Chapter 357: Frustrated

Ian was still feeling cold, but he had wrapped himself in an electric blanket, and was feeling much better after drinking soup and hot water. He had gotten an update on Mina who was still asleep, and still shivering and he was told that women were more susceptible to cold due to several biological factors, but mostly because of the fact that their core temperature was higher than a man's.

Mina had also spent more time in the cold that Ian did. He was warm in his car while she was walking in the cold. He really hated his behavior, but it was the kind of outburst that he had been having increasingly regularly and something that Zane mocked him about.

Ian was sexually frustrated and unimportant things were setting him off in ways they had not before. When he had no sexual experience, it was easier for him to ignore his urges, but now they were causing what he could only describe as mood swings.

A nurse walked into Ian's room, and he could not help himself from looking at her. She must have noticed, because she leaned a little too closely while she was meant to just be changing out the heating packs that had been placed around him. The nurse, who Ian knew as Veronica, made casual conversation, something that none of the nurses did, and her actions told him that she was flirting.

It was not unusual, many of the women under him flirted with him, the exception was Doctor Rebecca, and of course, the women on the third floor. Usually, Ian would not give any of those women a sense of hope, but he did not stop the woman from accidentally brushing against his leg while she was checking his extremities.

Ian mostly ignored the nurse and ordered her to have his room prepared. He had not slept at any Lee facility in years, but he feared that he would have to. If Mina did not wake up, he would have to consider moving her to a hospital, where Doctor Juan could see her.

----

Mina opened her eyes only to find a pair of eyes staring at her so close that she panicked. She kicked out her arms and legs, feeling her chest tighten in the process. As she struggled, Doctor Rebecca came running into the room and pinched her trapezius, much in the way the woman's brother had done. Mina instantly calmed, but she was angry.

"Do all Lee doctors know the pinch thing?" she asked hoarsely. She felt the urge to cough, but because twenty-three was in the room, she held it back. Knowing the man spent most of his life inside, Mina was not sure how great his immune system was, and while she did not believe she was sick, she still possessed germs he did not.

"Most of us do. We are all trained to our limits. I have mine and twenty-three has his." The man was still staring at Mina, who was trembling. Although she knew he was just observing her, she still felt herself shrinking back in discomfort.

"Why did you throw President Lee's key?" Rebecca asked, and Mina chuckled at the memory.

"He deserved it."

"But wouldn't that hurt you as well?" Rebecca asked and Mina shrugged.

"I tried to hit him first, but he blocked my attack. If I had to walk, so did he."

"That is a backward way of thinking," she replied, and Mina nodded.

"And you have a backward boss." Mina was still trembling, and she felt sleep coming over her again. "Can I go back to sleep?" she asked, but she was denied.

"President Lee prepared a room for you. It is warmer than the medical wards, and he wants you transferred there." Mina rolled her eyes and went to stand but her legs felt like bricks.

"I'm too tired," she said lethargically, and Terrence came forward to lift her. "What? No? Twenty- I mean Terrence. Put me down!"

"You aren't heavy," The man replied innocently.

"I do not like being close to people without mentally preparing for it. Please put me down," Mina replied in a serious tone, and twenty-three complied. Rebecca had already begun to open a foldable wheelchair when the man decided to follow up on Mina's statement.

"Are you like me?" He asked, and the flatness of his tone told Mina that he was struggling to comprehend her statement.

"You are smarter than me, but we have similarities."

"Of course, you do, both humans, both have blood, etcetera," Rebecca said sarcastically.

"I dislike her," Terrence said, causing Mina to laugh and cough.

"You can add that to our similarities." Terrence did not laugh, but something that resembled a smile crossed his face.

Setting aside their annoyance with one another, the man and woman helped Mina shift into the wheelchair, but they never got to push her anywhere, because a bundled-up President Lee came into the room ordering everyone else out. Mina seemed to sense Terrence's objection, so she distracted him by giving him 'homework'. She asked the man to produce eight pages detailing why artificial intelligence was better, and she challenged him to leave conjecture out of his paper.

Instead of saying that he could not do it, just as Mina knew he would, he left the room eager to sway someone of his opinion. President Lee asked Mina how she was able to control twenty-three, but she ignored him. She was cold, tired, and now she was miserable because the person who had contributed to her condition was insisting on being the person to usher her into 'comfort'.

"Mina, I didn't know you did not have your phone. I figured that you would have called Dom and he would have sent someone to get you."

"You mean the man who you told me would be out on the streets by nightfall?" Mina quipped. She wanted her comeback to sound stronger, but she sounded weak even to herself. She was cold and tired, and she just wanted to sleep.

"I shouldn't have reacted that way and I should have listened to you. It was wrong and I know it." Mina's heavy lids suddenly flew open and she looked up to face president Lee, who was looking down at her.

"Who taught you how to do that?" Mina asked, and Ian raised an eyebrow.

"I am apologizing." Mina shifted her body in the wheelchair. She told herself that she would not teach anymore of her tricks to anyone associated with a Lee. President Lee had just given her the perfect apology and it left her with only the option to accept it, which she did not want to.

"Truce?" Mina asked, unwilling to forgive the man who she could not get a solid read on.

----

President Lee was explaining every move he made to Mina, which only served to make her more nervous, not calm her down. She was unaware, but Doctor Jeremy Witt had told his boss that Mina feared the unknown, and Ian had taken it literally.

When Mina and President Lee stopped in front of two huge doors, she knew they had reached the room where she was finally going to be allowed to sleep. Mina had been told that the quarters had been set to 25C, and that the bed had been fitted with heated blankets.

President Lee stepped around the wheelchair and scanned his tags. The doors started to slide open and Mina's excited expression morphed into shock. She looked at him with wide eyes and he smiled, thinking that she was amazed by how luxurious the room was, but then her gaze darkened, and Ian found himself confused.