Mary wasn't sure how long she had been waiting in that room for Mickey, and this Dr. Miller to come in and talk to her. She wasn't known for her patience as she rocked back and forth, sighing every few seconds, hoping that what was going on would be over soon. “Come on...” she whined to herself. “This isn't getting Sandra better. What's taking them so long? I need to get back to her. She might need me.” Time was ticking by as she looked at the clock and dropped her jaw. It felt like an eternity had passed by, but in reality, it had only really been 4 minutes.

“No way! That's...not possible!” She yanked her arm up and checked a small, silver watch that was on her hand. She was hoping it had been longer, but it hadn't. Her watch also read that only four minutes had passed. This definitely wasn't her day, to be sure. She just wanted to get back to her daughter, so she could talk to her, calm her down, and help her. Instead, she was trying to help her and was stuck in a room, far from Sandra. She didn't even have her cell on her, so she couldn't call and talk to her. She could only stay and wait for Mickey to return.

She didn't have to wait too much longer, depending on your perspective. A knock came to the door, and a tall, black-haired doctor with a thin-cut style walked into the room about 6 minutes later, 10 minutes after Mickey had left. To him, not much time had passed by. To Mary, however, it felt like it had been nearly an hour. She wanted to help Sandra, but the waiting just felt so painful and long. She tried not to show it as the doctor came in. He reached his hand to her and gave her a grin. “Hello, Mrs. Moore. I'm Doctor Miller.”

She reached back, standing up in the process, thinking about what to say. “Mrs.” wouldn't be the right thing to call her, seeing as how she no longer had a husband. Her head bowed to him as she shook his hand. “Just call me Mary” she said, choosing not to bring up the differenciation in her prefix. There'd be no point in arguing about that. After all, she'd just be arguing about something that had nothing to do with the current conversation. Getting past that, and the rest of their greetings, Mickey walked back into the room and leaned against the wall. Dr. Miller then sat both Mary and himself down, and moved in front of her, crossing his arms.

“Okay, then. Mary, I hear that you want some quicker medication for your daughter. Mickey seems to think that you'd be willing to try anything to get her ready for her little audition for her scholarship. Is that right?” Mary blinked for a moment, just looking at him. She was surprised he knew as much as he did. “Oh, sorry.” he said. “Mickey clued me in on the situation on our way here. I should have told you.” That made things make a little more sense. At least he wasn't a mind-reader, or something strange like that. Mary shook her head for a second, trying to get past all of this. “No, No, it's alright. Yes. I want faster medication for Sandra, if I can.”

“I want you to know, though...” she began, wanting to be able to convince this doctor to give her daughter some better treatment. “Money is not an issue for me. It doesn't matter how expensive the treatment is. If it can help my baby girl recover faster, I want to try it. This audition means everything to Sandra. I can't let her miss it.” There was a pauses and a grin from the doctor. He wasn't going to talk about the price of the medication until later, but Mary had covered that right now. “I understand.” he said. “However, there are a few things you need to know before you decide on this treatment. There are certain things you need to know.”

“What do you mean?” Mary was curious about these things she needed to know. What did she need to know? If it would help her recover faster, then why would she need to bother with such small details? She didn't feel she needed to know everything, but she was going to get the information anyways. “Well, Mrs. Moore, this is a procedure that has been purely experimental until about a month ago.” Now things were starting to feel a little more serious. Experimental? What did he mean by all of that? Was this some sort of new treatment on the market?

Dr. Miller leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. “2 years ago, research began on a process of controlled cell regeneration. It was an idea that, if put into effect properly, would be able to rapidly heal any sort of damage to the body, so long as the patient were still alive. It would implement a strategy to let the cells regenerate themselves at a much faster rate than we already have in our bodies. Broken bones would take days, instead of weeks, punctures to the skin minutes instead of hours, and much more. The problem was that the process of testing it was extremely tricky. It took the entire 2 years to complete the research.”

Mary wasn't sure what to say to this story, but kept herself quiet until he was finished explaining all of this to her. “In short, Mary, this has never been done before. If you agree for her to accept this treatment, you will be subjecting her to a treatment that is completely new. I can't say that there will be a 100% chance of her coming out without any sort of side-effects. It could make her sick, just as she is now. Then again, she might be fine and you could have her at perfect health within a few days from now. It won't kill her, and any side-effect would probably only be temporary. You just need to know that it might not work, and that it's brand new.”

This was definitely going to be a risk, on Mary's part. This treatment had never bee used before, so there was no telling what might happen to her daughter. Could she really make that decision for Sandra? She wasn't sure, but she wanted her to get better. “I...well...maybe I'm not the right person to be asking about this. I mean, if it's not going to kill her, and could get her better in time for the audition, then I'd say go for it. But, maybe we should run this by Sandra first, since she's the one we'd be doing this on. Would that be alright?”

“Of course” replied Dr. Miller. He slowly got up and reached for Mary, taking her hand and pulling her up as well. “I admire your respect, Mrs. Moore. Most parents would immediately say yes and force this treatment onto their child. You want your daughter to make the decision on her own, though. You can worry, but not sacrifice the independence of your child. I like that. Now, let's head over to the other side of the hospital and talk to Sandra.” With a smile and a nod, the three of them were out of the office and heading back out to the main hall of the hospital...