Rae had arrived at Amanda's door before she realised that she had left her glass in Jo's room. As she headed back she saw an orange suited figure moving up behind her friend. She smiled at him and then seeing his face she froze. "Texas, run! Get out of here now!" Rae screamed at her and Jo needed no second warning. She headed down the hallway, and she could hear feet coming up behind her fast.
Instantly the hallway was full of people, and they were all heading for Jo, but it was Jesse and Rae who got there first.
"Jo, what's wrong? And what are you doing?"
"Jesse, get security up here, now!" Rae came up behind him.
"What!"
At that moment Jo ran out of places to go and turned to face whoever it was behind her. Her heart lurched in terror as she saw the syringe coming towards her, and then suddenly the man in front of her was taken from behind in a rugby tackle and the syringe went clattering across the floor. Jesse lunged after it and his gloved fingers scooped it up just before it hit the wall.
"Rae, what is going on?" Jesse turned to her as he slid to a halt on the floor next to her.
"He was after Texas…and he hit me." Rae was struggling to keep a hold on her prisoner.
"What?" Jesse couldn't think of anything else to say.
"At the funeral… he hit me." Rae turned away from him, she couldn't look at him any more, or she knew her feelings would run away with her. She needed him to hold her and take away her fear so much, but she knew it wasn't going to happen.
It seemed to Jesse that it was then that the whole world went mad. The elevator doors opened and Alex came rushing out, behind him were four people in quarantine suits. One was armed, and the others were carrying technical equipment.
"Rae, Jo, I need you now." Alex's voice was loud and insistent. He sounded in charge of the situation, and as Rae, who was just locking her cuffs into place on her prisoner, looked back at him she knew that he was. She swapped places with the biggest orange suited figure she could see and went back down the hallway.
As Alex moved away in front of her Rae could see that there was all sorts of equipment being brought up to the floor. The technicians headed for the part of the floor that contained Donovan. "No, the next room along will be better." Rae called and stopped them from carrying on.
Jo and Rae turned towards each other.
"Texas, are you ok?"
"Yeah, you?"
Rae nodded "That was him, he was the guy that hit me, wasn't he?"
Jo stopped walking. "I didn't know you knew what he looked like."
"I remembered when I was talking to Steve…while you were ill. It was him, wasn't it?"
Jo looked at her friend and realised that she was shaking and she took her in her arms. "Yes, honey, it was him. But I don't think he'll be botherin' either of us again. Now come on, we need to help Alex. Will you be alright?"
"Of course. I have to be. I can go nuts later." She smiled then and looked over at Alex, his face was animated. Rae and Jo walked down the hallway towards him, they looked at each other again and their hearts pounded.
"You are both immune to this, at least I think you are. I can't infect your blood and make it stick. If you see what I mean."
They both nodded and then Jo spoke. "Can you make an antidote?"
"Yes. Well no, I can't personally make the antidote; I don't have the expertise that's why the team is up here. But they reckon they can have something ready by the end of the day… I just hope that it will be in time."
Rae knew that there was nothing that she could do at the moment but wait. The hallway was quiet now. Donovan, having tested negative for the bacteria, had been removed to the precinct, and the security guards were back at their station. She saw Jo go back to sit with Steve, Jesse was with Amanda and Alex, now with nothing to occupy him was sitting talking to Mark. The technicians had taken more blood from her and Jo, but neither of them was needed for anything now.
She picked up the glass of water and slowly she walked back down to the room where Ron was lying by himself and sat beside him. She smiled to herself as she made herself comfy on a very soft easy chair. There was something to be said for getting ill in the luxury suites. She put her hand over Ron's and began to speak softly. "Ron, it's Rae, I am so sorry that this has happened to you. But things are beginning to move now. You will be fine again real soon, there are people working on an antidote right now, just hold on and keep fighting for a while longer." A silence descended over the room, and then the floor, the technicians attended to their work, and the small part of the world that was shut away waited for them with its fingers crossed.
Martin came out of the interview room with his Captain and wished that he was with someone else. That way he could really show how he was feeling. Captain Newman looked over at him.
"It's very good practice, Detective, to have to keep your feelings under control. Especially when you feel like throwing something across the room."
"Yes, Sir." They walked into the Captain's office and Martin shut the door behind him.
"So, what do you think of Mr. Donovan?"
Martin took a breath. "I think he's arrogant, egotistical, and very overconfident. I also think that he is a guilty as sin."
"Of what, Detective?"
"Well, we know that he attacked Rae and was planning to attack Miss Walters, but I think he is involved in the break ins, he did have some of the pathogen in that syringe. Maybe even the murder too. But…I don't know how we will ever prove it."
"I have instructed Detective Collins to go over his apartment with a fine tooth comb, and…" The Captain stopped as his phone began to ring.
"Newman…I have no comment…I beg your pardon…No, Sir, you may not speak with Lieutenant Sloan…I have no information on that, I'm sorry."
Martin watched with concern as the phone was slammed back onto its cradle. "Sir?"
"Somehow the press has gotten hold of the fact that there are people in the ICU at Community General with a genetically engineered pathogen. Apparently it will be on the next news." He picked up the phone again and put through a call to Rae's cell phone number.
Rae was sitting quietly when she felt her phone begin to vibrate in her pocket. She had turned the ring tone off after she had begun to sit with Ron. She got up to leave the room. "Ron, I'll be right back, don't you go anywhere!" She moved out into the hallway and answered her phone. "Detective Yeager…Sir…No, no change, but there is an antidote being made as we speak…what, who let that get out…No, Sir, I'm sorry, Sir." Rae shut her phone and slid it back in her pocket. She thought for a minute about the Captain. Because she hadn't made actual contact with him he had been deemed safe. Amanda and Alex had found some notes of Ron's where they had been left after he had collapsed in Amanda's lab, and it had stated categorically that it had to be direct contact to pass on the pathogen. She was glad. She had no idea how Texas was containing her guilt, she didn't know if she could have coped with finding out for herself that she had made someone sick and she only liked the Captain. Texas loved the person she had infected; Rae didn't want to ever have to find out how she felt. She ran her fingers through her hair and then she turned wearily and went off in search of Jesse.
Jesse was sitting talking to Amanda about how well Alex was doing when he heard a noise behind him. He turned and saw Rae standing there. He was concerned at how tired she looked, but he just stood and waited for her to speak.
"I just got off the phone with the Captain. The press have the story." Rae said no more. She waited.
"Oh, thank you for letting me know." Jesse turned back towards the bed.
Rae went to say something and then thought better of it. She left the room and returned to her comfortable chair. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew there was a hand on her shoulder, and the world outside was dark.
"Rae, come on, wake up, we need you."
She looked around to see Jo's anxious face looking down at her. She ran her fingers over her eyes and smiled up at her friend. "Texas?" Suddenly she remembered where she was. "What, what's happening?"
"They think they have an antidote. We have to go to my room." Jo held her hand out and Rae took it gratefully. Together they walked hand in hand down the hallway and into the bedroom that had become part of their comfortable prison. Jesse and Alex were waiting there for them. She noticed that although Alex was still in his suit he had the thin latex gloves on.
"Rae, we need to give this to you first, you seem to have a natural immunity, and I think that should make you the strongest person to be the guinea pig." Jesse looked at her as he spoke and wished that he could say more.
"I will just take a note of your vital signs first, then after you have signed a disclaimer form, I will give you the medication." Alex smiled at her as he spoke.
"Of course, is it an injection?" She saw Alex nod and then she signed the piece of paper in front of her, rolled up her sleeve and waited for him to do his work.
"I want you to lie down in here, Rae. I'll stay with you for half an hour to see how you are. Then we'll check it and I'll give it to everybody else. I know it is a ridiculously short amount of time, but I don't know how much time we have."
Rae looked at the young man and saw that he was on the verge of exhaustion. She put her hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. "Alex, you have worked miracles already, I am happy to be your guinea pig, however many times you need me." She watched as the liquid was forced in to her arm and then she sat down on one of the sofas, leant into the corner of it and, bringing her feet up onto the seat, made herself comfortable.
As she lay there, she began to feel very dizzy. "Alex, something is happening, I feel really weird." He moved over to her immediately and began to check her over.
Alex put his hand to her forehead. "Your temperature has risen, and so has your pulse." "Not very technical I know, but I'll check it properly in a minute."
Rae nodded at him and lay there waiting for the feelings to subside. She accepted the thermometer and felt his fingers on her wrist. Then slowly she closed her eyes and felt herself float away.
Alex sat and watched his patient. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully; he hoped that was a good sign, but he really had no idea. After thirty minutes he took a sample of blood from her, Rae made no response to him, but her breathing was deep and even. He took it over to one of the technicians and then waited impatiently moving from window to window, looking at his friends and colleagues in each room. He moved back to check on Rae but she was still fast asleep. He went back to where he had started and waited outside the door for it to open. It seemed to be taking forever, but eventually a smiling young woman opened the door and spoke.
"We did it, Doctor Martin, the pathogen is radically reduced in her bloodstream. I think you can safely give this to everybody else now. Well, as safely as possible in these conditions."
Alex and Jesse moved from bed to bed making sure that the antidote was introduced into their IV's. As they worked Alex saw one of the technicians move towards the elevator. She had a carrier full of the antidote and she was headed to the room that had been quarantined off for those people who had been in contact with the pathogen but had yet to succumb to its effects.
"Jesse, do you want to go check on Rae? I'll keep an eye this end of the hallway."
"Yes, thanks, Alex." Jesse walked back down to the first door on the hallway and moved over to where Rae was lying on the sofa. He had also changed into latex gloves and he placed his hand gently on her forehead and was relieved to feel that her temperature had fallen. Slowly she moved and opened her eyes.
"Hey, handsome, how are you?" Rae saw Jesse blush, and realized instantly what she had said. She sat up. "I'm sorry, Jesse." She turned her eyes away from him and felt him begin to examine her.
"How are you feeling, Rae? Has the dizziness passed?"
"Yeah, and the thirst. I feel like I could sleep for a week, but apart from that I feel fine. What about the others? Did we get an antidote?"
"Yes, we did, now keep still, I want to take one more lot of blood from you and then you can go back to sleep. No one will wake you again until the morning."
Rae watched as the blood ran into the syringe then she looked up at him. "No, Jesse, I will go back and sit with Ron. Nobody should have to wake up alone." She knew what she had said, and without a backward glance for any reaction she got up and left the room.