Everest ordered a black coffee, Arya an espresso, and myself a hot chocolate.

"You're going to get tired," Everest said to me as I sipped my hot chocolate, and I scowled. 

"Drink your ink."

"So, who are you?" Arya asked Everest. "You know, despite your name." 

It was morning. Seven-past-five in the morning, to be dramatically precise. Unfortunately, with most of yesterday gone to hunting Reynolds Corporation and waiting for Gemma's blasted location to show up, driving all the way to south California would have meant pulling an all nighter in order to cross a few hundred motorways. In other words, stupefyingly unsafe. Therefore, we had come to the secure compromise that it would be wiser to journey the next day. However, according to Everest's maniacal ways, that meant leaving at five in the morning pronto. 

Everest's eyes flickered to Arya's ID. Then, with an absolute non-expression, he responded, "strange, I don't see 'Director' on there," somewhat cleverly paralleling the exact words Arya used on Mark, yesterday. In order to ensure we hadn't lost Gemma's whereabouts, had she moved elsewhere over the night, I made a kind trade with Mark: his very valuable laptop, for my fifteen dollar hard drive. He was probably flipping a table, now. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" I inquired Everest. 

"What's what supposed to mean?"

"You'd still follow Director's orders if he were to give them to you?"

"That's not what I said."

"But you implied it." I raised an eyebrow. 

"Did I miss something?" Arya asked. 

"No," Everest deadpanned. 

"Then, what's wrong?" she asked me. 

"Nothing," I muttered. "Who's taking care of your daughter," I averted the conversation, "Flourine?" I added with mockery. 

"She's at my mom's," Arya replied, ignoring the judgmental look Everest gave her at the mention of her daughter's name. 

I nodded. "So what exactly do you do at Reynolds Corporation? And, how did you leave university so young? And, how did you manage to get a job at Reynolds of all places?"

Arya slumped back in her chair. "What am I, in custody?" Nevertheless, she explained how she's her past friendship with Gemma, as well as her prodigy-like talent for quantum chemistry granted her a ticket into the senior chemist position for Reynolds – one of the highest ranking positions a scientist could get at the company. 

"Finally, Gemma has done something selfless," I commented. 

For the next uneventful two hours, Arya journeyed us a significant distance away from Southern California, way above the speed limit in her black Toyota. The only reason why we didn't make it beyond two hours was because the next ten hours were ironically very eventful. 

"You're kidding me. You are sokidding me!" Arya growled, hitting the innocent stirring wheel. 

A roadblock awaited us about about a mile ahead. But not any old roadblock. This one was caused by absolute chaos. 

"How does one manage to tip over an entire truck, anyway?" Arya complained, furiously, as numerous police cars and fire brigades whizzed past in desperation. Ever growing rows upon rows of vehicles coated the road, taillights and headlights glowing in every direction. Time slowed down, and the world seemed to be at a pause. 

Eventually, it became clear what had actually happened. There was an oil leak, because some genius had decided to collide with an oil truck, of all trucks. The actual collision had taken place about a mile from the traffic jam, but vehicles were prevented from travelling any further than that one mile point. 

"This is ridiculous!"

"I'm going to strangle someone," Arya muttered. 

"How long do you think it will take?" Everest, who was sitting in the front with Arya, asked.

"Probably hours."

"This is ridiculous!"

"Find us a way out of here," Everest ordered."

"Look around, brother," Arya responded, "you see another way out?"

Everest's blank eyes followed the ambulances for a moment. Then, "what if..." he turned back to us, "what if one of us had an accident?"

"What?" Arya bit. 

"Hypothetically, if someone became ill – say they fall into unconsciousness – they'd need medial attention as soon as possible, right? And, there are plenty of ambulances here—"

"Which can drive out of this metal mess!" Arya interrupted, enthusiastically. 

I thought. "That means, one of us—"

"Not it," Arya deadpanned, and by the frosty look Everest was giving me, it wasn't going to be him either. 

"What? No!" I refused. "Are you crazy? I can't even keep my face straight for five seconds!"

"She has a point," Arya pointed out. 

"202—" Everest started. 

"Don't 202 me. I'm not moving!"

"You have to."

"Make me."

"I will."

"Woah, woah, lads," Arya spoke, "let's calm down, for a second, shall we?"

"I'm not doing it," I crossed my arms, defiantly. "Why can't you do it?" I asked her. 

"Did you not hear me say 'not it'?" Arya fired back. "And, anyway, I can't just leave my car here. And, Everest can't do it, because, well, he's Everest."

"Whose side are you on?" I interrogated. 

"I'm just saying," she held her hands up, looking at me through her rear view mirror, "do you want to wait in soul-breaking traffic for hours to come?"

"You know, I wouldn't mind. Maybe we should just wait out the traffic—"

"Let's go." Everest climbed out of the car, and (forcefully) pulled me out, too, leaving Arya alone. 

"Wha— hey! Don't manhandle me! Or rather, woman-handle. And I'm telling you, this is not gonna work. So, let's just get back in the car—"

"Just walk."

"How the hell are you even going to get to the ambulance?" I inquired, walking. "They're a mile in front of us."

"That's what we're doing now."

"Oh yeah, that's going to make them fall for our charade. Girl is sick, but manages to walk a mile to the ambulance."

"Be quiet."

I offered a not-so-nice hand gesture at him. 

As a result of keeping up with the demand of Everest's quick and long strides, we got close to the scene of the accident in no longer than ten minutes, when, abruptly, he made me stop. 

"What?" I asked. 

"Uh, you need to sort of, lay in my arms, now," he said, I'd say even a little embarrassed. "And, keep your eyes closed," he added. 

Needlessly dramatically, I fell towards him. He fitted his hands under my shoulders, half carrying, half dragging me, towards the roadblock. 

"I'm flying, Jack."

"Shut up."

We came to another halt, and this time, I heard a foreign voice of a male speak, "Sorry, sir, you cannot go beyond this point."

"It's my— friend," I heard Everest struggle at the word friend, as spoke in an even more foreign voice, "she's collapsed. Can you get her to a hospital?"

A static sound erupted from the man's shoulder, and he spoke into it. "Yeah— Dev here, there's a male seeking medical attention for a female – she's collapsed... uh, about sixteen years of age." Sixteen?! "No, none yet... okay... alright." There was another static sound. "I still can't let you through for safety reasons," the man sounded like he was talking to Everest, now, "there's an oil leak – but, an ambulance is on its way."

"Thanks," Everest muttered. 

"Do you know what may have caused her to collapse?"

I felt Everest shrug. "Probably stoned or something."

I pinched his arm. 

"But," Everest said a little louder, in response to my pinch. "She's strong." He gave me a rather hard pat on the back, the kind of pat that would leave a normal person paralysed. 

"Do you want to put her down for the moment?" the man asked, not hearing my silent cry. "The ambulance may take a while."

"No, I think I'll hold onto her," Everest responded, to my profound relief. 

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, there was a sound of a moving vehicle, and most prominently, the noise of an ambulance siren. Eventually, Everest had to lay me on the ground, and next thing I knew, there were multiple voices around me and something hard was placed under my body. 

"Three, two, one, lift!" 

And then, I was moving. In fact, hearing all this effort made me feel slightly bad. But not nearly as much as it made me paranoid, as the stomach clenching thought of what were we planning on to do, next, kept resurfacing. 

"Can I take her name?" a woman asked, now. I took the tiniest peep of my surroundings; we were in what I assumed to be the inside of the ambulance. 

"It's..." I heard Everest say, "Archlys Reese."

He did not. 

"Archlys?" the woman repeated with a edge to her voice. "Like the goddess of... poison, sadness and misery?"

"Exactly like the goddess of poison, sadness and misery."

"Okay," the woman said, unsurely. "Age?"

"Sixteen."

"Okie-doke, I'm just going to check if her vitals are fine." A stethoscope was pressed against both sides of my chest, following my abdomen. Afterwards, I heard scribbling sound. "I'll be right back," the woman said, and left. 

My eyes flew open the moment the doors closed. "What the hell?" I hissed, sitting up. 

"Get down," Everest ordered, the moment I did so. 

"Archlys?" I questioned, exasperatedly. 

He didn't react to my anger, instead casually amswering back, "you don't want me to give them your real name, do you?" 

I heard the door open again, and my scowl neutralised into a monotone expression. I laid down so quickly, I nearly fell out of the stretcher. 

"We should be good to go now," the same woman spoke. 

I spent the next I-didn't-know-how-many-minutes crafting a fool proof plan for what to do once we got to the hospital. I could wake up just as we pass the traffic... but I didn't reckon they'd let me wander off without questions. Knocking everyone out looked attractive – however, inefficient. What if I stayed 'collapsed' right until I was inside the hospital wing, and then we legged it?

The van decelerated to a stop. I was wheeled out into the cold air, and then wheeled into warmer air. I didn't dare open my eyes once I was in the hospital. 

"Female, aged sixteen, name... Archlys; collapsed before we had arrived, at about nine thirty-three am," the woman told what I guessed was a receptionist. 

Several meters of wheeling later, another voice: "Hi, I'm Doctor Amir.

There was only silence, but I imagined Everest nodded. 

"Was it spontaneous, or has she suffered any illness before this...?"

"Mental illness," I heard Everest say so quietly that the doctor probably didn't catch it. "Uh, no, it was spontaneous," he explained – or rather lied. 

"Right. Well, we're going to run some tests, it may take a while, so you can wait in the waiting room. We'll keep you informed."

***

A furious groan erupted through the room for the twenty-first time. 

"It doesn't make any sense!" the doctor snapped frustratedly. "Everything–everything looks fine. Her vitals are working fine and there are no traces of drugs in her body," except 202, "I can't imagine what is possibly wrong with her."

I was in here for hours! They did all sorts of tortuous shit to me, most of which made it incredibly hard to control my facial expressions, such as the very first thing they did, when the doctor opened my left eye and flashed a light into it. From there, it only got worse. 

"Maybe we should run another PET scan," the nurse offered. 

"No, her central neural system is working fine... that means she's not in a coma either..." the doctor sounded at a complete loss. "However, her reflex arcs seem to be working way beyond the average body's reflex action," Ah, one of my many above-average abilities. "So, you'd think she'd took some sort of a steroid, but..."

"There are no drugs in her body," the nurse finished. 

"Except, when we carried out the blood test, there was something in it," said the doctor. "I've never seen anything like it. Incredibly complex formula. So, we can't exactly conclude it's a drug, immediately." That would be 202. 

"However, I'd make it a safe bet to say that it is, indeed, a drug. Who knows what teenagers are into, these days." 

"I hear her friend concluded she was under the impression of drugs. 'Stoned', to quote directly." the nurse added, thoughtfully. 

"Nonetheless, we've got more than enough blood samples for analysis." Six to be precise. Thanks a lot, Amir! "They're analysing it now as we speak. We'll get to the bottom of this one way or another, even if it takes all night."

"In the meanwhile, since her body seems to be working accordingly, we need to find a way to awake her."

"I doubt she's fainted. She's been unconscious for so long, she'd have to be in a coma," I've been tortured for so long! "But, her neurological activity indicates she isn't."

"We could give her a small shock. It may jolt her awake," the nurse suggested. 

A shock?

"Or... a dosage of adrenaline should be fine," the doctor concluded. "Carol, she looks familiar, doesn't she?" 

"Yeah... I see it, too... where have I seen that face before," Carol snapped her fingers. "I got it! The 202 girl! She looks like– what's her name? Emma– Emilia?"

"Emerald Reese," the doctor revealed. 

"The file says 'Archlys Reese'. Do you think they're related?"

"Perhaps. For the moment, fetch me 500 mg of adrenaline. I should probably inform her friend of the circumstances, and contact her parents, if possible." Impossible, but sure. 

When both parties left, I tentatively opened one eye.  The room was deserted. Now was my chance to flee! It was either now or never. I got up, removed the heartbeat monitor wires off of my skin, which took longer than I thought it would, and started towards the door. That was when it opened. 

I froze. 

At the doorway, stood a brunette, whom I estimated was Carol, to judge by the syringe in her hand. Her face reflected an expression that looked dumbfounded, shocked and terrified, all simultaneously. For a moment, both of us just stared at each other. Then, as she opened her mouth, I threw my hands in the air. 

"Guess what, Carol! I'm cured!" I hollered, dodging her, and ran out of there like my purpose for living depended on the very thing. Further down the hallway, I spotted Everest talking to a man who I'd have bet my life was Doctor Amir. Everest's eyes moved in my direction, and for a meteoric moment, they froze over. 

"Time's up!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him behind me, daring not to slow down even for a second until we were out of the hospital. 

"Sorry! Whoops! Sorry! I'm really sorry. Excuse me... sorry... thanks!" I navigated my way through countless people, throwing apologies in every direction. Even once we were out of the hospital, we continued running until we were a safe distance away. Only when the sounds from the hospital slowly diminuendoed into silence, I let go off Everest's hand. We breathlessly stared at each for a moment – it comically paralleled the way the nurse and I stared at each other in utter shock. However, that was no where near as shocking as what Everest did, next. 

Slowly, so captivatingly slowly, the corners of his mouth lifted upwards. He was... he was smiling. It was a legitimate, genuine smile. From him! From Everest Never-Contracts-a-Muscle-in-his-Face! And a beautiful smile it was, I'd admit. 

"You smile?" I asked, both awestruck and stupidly, which he responded to by immediately inhibiting the charismatic notion. 

"When I want to."

"So, never," I concluded. 

"I never said that."

"Never say never."

"You just said never," he argued. 

"So did you," I responded. 

"You said it, first."

I smiled. "All this, because you didn't want to wait in traffic. And, I wasted like three hours in that stupid room, so this was time-well spent, don't you think?"

"Actually, you spent four hours in there."

I cursed at him. "I don't even have the words!"

"Clearly not any kind ones." 

I scoffed. "You're one to talk about kindness."

"What did they even do to you in there?" he asked, so I explained to him all the unnecessary tests, frustration, breakdowns and swearing that happened in those wasted hours. 

"The question is," I said, "why didn't they give up after the first two hours? Anyway, in the end, my cover was blown, so I took off."

The sound of a car engine erupted out of nowhere, and a car pulled up on the side of the road. A black Toyota, to be precise. 

"What the hell did you two do?" Arya hollered from the car. 

I walked over. "How did you find us?"

"I googled the nearest hospitals to the roadblock. The roadblock cleared up about an hour ago, so I came to the hospital where the receptionist told me they didn't have an Emerald Reese, but had an Archlys Reese – nice name, I bet you came up with that one," she said to Everest, "– check in. The hospital's a mess, by the way, so well done, you guys. And guess what?" she asked sardonically. "We're still in the same place we were four hours ago!" she shouted out the last part. 

"Jeez. Calm down, woman," I pulled a face at Everest. 

"Get in," Arya ordered impatiently. 

I stopped Everest. "I don't really look sixteen, do I?"

Everest analysed me like an organelle of a cell under a microscope. "No," he said, and then, "you look fifteen."

***

"It's not particularly your body that makes you look so young," Arya said, as we drove through the motorway (I called shotgun, and Everest was in the back), "although you are lacking in the upper department—"

"Shut up." I nudged her, feeling my face flush.

"But, it's more to do with your face. You have a baby face. Doesn't she have a baby face, Everest?"

"Don't answer that," I commanded. 

"Wasn't going to," he responded. 

We had been debating my appearance, age wise, for the past twenty minutes.

"Look on the bright side, at least you'd be able to lie about your age and get discounts." 

"Arya!"

"What? It's a good thing! And, at least you're not short. Now, that would make you look fifteen." 

"You are really not helping."

"Oh! Is that why you wear an eyebrow ring? Because, it makes you look older? Because, it does, you know."

"Where is my eyebrow ring, by the way?"

Arya shrugged. "I think I lost it. Stop glaring at me. It cost like, what two dollars, right?"

"No," I mumbled. "It cost two pounds."

"You look way more beautiful without it. Doesn't she look beautiful without it, Everest?"

In the rear view mirror, I saw Everest wordlessly lift up his cold eyes. 

"I don't want to look beautiful," I said. "I want to look badass."

"Cute," Arya responded. 

"Fuck off."

"Ooh, that's very badass of you."

We drove the rest of the way with much more ease. I opened Mark's laptop, several times to check Gemma's whereabouts. She had moved from where she was yesterday, when we first located her. Earlier today, she was much closer to the previous location. Now, however, she was a little more to the west on the map. 

Several hours later, with the occasional stops for breaks (which Everest severely disagreed with), when the sky had turned pitch black as we were way into the night, Arya stopped in front of a huge building. 

"We're here."

P.s. This was a really fun chapter to write.