The next day Maggie spent most of it sleeping. It was late afternoon when she woke up fully. She pushed the call button Claire had set up by the bedside.
A moment later Claire came in, smiling. "You look better already." She told her before popping a thermometer into Maggie's mouth. She tried to say something but it came out garbled. "No talking." Claire admonished. The thermometer beeped and she read it. "Okay, now what did you have to say?"
"I feel better. How long have I been out?" She adjusted the bed so she was sitting up.
"Almost two days. It's past six in the evening." She held up a syringe. "I'm going to give you another dose of the inhibitor. You been without it for so long I'll need to build your levels up again before I can cut the dose."
Sighing, Maggie held out her arm. "I didn't miss this." She winced as Claire pushed the needle into her arm. "Can't you make that into a pill or something? I can take it every morning with my vitamins and allergy medicine."
"It doesn't work like that and you know it." Claire smiled at her.
She shrugged. "Hey, a girl can hope, can't she? So where's Nick anyway?" Claire looked away, not saying anything. "Claire? He rescued me from those terrorists and then disappeared. Where'd he go?"
"Maggie love, Nick was killed when you were kidnapped. They shot him when he tried to stop them from taking you." Claire put her hand on Maggie's.
Maggie just sat there, stunned before shaking her head. "No. Claire, that's not possible. He saved me. I saw him. He carried me out of that house."
Claire pulled Maggie into a hug. "That wasn't Nick. That was another agent, Darien Fawkes."
"Nick's dead?" Tears ran freely down Maggie's face, leaving a wet spot on Claire's lab coat.
She nodded. "I'm sorry hon. I know what he meant to you. He was a good friend to me also." There was a knock on the door and Claire looked over her shoulder. Darien stood in the doorway, looking uncertain. She motioned for him to come inside. "Maggie, this is Darien. He's the one who rescued you."
She looked up, sniffling. "Hi."
"Hi." He leaned against the wall near her bed.
Claire looked from one to the other before standing up. "I'm going to find you some real clothes."
"Thanks." Darien handed her the box of tissues from the nightstand. "Thank you."
"Welcome." He leaned back, watching her as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose. She looked small in the hospital bed but he figured she was probably 5'5". Her ordeal caused her to lose weight and she was thin. Her hair came to just above her shoulders and stuck out at odd angles from sleep. Her eyes, the color of frozen oak leaves, stood out brightly against her pale skin.
"Thanks for rescuing me." She said quietly.
He nodded. "You miss him."
"He was my only family." She snorted softly. "I didn't even know he was dead until Claire told me." She started crying again.
"Oh, hey. I didn't mean," He trailed off and sat down next to her on the bed, letting her cry on his shoulder.
After a while, she sat up, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I got your shirt wet."
He grinned. "That's alright. Feel better?"
She nodded. "I guess." Her stomach growled and she giggled.
"Hungry?"
"Yeah."
Claire came back in, carrying some clothing. "I couldn't find your things. They were packed away with Nick's when they cleaned up the house. These are mine. Do you want to shower?"
Maggie took the clothes. "That'd be wonderful."
"I could go get dinner while your changing." Darien offered.
Maggie looked at Claire, who nodded. "Great. Go ahead."
"Chinese okay?"
"Sure. Um, Darien?" Maggie called.
"Yeah?" He turned back to her.
"Thanks."
When she had finished her shower and changed, Maggie wandered down the hall and found Darien and Claire in her lab. "Mmm, smells good." She said as she poked through the various boxes to see what Darien had brought. "General Tso's Chicken, my favorite." She picked up the carton and took the offered chopsticks before settling down on top of Claire's desk.
"How come I've never seen you around here before?" Darien asked, once he had his own food.
"I lived with my keeper and we mostly worked from home." She explained.
"Darien, you met Nick once. He was dark-haired Irishman who was in my office a few months back. You wanted to know if we were dating, remember?" Claire leaned back against the counter, enjoying her lo mien.
Darien tipped his head to the side, trying to remember. "That was Nick? I was expecting someone who looked more like me."
"You were? Why?" Maggie asked, curious.
"The whole I time I was carrying you out of the house, you were calling me Nick. I thought maybe you had us confused or something."
"Oh." Maggie said quietly before going back to her food.
"Why don't you show him what you do?" Claire suggested.
Maggie shrugged. "Sure." She set down her food. Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths. Reaching out, she felt for the medical instruments sitting on a tray on the counter. She opened her eyes and started spinning and juggling the items in the air.
"Wow." Darien watched as the metal equipment spun in increasingly tighter and faster circles.
Maggie grinned as she slowly brought each item to a stop and set them back in their places on the tray. "Neat trick huh?"
"Nick and Maggie were working to see what Maggie's limit is."
She closed her eyes and reached out again. When she heard Darien's surprised yell, she opened them. He was floating six inches off the chair. "So far, Nick's weight was my limit."
Hobbes chose that moment to come into the lab. "Fine thing, getting dinner and not inviting me."
Maggie was startled and lost her concentration. Darien fell back to the chair and tumbled off losing his balance.
"Darien!" She called and reached out to him. He stopped a few inches off the floor. Maggie righted him and gently set him on the floor. "Sorry." She chewed on her lower lip.
He rolled his shoulders. "Felt like a carnival ride." He turned to his partner. "Have some dinner Hobbes."
"Oh sure, now you remember ol' Bobby Hobbes." Hobbes muttered as he went to investigate the remaining cartons. Choosing one, he sat down in the chair in front of Claire's desk. "How ya doin' Rourke?"
"All right Bobby. How have you been?
"Getting along. Good to have you back." He patted her leg.
Darien watched them. "You two know each other?"
Maggie nodded. "Sure. Bobby and I worked together once or twice."
The Official entered the lab. He approached the four agents who were eating dinner. "Good to see you up and around, Magdalena."
She sighed at the sound of her full name. "Thank you sir. It's good to be back."
"What's up boss man?" Hobbes asked. It was unusual for him to come down to the labs.
"Where are you staying tonight Magdalena?"
"I'm not sure sir."
The Official looked at Claire. She shook her head. "I'm staying in a hotel. My house is being fumigated."
"She could stay with me." Darien offered.
"Good. Hobbes, you'll stay with them tonight at Fawkes' place. We'll figure out something more permanent tomorrow."
"Yes, sir."
"Is this it?" Maggie peered out of the van window.
Hobbes turned off the van and opened the door. "Yup."
"It's not the Ritz but it's comfortable." Darien unlocked his door and let them in. "I'll find you something to sleep in."
She sat on the bed and watched him dig through his dresser. He tossed a few items on the bed and slammed the drawers shut.
"Here you go. Bathroom's in there."
Maggie took the offered clothes and went into the bathroom. She came out wearing striped pajama pants rolled up around her waist and a baggy gray t-shirt. She giggled when she caught sight of herself in the mirror. "I feel silly. Hey, where's Hobbes?"
"He ran over to his place to get some stuff." Darien was slouched on the couch reading a book. Maggie curled up on the other end of the couch.
"You haven't been working for the Agency very long, have you?" She said after a while.
He shook his head. "Six months maybe. What about you?" He put his book down and turned so he was looking at her.
"Twenty years."
"Twenty years? How old are you?" He asked in shock.
She smiled. "Twenty-five." She could see him trying to work it out in his head. "It's a long story if you want to hear it."
"We've got all night."
"Just warning you. My father was an army scientist working on a project with the Agency. They needed a child subject for their tests."
"What kind of tests?"
"You know how they say humans only use ten percent of their brain? Well, they had a theory that if you could somehow turn on more of the brain, they would develop psychic abilities. But they hadn't been able to recreate the idea in life. They kept trying the surgery and drugs on adults but the adult brain couldn't handle it and usually had a meltdown or got put in a madhouse."
Darien nodded. "Yeah. A lot of Agency experiments end up in the nut house."
"Someone decided that they should try the procedure on a child. So my dad volunteered me."
"How old were you?"
"Four. A year later mom and dad were killed in a car accident. I was trapped in the car for four hours upside down. We found out later that a tiny part of my brain was damaged. The part that controlled the telekinesis. Nick told me that when he and Charlie arrived at the hospital they found out the doctors had put me in a padded cell in the mental ward. I had telekinetically ripped the padding from the walls and shredded it. Nick said I looked like a snow princess through all the bits of white stuffing." She smiled sadly at the memory. "He used to call me that. Princess."
"The Agency took you in?"
"They had to. The army decided they didn't want me anymore. I had this power I couldn't control and I thought I was going crazy. So the Agency adopted me like one of their own and developed a drug that acts like the part of my brain that was damaged, letting me control my powers. Nick became my Keeper."
"That's why you lived with him."
"Yeah." She stretched out and put her feet up. "What about you? Claire's your Keeper right?"
He nodded. "There's this stuff called quicksilver." She shook her head no. "It's bends light so that whatever it covers appears invisible. They made it into a gland and stuck that into my head."
"You can go invisible?"
"That's how I got you out." He reached out and quicksilvered her hand. "See?"
"Cool. It's cold." She held up her hand. Giving it a shake, the quicksilver fell away with a tinkly sound.
"I used to be a thief and I got caught. My brother, Kevin was on the team that developed the gland. He got me out of prison in return for being his human test subject. Unfortunately, if I don't get a shot of counteragent every six days, the stuff builds up in my bloodstream and I go quicksilver mad. My eyes go all red and I get kinda nuts."
"But we love him anyway." A voice from the doorway startled them and made them both look up. Hobbes leaned against the doorframe.
"What can I say, I'm a lovable guy." Darien grinned at Maggie. "Nice of you to knock, Hobbes."
"Should have locked your door. Any Cobalt nut could have come in here and grabbed both of you." Hobbes shut and locked the door, tossing his bag on the floor. Maggie moved closer to Darien to make room for him on the couch. He flopped down next to her. "Oh, hey, the Official wanted me to bring you these." He opened his hand and let a set of military tags fall into her open palm.
"My tags! Where did you find them?" She slipped them over her head and tucked them under the t-shirt.
"The recovery team found them under a table. The chain was broken but I got it replaced."
"Thanks. I kinda feel naked without them."
"You're in the army?" Darien asked.
She shook her head. "Not really. It's how the Agency keeps track of me. I did some training with them and sometimes we use their equipment. But I'm not in the active service." She punctuated the sentence with a huge yawn.
Darien looked over at the clock. "It's past your bedtime."
Maggie giggled. "Ok Dad." She looked around the room. "So who's sleeping where?"
"You can have the bed." Both men answered at once.
"Yeah, I'll fight Fawkes for the couch." Hobbes added as she headed to the bed.
Darien looked at him incredulously. "You will not. This is my apartment. I get the couch."
"But I'm the guest."
"Right. So you get the floor."
Maggie shook her head as she crawled under the covers. The argument took on a hushed tone and she fell asleep half listening to them.
First thing Darien noticed when he woke was a new smell in his apartment. He opened his eyes and looked around. Hobbes was still asleep on the floor, snoring loudly and his bed was empty. He could hear a soft humming coming from the kitchen and headed in that direction.
Maggie was bent over something on the stove. She straightened up and added sugar to the pan in front of her.
"Whatcha doin'?" He asked, looking over her shoulder.
She jumped and turned. "I'm making breakfast."
"I have food?" He glanced at the fridge, scratching his head.
"Barely. I ran down to the market and got some bananas and strawberries. But the rest of it's yours." She opened the oven and pulled out a plate piled with crepes.
"Don't tell Hobbes you left unescorted." He told her, peering over her shoulder. "What's that?"
She stirred the contents of the pan once more and turned off the heat. She set out three plates and placed two crepes on each plate. Onto each one she spooned some of the fruit from the pan and rolled the thin pancake up. "Go wake up Hobbes. You're in my way."
The three of them finally settled down to have breakfast, Darien sitting on the counter, Maggie leaning back against the sink and Hobbes sitting at the small table.
"This is really good, Rourke." Hobbes dug into the food. "Who taught you to cook?"
"Nick." She said around a mouthful of food.
He looked at her in disbelief. "He was Irish."
"So?"
"Have you ever tasted Irish food?"
She shot him a glare. "I happen to like Irish food. Now finish your breakfast." She dropped her empty plate in the sink. "I cooked. You two clean. I'm going for a shower."
They drove into work and Maggie was ordered down to the Keeper's lab. She spent most of the day having tests run on her. When she finally got away, Maggie headed up to the Official's office and knocked.
"Come in."
She opened the door and stuck her head inside. "Hi Charlie, Eberts."
"Magdalena, come in." He smiled and set aside the papers he had in front of him.
She slouched into the chair in front of his desk. "I want to move back into Nick's house."
"Why?"
"Because I lived there for 17 years. If I hadn't been missing when Nick died, the house would have been mine anyway."
"True." He looked at Eberts who handed her a stack of forms.
"Fill these out and we should be able to have you move in by the end of next week." Eberts explained.
She sighed and took the forms. "Great. Forms. Thanks Charlie." She stood up. "I'd better get to work on these."
"Just slid them under the door when you're done." Eberts told her as left. She waved as she shut the door and went to find an empty room.
"Wanna go to dinner?" Darien leaned against the doorframe. Maggie was bent over some paperwork.
She lifted her head to look at him. "Sure. Just let me finish this."
He perched on the edge of the desk. "They've got you doing paperwork already?"
"I asked if I could move back into Nick's house. Charlie handed me some forms and told me to fill them out." She signed the last one and put them all in an envelope. "There."
"All this for a house?" He asked as she pulled on her jacket.
"All of this for the rent free home I grew up in." She slid the envelope under the Official's door. "So where are we going?"
He shrugged. "Someplace nice?"
"Marcel's?" She said, suggested a popular local bistro.
He put his arm around her waist and steered her out of the building to his car. "Sounds good."
Halfway there, Darien noticed the black van following them. "We've got a tail." He said quietly.
Maggie looked in her side mirror and caught sight of the van. "Cobalt?"
"Probably. What do you want to do?"
"Head out of town. And give me your cell phone." She directed him toward Nick's house on the outskirts of the city. They had a huge yard and their neighbors weren't close by so no civilians would be in danger. "Sir? It's Maggie. Darien and I were on our way to dinner and we picked up a tail. We think its Cobalt." She listened for a moment. "No, to Nick's. Less people to hurt there. OK. Yes, sir." She hung up and slipped the phone back into Darien's inside pocket. "He said he's sending help. And to hold them off until it gets there."
They drove through winding suburban streets slowly, buying time until help arrived. Finally, Darien pulled the car into a long driveway. The house was an old Victorian house.
"This is where you live?" He asked as they got out.
"Lived, yeah. Come on, let's get inside before they decide to pull into the driveway." She went around to the side garage door. One of the panes of glass was loose and Maggie wiggled it free so she could unlock the door.
Darien raised his eyebrow at her. "Old trick?"
"I learned how to do it when I locked myself out one day." Once she opened the door, she slid the glass back into place. She locked the door behind them and they entered the house from the garage.
"What's the plan?"
"Just get them into the front room." Maggie told him, her voice steely.
Darien looked out the front window. The black van pulled into the driveway and three men in black suits got out. One of them caught sight of him in the window and pointed. He let the curtain fall back into place and joined Maggie in the front room. "Ready?"
She nodded. "You keep them disoriented and I'll take care of the rest."
"Okay."
The door flew open and Darien quicksilvered. He hit the first one, which caused the other two to look around in confusion.
"Were you looking for me?" Maggie asked innocently. The second man rushed toward her but was stopped by an unseen force. The floorboards under him creaked before ripping upwards causing him to fall. Darien was busy keeping the first man occupied and she turned to the third man. The window shattered and a piece of glass flew at him. He ducked and was only nicked by it. She aimed the broken floorboards at him and again he just barely escaped being hit. He started for her but suddenly fell to the floor unconscious when he was hit in the back of the head with a chair Darien found in the hall.
More rubble began flying around the room as Maggie became angrier and angrier. She was essentially destroying the front room of the house. Darien reappeared just as their back up arrived.
"Federal agents! Freeze!"
Everyone and everything in the room froze. The agents looked around in confusion at the pieces of glass, wood and plaster hanging motionless in the air. Maggie took a deep breath and everything fell to the ground.
The agents began rounding up the three men, taking them out of the house in handcuffs. Hobbes stepped inside and approached Maggie.
"Hey Rourke, are you all right?" He touched her shoulder. She turned and looked at him, her eyes glowing an eerie green. "You look a little pale."
She shook her head, trying to clear the dizziness. "Give me a minute. I'll be fine." She told him and collapsed.
When she woke, she was in the lab chair where Darien normally got his shots. Darien was sitting on the desk nearby watching his feet and Claire was checking her pulse. She looked up and saw Maggie was awake.
"How do you feel?"
"Tired. What happened?" She tried to get up but Claire pushed her back down.
"You over exerted yourself. You've only been out of out of Cobalt's grasp for a few days. Your body wasn't ready for that kind of strain."
She nodded and let herself relax back into the chair. That was when she noticed Darien watching her. "Hey Darien."
He came over to the chair. "You scared us Maggie."
"Yeah Rourke. You know, you stopped breathing for a minute. Scared the hell out of me." Hobbes said from his spot in the doorway.
Claire spoke up. "You never told me who got her breathing again."
"Fawkes did. Apparently he's perfected his CPR techniques since prison." Hobbes smirked and left the lab.
"Hey!" Darien started toward his partner but Maggie's voice stopped him.
I guess I owe you another thank you." Her jewel green eyes turned to him. "At this rate my children's children are going to end up owing you a Wookie life debt."
He smiled. "Maybe just your children."
"Deal."
He perched on the edge of the chair. "You know, we never did get that dinner."
"Where did you want to go?"
"No way. You are going home and getting some rest. No going out." Claire told her in a firm voice. When Maggie opened her mouth to protest, she held up a hand. "No arguments. If your hungry, get take out."
She sulked, her mouth turning up in a petulant little pout. "Fine. Can I go?"
Claire nodded. "Go on. I'll see you both tomorrow."
Darien helped Maggie down from the chair and put an arm around her shoulder as they walked out of the lab.
"So do you think Marcel's has takeout?" He asked.
Maggie shrugged. "I don't know. But I think we should find out."