After Effects
Coda to Librarians 2x08 And the Point of Salvation
Stone was up late finishing his paper on the newly discovered van Gogh painting on display in Milan the first time he saw Ezekiel sipping tea reading a book on engineering. He was tucked in one of the upstairs reading nooks notebook balanced on his knee scrawling down notes. Stone waited until Ezekiel had dozed off before sneaking a peek at the notes – detailed drawings of every kind of cooling system with notes about shutoffs scrawled in the margins. Stone sighed as he looked down at the young thief whimpering in his sleep.
Eve woke up at 3:30 AM like every day. She changed into workout shorts and a t-shirt like every day. She pulled her hair up as she walked into the training room like every day. What was not like every day was Ezekiel Jones working on close combat moves against one of the dummies. She watched for a moment, worried and intrigued. She recognized the fighting style as her own. Eve had never taught him how to fight and this was more than he could have picked up just by watching… unless… Ezekiel was working himself into a frenzy as his forearms beat against the wood. "Stupid. Evil. Rage Monsters! Get away from them," he yelled. Sinking to the ground, crying. Eve stepped forward before pulling back. She had a feeling Ezekiel didn't want to have an audience.
Cassandra found him in the music room surrounded by yanked apart circuit boards, his head leaning on the piano bench. She paused, something about it seemed familiar, but the feeling passed and she continued on to the lab. She was just about to add a critical ingredient to her reaction flask when she heard a scream. Rushing to Ezekiel's side, she tried to wake him, but he just continued to thrash and scream. She reached for his hand cradling it to her chest, gently shushing him. Eventually he stopped thrashing but that only made it worse because he started to cry, "Don't leave me. Please don't leave me." Cassandra felt her heart break. Considering basic physics in her head she realized that she would not be able to get Ezekiel back to his room, so instead she eased herself down onto the floor, laying her head on his chest, stroking his cheek and whispering over and over that she was here and not going anywhere.
Jenkins had known from the beginning. As one who had survived wars and battles, and lost everyone he had loved before the LIT's, he knew that haunted look in Ezekiel's eyes as he stepped through the backdoor. He also knew a lie when he heard one, and every word out of Ezekiel's mouth when the others were trying to make him remember was a lie. Jenkins didn't push, but he watched after that. He watched Ezekiel Jones fade, forcing tea with a magical supplement down his throat as often as possible. If he could catch him before bedtime he would add an herb that kept nightmares at bay. Jenkins knew that he had gone through the loop hundreds if not thousands of times. The others only knew that he sacrificed himself for them. Jenkins soon realized that he had not only sacrificed himself once, but thousands of times.
Flynn heard the stories from all of them except Ezekiel. He couldn't believe what he was hearing – Ezekiel Jones sacrificed himself? Impossible Flynn thought. He assumed that Ezekiel had been banking on breaking the loop and coming out on the other side. He dismissed it all, until they were stuck in the collider base with werewolves. Flynn saw it in his eyes when he offered to draw off the pack. Ezekiel was not surprised when he said he could be wrong. There was no hesitation, no question of whether he was going. The pause was for him, Flynn realized. The pause was just long enough for Ezekiel to come up with a quip to ease Flynn's guilt. Ezekiel Jones willingly sacrificed himself. Again.
