"Welcome to hell." Caitlin said sadly as she laid her hand on Dean's shoulder and patted it comfortingly.
Dean's mouth gaped open. He looked between Caitlin and the red-lettered warning sign with startled eyes. How do I manage to get myself into these situations? He thought sardonically. Maybe it's the woman. I can never seem to resist a damsel in distress. Or maybe it's got something to do with Ireland, but there's no way any part of me would ever want to come back here; not after my last visit anyway.
"You okay?" Caitlin asked, staring worriedly up at him.
Dean smiled weakly, "Ah, yeah, I think so. I'm just trying not to freak out on you, you know?"
"Yeah, I know the feeling." Caitlin smiled ruefully. "Well, you won't be here for much longer anyway."
"What?" Dean asked, looking at her in renewed surprise. "Why?"
"You stick out like a sore thumb," shrugged Caitlin. "Your clothes are probably the most colourful things I've seen since I've been here, and anyone will be able to tell you're American—it's the accent."
"Okay, well since I won't be here long. You mind explaining a few things for me?"
"Go ahead." Caitlin responded easily. "It's not like they'll find us yet. They're in the middle the daily testing. It takes a few hours to go through everyone."
"Testing?" Dean asked. It was best to start simple first.
"Oh, well since this is a quarantined area, we have to get tested every day so the hazmat teams can check if you've contracted the virus. It's a shell game mostly. The only way they can tell if someone's got the virus is when the person gets symptoms. The virus can be carried for weeks before symptoms appear though. But they still keep on testing, hoping they'll get lucky—or unlucky, depending how you look at it."
"You don't have the virus, do you?" Dean inquired, taking a step back from Caitlin as she sneezed.
Caitlin laughed and shook her head, "No, I don't think so. No one really knows for sure until you get the symptoms. And then you've only got a few days at best." She looked at him hopefully. "Now I've got a question for you."
"Shoot," Dean shrugged.
"I saw you appear in the middle here," she said, gesturing around at the concrete plateau. "You teleported. Did Peter ask you to save me?"
"What? I haven't seen Peter since back in Cork about a week—I mean technically over a year ago now. Wait, did he…?" Dean paused and looked down at Caitlin's sad face. She looked like she was about to cry.
"Oh, ah…it's okay," he said soothingly, awkwardly putting an arm around her shoulders. It was obvious to him that Caitlin had been bottling up all of her feelings, just waiting for some familiar face to arrive. He knew that much at least, but that was because it happened to Elle a little bit when they were younger. Before that stupid trip to Miami ruined it all, it was awkward between us after that.
"I didn't mean to come," Dean said over Caitlin's sniffles. Why does she have to cry? He thought hopelessly. It was worse when the person never struck him as the type to break down. "Did Peter bring you here?"
Caitlin nodded and said something unintelligible under her breath.
Damn it, I didn't hear a word of that! He released Caitlin and watched her struggle to shove the stopper back on her emotions.
"Sorry," Caitlin said as she dried her eyes with grey sweater's sleeve. "I'm not usually like that."
"Na, it's alright," grinned Dean as he patted her shoulder, mimicking her actions towards him earlier. "Umm, are you all calmed down now?"
Caitlin laughed which quickly turned into a hacking cough. Dean fought the urge to step back from her. He could almost hear Lily's voice in his head, telling him that if he did something insensitive she'd kick his ass when he got back. At least she's not crying anymore, he thought with a sigh of relief.
"What about you?" Caitlin asked as soon as the fit of coughing died down. "Are you about to start freaking out?"
Dean shrugged his shoulders, "Oh, I dunno. I think I'm taking this pretty well, don't you think?"
"Not really, you're shaking a little bit," joked Caitlin.
Dean shrugged again and smiled. He was quite surprised that he and Caitlin were talking like this; it didn't seem like their second meeting at all. It was like they had known each other for years. Maybe it's just me. Man, I really need to find some friends who're guys.
"So, Peter brought you here?" Dean asked as he sat down on the concrete pavement with his back against the building's wall.
Caitlin nodded and sat down next to him, "About a month ago now. We were in this warehouse in Montreal when he brought us here. We got separated when a hasmat team found us wandering New York. I didn't see him for a while after that; I thought they had taken him somewhere. Then when I was about to be deported; he was on the other side of a fence, about to be taken somewhere. Some guys grabbed me and were dragging me towards the plane. I heard Peter call my name and then he just disappeared."
Dean was suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable again as Caitlin started to break down again, Oh crap, what the hell am I meant to do? Do I put an arm around her? She didn't mind it the last time—or it might just freak her out. Or should I just do nothing and let her calm herself down? But that might be insensitive. Damn, this really is a slippery slope.
"So, you're from my time then," stated Dean. "I think I know why I ended up here instead of where I wanted to go."
He looked up at the sky, his mind racing as he tried to find holes in his almost impossible theory. Caitlin didn't belong in this time and she lacked the means to get back. Space/Time Continuum, he thought savagely. You really are one giant pain in the ass!
"You don't belong here, Caitlin," he said, ignoring her questioning look. "The Space/Time Continuum thing was just waiting for the chance for some fool to screw up so it could drag that fool here to you. I'd think that people like Hiro Nakamura and Peter have enough control so that the Continuum can't haul their asses here. But it was my first time teleporting, so—"
"So you're the fool that's been dragged against his will to rescue me." Caitlin finished.
"Bingo," grinned Dean. "Though I'm not much of a rescuer; I'm new to the whole teleporting thing. If I try, we could end up in the middle of the ocean somewhere."
"But you weren't afraid to try when it was just you?"
Dean shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Not really. I can take care of myself." He paused and turned his head to look at Caitlin. "You know, between you and me, I'm kinda relieved that I didn't actually end up where I wanted to go. I was gonna do a bad thing for the greater good. But I don't think it would have been worth it in the end."
"What were you gonna do?"
"Yeah, that's personal." They weren't close enough yet for Dean to tell her personal things about his life. He thought Caitlin must have felt the same way by her unconcerned shrug.
"Well, you don't have to worry about me," Caitlin said, standing up and looking down at him. Dean could easily recognise the hope in her voice. "I can take care of myself too. Anyway, I'd rather be dead then stay in this hell any longer."
Dean grinned and stood up, "Well, I really hope you can swim, because I've gotta feeling that we'll end up in the middle of the Atlantic."
He placed his hand on Caitlin's shoulder again, screwing his eyes shut in concentration. Okay, Space/Time Continuum, I'll take away everything bad I've ever said about you as long as you just take us where we wanna go.
Dean's eyes snapped open as the pair of large double doors were pushed open and a squad of men in hazmat suits raced out of the quarantined building. Dean started and jumped back, all of his Company trained instincts immediately kicking in.
"There they are!" One of the men said, his voice muffled slightly by the hazmat suit.
Dean heard Caitlin scream as one of the men grabbed her, wildly asking if she had any symptoms yet. Everything began to feel so far off and distance. He felt that now all too familiar feeling of being sucked through an enormous plughole.
He blinked as everything around him changed. He knew he was still in the same time and place; the bleak sky and environment immediately proved that. It felt like he was a lot higher up then before.
He looked down as Caitlin's screams and the men's shouts reached his ears. His feet slipped against the smooth metal of the quarantine building's roof as he realised where he had accidentally teleported himself to.
He sat down on top of the roof to steady himself and watched as the men dragged a kicking and screaming Caitlin inside the building. Several of the other men started to scour around the plateau, obviously looking for him.
Nobody ever thinks to look up, Dean thought casually, instantly turning regretful as his mind flashed to Caitlin. Crap, poor Caitlin. She probably thinks that I left her like Peter left her. I don't even want to imagine what she's feeling—and she has the virus, that's gotta be another blow for her.
Dean sighed and wobbled slightly as he stood up. Don't worry though Caitlin, I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress. He paused as one of the men suddenly looked up and pointed at Dean, yelling orders at the other men. Whoops, time to go.
He scrambled awkwardly up the roof, the old saying: one step forward, two steps back flooding through his mind. "You know Time/Space Continuum," Dean muttered derisively at the sky. "I'm not taking back anything I said; you're still one giant pain in the ass."
His hands grasped the tip off the roof, holding on as he let his feet hang heavily against the metal. He had heard that roofs were generally built pointy and high in Ireland to stop the snow from piling up; but this was too much. "You couldn't have put me on a freaking flatter surface—great, now I'm talking to the freaking Time/Space Continuum. I can't wait to get the hell out of here so I can get rid of this ability. I'm never teleporting again after this, do you here me?!"
Dean sighed and easily pulled himself over the tip of the roof. He resisted the temptation to switch his abilities; he wasn't entirely sure that the Hiro's would stick; not after Meredith Gordon's one pulling a disappearing act. And he really didn't want to be stuck here for the rest of his life.
"I'm so glad no one can hear me right now. Being called a few fries short of a happy meal would be the nicest thing they'd have to say to me."
Dean swore as his feet lost their hold against the metal roof tiles, making him slide down the other side of the roof. He looked up at the sky again and said with the full knowledge that he'd have to move again: "You're a giant pain in the ass!"