Hey guys!
Thank you for the feedback! Here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Sorry for any errors, I wrote this in a hurry.
The car ride to the farm was a silent one. Looking at his wife, Kurt knew he had made the wrong decision not backing down on her coming with them. She was pale and withdrawn, staring out the window, not having said a word since they left. He knew she was feeling sick, and getting sicker by the moment.
Kurt sighed, trying to rein his thoughts away from the deep and dark places in his mind. The "what if's" were weighing heavily on him. If he let himself travel into that hole, he wasn't sure he could get back out.
He glanced over at Patterson. She had opted to drive, knowing neither of her colleagues were in any state to focus on the road properly. Jane had climbed into the backseat without a second word, angling her body away from Kurt.
Patterson and Kurt shared a worried look. They needed to find these stem cells, and fast. Jane was running out of time. Patterson could only hope that they would find the next data cache, and that it had information on where Roman had found the first batch, or even where in this godforsaken world the second batch was.
Not long later, they pulled onto a dirt track, leading them to what they hoped was the answer.
"We're here." Kurt stated, gaining the most movement from Jane since getting in the car.
Jane chose to ignore his worried glance, pulling herself out of the car, hissing in pain when her knee cramped up again. The same leg had had a tingling feeling in it all day. Almost as of it was starting to go numb.
"I still don't know why Roman would leave one of his data caches here." Jane said, putting on a brave face.
They walked around the car taking in the run down, dusty scene in front of them.
"No, it's definitely a step down from the FBI office and the safe in Japan." Patterson agreed.
"Well, let's start hunting." Jane said, making a move towards the barn.
Kurt reached out, taking her elbow. Seeing his intense stare, Patterson moved off towards the farmhouse.
"Stay on comms." he all but ordered.
Jane nodded curtly, offering a small smile, before walking past him.
The barn was old and dusty, with wooden beams stretching across the walls and light filtering in through holes in the roof.
Jane walked around the room, looking for any sign that Roman had been here. At the house he had left the tree marking, but so far nothing was springing out to her.
She bent down to look under some boxes, when a fierce pain overcame her, knocking the wind out of her. She let out a muffled grunt, clutching at her stomach.
"All clear here." A voice came over the phone.
Patterson.
"Same here, so far." Came another voice.
Kurt. She needed to get to Kurt.
"Jane? Anything?"
Jane couldn't reply. The pain in her belly not letting her get the sound out. A fresh wave of pain hit, making her head spin and before she knew it, she was on her knees.
"Jane?" Kurt's voice asked again urgently.
Jane looked up at the ceiling of the barn, her eyes unfocused, forming a vortex of light.
"Kur-" she tried to get out, before she collapsed into a heap.
Only seconds later, Kurt came charging into the barn, only to find his wife lying face down on the dusty floor.
"No!" He gasped, rushing forward and crouching next to her. She was burning up. "Patterson call an ambulance!" he growled through comms.
Patterson ran through the door, already on the phone to an emergency operator. She took in the scene in front of her and felt her heart sink.
Kurt had turned Jane onto her side and was trying to illicit any form of response from her. Even in unconsciousness, her face was screwed up in pain.
Patterson disconnected the call after giving their information and called Rich.
Kurt could hear Patterson talking in the background, but his focus was his wife. She had started moaning in pain.
"Come on Jane, open your eyes for me."
Jane's eyes rolled into her head before she managed to open them. She looked up at Kurt and her facade broke completely. Her face crumpled, tears springing to her eyes. She curled in on herself, bringing her hands up to nurse her head.
"Jane, tell me what hurts? Come on baby..." Kurt coaxed.
Between sobs, Jane managed to grind out "stomach" and "head".
Kurt rubbed her back looking up at Patterson. He had never felt so helpless before.
Patterson returned the look before running out of the barn to get a blanket and a towel from the car.
He felt Jane's body jerk under his hand before he heard her gag. He quickly moved behind her, angling her so she wouldn't asphyxiate. She retched again, vomiting onto the barn floor.
Patterson returned then, folding the towel up and placing it under Jane's head and face.
"The paramedics will be here soon." she soothed.
By the time the medics arrived some 15 minutes later, Jane had started going in and out of consciousness.
"What have we got?" The leading paramedic asked.
Kurt explained the situation as best as he could, while the second paramedic started taking her obs.
The leading paramedic - John, he had introduced himself as, looked slightly bewildered, but got to work all the same.
"BP is high, 161/98, pulse is 135bmp and temperature is sitting just shy of 103." The second paramedic reported back.
John checked her pupils, and pinched the back of her hand.
"Pupils are equal and responsive, but she's very dehydrated."
"She's been vomiting for a few days." Kurt uttered quietly, stroking her hair back from her sweaty forehead.
"Ok, I'm gonna start a line and then we should be ready for transport." John replied. He inserted the catheter into her vein, connecting it to a bag of saline.
"Can you give her anything for the pain?" Patterson asked from the door.
John hesitated, then nodded.
"Push 2mg of morphine." He told his assistant. He looked up at Patterson. "To be quite frank with you, I have no idea how to treat something like this. But that amount of morphine won't do her any harm. It will hopefully take the edge off a little."
Patterson nodded. As a scientist she knew how hard it was to not be able to answer questions. Especially questions that could mean life or death.
"Ok, we're good for transport. Let's get her on the gurney."
They loaded Jane into the back of the ambulance, Kurt getting in behind her.
"I'm going to go and pick Rich up, we'll meet you at the hospital." Patterson said to Kurt.
He nodded his thanks before turning back to his now completely unconscious wife.
"I'm just going to put this on her." John said, placing an oxygen mask over head onto her face.
The ride to the hospital was mostly uneventful. Jane stayed unconscious the whole way there, with Kurt keeping vigil at her side.
Upon arrival, they whisked Jane away to do more tests, while Kurt was ushered to the waiting room with a stack of paperwork to be filled out. Rich and Patterson arrived about half an hour later.
"Any news?" Patterson asked, taking a seat beside Kurt.
He shook his head in response.
"Her poisoning's getting worse." he stated, addressing the elephant in the room.
Rich's face fell.
"She doesn't have much time left." he said, glancing across at Patterson. Her face contorted in grief. Kurt just hung his head. How was he meant to respond to that?
They sat in silence for a while, before a doctor came in.
"Family of Ms Doe?" she asked them.
"Yes! how is she?" Kurt asked, jumping to his feet. The others followed suit, standing beside him.
"She's awake." the doctor replied.
The three sighed in collective relief.
"We've managed to stabilize her temperature and we've given her something for the pain and nausea."
"Thank you doctor." Kurt said shaking her hand. "When can we see her?"
"Well, she's a little groggy from the medication, but I don't see why you can't." She hesitated. "Before you do though, there's something we must discuss."
Kurt gave a curt nod, urging her to continue so he could go and see his wife.
"As you will be well aware, Jane is suffering from something modern medicine has never seen before... unfortunately, apart from trying to keep her comfortable... there's really not a lot we can do."
Kurt closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. He knew this already, they had known this for months, but hearing it come from a medical professional made him want to weep.
"My team and I are still looking for a cure." Patterson piped up.
The doctor smiled sympathetically.
"And I hope you find it... for all of your sakes." She looked down at her clipboard. "She's in room 301."
"Thank you." Kurt said, moving off in search of his wife, Patterson and Rich following closely behind him. They would get through this together as a family... they had to.
Please let me know what you think!