This one came to me on mile 8 of a 10-mile bike ride....
Concussion
by CritterKeeper
The man lay on the ground behind some bushes. He was sprawled face forward, his arm flung up above his head. It looked uncomfortable.
Tammy slid down the slight slope, her sneakers leaving skids in the grass. She reached out a hand to touch him, wondering if he was dead.
He groaned and moved a little. She jumped back guiltily, then crept back towards him again.
"Hey, mister? Mister, are you okay?"
It looked like he was trying to turn over. He probably couldn't breathe too well with his face pressed against the dirt like that. She moved forward to help him, putting her small hands on his shoulder and dragging him over by leaning back with most of her weight. He groaned again and his eyes fluttered.
"C'mon, wake up! It's okay, I can help you." She eased him into a sitting position. He put his hand to the side of his head.
"What happened?" His words were slightly slurred.
"I don't know. Did you fall on the slope?" She eyed the slight rise skeptically. She'd only slid a little, but bigger grown-ups were clumsier.
"I...I don't remember." He rested his head on his knees. "Do I know you?"
She looked at him curiously. His words were coming slowly, uncertainly. "Are you okay?"
He put his hand to the side of his head again. "My head hurts."
"Do you need a doctor? My mom's a doctor."
"I don't know....my head hurts." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think I'm okay." He turned toward her. "What's your name?"
"Tammy. What's yours?"
A blank look.
"Your name. Mine's Tammy, what's yours?"
"I don't...don't know...."
"Oh, wow!" She got excited. "This is just like TV! You hit your head, and now you've got amnesia!"
"Amne...." He touched the side of his head again. "My head hurts."
"You said that before." She looked down at him again. "We should go see my mom. She's a doctor."
"You said that before," he said with a smile.
"Can you get up?"
"I think so..." He struggled wobbily to his feet. "I guess I can."
"C'mon then!" She took his hand and began pulling him up the slope.
A few steps up, his feet started to slide on the wet grass. His hand pulled out of hers, and he was waving his arms trying to catch his balance, yelping with fear. She tried to catch his hand again to help him.
Suddenly, the hand wasn't there. Or at least, she couldn't see it. But something smacked into her palm, something cold like snow, and she grabbed reflexively. Next thing she knew, he'd caught his balance, and she was indeed holding onto his wrist, with a perfectly normal hand attached. She stared at it a moment, then gave him a pull and got him up the rest of the slope.
She led him along a path until they came near the fountain, where he paused, resisting her pull. "Wait....I remember something....."
"What is it?"
"I'm meeting someone. Someone's meeting me. Something like that."
"Well, who?" she asked impatiently.
"I don't remember. We're supposed to go somewhere...."
"Where? No, let me guess, you don't remember."
"Sorry."
She paced around the fountain courtyard. "In TV shows, people get their memory back by going to familiar places, talking with people they know. But we don't know who you know."
"Maybe if we wait here, he'll come, and then he can tell me my name."
"But when were you supposed to meet him?"
"When?" The man looked confused again.
"Are you even sure you're meeting him today?"
"No...."
"So let's go!" She tugged at his hand again, but he stayed put.
"Can we wait here a little while? Then, if my friend doesn't come, we can go see your mom."
"Okay...." She sounded doubtful. "But are you sure you should wait? Are you okay?"
"My head hurts..." He started to touch the side of his head again, then paused, and put his hand back down. "....but I'm okay."
"Well, then, maybe we should talk. Or walk around the park and see if anything's familiar. If you were meeting your friend here, maybe that means you come here a lot."
"Sure. Let's try it."
They started down one of the main paths. It led past benches and flowerbeds, curving along the side of a lake. The man stopped, frowning, and pointed out on the water.
"What are those?"
She looked. There were a group of ducks swarming around a pier where kids were feeding them bread crusts. "They're ducks, silly. Don't you even remember ducks?"
"Ducks." He frowned and shook his head. "Now that you say it, I remember it. Du --" He paused, his hand touching the side of his head. "Du...."
"Are you okay?"
"Du...Darien!" He grinned broadly. "Hey, I remembered my name! It's Darien."
"That's great!" She studied him, squinting. "Funny, you don't look like a Darien."
"What do I look like?"
"I dunno. I guess I've never met a Darien before, so I don't know what one should look like. It's not a bad name, just a little weird."
"Does this mean it's working? Am I going to remember stuff?"
"Maybe. It's progress, anyway."
"Let's keep walking, then."
The path curved around a hill and led to an ice cream stand overlooking the lake. Darien reached into his pocket, then frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"I was going to buy you an ice cream," he mumbled. "But you need money to buy ice cream."
"Don't you have any?"
He stuck his hand back into his pocket, coming up empty again. "I think I'm supposed to, but there isn't any."
"Hey, maybe that's it!" she exclaimed. "Maybe you were mugged! My dad says people get mugged on the back trails all the time. And they took your wallet."
"Wallet." He tried the word out. "Mugged. I was mugged. They took my wallet."
"That's okay, I can buy you an ice cream instead. My mom gave me some money."
"For ice cream?"
"No, I was supposed to see a movie with a friend. But you need me!"
"Won't your friend be mad?"
"I hope not. But she'll get over it. I've got to keep an eye on you, make sure you're okay."
"Then you won't go see the movie?"
"She can see it without me. Let's get ice cream instead. Do you like vanilla or chocolate? Or can you remember that?"
"Both. I remember that. I like both. Swirled together."
"See, you're remembering more stuff already."
Paying with a five and carefully pocketing the change, Tammy handed Darien a swirled cone and kept a vanilla one for herself. They continued down the path, which curved around to the other side of the lake.
A large dog, some sort of Rottweiler mix, came bounding over a crest towards them, tongue lolling, his whole rear end wagging to make up for his lack of a tail. He nosed Tammy roughly, trying to get at her ice cream, but she stuck the cone behind her, laughing. Only when the dog turned from her ice cream to Darien's did she notice that the man had stepped back, a frightened expression on his face.
The dog reared up on his hind legs and put his paws on Darien's shoulders, trying to lick his face. Darien yelped, and suddenly little silver tendrils were snaking over him, growing and merging until his entire form was silver, then began fading away. The dog jumped away in surprise. He disappeared completely, only his ice cream cone remaining; it tumbled to the sidewalk and splattered across Tammy's shoes and the pavement.
Tammy screamed. She stepped back, stumbled, and sat down hard, still staring at the spot Darien had been standing.
"Rollie!" A voice called from the top of the rise. "Bad dog, Rollie! Bad dog!" The rottie looked up from gobbling the fallen ice cream, and reluctantly returned to his owner, who took in the frightened girl and the ice cream on the sidewalk and reached an obvious conclusion.
"Oh, gosh, kid, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" he asked, pulling out a leash and hooking it to the dog's collar before he could bound away again.
"I'm....I'm fine." Tammy stammered, tearing her eyes away from the empty air.
"Can I get you a new ice cream?" he asked, pulling the dog back again with affectionate exasperation.
"Um, no, that's okay....it was melting anyway," she said, standing up and dusting herself off. She reached out a hand to the dog, letting him sniff it, and scratched his ears. "You and Rollie enjoy your walk."
"Thanks, kid, you too, and I really am sorry," he called as the dog dragged him over the next rise in the path.
Tammy looked around. "Darien?" she whispered. "Are you here?"
"I'm right here," Darien's voice called from the empty air. His figure reappeared, coated in silver, which almost instantly turned into a shower of glitter and fell away.
"You...you disappeared!" Tammy stammered.
"I'm sorry. I got scared." He frowned. "I'm not supposed to do that."
"To get scared?"
"No. To...." He paused, searching for the word, then found it. "...to go invisible. In front of people."
"But you did."
"I forgot. I got scared and I forgot."
"But people can't just turn invisible. It's impossible."
Darien shrugged. "I did." He frowned. "But you got scared and you didn't."
"Nobody does that! I've never heard of anyone doing that."
"Maybe you just haven't noticed." She rolled her eyes at that.
"It was cool! Can you do it again?"
He shook his head, winced at the motion, and put his hand to the side of his head. "My head hurts...."
She peered at his face. He was sweating, even though the day wasn't really that hot.
"There's something funny about your eyes...."
Darien looked worried. "They're not red, are they?"
"No...the black center is bigger on one side than the other."
"As long as they're not red...." he mumbled.
"I think you're getting worse," she said seriously. "I think you need to go see my mom now."
"She's a doctor?"
"That's right, and I think you need her." She grabbed his hand again and tried to tug him across the grass, but he balked.
"I think....I have my own doctor. I should go see her."
She sighed in exasperation. "Do you have any idea where she is?"
His brow creased in thought, his lips moved, but no sound came out.
"Then let's see my mom instead."
"My friend would know." He turned back up the path, further around the lake and back towards the fountain. "I'm supposed to meet him at the fountain. We should go there."
"Do you think you can make it?"
"My feet don't hurt. My head hurts."
Looking like this was a really bad idea, she reluctantly led him around the path. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat, but when she pulled his hand out of his pocket to hold it, it felt cold and clammy.
"We get to the fountain and your friend isn't there, I'm going to call someone, Darien."
"Can you call my doctor?"
"Sure, Darien," she sighed, tired of arguing, "I'll call your doctor."
As they neared the fountain, the cobblestones around it were empty of anyone over the age of fifteen. Tammy eased Darien onto a bench facing the fountain. He didn't look like he was in any shape to wander off, and she went over to a pay phone nearby, glancing back worriedly at him as she spoke. Finally, she hung up and returned.
"Somebody's coming, Darien. They'll help you."
"My friend...is he here?"
"I don't think so, Darien. You probably weren't even supposed to meet him today."
"I think..." His words were coming more slowly, harder to understand. "I think it was today. I think we had to be somewhere."
"Do you remember when?"
"When?" He frowned. "Seven, I think. Bobby and I have to be on scene and ready by seven."
"That's not for hours! You can't wait that long. You're really sick."
"My head hurts." His hand shook as he put it to the side of his head.
"Do you know where you're supposed to go? Maybe you can go there after my mom fixes your head."
"It's something important. They need me there."
"That's right, so --"
She was cut off as an older, balding man came around the fountain and called out, "Hey, Fawkes! There you are! I been looking everywhere."
Tammy looked up at him in surprise. She glanced from Darien to the other man. "Are you the friend he's supposed to meet?"
"Yeah, hi, kid. Fawkes, you got yourself a playmate?" As he got closer to the bench and got a good look at Darien, his stopped looking so happy and started looking very worried. The closer he got, the more worried he looked.
"Aw, crap!" He turned to Tammy. "What happened to him? Do you know?"
"I found him on the ground. His wallet's gone, I think he was mugged."
He leaned close to Darien, looking in his eyes and touching his forehead. Then he pulled out a cell phone and began dialing.
Darien's eyes sluggishly turned towards him. "Bobby?"
"Yeah, partner, it's me. You know who I am?"
"My head hurts...." His hand fluttered as if it were trying to move.
"C'mon, Claire, pick up, pick up, pick up -- Claire! It's Hobbes. Listen, I just found Darien, and he's in pretty bad shape. No, I think he got hit on the head. His eyes, his pupils, one's bigger than the other. He's sweating and his skin's clammy. And he's not moving or talking so good.....Yeah, I can get him there in about ten minutes. Yeah, damn right I'll hurry. Tell the fat man there's no way we can pull this off tonight, he'll have to call it off."
He hung up and began lifting Darien off the bench.
"You shouldn't move him!" Tammy exclaimed. "I've called my mom, she's a doctor. She should be here any minute."
"Thanks, kid, but he needs to see his own doctor. I'll take care of him, I promise." He began walking towards the nearby parking lot, Darien half staggering, half hanging off his partner.
"How come he has to see his own doctor? He's not normal in the first place, is he?"
"What do you mean, kid?" Hobbes asked distractedly.
"Mister, there was a big dog, and he got scared, and...." She hesitated, then let it all out in a rush. "He turned invisible!"
"Yeah, he does that. But he's not supposed to." Bobby said, very casually.
She frowned. "He said that too."
They had reached a beat-up old van. Hobbes started shifting Darien to free a hand for the door, and Tammy jumped forward to open it for him. She helped marginally more than she got in the way as Hobbes eased him into the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt around him. It was all that kept him upright. Then Hobbes turned to the girl.
"Listen, kid, Darien could get in a lot of trouble if anybody found out he went invisible in front of someone. You gotta promise not to tell on him. You got it? Don't tell anyone what he did."
"Oh, okay," she said reluctantly. "But could you tell Darien, when he's feeling better, that I'd like to know he's okay? I come to the park a lot, maybe he can find me here."
"Yeah, kid, sure, I'll tell him." He rounded the van with the girl at his heels and climbed into the driver's seat. Starting the engine, he leaned out the window. "And kid? Thanks for looking after him until I got there."
"No problem," she shrugged, but she was obviously pleased anyway. "I called my mom, I better go call her and tell her she doesn't need to come after all."
"Yeah, you do that. I'll take care of him."
Hobbes checked his partner one more time before backing out of the space and speeding away down the road, swearing under his breath.
Darien remained a limp, lifeless form until they were several blocks away from the park and on the way back to the Agency. Then he stirred, and murmured in a blurred voice, "Wasn't she a nice little girl?"
Hobbes glanced over at him with a disbelieving look.
"Well," Darien amended, abruptly sitting up and his voice returning to normal, "I mean, for a thirty-six year old spy, she does make an awfully nice little girl."
"Well, sure, with that caveat, she does. Very polite."
"And helpful."
"And generous."
"She bought me an ice cream."
"I said generous."
"I know, I was agreeing with generous. I was illustrating it."
"Of course, she was watching you with all the symptoms of an intracranial bleed, and she kept on pumping you for information as you went down into a coma. Never called 911. Kept trying to get you to go off with her to get dissected...."
"Well, yeah, there is that...."
As they bantered, Darien pulled off his jacket and removed the chemical hot pack he'd hidden under his shirt to make himself break into a sweat, and the cold packs in his pockets that made his hands clammy. He'd activated them when the dog gave him an excuse to turn invisible.
"I just hope the Keeper can wash this crap out of my eye. I'm getting an awful headache with one eye dilated like this."
"I don't think she can do that. I mean, if they could wash it out, why would they make you wear dark glasses home from an eye exam?"
"Aw, crap. This has to wear off?"
"I think so, my friend."
Darien lay his head back with his eyes closed.
"So, did we accomplish all our goals?"
"Well, let's see. Little Tammy missed her play date with Sarah Morgan...."
"....giving you a chance to warn Doctor Morgan that his daughter's new friend isn't what she appears to be, before giving her the run of his house at a pajama party or something."
"Chrysalis now thinks the raid has been postponed until another day...."
"....giving us the drop on them on a raid they were already warned is coming."
"And that cute little bug I gave you?"
"Slipped it into the collar of her Spice Girls jacket. She wants to keep her cover, she's gonna play the fandom to the hilt. Three out of four pictures we have of her in the past month, she's wearing it."
"Very nice."
"Thank you."
Darien slipped on a pair of sunglasses and looked out at the road. They were almost back to the Agency.
"I'm gonna need a shot before we head out."
"Help yourself, my friend, we got twenty minutes."
"Are you sure the Keep can't just wash this crap out of my eye?"
"Well, you can always ask her."
"I think I will...."
The van turned off the street and disappeared into the parking garage.
Concussion
by CritterKeeper
The man lay on the ground behind some bushes. He was sprawled face forward, his arm flung up above his head. It looked uncomfortable.
Tammy slid down the slight slope, her sneakers leaving skids in the grass. She reached out a hand to touch him, wondering if he was dead.
He groaned and moved a little. She jumped back guiltily, then crept back towards him again.
"Hey, mister? Mister, are you okay?"
It looked like he was trying to turn over. He probably couldn't breathe too well with his face pressed against the dirt like that. She moved forward to help him, putting her small hands on his shoulder and dragging him over by leaning back with most of her weight. He groaned again and his eyes fluttered.
"C'mon, wake up! It's okay, I can help you." She eased him into a sitting position. He put his hand to the side of his head.
"What happened?" His words were slightly slurred.
"I don't know. Did you fall on the slope?" She eyed the slight rise skeptically. She'd only slid a little, but bigger grown-ups were clumsier.
"I...I don't remember." He rested his head on his knees. "Do I know you?"
She looked at him curiously. His words were coming slowly, uncertainly. "Are you okay?"
He put his hand to the side of his head again. "My head hurts."
"Do you need a doctor? My mom's a doctor."
"I don't know....my head hurts." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I think I'm okay." He turned toward her. "What's your name?"
"Tammy. What's yours?"
A blank look.
"Your name. Mine's Tammy, what's yours?"
"I don't...don't know...."
"Oh, wow!" She got excited. "This is just like TV! You hit your head, and now you've got amnesia!"
"Amne...." He touched the side of his head again. "My head hurts."
"You said that before." She looked down at him again. "We should go see my mom. She's a doctor."
"You said that before," he said with a smile.
"Can you get up?"
"I think so..." He struggled wobbily to his feet. "I guess I can."
"C'mon then!" She took his hand and began pulling him up the slope.
A few steps up, his feet started to slide on the wet grass. His hand pulled out of hers, and he was waving his arms trying to catch his balance, yelping with fear. She tried to catch his hand again to help him.
Suddenly, the hand wasn't there. Or at least, she couldn't see it. But something smacked into her palm, something cold like snow, and she grabbed reflexively. Next thing she knew, he'd caught his balance, and she was indeed holding onto his wrist, with a perfectly normal hand attached. She stared at it a moment, then gave him a pull and got him up the rest of the slope.
She led him along a path until they came near the fountain, where he paused, resisting her pull. "Wait....I remember something....."
"What is it?"
"I'm meeting someone. Someone's meeting me. Something like that."
"Well, who?" she asked impatiently.
"I don't remember. We're supposed to go somewhere...."
"Where? No, let me guess, you don't remember."
"Sorry."
She paced around the fountain courtyard. "In TV shows, people get their memory back by going to familiar places, talking with people they know. But we don't know who you know."
"Maybe if we wait here, he'll come, and then he can tell me my name."
"But when were you supposed to meet him?"
"When?" The man looked confused again.
"Are you even sure you're meeting him today?"
"No...."
"So let's go!" She tugged at his hand again, but he stayed put.
"Can we wait here a little while? Then, if my friend doesn't come, we can go see your mom."
"Okay...." She sounded doubtful. "But are you sure you should wait? Are you okay?"
"My head hurts..." He started to touch the side of his head again, then paused, and put his hand back down. "....but I'm okay."
"Well, then, maybe we should talk. Or walk around the park and see if anything's familiar. If you were meeting your friend here, maybe that means you come here a lot."
"Sure. Let's try it."
They started down one of the main paths. It led past benches and flowerbeds, curving along the side of a lake. The man stopped, frowning, and pointed out on the water.
"What are those?"
She looked. There were a group of ducks swarming around a pier where kids were feeding them bread crusts. "They're ducks, silly. Don't you even remember ducks?"
"Ducks." He frowned and shook his head. "Now that you say it, I remember it. Du --" He paused, his hand touching the side of his head. "Du...."
"Are you okay?"
"Du...Darien!" He grinned broadly. "Hey, I remembered my name! It's Darien."
"That's great!" She studied him, squinting. "Funny, you don't look like a Darien."
"What do I look like?"
"I dunno. I guess I've never met a Darien before, so I don't know what one should look like. It's not a bad name, just a little weird."
"Does this mean it's working? Am I going to remember stuff?"
"Maybe. It's progress, anyway."
"Let's keep walking, then."
The path curved around a hill and led to an ice cream stand overlooking the lake. Darien reached into his pocket, then frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"I was going to buy you an ice cream," he mumbled. "But you need money to buy ice cream."
"Don't you have any?"
He stuck his hand back into his pocket, coming up empty again. "I think I'm supposed to, but there isn't any."
"Hey, maybe that's it!" she exclaimed. "Maybe you were mugged! My dad says people get mugged on the back trails all the time. And they took your wallet."
"Wallet." He tried the word out. "Mugged. I was mugged. They took my wallet."
"That's okay, I can buy you an ice cream instead. My mom gave me some money."
"For ice cream?"
"No, I was supposed to see a movie with a friend. But you need me!"
"Won't your friend be mad?"
"I hope not. But she'll get over it. I've got to keep an eye on you, make sure you're okay."
"Then you won't go see the movie?"
"She can see it without me. Let's get ice cream instead. Do you like vanilla or chocolate? Or can you remember that?"
"Both. I remember that. I like both. Swirled together."
"See, you're remembering more stuff already."
Paying with a five and carefully pocketing the change, Tammy handed Darien a swirled cone and kept a vanilla one for herself. They continued down the path, which curved around to the other side of the lake.
A large dog, some sort of Rottweiler mix, came bounding over a crest towards them, tongue lolling, his whole rear end wagging to make up for his lack of a tail. He nosed Tammy roughly, trying to get at her ice cream, but she stuck the cone behind her, laughing. Only when the dog turned from her ice cream to Darien's did she notice that the man had stepped back, a frightened expression on his face.
The dog reared up on his hind legs and put his paws on Darien's shoulders, trying to lick his face. Darien yelped, and suddenly little silver tendrils were snaking over him, growing and merging until his entire form was silver, then began fading away. The dog jumped away in surprise. He disappeared completely, only his ice cream cone remaining; it tumbled to the sidewalk and splattered across Tammy's shoes and the pavement.
Tammy screamed. She stepped back, stumbled, and sat down hard, still staring at the spot Darien had been standing.
"Rollie!" A voice called from the top of the rise. "Bad dog, Rollie! Bad dog!" The rottie looked up from gobbling the fallen ice cream, and reluctantly returned to his owner, who took in the frightened girl and the ice cream on the sidewalk and reached an obvious conclusion.
"Oh, gosh, kid, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" he asked, pulling out a leash and hooking it to the dog's collar before he could bound away again.
"I'm....I'm fine." Tammy stammered, tearing her eyes away from the empty air.
"Can I get you a new ice cream?" he asked, pulling the dog back again with affectionate exasperation.
"Um, no, that's okay....it was melting anyway," she said, standing up and dusting herself off. She reached out a hand to the dog, letting him sniff it, and scratched his ears. "You and Rollie enjoy your walk."
"Thanks, kid, you too, and I really am sorry," he called as the dog dragged him over the next rise in the path.
Tammy looked around. "Darien?" she whispered. "Are you here?"
"I'm right here," Darien's voice called from the empty air. His figure reappeared, coated in silver, which almost instantly turned into a shower of glitter and fell away.
"You...you disappeared!" Tammy stammered.
"I'm sorry. I got scared." He frowned. "I'm not supposed to do that."
"To get scared?"
"No. To...." He paused, searching for the word, then found it. "...to go invisible. In front of people."
"But you did."
"I forgot. I got scared and I forgot."
"But people can't just turn invisible. It's impossible."
Darien shrugged. "I did." He frowned. "But you got scared and you didn't."
"Nobody does that! I've never heard of anyone doing that."
"Maybe you just haven't noticed." She rolled her eyes at that.
"It was cool! Can you do it again?"
He shook his head, winced at the motion, and put his hand to the side of his head. "My head hurts...."
She peered at his face. He was sweating, even though the day wasn't really that hot.
"There's something funny about your eyes...."
Darien looked worried. "They're not red, are they?"
"No...the black center is bigger on one side than the other."
"As long as they're not red...." he mumbled.
"I think you're getting worse," she said seriously. "I think you need to go see my mom now."
"She's a doctor?"
"That's right, and I think you need her." She grabbed his hand again and tried to tug him across the grass, but he balked.
"I think....I have my own doctor. I should go see her."
She sighed in exasperation. "Do you have any idea where she is?"
His brow creased in thought, his lips moved, but no sound came out.
"Then let's see my mom instead."
"My friend would know." He turned back up the path, further around the lake and back towards the fountain. "I'm supposed to meet him at the fountain. We should go there."
"Do you think you can make it?"
"My feet don't hurt. My head hurts."
Looking like this was a really bad idea, she reluctantly led him around the path. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat, but when she pulled his hand out of his pocket to hold it, it felt cold and clammy.
"We get to the fountain and your friend isn't there, I'm going to call someone, Darien."
"Can you call my doctor?"
"Sure, Darien," she sighed, tired of arguing, "I'll call your doctor."
As they neared the fountain, the cobblestones around it were empty of anyone over the age of fifteen. Tammy eased Darien onto a bench facing the fountain. He didn't look like he was in any shape to wander off, and she went over to a pay phone nearby, glancing back worriedly at him as she spoke. Finally, she hung up and returned.
"Somebody's coming, Darien. They'll help you."
"My friend...is he here?"
"I don't think so, Darien. You probably weren't even supposed to meet him today."
"I think..." His words were coming more slowly, harder to understand. "I think it was today. I think we had to be somewhere."
"Do you remember when?"
"When?" He frowned. "Seven, I think. Bobby and I have to be on scene and ready by seven."
"That's not for hours! You can't wait that long. You're really sick."
"My head hurts." His hand shook as he put it to the side of his head.
"Do you know where you're supposed to go? Maybe you can go there after my mom fixes your head."
"It's something important. They need me there."
"That's right, so --"
She was cut off as an older, balding man came around the fountain and called out, "Hey, Fawkes! There you are! I been looking everywhere."
Tammy looked up at him in surprise. She glanced from Darien to the other man. "Are you the friend he's supposed to meet?"
"Yeah, hi, kid. Fawkes, you got yourself a playmate?" As he got closer to the bench and got a good look at Darien, his stopped looking so happy and started looking very worried. The closer he got, the more worried he looked.
"Aw, crap!" He turned to Tammy. "What happened to him? Do you know?"
"I found him on the ground. His wallet's gone, I think he was mugged."
He leaned close to Darien, looking in his eyes and touching his forehead. Then he pulled out a cell phone and began dialing.
Darien's eyes sluggishly turned towards him. "Bobby?"
"Yeah, partner, it's me. You know who I am?"
"My head hurts...." His hand fluttered as if it were trying to move.
"C'mon, Claire, pick up, pick up, pick up -- Claire! It's Hobbes. Listen, I just found Darien, and he's in pretty bad shape. No, I think he got hit on the head. His eyes, his pupils, one's bigger than the other. He's sweating and his skin's clammy. And he's not moving or talking so good.....Yeah, I can get him there in about ten minutes. Yeah, damn right I'll hurry. Tell the fat man there's no way we can pull this off tonight, he'll have to call it off."
He hung up and began lifting Darien off the bench.
"You shouldn't move him!" Tammy exclaimed. "I've called my mom, she's a doctor. She should be here any minute."
"Thanks, kid, but he needs to see his own doctor. I'll take care of him, I promise." He began walking towards the nearby parking lot, Darien half staggering, half hanging off his partner.
"How come he has to see his own doctor? He's not normal in the first place, is he?"
"What do you mean, kid?" Hobbes asked distractedly.
"Mister, there was a big dog, and he got scared, and...." She hesitated, then let it all out in a rush. "He turned invisible!"
"Yeah, he does that. But he's not supposed to." Bobby said, very casually.
She frowned. "He said that too."
They had reached a beat-up old van. Hobbes started shifting Darien to free a hand for the door, and Tammy jumped forward to open it for him. She helped marginally more than she got in the way as Hobbes eased him into the passenger seat and fastened the seat belt around him. It was all that kept him upright. Then Hobbes turned to the girl.
"Listen, kid, Darien could get in a lot of trouble if anybody found out he went invisible in front of someone. You gotta promise not to tell on him. You got it? Don't tell anyone what he did."
"Oh, okay," she said reluctantly. "But could you tell Darien, when he's feeling better, that I'd like to know he's okay? I come to the park a lot, maybe he can find me here."
"Yeah, kid, sure, I'll tell him." He rounded the van with the girl at his heels and climbed into the driver's seat. Starting the engine, he leaned out the window. "And kid? Thanks for looking after him until I got there."
"No problem," she shrugged, but she was obviously pleased anyway. "I called my mom, I better go call her and tell her she doesn't need to come after all."
"Yeah, you do that. I'll take care of him."
Hobbes checked his partner one more time before backing out of the space and speeding away down the road, swearing under his breath.
Darien remained a limp, lifeless form until they were several blocks away from the park and on the way back to the Agency. Then he stirred, and murmured in a blurred voice, "Wasn't she a nice little girl?"
Hobbes glanced over at him with a disbelieving look.
"Well," Darien amended, abruptly sitting up and his voice returning to normal, "I mean, for a thirty-six year old spy, she does make an awfully nice little girl."
"Well, sure, with that caveat, she does. Very polite."
"And helpful."
"And generous."
"She bought me an ice cream."
"I said generous."
"I know, I was agreeing with generous. I was illustrating it."
"Of course, she was watching you with all the symptoms of an intracranial bleed, and she kept on pumping you for information as you went down into a coma. Never called 911. Kept trying to get you to go off with her to get dissected...."
"Well, yeah, there is that...."
As they bantered, Darien pulled off his jacket and removed the chemical hot pack he'd hidden under his shirt to make himself break into a sweat, and the cold packs in his pockets that made his hands clammy. He'd activated them when the dog gave him an excuse to turn invisible.
"I just hope the Keeper can wash this crap out of my eye. I'm getting an awful headache with one eye dilated like this."
"I don't think she can do that. I mean, if they could wash it out, why would they make you wear dark glasses home from an eye exam?"
"Aw, crap. This has to wear off?"
"I think so, my friend."
Darien lay his head back with his eyes closed.
"So, did we accomplish all our goals?"
"Well, let's see. Little Tammy missed her play date with Sarah Morgan...."
"....giving you a chance to warn Doctor Morgan that his daughter's new friend isn't what she appears to be, before giving her the run of his house at a pajama party or something."
"Chrysalis now thinks the raid has been postponed until another day...."
"....giving us the drop on them on a raid they were already warned is coming."
"And that cute little bug I gave you?"
"Slipped it into the collar of her Spice Girls jacket. She wants to keep her cover, she's gonna play the fandom to the hilt. Three out of four pictures we have of her in the past month, she's wearing it."
"Very nice."
"Thank you."
Darien slipped on a pair of sunglasses and looked out at the road. They were almost back to the Agency.
"I'm gonna need a shot before we head out."
"Help yourself, my friend, we got twenty minutes."
"Are you sure the Keep can't just wash this crap out of my eye?"
"Well, you can always ask her."
"I think I will...."
The van turned off the street and disappeared into the parking garage.