“You’re nervous?” Kellan asked as they sat in the doctor’s waiting room.

“I’m always a little nervous whenever we’re here,” Reese replied. “You know how it goes.”

“Babe, you’re here because the treatment is working.”

“The old treatment stopped working after a while. I didn’t get any new pain sensations, and this one could stop working, too. Maybe that’s what the doctor wanted to talk to us about.”

“Well, he’s the best specialist in the country for your condition and he asked us to fly in instead of just meeting with us remotely. It has to be more than him telling you that it’s not working, right? Why bring us all the way here only to get bad news?”

“He’s ready for you,” the nurse said to Reese and Kellan, who were the only two people in the room.

“Thanks,” Reese said, standing up.

Kellan stood up as well and took her hand.

“No matter what happens, you feel pain sometimes, and that’s a good thing.”

Reese laughed because it still sounded strange to both of them whenever they talked about feeling pain as being a good thing, but Reese had congenital analgesia, which meant that she was born with the inability to feel pain. In most cases, if someone had this condition, they didn’t live beyond twenty-five because a trip, fall, bone break, bruise, or other bodily injury that went unnoticed could lead to infections, internal bleeding, or other issues. Reese had lived long beyond twenty-five, but that was because when she was younger, her parents had taken major precautions. Then, her twin sister had taken precautions, and Reese had trained herself to check her body every day to make sure nothing was wrong. Later, Kellan had entered her life, and Reese had been put on an experimental trial. She’d gotten a little pain sensation from that, but nothing major, and then after a while, it had stopped working. 

She’d been put on another one, and it had intensified the sensation, which was actually a good thing, but her new doctor had called them in from Lake Tahoe to Seattle to talk about the next steps for her treatment, and Reese was nervous. They had a daughter, and she wanted to be there through all of Amber’s milestones, and she never wanted to leave her or Kellan. Yes, that would happen one day, but she hoped it was one day very far off in the future.

“Hello, Reese. Hi, Kellan,” the man with the rosy cheeks and gray mustache said as they entered his office and not an exam room.

“Hi, Dr. Robbins,” Reese greeted first and shook his hand over the desk.

Kellan did the same, and they sat down in the two chairs opposite him.

“Well, I know you flew here just for this chat, so I’ll cut to the chase. Maybe you can enjoy a little of Seattle before you head home that way.”

“Thank you,” Reese said as she wiped her sweaty hands on her jeans. 

Kellan took the one closer to her and moved it into her lap, giving it a little squeeze.

“I’ve got an option for you that I wanted to discuss.”

“An option?” Reese asked.

“Yes. Your current treatment is working, which is great, and we haven’t seen the effects of the drugs diminish in your sensations.”

“Correct. They’re the same as they were when the drugs first started to work.”

“Well, I’ve been working on a new treatment with a few other doctors. We already published a paper about it, and we’re expanding our trials at this time.”

“Okay.”

“Reese, very few people see the kind of change that you’ve seen already, so I want to be upfront with you, how I always am.”

“No, I know. I appreciate that.”

“You’re already doing well, so that’s why this is only an option and not strictly a next step in your treatment. We can keep you on the current plan and see how that goes, or we can slowly wean you off that plan and change direction to this new one, which is a different drug cocktail and involves something else.”

“Something else?” Kellan asked.

“Yes. Think about it like shocking the nerves as we would when we defibrillate a heart to get it working again.”

“That’s been done before, though,” Kellan said. 

“We have a new device. A doctor friend of mine got a patent on his design. And, well, there would be office visits in South Lake. This is something you’d go to the office for once a month, and it would take a couple of hours each time. We’d know pretty quickly if it’s working or not. If it’s not, we could wean you off that drug and treatment plan and put you back on this one, but there’s a chance that this one would then diminish in its effects as a result.”

“So, it could reverse the progress?”

“Stagnate, most likely; but yes, that’s possible,” he admitted. “I have everything written down for you because I know how much Kellan likes to read it all.” Dr. Robbins smiled over at Reese’s wife. “And I want to answer any questions that I can for you right now. I can even take you through it in detail or show you a video of the procedure. It’s on a volunteer in the first trial, and she has about ten-percent sensation now. That result was high, but we saw great results with patients who were already gaining sensation. Those who had none, saw no benefit, but you have some, which is why I wanted to talk to you.”

“This could get me more sensation?” Reese asked.

“It could, but-”

“I know: it also might not work at all.”

“Could it reverse the sensations she already has, though?” Kellan asked. “You said it was possible, but how likely? Did anyone in the trial revert to no sensations at all?”

“No, but it was a small sample set.”

“So, it’s highly likely that she’d just stay where she is?”

“Yes,” Dr. Robbins confirmed.

Kellan turned to Reese and asked, “What do you want to do?”

“I want us to read through everything and maybe watch that video, but if going to get some procedure once a month means that I could actually feel things and not risk serious injury or worse, I’m in, Kell.”

“Okay. Then, that’s what we’ll do.”

Reese smiled over at her wife and then turned to her doctor.

“Can you walk us through it?”

“Absolutely,” he replied.

And for the first time in a while, Reese had hope.