While waiting for Duncan to respond, Ryan thought back to
the night, several days ago, when he went back the last time to retrieve the artifact.
He waited until around three am to slip into the house. Quietly he climbed the
stairs and entered Ethan’s bedroom. Ethan was asleep on his side. He crept
around to the side facing away from Ethan and carefully pressed the injector to
his bare shoulder. A quick, quiet hiss announced that the medications had been
delivered. He pressed his lips gently to Ethan’s temple then whispered. “I’ll
always take care of you.”
Duncan’s next statement dragged him away from that memory. “That’s
not the issue here. I wouldn’t be giving my wife medications stolen from the
future. That’s the issue. You went back into the past and administered
medications from our time to a person in the past. You don’t have a license to practice medicine. You don’t know what
effect the medications could have on him.
“As a matter of fact, I sent Terrence back to check on your lover boy and you may be interested in knowing that he’s in the local ICU. Nobody knows what’s wrong with him or what to do. Think about that.” He got up to leave. As he reached the door, Duncan turned back, the look of pain once again on his face. “What happened to you, Ryan?
“You were the best, with a spotless record. Now look where you’re at; in jail, facing multiple counts of illegal interactions with people in the past, two counts of medication theft, two counts of administering medications without a license, and now possible murder if he dies. I wish I knew what was going on in that head of yours.”
“I don’t care what happens to me, as long as Ethan lives.”
“Let’s hope he does.” Duncan closed the door behind him.
₪₪₪₪₪
“This just doesn’t make any sense. All of his blood work is normal, yet every time we administer his HIV medication, he goes into convulsions. Why now? What’s changed? Even his toxicology screens are negative.” Ethan’s doctor paced around the room as he ranted to his team.
One of the other doctors on the team spoke up, “maybe we’re going about this all wrong. We’re looking for obvious causes. What if this is something new, something we’ve never seen before? Given that the patient is HIV positive I hate to suggest this, but what if we were to take him off the medication?” He held up his hand to forestall any pending arguments.
“At this rate, he could be dead or at least severely brain damaged to the point of being on total life support, so what have we got to lose by trying? At least we’re doing something!” The other doctors all murmured their agreement.
“Okay,” Ethan’s doctor said with a sigh of resignation. How am I going to explain this to his brothers?
₪₪₪₪₪
Two days later there was a knock on Duncan’s office door, which was a somewhat welcomed respite from the records he was pouring over, trying to come up with a way to help Ryan at his upcoming trial. He put his ham sandwich down just as a clap of thunder rocked the building. “Come in!”
The door opened and Kathy, the infirmary’s head nurse, came in. “Got a minute Duncan?”
“Not really, unless you have a miracle or two up your sleeve that can help Ryan out of this mess he’s gotten himself into.”
“Well, that’s what I came to see you about. Some of the charges against him can be dropped.” Duncan didn’t say a word but gestured her to have a seat. Without any further prompting, she opened a folder and removed several documents. “Ryan came to see Doctor Korotas regarding a problem with a case he was working on.
“The charges of theft of medications are false.” She handed him a couple of documents. “Here are prescriptions Doctor Korotas wrote for this guy Ethan Evans for the medications. I personally filled and programmed the dosages into the injectors.” Duncan looked at her in shock. She handed him another document. “Here is his certification to use injectors to administer medications under the direction of a physician.”
“That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t alter the fact that he went back in time and administered a medication from the present to a person in the past.”
“Yes, about that. You’re familiar with causality loops, I’m sure.”
“Of course, that’s where the effect precedes the cause. It’s also known as Predestination Paradox.”
“We did some research and discovered that the medications in question were invented in the year 2133 by a Doctor Jonathan Thomas.”
“Thomas? Who’s he, and what bearing does he have on anything?”
“He invented the universal STD vaccine and the AIDS cure a year after Ryan gave it to Ethan Evans. That’s all we know. Isn’t it possible that Ryan was meant to go back in time and inject Ethan in order for the medications to be created?”
Duncan collapsed against the back of his chair, rendered speechless by Kathy’s supposition.
₪₪₪₪₪
“Thank you for coming in, Chris. I need to speak with you about your brother.” Doctor Thomas began.
“Any news on his condition?”
“Yes, I’m afraid there is. It would appear that he has developed a severe allergic reaction to his HIV medication.”
“So, what can be done about that?”
“It’s a difficult decision. If we keep giving him his medication, the seizures will continue. The chances of irreversible brain damage and possibly death increases with each seizure.”
“And if you take him off the medication?”
“The seizures will stop, but without the medication the virus will become more aggressive, eventually leading to him contracting full-blown AIDS. As his next-of-kin it’s up to you to make the decision as to how we proceed.”
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