Chapter 3
"I'm sorry Mitch," Ali said regretfully into Mitch's eyes. She was talking about more than their work to save the world, more than her past with his father. She was talking about herself, but the whole group was there as an audience and the Morgan family drama had aired enough for one day. So she moved to safer topics. "The Noah project is a go and there is no way we will find Pangea in time."
"We are not giving up," Jaime declared. The stubborn tenacity made Mitch almost smile. Instead his attention strayed to Jackson. The guy looked like the arms he wrapped tightly around himself, were the only thing keeping him from flying apart. His head was dropped, his focus internalized, his fingers tapped a silent staccato against his side. Sensing Mitch's attention, Jackson looked back from beneath heavy lashes. The green gaze looked more animal than human. It made Mitch question how much time Jackson had left. Mitch looked at Abe and saw a similar conclusion in the big man's tortured eyes. Mitch hadn't liked the safari guide at first, but then, Mitch didn't like anyone at first. Somehow Jackson had slipped behind Mitch's walls and become someone he cared about. Mitch cursed silently, he hated goodbye. "We don't stop." Mitch announced.
Jamie smiled triumphantly at Ali. With a few hours research she was sure she could pinpoint likely locations for Pangea. Ali rolled her eyes. "Could I speak to you in private?" Ali directed at Mitch. By mutual consent the group began to break off needing a break before returning to tackle yet another impossible task.
VVVV
Abe followed Jackson down the steps into the large lab in the belly of the plane. It felt oddly disturbing without the muffled vibration of the huge turbine jet engines signifying that they were safely in the air moving toward their next destination, another step towards the cure.
Jackson swung around to face Abe. "We could find it!" There was a feverish quality to his conviction. A light sheen of sweat reflected the fluorescents and caused the ends of his hair to curl out in tufts. Abe's stared at him with an alarming blankness. Crap, was he jumping too far to conclusions without explaining himself. His father used to do that when the madness had taken him; voicing wild non-sequitors without leaving breadcrumbs for others to follow the logic of each jump. "I'm talking about Pangea." Jackson backtracked. "Ali says that type of money can hide. But… The money itself is too hard to hide. Chloe would have…" Jackson fell silent realizing where he had been headed with the thought. He shied away from the pain of her loss still waiting to consume him if he ventured to close. They didn't have time for that. Jackson realized he was breathing too quickly, he dropped his head to slow himself, focusing on the scuffed leather of his boots as a centering technique.
"I did it," Abe gasped, fighting mightily against the urge to remain silent. Courageous self-sacrifice was Jackson's strength, not his. He preferred to ignore or power through difficulty. If General Davies hadn't backed Abe into a corner, if he didn't feel like this was the only opening through such treacherous ground, Abe would have continued to keep this secret buried. But he could feel Elizabeth Oz's corpse, like a tell-tale heart whispering to him from cool storage. He knew Jackson too well not to recognize his brother unravelling without a tether. But Abe couldn't do it, couldn't be that. Unwittingly betraying a woman, a mother he would come to care for was horrible, but it was a darkness that his past had left him experienced in handling. Withholding the information that Jackson's father was alive so Abe wouldn't have to risk his relationship with the man he loved as a brother… somehow that was worse. Something he could not do.
"You did what?" Jackson asked, trying to still his own thoughts to understand what his best friend was telling him. He bounced on his toes, a nervous tick he didn't notice.
"I did it," Abe repeated; his eyes begging Jackson not to make him repeat the words again. "I gave Elizabeth the injection."
"You did…" Jackson broke off in a breathy laugh of disbelief. His head spun waiting for the punchline, waiting for a tell that the joke was on him. The moment hung; his mind revved looking for an alternative before engaging that this was for real.
Abe reached for him but Jackson stumbled back. Abe felt like he was watching another brother die beneath his inability to act. "Robert Oz paid me $200 dollars," Abe explained but it held little comfort even to Abe's ears. Jackson shuddered. "It was before I knew her. Before I met you,"Abe continued, feeling completely lost.
"She was all I had left!" Jackson roared back; lashing out to silence the words. Sinking beneath the weight that this meant Jackson had chosen incorrectly when he had shot his mother to save Abe.
"No, Rafiki," Abe cried.
Jackson's eyes went wide, the pupils suddenly isolated in white. "Are you…" he struggled to vocalize the internal eruption sending tremors through his frame. "I hope you aren't referring to yourself!" Jackson choked out with disbelief.
The look on Jackson's face told Abe exactly where he now stood with his best friend. Abe dropped his eyes in shame. He shook his head no. "Your father is alive."
"My father died 2 years ago!" Jackson countered. He felt something inside shift uncomfortable. Abe had been the one to pull Jackson out of the alcoholic sea that news had left him drowning in. The world felt like it had gone insane. Jackson's instinct was to look to Abe for strength, but Abe wouldn't meet his eye. His mother hadn't threatened him only Abe… For Abe he had… Jackson's fists clenched.
"Your father is alive and working with General Davies," Abe's deep voice rumbled.
A icy fission cut across Jackson's rage. The black of his pupil boiled over, dripping double lines across the field of his iris; forming a defiant pupil. Abe noticed a shift in the air and glanced at his best friend from the corner of his eye. Something deep in Jackson's chest broke loose, emitting an almost subsonic growl. Abe stepped back flashing back to that moment when he had turned to find himself cornered on the safari bus by a lion twice his weight. Jackson moved impossibly fast, sending Abe sailing into a wall of lab equipment. Rage sunk it's canines into the flesh of his brain and savaged it off it's axis. Logic was lost, the shapes around him lost meaning. He followed the smell of blood. Attacking movement with mindless prejudice. The feel of muscle bruising beneath his fists made his pulse sing; a primitive balm to the unrelenting pain in his head.
Abe had no chance. He fought to get his hands up, he strained to catch a breath between the blows, his strength failed beneath the onslaught. Jackson tumbled him like a surfer caught in the frothing undertow, unable to identify up from down, getting thrown left and right against the hard surfaces of the lab.
BANG
Pain threw Jackson sideways, stumbling over an overturned chair and crashing into the ridged panels of the floor. He closed his eyes and panted into the cool metal of the plane. He clutched desperately to the burning incapacitating his shoulder. He rolled, pushing his damaged shoulder into the floor to keep the pain from fading; using it to drive back the blind rage. Slowly he counted down from twenty. Using the pain as a focus while running through an exercise the psychologists had taught he and his mother to help his father relax. The soft noise of plastic containers bumping together made him open his eyes.
A few feet away Dariella knelt beside an overturned shelving unit. Jackson shifted, bringing his shaking hand up to press into his temple; trying to dig at the buzzing beating to get back into his head. The movement sent Dariella jumping back, her gun drawn. Jackson recognized the color on his hands first. Then the dark form at Dariella's feet. Blood, Abe. Jackson exploded off the floor slamming backward until the bars of the lab's cage connected with his back. The muzzle of Dariella's pistol tracked him. He struggled to hold himself still so she could fulfill her promise. Abe's low groan stopped her trigger finger. She glanced at the big man she had returned for. To hell with Jackson, she thought. She needed Abe now more than ever, she couldn't risk the relationship by shooting his best friend.
"NO!" Jackson hissed, seeing the regret in her eyes. Another betrayal! Dammit, when would he stop learn? It was his problem, he was going to have to solving it on his own. The howling in his head began to crescendo again. He couldn't stay and risk hurting these people, so he turned and ran. Much too late Mitch, Jamie, and Ali came running in response to the gunshot. Dariella pointed at the car bay setting them on Jackson's trail.
Mitch returned with a look of shocked disbelief. He stared blankly at Abe who had managed with Dariella's help to get up off the floor, "He's gone," Mitch announced.
VVVV
Chloe paced the cold run down store room. Hours ago, Robert Oz had taken the Subaru she had lifted and sped off without any promises. She didn't trust the man, but at least he had given her direction, purpose, something specific to work on. She turned back to the high set grease fogged window to study the falling light play across the street. She pulled a smart phone, lifted from the doctor's lab assistant, from her pocket and made another attempt at the unlocking sequence. The phone vibrated it's rejection and timed her out for another 25 seconds. "Tre bon," she grumbled. She slipped the phone back into her pocket. The wind howled around the corrugated metal of the rolling door of the loading bay. Sections of plastic sheeting rustled, trapped beneath the weight of loaded shipping pallets. Something in the back ticked against the barricaded maintenance door.
Chloe clutched her tranq gun close. She inferred by all the questions surrounding her missing memories that she had experienced the animal's abnormal aggression. But she didn't actually remember any of it. Her dreams left her with images of people and places she couldn't name. She shivered in the cold air. The heavy fabric of the American Military BDU's didn't make up for the dropping temperatures of night. Chloe sighed, wondering how long she should wait to see if Dr Oz returned. Two grey duffels full of his cryptic hand scrawled notes were the only indication that he might. Chloe supposed it didn't matter since travelling alone on foot at night might not be the smartest action when the animal kingdom was out to get you.
She didn't have the right paranoia to notice the little black headed titmouse watching her from the broken window pane of a closed up gas station. Her first clue that something was wrong came when a trio of large spotted heifers and a calf sauntered around the corner to start grazing the shriveled weeds coming up thru the cracks in the sidewalk. Quietly, Chloe retreated from the window. She moved silently through racks of abandoned automotive parts to check the back of the building completely unaware of the feline shadow tracking her from the rafters.
Chloe double checked the security of the rusted maintenance door. A red tool cabinet had been toppled against the portal as a brace. She tip toed past a field of stray lug bolts to peer through the torn screen of a blown out window. The back alley was crawling with cockroaches. Chloe slapped her palm across her mouth to keep the yelp of disgust from surfacing. Chloe whirled as a deafening slam against the car port popped and bent the metal. Lethal horns tore gouges as the door was pounded again and again; screeching horribly beneath a bullish battering ram. Frantically, Chloe searched the shop equipment looking for inspiration.
Grabbing what looked like an old acetylene torch she failed to notice a large shadow drop down the wall behind her, but the velvet paws set a bolt rolling. Whirling, Chloe dodged, then blocked the mountain lion's claws with the metal canister of the torch. The big cat hissed, baring huge yellowed canines. The tawny muscles bunched, it's golden eyes promised death. It was a demon conjured from her nightmares. Chloe froze. Her chest refused to pull air, her legs refused to stumble backward. The cat crouched low and slunk forward. Suddenly the car port burst inward crying beneath the hulking strength of a black bull. The beast gave an ear piercing trumpet that shook Chloe loose. The cat dodged her shot. Chloe swung the torch at the cat and dove for a dusty old Volvo set up on blocks.
Diving through the open window she landed painfully across the central console. A set of lethal claws sunk into the sole of her boot dragging her back. Twisting she got a second shot at the cat as it came through the window after her. The huge muzzle hissed as the dart hit; causing the cat to falter and free her boot. It's huge claws caught in the plastic interior, holding it suspended in the window. Chloe used the butt of the tranq rifle to defend herself; Scrambling back against the opposite door. She felt blindly for the release latch when the cab of the vehicle was suddenly jacked into the air, landing askew against protesting shocks. Catching the door handle to keep from being thrown into the mountain lion, the door suddenly gave; dumping Chloe in a crush against the cracked cement of the floor.
Before she could react, The bull snorted and the car gave another heave. Shoving her backward, pinching her between the floor and the door frame. With a ripping sound the cat clawed it's way further into the cab. The bull slammed the Volvo again sending the cat tumbling into the back seat as the volvo's axel crumpled. The cab of the vehicle slammed into a wall of shelving. The force impaled her shoulder against a rebar strut. Chloe tried to move and gasped in pain. She shifted but the fabric of her jacket was caught beneath the metal lip of the car frame. Suddenly a huge paw whipped out from between the seat and door frame. Chloe cried out and flinched as the hooked nails sailed past her, shredding her heavy canvas jacket. A dark shadow passed over her, landing with a thump on the hood of the car.
Jackson slid soundless from the Volvo's crumpled hood to confront the bull, his outstretched hand ready to dodge or deflect based on the animal's reaction. The bull swung it's horns in his direction. It's dark eyes glaring from beneath a heavy brow. It's flared nostril testing the air. Jackson saw a flash of red as the huge beast huffed. "Easy," Jackson purred. The bull flinched. It jerked it's head into the air, white suddenly edging it's ebony eye. It chuffed the air in alarm, panic quivering down it's bulk. It's broad nose stuttered in alarm at Jackson's scent. With a panicked trumpet it scrambled back. The muscles in it's shoulders and neck bunched as it suddenly pivoted searching for an exit strategy. It's defiant pupil gauged the risk of dashing around the infection it smelled or creating an alternative exit.
Another soft cry from the interior of the car pulled Jackson's attention. Pinned by his gauze, the mountain lion screamed at him, the heavy scent of urine marking it's terror. Jackson realized the danger. The animal's fear of him would send it tearing thru the person trapped in the car. Jackson dove and rolled back across the Volvo's hood with startling speed. He hit the far edge just as the bull charged. The beast lashed out to cover it's flight, sending the Volvo spinning. With the speed of a snake strike, Jackson grabbed the figure in the car and hauled her clear as the metal body shrieked in a hail of sparks across the floor. The Volvo's trunk caught the back of his legs in it's arc sending both humans into a heap against the frigid floor. With another shriek, the mountain lion darted past hot on the bull's heels. Instinctively, Jackson curled around the smaller form as the feline shadow passed.
Silence was left. Jackson shifted onto his elbow, unable to hear anything over his labored breath and the pounding adrenaline in his head. The lion and bull were both gone. Chloe blinked, unsure how she was alive, completely numb to everything but the warm body beside her. Her ears buzzed, muffling sound like blown out speakers. Jackson pulled the camo printed shoulder beside him around to check the other person and was met with huge cornflower blue eyes. "Chloe," was Jackson's first thought. He clenched his eyes shut and rolled away onto his back. "Hallucination," Jackson corrected, digging his fingers into his temples. Something in his chest shifted, a thick black oily substance bubbled up from his lungs. Jackson curled in on himself hacking and coughing, desperate to clear the substance to get oxygen.
Chloe had no will to resist the hand on her shoulder and found herself suddenly eye to eye with Jackson Oz. She couldn't recall having met him before, but there was no question in her head that she had. There was a flicker of recognition that he seemed to swallow before rolling away. She lay stunned beneath the weight of suppressed memories until the first bark of his coughing fit. She reached for Jackson but suddenly Robert was there, on his knees, separating them.
Dr Robert Oz pinned Jackson's shoulder beneath his knee and pushed his son's face to the side, roughly pulling Jackson's eyelid wide. He got a good glimpse of the defiant pupil before Jackson knocked his hands away. Something dark traced the vein beneath the tanned skin of Jackson's jaw setting Dr Oz back in surprise. The infection had advanced beyond the doctor's expectation. He glanced at his son with fear, his clinical mind racing.
Jackson used his sleeve to clean the black from his lower lip. He stared at the stain it left as his chest recovered. He felt hot, restless. Something undefinable sizzled just below his skin. The infection amplified everything around him; the sharp smell of his father's fear; the tittering of a host of insects just beyond the back walls of the warehouse. Echoing heart beats that sounded like the drums of war. The sounds, the evidence of life offended something deep within him. It left his head frothing with rage unable to maintain a continuity of thought. But the metal slug in his shoulder dug at him with every movement. The pain was clear, tangible. Something undeniable that tied him to the reality of the moment, it grounded him. His father grabbed at him but Jackson held him at bay. His eyes moved past Dr Oz to settle on Chloe. Crap, she was still there. He was losing it.
Chloe shifted closer. "Jackson?"
The sound of her accented voice made Jackson bolt like he'd been scalded. He collided with the far wall, his breath hitching with a high pitched hiccup, like the eerie laughing bark of a hyena. "You're dead," he said with wide panicked eyes. Dr Oz hurried to him; bracing his son with his grip. "Jackson," he commanded. Jackson gave his attention with that breathy, sick laugh. Jackson's eyes seemed to glow with unease. "I see…," he huffed with unhinged mirth, "dead people." Jackson dropped his head and muttered to himself, "I see dead… people… I see…" Robert shifted to pin his son's shoulders back against the wall. The bullet would pinched, breaking Jackson from his loop. Jackson met his father's eye, "I'm sorry." The leap of logic obvious to Robert Oz; the despair reflected in his son's eyes; eyes the same shade and angle as Elizabeth's. Jackson was making a connection between the current fractured state of his mind and his act to abandon a father struggling with mental stability. Robert couldn't take it. His palm cracked against the side of Jackson's face to stop the confession. In the stunned silence, Dr Oz pulled a hypodermic needle from his jacket. Shoving Jackson harder into the wall, Robert spiked the needle into Jackson's neck. Jackson's reaction was instinctual. Defense, his fist caught the doctor's glass jaw and Dr Oz crumpled. Jackson flung the needle away with a shudder, shades of his father using a farewell hug to cover the injection that had passed the ghost gene. Jackson slid down the wall to his heels, tears silently sliding from his eyes.
Chloe didn't know what to make of the unmoving form that was Dr Oz or the trembling form of the son collapsed beside him. All she could think was that by all logical standards, Jackson was right, she should be dead, again. Somehow, she was alive because of him. She still couldn't remember the details of the first "save" but her instincts lead her to believe it. Jackson was very clearly "not" alright, but she couldn't leave him. Instead she moved closer. He flinched and she marveled how he could be so scattered and yet laser focused at the same time. She crouched beside him. "What do I do?" he whispered. She reached out, her fingers smoothing back a soft curl tufting out from his forehead.
Jackson shifted forward into a kiss so natural it started before either of them realized. His warm strength made Chloe feel like everything would be alright. It gave her confidence. Made her feel like she had all the answers; it made her want to clutch him to her breast and never let go. It wasn't anything like the high pitched electric excitement of Jean-Michel's clever tongue. She pulled back at the thought and Jackson made no move to stop her. He still suspected he was hallucinating. And honestly, he wasn't completely in control. "I'm sick," he confessed. Chloe nodded and worried her bottom lip in thought. "Take your father to your friends," She counselled. "What about you?" Jackson asked. She hesitated, her gut said letting him go was a mistake; but there were too many questions and she couldn't pass this opportunity to pursue answers. She shook her head no and he accepted that without question.
When they stepped outside, night had fallen. Chloe loaded Dr Oz's remaining duffle bags as Jackson folded his father into the back. Chloe watched him. Her presence seemed to calm him, but something about the way he looked at her made her think he doubted she was real. He took her to a full car lot. She was tempted to kiss him goodbye but he kept his distance. She took the two duffle bags that didn't conceal a hissing animal and he helped her jump the car to life. She grabbed his hand as he turned to leave. His rough palm felt right between her fingers. "I'll find you again," she promised. Jackson gave her a soft smile and nodded. Back to reality, he thought darkly; turning the wheel back towards the runway and the plane full of living people he had tried to leave for their own benefit.
VVVV
Thoughts? Technically, this leaves us back in canon when Jackson returns to the plane with his unconscious father in the back of the car. Should it progress into true AU at this point? Wouldn't it be interesting if Chloe was working with grown up Clem and the source of the intel that Mitch is alive? Well, you tell me. It's hard to gauge interest with such soft spoken fans.
