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To scienceficfan24 – Thanks for your review! Aw, thanks! There will be more Tom and Hal coming up in the next several chapters, but just a warning, not all of it will be happy. Hope you like this chapter!
Enjoy!
Anne struggled to keep from yelling in frustration as she looked down at the small drop of blood under her microscope. She had been testing and studying the blood sample she had taken from Hal two days ago, right when they got back to Chinatown after the attack on the Espheni factory almost non-stop and she still hadn't found anything. She knew there was something wrong with it but couldn't find what it was. It was more than just a gut feeling, though she definitely had that, she just didn't know what. It was like that old newspaper game where you were given two nearly identical pictures and had to find the difference. Maybe if she had a sample of Hal's blood from before they separated, she'd be able to see what was wrong. But she didn't.
"This is driving me nuts." Anne commented, just barely stopping herself from slamming her hands on the table.
"What?" Kadar asked, turning from whatever he was doing at a different table at the other end of the room.
"The blood sample I took from Hal." The doctor answered.
"I thought you finished with that. You said you didn't find anything." Kadar responded, coming over to her.
"I know I did, but, there's just, just something different. I don't know how to explain it." Anne responded, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Let me take a look." Kadar offered. Anne moved out of the way and waited for him to look in the microscope. He then turned to look at her and said, "I don't see anything."
"Look again, harder." Anne told him, "There's something wrong, something different, I just can't put my finger on it."
"Maybe you should run some more tests." Kadar suggested after taking another glance at the sample, though he still didn't see anything.
"I want to, but when I mentioned it to Hal, he refused and the last thing I wanted to do was start a fight." Anne said.
"Then tell Tom. He might be able to get Hal to come in." Kadar tried to come up with another idea.
"Hal's basically been avoiding everyone, not that I blame him since Pope can't keep his stupid mouth shut." Anne replied. It only took one day after they returned to Chinatown after the attack on the factory for Pope to spread the word to every single person about what had happened, or more specifically, what Hal had done.
"Well, it's either that or just continue to stare at that blood through a microscope, try and run some tests on it with our limited and makeshift technology until it's all gone." Kadar told her, gesturing to the microscope.
"I know." Anne said, staring at the device. She was out of options. She would have to either talk to Hal or Tom.
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There was a large crowd in the courtyard, which was normal as it was the middle of the day, but it definitely made it difficult for Tom to walk through it. He had just finished talking with Weaver about having more patrols set up, as there was a high chance that the Espheni would attack them in retaliation for their attack on the factory several days ago and was now trying to make his way to the other side of the camp to check on the progress on the walls. After the last attack from the aliens, they decided to make the walls surrounding them bigger and stronger.
"Tom?" The 2nd Mass leader looked over his shoulder to see Anne coming his way through the large crowd.
"Hey Anne. What's up?" Tom asked with a smile as she approached him.
"It's about Hal." Anne replied quietly so no one could really hear them. As the smile left Tom's face, she added, "I know that there's something wrong, but I need to do more tests."
Tom sighed, walked over to one of the houses a little ways away from the crowd with her following, sat down on the steps and said, "I've hardly seen him since we got back to Chinatown. Pope didn't even bother trying to keep quiet about what happened, and some of the other fighters saw what Hal did too. I don't think there's anyone in Chinatown who doesn't know what he did and what he can do."
"Some days, I really want to punch Pope." Anne revealed, sitting down beside him.
"Only some days?" Tom questioned with a small grin.
Anne let out a small laugh at that before getting serious again, "Tom, we need to know what the aliens did to Hal. What if whatever they did ends killing him? What kind of side effects does it have? We need to know."
"Anne," Tom suddenly stopped, staring at something from over her shoulder. She turned around to find Pope only five feet away and watching them.
"No, no. Keep talking Professor. I think I speak for the entire 2nd Mass when I say that we should know exactly what the skitters and fish-heads did to your boy." Pope said, crossing his arms over his chest, a somewhat amused look on his face.
"Pope, it's none of your business." Tom tried to get the former criminal to butt out, though he knew that nothing short of him being physically dragged away would make him leave if he didn't want to.
"If your kid is putting everyone here in danger, then it's actually everybody's business. Has he started talking yet?" Pope asked, no longer appearing amused.
"Pope, stop treating Hal like he's an enemy. He's not. If anything, he's a victim." Tom argued. Pope raise his eyebrows for a second, then leaned down.
"No Tom, he's a survivor. And you never, ever, trust a survivor until you know what they did in order to survive." Pope said, then stood up straight and added, "A survivor's hands are hardly ever clean, especially in a warzone. And victim or not, he still betrayed everyone in Charleston. You really think the aliens can't make him do that again?"
Without waiting for a response, he turned around a left. Once he was several feet way, Anne looked back to the former history professor and said, "Tom, he's got a point."
"I know, I, I'll try talking to him again." Tom told her, now looking down at the ground. Anne put a hand on his back and laid her head on his shoulder. She knew that Tom was struggling with this whole situation and that while it might be easier to just ignore it all, that wasn't what was best for everyone involved. They simply needed the answers that only Hal could give them.
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Hal wasn't sure if he wanted to walk faster or slower as he headed through Chinatown to his Dad's office. He had been doing his best to stick to the walls and avoid the crowds, but that only worked for the first minute or two before he was noticed by the other members of the 2nd Mass and started receiving the glares and fearful looks. It made him want to move quicker so he could get away from them, but then he'd get to his destination sooner and he wasn't sure he wanted that either. In fact, he'd almost rather be out in the crowds and deal with their stares and their gossiping. Almost.
Much too soon for his liking, he reached the door to his Dad's office. Hal didn't really know what his Dad wanted to talk to him about when he asked him to come see him tonight at lunch, but he had a pretty good idea. He knew if he simply refused his Dad's request or just didn't show up, it would make things worse which was why he was here, but now he was tempted to run away. He ignored it though and entered the room, finding both his Dad and Anne sitting at the small table, clearly waiting for him.
"Hey." Hal somewhat announced himself as he walked through the doorway. While he had no doubt that Anne had some part to play in this 'meeting', he didn't expect to actually see her here.
"Hi Hal, come on in." His Dad responded. Despite the uneasy feeling spreading through his body, Hal shut the door and as he came closer to them, he asked, "What's going on?"
"We need to talk." The 2nd Mass leader told him, gesturing to the chair across from him with his hand. Reluctantly, Hal sat down.
"About what?" The eldest Mason son wondered, though he was now 99% sure of where this conversation was going due to Anne's presence.
"About what happened, while you were in the, um," Tom paused, trying to think of a word to call the place he had been held before picking, "ghetto."
"Dad…" Hal started then stopped, unsure of exactly what to say to get out of this.
"Hal, I know you don't want to talk about it. We both do, and we do understand, but when you did tell us some of what happened, you said that the other prisoners started attacking each other, that it was like they went insane. If that's a side effect of what the aliens did to you, we need to know." Anne chimed in.
"It's been months. I think if I was going to lose my mind, that it would've happened by now." Hal told her.
"Maybe, or maybe they had been doing those experiments for a while before you were brought there and therefore, the side effects manifested for them but hasn't for you yet." Anne pointed out. Hal didn't really have an argument for that. He had no idea how long Karen and the other Overlords had been running that experimental camp before he arrived.
"Haven't you found anything from that blood test that you did?" Hal questioned. It had been days since he let her take a sample of his blood but she never told him what she had found.
"No, no I haven't." Anne admitted, sounding disappointed which surprised him. Shouldn't finding nothing be a good thing?
"Well then, doesn't that mean I'm fine?" Hal wondered.
"No because we know you were experimented on, and have these crazy powers. I need to run more tests." Anne responded, now beginning to sound very frustrated at his unwillingness to cooperate.
"We made a deal." Hal reminded her, letting his own frustration show.
"Well, it needs to be altered." Anne told him, her voice getting louder.
"Both of you, calm down." Tom finally cut in when he realized this was about to get out of hand. He knew that Anne was worried about Hal and really wanted to find out what was going and that Hal would not like that at all, but he didn't expect both of them to almost get into a screaming match about it.
Suddenly, the door opened and Weaver walked in, looking concerned. His eyes examined the room before he asked, "What's going on?"
"Nothing." The father quickly replied while both Anne and Hal continued to stare at each other.
"Doesn't sound like it." Weaver responded then added, "If you guys are going to fight, you might want to keep it down."
At that, both Anne and Hal turned their eyes downward, almost like they were both feeling a little ashamed at how they were acting. Now that they both seemed a little calmer, Tom turned to his son and said, "Hal, I know what I, what we agreed to. But we're worried about you. We just want to make sure that you're okay."
"I told you, many times, that I am fine." Hal continued to say what he had been ever since he came back to the 2nd Mass.
"Dad? Hal?" Everyone in the room turned their heads to find that Weaver had left the door open and now Matt, Ben, and Maggie were coming in. Instantly, they knew that something serious was happening and grew worried. As Maggie walked over to Hal's chair, she asked the same question Weaver did only a minute ago.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing guys, you go back out and do whatever you were doing." Weaver tried to get the newcomers out of the room. Though he didn't know yet what the conversation between Tom, Hal, and Anne was about, he knew that they were having it privately and behind closed doors for a reason.
"No." Matt immediately told them with a cold and firm voice that no one had ever heard him use before.
"Matt," Tom started only for his youngest son to cut him off.
"No, we're staying here. We want to know what's going on." Matt said, crossing his arms in front of him. While Ben and Maggie didn't say anything, the expressions on their faces made it clear that they agreed with him.
"It's nothing Matt. We are just talking about running some more tests to make sure that Hal is okay." Anne tried to assure him, tried to assure all of them, feeling responsible that they were now there. She knew that Hal would fight her on this, which was why she wanted to talk with him privately and with Tom there to help her, but she was the one who lost her patience first, she was the one who raised her voice and because of that, this conversation was now becoming more public than any of them had wanted.
"Which aren't needed because I'm fine." Hal chimed in, shooting the doctor a glare, making it clear that just because his siblings and Maggie were here didn't mean that he was going to back down. Not yet at least.
"Hal, you can't tell us that the other prisoners were exhibiting dangerous side effects of what Espheni did and not expect us to be worried about the same thing happening to you." Anne told him, trying to stay calm.
"If they were that dangerous, why weren't they locked up?" Ben suddenly asked, getting everyone's attention.
"What?" Hal wondered what his younger brother was getting at.
"You said that a bunch of prisoners were outside when they started bombing. Why were they even outside in the first place? You had said you were all kept locked up. So how did they get free?" Ben inquired, giving more detail as to what he was getting at.
"All the skitters and fish-heads were gone. There was no one guarding the place." Hal answered.
"And they left the doors unlocked?" Weaver asked. When everyone turned their gazes to him, he explained, "Because if they were bombing the place, that means that they wanted to destroy all evidence of what they did. It would be easier to leave them all locked in their cells before blowing the place up."
"I don't know Weaver. I wasn't in that building when it happened." Hal replied, hoping that he would drop it, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say when he heard his Dad say, "What?"
"There were a couple of buildings. I wasn't in the one where the cells were when they started dropping bombs." Hal informed him.
"What building were you in?" Tom asked. Hal tried to keep his face passive to hide the growing feeling of dread in his stomach. This conversation was going down a path he never wanted to go. He'd actually rather continue fighting with Anne about doing more tests, actually would rather agree to let her if it meant he wouldn't have to talk about this.
"Dad," Hal started to try and calm down his father, but apparently, he was having none of it.
"What building were you in?" Tom repeated his questioned, his voice a lot harsher, making it clear that Hal wasn't walking out of this one.
"I was, in their," The young man paused, slumped down in his chair a little, making himself look a little smaller before revealing, "I was in the building that was basically their infirmary."
"What? Why?" Tom asked, his harsh voice filling with worrying.
"It's not that big of a deal, Dad." Hal responded, beginning to feel exhausted with this whole thing.
"Stop saying that Hal, because it is a big deal." Tom slammed his fist down on the table when he finished his sentence, making everyone in the room jump. He then leaned closer to Hal and demanded, "Why were you in the infirmary Hal?"
AN – And yes, I am indeed cruel enough to leave it there. It was going to be way too long if I kept going, so this whole scene is in two chapters. Also, I know that Anne might be a bit OOC, but it will be explained in the next chapter which will be up in a week. Hope you liked this chapter!
