DS#8 Uninvited Part 5
By Carol M.
See first parts for details
Note: Buckle up folks, it's about to get very bumpy. Enjoy!
Several Hours Later
Jason sat with white knuckled eagerness on the bench in the Pine Mall. He was just hours away from the madness and the sheer thought of it was enough to make his body break out in a cold sweat.
The thing he hated about the madness was the lack of control. Hurting people or destroying property didn't really bother him, but the lack of control over his mind and his body was enough to drive him into insanity all on its own.
He checked his watch for the third time in 10 minutes. Elizabeth was late and it was making him incredibly edgy. He wondered if making a deal with the devil had been worth it, but he quickly concluded that it had. Anything for his brother.
The sound of his cell phone ringing took him out of his thoughts. He quickly pulled it out of his jacket and answered it.
"This is Sullivan," he said.
"Ah, Mr. Sullivan, so glad I caught you," he heard in a foreign accent.
"De Phon? Where's Rendell? We had a deal," said Jason with anger.
"Yes our deal. The deal was you were going to get my dear brother and I out of prison. Unfortunately, Huiclos is still in prison, so as far as I'm concerned that leaves our deal null and void," Arnaud casually replied.
"No, no, no. I need the counteragent, you bastard," yelled Jason in desperation.
He heard Arnaud clearing his throat. "You know Mr. Sullivan, I've been doing some thinking, and I've concluded that having you as a gland customer is not worth the risk. My operation was almost exposed because of you and that idiot Agency," said Arnaud.
Jason took a shuddering breath. "I will find you, and I will kill you!" cried Jason.
"First, you'd have to find me and I guarantee that won't be happening. And besides, I suspect that once you actually do hit the madness, I'm not the one you're going to want to kill. Why don't you do us both a favor and take out Darien Fawkes. Life would be so much more pleasant without him, don't you think?" said Arnaud.
"I'll kill Huiclos," said Jason with cold venom.
"Ah yes, I anticipated that. Since my poor brother is receiving death threats, he has been moved to a very secure location since your last visit. You try to kill him, and you will be the one to die," said Arnaud as he sighed heavily. "I'm truly sorry it worked out this way, Jason, or should I say, Jeremy."
"What? How did you know that?" asked Jason breathlessly.
"I make it a point to know everything about the people I'm dealing with, friend. I wish you good luck in your descent into madness, and I'm sorry how things turned out for you. But look at it this way, I'm losing something too," said Arnaud.
"And what's that?" whispered Jason.
"Your gland. Use it well Jeremy. There are so many things you can do with it and something tells me that the madness will make you even more creative," said Arnaud thoughtfully. After a few beats he added, "It was nice knowing you. Goodbye and good luck, my friend."
"Wait!" shouted Jason, but the line was already dead.
He tried to stand up, but found that his legs would not support him. He started taking deep breaths. "Calm down, just calm down, Sullivan," he whispered to himself.
He stood up slowly and was pleased to find that his legs were working properly again. He slowly made his way out of the mall, trying to figure out what to do next.
Darien stood over his partner, stroking Bobby's arm softly. He hadn't slept or eaten in almost a week, and he had left his partner's side only once and that had only been to take care of a little get well present. Claire had come in several times to visit Bobby and check on Darien. Even she could not convince him to leave.
Darien felt awful. His head ached, his eyes burned, his stomach hurt and his back was stiff. He was deathly worried about Bobby and also Claire, who still wasn't feeling well. She had mentioned something about running some tests on herself, but Darien had been too out of it to remember which specific ones.
On top of that, he was pondering the Arnaud and Chrysalis connection. The knowledge that Chrysalis was still functioning and that they were somehow connected to Arnaud was eating away at him. He would get them all, he promised Bobby. But he wouldn't go after them until Bobby had either recovered or died. He refused to leave his partner to fight the battle of life alone.
Darien sighed in misery and looked down at Bobby. "Come on, Hobbesy, it's been almost a week, buddy. They say the longer you're like this, the less likely you are to wake up. You're running out of time here, man," said Darien as tears started to well in his eyes.
He was giving up hope he realized. He didn't want to and he fought the urge with all that he had, but he couldn't deny it anymore. He was realizing that he might never get Bobby back and that thought terrified him.
He backed away from the bed, a few tears trickling down his cheeks. He felt like he was losing a brother all over again. He grasped his sides tightly with his hands, hugging himself. He felt like a damn about to burst. He chose for once not to fight it. Tears started flowing off his face in a steady stream. His sobs grew loud and they wracked through his whole body.
He curled into himself like he was his own teddy bear, trying to take comfort in something. What he needed right now was Claire, but Claire was facing her own problems. If she turned out to have some terminal disease or something, Darien was going to take a shotgun and blow his brains out right there.
As he cried, he felt his body get weaker and weaker. He could barely hold himself upright. Naturally, when Alex suddenly came up behind him and tapped him on the back, he nearly fell to the floor.
Alex reacted quickly and managed to keep Darien upright. Biting back the feeling of awkwardness, she pulled him into her arms and let him cry. She knew she wasn't his first choice, but she would have to do.
"Shhh, he's going to make it, Fawkes," she whispered in his ear.
His only response was a choked sob. Alex tightened her grip and ignored the fact that Darien's tears were probably going to ruin her new silk blouse. She didn't care. He had been there for her in the past and now it was her turn to be there for him.
As she held Darien, she glanced over at Bobby and her throat tightened a little. She had to admit she liked him, even though most days he and Darien annoyed the hell out of her. She felt her eyes burning and realized with some surprise that she too had tears coming from her eyes. Her body started to shake and she felt Darien clutch her tighter. She let her own emotions boil to the surface and soon found her head resting against Darien's heaving chest.
"Who died?" they heard rasped a few minutes later.
Darien's head whipped around and his eyes made contact with the chocolate brown eyes of Bobby Hobbes.
"Bobby?" asked Darien, uncertain if this was some weird kind of dream.
"What happened and who the hell shot me?" whispered Bobby weakly.
Alex released her hold on Darien and gave him a large smile. "I'll get a nurse," she said as she wiped at her eyes. She quickly walked out of the room.
Darien quickly stepped next to Bobby's bed and sat down in the chair that had been his bed for the last week. He grabbed Bobby's hand. "Don't you ever do that to me again," he sobbed, unable to stop his emotional flood.
He lay his head against the bed and continued to cry, only this time it was in relief.
Bobby raised his eyebrow in concern. "Hey D, I'm okay, partner. It's gonna take a lot more than a few pieces of metal to take out Bobby Hobbes, my friend," he said gently.
This only made Darien cry harder. Bobby stiffly moved his hand to the back of Darien's neck and started to rub it. He felt Darien start to calm down under his grip.
"Thanks for caring, Darien," whispered Bobby as a few tears appeared in his eyes. He heard a few sniffles coming from Darien and then a few seconds later he heard the soft sound of snoring. Bobby smiled in amusement at the thought Darien falling asleep at his side.
"Ahh, Mr. Hobbes, nice of you to join us," Bobby heard someone say.
He looked up and saw a brown-haired woman dressed in a nurse's uniform with a nametag reading Kristin entering the room. Alex followed behind her. Bobby smiled weakly and waved his hand at them.
Alex saw Darien passed out on the bed and looked at Bobby with concern. "What the hell happened to Fawkes?"
"He's just sleeping, that's all," said Bobby, his eyelids getting heavy.
Kristin moved towards Darien to wake him up. "Let's get him into a bed," she said.
Bobby shook his head. "No, no, don't wake him up. Just let him rest for awhile," he said, his own eyes closing in exhaustion.
Soon Bobby was fast asleep in his bed with Darien snoring his head off at his side. Alex wished she had a camera to take a picture of the sight. She left the two partners alone and headed back to the Agency to give Claire, Eberts, Jason and the Official the good news.
****************
Jason had tried to keep his sanity, he really had. He had invisibly infiltrated the Keep to search for counteragent. Luckily, Claire had been in the Official's office, so she would never know he had been there. His search had come up with nothing, and then he remembered that Darien was at least three days away from needing a shot so Claire hadn't made up the solution yet.
As he was leaving the Agency, the first attack hit him. Pain, horrible pain. He had only experienced quicksilver madness once and that had been during the first weeks of having the gland. After feeling it that first time, he vowed it would never happen again. But now he didn't have that option. He managed to get to his car and drive himself back to his apartment. When he got there, he lay on the bed and tried to somehow beat the madness. He had blacked out during one of the attacks and ended up unconscious in his bed for several hours. When he woke up, he realized that all the pain was gone. He got out of his bed and looked at himself in the mirror. He smiled in ecstasy when he saw that his eyes had turned silver.
The freedom was wonderful. It was like being drunk and high at the same time. Jason wondered why he had ever bothered to take the counteragent in the first place. He began to think of Darien Fawkes and all the rest of his Agency cronies. A diabolical plan started to form in Jason's mind, a plan so much better than what he had originally intended for Darien.
He left his apartment and got into his car, heading towards Troy's apartment. When he got there, he giddily jumped out his car and skipped to the door. He pounded loudly and waited impatiently for Troy to open the door.
Troy opened the door and stared in shock at the sight before him.
Jason smiled widely. "Hey buddy, how's it going?" he said enthusiastically as he pushed his way through the door.
Troy closed the door and looked at him nervously. "What's going on, Jason?" he asked.
Jason trudged over to Troy's computer and started looking through the many disks that sat near the keyboard. "Oh, nothing much, I've just had a wonderful idea, that's all."
"You're in stage five, aren't you," said Troy, backing towards his bedroom.
"That's right and it's a very pretty place," said Jason as he found what he was looking for. He held up the disk that held all the information he had stolen from the Agency. "We won't be needing this anymore," he said as he set the disk on the ground and smashed it with his shoe.
Troy stepped forward in a panic. "Jason, what the hell are you doing? We need that!" he said urgently.
Jason smiled coolly at him. "No, no, no, no. That was simply clerical warfare. I have a solution that is much more permanent and much more painful."
"You're crazy, man. I agreed to help you so we could take the Agency down the right way, not in some violent emotional outburst. Let me help you, okay. I'll call De Phon," said Troy as he reached for the phone.
Jason stood up and knocked the phone out Troy's hand. "De Phon and I have since parted ways."
Troy took a deep breath. "Okay, okay. I'm gonna help you, J. I'll hire someone to make the solution. Hell we can go to the Agency and ask for the formula."
Jason shook his head. "It's too late for that. Besides, I don't want to come back. Now, what I need from you is some supplies. I know you got a sweet little hope chest sitting in the back of your closet in there," said Jason as he pointed towards Troy's bedroom.
Troy stood firmly in front of Jason. "I can't let you do that, Jeremy!" he said pointedly. "You're brother wouldn't want this."
"Haha, Jeremy," whispered Jason softly. Without warning, his hand gripped Troy's throat. "And what would you know about it anyway, huh best friend? My brother was my best friend, not you. Now I'm going to get justice for him and I'm going to do it right!" said Jason as he tightened his grip on Troy's throat.
Troy struggled as hard as he could against the tight grip but it was no use. He felt the life slowly drift out of him. "I'm sorry it turned out like this," he gasped as the life left his body. His eyes rolled back in his head and his body went limp.
Jason tossed him aside on the floor carelessly and headed towards the bedroom. His eyes locked on the closet and he ran to it, throwing the doors open. He saw a large trunk and opened it eagerly. He licked his lips when he saw what was inside. Guns, ammo, plastique, timers, wires, and detonators. He smiled in delight. Now he had everything he needed to take the ultimate revenge against Darien Fawkes.
TBC
