Footsteps echoed down the tunnel. Sydney and Vaughn paused on the train platform. Someone was running towards them, fast. Suddenly, Jack burst into view wearing nothing but a hospital smock and a thin robe. He was barefoot, the robe streaming behind him as he sprinted for the exit.
"…that's something you don't see every day," Vaughn said.
Sydney reflexively positioned herself to cut Jack off. He saw her coming and veered, but not fast enough. She tackled him head-on and the two of them crashed into the cement floor with a bone-jarring thud. He struggled furiously against her attempts to pin him down. After a few seconds, however, he began to tire. She realized that he had probably used what little strength he had just getting this far.
Just then, a gaggle of red-faced, huffing, panting men arrived. One of them quickly sedated Jack, allowing her to release him. She was far from relieved, however. As the medics arrived to cart her father back upstairs, she whirled on the security team.
"Where were you?" she hissed. "If I hadn't been walking by just then… Do you have any idea what could've happened to him if he'd escaped?"
"We did the best we could!" the man said defensively. "Considering we've just come from the other end of the building, I think we had a pretty decent response time!"
"You call that a decent response time?" Sydney spat. "Maybe if you had been watching your monitors instead of eating donuts or whatever you people do-"
"Ok, Syd, come on," Vaughn interrupted as he took her gently by the elbow.
Sydney glared first at Vaughn for interrupting her, and then at the security guard, but she let herself be led away. After all, what good would it do to yell at the moron now?
When she entered the infirmary, she saw that her father had been heavily sedated. A nurse had just finished replacing all the tubes and leads that he had yanked out. At the look on Sydney's face, the woman hurried away without a word. Sydney's hands unconsciously clenched into fists when she saw that the wrist-friendly restraints that had held Jack down had been replaced by steel handcuffs.
"I know it doesn't seem like it, but this is a good sign," Dr. Liddell said as he entered the room. "Seriously," he insisted at her dubious expression. "Barely a week ago, he was weak, incoherent, and falling in and out of consciousness. Today, he slipped his restraints, stole a tranquilizer gun, shot four guards, and made it to the outer door before anyone even realized he was missing. I'd say that's progress!"
Sydney sighed. "He still didn't have a clue where he was, or he wouldn't have run. And he didn't even recognize me."
"Yes, unfortunately he's still disoriented, but that'll pass. Give it time," Liddell said.
She gazed down at her father's sleeping form. He did seem a little less pale today. She leaned down and whispered in his ear, "You can have all the time you need, but if you try that again, I'll kick your ass!" Then she pulled his blanket up and carefully tucked it around him.