A Grip on Reality Ch. 02

"Of course, of course," Perry hurried on, "but we haven't done that formally, and they're waiting to hear from the CEO on it."

"What Perry is trying to say is that the bank was floundering without a CEO at the helm," Cilla said, "so he has stepped in to take over that role, just until you're well, of course. And to make sure our interests are covered, he asked me to serve as Executive Vice President."

Perry was stunned. "But, how can he do that? I'm the CEO and the largest shareholder. You can't just push me aside!"

"Of course not, darling. No one's pushing you aside. We've just gotten Judge Gray to grant me power of attorney for your affairs, darling, just until you're well again. It was the only way we could keep things running smoothly while you're in here and - you know - fighting your illness."

"You had me declared incompetent?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"Believe me, it was the only way, darling," Cilla said smoothly. "Besides, it's only until you recover. Then everything will be back the way it was before."

To Gina's eyes it looked as though someone had let all the air out of Ben. He seemed to shrink into himself, and he slumped back against the wall behind him. "If it's the only way . . . I understand. It's just a little hard to take, you know?"

Gina wanted to rush to him and console him in his obvious distress, but then from the corner of her eye she spotted the second-shift nurse signaling to her. Reluctantly she said, "Ben, I have to go now. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Sure, sure," he said listlessly.

Perry spoke up, "I think we should go too, Cilla. We don't want to interfere with the operation of the hospital."

As Gina finished putting her notes together for the shift, she watched the two of them go out, talking earnestly with each other in low voices. She ground her teeth in anger. Even if what they had done had been necessary, surely there was a better way they could have presented it, she thought.

When she was done she made her way to the stairs leading to the parking garage. As she walked through the shadows she suddenly heard voices arguing and she stopped stock still. The hospital was in a safe neighborhood and she'd never had any trouble before, but Gina knew that a woman alone always needs to be ultra-careful.

"Not here!" she heard a woman's voice hiss, and she immediately recognized Cilla. Intrigued, Gina slipped closer, trying to see what was going on.

"Come on, Cilla, it's done now. Ben's out of the picture and we're in control. There's no need for hiding any longer."

"Oh, crap, that's Perry Bergen's voice," Gina thought. "What the hell is going on?"

"Perry, it won't do us any good if anyone finds out before all this is over. Now if you'll just control yourself long enough to drive home, I'll show you why patience is a virtue."

Gina couldn't hear the man's response because the engine of his car suddenly roared to life. Then, as she crouched behind a pillar, the car sped off down the ramp to the street.

"Omigod," Gina thought as she headed home, "Are Cilla and Perry having an affair? That bitch - I wouldn't put anything past her!"

She found her brother helping their mother fix dinner, and Gina pounced on him. "Quick, tell me, did you get anything on Cilla Mitchell?" she demanded.

Marco got a sly look on his face. "You know, Gina, I did look into Cilla Mitchell, and I have to thank you for asking."

"Why? What did you find out?"

His sly look had turned into a broad grin. "I found out she's the hottest looking woman I've seen in a long time!" he chortled. "It was definitely a pleasure checking her out."

Gina was not amused. "Fesso," she yelled at him angrily, "I want to know what she's really like. I think she's having an affair with Ben's partner and the two of them are up to no good."

Marco's smile was replaced by a knowing look. "Well, that would fit the pattern."

"What do you mean?" Gina demanded.

"According to the information I got, she was married to a guy in Miami like she told Ben. And here's a coincidence: he was a banker too. But she didn't leave him because he was abusive. In fact he was the one who gave her the heave-ho when he caught her cheating on him. He also gave her the back of his hand, which is how she got that busted nose."

"Didn't she take him to court for that?" Gina wanted to know.

"I'm afraid our gal was pretty naïve back in those days. She didn't know that her hubby was the banker to some pretty rough characters in the import business, if you know what I mean. Apparently some of those guys paid her a little visit and explained that if she wanted to keep the rest of her face intact she'd better accept her hubby's offer and get the hell out of town. They must have made themselves clear, because my contacts at Miami PD said she was on a plane out of there the next day."

"I guess she must have used the settlement she got from him to go to Wharton," Gina said, remembering what Ben had said.

Her brother chuckled. "Maybe her flight from Miami connected through Philadelphia International Airport, but that's as close as she ever got to UPenn. She attended Florida Atlantic for a couple of years when she was younger, and that's it for her formal education."

"That bitch!" Gina growled. "She's been playing Ben for a fool the entire time! I can't wait to tell him what she's up to now."

"Slow down, Sis," Marco said. "It's not a crime to tell a few white lies to make yourself look better to a potential husband. If it were, we'd have to arrest half the people on Match.com! And as for cheating, what proof do you have? Yeah, what you heard in the parking garage sure sounds suspicious, but there could be another explanation. Besides, your patient's already clinging to his sanity by his fingernails. Are you sure you want to loosen his grip any further? You need to go slow, girl."

Gina took a deep breath. "I guess you're right," she said reluctantly, "but I'm going to watch that woman like a hawk. She bothered me from the first minute I saw her, and everything you've told me makes me just that much more suspicious of her."

Marco grinned slyly at her. "You're just jealous that she found Ben before you did."

"I am NOT! He's just a nice guy who needs help, and he's sure not getting it from his wife."

"Sure, Gina, sure," he said, still grinning.

The next morning Gina still wasn't certain what to say to Ben. The conversation she'd overheard was certainly provocative, but she had to admit that it was less than definitive. "And Ben is so fragile right now," she thought.

Just as she finished the hand-off from the third-shift nurse, her cellphone went off, and when she pulled it out of her pocket she saw that it was her brother calling. "I'm warning you, Marco, I don't want to hear any more of your teasing this morning."

"This is no joke, Gina. We just got word that Perry Bergen was found dead in his home of an apparent heart attack. I thought you ought to know."

"Omigod, Marco, that's terrible! I guess I've got to tell Ben, but it's going to be really hard on him. Perry was his best friend. Still, I don't want him to find out some other way. Damn, damn, damn!"

When she went into the rubber room, Ben was sitting quietly on the floor. He looked up to see her and a brief smile crossed his face, but then he seemed to slip back into apathy. "It's the drugs," Gina thought, hating that they had that effect.

She came and sat down beside, taking his hand in hers. "Ben, I have some bad news to tell you."

When she had finished, he began to moan. "I can't believe Perry is gone. He was here in this room only yesterday. Why, why, why?"

He moaned again and Gina realized that he was perspiring heavily. She looked at his face anxiously and saw that his eyes were unfocused. "No!" he yelled suddenly, "Make it stand still!" Then he began babbling, his face contorted by fear.

The desk nurse must have heard him because her voice came over the intercom. "Are you okay, Gina? Do you need me to get Ed?"

"Not yet," Gina yelled back, half pleading. "Let me stay with him a little longer and see if it helps."

"Okay, Gina, but don't take any chances," came the disembodied voice.

Ben was writhing on the padded floor. Gina scooted closer to him. "It's alright Ben. I'm right here. Nothing's going to hurt you."

He continued to make unrecognizable sounds, but they didn't seem as frenzied to Gina as they had a moment ago. She reached over and rubbed his back with her hand. He flinched but he didn't try to get away. Encouraged, she continued to rub his back, murmuring soothing words to him. He shifted around blindly, his head bumping into her thigh. He lifted up slightly and then let his head fall into her lap. She held his head with her left hand and rubbed his back with her right, crooning to him like a mother comforting a frightened child.

Gina was so focused on trying to calm him that she lost track of time. Eventually she realized that he had fallen asleep. Gently she eased herself out from under him and pulled a foam pillow under his head. Then she walked quietly to the door and let herself out, locking it behind her.

"Are you alright? The desk nurse asked anxiously. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, why would you think that?"

The woman pointed silently at her face. Gina walked hastily to the ladies' room and looked in the mirror. Only then did she realize that her make-up was streaked with tears.

She kept watch over Ben for the next few hours, but he continued to sleep. Finally, late that afternoon he began to stir, and when Gina noticed she hurried back inside.

Ben raised his head groggily and looked at her uncomprehendingly for a moment. Then something clicked and a look of despair came over him. "It happened again, didn't it? One moment we were talking and the next everything started to go crazy. I saw your face melting and there was a weird taste in my mouth. I tried to warn you but all that came out of my mouth were colors."

He looked at her helplessly. "I really am insane, aren't I?"

Gina grabbed his hand and squeezed it to emphasize what she wanted to say. "Ben, don't you see, this time was different. Yes, you had another episode, but it only lasted a short while. And you came out of it on your own - we didn't have to knock you out or strap you down. I don't know what's going on clinically, but I have to believe this is a sign of improvement."

"It didn't feel like improvement to me," Ben said bitterly. "My brain stopped working right just the way it did before." Then he paused and seemed to think about his experience. "But it didn't seem as bad as last time, and I wasn't as frightened. It was still scary, but somehow I felt like I could get through it okay."

Gina didn't say anything, but inside she was glowing. This episode was much milder than the two others he'd experienced, and the fact that he'd been able to throw off the effects by himself seemed highly encouraging to her. And, if she were honest with herself, she felt gratified that she'd been able to help him get through it. "Cilla couldn't have done that," a little voice whispered, but she brushed it aside.

When her shift was over, Gina stayed later to look over Ben's records again. The fact that his experience this time was so different seemed significant to her, but what that might suggest she had no idea. She reread his entire file, looking for any clue. In particular she went over his blood work again, hoping to find some imbalance or deficiency that might offer an explanation. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and at last she gave up and left.

When she got home that evening she was surprised to find Marco waiting. "What's the matter, big brother, did the deli quit serving free food to cops?" she asked with a smile.

This time, however, Marco wasn't in a joking mood. "I came over because I wanted to hear what happened with your patient today."

Gina's smile evaporated as she told him about her patient's latest episode. "But I helped him, Marco. I was able to calm him down and he came out of it much sooner than the last two times. I think that's a good sign."

Marco looked at her appraisingly. "Sis, I know I'm not a doc, but I have to tell you your patient is taking LSD. Look, everything fits: the sudden onset, the wild hallucinations. I tell you he's had a couple of bad trips."

"But they're not all the same," Gina protested. "His episode today was very different from the previous two."

"Did you tell him about Bergen?" Marco asked.

"Yes," Gina said hesitantly.

"Well, there you have it. He had a flashback brought on by stress. It's a pretty common phenomenon."

"Marco, I'm telling you he's not on LSD. They did all kinds of tests on him when he had his first episode. They didn't find anything."

"Okay, so what kind of drug testing did they do?" he wanted to know.

"A urinalysis, of course. That's what the federal government mandates. They found nothing."

Marco nodded. "And how long after he went bananas did they test him?" he wanted to know.

Gina thought back, trying to recall the records she had just been reviewing. "Well, the onset of his first episode was around 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday. They kept him in the rubber room until Sunday, when they could get him to General Hospital for testing. Then they did all sorts of imaging on him. If I remember correctly, it wasn't until after they got him back to Longview that they did the blood work and urinalysis."

"So it could have been 24 hours or more," Marco said knowingly.

"So what?" Gina shot back. "A urinalysis can detect drug usage up to several days after use."

"Not LSD," Marco said. "That stuff can clear the urinary tract in as little as a couple of hours." When he saw Gina start to protest, he held up his hand. "Listen, I know you're the medical expert, but I'm the expert when it comes to drug testing. So how long after his second episode did they wait to run the tests again?"

"They didn't. There was no need - he was in the hospital. Everything he ingested came from there. There was no way he could get drugs."

"You're absolutely sure he didn't ingest anything from outside the hospital?"

"Well, I did bring him a cup of coffee from the Starbucks stand in the hospital lobby - but I promise you I didn't drug him!"

Marco didn't even grin at that. "I don't even have to ask about the banquet. There was so much eating and drinking going on that drugging him would have been easy to do. But the hospital episode is a stumper. You're sure nobody else brought anything in?"

"Nobody but Cilla Mitchell - she brought him a cup of Starbucks too. But if someone had laced the coffee with LSD, half the hospital would have freaked out."

At Cilla's name, Marco perked up. "Does he take anything with his coffee - sugar, cream, one of those fancy toppings?"

"Just sugar."

"Then that's it," he said with certainty. "It was in the sugar packets. It would have been easy to pick up a couple of packets and doctor them at her leisure." He saw Gina start to protest and he went on quickly. "Come on, Gina, you're a nurse. You know how fine hypodermic needles are. And don't forget: LSD is odorless, colorless and tasteless. Somebody could inject a drop or two into a sugar packet and the user would never know anything was wrong until the walls started melting!"

"Then we've got to do something," she said urgently.

"Whoa, don't go off half-cocked there! All this is just you and me speculating about what might have happened. On the other side we've got a well-respected psychiatrist who says I'm dead wrong about what happened to Ben. And even if Ben's wife was messing with her husband's mind so she could pursue an affair with his partner, how could you prove it? That guy is now a body in the morgue. At this point all you can do is keep looking."

Gina shook her head. "I guess you're right, but I don't like it one bit."

Marco gave her a sharp look. "Just one thing, baby sister: keep your eyes open in that loony bin. Know what I mean?"

She nodded unhappily.

When Gina went to work the next day, she again found herself in a quandary about what to say to Ben. She felt it would be a mistake to bring up her suspicions for fear of upsetting him again. She'd already seen first-hand what the news of Perry Bergen's death had done to him and she didn't want to bring on another episode. Nor did she want to ask any questions about Cilla. As far as she knew, Ben had no doubts about his wife. For Gina to make accusations would risk alienating him. Eventually she decided to keep their conversations low-key and as normal as possible. Nevertheless, her brother's words stayed with her and she felt uneasy and unable to relax.

Two days later something happened that really set off her paranoia. In mid-afternoon the desk nurse flagged Gina down and told her that she was to take Ben up to Dr. Adenauer's office on the sixth floor. That order was so unprecedented that Gina had to ask the nurse to repeat it. Neither of them could ever remember a patient being taken to the executive level, and that set off alarm bells in Gina's head.

To stall for time, Gina asked the nurse to round up a wheelchair for Ben while she went to the ladies' room to "make herself presentable." Once in the restroom Gina grabbed her cellphone and called her brother. "Marco, something's happening here that really upsets me," she told him. "You need to get over here - stat."

When she explained the strange order she'd received, Marco's voice took on a skeptical tone. "What's so weird about that?"

She tried to explain how out-of-the-ordinary this was and how uncomfortable it made her. "Patients never go to the sixth floor - never. I don't know what's going on, but after everything that's happened I feel very uneasy about this, Marco. Something about it just doesn't feel right. No, something about it feels very wrong. Please, Marco, please."

She could almost see him shaking his head. "Gina, I can't just bust into the Chief Medical Officer's suite and demand an explanation. A stunt like that could get me fired. And anyway, I'm really covered up with work here. I'm sorry, Sis, but I just can't get away."

"I'm scared, Marco," she said, but he'd already hung up.

She put the phone back in her pocket and looked at her face in the mirror. "Come on, Gina, it's probably nothing. Besides, whatever happens, you've got to be strong for Ben. You don't want to scare him into another attack."

When she came out she had calmed herself a little. The desk nurse had found a wheelchair so Gina took it and opened the door to the rubber room. Then she went in to explain their excursion to Ben as best she could. He was curious about the visit to Dr. Adenauer's office, but taken aback at the sight of the wheelchair.

"It's hospital policy, Ben," Gina reassured him. "This way you can't fall and sue Longview for negligence. We wouldn't want you to have an accident." Ben grudgingly complied.

When the elevator stopped on six, Gina wheeled him out. This was the first time she'd been on the executive floor and she looked around with interest at the furnishings. Unlike the terrazzo on the floors where she worked, this floor had thick carpeting that made it somewhat difficult to push the wheelchair. "They sure aren't expecting patients up here," she thought apprehensively.

When she neared the end of the hallway she was startled to see Ed open the double doors to Dr. Adenauer's office suite. "Ed, what are you doing here?" she asked nervously. The way the big orderly looked at her always made her uncomfortable.

"I'm just here to make sure there are no disturbances," he said with a grin as he stepped back to let her enter.

At first Gina saw no one else present, but then she spotted Dr. Adenauer talking with Cilla Mitchell out on what appeared to be a large balcony. "Come in, come in, Ben" Adenauer said jovially. "I'm so glad you could join us today. Bring him over here, Nurse, so we can all sit out here and enjoy the afternoon sunshine."