What Never Was and What Might Be
Follow up Story to Facing Past Demons
Disclaimer: I don't own the Listener…. If I did Charlie Marx and Ray Mercer would still be highly featured in season two. grrrr
Notes: Takes place during after events in ep 13 of season 1 – consider this episode 1x14. There are plans to continue this story arc into at least one more major story.
In attempts to make it plain who is hearing what use the following key:
++ TEXT ++ = Toby is sensing with his gift
** TEXT ** = Other character is sensing with telepathy
+*+ TEXT +*+ = both Toby and other character sensing it with telepathy
Thanks again go out to my beta reader Joyce both for catching grammar and concept issues.
Nothing. There had been nothing to follow up on inside the car found just off the bridge. Toby sat beside Charlie Marks hospital bed going over for the millionth time the race to find his mother that had occurred over the past couple days. The whoosh – beep of the machines softly keeping him company in a quietly lit intensive care unit did little to distract him. He had to be careful of the time he spent in this room to ensure his path did not cross with Sergeant Becker as there was little doubt that her boss would make good on his threat towards Toby. Becker blamed Toby for the bullet that Charlie had taken, and Toby wasn't so certain the man was wrong.
Carefully reviewing his mental files, Toby looked for that lost clue or scrap of evidence that would surely make all the pieces fit together. He wasn't the only one who had more questions than answers.
Miles away, Ethan Darnell sat alone on the motel bed listening to the ticking clock on the wall and tried to reconstruct his own past. A lifetime of knowing other people's thoughts as easily as he knew his own had fostered a sense of invulnerability that was only fanned by the doting scientists at the Institute as they taught him how to sharpen his gift. That confidence was shattered in mere minutes with the reading of one individual - Toby Logan. Ethan knew how to reach into the depths of the human mind. It was what he was trained to do from his earliest years. Till fate had him cross paths with his estranged brother, Ethan never had reason to dig deeper than the easily plucked fruit of the conscious minds of those that surrounded him. Maybe those they allowed near him were as deceived as he had been.
There had never been a trace of more than the story that had been hounded into him from birth of a mother who never wanted him and a brother who had disappeared and had been presumed dead years ago.
But now Ethan knew there was indeed more to the story.
He lay down and spread out on the motel bed as the memories from about a month ago played through his mind. "Someone's lying … and I'm going to find out who." The rage engulfed Ethan as he spat the dark promise out to his supposed brother. How could anyone have lied to him? He who could scan the thoughts of anyone as easily as most people read the back of a cereal box. Yet the memories from the paramedic's mind would not reconcile with the knowledge Ethan had lived with growing up, and that paradox scared him to death. The cocky security of 'knowing it all' that came from a lifetime of being able to read other people's minds was destroyed in that moment, and a part of Ethan had shattered as well.
Ethan had fled Toronto that night, and went back to his room at the Institute to start tracking down those in charge. Every face was now a question mark to Ethan to try to figure out if what he read from them was the truth, a well calculated lie, or simple ignorance on their part. It took a couple weeks, but he found the elite circle of monsters masquerading as men at the top of the organization. He tunneled through their minds and found the files on his mother and discovered who his father had been.
The Institute had wanted answers upon his return, and Ethan's behavior started to concern those in charge when he seemed to have not gotten the anticipated results on the last assignment. There was whispered gossip in the minds of those around him about the possibility of having to contain him with drastic measures if Ethan had become somehow disloyal to the Institute's mission.
He hadn't given them the chance. Ethan was making his way back to Toronto to collect the rest of the pieces to the puzzle, but not before creating some major problems for the lab coats back home to stay busy with. It would take some time before they regained control over the computer networks they took such foolish pride in depending on. In addition to his mental abilities, Ethan had a flair for computer science that rivaled the best.
Ethan could easily shut out the echoes of the other people around him, but the memories and questions that sprang up from the past were not so easily silenced. The images stolen from Toby's mind of their mother haunted Ethan's dreams.
Toby half dozed then would startle back to wakefulness with a jab of thought from the surrounding patients and staff. Hospitals were bad for intense thoughts that could not be blocked out, but guilt mixed with concern caused him to be at Marks bedside as much as possible. That window of opportunity was coming to a close as he eyed the clock and knew that soon he would have to slip out to prevent running into Becker.
He placed his hand over hers and once again attempted to bargain for her recovery. "I know you can hear me. You didn't ask for me to be in your life, and if I could change this I would take it all back. Charlie, don't stay away too long. You're needed here. You're a fighter I know you can make it. You have to make it."
Blinking back tears, he slipped out and down the hall. Around the corner Olivia spotted him, and quickly made her way over before he toppled over his own feet.
"Toby you can't keep going like this. You're exhausted. When is the last time you actually went home and slept for more than a couple of hours?" concern filled her voice as she guided him to sit down in the waiting area.
"I… I don't know Liv… it doesn't matter where I am … I can't sleep. With everything that has happened to have been so close to finding my mother only to come up empty handed again…" Toby wiped his hands over his face massaging his tired eyes. "How could she have just disappeared?"
"I don't know Toby, but we won't stop looking for her, OK? Right now you have to take care of yourself or you won't be any good to her once you do find her. "Common sense was not going to have an impact tonight she could quickly tell.
"Frank is my last hope of finding those missing parts to the puzzle, and Becker still has him in custody with no chance of getting near enough to him for me to even read him much less actually get to talk with him. " He continued on as if Olivia had not said a word. He was lost in his own sluggish thoughts.
"All right that does it Mr. Logan," It was no longer Olivia the girlfriend talking but rather Dr. Fawcett. "You are going to get some sleep even if I have to sedate you to do it."
"I'm fine Liv." The lie held no conviction as it was the simple tossed off reply of someone not paying attention.
"You are NOT fine. Come on…" She half guided half pulled him down the hall to an empty room, and firmly pushed him back against the bed. He didn't put up much of a fight and that worried her even more than the dark circles under his eyes that had been a constant testament to his exhausted state. "I have to be in surgery in five minutes, and if you are not asleep in this bed when I get done I am going to find the strongest sedative in this place to knock you over the head with." The threat was genuine with the firm commanding voice to back it up, but then her worry showed through. "You need to rest or you are going to destroy yourself. I'll be back…" Olivia flipped off the lights, and quietly closed the door on her way out.
Toby's eyes stared open but not really seeing anything for a few minutes. Then exhaustion won out as his body crashed hard into tortured sleep.
Oz didn't normally complain, but Doug Phelps, who was filling in for Toby on the EMS truck, was getting on his last nerve.
"And then she calls me up and suggests we go out for some pizza and all she wants on it once we get there is spinach. Can you believe that? Pizza just ain't worth it unless you pile some meat on there.
So I said – "Doug was cut off mid sentence by Oz's exclamation.
"Wow… look at that - time to pull it in for the night." The Turkish paramedic hot footed it back to St. Lukes in record time counting the seconds until he could bid Doug good-bye.
Once out of the ambulance bay, Oz went to track down his MIA partner Toby Logan both to see how his friend was coping, and perhaps to beg him to come back to work depending on the answer to the first question. Rounding the corner Oz saw Olivia standing at the far window staring out seemingly at nothing.
"Olivia… " she didn't turn to face Oz as he approached. In fact she didn't seem to have heard him at all. "Hey Earth to Olivia..." Oz came to stand next to her, but she still stared out the window.
A nurse came up on the other side of Dr. Fawcett a bit hesitantly with a clipboard. "Dr. Fawcett… need your sign off on this." Finally jolted back to the people around her, Olivia took the proffered pen from the nurse and quickly scribbled her name then she noticed Oz.
"Hey Oz… " her voice was still distracted and her thoughts seemed a million miles away.
"What's up? You look like the walking dead." He was never much for being subtle.
She shook her head and strolled back to the main entrance of the ER, "I'm just worried about Toby."
"Yeah me too." Glancing around Oz didn't see his partner in question, "where is he anyway? Or did you finally get him to go home?"
"No such luck. Forced him to crash in one of the empty rooms for now." Her back was to the door, and Oz's widening eyes were not enough warning for her to escape being grabbed from behind.
The teenager's crazed stare darted around at the growing circle of people that surrounded him and the hostage he had the pocket knife pressed against. One wrong move and the blade would cut deeply into Olivia's neck. The EMS team that had been bringing him in on the stretcher gave them a wide berth, but stayed close enough in case they spotted a chance to intervene.
"You're not going to get me! I know what you want, but you aren't going to get me!" ragged jeans and an even worse off T-shirt hung on the adolescent frame as he slowly moved holding tight to Olivia as he inched backwards towards the main doors. The youth was obviously heavily strung out on something and Olivia struggled to breathe .
"Let her go… and we can help you. No one's going to hurt you… " Oz tried to distract and calm the boy in order to give Olivia a chance of escaping unharmed. Bloodshot eyes riveted to Oz's and that was all the opportunity the security personnel needed to knock the knife from his hand and pull him into cuffs. They removed him kicking and screaming all the way.
Oz rushed in the moment Olivia was free to steady her so she could sit down. Shaking with adrenalin she popped back up and headed for the door at the end of the hallway to get a breath of air.
Oz quickly followed as they both burst through the outside door. Olivia leaned back on the wall and slid to the ground with Oz eyeing her carefully.
"You OK?" Oz softly asked her.
"No… no I'm not. Look I just needed to get out of there for a while. Can you go check on Toby for me?" She didn't want Oz shadowing her, and she needed to know Toby was being looked after as well.
"Sure… I'll make sure he's OK. How about you?"
She faked a half smile, "I'll be all right… just need some air." It wasn't much of an assurance, but it was all Oz was going to get.
Oz made his way back inside and down to the room Toby was conked out in muttering to himself once inside the small room, "Things just keep getting better all the time."
"What's getting better?" Toby groggily opened his eyes.
"Toby! Man how you doing?" ++Please tell me you're better than ever and going to be back soon cause we have enough crisis mode to last a few lifetimes. ++ Oz didn't think he should mention Olivia's situation till he knew that Toby was back on an even keel. Or at least as even as Toby's life ever became. But Oz was never one to be able to hide much from people much less his telepathic partner.
"Crisis mode? What's going on Oz?" Toby held his head in one hand as he used the other to push himself to a sitting position.
"Crisis? Um I didn't say anything about…" Oz's voice trailed off at Toby's look of 'come on don't give me that I heard you'. "OK … my life's a living hell with Doug riding with me on the truck, your mom is still who knows where, Frank's in lock up, Charlie's down the hall, and Olivia was just held at knife point by some stoned teenager in the ER … " the words tumbled over each other in rapidly gaining speed and pitch as Oz listed the chaos.
"Whoa … stop. Olivia what?" Toby picked up on the one item in the long list that was new.
"This guy busted into the ER, grabbed her and put a knife to her throat…. Must have been strung out pretty good, but the cops got him now." Oz relayed the recent events.
Toby closed his eyes and willed the world to stop spinning long enough for him to get his balance. One firm foot on the ground before it all turned to quicksand was all he was asking.