Mum and dad came to Oxford the following day. Lindsay and I met at Worcester and walked to the Kings Arms pub. It was the oldest pub in Oxford, and the one I spent most time at. I usually spent long hours lost in the books at Blackwell after eating there, because that bookshop was just at the other side of the street. I loved reading poems at the cafeteria in the top floor, while I had a hot chocolate looking over the Radcliffe Camera. Africa always got lost in the "Antique and Rare Books" section. I thought about how big that section would get over the ages. History would be the hardest subject of all. Endless.

Then I realized we would actually be able to meet most of the people in history books. The new remarkable people would not become legends anymore. They would be less idolized, or less hated. On the contrary, dead people would be conceived archaic. Nora would be part of a dark, inquisitorial era. That thought made me shiver. I definitely decided to stop thinking about history when I asked myself how books would talk about me.

We arrived at the pub and ordered jacket potatoes. Dad offered me a beer, but I couldn't do alcohol after having slept for a couple of hours only. I looked at him and mum and felt relieved knowing that I would never have to lose them now. Then I looked at Lindsay and marveled when I realized her indescribable beauty would never go away.

I had already told my parents about my discovery. They had been the first to know, and we had already talked everything through, but they had insisted on meeting before the weekend to discuss it face to face.

"Tess, those dark circles under your eyes are getting worryingly intense." mum said.

Hers, on the other hand, were fresh and young, and they shone on her white, porcelain skin. Lindsay and her looked so much alike.

"She didn't have much sleep last night." Lindsay said, and I pinched her beneath the table.

"She never has much sleep." dad pointed out.

I sighed, glad, for once, that my insomnia was such an unsurprising thing. I had already told them about Luke, but I preferred not to answer questions about our nights together. My mind flashed back to the London Eye and I flushed intensely. Lindsay looked at me and giggled. Many ways of strangling her occurred to me.

Just as I was about to say something to tease her, her phone beeped. Her blue eyes turned grey as she looked at the screen, and that scared me. We had already had enough blues in the last years. Mum and dad were practically the only ones that had taken my discovery in an optimistic way, so I expected cheerful words and toasts during that lunch, not opaque gazes and more silence.

"It's Danny." Lindsay told me, without lifting her gaze from the phone screen.

"That little boy you are so fond of?" mum asked.

Lindsay nodded, and tears started to run down her cheeks. Mum closed her eyes, and sighed deeply. She looked like she couldn't deal with any more tragedy either. Dad took Lindsay's phone from her, and asked:

"What is acute pulmonary edema?"

"Oh, no!" I yelled, covering my mouth with my hands.

"Yes." Lindsay affirmed. "He's dying. I have to go there. I just need another minute to collect myself."

I should have kept quiet for Lindsay, but words came of my mouth like a grenade.

"Oh my God. People are still dying and I could have prevented it. I'm killing people. Damn, this whole thing was exactly to avoid that, to avoid killing more people like I murdered Nora, to be able to save the world and revenge her. What am I doing?

Dad made a gesture at me to lower my voice.

"Dad, I don't really think anyone's going to take that seriously." Lindsay said.

I looked at her, and then to mum and dad. The image fragmented like shattered glass in my retina; maybe I was moving my head too fast, or too slow. Was I moving it at all? I closed my eyes to prevent myself from passing out again, and I got lost in a black sticky bubble. Maybe I had gone blind. I tried to open my eyes and check, but my eyelids were stuck to my cornea with that damn thick sticky black glue.

"Tessa! Are you alright?" dad shouted, and luckily my body reacted to the alarm in his voice.

I opened my eyes and felt as if my head was landing in the pub like a plane. Coming at top speed, and stopping suddenly. The back-and-forth motion stopped after a few minutes, in which my family looked at me perplexed. I could tell they were wondering if I had truly gone insane.

"I'm just... overwhelmed."

"You should rest." mum said, in a very low volume.

It was as if she was afraid to send me into a craziness episode again.

"We'll take care of everything." she added, and she took my hand, wary.

The minute that the waitress spent putting our food on the table was enough for me to realize I had been crazy when I thought about waiting until I finished studying to make my discovery public. I didn't understand how Luke and I hadn't figured that out before. The episode at the London Eye had definitely left us worn out. I was surprised to feel chills down my stomach when I thought of that. I would have thought I was too exhausted after my near-fainting, but it seemed that my body was never too bushed to react to Luke.

Luke. I called him immediately after I finished my meal. As I made my way outside the pub, I still couldn't understand how I had managed to put a whole jacket potato down my esophagus. I wondered over to the Bridge of Sighs as my phone beeped. I almost made myself laugh when I thought there was nowhere more appropriate for me to be at that moment.

Luke answered after an exasperating number of beeps.

"We have no time." I blurted, without even bothering to say hello.

"Tess? What are you talking about?"

"Danny is dying, Luke."

"Oh."

And then we stayed silent for what seemed like a rehearsal for eternity.

"Can you imagine how many others are losing their lives while I sit down here, in my little false peace, being unforgivably selfish?"

I noted he was searching for arguments to persuade me into not doing what I wanted to do. He sighed a rendered sigh, because he knew it was hopeless. I was too sure.

"And how are you going to do it?"

"I've thought about it. I mean, I've only been considering my options for ten minutes before I couldn't resist the urge to call you anymore, but despite the short time, I think I've thought it through."

"And you've decided...?"

"I realized it's only a week till we go to New York."

"No, no, Tess, hold on."

"Yes, Luke, I know it sounds crazy, blurting it out in the middle of people able enough to understand it and take it from me."

"You've taken the words right out of my mouth."

I sighed, desperate. I perfectly understood all the problems that spilling it in that conference would bring me. And to the whole world. Physicians and researchers and pharmacologists would clench their claws out and do whatever they found most similar to burning me in a bonfire, like a twenty-one century witch. But I didn't have better options. If I wrote an article about it or told Professor Abbey about it, those hungry physicians and researchers and pharmacologists would still hear about it, and, in that case, they wouldn't be the most dangerous ones.

"Have you come up with anything?" I asked Luke, when being alone with my mind started to feel too suffocating.

"The first thing that is going to happen is that pharmaceutical brands are going to fight each other to be the one to patent the treatment."

"Yes."

"We can't fight against that, simply because we are not doctors yet and we don't have money. That leads me to this conclusion: instead of letting the deadliest one get the patent, let's choose the one we want."

"So you are suggesting that we should offer the treatment to a particular pharmaceutical brand."

"That idea came into my mind because I'll start working at Fleming&Florey on Monday. I could investigate, you know, find out about their goals, their working methods, the importance they give to justice. If I should find they are good guys, maybe we could talk about this madness to them."

"That sounds good."

"No, it doesn't sound good at all, Tess. It sounds like we are trapped, and desperate. But, yeah, knowing our other option is throwing your discovery into a jungle full of predators, it's not that bad."

"I must confess, I'm so... damn... scared, Luke." I confessed, holding back the tears that threatened to hysterically burst out of my frightened eyes.

"I know, Tess."

"It feels like I have this huge responsibility weighing tones on my shoulders, and I... I am too young and naïve to make the right decisions. I know this sounds corny... and desperate... but... I need you, Luke. Please be by my side through this."

"Hey! It doesn't sound corny or desperate at all. I need you too. And I am not the only one. The world needs you, Tess, remember? You saved their lives. You may be too young and naïve, but you're a heroine. Don't let fear bring you down."

"This is not fear, this is... paralyzing panic. And I can't allow myself to be paralyzed. I need to move, act fast, because people are losing a chance they are never going to have again. And it's my fault. New York is only ten days from now and it feels like too much time, too risky, too much of a fatal, cruel failure."

"I know this won't make you feel any better, but people have been dying for centuries, Tess. The people that found cures for illnesses could also feel like you're feeling now. They may have been able to save more people if they had been working more intensely and hadn't lost their time watching a film, or having wild sex on the London Eye..."

I laughed, and laugh cleaned my head from suffocation just enough to keep me conscious.

"Those thoughts haunt everyone, Tess. And that won't happen anymore when we put this thing on track. There will be no more regret. Because second chances, opportunities to make things better and mend errors, will be infinite, and so there will be nothing irreversible."

"No, Luke. Murders will keep happening, and accidents, and the first will be much crueler and the second more regretted than they are now. Both will be more blamable. Do you think justice will get harsher?"

"I don't know. Death penalty will be too ruthless. I think it will be abolished."

"It must be abolished. What about life imprisonment?"

"Eternity between bars? That would be torture. I reckon it won't happen anymore either."

"Maybe it will happen in the same way it does today: Half your life in prison."

"And how exactly would you do your math?"

"Mmm... I don't know, I guess penalties would be about... a million years or so. God, what am I turning the world into?"

"A science-fiction film, Tess."

I smiled at him through the phone. I wanted to flash a seductive, radiant smile at him, even if he couldn't see me. But I couldn't. Energy was the only thing that radiated out of me. And I felt more tired every second that passed.

"I wish we were lying in my bed, Tess, like we were last night."

"You read my mind." I said, and my smile did turn more radiant then.

"I loved the way your hands felt on my back; and your posture was so... incredible."

"I was very comfortable." I said, coyly.

We both sighed, and I was about to make a joke about me being under the bridge named after us, when he focused on the most relevant topic again.

"So... New York."

"Yes. New York."

"You know what? It will probably be the scariest moment of our lives, and I should be dreading that conference, but I am looking forward to going there. I should be seeing chaos, and journalists, and apocalypse in my mind. But I only see you and me. Together. In New York."

"You're right. To hell with the congress. I want to enjoy the week with you too. Let's buy tourist guides!"

He burst out laughing and that sound renewed me completely. I guessed he was imagining us dressed in Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, and carrying enormous and badly folded maps. And a bag filled with an eighties camera, and plenty of city guides.

And my report. Even though I tried to distract myself, it kept coming back to my mind.

"I think I should give you my report, for you to check the procedures I propose and compare them with the ones they normally use at Fleming&Florey."

"Yes, that seems wise."

"When I first had the dream in which Nora suggested I tried this, it sounded very... perfect. It was everything I always wanted. Everything everyone always wanted. All these matters that are appalling us now... they never occurred to me."

"Because it was just an idea. You didn't really consider it being real. It was just a fantasy. And, in fantasies... there are no flaws. No downsides."

"And is it real now?"

It was a stupid question, but it came out of my mouth before I could stop it. I was surprised when his answer was as senseless.

"I don't know, Tess."

I was about to say I had to go back to my parents and Lindsay, when he added.

"I don't know anything. I don't know what our life will be like tomorrow, next week after the conference, or in a thousand years. But what I do know, Tess, is that I love you. I am more sure every day."

All the energy I had beamed into the world came back into me, and I felt so powerful, so invincible, that I thought I was going to levitate.

"And I could be dreaming of eternity, but I am dreaming of you, lying close to me, lying on top of me." he added. 

That last part aroused my now strong, healthy body, and I felt sexy, hot, slinky as ever. I could hear him hold his excited breathing back.

"How about you sleep here in London tomorrow as well?" he finally asked, breathing rapidly.

We hung up and I ran to my parents' car, where they were all already waiting for me. I sat down and dad flew us to the hospital.

Danny was sweaty and had a mask over his mouth and nose to help him breathe. His mum sat by him with sorrowful eyes, and held his hand and kissed it. Lindsay stormed into the room and used her stethoscope to examine Danny's heart and lungs. She had already talked to the doctor that had been on call while she was off, but she wanted to check for herself. While she listened to his body, she looked at Danny in the most loving way. Then, she looked at Mrs Smith, and she followed us outside.

"I know he's very weak, the other doctor already told me; you shouldn't bother to tell me again. I understand the treatment you were looking into didn't work. I just want to be with my son." she said coldly.

I felt like she had stabbed me in my stomach. I had failed her. I had not only failed Nora now, but also this little, cruelly cursed boy, and his defenseless, devoted mother.

"I know this is difficult to hear." Lindsay said.

She couldn't add: "It's difficult for me, too", but I knew she was thinking that.

 "Madam, the biopsy your son gave us..." I tried to explain, but she cut me abruptly.

"Just tell me, how much time do we have left?"

Lindsay sighed.

"Hours."

Mrs Smith broke. She didn't cry, but I knew she would never be complete again. I remembered how my hands sweated when they told me it was time to say goodbye to Nora. I remembered how it felt like I would die as well.

"His lungs are filled with liquid, and his heart is very weak... I am deeply, truly sorry, Mrs Smith."

I wanted to say something else, something more comforting. I wanted her to know her son had made an enormous contribution to save humanity. It was so unfair that she didn't even get to learn that.

She walked to the other end of the corridor and cried vehemently for a couple of minutes. Then she wiped off her messed up make up and walked to her son's room with the most perfect fake smile on.

Lindsay also walked far away enough so that she could break out. I stood in the corridor, in front of Danny's room, infuriated, watching a part of life that should not exist anymore. When Mrs Smith came out of the room to speak on her phone, I decided to go inside. The monitor beeped to Danny's feeble, irregular heartbeat.

"Hey, buddy."

He smiled with his eyes in an adorable, moving way. He was trying to play the game in his tablet again, but he merely watched the screen. I watched it with him for a few minutes.

"Remember when you told me the boy in that game is brave and strong?"

He nodded, and tried to remove his mask to talk to me. It astounded me that he was so vital, so energetic, so... brave and strong.

"No, no... Don't try to take the mask off. You need it so you can get better. And do you know why it is important that you get better?"

He was paying full attention to me. His wrinkles and baldness were not the only things that made him look older than he was; the attentive way in which he listened also made him seem more mature. It was as if his innocence had also been robbed by his impatient illness. He comprehended every single detail of what was happening to him, and that... only made it worse.

"Because you are a hero, Danny, just like the one on your game. You are brave and strong, and you let me take a piece of your skin. Well, by doing that, you taught me how to save lots of people. Many people won't die because of you."

I couldn't keep tears from running down my face. I wiped them off as fast as I could, and hoped his cataracts hadn't allowed him to see them.

He removed the mask before I could stop him again.

"Don't... cry... Doc-Doctor... Tess... I am a hero. S-so that... means... we... won the... game. That's... why the... game... is... over."

The alarm sound of the monitor went off, and I saw on the electrocardiogram that Danny's heart was running its last sprint. Lindsay came running into the room and started resuscitating him and inserting drugs through his IV line. I run to his mother so that she could be there during the last minutes.

Until the game was over.

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