Author: Jadeblueafterglow17

Disclaimers: Characters belong to Stephen Spielberg, TNT, Dreamworks Etc. Noah Wyle belongs in my fantasies! : )

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Previously...

"Hal?"

"Yeah Dad...it's me...you're home. ***********************************************************************************************************
Chapter 2: Edge of Reality

Hal picked his father up from the ground as he struggled to stand up straight. As he pulled Tom into his arms to lift him from the ground he noticed his father was trembling. He pulled his left arm over his shoulder trying to get his father in an upright position.

The sound of a mechanical groan filled the air in the distance as a chill ran down Hal's spine.

"Dad, c'mon we have to get back to the camp...I hear a mech coming." he heard his dad groan incoherently as he helped him back to his motorcycle. Tom tried to help himself as he put one leg over the bike, but his disorientation was coupled with overwhelming nausea as he tried to keep from falling off the other side. Hal hopped on the bike and begged his father to hold on tight as he started up the bike and turned to head in the other direction.

35 minutes later...

"I need some help."

His father hung like dead weight, from his side as he dragged the sheet white individual through the hall. He was greeted with gasps of shock and confusion as members of the 2nd Mass cleared a path for the lost hero. Dai rushed up and grabbed Tom under his other arm as they approached the central hub of the camp.

"Where did you find him?"

"Out near the alien structure in a field." he stammered exhausted from carrying his father's weight.

"Dad!" Ben shouted running towards him. Tom snapped awake at the sound of his son's voice as Ben ran up to them.

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know Ben...where's Anne? He's sick." Almost as if she could sense their urgent need Anne appeared and they made it to their makeshift ward as Dai and Hal placed Tom down on a bed. Tom was having severe tremors, as if he was in the throws of a grand mal seizure but he seemed to be somewhat conscious. Anne shined a pen light in his eyes, as Tom screamed in horrid pain and tried desperately to cover his eyes. Hal instinctively reached up and grabbed his right hand and pulled it into his as Anne moved the light away from him.

"Was he conscious when you found him Hal?"

"Yeah barely, he reacted the same way when the headlight of my motorcycle hit him though."

Anne took a stethoscope and checked his heart rate and then a old tried-and-true method for his blood pressure. She shook her head back and forth as she listened. Lastly she placed a an aural thermometer in his ear and came back with a reading of 103 F.

"What's wrong with him?" Weaver asked as he and Pope emerged from the crowd gathered at the doorway.

"His pulse is 140, blood pressure is completely bottoming out, I'd say shock, but he appears to be tachy and very sick with something. I won't know until I can look at his blood under a microscope, but he definitely has some kind of virus, whether he picked it up or it s something they gave him; I need to isolate him from everyone till I can figure it out."

"He's been gone three months, who the hell knows what they did to him. They may have turned him into a skitter."

"He doesn't have a harness. Ben replied. He stood angrily clenching and unclenching his fist as he stared at Pope.

"Who's to say you weren't followed, or he doesn't have some homing beacon, just waiting to tell those bastards right where we are?"

"Pope, we can't just throw him out in the street and let him die. At the very least we have to get him well, maybe he can tell us what happened or what he learned from them..."

Pope stood shifting his weight to his uninjured right leg as he pulled on a strand of his hair in a twisting motion. He shook his head in disbelief as Anne started to remove and unbutton Tom's clothing. Anne suddenly inhaled sharply as she stared at Tom's chest. Her fingers began to trace over the items of her shock as Pope, Hal and Ben moved closer.

"Looks like the Professor's been on the losing end of a game of slice and dice." Pope said as he looked around at his back. He had to be sure there were no skitter tendrils growing out of his back. "I got mech bullets to make." he exclaimed exiting the room as he collided with an overly jubilant Matt.

"Dad!" he screamed as he ran up to the table.

"Ben, Hal please..." Anne begged as Hal scooped him up in his arms and tried to carry Matt out.

"No, I wanna be with Dad, what's wrong with him! Let me go. Matt kicked him angrily in the shins and he and Ben blocked his view and escorted him down the hall and out of the room.

"Buddy, I'm sorry. Dad is really sick right now...Dr. Anne needs to get him better before we see him. I promise you the instant he's well enough you'll be the first one in."

"They made him sick...they hurt dad didn't they? Like Ben."

"I don't know Matty." Hal patted his head as Ben looked on from the doorway. Even though he knew that his little brother Matt loved him, and was happy he was back, he still felt the fear, the uncertainty, and the hurt that emanated from his sibling that "his" Ben had not returned instead of the Skitter hybrid he'd become. Ben slid down the wall to a seated position as he stared at his two brothers. What he wouldn't give to have his life back before the harness, a do-over to replace all the wasted time he spent fighting and arguing with his brothers.

Anne continued to exam Tom. There were sharp puncture wounds in his abdomen, long razor like burn marks all along both of his sides leading around to his back. Removing the remains of his shirt and pants she found more burns and cuts into his flesh and more puncture wounds in his skin. As she prepared antiseptic for the badly infected wounds she noticed Tom was still shaking and his eyes were looking upward at the ceiling. She moved towards the head of the table to meet his gaze.

"Tom? Can you hear me." She wiped alcohol on his left arm and a ripe vein came into view as she injected a needle into his arm and secured a heplock with tape before hanging an IV of yellow fluids. Tom never flinched. She injected another vial directly into the heplock and threw the bottle on a table.

"Anne..." he whimpered. She placed a cool hand on his chest and he shivered. He licked his lips as he tried to form words in his mind.

"Yeah..it's me. Take it easy, you can talk later...you've been gone a long time, you need to rest." She covered his trembling frame with a sheet.

"Gone? How long?" he asked, his eyelids fluttering, heavy with sheer exhaustion.

Anne ran her hands down the side of his face noticing for the first time that he seemed to have aged ten years. He looked extremely thin and pale and his eyes were sunken and badly bruised on both sides. He must have lost atleast twenty pounds in captivity. His skin was tight on his face, his cheekbones and ribs stood out in strong contrast through to his skin. Tom was extraordinarily lean as it was. It was obvious he would need extra food rations to bring him closer to a safe weight.

"Three months, six days...6 hours." She began but noticed her patient was no longer listening. She shook him but he didn't budge. She took the opportunity to take a sample of his blood. As she drew back the needle to pull out the blood from his hand, she found it was a struggle. Believing she would accidentally place an air bubble in his vein if she continued she settled on 8 cc of blood as she stared at the extremely dark fluid. As one drop fell and oozed from the needle her eyes widened in horror. His blood was not running. It was very thick, almost like a syrup. She ran over to her table and placed another drop on a microscope slide and it also came out as a gel.

"Oh my God!" Anne ran out to the hallway, and the first person she ran into was Anthony.

"Please go find Lourdes for me." she pleaded sweeping her hair into a ponytail and grapping a new set of gloves as she rummaged through vials of drugs. She had to find the right one...or Tom wouldn't survive the night.

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Review Comments:

XMissyMaex: You're the reason the story continues...because the first part really was the end! So thanks for the review!
Ebonygrayqueen- If there is one thing that I love to write about its the misery of my favorite characters. Tomtorture is an art for demented people like me...: )
CBloom2: Thank you! The part where Tom reaches up and touches Hal's face...I have to visualize each moment of my stories before I can write it down, if I can't see the characters do it then it doesn't work for me. I love the Tom/Hal dynamic.

Driveby: OmG...I will continue the story as long as you continue reading and reviewing : )
Sirnonenath: I would love it if they explored the family dynamics a little more too. They did at first and then they started getting into the battles and crap...I hope they get back to it this season. Thanks for reviewing...you guys are awesome!