If Scott's brain had been an abacus before it now worked more like a supercomputer. Ideas would bounce from neuron to neuron. Becoming form and substance, changing, taking on new meaning. Inverting to show a previously incomprehensible view. His mind took off like a rocket. Craving complexity and embracing the abstract. He became keenly aware of the intricate.
And his body...his body languished under the austere framework of physical therapy. While his brain could move mountains his muscles were powerless. It took supreme concentration to wiggle the fingers on his right hand. He spent hour after agonizing hour in bed, in the wheel chair, sitting on the couch. And Cecilia patiently attended to him. She was a godsend.
After the hospitalization she came obediently after work each day to prepare him dinner. He never asked. But he dare not refuse. She kept him up to date with the comings and goings of the hospital. She checked on the lab and brought his mail. She even wheeled him over to the office a few times.
She was beautiful and sweet. Smart and caring. So many things Scott had never taken the time to notice. And he loved her for it. Loved her like he had never loved before. The stroke had rendered him so physically weak....but had opened up other forms of strength. The strength to see that which made another person so wonderful. It had been years since he let someone into his life.
It started rather innocently. She would stop by to help, run some errands. But then the visits became longer. And eventually she began to stay over. All with Scott's tacit consent. He wouldn't have had it any other way.
And late at night while Cecilia was sleaping Scott would pour over his data from the lab. He no longer could sleep. When the lights were out and the apartment was quiet his mind would start to race again. Keeping him up. Driving him back to the numbers scrawled meticulously in his notebook. Turning them over and over agian in his mind until they became characters dancing through his brain. Pausing briefly over the damaged tissue and studying that which was out of place.
Scott had become like the rabbits in his experiments. He had studied them and reversed the defects from their strokes. But they were dying to quickly. Now he turned an inner eye on his own damaged tissues.
How would he fix it?
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