Chapter 6

Hey guys. Happy New Year! i hope you have a blessed one. Back to our story, shall we?

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Be easy. Take time. You are coming home to yourself- the becoming.

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She ran and ran as fast as she could. She had good clothes now, thanks to that she could disappear in this big city and no one will ever find her again. If she were smart about it. It had been a good distraction; one she had not counted on. A snake in this big city? Yeah, the alley was worse than most, but no one would have suspected a snake. She would be a fool to pass that opportunity up as she saw Danny completely disregard his duties to tend to his friend. That was one of the weakness she had banked on exploiting between the two and it had worked splendidly, without any of her effort. Who knew she would ever thank a snake for her good fortune?

Steve had been bitten; she had stared for a minute not knowing what to do. She had seen his breathing change even as he crushed the head of that snake with his boot, the venom had worked fast, and Danny was at his side that much faster. She had not seen what type of snake it was but if it worked that fast, maybe a cytotoxic or a neurotoxic. She kept running, but her steps were losing strength. She knew this type of thing and she knew what to do in this kind of situation. She could help. But it was none of her business.

The guys had been nice.

Yeah, but she was their prisoner and they were taking her to her death, finally. She found she didn't want to die after all. Not after an opportunity of escape has just presented itself. She would be a fool not to run. This was a gift.

But she could help. And if they went to a hospital for this one, they were more likely to die from a bullet faster than the snake poison.

Then they'd be out of her hair and she could truly disappear.

She panted, her hands on her knees, the strength to go on had left her. She didn't need to think about it for long, she had to go back.

By the time she got there, Steve was already breathing shallow, sweating profusely. Danny was out of his element, all caution out the window, phoning an ambulance.

"No, don't! Don't call an ambulance."

Danny looked up at her with a mixture of shock and relief and puzzlement.

"Why not? I should just let him die? And why are you back all of a sudden? I thought you had run for freedom. Would have made it too, because there was no way I was going to chase after you with my best friend about to die." Danny ranted.

Laura could not afford to argue with him right now, she had come back, that was enough. She had indeed forsaken her freedom, the one time she truly had a shot at it. Damn her stupid conscience! She was surprised that after all this time in prison and all she had been through she still had this nagging burden.

She crouched down next to Steve, who was now sitting down on the hard ground with his back against the wall, breaths coming out short. She observed him more carefully, took one of his hands and squeezed, it felt rubbery, numb almost.

"How are you feeling Steve?" she asked.

"Like shit is how he's feeling." Danny interrupted. "Look, I understand you're a doctor, so if you can do something, then do something! He's getting worse by the minute."

Laura could see that; the situation wasn't great. She didn't pay any mind to how anxious she was too, how alarmed. The venom was working fast despite the tourniquet.

"I'm uh…it's getting a little harder to breath and I…I can't really feel my hands…. they are getting numb and my legs…" Steve said, halting as he tried to catch his breath.

"We gotta get him to a hospital asap." Danny said in clear panic.

"Then he'll catch a bullet before he can even have a chance to get treatment. Remember the goons out there?" Laura said, anxiety getting the best of her, but her crisis management mode was kicking in. She bit her fingernails as she tried to think, typical tale that she was anxious.

"Can you do anything?!" Danny asked anxiously.

"Let me think, let me think. Ok, uh… we need the snake's venom…"

"Snake venom?"

"The dead snake, that you just killed, yes. And if I mix it with the chromosomes and antibodies, we'll get an anti-venom, possibly. This was a neurotoxic so…"

"English please?"

"I'm gonna need some stuff from the hospital, any hospital we can get to, the nearest would be ideal."

"The nearest would be ideal." Danny mimicked with sarcasm, pacing, throwing his hands up.

"Obviously I don't know this place very well, so it would be helpful if you would go with me. "

"No way, I'm not leaving him like this."

"He's dying from a neurotoxin! Do you know what that means? All his muscles are being paralyzed. Soon his heart will numb out too and then he'll die. Right now he's still breathing, but his lungs are going to get paralyzed first and then he'll be struggling to breath more than he's doing now. Unless you really want him to die you've gotta help me help your friend here. He doesn't have long if we don't do this now." Laura pleaded looking at Danny earnestly.

"Go… Danny, it's fine. I'll be here, just… get back quickly, ok?" Steve said between labored breaths.

Danny decided with difficulty, trusting a brilliant doctor criminal to save Steve's life or call an ambulance and give away their location. He had to make a choice and he did. He trusted an ambulance better, he trusted taking Steve to a hospital. But the Doc was right, he would die from a bullet sooner than he could die from that snake bite.

"How long is it gonna take?" Danny asked.

"Depending on how far the nearest hospital is, not long. I don't need to do the whole process from scratch. I'll just need to steal some chemicals to make what I need." Laura said.

Danny crouched down beside Steve, his hand on his shoulder. "I'll be back, ok? Don't die on me, alright?" Danny sought a promise from him.

Steve nodded and urged Danny to go.

Danny left Steve reluctantly, once out of the alleys they walking like any ordinary couple with the crowds. Their prisoner was no longer in prison garb, so it was more difficult to single them out. Plus, the goons would be looking for three people, two guys and one girl. Danny hailed a cab as soon as they got to the main road, it didn't take long to get to a hospital, with a cab it wasn't too far. They went in, Laura sneaked into an on-call room, came out donning a doctor's gown. She handed Danny another.

Laura walked as if she belonged there, great thing about big hospitals, one couldn't know everyone. There were different departments in a large hospital such as this one and too many people to remember. She nodded to some of the staff in the corridors, keeping her head down. Danny followed, now dressed in his own white coat, hoping she knew what she was doing.

She needed the Lab and followed the arrows that gave direction to it. There was only one guy in the large lab, bent over a microscope, no doubt studying some bacteria, Danny shuddered. He was impressed as Laura greeted the guy as if they knew each other, the guy looked up for only a second to murmur a reply and to notice her white coat and the back of her head, he went back to studying his bacteria. Danny breathed, if only she could get everything she needed then this little escapade would be a success.

Laura didn't breathe in relief, she didn't show it much, going about her business as if she had a right to be there, looking through labeled vials for the chemicals she needed, but she really was nervous, afraid to get caught anytime. She put some of the stuff in her coat pockets and held the larger items inside the large coat, then walked out of the lab. Danny had kept watch outside the door.

They strolled out of the hospital buoyant as you please, then dumped their coats outside. Laura finally let go of her pent-up breath. They rushed back to Steve. The whole thing didn't take them an hour but they found Steve on his back now, on the ground in respiratory distress, serious dyspnea. Jacket and shirt were off, and he was sweating in Jersey winter.

Laura worked quickly, mixing the right ingredients to make the antivenom, praying that it would work. Steve's condition had deteriorated too fast.

She readied her syringe, swabbed Steve's arm, a vein wasn't hard to locate. She said a silent prayer as she positioned her hand to inject Steve with the poison mixed with other chemicals to cure him from that same poison.

Danny held his breath, prayed she knew what she was doing, or she might be killing Steve right now. How he had come to trust her to this extent was still a mystery to him. But she seemed like she had no other agenda than to help Steve, which was also a mystery. Danny was out of options in a dire situation, he had to trust the help he could get, or Steve would die. He might still die but not from a snake in New Jersey's dark alleys, God forbid!

…..

Steve was just lying there, sweating, breaths coming out shallower. He didn't look like he was getting any better, in fact Danny thought that he was much worse than he had been before another dose of venom was injected into him. Dr Mallory was pacing, biting her nails, Danny didn't think she still had anything to bite off anymore unless she had graduated to biting off her fingers. She wasn't sure. Danny could see it. She had been in prison for…what…ten years? No way she still knew her stuff like she did when she was a twenty-year-old genius chemical engineer.

They could not hide here forever, especially in the dark. Who knew what other venomous creatures lurked in the dark alleys? And with Steve's condition still getting worse, Danny could not just stand there pacing, and doing nothing or Steve was going to die. He had made a call using a hospital phone when he was waiting for Laura outside the lab. Hospital phones were unlikely to be traced, their pursuers didn't thing they had left the alleys at all. They thought they had them trapped; it was only a matter of combing through the maze until they found them. He had called for help. There was one guy in Newark PD he could trust with his life and he knew he could count on him to help. But help seemed to be delaying, maybe he needed to make another phone call. He could just watch Steve like this. Maybe he should take him to a hospital after all. Maybe he should just take his chances with the assassins. Maybe…

He recalled his conversation on the hospital phone just minutes ago to his former Newark PD partner just before he transferred to Hawaii.

"Hastings." The Jersey accented voice said on the other end.

"Hey buddy."

A pause. "No way. Danny?!"

"Yeah man. How's it going?"

"This is a local code, don't tell me you're in Jersey and didn't tell me you were coming."

"Yeah man, I was kinda on the job, you know."

"Nice to hear from you buddy. Its been a while."

"I know man, listen, this isn't a social call. I really need your help."

"Anything. You ok?"

"Uhhm…not really. Is this a secure line?"

"Yeah. That serious?"

"Worse."

"Give me a sec."

Danny could hear Hastings moving, probably to a more secure location.

"Yeah, go ahead D. Whats going on?"

Five minutes later Danny hung up the line and made his way back to guard Laura's Lab door.

Now, he wondered if he had made a mistake. It had been an hour and still no sign of Hastings. No sign of help.

"The assassins, do you know them?" Danny asked abruptly.

"No." Laura replied, keeping busy adjusting Steve's cannula on his arm as she administered some fluids intravenously.

"They are not a drug cartel, are they?" Danny persisted.

She evaded, her head never lifting to look at him. "I…wouldn't know."

"I think you do. They are CIA, aren't they? What did you do to have the CIA hunting you down? Huh, Doc? What the hell did you get us into?"

She didn't deny it. She didn't confirm it either. Damn it! Danny cursed inwardly. He moved his focus back to Steve. He sighed in desperation an despair. He had to find a pay phone.

"Doc, I don't mean to be cynical here but…he doesn't seem like he's getting any better. If I were in my right mind, I'd think that you had an angle here. One might think you were trying to kill him." Danny racked his hands through his hair. He didn't mean to accuse her of anything, she had come back for God's sake! That had him confused too.

Laura looked at him for a moment. "Look, I get that he looks bad." She said, glancing at Steve who was lying there like he was taking his last breaths.

"You think?"

"But I know the antivenom is working. His fever is going to go a little higher than this…"

"It's going to get worse?" Danny said in outrage, started pacing with renewed panic.

"Worse. That's how it works. His body is fighting the poison and the anti-venom is helping in sweating that poison out. There'll be seizures, a higher temperature, much higher…"

"Seizures?"

"Yes, and it's the last critical stage, but…but I assure you, he…"

"You assure me." Danny snorted. "You assure me. Do you assure me that he's not going to die? Is that what you're trying to assure me of doctor?"

"I…" She looked unsure.

"Just what I thought." Danny said, turning away from her.

"What I meant to say was, I can't guarantee that he'll live, I won't lie to you,"

Danny paced even faster, shaking his head in disillusionment. "And you're telling me this now? He should have gone to the hospital a long time ago. I knew it…"

"I assure you…"

"Stop saying that!"

"I promise you," She repeated more calmly and stern, "that he would have gotten the same treatment for this as I'm giving him. In fact, it would have taken them a lot more time to figure out what type of venom it was and what the remedy should be. I can assu…tell you that I probably acted faster and more accurately as the emergency required. Now," she took a nervous deep breath, Danny had been silent too long, which, even in their short acquaintance, she was sure was an anomaly. "the normal saline will keep his body hydrated and I'll do my best to monitor him, do what I can to ease his pain and help his recovery in this unfavorable setting, and pray that he doesn't die." She finished indignantly. "That's my honest truth."

"Thanks for the mouthful but I can't …I won't hide out here with Steve in that condition. I have to give him the best chance for survival too and I need to make a phone call. Excuse me." He moved as if to walk away.

"Danny, wait." She called, she had never used either of their names before, which undoubtedly gave Danny pause. "Please, don't call the police again. The people who are after us…"

"After you. Steve doesn't have to suffer for that." Danny retorted.

"Fine, after me, but you can't deny that you're smack down in the middle of this too. And I assure you…"

"That again. Where did you go for elementary school? The Queen's quarters?" Danny mocked.

"I assure you," she insisted, "the people who're after me, they are lethal and smart, and they are everywhere. Please, don't contact the police or the hospital. We're much safer here, I promise you that."

"Listen to me lady. You're going to tell me all about these people who are after you. Looks like you know them really well. In the meantime, I've got to make a plan. Stay with Steve and make sure he doesn't die. You hear me?" It was a warning.

He turned to Steve, "Hey, buddy?" Danny called, his hand on Steve's shoulder. It scotched him, he took his hand away in alarm, looking at Laura questioningly.

"He's burning up, Doc."

"Yeah, it' the fever." Laura said, coming to kneel beside Steve as well, putting her hand on his forehead. "This is not good." She said, looking around for something in despair. "I need water, cold water and a cloth …something to help bring his fever down." She looked at Danny earnestly, "I'll figure something out but if you have a plan, make it quick."

Danny nodded then turned back to Steve. "Hey buddy, I'll be right back ok?"

"Danny…" Steve mumbled deliriously, restless.

"Yeah, I'm right here Steve. What is it?"

"Nooo..no..Dannny…"

Danny put his hand back on Steve's shoulder, desperate to hear what he was saying. "What Steve, what is it, hmm?"

"He can't hear you. He's not here right now, I'm sure he's talking to the you in his subconscious somewhere. He's restless and anxious, must be something unpleasant he's dreaming about. You better go, if you're going to get us out of here then you better make it quick." Laura said.

Danny was loath to leave Steve like this, but he had to. Steve's condition was scaring him, help didn't seem to be coming as fast as he wanted it to. They were trapped, Steve was lying on the dirtiest alleys of New Jersey, dying from a muscle numbing snake poison! Could the nightmare get any worse?

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