Fourth part now up!! Thanks for the reviews, you guys are great! Hope you
enjoy. . .
All Disclaimers Apply
Chapter 4: Questions unanswered
The heart monitor beside Jesse's bed was now beeping steadily and healthily. A far cry from earlier. Thank god they'd saved him, Dr. Spence thought as he observed Jesse from an upright position in the doorway to his room. The relief was clear on his tired, haggard face. It had been a close call for the young doctor; he'd almost lost the battle. But they'd saved him, and now he was sleeping peacefully, albeit a drugged sleep, but he could get some rest at least.
A soft shuffling from behind reminded him of the presence of the group of five who had been the cause, in his opinion, of Dr. Travis's heart failure. He turned abruptly to find himself face to face with Cordelia. Her innocent face peering up at him, almost nervously. "Uh. . . Dr. Spence, Is it okay to see him?"
"I think not!" Dr. Spence exclaimed vehemently. The cheek of them! To want to see Jesse after all the trouble they had caused!
"Well, Why?" Cordelia did not appear to understand just how much distress she and her friends had been responsible for, and he simply could not allow them to do any more damage.
"I think he's had enough agitation for one night! Oh don't think I don't know that it was because of something you guys did that he went into cardiac arrest."
At Cordelia's, and everyone else's outraged glares, he continued, "I specifically told you not to trouble him, he's been through a lot. Now I suggest that you come back at another time" With that he ushered them towards the door. The five of them were too shocked at the man's outburst that they simply left dumbly, and before they knew it, they were outside wondering how the hell they had allowed that to happen.
Dr. Spence watched this odd assortment of people from the doors to the hospital, the tall, brooding man. The woman who seemed totally unlike any of her friends. The coloured man. The Englishman who attempted to be sophisticated, and the friendly Irishman. What did they all have to do with Jesse? Was he supposed to believe that they had simply stumbled upon him, with a stab wound in his chest? No, he thought, I have to phone Dr. Sloan. What I should have done in the first place.
* * * *
Mark slept soundly and peacefully. Words could not describe how happy he was to have Jack back in LA, even if it was for a holiday. He almost wished things could go back to the way they were, but Jesse was there now, and he looked upon him the same way as he did Jack. If only they could exist together, but he knew that there would always be rivalry between Jesse and Jack. It would just never work.
The persistent ring of the telephone dragged him out of the realms of sleep. Shooting up into a sitting position and rubbing his tired eyes, he reached for the phone. What time is it? He thought sleepily, staring at his alarm clock, he noticed that it was 4.30 in the morning. Who would call at this hour? Then he checked himself, if he had learned anything it would be that he could always expect to be called about something, either from the hospital or from the police.
"Mark Sloan speaking"
"Hey Dr. Sloan, I'm sorry to bother you at this hour." It was Dr. Spence. One of the ER doctors, sounding quite urgent.
"Oh don't worry about it!" Mark shrugged off the man's apology; he was far more interested in what the point of the phone call was to worry about what time it was.
"Look Mark I'll cut to the chase, it's about Jesse." Jesse? Mark's interest was sparked immediately. What was wrong with his friend?
"What about Jesse?" Steve heard his father say as he stood silently in the doorway. Years as a police Lieutenant had made his hearing very sharp, and a natural curiosity had brought him to investigate this mysterious phone call. The thick blanket of concern in his father's voice was clear to Steve as he listened.
"I'll be right there, is he stable? Okay. . . bye!"
"What is it Dad?" Steve said rushing into the room, alarm written all over his face.
"It's Jesse, he's been stabbed!"
* * * *
Back at their "office", the Angel Investigations crew were mulling over what to do about the doctor. They didn't know whether this was a random attack, or if it was about Jesse himself. The five of them were feeling a touch sheepish after nearly frightening the poor guy to death, they hadn't really thought that what they were telling him would have such a reaction.
"I think the best place to start is by looking for information on the demon" Wesley suggested in his crisp English accent. He looked at Doyle, "Did you recognise it?"
"What, just 'cos I'm part demon that means I know all about them?" Doyle ribbed, looking scandalised, but with a cheeky glint in his eyes. It was true, he knew about some demons, but not about this particular one.
"Well do you?" Wesley questioned, a little unsure whether Doyle was joking or not.
"No! I've never seen that thing in my entire life!"
"It looked familiar to me" Angel interjected quietly, "I've seen it somewhere, but I can't place it! Cordy can you look it up?"
"Sure, but it could take a while. I mean, how many demons are there who are big, green and gross?" she replied sarcastically. But then she saw the endearing look that Angel gave her, and then she laughed. "Okay, okay"
Wes, Gunn, Angel and Doyle sat in a small circle just a little away from where Cordelia was tapping away gently on her laptop. Occasionally she wiped a hand over her forehead and sighed deeply. The search was proving inconclusive, as she had suspected there were hundreds of demons which matched the description.
Angel stood up and went over to the fridge and pulled out a glass full of red liquid. Being a vampire with a soul, Angel never drank fresh human blood. He had to drink animal blood from the butchers, and to keep it fresh it had to go in the fridge, much to the disgust of the others. Each of them tried not to watch as he took a swig, but they failed and grimaced in distaste as a small dribble escaped his mouth and cascaded down his chin. As he brought an arm up to wipe his mouth, Cordelia suddenly yelped.
All four of them were at her side instantly. "Got it!" she said triumphantly, and pushed back a little in her seat to make way for the others to crowd in.
"Wow!" said Doyle nervously after he had looked at the screen, steeling a glance at Angel, the only other person he knew for sure would understand what this meant.
"That's an Assassin Demon!" Angel declared, earning him several confused glances.
"What's an Assassin Demon?" Gunn asked, a little afraid of what the answer might be.
"It's a demon which is summoned by a person with the sole purpose of killing another human, they're highly dangerous" Doyle broke in.
"Jesse was lucky that we got there when we did, there's no way he could have stopped it himself" Angel said.
"But what does this mean?" Cordelia urged, "Is he still in danger? Should we go to him?"
"No!" replied Angel, "We won't go to him, not now anyway, later. Besides I doubt they'd let us see him now anyway. Yes he could still be in danger, but the only way for us to help now is to try and stop the person who's doing this!"
"And how do we do that?" Wesley this time.
"Later on we'll speak to him, find out if he has any idea who did this. And if he doesn't, I'll just have to find some other way"
* * * *
Kealy Banks could barely hear the click of her own heels on the tiled floor of the airport, as all that could fill her head were thoughts of Jesse. It was only when she bumped into someone in the main terminal that she realised she was actually back in LA. She apologised and looked at her surroundings. Somehow she had guided herself off the plane, through customs, through baggage collection and through to the terminal building. She remembered none of it.
It took a few minutes before she could collect her thoughts together. Staring around her, all she could see were people, bags, and little television screens showing flight information. She felt stupid, how many times had she been in this airport? And yet she could not locate the exit. Sighing inwardly, she searched around until finally, a bright neon sign screaming EXIT materialised before her eyes. She felt so ridiculous she almost smiled. It was amazing how a guy, even from far away, could have such an effect on her brain. Hoisting her bag up, she began her confident tread towards the exit.
She wasn't surprised to see Agent Vaughn fall into stride with her. "Agent Renfield's not too happy with you at the moment"
"Stuff Renfield! I don't care what he thinks! This is too important to me, surely you understand that?"
"I do, but this isn't about me! It's about you, and I don't want to see you get into trouble, neither does Renfield"
"Look, I can handle myself. You should know that by now, and if Jesse's in danger then I want to be there for him"
"Kealy there's something you should know. . ." Vaughn stopped midstride and caught Kealy's arm. He looked serious, his soft features throwing a feeling of unease into Kealy's stomach.
"What? What is it? Is he hurt? He's hurt isn't he?" She panicked.
Vaughn paused for a minute, not quite knowing how to break the news to her.
"He was stabbed"
"Oh my god!" Kealy gasped, bringing a hand up to her face, "I knew this would happen, it's all my fault! Is he. . .?" She couldn't bear to finish.
"No, he's not dead" he answered, guessing her question, but seeing her shoulders sink slowly with relief he added, "But there are some complications, don't worry they're not to do with his condition, more with his situation."
"What do you mean?" Kealy was a mixture of turmoil and relief, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear anymore.
"You need to come back to HQ, Renfield's not happy about you disobeying him, but he's agreed to let you help. For now."
Vaughn's tone was difficult to read, but it was something in the way he spoke which made her exhaustion from the transatlantic flight melt away in an instant.
* * * *
Jesse awoke early that morning to find Mark, Steve, Amanda and, to his disgust, Jack. He could see the concern in their eyes as he smiled softly in greeting. He shook his head slightly to remove the cobwebs, and noticed that everyone was watching him closely, no one saying anything. Jesse found himself drawn to Jack's face, which showed a certain amount of interest and a sort of detached concern. He realised that his expression as he looked at Jack was less than pleasant, so he looked away.
The look did not go unnoticed between Mark, Steve and Amanda, but fortunately Jack seemed unaware of the tension.
"How are you feeling?" Mark said in his fatherly tone.
"Sore" Jesse replied raspily, "You never quite get used to that feeling of flatlining and then resurfacing again." He'd meant it as a joke, but no one was laughing. He could feel Jack's burning gaze upon him, and he was surprised at how uncomfortable this made him feel.
"Jesse what happened?" Steve could contain himself no longer, the policeman inside of him breaking out in full flood. "Who did this?"
Everyone's eyes upon him made him nervous. What should he tell them? Would they believe him if he told the truth? It was unlikely, he wasn't even sure he believed it himself. He decided to go for the safe option.
"I-I don't remember a whole lot about it, uh, I musta blacked out or something." He said in the most convincing way he could muster.
"What about those people Dr. Spence said were with you?"
"I, uh, don't know. I came to, and there they were."
"Yeah but they must have said something to you?"
"Uh, no they didn't. I'm sure I would remember" Lying felt so childish, he hated it, but he just couldn't tell them the truth. He could see the scenario now, Mark would look at him with pity in his eyes, pity that he felt the need to make up some story. Steve would blow his top, shout at Jesse for being so stupid, Amanda would give him a stern look. And Jack? Jack would probably stare at him as though he was the most ludicrous person in the world.
"Well, okay" Mark sighed, "We'll leave you to rest a while"
"But Dad-," Steve protested. He wanted to probe Jesse further, but so did Mark, only he knew that bombarding Jesse with questions was just not going to work.
"We'll leave him to rest, he's been through a lot" Mark said quietly, but firmly. As he glanced at Jesse he could see the younger man visibly relaxing. This put a slight frown on his face. He also knew that Jesse did not like Jack's presence, could this be another reason for him not to talk? He could see clearly that Jesse was jealous of Jack's relationship with them all, he just hoped that this wouldn't cloud Jesse's judgement.
Once outside Jesse's hospital room, Mark was the first one to speak.
"He's lying"
"I could tell" Steve agreed, "But who is he protecting? Those people who found him?"
"I don't know son, he could be in danger, that may be why he's keeping quiet."
"Hey. . ." Jack interrupted slightly, "You guys are all good friends with him aren't you?"
"Yeah, Why?" Steve answered.
"It's just - if it had been me in there, I would have told you everything, I'm just wondering why he didn't."
"If Jesse thinks that he can handle something himself then he doesn't always tell us things. I just wish he'd let us in, it's just that he likes to be independent, not show his feelings."
"Just like a certain person we all know" Amanda teased, earning a disgruntled look from Steve.
Mark brought everything back to seriousness, "Jesse's keeping something from us, and I intend to find out what it is"
To Be Continued. . .
All reviews welcome!
All Disclaimers Apply
Chapter 4: Questions unanswered
The heart monitor beside Jesse's bed was now beeping steadily and healthily. A far cry from earlier. Thank god they'd saved him, Dr. Spence thought as he observed Jesse from an upright position in the doorway to his room. The relief was clear on his tired, haggard face. It had been a close call for the young doctor; he'd almost lost the battle. But they'd saved him, and now he was sleeping peacefully, albeit a drugged sleep, but he could get some rest at least.
A soft shuffling from behind reminded him of the presence of the group of five who had been the cause, in his opinion, of Dr. Travis's heart failure. He turned abruptly to find himself face to face with Cordelia. Her innocent face peering up at him, almost nervously. "Uh. . . Dr. Spence, Is it okay to see him?"
"I think not!" Dr. Spence exclaimed vehemently. The cheek of them! To want to see Jesse after all the trouble they had caused!
"Well, Why?" Cordelia did not appear to understand just how much distress she and her friends had been responsible for, and he simply could not allow them to do any more damage.
"I think he's had enough agitation for one night! Oh don't think I don't know that it was because of something you guys did that he went into cardiac arrest."
At Cordelia's, and everyone else's outraged glares, he continued, "I specifically told you not to trouble him, he's been through a lot. Now I suggest that you come back at another time" With that he ushered them towards the door. The five of them were too shocked at the man's outburst that they simply left dumbly, and before they knew it, they were outside wondering how the hell they had allowed that to happen.
Dr. Spence watched this odd assortment of people from the doors to the hospital, the tall, brooding man. The woman who seemed totally unlike any of her friends. The coloured man. The Englishman who attempted to be sophisticated, and the friendly Irishman. What did they all have to do with Jesse? Was he supposed to believe that they had simply stumbled upon him, with a stab wound in his chest? No, he thought, I have to phone Dr. Sloan. What I should have done in the first place.
* * * *
Mark slept soundly and peacefully. Words could not describe how happy he was to have Jack back in LA, even if it was for a holiday. He almost wished things could go back to the way they were, but Jesse was there now, and he looked upon him the same way as he did Jack. If only they could exist together, but he knew that there would always be rivalry between Jesse and Jack. It would just never work.
The persistent ring of the telephone dragged him out of the realms of sleep. Shooting up into a sitting position and rubbing his tired eyes, he reached for the phone. What time is it? He thought sleepily, staring at his alarm clock, he noticed that it was 4.30 in the morning. Who would call at this hour? Then he checked himself, if he had learned anything it would be that he could always expect to be called about something, either from the hospital or from the police.
"Mark Sloan speaking"
"Hey Dr. Sloan, I'm sorry to bother you at this hour." It was Dr. Spence. One of the ER doctors, sounding quite urgent.
"Oh don't worry about it!" Mark shrugged off the man's apology; he was far more interested in what the point of the phone call was to worry about what time it was.
"Look Mark I'll cut to the chase, it's about Jesse." Jesse? Mark's interest was sparked immediately. What was wrong with his friend?
"What about Jesse?" Steve heard his father say as he stood silently in the doorway. Years as a police Lieutenant had made his hearing very sharp, and a natural curiosity had brought him to investigate this mysterious phone call. The thick blanket of concern in his father's voice was clear to Steve as he listened.
"I'll be right there, is he stable? Okay. . . bye!"
"What is it Dad?" Steve said rushing into the room, alarm written all over his face.
"It's Jesse, he's been stabbed!"
* * * *
Back at their "office", the Angel Investigations crew were mulling over what to do about the doctor. They didn't know whether this was a random attack, or if it was about Jesse himself. The five of them were feeling a touch sheepish after nearly frightening the poor guy to death, they hadn't really thought that what they were telling him would have such a reaction.
"I think the best place to start is by looking for information on the demon" Wesley suggested in his crisp English accent. He looked at Doyle, "Did you recognise it?"
"What, just 'cos I'm part demon that means I know all about them?" Doyle ribbed, looking scandalised, but with a cheeky glint in his eyes. It was true, he knew about some demons, but not about this particular one.
"Well do you?" Wesley questioned, a little unsure whether Doyle was joking or not.
"No! I've never seen that thing in my entire life!"
"It looked familiar to me" Angel interjected quietly, "I've seen it somewhere, but I can't place it! Cordy can you look it up?"
"Sure, but it could take a while. I mean, how many demons are there who are big, green and gross?" she replied sarcastically. But then she saw the endearing look that Angel gave her, and then she laughed. "Okay, okay"
Wes, Gunn, Angel and Doyle sat in a small circle just a little away from where Cordelia was tapping away gently on her laptop. Occasionally she wiped a hand over her forehead and sighed deeply. The search was proving inconclusive, as she had suspected there were hundreds of demons which matched the description.
Angel stood up and went over to the fridge and pulled out a glass full of red liquid. Being a vampire with a soul, Angel never drank fresh human blood. He had to drink animal blood from the butchers, and to keep it fresh it had to go in the fridge, much to the disgust of the others. Each of them tried not to watch as he took a swig, but they failed and grimaced in distaste as a small dribble escaped his mouth and cascaded down his chin. As he brought an arm up to wipe his mouth, Cordelia suddenly yelped.
All four of them were at her side instantly. "Got it!" she said triumphantly, and pushed back a little in her seat to make way for the others to crowd in.
"Wow!" said Doyle nervously after he had looked at the screen, steeling a glance at Angel, the only other person he knew for sure would understand what this meant.
"That's an Assassin Demon!" Angel declared, earning him several confused glances.
"What's an Assassin Demon?" Gunn asked, a little afraid of what the answer might be.
"It's a demon which is summoned by a person with the sole purpose of killing another human, they're highly dangerous" Doyle broke in.
"Jesse was lucky that we got there when we did, there's no way he could have stopped it himself" Angel said.
"But what does this mean?" Cordelia urged, "Is he still in danger? Should we go to him?"
"No!" replied Angel, "We won't go to him, not now anyway, later. Besides I doubt they'd let us see him now anyway. Yes he could still be in danger, but the only way for us to help now is to try and stop the person who's doing this!"
"And how do we do that?" Wesley this time.
"Later on we'll speak to him, find out if he has any idea who did this. And if he doesn't, I'll just have to find some other way"
* * * *
Kealy Banks could barely hear the click of her own heels on the tiled floor of the airport, as all that could fill her head were thoughts of Jesse. It was only when she bumped into someone in the main terminal that she realised she was actually back in LA. She apologised and looked at her surroundings. Somehow she had guided herself off the plane, through customs, through baggage collection and through to the terminal building. She remembered none of it.
It took a few minutes before she could collect her thoughts together. Staring around her, all she could see were people, bags, and little television screens showing flight information. She felt stupid, how many times had she been in this airport? And yet she could not locate the exit. Sighing inwardly, she searched around until finally, a bright neon sign screaming EXIT materialised before her eyes. She felt so ridiculous she almost smiled. It was amazing how a guy, even from far away, could have such an effect on her brain. Hoisting her bag up, she began her confident tread towards the exit.
She wasn't surprised to see Agent Vaughn fall into stride with her. "Agent Renfield's not too happy with you at the moment"
"Stuff Renfield! I don't care what he thinks! This is too important to me, surely you understand that?"
"I do, but this isn't about me! It's about you, and I don't want to see you get into trouble, neither does Renfield"
"Look, I can handle myself. You should know that by now, and if Jesse's in danger then I want to be there for him"
"Kealy there's something you should know. . ." Vaughn stopped midstride and caught Kealy's arm. He looked serious, his soft features throwing a feeling of unease into Kealy's stomach.
"What? What is it? Is he hurt? He's hurt isn't he?" She panicked.
Vaughn paused for a minute, not quite knowing how to break the news to her.
"He was stabbed"
"Oh my god!" Kealy gasped, bringing a hand up to her face, "I knew this would happen, it's all my fault! Is he. . .?" She couldn't bear to finish.
"No, he's not dead" he answered, guessing her question, but seeing her shoulders sink slowly with relief he added, "But there are some complications, don't worry they're not to do with his condition, more with his situation."
"What do you mean?" Kealy was a mixture of turmoil and relief, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear anymore.
"You need to come back to HQ, Renfield's not happy about you disobeying him, but he's agreed to let you help. For now."
Vaughn's tone was difficult to read, but it was something in the way he spoke which made her exhaustion from the transatlantic flight melt away in an instant.
* * * *
Jesse awoke early that morning to find Mark, Steve, Amanda and, to his disgust, Jack. He could see the concern in their eyes as he smiled softly in greeting. He shook his head slightly to remove the cobwebs, and noticed that everyone was watching him closely, no one saying anything. Jesse found himself drawn to Jack's face, which showed a certain amount of interest and a sort of detached concern. He realised that his expression as he looked at Jack was less than pleasant, so he looked away.
The look did not go unnoticed between Mark, Steve and Amanda, but fortunately Jack seemed unaware of the tension.
"How are you feeling?" Mark said in his fatherly tone.
"Sore" Jesse replied raspily, "You never quite get used to that feeling of flatlining and then resurfacing again." He'd meant it as a joke, but no one was laughing. He could feel Jack's burning gaze upon him, and he was surprised at how uncomfortable this made him feel.
"Jesse what happened?" Steve could contain himself no longer, the policeman inside of him breaking out in full flood. "Who did this?"
Everyone's eyes upon him made him nervous. What should he tell them? Would they believe him if he told the truth? It was unlikely, he wasn't even sure he believed it himself. He decided to go for the safe option.
"I-I don't remember a whole lot about it, uh, I musta blacked out or something." He said in the most convincing way he could muster.
"What about those people Dr. Spence said were with you?"
"I, uh, don't know. I came to, and there they were."
"Yeah but they must have said something to you?"
"Uh, no they didn't. I'm sure I would remember" Lying felt so childish, he hated it, but he just couldn't tell them the truth. He could see the scenario now, Mark would look at him with pity in his eyes, pity that he felt the need to make up some story. Steve would blow his top, shout at Jesse for being so stupid, Amanda would give him a stern look. And Jack? Jack would probably stare at him as though he was the most ludicrous person in the world.
"Well, okay" Mark sighed, "We'll leave you to rest a while"
"But Dad-," Steve protested. He wanted to probe Jesse further, but so did Mark, only he knew that bombarding Jesse with questions was just not going to work.
"We'll leave him to rest, he's been through a lot" Mark said quietly, but firmly. As he glanced at Jesse he could see the younger man visibly relaxing. This put a slight frown on his face. He also knew that Jesse did not like Jack's presence, could this be another reason for him not to talk? He could see clearly that Jesse was jealous of Jack's relationship with them all, he just hoped that this wouldn't cloud Jesse's judgement.
Once outside Jesse's hospital room, Mark was the first one to speak.
"He's lying"
"I could tell" Steve agreed, "But who is he protecting? Those people who found him?"
"I don't know son, he could be in danger, that may be why he's keeping quiet."
"Hey. . ." Jack interrupted slightly, "You guys are all good friends with him aren't you?"
"Yeah, Why?" Steve answered.
"It's just - if it had been me in there, I would have told you everything, I'm just wondering why he didn't."
"If Jesse thinks that he can handle something himself then he doesn't always tell us things. I just wish he'd let us in, it's just that he likes to be independent, not show his feelings."
"Just like a certain person we all know" Amanda teased, earning a disgruntled look from Steve.
Mark brought everything back to seriousness, "Jesse's keeping something from us, and I intend to find out what it is"
To Be Continued. . .
All reviews welcome!
