Disclaimer and everything that keeps me from getting into trouble in chapter one. Hope anyone reading this is liking it so far.

Sea of Glass 4/?

Darien heard the Keep door open and someone walk in. "Claire, Chief's looking for you." Hobbes said.

Claire looked down at Darien and smiled. "I'll be back in a little bit, okay?"

Darien gave her a fake smile. "Can't wait." he said as he turned his head to watch her walk away.

Hobbes pulled up a chair beside Darien, sitting in silence. After a few moments he finally spoke. "Fawkes... this is all my fault. I should have never..."

"Hobbes," Darien said, cutting his best friend off. "It was my' fault and you know it."

"Darien..." Hobbes started, using his partner's first name, which he had only done on very few occasions. "I shouldn't have let you go in there. My gut told me something was wrong, but I let you do it anyway. If I had stood my ground none of this would have happened."

"You of all people should know how stubborn I am. I would have gone in there no matter what. I was just lucky that you were there." Hobbes gave Darien a questioning look. "Yes, Claire told me what you did. You never even thought about telling me you were shot trying to get me out."

Hobbes looked a little embarrassed. "It was just a scratch."

"Ten stitches is just a scratch?" Darien asked with a smile.

"Yeah." Hobbes felt guilty talking about a soon to be scar when his friend could never walk again.The wound for him would heal, but Darien would be paralyzed forever. Hobbes would always have a reminder of what had happened that day, but his reminder was nothing like his partners. There would be days in Hobbes' life where he'd forget he even had the scar, but Darien would never forget he couldn't walk.

"Now, c'mon buddy, don't you think you're being a little too modest?"

Hobbes stood up from his chair. "I need to get some air, I'll be back in a little while."

Before Darien could say anything in protest Hobbes was already gone.

~*~

Hobbes walked into the parking lot of the Harding Building. The air felt good in his lungs. It had been six days since the incident. Six very long days. He had spent all the time he could in the Keep, waiting for his partner to wake up. Between missions with Alex, briefings and debriefings... He had been at his partner's side. But now that Darien was awake Hobbes realized how helpless the situation really was, and how helpless he really felt.

Darien was paralyzed. Hobbes would get a new partner soon... And the Official would have the gland removed. Hobbes paused. The Official would have the gland removed. Is that why he wanted to see Claire? What would happen to Darien?' Hobbes asked himself silently. "Crap, this isn't good." He mumbled as he took off towards the Official's office.

~*~

"Claire, I called you here because we need to discus our options."

Claire had known that this moment would come, but she still dreaded it. She hadn't known when, but she did now, and she still had no idea what she was going to say. "Sir, I understand that the gland is important to you... But..."

"Wait, Doctor." The Official said, holding up his hand.

"But sir,"

"Claire. Let me speak." He waited until Claire sat back quietly, albeit looking like she was ready to yell and scream. "Now, the options I have tried to come up with don't seem reasonable. In the end, I decided there was only one thing we could do."

At that Claire jumped up, tears forming in her eyes. "Sir, Darien is a person too! He has a right to make a choice in this matter!"

"Claire!" The Official barked, standing up.

"Sir, I don't care how much you want the gland in someone where it will work and make money for your little pathetic ploy! It should be his choice to take it out or not!"

"And I agree wholeheartedly."

"How can you live with yourself knowing that you'd be taking his life..." Claire paused, looking at the Official with a questioning gaze. "What did you just say?"

"I said I agree." He motioned toward her chair. "Have a seat."

Claire sat back down and waited for him to speak.

"Now, as I was saying. After giving it a lot of thought I came to the conclusion that there is only one thing we can do..."

The Official's door opened and hit the wall, shattering the glass. "Now listen you fat bastard, there is no way you are pulling the gland out of Fawkes' head!"

Claire turned in her seat to see whom the perpetrator of the outburst had been. She saw Hobbes and immediately tried to calm him down. "Bobby, it's okay, the Official and I were just talking and..."

"It's okay? It's okay? What kind of asinine statement is that, Claire!?! Have you even thought about the fact that he's gonna kill our friend? I mean, he'd go as far as to let Fawkes go insane so he could have his control, why not kill Fawkes too!"

The Official spoke up, disregarding the comments him employee had just made.

"Hobbes, calm down."

"No, you calm down! You can't just kill him because now that he's paralyzed he's an inconvenience to you!"

"Hobbes!" The Official yelled. "I'm not killing Darien! I'm not even forcing Claire to take the gland out!" The Official had started this conversation in a decent mood, but he could only take so much. " I'm giving Darien a choice, and if he decides he wants her to take it out that is up to him. But I'm leaving my hands out of it."

At first Hobbes looked a little shocked, but his face quickly changed back to his previous expression. "Yeah, and why would you do that? What's in it for you? It's obviously not Darien, you tried to hide that Claire had the suicide gene."

"Driving someone insane and taking their life are two different things. And besides, I had faith that the good Doctor here would have perfected the counteragent in time."

"That is all this is ever about to you. Control. I want to know what you are getting out of letting Darien make the choice and not you demanding it? What's your angle?"

"There is none, Hobbes. Believe it or not, I actually care about my agents. They're like family to me."

"Yeah well, you have some very dysfunctional ways of treating your family' as you so vividly put it."

"Now," The Official stated, "Claire, you know what to do. This meeting is over." He dismissed the two with a wave of his hand and started to read from a folder on his desk.

Hobbes and Claire headed for the door and bumped into Eberts, who looked at the broken glass on the floor, then at the two, and then the Official. "W-what happened here?" He dared to ask.

"That's not important." The Official snarled, "Just take it out of Hobbes' check."

Eberts gave Hobbes an apologetic look then said, "Yes, sir."

TBC