The Code Ch. 01

This is an experiment with a longer form piece. It is part medical mystery, part murder mystery, and less focused on sex than story, although hopefully you find it adequate in both respects.

Also, this is a work of fiction. Do not try neck ties in real life, even when they are non-collapsing. They are extremely dangerous even beyond the obvious risk of strangulation.

Part I: Back from the Dead

"Did she just blink?!" Dr. Ellie Davis froze in disbelief as she held the breathing tube in her delicate, gloved hand, and stared intently at the waxy, porcelain face in front of her. Her light hazel eyes quickly darted up at the bewildered resident standing across the hospital bed. Several uncooperative strands of her short, straight brown hair fell into her face, but she stayed still, almost trying to will her patient to open her eyes again.

Her resident, a short, stumpy man with a disheveled mop of black hair, fidgeted in his light blue scrubs. He had been totally engrossed with triple checking the note he was preparing and could only shrug in alarm. "I have no idea, I didn't see..."

Suddenly the pair of bright blue eyes shot open, and the young woman lurched forward in her bed. Her light blonde hair fell in matted knots and bunches around her face; evidence of her prolonged stay in the ICU. An asymmetric staccato of electronic tones erupted from the EKG, confirming that their patient had responded very differently than expected to being removed from the ventilator.

The patient's mouth gaped, wordlessly begging her lungs for air as she rocked forward and back. Her limbs spasmed violently, dislodging her bed sheets and knocking her blanket on the floor as her eyes wandered aimlessly across the ceiling.

"Jesus dammit Christmas! Get me a crash cart and a trach kit prepped right fucking now!" Dr. Davis began barking orders as the room exploded into chaos. "I want EEG and neuro here yesterday and so help me if they send a med student, I'll be traching two people!"

"Code blue, adult medical response, ICU 114. Code blue, adult medical response, ICU 114." A calm robotic voice came over the hospital PA system, the serene monotone a stark foil for the frenetic mayhem unfolding below.

A young nurse rushed in with a large red rolling cart in front of her, flanked by Ellie's nurse practitioner, Jeanie, and a physician's assistant. Seeing it enter the room, the doctor pulled open the patient's gown and smeared a liberal coating of conductive gel on the paddles of the defibrillator as the cart came to a stop at the bedside.

"Lay her back gently please!" Dr. Davis ordered two of the nurses as she pivoted back to the bed. The machine beside her began to whine emphatically, rising to a piercing tone indicating it was fully charged.

As lightly as they could, the pair forced the thin young woman to recline back into the bed.

"Clear!" She called, as everyone adjacent to the bed instinctively took a half step back.

The patient's back arched as the current raced through her. Much to the doctor's surprise, she saw a somewhat normal heart rhythm appear on the monitor. Even more astonishing was the gasp that accompanied the involuntary movement.

"There's no way she's just going to start breathing," the doctor muttered to nobody in particular.

The young woman inhaled sharply again and resumed shaking, two nurses trying their best to keep her still without injuring their patient. The menacing blue shade that had been creeping into her lips quickly began to fade with each agonized inhalation she managed.

"How are we doing Jeanie??" Dr. Davis shouted above the chaos to her NP across the room, preparing the defibrillator for a second discharge.

"Sats at 66 and rising, still tachycardic, and BP at 78 over 45 but she's not decomping," the older woman called back and resumed prepping the seemingly unnecessary trach kit. "This actually looks pretty promising, I think we might be good somehow? We need to get her quiet though."

"What would I do without you, Jeanie?" The two continued to banter, trying to get the room back in a rhythm after having all hell break loose.

"You'd start throwing coffee mugs at residents again," she said with a grim smile, noting the resident at the computer, who had looked up in surprise.

"... Should we start her on Lorazepam to get her sedated?" The now trepidatious resident interjected from the computer in the room, ready to start submitting stat orders to the pharmacy.

"Are you serious?? One, she just started breathing on her own again, and I'd like her to keep doing that. Two, she is in here because of benzos, we're not restarting her on them! You know what? Somebody go get me a cup of coffee. In the biggest, heaviest mug you can find. Bonus points if it has sharp edges." Ellie worked quickly with the nurses to try and get an oxygen mask over her patient's face. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the resident slowly turn and make his way to the door.

"It was a fucking joke! The hospital therapist said I can't do that anymore. Get 80 micrograms of precedex ordered. If it gets here before neuro gets off their lazy incompetent asses go ahead and load her up." The doctor shook her head ruefully.

"Doc, how many times do I have to tell you that the HR rep is not a 'hospital therapist?'" Jeanie asked with a chuckle.

At that moment a handsome, bespectacled man poked his head through the door.

"I heard someone was looking for a lazy incompetent neurologist?" he asked with a light accent before crossing the room and beginning to examine the patient, still being gently restrained in bed by the two nurses.

"Dietrich! Thank God they sent the German. Isn't it illegal for you to be lazy or incompetent?" She exclaimed, genuinely pleased that the best neurologist in the hospital had appeared. Standing slightly over 6 feet tall, the lanky 40-year-old had a neatly coiffed head of light brown hair and was smartly dressed in a pair of fitted charcoal slacks and a light blue button down under his unbuttoned white coat.

"It's only illegal for me to be lazy and incompetent in Germany. Why do you think I came to the US to practice?" He deadpanned, beginning to try to place a mesh of electrodes over the shaking patient's head. "And let's go ahead and get her sedated, I'm not going to be able to do an exam with her like this anyway. Her current state isn't good for anybody."

A nurse had just entered the room with a small IV bag. Moving swiftly, she hooked up the drip to the line already running into the patient's arm and punched a series of buttons on the IV pump to start administering the sedative.

"Any sign that she's with us?" Ellie asked. "She was totally gone for more than a week when we took her off the respirator. Then suddenly she popped up and has been making me reconsider my position on the existence of demonic possession. If she starts speaking ancient Sumerian, I'm popping her with the defib again." She hoped the patient wasn't aware enough to register her comments.

"Well, there is bilateral pupillary response, so the reflex is good, but she doesn't seem to have much voluntary control," the tall neurologist responded. "We'll see what EEG says is going on inside, but I don't have high expectations. Care to give me some background? I didn't even have time to skim her chart when the page came."

"Of course! Dr. Dietrich Kölsch, please meet Ms. Anna von Matterhorn." The ICU doctor accompanied the 'introduction' with a grandiose flourish.

Dietrich raised his eyebrows. "Of THE von Matterhorns?" he asked with a whistle.

"The very same. 24 years of age, born in Austria and stayed there until 4 years ago when she moved stateside to live with her sister outside of Sonoma. Sister died in a car accident a month ago, so now lives alone. Ten days ago, she was found by a taxi driver unconscious outside of her house with a backpack containing just her phone, wallet, passport, and a change of clothes. She was helicoptered in unresponsive with a BAC of.15, and positive for benzos, which she is prescribed." Ellie reported, skimming through the chart. "Shortly after arrival she went into respiratory arrest and went on the vent. Remained that way until this evening when we were delivered an order from the family lawyers to remove her from life support and not to resuscitate. She apparently had other ideas. I imagine now we're seeing some sort of prolonged epileptic seizure event from chronic alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal."

"No," came the curt response. Ellie glanced up at her colleague as he contemplated the mess of lines on the screen in front of him. "It's not epileptiform. It's not even any kind of seizure I'm familiar with. Her brain is going about a million miles an hour, but I don't know to where."

"So.... what do we do?" Ellie had never seen Dietrich stumped before.

"Well, you gave her a bunch of precedex... so that should effectively unplug her. Let her come back off that gently and hopefully that will plug her back in," he replied taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"That sounds extremely scientific. Please tell me you'll give me an authorship credit on the paper." Ellie was exhausted and the sarcasm was not at all veiled. She saw with some relief that the sedatives were taking effect, and her patient had stopped trying to flail.

"If you would rather, I have my full catalogue of medical frying pans back in the office. You're welcome to try hitting her in the head with one of them instead." The neurologist stood to take his leave.

"I'll stop by in a bit to grab one, I'm thinking an 8-inch cast iron?" Ellie joked, estimating the measurement with her hands and recognizing her accidental innuendo far too late.

Dietrich cleared his throat. "Um... have your team give me a call when they start to bring her back. I'm going to continue reviewing her case with less of an audience." He nodded at the room full of people who had been observing their conversation behind her as he stepped out the door.

Ellie turned beet red. She had forgotten about everyone else. "That fucking German, he was just so charming!" she thought to herself, wincing and turning.

The first thing she saw was Jeanie grinning ear to ear and mimicking her hand placement. "Yeah, doc. You can get it. All 8 inches."

"God dammit, Jeanie," Ellie muttered, shaking her head. She needed a breather. The last 15 minutes had been a blur, and the adrenaline was pumping.

She turned to the resident. "You stay in this chair. Do not leave. If her status changes, call me immediately. The sedative will start wearing off in a few hours, I'll be back then."

Looking up at the small army of nurses and PAs in the room she continued. "Great job everyone, that was unusual and intense. Be ready to do it again soon."

Ellie found herself wandering the halls aimlessly thinking over the case. Nothing about it made particular sense to her, which she found offensive as a professional who prided herself on being able to understand even the most difficult puzzles. Deciding that the EEG read must be the key, she decided to stop by neurology to bother Dietrich.

Finding his office door closed, she gave a firm knock and was surprised when the door immediately swung open and she came face to face with the barrel-chested, crotchety Chief of Medicine.

"Ah, Dr. Davis, just who I need to see. Come to my office in 15 minutes. We need to talk." The baritone voice was full of foreboding, as the Chief passed quickly by and disappeared down the hall.

Leaning through the doorway, Ellie saw Dietrich sitting at his desk, concern etched across his usually relaxed visage. The office was lit only by a lamp in the corner and the light from the computer monitor on the desk, lending an ominous atmosphere to the room.

"That can't be good..." Ellie hoped to elicit some explanation for what had just transpired.

"It certainly is not," the neurologist replied with a sigh. "Apparently, the von Matterhorn family is quite upset with the quality of young Anna's care. It seems they are making demands of the hospital under threat of legal action."

"Quality of her care?? We just saved her fucking life!" Ellie exploded at her colleague, color rushing into her cheeks. "What else did they want us to do?"

"Apparently the quality was far higher than they had desired. And they would have liked us to let her die." The neurologist looked back at his computer. "Before you go meet with the chief, I've been reviewing her EEG data from earlier tonight and from admission, and none of this is consistent with seizure, either epileptiform or post-traumatic. It appears more consistent with acute pharmacological neurotoxicity, and even the combination of alcohol and medication in her system shouldn't have caused it."

"Wait. You're telling me that benzo and alcohol abuse was only coincidental with everything that happened in the last two weeks?" Ellie sensed that her colleague was withholding something, and her brow furrowed as she tried to figure out what that was.

Dietrich fidgeted in his chair, clearly choosing his next words carefully.

"I suspect there might be another factor at play, which caused nearly lethal neurotoxicity and did not appear in the basic toxicology screen." He paused again as he looked Ellie in the eyes. "I am not sure this was accidental, and I am not sure either of us will be safe if we make any noise about it. It seems possible somebody did not want that girl to wake up, and they wanted us to think it was because she was mixing booze with her medications."

Ellie stood stunned.

"That's insane," she said quickly, dismissing the notion. "You're crazy. You're saying someone poisoned her and tried to cover it up? We double checked all of the paperwork for the DNR and the end-of-life order. It was all perfect and cleared by the family's attorneys. If someone were deliberately trying to kill her... Oh fuck... It would have to be someone in the family."

"Yes." Dietrich responded grimly. "It would have to be someone with virtually unlimited resources, who stood to benefit enormously from her death, and had no qualms about murder."

Seemingly sensing the dark tension in the room, the phone on Dietrich's desk exploded to life, startling both of them.

Wincing as he checked the caller ID, the neurologist picked up the phone. "Hello, sir. What can I do for you... Yes, she is here... Yes, I will send her your way... Understood. Right fucking now... Well, sir, hamburgers are American, but I take your point."

He softly replaced the phone in its cradle. "So. That was the chief. To summarize, he would like to see you right away."

"Oh, shit." Ellie turned to leave, opening the door and finding herself temporarily blinded by the bright fluorescent light pouring in from the hallway.

"Ellie." The neurologist interrupted her departure. "I would feel better if you didn't tell anybody about my... unique... interpretation of the data. It is wildly unsupported, and I worry it may put us both at risk. Let's see how our patient is doing when she wakes up. Or, if, she wakes up rather."

Ellie nodded and closed the door behind her, setting a brisk pace for the executive offices.

As she got off the elevator on the top floor, the contrast with the rest of the hospital couldn't be starker. Dark wood paneling on the walls and ceiling, and parquet floors made the executive suite feel more like a country club than a medical facility. Straightening out her scrubs as best she could, Ellie dropped her hair from her disintegrating ponytail and tentatively knocked on the chief's office door.

"That had better be Dr. Davis!" A voice boomed from within. "Get in here!"

Slowly she entered the room, finding the chief at a sprawling mahogany desk, and a small, tidy man in a gray checked suit sitting in one of the two leather backed chairs across the desk from him.

"Get the lead out, Davis. Sit." The chief barked, gesturing impatiently at the empty chair. "This is Al Sanders from legal, he will be sitting in on this meeting."

The lawyer stood courteously and shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you, doctor, sorry it isn't under better circumstances."

"Legal? Sir, what is this about?" Ellie looked to the chief in alarm.

"Did your patient, Anna von Matterhorn's family file a DNR for her?" the lawyer asked, drawing her attention back to him.

"Yes, they did," she responded. "But it wasn't filed until after she was resuscitated at admission."

"But it was filed before your actions this evening." the lawyer began probing. "The family has notified the hospital that they will be pursuing legal action against the hospital, and you, for violating the DNR."

"Bullshit." Anna spat back at him indignantly. "She came back on her own, we just stabilized her. I have a room full of people and a mountain of telemetry to prove it too. So, you can tell the family to get fucked."

The Chief of Medicine coughed to interrupt the incipient escalation between his doctor and the hospital lawyer. "I am very relieved to hear that Dr. Davis. Regardless, while the hospital investigates the matter, we will be forced to place you on administrative leave. You haven't taken vacation since I hired you, so take the time to unwind. I'm sure you could use it."

Ellie turned to the chief in fury. "Chief this is insane! Since when does the family of a patient dictate terms to you?"

"Since that family's name was on the building my office is in. Relax, I have confidence you did the right thing. But I need you out of the building before your admin leave turns into both of us being fired and blackballed. Just let the review play out. I will personally keep you posted."

She sat frozen in the chair, incredulous at the turn the night had just taken.

"Ellie," the Chief prodded gently, using her first name for the first time. "Go home. And please don't drag that kraut into anything. I can't replace both of you, even temporarily."

Part II: Home Sweet Home

Walking into her two-bedroom loft, Ellie locked the door behind her and threw her keys onto the white quartz of the kitchen island. She stared out of the floor to ceiling windows onto the city as she peeled off her scrubs, leaving them in a pile by the door.

The apartment was on the top floor of a converted turn of the century factory, and the modern touches melded with antique brick and dark wooden posts and beams throughout. Although Ellie had lived there since her failed engagement two years prior, it remained sparsely furnished, with just the essentials for furniture, excepting an enormous treadmill facing the TV.

"I should really get on the treadmill," she thought to herself. "That would absolutely be the responsible way to take out my stress."

"Besides," she mused, looking at her reflection in the windows, "you always promised yourself you'd train when you got the time again!"

Having resolved to take an easy run and get a good night's sleep, Ellie was surprised to find herself in the kitchen uncorking a bottle of Pinot Noir instead. "Self-pity it is then," she sighed to the empty apartment.

Taking a long pull straight from the bottle, she synced her phone up to her home speaker system, humming in approval as the sound of a muted trumpet floated through the apartment.

"Oh, Miles, you smooth son of a bitch. That tone should be illegal."

Ellie strode into the bathroom, bottle in hand and turned on the steam shower, determined that if she wasn't going to be productive on the treadmill, she could at least wallow in her own personal spa day. Drawing another protracted sip from the bottle, she placed it in easy reach of the shower and examined herself in the mirror.

She would describe the woman looking back at her as adequate, by her exacting standards. While she had lost the sharp tan lines and stark definition of an elite athlete through medical school and residency, she had managed to hold onto the lean, tight physique of a college distance runner. At 36, there wasn't a hint that she was losing her contest with gravity. She had grown up cursing her small breasts, but now counted them as a blessing, as they remained perky as ever, with small pink nipples adorning them. Her musculature remained clearly visible, and she was satisfied that even if she couldn't quite count her individual abdominals anymore, her quadriceps stood out in tight bands as she shifted from leg to leg.

Pausing her self-admiration for another swig of wine, she opened the door to the shower, pleased to find the water had reached her preferred temperature of 'nearly boiling.'

A few minutes in the intense heat of the shower was all it took for the wine to hit her like a truck, and as she settled into the buzz, she became increasingly aware of how much she was enjoying the jets of hot water dancing across her body. Reaching up with her left hand she grasped her right nipple between her thumb and forefinger, the delicate bud responding to the pressure immediately eliciting a low moan from her. That moan only intensified as the fingers of her right hand exposed her clit to a powerful stream of water from one of the jets.

"VIDEO CALL FROM DIETRICH KÖLSCH." Her phone blared through the bathroom speakers, interrupting the smooth jazz and her impending orgasm.

"Motherfucking German sonofabitch!" Ellie swore in frustration as she slammed the shower off and swung the door open, not bothering to dry off as she stormed back to the kitchen to retrieve her phone.

Punching the green answer button on her phone, she saw the neurologist's face pop up on her screen, along with a smaller frame in the bottom right with her nude, dripping wet, torso in it.

"Video! Fuck!" Ellie exclaimed, as Dietrich spewed coffee across his office, and she tossed her phone back onto the counter.

"Hang on Dietrich, I'll be right back!" She called back to the phone as she ran for the bathroom.

Still covered in water, she threw on an old forest green CU sweatshirt and put her hair up in a towel. She'd worry about the rest later, she just needed to remember to keep the camera aimed at the top half of her body.

"Sorry! Ok, I'm back. What's up, Dietrich?" She asked, slightly out of breath from sprinting around the apartment.

"Oh, Ellie. Hi! I've never seen you not wearing scrubs before, you look great! I mean... not wearing scrubs like not necessarily wearing nothing... but um" Dietrich trailed off, clearly still flustered after getting an eyeful of his beautiful colleague. "Sorry, my English isn't so good, what I meant was-"

"Can it, Dietrich." Ellie interrupted him, smiling internally at how he had reacted to seeing her topless. "You speak English better than I do. Relax, it's fine. Just promise me you will never. Ever. Tell my NP about this. Jeanie would never shut up about it if she knew."

He blinked in surprise. "Yes. Of course I won't tell Jeanie. Anyway. Our patient woke up, and is uncommunicative, but responsive. EEG looks normal-ish, so I'm not sure what's going on. I'm sending her in for an fMRI to see if we can have a look at blood flow. She may be like this forever, or we may see complete resolution, or most likely somewhere in between."

"I'm not sure you should be telling me this. I'm not her doctor anymore. I'm suspended, remember?" Ellie reminded him. "Who did they even replace me with anyway?"

The neurologist rolled his eyes and groaned. "Holt. Who is already making noise about pulling her NG tube and putting her back on solids so we can discharge her this week."

"Sure, why not? She's been semi-conscious and breathing on her own for a whole hour! No sense letting her lounge around taking up an ICU bed." Ellie threw her hands up in exasperation.

"We'll see how she does overnight. I'm going to steal a call room so I can stay about just in case, but I'll check in with you again in the morning." He covered his mouth as he yawned. "Have a good night."

"You too, thanks. Talk to you tomorrow." Ellie ended the call and put her phone back on the counter.

"Patient is awake... that's interesting. If only she would start talking again," she thought to herself.

Ellie looked in surprise at her phone as it started vibrating on the counter again. She answered the video call to see Dietrich peering curiously at his phone.

"I don't always answer my phone naked at home, jackass." Ellie rolled her eyes and tried to suppress a smile.

"Hmm. Schade. A worthwhile experiment, nonetheless. Tschüss!" The German hung up again, leaving Ellie with a strange energy in the pit of her stomach. She hadn't been physically or romantically involved with someone in a while, was this what it was like?

She pushed the cork back into her bottle of wine, grimacing at how little was left. Tomorrow morning was not going to be her best. In the meantime, she would let her drunk mind wander with the terrible idea of a workplace romance. She had never seen Dietrich in anything other than business casual, but she knew the thin German was an avid cross-country skier and cyclist. How fit did bikes and skis really get you?

Ellie walked into her office and flipped open her laptop. Opening a browser window, she decided to indulge her curiosity and did a quick image search for cross country skiers shirtless.

"Lord have mercy!" she breathed as she browsed the results. She could never drink around Dietrich. It would be disastrous.

"And Jeanie must never know of this," she warned her computer, closing the browser and shutting the lid.

Knowing that she'd never fall asleep in her state, Ellie strode into her bedroom, grabbing a small vibrator out of her nightstand and jumping under the covers. Picking up where she had left off before she had been so rudely interrupted, she turned the vibrator up to high and pressed it against her clit while her left hand wandered up her sweatshirt to tease her nipple.

The slender doctor gasped as the vibration coursed through her, and she entertained fantasies of her colleague stumbling across her toy shelves in the closet.

"And what might we have here?" she imagined him teasing, pulling a handful of ropes and handcuffs out of the black fabric bins. "I thought we Europeans were supposed to be the miscreants..."

Ellie shook as the orgasm coursed through her, bathing in the brief afterglow. She frowned, though, as she turned off the vibrator and tossed it haphazardly next to her on the moss green sheets.

"That should have been much more satisfying," she thought to herself. "This might become a problem."

Ellie slept fitfully and woke up with a start at a little after 5. Feeling thoroughly disjointed and peering at the dim pre-dawn light beginning to creep through her window, she realized that her phone vibrating had disturbed her.

"God dammit, Dietrich, it's not even light out yet," she groaned.

"Great, so we may have a problem," the neurologist whispered darkly, brushing off her complaint about the hour.

Ellie sat up, suddenly fully alert. Dietrich sounded worried, and Dietrich was never worried.

"What happened?" she prompted, wishing he would just spit it out.

She heard a door close and assume Dietrich had just gotten back into his office.

"I think someone might have taken another shot at killing our girl. She went in for MRI at 2, and when I went to check on her 10 minutes ago there was a pinhole in her line and a small puddle under her IV tree. It looks like someone tried to inject something but punched through the far side of the line and pushed it onto the floor instead."

Ellie's brow furrowed. "I dunno, man. That seems pretty thin."

"Good point. I'm sure if I tried to kill an heiress to get her multi-billion-dollar fortune I'd give up after one attempt too." Ellie had never heard the German use sarcasm before. He must be really worked up.

"Ok, ok. Easy there. So, what do we do about it?" she asked.

"I actually got samples of what was on the floor, but I don't have any resources to identify them here... I don't think you're going to like this next part..." She could practically hear him wincing through the phone as she realized where he was going with this.

"No. Fuck no. Absolutely not." Ellie knew he couldn't see her, but she shook her head with every word anyway. "I am not asking my sister to run them. She would totally think that made us even and expect us to be friends again."

"Well do you have any other ideas? We need a chemist with free access to a lab immediately, who won't ask questions, and who won't report us to the police if it turns out we hand them a vial of poison! What else do you suggest?" The German was right, but Ellie was almost retching at the thought of asking her sister for a favor. "What's your address? I'll come get you after rounds."

"Fuck, Dietrich. God dammit. Fine. I'll call her. Texting you my address now." Ellie ran her hands through her knotted hair and cringed.

"Morning keeps getting better and better," she thought as she sent the neurologist her address.

And with one last furious exhalation she called her sister for the first time in two years.

Part III: Deedee's Laboratory

Ellie saw the grey Audi sedan pull up outside her apartment building and knew immediately who it was. Locking her front door, she walked quickly down the hallway, punching the elevator button and pulling her cellphone out of her black handbag.

As if on cue, the phone began to buzz, and Dietrich's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey, I'm on my way down. Getting in the elevator now," she said curtly, the button for the lobby lighting up.

"How did you-" Dietrich started.

Ellie cut him off. "Oh, come on, a gray Audi sedan? It's a rolling cliche. You might as well have a German flag painted on the roof!"

"For obvious reasons, we Germans are somewhat less vocal in our nationalism than Americans. You'll understand in a couple more years or so. See you soon." Dietrich left her with that bit of foreshadowing, just as the elevator doors opened.

Her low black heels clicked across the grey marble floors of the lobby, and she stepped out into the Bay Area's notorious drizzle.

Spotting the Audi just up the street, Ellie walked over and knocked on the driver side window. "Hi Dietrich, you mind driving?"

Dietrich smiled back, fatigue evident on his face. "Not at all, I rather prefer it. Where are we headed?"

She walked around the front of the car and climbed in the passenger seat. "Ever heard of Thoraxis Labs? Palo Alto."

He shook his head as he plugged it into his GPS. "Never heard of it, sounds about as biotechy as biotech can get though."

"It absolutely is. And your samples had better be Polonium or something. I haven't talked to my sister since the fight. If I called in a favor to her and it's just saline I'm going to have a stroke." Ellie was absolutely dreading what was coming.

The drive from Ellie's apartment was relatively painless, and mostly silent. She was contemplating how to handle her sister, and Dietrich was consuming every last bit of his bandwidth trying to stay awake. It was already early afternoon by the time they rolled into a parking spot across from the central building at Thoraxis, and Ellie sent a text to let her sister know they had arrived.

Entering a sprawling lobby, Ellie had flashes of an alternate version of her life. Instead of the drab whites and tans of the hospital, the inside of Thoraxis was a gleaming steel and glass modernist's dream. Nearly a quarter of the space was consumed by an indoor garden surrounding a water feature. If only she had gone to industry instead of residency.

"Nice digs, right?" A familiar voice called across the lobby. Dietrich turned and blinked in confusion. Standing on 4-inch stiletto heels, Ellie's sister was wearing a light grey pencil skirt and white blouse that hugged her slim figure perfectly. Stylishly manicured blonde hair was swept to the side, framing a face that he saw nearly every day at work.

He turned to his colleague and furtively whispered at her. "You could have warned me you were twins!"

"I bet there is a lot she didn't tell you about me!" The blonde apparently had superb hearing. "That's ok though, I'm happy to tell you all about her!"

Ellie took a deep breath. This was going about as well as expected already. "Hi Deedee. This is my colleague Dietrich, he's a neurologist with me at the hospital. Dietrich, this is my twin sister Deedee."

"It is an absolute pleasure Dietrich. You know, I've been feeling a bit lightheaded sometimes. Maybe I could get you to examine me?" Deedee shot Dietrich a wink, before casting a challenging look at her sister.

"Oh my. That sounds like it could be excess intracranial pressure. I'll need to drill a bore hole through the skull to relieve it immediately. Do you happen to have a drill press in your lab? I could probably even make do with a corkscrew; it'll just take longer." Dietrich's complete deadpan elicited a delighted snort from Ellie. Even Deedee chuckled at the rebuff.

"Alright, Ellie. He's a keeper. Unlike that last one. Let's skip the drama for now though, if you called you must really need something. What's the favor?" Deedee dropped her overly friendly demeanor as she looked at the pair of doctors.

Dietrich produced two vials with swabs in them from the brown leather messenger pack slung over his shoulder. "We would very much like to know what is on these swabs, please."

Deedee was nonplussed. "Alrighty, mass spec room it is," she said. "Let's get a couple badges from security and head up. Neither of you has anything radioactive with them, right?"

The neurologist frowned and looked at Ellie, then back at the vials in his hand. "You pose a very interesting question."

Deedee's eyebrows rose sharply. "What exactly are you expecting to find in those vials? Actually, don't answer, now I'm intrigued. Forget I asked about the radiation when we go through security."

Fortunately, security seemed more intent on preventing anything from leaving the building than entering, and after clearing a bag search and metal detector, the trio made their way through the maze of corridors to Deedee's lab. On the way she explained the procedure.

"Alright, so we'll try one of the newer gas chromatography machines we have. If what you have there isn't too complex or exotic, we might have an answer for you in a few minutes. More complex means more time, and we might even have to try something else. And if it's radioactive, you two owe me new machines." She opened the doors to a large brightly illuminated lab room packed with cutting edge workstations.

As they walked to a door on the far side of the room, Ellie did a quick inventory of the hardware they passed. She was fairly certain there was more compute power in here than the entire hospital.

Deedee opened the door to the mass spec room and peaked in. "Great, nobody home. Let's get cracking!"

Donning a mask, goggles, and two pairs of latex gloves, Deedee took one of the samples from Dietrich and prepped the test bed of a large grey device. Pressing a test strip against the swab, she returned it to the vial and handed it back to Dietrich. Then she secured the test strip in a tray and slid it into the machine. After quickly entering a series of commands, the machine whirred to life and Deedee turned back to the doctors behind her.

"So, what do we do now? This might take a while; we could grab some lunch, and I could tell you all of Ellie's dirty secrets! Or we can drop the friendly pretenses and bury the hatchet while Dietrich has a clearly needed nap in my office." Deedee was suddenly earnest as she looked at her estranged sister but was interrupted by a long tone from the machine behind her.

"Shit, that was way too fast. Something must be wrong." Deedee frowned and looked at the screen, scrolling through the results read out. "Huh, insulin?"

Dietrich went pale and grabbed his phone out of his pocket, stepping back into the main lab.

Deedee and Ellie shared a confused look at the abrupt departure.

"What's with him?" Deedee asked.

Listening through the door, the sisters heard him addressing the charge nurse for the ICU.

"Good afternoon, this is Dr. Kölsch from neurology," he started. "I've been reviewing the fMRI results for Anna von Matterhorn in 114, and I'm very concerned. I need to place her on 1 on 1 for continuous observation. Given her risks I will also need anything administered to her to be double checked. Can you have her nurse call me when she gets to the room?"

Suddenly it clicked for Ellie. "Oh, holy fuck. They did try to kill her. For someone in her condition we'd never be looking at her insulin."

Deedee's head whipped around to her sister. "What?? Who tried to kill who? Is he talking about one of the actual von Matterhorns? What the hell did you just involve me in?"

"It's a really long story Deedee. Just, if anyone asks, we're very close and I was bringing Dietrich here to introduce you two and so you could show us the lab." She finished just as Dietrich reentered the room.

"Deedee, it has been lovely and enlightening to meet you. I hope we can see you again under less... interesting... circumstances. Thank you very much for your help, but I think we had better get back."

Deedee was silently contemplative as she guided the two doctors back to the lobby. When they arrived, she bid the pair farewell. "Good luck with... whatever it is you two are doing. Please be safe, and please keep my name out of it."

She handed her sister a blank manila envelope. "Your results. I have taken the liberty of removing any of the identifying data and the company watermark from it, so don't worry. If someone murders you for this information it won't lead back to me."

"Oh, stop it Deedee, you know how uncomfortable I get when you get all warm and fuzzy." Ellie joked. "But really, thank you. It was kinda nice seeing you again actually."

With that, she and Dietrich turned and walked back to the car.

Part IV: Questionable Decisions

While the return trip was uneventful, the sun was already starting to set by the time they reached Ellie's apartment. Dietrich pulled into a spot on the upscale, tree-lined street, and turned the car off. As the engine fell silent, he seemed to sag into the seat.

"I'm sorry Dietrich, but you're starting to smell. When was the last time you slept or showered?" Ellie crinkled her nose as Dietrich twisted to reach into the back seat for the envelope with the mass spec results.

"I couldn't tell you what day it is right now, but the last time I was home was Tuesday morning," he replied with an apologetic sigh. "I'm going to head home now though, so I'll remedy the issue as soon as I can."

"Wait, where do you even live? How do I know virtually nothing about you?" Ellie frowned at the realization she had never asked her favorite colleague about his life outside of the hospital.

"My people are just naturally inscrutable," he replied with a subtle grin. "And I live in San Jose."

"San Jose?? You haven't slept in two days and you're going to do rush hour on the 101?" Ellie asked incredulously. "Absolutely not. Just stay here for the night, get some sleep and we can figure out next steps in the morning."

The neurologist contemplated her offer. "You're probably right. You're sure you don't mind?"

"I insist! We can order some takeout and get some rest. You get an extra 4 hours of sleep if you stay here." Ellie felt butterflies in her stomach, knowing that the debate was sealed. No post-call doctor could resist the temptation of four hours of extra sleep. "Grab your emergency call bag and let's go."

Dietrich whistled as they entered the apartment. "This is much swankier than I expected." He wandered around the living room admiring the exposed beams running along the ceiling, and the heavy posts supporting them.

"Thanks!" Ellie replied, walking toward the kitchen. "We can order from the Thai place around the corner. What would you like? And then shower is the third door on your right down the hall."

"Pad Thai sounds wonderful," the doctor answered gratefully, and walked down the hall, holding the small duffel bag with his change of clothes.

Ellie started to punch the order in on her phone when she mentally revisited her floorplan. "First door was laundry, second door was the utility room, then third door was bathroom. Except the door to the utility room was painted the same forest green as the wall and only had a deadbolt, so if he didn't count that...."

"Umm. Ellie?" She heard him call from down the hall.

She peered down the hall to see him standing in her closet door. Emitting a terrified squeak that she had never made before in her entire life she dashed down the hall to find him looking exactly where she had feared.

Laid out in two meticulous rows on the closet shelves were black fabric boxes full of ropes, cuffs, clamps, gags, and anything else she had ever seen in a bondage video and been intrigued by.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think you would count the utility room as a door!" he exclaimed stepping back from the closet with a wolfish smile. "You are also significantly more imaginative than I would have expected. Your collection is really quite remarkable."

"Out. Out. Out!" Her face a vibrant shade of red, Ellie rushed him out of the room and into the bathroom next door. "Ok, shower is in here. Take your time!"

She closed the door behind him and made a beeline for the bottle of wine she had drank most of the previous night. Alternating between deep breaths, and deep gulps from the bottle she found herself calming down.

"We're in the middle of a murder mystery with one of the most powerful dynasties on the planet, surely finding out I'm repressed and kinky is just a drop in the bucket!" she thought optimistically, hearing the water in the shower turn on.

"And it's not like he seemed horrified by the stuff in there. Quite the opposite really..." Ellie was starting to have bad ideas. Fun ideas, but really probably terrible long term.

"Fuck it," she thought. "Life is short."

She walked down the hall stripping off her clothes haphazardly with her left hand, still holding the wine bottle in her right. She arrived at the bathroom door just as she stepped out of her plain black cotton panties. Taking a deep breath, she turned the handle and walked in.

Dietrich was standing in the shower with his head tilted back, luxuriating in the warm water pouring down from the rain shower head.

"Your shower is much, much nicer than mine," he observed without opening his eyes. "I was hoping you might find your way in."

Ellie's heart pounded as she placed the wine on the counter and walked across the slate black tile to the shower, the steam swirling around her as it mixed with the cool air from the hallway, goosebumps erupting down her shoulders and back.

Stepping into the shower, Ellie rubbed a handful of body wash into a lather between her hands she knelt in front of him. "May I?"

"Natürlich, mein braves Mädchen. By all means," he answered in a low voice that struck her to her core.

Taking him in her hands she gently washed up and down his cock, delighting as she felt it harden in her grasp.

Ellie squinted as water rushed over eyes and looked up, admiring Dietrich's body for the first time. She had always thought of him as just 'thin,' which now seemed an unkind descriptor. The neurologist appeared to be stitched together out of nothing but muscle and sinew.

He released a contented sigh as she began to stroke him more earnestly, and she watched in delight as his abs stood taut when she took him into her mouth.

"You are truly spectacular, aren't you?" he hissed, as she slid his cock deep into her throat. "I very much look forward to exploring your talents further soon."

She looked up in momentary disappointment as he pulled her to her feet, but gasped in surprise when he pushed her up against the cold tile of the shower wall, kissing her deeply and pinning her wrists over her head. "I think it's about time you explained why you have a closet full of unused rope and toys in your closet."

Ellie opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She had imagined explaining her fantasies in a million different ways, but somehow hadn't anticipated this situation, and her tongue felt frozen.

Dietrich's free hand roamed down her body. "Let me ask a different way. Do you want your closet of rope and toys to remain unused?"

She gasped as his fingers brushed across her clit, her tongue released by the stimulation. "No, sir. I want them to be used. I want to be used."

"Let's get dried off then." And he stepped out of the shower, leaving her panting against the wall.

By the time she had hung her towel and made it to her bedroom he was already waiting, rope in hand. Guiding her firmly by the wrists between two posts at the foot of her bed, he uncoiled a long length of rope and doubled it over. Tying a quick single column around her right wrist, he folded her arm back behind her head. Wrapping the ropes around her neck twice, he then folded her left arm behind her head and secured it with the free end of the rope, mirroring the right.

She tested the ropes, and whimpered as she felt the rope tighten around her throat when she tried to move her wrists, then slacken as she returned them to their original position.

"Kneel." The German supported Ellie by her hair, helping her to her knees with her heels folded neatly under her. She closed her eyes and reveled as he controlled her body with just a handful of her straight brown locks.

He tossed another rope over a beam directly over Ellie's head, tying each end to the ropes around her wrists and pulling the line taut.

The predicament was not lost on Ellie. If she moved her head or wrists in any direction, the rope around her neck tightened. Her heart was thundering in her chest, and she could feel her arousal beginning to drip down her thighs.

Dietrich grabbed two more lengths of rope, quickly wrapping them around the top of each thigh and the front of each shin and cinching them off, pulling her legs wide apart to as he ran the ropes around the posts to her sides. She was now trapped in the kneeling position, completely spread and exposed.

While he was crouched in front of her, he reached between her legs, feeling the moisture dripping down her thighs. "Oh, brave girl, is this everything you had imagined?"

She nodded as much as the rope allowed. "Yes, sir."

Stepping back, the tall man admired his work. "Prächtig," he breathed, taking in the sight of the helpless brunette kneeling before him. The muscles in her legs and torso flexed and relaxed as she fought to keep her head exactly level, allowing him to fully appreciate every part of her athletic body.

"Now where were we?" he asked her rhetorically, stepping forwards and slipping his cock into her waiting mouth.

Soft mewls escaped around his shaft as she slid her tongue up and down the bottom of his cock. Every time she moved forward onto him her breath caught as the rope tightened around her neck. The rhythm was intoxicating as she took him deeper, gladly bearing the price as the merciless rope cut off her air.

Finally, she felt him tensing. He groaned as he grabbed her wrists and pulled them firmly away from her head while pressing into her throat. A haze descended on her, the combination of oxygen deprivation, helplessness, and satisfaction delivering a euphoric cocktail to her brain as she swallowed him.

Abruptly, he withdrew from her mouth and released her hands, forcing her head back and allowing the rope around her neck to loosen. She gasped, gulping down air as he crouched back in front of her and plunged two fingers into her. Suddenly drunk on oxygen, the sensations were overwhelming. Dietrich began roughly curling the fingers inside her back while his thumb manipulated her clit, driving her relentlessly towards orgasm.

Unable to support her own weight, she sagged into the rope, the tension around her neck throwing more fuel onto the fire, and when Dietrich reached up to roll her nipple between his thumb and forefinger she erupted. Her mind went completely blank as she was brutalized by the climax, forcing her partner to release her nipple in order to hold up her head and relieve the bite of the rope into her delicate neck.

Seemingly both an eternity and an instant later, the climax subsided, and Ellie felt the ropes loosen. She was vaguely aware of being carried to her bed and covered with blankets. "Braves Mädchen," she heard as she slipped into a deep sleep.