Chapter 8
"Jane, I need help down here, NOW!" Brandt yelled into the mike, no longer even trying to suppress the rising panic he felt. Immediately he leaned forward to check Ethan's pulse, and he almost swore out loud when he couldn't find that either.
"Don't you give up on me now, man," Brandt threatened Ethan, "You just saved my ass back there, so don't even think about quitting on me."
Letting his anger overpower his fear, he quickly shoved the table next to the couch out of the way, thus clearing the ground before it to carefully slide Ethan in one fluid move onto the flat surface of the floor. Slightly tilting Ethan's head back for better circulation of air, Brand immediately began CPR, counting out with every push on Ethan's chest. He knew he was gonna leave one hell of a bruise on Ethan's ribcage, but that was the least of his worries as he alternated between the chest compressions and breathing for Ethan.
"Come on, man," *gasp*, "come one… ," he rasped. "Damn you, Ethan, come back!" He was getting desperate as he started yet another round of compressions.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally heard Jane's voice announcing her arrival at the doorway.
"Brandt? Where are you?" she called out into the room, not spotting him right away. But as she stepped inside, getting a different point of view in the room, she suddenly saw him.
And she saw what he was doing.
"Oh shit-…"
No, please, not Ethan. God, she should have never let him down here in the first place.
"I can't get him to breathe," Brandt called out desperately, getting more and more out of breath by the minute, but not stopping what he was doing.
"Keep up the compressions," Jane immediately called out to him as she hurried over to take up position next to Ethan's head. While Brandt continued with the CPR, she instantly took over the task of breathing for Ethan, her lungs still fresh and thus able to push even more life-saving oxygen into Ethan's body.
After two more minutes of both of them working on saving Ethan's life, they were finally rewarded with a sudden intake of air from Ethan. It was nothing more than a short gasp, followed by a dry cough, but the sound was like music to their ears.
"Yes!" Jane exclaimed, breathless with relief. Her hand reached down to check Ethan's neck for his pulse. It wasn't great, but it was there.
Brandt just looked totally exhausted, not knowing whether he could actually believe the miracle he had just witnessed.
But as he saw Ethan's chest slowly moving up and down again, taking shallow but steady breaths, Brandt was willing to relax his cramped hands and settle back on his haunches.
"Thank God."
They may have lost Hendricks and the codes, but at least they hadn't lost Ethan as well.
They would have to regroup, get Ethan someplace safe before they could try and stop Hendricks for good. But for now, all that mattered was that Ethan alive, if still deeply unconscious.
"We gotta get him out of here and somewhere where we can take care of him," Jane vocalized Brandt's thoughts.
"I'll get Benji in here," Brandt nodded, "Moreau will have to take long nap until we can pick her up later. For now let's get Ethan to the car and we all move to the safe house."
Jane stayed with Ethan, while Brandt went upstairs to get Benji. She kept checking Ethan's breathing to make sure he didn't have a relapse.
"Jane?" Brandt's voice suddenly came on over the com unit.
"Go."
"We won't have to worry about taking Moreau along."
She hesitated a moment, but then she asked.
"Why?"
A pause on Brandt's end, before he hesitantly answered.
"Well…. because apparently she somehow overpowered Benji, and I just ran into her in the hallway."
"Please don't tell me she got away." Jane felt her anger flare up at the injustice of it all.
"Okay, I won't," Brandt replied with a short cough, before adding, "but the alternative is that unfortunately she tried to get back at Benji and I had to shoot her in the leg. Then she uhm… well… she fell."
For a moment Jane wanted to ask 'onto what?'….until she remembered the open window in their suite. She resisted the urge to curse. While she was glad that Hannaway had been avenged, there was also a part of her that remembered Ethan's words on how Moreau was not to be touched, and no matter how much she wanted Moreau dead, it now felt like she had let Ethan down.
She was almost glad that Ethan was currently out cold and she didn't have to give him this news just yet.
A few minutes later, Benji and Brandt appeared back in the room together. They had made short-work of packing up their stuff upstairs, not leaving any traceable material of their presence behind. Now that they were back, and with Jane keeping a sharp eye out for any more trouble, Brandt and Benji took on the task of carrying Ethan out into the hallway.
Slowly, so as not to hurt their fragile burden, they made it down the hall to the elevators, each of the men having slung one of Ethan's arms over their shoulders. Both also made sure to keep a careful hold of Ethan's midriff to steady him between them as they walked.
It wasn't ideal, but in order not to draw any unwanted attention, their best plan of retreat was to make it look like Ethan was merely someone who had had one glass too many. Brandt and Benji played the helpful drinking buddies, while Jane deflected any curious glances by smiling apologetically and bringing up the rear on their way down, through the lobby and out to the car.
Once there, they carefully settled Ethan on the backseat of their jeep, while Jane slid into the driver's seat. Letting Benji take care of their packs, Brandt stayed in the back with Ethan, keeping a secure hold of him so he wouldn't be jostled around too much.
About half-way to their destination, Ethan seemed to be breathing a little easier. In fact, Brandt was starting to see little signs of him actually coming around.
"Jane, slow down a little, okay?" Brandt called out, without taking his eyes off Ethan.
"What, why?" Jane asked in surprise, her first thought being that something was wrong with Ethan.
"I think he's coming around…" Brandt replied, and just as he finished the statement he was awarded with a sight he had been worried he'd never see again.
Ethan's eyes were slowly opening, and even though they weren't focused on anything just yet, it still was a sight to behold.
It sure was enough to make Brandt breathe easier with relief.
"Welcome back, man. You do know you had us worried there for a while, right?" Brandt spoke softly, attempting a joke that would hopefully cover up all the obvious signs of how worried he had been.
At first Ethan didn't seem to react at all, just lying there stretched out on the backseat. After a moment his head slowly turned toward where Brandt was sitting right across from him. It was another moment before Ethan's eyes eventually began to try and focus on whoever had addressed him.
"Br-an-dt…?" Ethan's voice was paper-thin. But it was clearly his voice, and in this very moment, that sound was the most beautiful thing Brandt had ever heard.
"Right here, boss." Brandt smiled down at him.
Ethan blinked once, clearly not entirely with it yet. But then he began to look around himself, becoming aware of where he was. Whatever had happened, it occurred to him that he had obviously missed a thing or two.
"How long…?"
"Since you been out or until we arrive at the safe house?" Brandt asked happily.
The pointed look Ethan slowly directed at Brandt wasn't up to its normal threat level, but it held enough of a 'you're gonna get your ass handed to you if you keep this up' promise to make Brandt elaborate a little more:
"Well, we're about ten minutes away from the motel, and," he glanced at his watch, "you missed about an hour's worth of no-fun news regarding our little plan to stop Hendricks from getting those codes."
Ethan closed his eyes, not believing what he was hearing.
"Hendricks has the codes and Moreau won't be helping us either," Jane added in from up front, although she made it a point to keep her eyes strictly on the road ahead and away from the rear-view mirror so as not to see Ethan's expression as he took in the news. She still wasn't completely sure how she should feel about Moreau's fate, and in order to hopefully get Ethan's mind off that particular detail for now, she quickly added, "You were lucky to make it out of there alive, Ethan."
"Yeah, what she said," Brandt tried to scowl at Ethan, "You really scared the hell out of me, you know that?"
But Brandt's amicable threat fell exceptionally short, when Ethan suddenly made a rather uncoordinated attempt to actually sit up.
"Whoa,… what do you think you're doing, man?" Brandt was just in time to grab a hold of Ethan's shoulder to keep him from rolling right off the seat.
You could have cut the tension in the jeep with a butter knife.
"I'm getting back on my feet," Ethan replied with terse determination, trying his damndest to ignore the waves of nausea that hit him as soon as his head left the cushion of the seat.
"No you're not!", both Benji and Jane protested loudly, but Ethan was listening to neither. He was also ignoring the steadying grip Brandt had on his arm. That is until he felt a slight prick on that arm.
With a surprised frown Ethan looked down to determine the source of the unexpected sting. He saw Brandt's hand. It was still holding the small syringe Ethan had just been injected with. And all of a sudden, Ethan's world began to tilt.
Fixing a desperate stare on Brandt, Ethan's eyes grew wide as he realized he had just been hit with a tranquilizer. His skin was already tickling in a weird way. And he suddenly felt very, very tired.
In an absurd but probably instinctive attempt to undo what Brandt had done, Ethan tried to make a reach for Brandt's arm, actually grabbing a hold of it for a moment. But his vision was already beginning to grey out. Ethan barely felt it anymore when Brandt's fingers changed their hold on his wrist, as the analyst checked his pulse for any possible reaction to the medication.
With a fast-fading grasp on consciousness, Ethan felt himself slowly sink back onto the seat as the world fell away. The last words he heard were a garbled echo of 'you need to sleep, so get some rest', coming from somewhere above him, before his consciousness left him for good and his body relaxed into the seat.
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Okay, this chapter was a bit longer than expected. I hope you liked it anyway. More to come... soon. :o)
