"I wonder were Coop is, I haven't seen him since this morning."
The 58th squadron was hanging out in the rec. room. "He's probably off jogging again, that guy can't sit still for more than three minutes! He's almost as bad as my six year old nephew," Wang commented as he triumphantly laid down another winning hand in poker, causing Damphousse, Vansen, and West to groan.
"Man, how'd you get so lucky?" said a disgruntled West.
"Coop can't help himself, besides at least he doesn't have to be practically thrown out of bed in the morning," Damphousse laughed while looking pointedly at Wang.
"Hey, I'm not that bad, at least I don't snore," which only added to the laughter as Wang made a face at West.
"Oh, don't even go there Wang. At least I don't . . . "
"Alright you guys, knock it off," Shane rolled her eyes at the rest of the squad, cutting off Nathan's retort.
Later that night a tired and frustrated Cooper entered the Wildcard's barracks. Not much else had been able to be discovered about the boy, and everyone was confused. The doc had slipped the kid some sedatives to make him sleep, because it didn't appear that he would be sleeping any time soon. Running a hand through his short hair Cooper sat down on his bunk.
"Hey Coop, where ya been?" Vanessa asked as the 58th returned to the barracks.
After considering whether this might not be something he should talk about Cooper broke down and told the rest of the Wildcards what had happened.
"This can't be good," Wang said ominously.
"How is the kid?" Shane asked.
"He's okay, I think. The doc said that he must've been in that closet for a couple days by the way he looked. I think he's been crawling through the vents, how else could he get that big cut on his leg?"
Coop was answered by some thoughtful affirmatives.
"Look, we can't spend all night gossiping about this. Soon enough they'll find out where the kid came from, how he got here, and everything else. So for now I suggest that we get some shut-eye while we can. You never know what will happen tomorrow."
After Shane's dismissing comments, everyone soon bedded down for the night, except for Cooper. All Cooper could think about was the little boy in the infirmary.
I can't believe that kid's an Invitro. Where could he have possibly come from? They're supposed to have stopped making tanks like me. I bet he's scared to death; I was when I was 'born'. I wish I could help him
It was with that thought that Cooper finally threw of his blanket, pulled on his pants and boots, and headed down to the infirmary.
The boy woke to the sounds of the nearly empty infirmary. How long thought the boy. He tried to sit up, and found he was restrained to the bed. Must escape, skillfully manipulating his wrists the boy had freed one arm by the time Cooper walked in the room. Eyeing Cooper warily, the boy continued to free his other arm and feet. Hawkes made no move to stop him, but it was plain from his expression, that he wouldn't let the boy go, not without a fight anyway. After a few minutes of trying to come up with a way to get past Cooper, the boy finally gave up and fell back on the bed.
"Don't feel bad, you wouldn't have got far anyway," Cooper said apologetically.
Coop fell into the chair next to the bed and heaved a sign. This is gonna be a long night he thought.
"I think we gotta have a talk kid. I know you're scared and runnin' on instinct here, but ya gotta trust me on this, no matter what happens, you're safe here."
The boy considered Cooper for a minute, and then making up his mind, flopped back down on the infirmary bed.
"Well, it's a start, I guess." Again the boy said nothing, and simply watched Coop suspiciously. Soon though, his small size, damaged body, and residual effects of the sedative the doctor gave him early combined, and the boy curled up in a ball and drifted asleep. And after watching the boy sleep for a while, Cooper rested his head on his hand, his elbow on the bed, and promptly started to softly snore.
End Part 2