I just couldn’t let it go.

I don’t care if she’s not answering my phone calls. I don’t care if she doesn’t want to see me. I know that if I can just talk to her, I can explain everything to her. And not only that, I know deep down that even though I’ve been suspended from the hospital, I can fix her.

I look up at the window but I don’t see anyone. I don’t think anyone heard me fall.

It’s been a little while since I’ve been rock climbing. It wouldn’t be a reach to say that I’m completely out of practice when it comes to climbing rocks. And scaling the sides of houses, even when wisteria trellises are involved, forget about it. I’ve never been good at that.

Good, so no one heard me. Her dad’s not going to rush out and threaten me with a shotgun. Or, more likely, a cell phone with the police on the other end.

That’s the last thing I need right now, considering everything that’s going on. If I have an arrest for attempted breaking and entering, I’d really be in danger of losing my medical license.

I feel around in my pocket for the vial of pure methylene blue that I brought with me. I got it by sneaking back into the hospital, breaking all the rules for suspended doctors, and removing it from the lab. No one’s going to notice, though, and it’s not going to hurt anyone. They have plenty of it.

I’m completely convinced that if Mia just takes her blue drops more regularly, then she’ll be fine. It’s just a matter of letting her cells get used to functioning at a higher level. For the first few months, at least, she’s not going to be able to go long periods of time without taking her medicine.

But the good news is that it might not be like that forever. When I was looking for more research papers on methylene blue, I discovered that for Mia’s condition, it’s unlikely it would work for more than a few hours. In a sense, she was lucky that it worked as long as it did.

The research paper also showed that over time, the cells get used to functioning better.

All she needs to do is take it for a few months frequently, and then she can probably relax her schedule. But she’ll always need to have a little bottle of methylene blue with her, in case an emergency situation pops up.

The only problem now is convincing her… while she won’t talk to me.

And, first and foremost, I need to get to her.

My knee hurts like hell, but as a doctor I know that I didn’t do any serious damage to it. It’s going to be fine, so long as I can deal with the pain.

Wincing a little, gritting my teeth, I stand up. I don’t put much weight on the knee, but it still flares up with pain.

Whatever. I’ve been through worse.

I grit my teeth and grab onto the wooden trellis that leads past her window.

This time I’ll just be more careful when climbing.

But the wood is impossibly thin, making it extremely difficult to get a grip on it. But I start like anything else, one foot at a time, knowing that I could very well fall again.

I’m going to keep climbing this trellis until I get up there, and I’m not leaving this house until I convince Mia to give the methylene blue another shot.

Normally it’s my cock that drives me to do things. It’s my cock that motivated me most of the time so far with Mia. But now… I feel something different. Even if she doesn’t want my cock, I want her to be better. I want her to be out and living a real life.

And of course, I want that life she’s living to be with me.

I know now that I simply can’t live without her.

But it’s not just her pussy that calls me… even though the mere thought of her tight, wet hole sends shivers down my spine and makes my cock swell incredibly.

I need her.

I need Mia.

My fingers hang on the thin wooden edge, in pain. But I can take it. I need the pain. It feels good. I’m accomplishing something. I’m doing something.

I pull myself up. My muscles strain. My fingers strain in pain. But I can’t let go.

My right hand grabs the wooden ledge, and I let go with my left hand, letting my body hang for a moment.

Minutes go by, seeming to take forever.

My body hurts. But I love it.

I’m closer to her.

Finally, I’m at the window.

To my surprise, she’s already there.

She’s looking at me through the window, her eyes wide.

“Open the window,” I mouth at her.

She shakes her head, and points at her ear and my mouth.

“You can’t hear me?” I mouth at her.

If I speak loudly enough for her to hear me, then I’ll surely wake up her parents, screaming outside their daughter’s window in the middle of the night.

Hanging on with just one hand from the trellis, the wisteria vine all around me, I grab my phone from my pocket, and press her name on the contacts list. It’s a little tricky with just one hand. But she can’t ignore me now.

She’s got to pick up the phone.

She does.

“Hi,” I say.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she says.

“Open the window,” I say.

“Are you crazy? I don’t want to talk to you. Go away. You’re just going to try to fuck me again, aren’t you? You just want another notch on your belt or something.”

“No, Mia,” I say. “It’s not like that. I need you. And I want to help you. Can’t we just talk? Can’t I just come in?”

“If I open the window, I’ll be exposed to every allergen around,” she says. “You’re a doctor. You should know that.”

“Listen, Mia,” I say. “The methylene blue works. We already saw that it works. We know it works. It’s just that it didn’t last as long as we thought. You just need to take more of the drops.”

“Are you crazy?”

“No,” I say. I explain to her the research that I found that proves what I’m saying. “Remember when you called me when you were eating breakfast with your friend? You said you were having another attack, and then you took another drop and you were better.”

“Yeah,” says Mia. “But so what? That doesn’t prove anything. I had another attack. You said that two drops was going to be enough each day, and it wasn’t.”

“I was wrong,” I say. “I thought that two drops total for the day would be enough. But what was really going on was that the drug has a half life in your system, and you need to take it every couple hours. It’s not the total dose that matters for the day, but how frequently you take the dose.”

There’s a silence on the other end.

“Mia,” I say. “I’m not going to force the window open and make you take the drops, even though that’s what I think I should do. But I’m going to leave the decision up to you. You need to make the right decision, Mia.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I need you, Mia,” I say. “I need you in my life, and I can’t have you wasting away in that room, not out living life… with me.”

“I’m really that important to you?”

“Yes,” I say. “That’s what I’ve realized. You’re worried you’re just another notch on my belt, but nothing could be farther from the truth. You’re different, Mia. You’re different from any woman I’ve ever been with before. There’s something just… incredible about you. I need you, Mia.”

There’s a long pause.

I’m staring deep into her eyes through the window. I can partly see my reflection in the window, overlaid onto her face. I look sad, desperate, but sure of what I want. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life before.

I need her. I don’t just want her. I can’t go on without her.

Mia keeps looking at me, deep into my eyes. I feel like her gaze is piercing my soul.

My heart skips a beat as Mia reaches the window and unlocks it. She pulls the window up.

I’m suddenly much closer to her. There’s nothing between us. There’s no glass, nothing but the screen, which I lift up.

“OK,” Mia says, starting to say something longer.

But I cut her off and lean in to kiss her.

But I pause.

“Wait,” I say. “Let’s try the drops first. You’re already exposed to more allergens this way. Kissing me would certainly expose you to something much worse.”

“You’ve been eating something foul?” says Mia. “A lot of garlic or something?”

I chuckle. “Just the normal.”

“Here,” says Mia. “If you’re waiting for a formal invitation into my room, here it is: please join me in my little bubble.”

“Why thank you, lady,” I say, suddenly realizing again that I’m hanging rather precariously off the side of her house.

“Here, could you take this?” I say, handing her my cell phone.

“Sure,” says Mia.

She watches as I climb through the window.

Once inside, I close the window behind me.

“So if I’m right,” I say. “We still don’t have long before your attack starts again. The methylene blue has been out of your system for a long time and I don’t think we have very long before another attack comes along…”

“You’re right,” says Mia. “It doesn’t normally take long. You have some with you, I hope?”

“Of course,” I say, winking at her. “I had a feeling that your parents had taken it away.”

“I think the hospital wanted it,” says Mia.

“Oh,” I say, shrugging. “Yeah, that makes sense. They’re trying to build a solid legal case or something against me.”

“Are you going to be OK?”

“Sure,” I say. “I’m not worried about it. I mean, they can take my license from me if they really want. But I know that all along I’ve been trying to do the right thing even if I’m a little unorthodox in my methods.”

“You can say that again,” says Mia, taking a look at the little bottle of blue liquid that I pull out of my pocket.

“Are you OK?” I say, looking at her more closely.

“Why? Is something wrong?”

“Your face is getting red,” I say slowly. “It must have been the allergens introduced from opening the window…”

“No shit,” she says.

She looks horribly worried.

“I don’t want to go back to the hospital,” she says.

“I don’t want you to have to go back there either.”

“But I have to… Or I could die…”

“I don’t want you to have to stay in this room forever,” I say. “Here, take one of these… It’s going to help. Just a little drop of this bitter blue liquid…”

“I’m starting to feel it,” she says. “My throat… it’s closing up.”