the years I've known you unless I kicked you out so you could attend to a funeral, a wedding or the christening of your goddaughter. You're frayed at the edges and it shows more and more."

"I... It's not..." She tried to refute the statement, but she knew it to be true. She had known it for a long time and she couldn't ignore it any longer. She rubbed her hands on her face. "It's all I have, Robert. It's all I am and you know it."

"No it's not. You managed to convince yourself of it, but, deep down, you know it's not true. And now, you're on the verge of mental and physical collapse. If this lady hadn't come to me with a solution, I would have been forced to put you on medical leave indefinitely and recommend you seek treatment. Thankfully, I think her offer is just what you need, so listen to her. Please, Claude."

"All right. Sorry, ma'am. I'm not usually this bad tempered. You've caught me at the wrong time."

"Think nothing of it Dr. Xavier. We all have bad days." Béatrice told her. "First, in the spirit of full disclosure and so you won't feel I'm blindsiding you in any way, I must confess that I spoke to your family and I have a message for you. It seems a young Marie-Claire misses her auntie Claude."

She paused a moment to hand a tissue to the woman.

"I also spoke to some of your friends, so I know of some of your history and why you buried yourself in your work all these years." She shook her head in answer to a startled Robert's questioning look. "This is private and it will stay between you and I, Dr. Xavier. No one else needs to know unless you choose to tell them."

"Thank you." Claude told her. "It's a part of my past that needs to stay buried."

"Well... About that... Have you ever heard the expression 'it's a small world'?"

Claude looked at her warily.

"You see, the Director of our clinic heard your boss here talk about your recent training trip to the Gesundheit! Institute and it peaked her curiosity, so she researched Dr. Adams and sent her assistant there to gather more information which she then presented to the Board as a project. And here I am."

"If you're leading to what I think you are, you wasted your time. I'm not interested." She said firmly. Standing up, she turned to her boss. "I'll take the medical leave now, Robert. You owe me enough vacation time that it won't be a problem for either of us."

On these words, she walked out of the office, stopped at her ward to tell her team they would have to do without her for a while, but that she would be back soon enough, walked to her car and left.

When the trio walked to the club entrance, the two bouncers blocked their way in.

"No men are allowed in and who do you think you are to cut ahead of the line like that?"

The women in said line who were already shouting at them looked forward to the expected confrontation. The security at Rainbow Rose was known to be strict and this promised to be an interesting show to alleviate the boredom of the wait.

Half shouted catcalls and salacious invitations to the short petite woman with straight light blond hair framing her cherubic features as they ogled the mouth-watering ass obviously naked under the skin-tight shorts she wore and the generous amount of cleavage overflowing from her half-unbuttoned blouse.

The other half whistled at the six-foot amazon flanking her. She was a regular at the club and the subject of many wet dreams as very few had ever been lucky enough to be the object of her attentions. Clad in tight black leather pants tucked in biker boots, she sported a sleeveless leather vest that barely covered her muscular torso and left her tattooed arms bare.

"You should know better, Andrea." One of the bouncers told her uneasily as she looked up at the deceptively sensual features framed by short dark hair. Herself a big woman and a known bruiser she respected the woman's strength and viciousness in a fight which she had demonstrated a while back when she came to the aid of the staff facing a gang of butches who had decided to take over the club for the evening.

"This is my friend and we need to go in for a few minutes." She told them in her husky voice. She was about to push through the obstacle when said friend stepped in front of her.

"Allow me, Baby Bear. Ladies, please push that button in your pocket and call your boss. But don't wait too long. You are about to be in big trouble and you don't know it yet." The average sized man told the bouncers. Dressed in regular blue jeans, white t-shirt and jogging shoes, with shoulder-length brown hair and wearing Ray-Ban gunmetal glasses, he looked utterly unprepossessing, but something in his voice commanded respect, so the women did as instructed.

Appearing as quickly as if she had been standing behind the door, the security boss bowed to the man.

"I'm glad you came so quickly, sensei. I just left a message on your machine."

"We have been looking for her. You're the third bar we've been to." The man told her.

"Whatever, I'm glad you came. She's been drinking like a fish since she got here, then she tried to pick a fight with the meanest butch in the place. She told her femme that she could do much better than a butch bitch. I barely managed to separate them. I gave the women a couple of free drinks and asked Olivia to keep her busy until you arrived. She cried for a while, but now she's almost raping her in the booth I cleared for them."

"Thank you, Charlie. We'll take care of her now."

"I don't know what to say, sensei. She's usually so nice. It's like she's somebody else."

"She is. She's in a bad place tonight. My friend is parking the car right now. He'll be here soon. Please let him in."

"As if they could stop him." The petite woman snorted.

The head bouncer showed them to the back of the club where Claude was assaulting a young woman.

When Charlie had asked her to divert the tall woman's attention for a while, Olivia had only been too happy to oblige. In the last months, she had tried more than once to seduce her, only to be rebuffed every time. When she had begun to cry, Olivia didn't know what to do. This was the last thing she expected. After a while, the woman had looked into her eyes and had smiled. Olivia thought she would get some nookie at last.

At first, the woman had hugged and kissed her tenderly, but when Olivia put her hand on the woman's leg, she had stopped kissing her and let out a long low drawn out "Yessssssss!" Taking that as an encouragement, Olivia had moved her hand higher, kneading the flesh. She hadn't reached her goal yet when the woman looked at her with a grin full of lust, but also with something feral in her eyes. It scared her.

The woman literally growled as she pushed Olivia against the backrest of the booth and kissed her aggressively, savagely, restraining her by grabbing her hair with her free hand when the younger woman tried to push her away in rising panic.

When the trio arrived at the table, they could see that Claude's hand was moving frantically under the young woman's skirt.

Cherryl tried the soft approach.

"That's enough, Slim. She's not Lucia. Let her go."

She jumped back when Claude turned and bared her teeth at her. "Get lost, bitch!" She snarled malevolently. "You took her away from me once, but I won't let you do it again. She's mine. Do you hear me? SHE'S MINE!"

Gaétan held his wife lovingly as she wailed away at the pain she had held inside for so long. Only he knew what it had cost her the night they had rescued Lucia. It had taken her a week to finally talk it out during which time, she refused to go out, hardly eating and sleeping, long sessions of wild sex her only succor as she reassured herself that she had come between her two friends who loved each other so deeply only to save them from the trauma that would assuredly have followed if they had given in to their desire under those circumstances.

He turned to Andrea to ask her to take over just as her brother walked in the door. He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the two women following him. The first he knew and he could make an educated guess on the second's profession.

"Therapist Erikson arrived an hour ago and we were waiting to hear from you at your place. We heard the message so we rushed over." Mrs. Bearclaw told him.

"Thank you for that. This is much worse than we expected. We tried to keep an eye on her over the years and she seemed fairly stable. I never expected her to break down like this." He told the old woman.

"It's my fault, I'm afraid. Without knowing the details, I may have sprung the news about Dr. Morgan too lightly when I thought I was giving her good news. I had a bad feeling when she walked away. That's why I went back to see you and called for some specialized reinforcement."

"I think you need to know the whole story if you're going to help her." Cherryl said, looking up.

"Are you sure, love?" Gaétan asked his wife.

"I am. It's time to heal our own wounds too."

While they were talking, Therapist Erikson was trying to get Claude to let go of the terrified woman without success. She turned to the group.

"I need some help here. Could you remove this table, please?" She asked Andrew who was crying unabashedly at seeing his best friend in such distress.

Without a word, he stepped forward and ripped the table out of the floor. When he turned, holding it as if it weighted nothing, he looked sheepishly at Charlie. "Sorry. We'll pay for the damage."

"Don't worry about it. It was wobbly anyway." She gulped, then smiled at him. "Give me a call and we'll talk about... hum... the table."

Béatrice moved to the newly opened space and knelt in front of Claude.

"Dr. Xavier... Claude... This is not your Lucia. You're scaring her. You don't want to do that, do you?"

"NO! I let her go once. I won't do it again. I love her. She's mine!"

Therapist Erikson needed to be discreet in her calming projections to Claude since it wouldn't do for the public to become aware of such talent, so it took a while for them to transfer Claude from her death grip on Olivia to a gentle embrace in the therapist's arms. Béatrice quietly pulled the young woman away, reassuring her.

"Easy now, young lady. It's over. You were never in danger. She thought you were someone she loves very much. She would never have hurt you."

Once satisfied of her stability, she transferred her to the waiting people.

"I asked her to do this." Charlie said softly. "I'll take care of her." She walked away, her arm around Olivia's shoulders.

As they walked by, Cherryl saw the woman's bright blue eyes and shuddered. 'She couldn't have picked a worse one if she tried.' She thought.

Eventually, they felt it was safe to walk Claude out of the club to a quieter environment. Before they left, Charlie spoke quietly to Andrea, then walked over to her brother.

"Give me a call. Soon." She told him, slipping a piece of paper in his jacket's breast pocket. "I always wondered if Andrea had a brother."

Surprised, but flattered by the look she was giving him, he assured her that he would. He watched the beautiful redhead walk away in amazement. A lesbian bar was definitely the last place he had expected to have a woman come on to him.

Later, at Gaétan and Cherryl's place, Béatrice spoke with them while Sille, Therapist Erikson, sat by Claude's bedside, doing her best to ensure she wouldn't be troubled by unwanted dreams.

"I may be only a retired family doctor, but I can safely say that your friend is suffering from physical and mental exhaustion. She needs to rest, first and foremost. Only when she is stronger will we be able to address the underlying problem which brought her to such dire straits. Young woman, you intimated earlier that there is more than meets the eye at play here."

"Yes, ma'am. Something happened years ago. We thought she had worked through it, but, obviously she didn't. If that's the case, Lucia may be at risk too." Cherryl told the old woman.

"Béatrice, please, or Bee. I have a feeling we'll get to know each other very well in the next weeks and months. That would explain a lot about Dr. Morgan and I have a feeling Dr. Xavier is not the only one who has tried and failed to work through what happened." She said, looking at Cherryl.

"I... Hum... No, Mrs... Bee..." She began, then turned to Andrea. "Please, Baby Bear, could you leave us. This is grown-up stuff." She finished with a grin.

Her friend took her hands and leaned so she could look her in the eye. "I'm three years older than you, Squirt. If you want to talk about your being a closet lesbian, I already know. You're not as discreet as you think."

Cherryl freed one hand and put it tenderly on Andrea's cheek. "I'm not a closet anything, Baby Bear. I'm full-blown bi-sexual and I'm only discreet about it because not everyone is as sweet and open-minded as you are." Leaning forward, she softly kissed her friend, running the tip of her tongue on her lips and biting her lower lip. "It you want tips on carpet munching, we'll talk, but this involves your brother, my man, Claude and Lucia. I'm not sure you want to hear this. Even Andrew doesn't know everything."

"Ladies," Béatrice interrupted gently, "there is no urgency. As I said, our first priority is to rebuild her strength. I wish we could take her to the institute, but I'd prefer not to until we can ascertain how it would affect Lucia. So, tomorrow, we will move her to an isolated cottage near St-Jovite where she will have a quiet environment and still be near us in case of emergency. I will ask a MD to examine her and to determine the best course of treatment in concert with the therapists who will be assigned to her. Obviously, Sille, Therapist Erikson, will be one, but we need at least another if we're to keep this from Lucia. So, I suggest you discuss this among yourselves and we will make arrangements for you to meet with her attending therapists soon to bring them up to speed. They will also work with you, young lady, so you are ready when they need to bring you in for Claude's treatment."

Seven months later, the Board had a surprise for their Director.

After the last item on the agenda was done with, the Chairman raised his hand to forestall the automatic proposition to adjourn the assembly.

"Ladies and gentleman, there is a last point I would like to bring to your attention. Dr. Morgan, some months ago, you submitted a project to this Board, then you didn't follow up. That's your prerogative and you must have had your reasons. However, you had intrigued us sufficiently that we kept looking into it... Paul, that was you cue." He told the man closest to the door with a grin.

"So, Dr. Morgan, after long negotiations, we finally managed to buy the contract of the woman who started all this for a pair of season lift tickets at the nearby ski resort and future considerations. I believe you know her."

Lucia had begun to rise from her seat to greet the person. She fell back when she saw who it was, tried to get back up another time only to fall back again.

Several people around the table chuckled at her reaction while others watched anxiously, including Claude.

'Why did I withdraw from your life, my love? Why didn't I fight for you?' She thought.

Having been told in advance of Lucia's history since she saw her last and having agreed to the plan of action hadn't completely prepared her for their meeting.

Where was the vibrant, healthy young woman with the ready smile? Where was the sparkle in those beautiful blue eyes? When had this thin, sallow skinned, pale imitation replaced her? It nearly broke Claude's heart to keep a straight face and smile.

"Surprise! If I'd know who I would be working for, I'd have paid for the lift tickets myself and come running all the way to the boondocks."