**
The certain someone was Dr. Arliss. Apparently Patrick had gone into his office looking like Dr. McFadden, babbling about how everyone was out to kill him. Then he’d exclaimed, “You too?” and stabbed the man with a pen knife. Dr. Arliss would be fine.
Crysta had wanted to go back to her apartment alone, to try and make Patrick feel safe and then convince him to return to the company for testing, but Hugo was done with letting people do their bad ideas, so he convinced her to wait till CJ could go with her. A couple hours later CJ finally answered her phone and agreed, so Dr. McFadden walked into her building and CJ followed through the walls. Hugo chewed on his nails in the car. He really wanted to go in, but Patrick could read minds and would have known he was there and Crysta’s attempt to put him at ease would have been shot.
Several minutes of fidgeting later, Crysta called Hugo’s cell phone, “Um, can you help us get Patrick to the car?”
Patrick was an unconscious lump in the doctor’s tub.
“What happened?” He asked as they awkwardly removed Patrick from the bathroom.
“He’s sick and delusional. There’s something wrong with his muscles. He came to me because he thought I could help him and he was afraid that everyone else was going to try and kill him. I said I would help him but needed the equipment from my lab to do so. He panicked and lunged for me and CJ knocked him out.”
“Yep! Zap zap! He was talking really crazy. I wanted to do it sooner, but the doctor asked me to wait till he tried something.”
Hugo's brow furrowed, “You said there was something wrong with his muscles?”
“Yes. They were contracting abnormally while he was just sitting in the tub talking. Even for being as stressed as he was, that shouldn’t have been happening. He was a lot paler than the last time I’d seen him too. I need to take him in for testing.” They slid the limp telepath into the back seat and Crysta climbed into the driver’s seat. CJ waved at them from outside the car.
“Alright, I’m gonna take off guys, I’ve got to continue exploring. Give me a call if you need anything!” Not waiting for an answer, she turned into a shower of sparks and fell into the ground.
As they started driving, the doctor glanced sidelong at Hugo, chewing on her lower lip for a moment, “I’m a little concerned,” she finally broke the silence, her voice uncertain.
Hugo blinked, “About what?”
“CJ. I’ve been keeping an eye on her test results in the lab and…she’s been developing much faster than any documented cases of abilities, with the exception of the project files you gave me a copy of.”
Hugo tensed, “Do you think Mr. Gideon…”
“Well, I’m going to test Patrick for the Substance first, and then we’ll see. Just, keep an eye on her for me, ok?”
“I will,” Hugo replied firmly.
“And Hugo? About Joseph, that’s not your fault,” Crysta said, her voice gentle.
He stared out the window at the blurry world, “I know.”
“And we’ll find out who did that to him.”
Hugo continued staring out the window.