"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Lee demanded as he slammed the conference room door behind him.

Hicks stiffened defensively. "We were about to catch the guy who…"

"Save it," Lee interrupted, glaring at the young man who always thought he knew better than everyone else, then at Bill, the man Lee had come to see as his right hand, and the man who should have known better.

"I told you to leave Rachel alone and you nearly ruined everything."

"She ruined everything," Hicks protested. "We have the equipment to get the information from that punk selling this drug. We've got the equipment to try and find an antidote, but she's too busy protecting Nina, a woman who's sold us out before and nearly…"

"Just stop," Lee said. "Rachel isn't protecting anyone. The people who are caring for Nina are protecting her from us, because the last time they helped us, we wound up costing them almost everything. They have every right to protect themselves."

"I have to agree with Hicks," Bill spoke up.

"What a surprise," Kat muttered, grinning at the glare she received.

"We've seen the effects of this drug and whatever Nina is going through, is happening more and more. We have to stop it, even if it upsets Rachel."

"Well how did that work out?" Lee asked. "You got knocked unconscious, we don't have Rachel and we don't have the seller."

"No, but we have a sample of the drug," Hicks said smugly. "And Rachel is smart. She'll understand what we did. If she can forgive Nina after what Nina did to her, she can…"

"She's not coming back here," Gary spoke up quietly.

"What?"

"She told me. She says she's done with us. She's done being watched and ignored."

"That's ridiculous." Hicks snorted

"Not really," Kat said thoughtfully. "She's always so quiet, I think we're all guilty of overlooking her."

Lee couldn't argue with that and he sighed. The others were right about one thing. They needed to focus on finding out what this drug was and out to reverse it. He knew Rachel would be in contact about the serum and he only hoped she'd give him the chance to explain he had no idea what Bill and the others had done.

"Wake up," Kendra ordered, slapping the drug dealer across the face.

"Ow, damnit. What the hell?" The man held his face, opening his eyes but seeing nothing but black. "I can't see! Why can't I see?"

"Oh, calm down you big baby," Kendra told him. "It's a blindfold."

"Well take it the fuck off," He shouted, struggling against the robes cutting into his wrists.

"That's not going to happen," Rachel said, stepping close to the man responsible for her Nina being in a coma.

"You're selling something to people that are torturing them, if not killing them. What is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," the man spat.

"You're lying," Rachel stated coldly. "Try again."

"Go to hell," he smirked, earning another sharp slap in the face.

"You clearly know my abilities," Rachel said with a very dangerous calmness. You know Nina's because somehow, you've been following us, which means you know about Rosen and the others. However, I sincerely doubt you know anything about any of the people you're with right now. These are people who have abilities I'm not even aware of. Maybe I should let them demonstrate on you."

"You wouldn't do that," the man laughed, though there was a definite hint of fear in his voice. "Like you said, I know about you. I know you're the timid little kitten of the group."

"Maybe. But that was before you went after Nina," Rachel said, then nodded at one of the men that she recognized as Jeffery, a former prison psychiatrist."

"We'll start with an easy question," Jeffery said pleasantly, stepping in front of the man. "What's your name?"

"Nunya," the man sneered.

"Clever," Jeffery replied, before putting his hand on the man's forehead.

"What's your name?"

"I ain't telling…" the man suddenly screamed in pain.

"His name is Bert," Jeffery announced. "He should probably just stick with Nunya."

"What did you do to me?" The man gasped.

"I have the ability to pull information from people's mind. You would think the criminal justice system and the medical board would appreciate such an ability, but no. Protecting rapist and murderer's rights are far more important than protecting innocent people."

"Easy Jeff," Skylar said sympathetically. Jeff took a deep breath and turned back to their 'guest.'

"You can't just steal my thoughts," the man whined. "I got rights."

"If you were in the system, then yes you do. We, however, have been rejected by that system and so we no longer feel obliged to operate inside of it. Now, are you going to tell us what we want to know, or am I going to have to take it?"

The man was silent, mentally trying to figure out how to block his thoughts.

"Okay, I guess we'll do it the hard way. Who's behind this drug?"

"No, I can't…he'll kill me."

"Not if we get him first. Tell me."

"No…please!"

Rachel's senses picked up the man's fear and she almost weakened, until she thought about Nina and the horrible pain she'd suffered.

"Are you going to tell us?"

"I…no I can't."

Rachel nodded at Jeffery.

"Sorry buddy," he said with a sincere reluctance. He put his hand on Bert's forehead.

Bert screamed again, unaware of Rachel covering her sensitive ears, whether to block out the noise, or the pain she was causing, she didn't know.

"Okay, I'll tell you," Bert sobbed. "Just stop."

Jeffery pulled away. "Thank you," he said, sincerely relieved. Regardless of his belief that some things had to be done, he didn't enjoy inflicting the kind of pain that ripping thoughts from people's minds caused.

"I got a name," Jeffery told the others. "Tallmidge, but that's all I pulled before Bert here decided to cooperate."

"Jack, get our guest some water," Skylar ordered and stepped over to the weeping Bert.

"Believe it or not," she said kindly, "none of us, especially Jeff, enjoyed that, but that crap you're selling is torturing innocent people."

"Torture?" Bert asked, still breathless with pain. "It's not torture, it's helping people who don't want to be freaks anymore."

Skylar's expression tightened. "We are not freaks," she said coldly.

"Well they feel like it. Your friend Nina said she wanted to stop hurting people, that she wanted to be trusted again."

"That shit you gave her did suppress her abilities…"

"See?" He asked, desperate. "It's helping. I just offered it, I never forced anyone to take it."

"It did more than suppress it," Skylar continued angrily. "It caused headaches so bad she had to be put into a coma, just to escape from the pain and to keep from going crazy."

"That's not true." Bert argued, desperately wishing they'd take off his blindfold.

Rachel studied the man before stepping next to him and placing a hand on his throat.

"You're saying you really believed this stuff was harmless?" she really wanted him to be lying.

"I swear. I was just told it would help."

Rachel sighed and looked at the others. "He's telling the truth."

"That doesn't change anything," one of the other members said angrily. "In fact, that makes it worse. You went out selling crap to desperate people not even knowing what it was, for what? Money?"

"No. Well partly."

"Who's Tallmidge?"

Bert sighed, knowing he had no choice but to tell these people what he knew. He was dead either way.

"Dr. Richard Tallmidge. He said he works for a research facility that studies 'special' people. He had developed this drug to help people suppress whatever it is that made them different, but his bosses refused to listen so he decided to prove them wrong and test it on the public."

"How did you get involved? You aren't an alpha."

"No, but my older brother was."

"Was?"

Bert sighed. "Yeah. He was what the doctor said was 'hyperadrenal'. Like your friend, Bill."

Rachel clenched her jaw, reminded that this guy had been spying on her friends.

"You said was?"

"He died." Bert said dully. "He grew addicted to all those things he could do; the speed, the strength and all of that. It made him the star football player in high school and then college. He loved all the attention and popularity, and he loved how his sudden bursts of rage intimidated people. He just kept using it, despite the warnings the doctor gave him and then a couple of years ago, he went into a rage and his heart just quit. He was twenty-three."

Rachel felt a burst of reluctant sympathy for Bert. She'd seen the strain Bill was often under, trying to control his abilities and she often worried for his health.

"I'm sorry about your brother, but that doesn't explain your connection to Tallmidge."

"I'd think it would be obvious. Tallmidge was my brother's doctor."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And he contacted me after the funeral and told me about something he was working on so that others wouldn't have to go through what we did. He let me help him and then when his boss told him to forget it, he asked me to help him prove it worked."

"How?"

He had told me about an old colleague of his. Lee Rosen and his work with people like my brother. He paid me to research all of you and learn everything I could about who you were and what you did. He knew that you all would eventually lead him to others that we could test his drug on

"How the hell didn't you guys know you were under surveillance?" Skylar scoffed. "Oh wait, we've already experienced your boss's lack of perception."

Rachel rolled her eyes but otherwise ignored the other woman. "Okay, so all of this is interesting, but right now I don't care. I want to know how to reverse what it does. How do I save Nina?"

"I don't know," Bert said. "I swear."

Rachel knew he was telling the truth and she wanted to scream in frustration. "Now what?" Rachel demanded of Skylar or anyone else who could answer.

"The scanner is finished, so Sarah can run some tests on Nina," Skylar said as calmly as she could. "And I'll look at this serum."

"We'll go get this Tallmidge guy," Kendra spoke up.

"No," Rachel said firmly. "Enough is enough. I'm going to Rosen."

"Rachel…"

"Forget it Skylar. Rosen has access to equipment and information we don't and apparently he knows the guy responsible. He is our best choice for helping Nina."

"I know that but…"

"I won't bring him here," Rachel insisted. I will meet with him and him alone at a place we choose, but we need his help. Nina needs his help and I'm not going to let her die or go crazy just because you're paranoid."

Skylar wanted to argue, but she knew Rachel was right.

"Okay Rachel. Do what you have to do."

Rachel nodded. She would take a truck and call Rosen from her disposable phone, miles from the house, in case Gary was spying again, but first she needed to see Nina.

She went back to the bedroom, part of her hoping that when she opened the door, Nina would be sitting up, smiling at her. Sadly, Nina was as she had been the last few days and Rachel wanted to cry.

She knelt beside the bed, taking Nina's hand in one of hers, and using the other to brush a lock of hair from her forehead.

"Please hold on Nina," she whispered. "I'm going to fix this." Sighing, Rachel placed her head on Nina's chest, finding comfort in the beautifully strong heartbeat After longer than she'd intended, Rachel lifted her head, needing to go arrange a meeting with Rosen.

"You're a fighter, Nina. You always have been. Please keep fighting," Then, unable to help herself, she placed a gentle kiss over Nina's heart. "Fight for yourself, fight for me and fight for what we'll have together, once you're better."

She kissed Nina's lips once, then left the room before she fell apart and was unable to help anyone.

TBC