A/N: What a crazy season of Zoo, especially the latest episode. Mitch being blind for a portion of it got me thinking, and the result was this oneshot. All mistakes are mine and reviews are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!
Blindness Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
If one opened a dictionary and searched for the definition of "panic", they normally wouldn't find a picture of Mitch Morgan there.
Sure he had his moments. Like when the team struggled to locate Jamie in the Canadian wilderness and he felt as if he wanted to tear the very Earth in half to find her, or in the weeks following the plane crash and she consumed his every thought. There was also that time when he and Jamie were almost mauled to death by two leopards.
For the most part though he was relatively calm. In his line of work, being calm was almost mandatory.
But had one looked today, his image would have been right in the middle of the page.
Mitch wasn't entirely sure that his father helping him was a good idea, but he didn't really have any other choice. Keep it in, it kills him. Take it out, he survives but loses all his memories. So there he was, sitting in a chair while Max tried to locate the bio drive lodged in his skull with a tool that emitted an electromagnetic pulse. It actually wasn't a bad idea and one that might work.
The first jolt was okay. His body slightly jumped from his seat, he felt as if he had received a very minor electrical shock, and he mentally questioned why he had even agreed to this, but it was okay.
The second charge made his eyes shut tightly and face contort into a painful grimace. He steadied himself and opened his eyes to prepare for the final jolt. Then his brain hit the panic button.
He blinked several times. Nothing changed. When he interrupted his father, Max seemed to almost brush it off. "Well like I said, some minor side effects."
"You could have mention blindness!" Mitch was staring straight ahead, but only a black veil registered in his mind. Not even a sliver of colour pierced through. He was totally blind.
His ears picked up Max saying it will go away with the third pulse. Then the plane started to shake and he felt nothing on his head, unaware that the plane's electricity was now out. "Pulse three! Where's pulse three?!"
Max fidgeted with the rod. "Minor speed bump."
Mitch's head suddenly started throbbing, and he placed his fingers on his temple. It was then panic gripped his heart like an icy claw. "Something doesn't feel right."
They had activated the bio drive.
Luckily Max carried blood thinner medication with him which would speed up the process of increasing the blood flow to the necessary vessels in his son's eyes. While his father rummaged through his bag for the necessary pills, Mitch's brilliant mind began to wander. He had only been blind for a short while - exactly how long he was unsure - but he was already missing his lab, the team, and even Max. While he loved them all (that included his father), the two people he longed to see the most were Clem and Jamie.
He knew his daughter was safe inside the tank, at least for now. As for Jamie, it was bad enough that after everyone had gone over the attack plans she questioned him about the events of the previous night. He had to play the fool as best he can, looking at where he imagined her eyes would be and simply saying "Weird". Max must have realized something was wrong, as Mitch heard his voice in his right ear seconds after Jamie had ordered he look her in the eye. Although his father's horrible improvising skills were not helping quell Jamie's suspicions, he had succeeded in distracting her from asking Mitch any more questions.
On top of this, he still had to explain to her about him being Mr. Duncan. It was slightly easier telling his father that he had not been in that tank the entire ten years, but to tell Jamie was proving to be a far bigger challenge especially when she had expressed her intent to hunt down the mysterious man and "make him pay". How would she react if she found out the guy she was relentlessly pursuing was him?
He mentally pushed this problem into a corner and, for now, decided to focus on why his mind had wandered in the first place. For although the blindness was slowly starting to drive him mad, not being able to physically see Jamie made him realize something.
He drifted back to that night only a few short weeks ago. Every line on her face, every curve of her skin was burned into his brain. He had memorized her entire body, from her reddish hair that was messy thanks to his roving hands down to her nine toes and everywhere in-between. She was beautiful, although to him she always looked that way, and her gentle snores put a rare smile on his lips. The lips she had kissed too many times to count. Beneath her armour-like exterior he could still spot remnants of the young journalist who had boldly walked in and interrupted his work one fateful day.
She was fiery, determined, stubborn. He was sarcastic and much preferred to be stuck in a torrential downpour than actually have to speak to another human. Since she had entered his life the walls he had constructed around himself slowly but surely started to crumble. At first it was just a ray or two of light that broke through, nothing major. He figured he could patch up the little holes and be on his way. It was when they were being stalked by the leopards, though, that he realized doing so was not going to be such an easy task. He remembered looking at her, witnessing the panic in her eyes, and in that moment he knew the walls had completely dissipated.
Mitch came back to the present when he felt his father place two small objects in the middle of his palm. As he downed the pills with some water and patiently waited to see if they would work, he vowed to himself that never again would he take the gift of sight for granted.
He couldn't remember the last time he and his father had a heart-to-heart, though it was quite possible this was the first one. Mitch wasn't even sure if he could call it that, seeing as how when Max had almost said a certain four-letter word he swiftly revealed that his full sight had returned and that was the end of their conversation. The elder Morgan was never one to get all sappy, especially with his son, which is why things suddenly became awkward and Mitch decided he had had enough. He was secretly thankful for his father's idea; if it wasn't for his medication, he would most likely still be blind. He made a mental note to mention this to him later. Right now he had to find her.
The AI was quickly becoming very annoying, and Mitch knew this was due to Logan being its voice. He didn't see the humour in it, and apparently Jamie was in the same boat as she had revealed she attempted to disable it years ago. As he followed her to a control room he hoped the damn thing would be quiet for a few minutes.
She briefly went over their plan again: when the system reboot was complete he and Max would pull the master switch, hopefully restoring the plane's mechanics once Abe and Dariela had slain the hybrid. He heard her words up until they entered the small room, then his eyes shifted to the tablet on the desk.
"Is that the Duncan image?"
"Yeah, I'm trying a new filter since the last one failed. But don't worry, we're going to find him."
His reply was a strange nod, which did not go unnoticed by Jamie. "Look," she said with a hint of worry in her voice. "I know that there's something going on with you. I don't know if you're upset or you're worried about Clementine or what, but it's going to be okay."
She felt his hands slide into hers, and instantly her skin ignited. She had always admired his hands. They were strong but nimble, and he had proven to her more than once that they could do some pretty amazing things. She was puzzled though, because despite his hands being larger than hers they fit together perfectly. Jamie could not help but wonder if long ago some mysterious force had done this on purpose.
His voice was almost a whisper. "You're right, there is something going on with me. I told Max about that bio drive taking up residence in my head and he decided to take a page out of your book."
Jamie liked Max. He had his moments, for example when he blatantly flirted with her all those years ago, but she could tell he really did care for Mitch. "What did he do now?"
"Used one of his gadgets to locate the drive. I'm fine now, but of course he forgot to mention one of the so-called minor side affects was blindness."
Jamie's initial reaction was shock, then it swiftly turned to concern and a flood of questions. "Wait, what? You were blind? For how long? How did you get your sight back? Is that why you couldn't look at me earlier?"
He squeezed her hands gently in reassurance. "I don't exactly know how long, he had some of his blood thinner pills which did the trick, and yes. But not being able to see anything or anyone did give me time to think. This whole mess with the hybrids, the sterility epidemic, Abigail, it's crazy and confusing and gives me a headache just thinking about it. But you and I...in the midst of all this mess, you and I make sense."
She held her breath as he closed the already thin gap between them. A ping of disappointment echoed through her heart as he released his grip on her right hand, but it was gone in an instant when he cupped her cheek in his hand. "I love you, Jamie Campbell. I love your conviction, your walls and the way you destroyed mine. I love your passion, your determination. Everything. I want this. I want you."
Jamie's mind raced feverishly. She was not expecting such a powerful confession, especially since it was coming from Mitch. The guy was not one to just spill his emotions, and sometimes she swore the only language he knew was sarcasm. But for all that, she had miraculously succeeded in breaking through his barriers. She had spent the last ten years searching for him, never giving up hope even when it seemed he was really gone, and the last handful of months had resulted in her having the same realization.
She took him by surprise then and pressed her lips to his. While it was not a passionate kiss by any means it was one that radiated comfort and hope. His other hand reached up and rested on her cheek, his fingers extending out into her short hair. Her hands, having found his shirt, turned into clenched fists as she drank in his sweet taste.
After what seemed like an eternity they broke apart, but only because they had to breathe. Their bodies were so firmly pressed together that even a piece of paper couldn't fit between them. Long ago they had lost all knowledge of the term "personal space".
In the stillness that followed, Jamie linked her fingers with his. There was hardly any light filtering in through the windows, yet she noticed his eyes almost appeared to sparkle. Her voice held a slight teasing note to it. "You do realize you'll have to put up with me forever."
A smile lit up his features. "Forever. I like the sound of that."
Before she could speak Max interrupted, then Logan's voice boomed overhead about the imminent engine failure. Jamie mentally reminded herself to get rid of it in the very near future.
As she handed Mitch the earpiece she gave him a quick kiss and whispered, "I love you too."