Title: anything and everything
Author: sue
Rating: PG
Show: DA
Genre: Angst/Romance/Adventure
Type: WiP
Summary: under the chaos of a failed mission, somehow Logan had managed to do the impossible- infect Max with the virus. Now, it's up to Alec to stop her from taking an unplanned journey across the tunnel that ends with the bright lights. And he won't stop at nothing to make sure of that..
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yeah, here's the much awaited next chapter! *grin* sorry, this one took so long.. and this chapter was beta-ed by heather. Thanks, heather!
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Chapter 11-Running Out of Time.
The big lab seemed to swirl and move as Alec was rooted to the ground. His glazed emerald eyes seemed to stand out dazedly in his pale, stricken face. He clenched his stiff jaw tightly as Fowler's words reverberated loudly in his head. Started mutating... turned to a new strain... no immunity... no way to cure her... not before the virus shuts her entire system down... SHUT HER SYSTEM DOWN... then Max would be... dead.. No.. No.. NO!!
That single word bounced back and forth in his grievously tortured mind as he flailed wildly to keep from being drowned by his own feelings. He looked down and in his crazed state, he could almost see the broken pieces of his shattered world laying haphazardly all around his feet. His wounded heart, clumsily patched together by his inexperience hand, burst painfully opened and started bleeding again. He almost gasped as the overwhelming grief crashed down on his abused body. Heart racing frantically, he tore his desperate gaze away and stumbled onto Fowler. Alec forcefully thrust his emotions aside as he saw the doctor had stopped talking, and he was staring at him with a puzzled expression on his face.
'What?' Alec asked cagily.
'Did you hear what I just told you?' Fowler asked, frowning as he realized he had been talking to himself for the last few minutes.
With herculean effort, Alec pushed his innermost turmoil aside and tried to concentrate on the grim doctor, 'Frankly.. no. So what did I miss?'
Fowler looked up and scowled as the realization that this man hadn't been hanging onto his words as he was supposed to be doing sunk in. 'I was saying that it would take a near miracle to save this woman.'
'I heard that the first time, Einstein!' the devastated Alec snapped, not needing to be reminded of Max's dismal future. The future he couldn't do anything to change.
Looking positively taken aback, Fowler's lips thinned, the eyes behind the glasses narrowed as something unexpected crosses his mind. 'You loved her...' he said, a bit amazed, 'You love this woman.'
Alec went deathly still as the doctor's words bounded crazily across the room. There's absolutely nothing to indicate he even heard the sudden observation as he stood rigidly in the middle of the huge lab. Nothing except a little twitch in his jaw muscle. The glazed look left, the pain filled eyes rapidly as slowly he turned their freezing gaze onto the unprepared man.
'Does that have anything to do with the cure?' Alec's tone was smooth but lethally cold, soft satiny silk over icy hard steel.
The doctor flinched, battered by the force behind that frosty pair of glinting green eyes. Wisely, he took the option of not venturing over that dangerous territory, 'No, I guess not. And...I'm not sure if you wanted to hear this but...' the doubtful voice trailed, hesitant to continue.
'Spill it,' Alec ordered impatiently as fear had started to rear its ugly head.
'Fine.. Although I'm not sure what good will that be, this is a pretty hopeless case. Which ever way I decided to turn, there's only dead end staring back at me. Even when I thought I had some lead, smack! I run
against some wall.. It's very disconcerting, all right. I...'
'Straight to the point, Dr Fowler. I don't have time to chat,' interrupted Alec brusquely as pointedly he glanced at his watch. His heart skipped a bit as blinking numbers greeted him. 12:31:15. He was running out of time.
'You young people are always in a hurry. Didn't even stop to appreciate what was right in front of your eyes. Why...'
'Someone is going to end up dead soon if you don't start explaining what you know, and it sure isn't going to be her,' Alec cut Fowler's next word in mid sentence with that glint in his eyes that promised murder.
Fowler took one look at that and almost blurted out everything, in such haste to accommodate the blunt order. 'I found a temporary vaccine.'
'What?! Why didn't you tell me sooner,' Alec shouted angrily, 'How long does it work?' With that temp cure, maybe I could work something out, find someone else to crack this goddamn mystery. Time... it'll give me extra time... he thought desperately.
'Not long, I'm afraid. 4... 5 hours maximum. Maybe less, I can't say anything for certain until I take a look at her recent condition and see for myself how far the virus had mutated,' he said, frowning apprehensively. 'This vaccine successfully surrounded every virus and temporarily immobilizes them from reproducing. But only for a short amount of time, then the virus starts breaking the barrier apart after the 5th hour.. or less, and once again it was active. As you can see, after the vaccine wears out, we're back to square one. This vaccine only bought us a little bit of time. There's nothing else we could do about this situation. Which is why I think it's completely hopeless.'
'When you said immobilize, what exactly do you mean?' asked Alec, as something flashed brightly in his head, a radical new idea, 'What is its exact state at that time?'
'It's state? A little similar to hibernation, I'd say. Why do you ask?' the bewildered scientist, a little lost to what Alec was suggesting. He winced painfully as a firm hand clamped tightly onto his own.
'I have an idea,' Alec said simply, but his eyes were shining as his shattered hope was slowly and agonizingly resurrected.
*
The silent clatter of flat white shoes echoed over the quiet hallway. A small nurse walked slowly, her long brown hair half hidden under the nurse's cap while the light blue eyes were busy reading a patient record. Finished with that, she tucked the file under her arm and headed quickly towards the nurses station.
'Jane,' the short haired blond nurse greeted, 'your shift's over in a couple of minutes, right?'
'Uh huh,' the preoccupied Jane replied, her blue eyes looking over the patient's chart.
'Lucky you. I just got in,' she sighed, 'And today looks pretty busy.'
Jane laughed at her colleague's wishful expression, 'Aww... come on Mindy. Who complained that this ward was too dull? Not too much action like the ER?'
'Yeah, you're right... but I'm a little used to this 'snail pace' ward now,' she grinned sheepishly.
Jane shook her head and resumed shuffling the charts, and then she came across one particular report. 'Mindy, make sure you keep your eyes on room 4-11, ok?'
'4-11? Is that one of the shooting victims?' Mindy's brow crinkled under the stray blond strands.
'No, this one just got in around midnight. Female, twenty... name's Guevara. Has some sort of virus infection. Her vitals are not good and Carr said it'll worsen in the next few hours. Check on her every fifteen minutes, ok?'
'Sure,' Mindy nodded.
Behind the two busy nurses, a small television flickered, showing the usual morning shows. The sound was minimal and the nurses didn't even spare a glance in its direction. But the two bent head snapped upward at once as a loud beeping broke the waiting silence. Before they could even move a muscle, someone shouted, the voice was filled with panic and fear.
'I NEED A DOCTOR! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!'
Jane grabbed the phone and was already punching the numbers as she turned to Mindy, 'Go! I'll page Carr!'
Mindy nodded her head, her face pale, eyes wide open as she sprinted towards the dying patient.
*
Original Cindy was sitting quietly in her chair, looking at her unconscious friend. She sighed slowly, wearily as last night's excitement had started to catch up with her. Suddenly, she felt tired. Very, very, tired. After glancing at the unmoving Max, she rested her heavy head against the chair and slowly she could feel her weary eyelids started to close. But within seconds, they sprang open as a shrill noise sounded throughout the room. Heart beating wildly, her frantic eyes swept the room and she found the source of the sudden disturbance.
One of the machines was blinking wildly and its small screen was showing a moving straight green line.
OC stared with horror, as that was for her heart! ran through her muddled brain.
She rushed to the door and screamed desperately, 'I NEED A DOCTOR! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!'
Then she saw a blond nurse running quickly towards her while the brunette was speaking hurriedly on the phone. Together the nurse and OC moved rapidly to the bedside as the machine continued to shriek loudly.
Mindy took one look at the unchanged horizontal green line and quickly she started compressions. Her hands moved systematically, forcing the heart to start beating again but the stubborn heart refused to listen.
She bit her lips worriedly as this young woman's heart remained dormant. Her hands pushed firmly as she whispered, 'Come on... move... move!'
But the situation remained unchanged.
'What happened?' a gruff looking Carr asked worriedly, bursting through the opened door.
'She's in cardiac arrest, Dr Carr,' Mindy replied instantly, but she continued with the heart compressions. Jane, who was tailing behind quickly moved forward, preparing what was needed.
'Charge to one eighty,' ordered the doctor briskly.
'Charging.'
'Clear!' the two nurses moved their hands out of the way as Carr shocked Max's heart to start it beating again. He turned to the monitor and hid a groan as the line remained flat.
'Two hundred.'
'Charging.'
'Clear!'
Max's small body nearly lifted itself from the bed as the force of the electricity rushed through her heart.
Blip...
Blip...
Blip... Blip...
'We have a pulse,' Jane announced as she sighed loudly.
'Thank God!' Carr said, running his hand over his weary eyes. He turned and for the first time he belatedly realized that OC was there. He saw the big dark eyes, brimming with fear and absently he patted her shoulder.
'Don't worry, your friend is fine now. Why don't you go and get a little rest?'
'I... I'll stay... if you don't mind,' she whispered, taken aback by what had just happened.
'Very well. I'll keep you company,' he nodded to the two nurses, and quietly they slipped outside, one heading towards home; the other to the waiting patients.
Inside room 4-11, Carr slipped an exhausted hand over Cindy's tired shoulder and together they watched over Max, who was slipping towards Death... now quicker than ever.
Outside in the deserted hallway, the TV flickered twice before a burst of static appeared. A second later, a pair of eyes followed suit, and those eyes were gleaming oddly. Much too odd for Eyes Only, the only free voice left in the city.
to be continued..
A/N ok, guys.. this chap may be a little short, but as some of you already know, this is the chapter I had the most problems with. Yup, the list is endless. So, don't get mad *grin* and I'll post the next one soon :)
Hugs, sue