Marcus looked at her. In Chloe's eyes, there was not that distant compassion she showed her patients, but a real, concrete understanding. She was burning with the same mysterious fire.
"I'm with you," Chloe repeated, emphasizing her words. "Every step of the way. But from a safer place. Let me share your data. Let me give them a way to communicate with you."
Marcus hesitated for a long time. Trust was foreign territory for him. In Iraq, he had learned not to trust to survive. In his loneliness in Brooklyn, he had no one to trust. But Chloe was different. She hadn't judged him, hadn't belittled him. She had only tried to understand and had shared her own secret.
"Okay," he murmured finally. "Do it."
Chloe nodded with a slight smile. Then, her attention shifted to Marcus's chest, under his t-shirt. "Is there... anything else there? Other wounds? An internal pain?"
Marcus instinctively brought his hand to his chest. "Sometimes... a tightness in my heart. But it's not like a heart attack. It's more like... a pressure. Like an energy blockage."
Chloe thought quickly, as if making a medical decision. "Get up. Take off your t-shirt."
Marcus was surprised, but obeyed. He took off his t-shirt, revealing his muscular, scarred torso. Chloe fixed her eyes on his heart, just below his sternum. There was nothing visible. But she was looking not to see, but to feel.
"Let me," she said, before placing her gloved hand on his chest, right at that point.
Marcus nodded. Chloe placed her hand. The first contact was cold, through the latex of the glove. But then, that feeling came again. Vibration. This time, stronger. It was as if there was a tangled, uncomfortable ball of energy under Marcus's chest. Like a poorly healed scar tissue, but not physical.
Chloe closed her eyes. She focused on that new awareness within herself. She tried to direct it, from her hand, towards Marcus's body. Her goal was not to heal – she didn't yet know how to do that. Just... to feel, to understand.
Marcus took a sharp breath. "God," he whispered. "There's... warmth. A slight warmth."
Chloe maintained her concentration. It was as if she was gently stroking that knot with her hand, trying to untangle the threads of the knot. After a few seconds, Marcus's breathing deepened, relaxed.
"It's gone," he said, with surprise. "That pressure... it's lessened."
Chloe removed her hand, opened her eyes. She was also breathless. Her head was slightly spinning. "This... this is very strange."
"It was wonderful," Marcus corrected, with a new respect in his eyes as he looked at her. He put his t-shirt back on. "You... what did you do?"
"I don't know," Chloe confessed, honestly. "But I think your power is outward-facing, and mine is... inward, towards bodies." She thought of the message she would send to Sofia. *"Biological data and potential bio-energetic manipulation ability. Subject: Dr. Chloe Bennett."*
Marcus stood up, squeezed his bandaged hand. "Thank you, Doctor. Not just for my wound."
"Chloe," she corrected. "My name is Chloe. And please, be careful. Until Sofia reaches you, hide. Find a place."
Marcus nodded. "You be careful too. If he could reach me..."
"He could find me too," Chloe completed, accepting a cold reality. "I'll be prepared."
Marcus headed for the door, but stopped as he was leaving, turned around. "Chloe... this connection. The others. Are they... good people?"
Chloe couldn't answer for a moment. She thought of the professional tone of Sofia's message, the secrets she had shared with her. Kai and Hana's art. Mert and Elena's scientific passion.
"Yes," she said finally, sincerely. "I think so. They're scared, just like you. Like me... But they want to fix something."
That was what Marcus needed. A purpose. Not just to survive, but to protect. A determination appeared in his eyes.
"Then," he said, "bring us together."
Chloe nodded. Marcus went out the door, disappearing into the corridors of the emergency room. Chloe stood in front of the door for a while, her heart beating fast. She looked at her hands. A few minutes ago, they were just a doctor's hands. Now, they could be a weapon, or perhaps a shield, in a war she didn't know.
She returned to her desk, opened her computer. She prepared a coded message to send to Sofia. She added Marcus's medical data, her own observations. At the end, she wrote:
*"Subject: Marcus. Unstable but determined. Ready. And so am I. Please send me the connection protocols. - Chloe."*
She pressed the send button. Outside, New York continued to sleep. But Chloe Bennett was awake now. She kept looking at her hands until the nurse called. She felt the warmth of that strange, healing power she had just discovered inside her. And also, a little bit, the echo of a protective anger that Marcus had left behind.