Work Text:
April 12, 1999 – Akron General Hospital, Akron, Ohio
Dana Archer presented her husband of five years with their third child, a daughter. They named her Melinda, after Michael's maternal grandmother. Their oldest child, David, 4 years old, was named for Dana's paternal grandfather, and the now-middle child, Frederick, 2 years old, was named for Michael's father, who had passed away in the mid 1980s.
Michael was the manager for a local used car dealership, and was up for a promotion to general manager. Dana was a local insurance adjuster for a nationwide insurance company. Both of them grew up and had family in Akron, allowing them to be able to pursue their careers while leaving the children in the care of Dana or Michael's siblings. Big family dynamic. Plenty of love, and no little sibling rivalry between cousins.
2002 through early 2017 – Akron, Ohio
Melinda showed a talent for dancing, and so Dana signed her up for toddler ballet classes for the coming Fall term. Little Melly took to it like a fish to water. Her younger school years were full of dance, gymnastics, and, going into high school, cheer-leading.
Michael won a small fortune in the state lottery in 2010, and used his winnings to purchase the dealership he'd been managing. He began to expand, getting a contract with a major car manufacturer, to sell their new vehicles, as well as a maintenance contract with a local package delivery hub. In the summer of 2013, Melinda was 16, and she got a part-time job in the used car dealership's repair shop, where she learned how to maintain cars and trucks. There was a fair amount of hazing from the mechanics, about this cute little blond thing in their midst, but at least she didn't screw things up too badly (or irreparably). She developed a competence with mechanical jobs, even if she didn't have a passion for it, the way Davy does.
By the time Melinda was in high school, David (the oldest sibling) was taking business classes at the local university, with an eye towards taking over the business when their father retires. Freddy earned a place on the varsity football team, in his senior year. He got into several fights in school when various guys made inappropriate remarks about how good-looking his kid sister is. During her senior year, Melinda took the Red Cross first aid classes, because it should look good on her application to the ballet school.
Fall, 2017 – San Francisco, California
Melinda finished high school in the upper third of her graduating class, and moved to California, to attend the San Francisco Ballet Conservatory. She was 18 years old at this point, and supplementing her income waiting tables at a local cafe. She shared an apartment with two other students. She was fully aware that her milk-and-honey good looks helped her get better tips, and she played that up on busier shifts. However, as she's aware that her body will probably start to fail her as a ballerina by the time she hits 30, she wanted to make her fortune as soon as possible, while she still has many good dancing years ahead of her.
She busts her ass in the Conservatory, taking all the dance styles offered (but Ballet continues to be where she shines best), as well as the classes for behind-the-scenes theatrical management, from costuming to lights, set construction to accounting.
Shortly before her 20th birthday, the cafe she'd been working in was purchased by a multinational conglomerate, and closed (they purchased the whole block, for redevelopment). Melinda received a small severance package, enough to pay rent through the end of the Conservatory's semester. The City Ballet was auditioning for a production of Cinderella, and Melinda had the support of her teachers to audition. She was able to land a place in the Ensemble, not a named character.
Halfway through the production's run, the woman playing the Godmother was in a car accident, her arm and some ribs were broken, and she was unable to perform. Linda took her place, and established a name for herself in the Company.
The following February, Linda was taking the bus, on the way to rehearsal for a new production of Sleeping Beauty due to open in May. She had landed the role of Carabosse, the Evil Fairy. She was watching other performances of Sleeping Beauty on her cell phone, when a full cement truck ignored a red light, t-boning the bus, and pushed it halfway down the block, due to the truck's momentum. Melinda was on the side the truck initially hit, and the bus itself tumbled several times, before coming to rest on its roof. Melinda was knocked unconscious, left with a fractured skull, a severe concussion, several sprains, a dislocated shoulder, various scrapes and contusions, several cuts that required stitches, and was put into a medical coma due to how severe her soft tissue damage was found to be. The accident left six other passengers dead, and four others also in critical condition. The truck driver was later found guilty of driving under the influence.
When Melinda recovered enough to be permitted to wake up, she found her parents at her bedside. A week had passed, and she has lost her place in the Sleeping Beauty production. To her horror, though, on the day after she woke up, she was helped to her feet by her doctor and nurses, and found that her balance was completely gone. She couldn't maintain her equilibrium, because her inner ears were telling her that she was spinning, floating, falling.
There was hope that it was a temporary condition, that it would fade over time, as she continued to recover, as her skull mended. Three days after the initial finding, Melinda tried to stand up by herself again, and fell over, knocking her temple on a chair leg in her hospital room. A nurse rushed in as Mel collapsed, as Mel had a Fall Danger sensor on her hospital band. She was treated quickly for the new injury, but she was unconscious once more.
A "doctor" approached the Archers, the next morning, offering an experimental treatment that could possibly correct the issue with Mel's equilibrium. They decided to give him their decision the next morning, especially if he could provide any information. He sent them an email with a "very informative" outline.
The doctor's outline got very technical, but the tl;dr was a flushing of the patient's system with a concoction that was supposed to aid in knitting broken bones, reduce swelling, and increase one's healing rate during the procedure. It was also supposed to reduce impact of any addiction to foreign substances and help regenerate nerve damage. It cited various animal studies in South America and several labs in Africa, and how it was time to begin human studies. Michael and Dana agreed to put their daughter in the treatment study. They wouldn't know if she was part of the Control group or one of the test groups getting the actual treatment.
There was a large stack of forms Mel's parents had to fill out on her behalf. By the end of the day, however, Melinda was transferred to a privately-owned medical facility, in San Jose, in a semi-private room on the third floor. Her roommate was an older woman, who had chronic health issues.
Melinda had woken up late in the morning, while her parents were still filling out the paperwork. Her father explained what was going to happen, as best as he understood it, while her mother finished the stack of forms. At first, Mel was reluctant to agree to the procedure, but a gentle reminder that if her equilibrium didn't resolve itself, she was unlikely to dance again. She signed the smaller stack of forms that gave her parents medical power of attorney, allowing them to make healthcare decisions on her behalf.
Once Melinda was settled in the room, a nurse came by to take a set of vitals from her, as well as a blood sample. While they had all of the information from the city hospital, on her chart, the new set of information was to help establish the baseline information, regardless of which trial group she wound up in.
"Swanhilda" is the lead female character in the comic ballet, "Coppélia."