Sacrifices (5/?)
By Carol M.
See prologue for details
Note: Sorry this took a little longer, but I've had the midterms from hell and graduate school applications to contend with. Now that all that crap's done, I'll be posting more frequently. Enjoy the next part!
"Watch out for the glass, Albert," said Claire as she and Eberts entered the Keep through the blown out door with Darien held protectively in their arms. They set him down carefully on the counteragent chair, where he quickly regained consciousness.
"Claire," panted Darien. "It hurts," he whispered.
Claire ran a hand through his hair. "I know it hurts, Darien. I'm going to make it better," she said calmly.
Eberts stepped aside, glancing at Darien with a look of fear on his face. "What can I do to help?" he asked.
"Stay out of my way," was Claire's terse response as she reached for a syringe and stepped to Darien.
Darien instantly tried to shrink away from the needle. "No, no more. Please, no more."
Claire gave him a sympathetic look. "I just have to draw a little blood and see how much of the drug is still in your system. I'll try not to hurt you," she said softly.
Eberts stepped to Darien's side and grabbed his hand. "It'll be okay, Darien," he whispered in a comforting tone.
Claire gave Eberts a grateful look and then carefully inserted the needle into Darien's arm. Darien winced and closed his eyes, gripping Eberts' hand tightly in his own. A few minutes later, Claire removed the needle and took out the vial of blood. She smeared a drop of the blood on a glass slide and went to look at it under her microscope like she had done earlier that morning.
Eberts stayed by Darien's side, holding his hand and whispering reassurances in his ear. Darien's eyes remained closed, his face taking on a pasty white pallor that was soaked with sweat.
"Bloody hell," said Claire after a few minutes of examining the blood.
"What did you find?" asked Eberts.
"The drug is attaching itself to the quicksilver in his system causing the drug to multiply as the quicksilver levels in his blood go up," said Claire.
"What do we do?" asked Eberts.
"I don't know," said Claire dejectedly. She eyed her refrigerator and a light bulb seemed to turn on in her brain. "What if I used the counteragent?"
"The counteragent?" said Eberts.
"It's not as effective as it used to be, but it was still filling the snake half-way before the suicide gene. I could flush some of the quicksilver out of his body and maybe stop the drug from multiplying," said Claire.
Eberts was about to respond when he heard a horrific scream of pain come out of Darien's mouth. The scream was followed by harsh gagging noises, and then suddenly, there was nothing. Eberts looked down and noticed that Darien was very still. Too still. "Doctor, I think Darien stopped breathing!" he said in a panic.
Claire dashed over to Darien and confirmed Eberts' fear. "Eberts, I need you to do chest compressions for me."
Eberts nodded and moved down the chair, putting his hands firmly over Darien's chest.
"Start the compressions," ordered Claire. "One, two, three, four, five." She took all of her air and blew it into Darien's mouth. "Come on, Darien, breathe, fight it," she said as she watched Eberts' hands press firmly down on Darien's chest once again.
"Breathe, Darien," said Eberts as he did a compression and then watched Claire give air to Darien. "One, two, three, four, five," he whispered as he started the compressions again.
"Darien, please, fight this," cried Claire. She once again breathed into his mouth, trying to literally breathe the life back into him.
They suddenly heard a wet rattling sound, followed by several coughs. Claire looked down at Darien's chest and saw it begin to rise and then shakily fall. She leaned over and gave him a small hug in relief. "Oh thank god," she said. "Eberts, there's an oxygen tank in the corner. Go get it," she said as caressed the side of Darien's face.
Eberts nodded and returned seconds later with the oxygen tank. Claire took it from him and activated the tank. She placed the attached mask over Darien's face and secured it behind his head. "Just breathe, Darien. All you have to do is breathe," she whispered in his ear.
Although Darien was unconscious and could not verbally respond, the steadier sounds of his breathing assured Claire that he indeed had heard her. She looked up at Eberts and nodded towards Darien. "Watch him," she said.
Eberts nodded and once again grabbed Darien's hand.
Claire stepped over to the refrigerator and began sorting through the various vials of chemicals she kept on the top shelf. She pulled out several vials and took them over to her desk. "I'm going to give him a series of small injections. Flushing the chemicals out of his system all out once would probably be too much of a shock to his system. It might kill him," she said as she began to concoct the formula that she knew by heart.
"How long before it's ready?" asked Eberts.
"A hour, maybe two for the first injection. Hopefully we can keep him stable until then," said Claire.
Eberts looked down at Darien and patted him on the shoulder. "Hang in there, Darien, hang in there."
**
Bobby could not believe what he was hearing. "So let me get this straight, ma'am. You saw eight armed men walk out of the building and you didn't think to call the police or do anything?" shouted Bobby. He stared down in anger at the petite blonde woman who was sitting on the sidewalk outside the Harding Building.
The woman shook her head. "No," she answered meekly.
Bobby was fuming. He pointed up at the building. "My partner...my best friend is in there fighting for his life because of those men and you didn't do anything? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" he asked incredulously.
Small tears started to pour down the woman's face. "No," she sobbed.
"Hobbes," said Alex sharply as she stepped up from behind him. She glanced down at the woman with a gentle expression on her face. "Did you happen to see where the men went?" she asked.
The woman pointed across the street. "They got in some cars," she sniffled.
Bobby stepped closer to her. "What kind of cars?"
"A red one and a white one," she said, her sobs starting to die down.
Alex knelt down next to the woman. "Do you happen to remember the make or the model? A license plate number maybe?"
The woman shook her head.
Bobby rolled his eyes. "Look lady, if you don't start cooperating, and I mean real quick, I'll have every federal…
"Bobby," Alex interrupted, glancing up at Bobby with a warning expression.
Bobby stopped for a moment and tried to regain some composure. He took a deep breath and looked back at the woman. "What about the explosion? You had to see that, right?"
"No," said the woman.
Bobby shook his head. "Yeah, there's glass all over the freakin street, but you didn't see anything. Neither did the twenty other people who were standing out here. Lucky none of you got your asses blown to bits," said Bobby, throwing his hands up in frustration.
Alex stood back up and pushed Bobby towards the doorway of the Agency. "Hobbes, you need to calm down, okay. These people are frightened. Hell, Thornton probably threatened them. The point is, you're not going to get anywhere with these witnesses if you're yelling at them and scaring them even more."
Bobby took a deep breath and nodded, blinking back tears. "Okay, Monroe. What about you? What does your brilliant plan entail? How are we going to get this guy?"
"We contact every lowlife we can find and get someone to talk. Somebody's got to know something. The street value of that disk is too high to keep a secret," said Alex. She realized that Bobby seemed to be off in his own world. "Hey, are you listening?"
Bobby's eyes blinked and he gazed up at her. "Hmmmm? Oh…yeah."
Alex put her hand on Bobby's shoulder. "Hobbes, he's gonna be all right. Fawkes is a tough son of a bitch."
"Yeah," said Bobby in an unconvinced tone.
"Look, let's just get out of here and go get the bad guys." Alex glanced up at the building. "There's nothing we can do for Darien right now anyway," she added softly, trying to ignore the torturous images that were flashing through her mind.
"You're wrong, Monroe. There's plenty of things I could do. Hell, plenty of things I could've done…should've done," whispered Bobby in a harsh tone.
"Hobbes, you've gotta get a grip. Let's end this right now. We'll get Thornton and we'll get the disk back. I'm sure if anything happens with Darien, Claire will let us know," she said as she nodded towards the Agency parking lot. "Now come on, I'm driving."
Bobby rubbed his forehead with his hand and started following Alex down the sidewalk. He glanced up at the Harding Building as he walked and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, partner," he murmured to himself.
**
Claire tried to regard her shivering patient on the counteragent chair with as much detachment as possible, but found the task to be easier said than done. Darien had regained consciousness an hour earlier and had been whimpering loudly in pain for every second of it. "Okay, Darien, I need you to relax," she said as she held up a syringe filled with counteragent.
"What's that?" asked Darien in a pain-filled voice, eyeing the syringe.
"It's counteragent. I think it'll help with the pain and help reduce the amount of EL6 in your system," said Claire as she glanced up at Eberts. "Albert, help me."
Eberts nodded and once again stepped beside the counteragent chair. He firmly grasped Darien's hand and noticed with slight concern that Darien's grip was much weaker than it had been even two hours earlier.
Claire took a deep breath and looked at Darien. "Here it goes," said Claire as she slowly guided the syringe towards his arm.
Darien weakly attempted to thrash around as the needle got closer. "Please don't hurt me," he whispered in a tiny voice.
The request was so raw and so honest that it brought tears to Claire's eyes. She set down the needle and gently took Darien's face into her hands, gazing deep into his fear-filled puppy dog eyes. "I'm not going to hurt you, Darien, I promise. You said before that you trusted me. Trust me now," she said softly.
A single tear fell from Darien's left eye, which Claire promptly wiped away with her finger. He swallowed a painful lump in his throat and then nodded slowly. "Okay," he whispered. "Do what you have to do," he said in the bravest voice he could muster.
Claire nodded slightly and picked up the needle again. She wiped the crook of his arm with alcohol and then inserted the needle into his vein as gently as possible. "I'm injecting you now, Darien." She pressed down on the plunger and held her breath.
For a few moments, nothing happened. Then, Darien's body suddenly arched up and he began to convulse violently. Eberts and Claire instantly reached for his shoulders so he wouldn't hurt himself. After a few more seconds, Darien let out a loud moan and then collapsed unconscious back against the chair. Eberts shuddered in concern. "Is he alright?"
Claire pressed her hand against Darien's neck and found his pulse to be weak, but steady. "Yeah, she whispered as she let out the breath she had been holding. She reached for a syringe and once again took Darien's blood. She put the new sample on a slide and walked over to the microscope. Eberts watched her intently and a moment later sighed in relief when Claire looked up and gave him a huge smile.
"It's working. The counteragent is slowly reducing the amounts of EL6 in his blood. In a few days, the drug should be completely out of his system," she said as she glanced over at Darien and smiled. "Barring any complications, I think he's going to be okay."
Eberts' face broke out into a huge smile. "Wonderful news, doctor."
"Yes indeed," they heard a voice say from behind them.
They both turned around and saw the Official standing in the damaged doorway. "How long before he's ready for duty?" asked the Official in a gruff tone.
Claire put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Is that all you care about?"
The Official clenched his jaw. "I repeat, how long before he's ready for duty?"
Claire rolled her eyes in anger. "A month, maybe two. His body will have to recover from the effects of the drug, not too mention the psychological ramifications. He's going to be bed ridden for at least the next couple of weeks."
"Fine," said the Official. He glanced over at Eberts. "Eberts, we have work to do."
"But sir, don't you think I should stay and help the doctor?" asked Eberts in a slightly confused tone.
"You're needed elsewhere right now. Besides, it looks like she has things under control," he said as he looked at Darien's unconscious form.
Claire stared in disbelief at the Official. "You don't even care, do you? Darien almost died today, sir," she said angrily.
"Doctor, right now I'm more concerned about getting back a certain disk that could risk millions of lives. Darien Fawkes is the least of my problems," said the Official. "Eberts, let's go."
Eberts nodded hesitantly and glanced at Claire. "If you need any help or need me to stay here tonight, let me know," he said softly.
Claire nodded in appreciation. "Thank you, Albert. It's nice to know that at least one other person cares about Darien's well being."
Eberts gave her a small smile and then followed the Official out the door.
Claire stared after them for a few seconds and then her gaze drifted to Darien. She took the chair from her desk and rolled it next to the counteragent chair. She then sat down and looked at his face, noting how young and vulnerable he looked. She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. "I'll get you through this, Darien. I promise." She then grasped his hand into her own and began to wait patiently for him to wake up.
TBC maybe by tomorrow, but no guarantees :)