Yeah yeah…the usual disclaimer are still due. Oh forgot to say that Jean belongs to me though I killed him off earlier…*rolls eyes*
Hah! Did u guys missed me? I had an uneventful holiday…spent the whole time eating n shopping…now I'm broke (so wat else is new). I couldn't find MX dvds everywhere I went…wat a bummer huh? Anyway…for the long wait, here's something to tide u guys over with. Till next time, enjoy! *winks*
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Chapter 6 - Revelations Part 2
Seeing his young ward making his way to his room, Adam couldn't help but frowned in worry. Jesse had been recuperating for the past fortnight and although his improving by leaps and bounds in comparison to the past week where he had been in a coma for the first week; he still looked pale - like someone who hasn't seen the sun for the past year. He knew that Jesse's rapid recovery was nothing short of a miracle - someone else would have died assuming that the bullet wasn't discovered, and he was thankful for that. Yet in Jesse's case, he had a delayed reaction; almost twenty-fours since the administration of the bullet for the impact to be seen and his recuperation, although no less good, was uncanny, if not downright weird by logical terms. He couldn't help but think of it as the calm before the storm. He shook his head, disgusted with himself for having laboured such thoughts. Nevertheless, he did manage to get a fresh blood sample from Jesse before sending him to his room, Jesse grumbling over it; it had been his umpteenth sample, he smiled; amused by Jesse reactions.
Bending over the latest blood test from Jesse; Adam frowned. According to the results, Jesse's blood count is low, his pulse rate is slightly high, his blood pressure is low and so forth. This is weird, he thought. It can't be, his results are way too radical; there must be something wrong with the scanner. He must do a running test on that old thing again, he sighed.
Jesse sat up from his bed and looked around in his room in frustration. He's has been stuck here for the past week and he has had it! I'm getting claustrophobic of my own room I got to get out of here. He got to the door and tried to phase. This time round, his lungs didn't hurt as bad. The pain was at a tolerable level. Finally, he thought; watch out world, I'm back!
He made his way to the dojo, hoping to find the rest of his team mates and was slightly peeved when he could find no one. Great, nobody cares around here; wait a minute, let me rephrase that, nobody gives a damn about me!
He sighed; his team mates hadn't been ignoring him, they had been busy that past week; they had been doing all the necessary arrangements that were supposed to be his job. He looked down in guilt when he realised what he had been thinking. Hmm…now where that thought did came from, he wondered, turning on the stimulator. God I need to workout a sweat, he told himself; he felt up to it today so where's the harm in that, right?
Twenty minutes later, he didn't felt like he's up to it. He's breathing was haggard and that made his chest hurt; and to make matters worse, he had a throbbing headache working its way somewhere at the back of his head. He was tiring himself and already he had a shiner working it's way on his face not to mention a couple of bruises to his ribs, no thanks to the holographic stimulant and his lack of concentration he added sourly to the list. He knew it was time to call it a day.
Next morning, he woke up refreshed; feeling fine, though still sore in certain places, he smiled. He moved forward to take a shower and went down for breakfast. As he was walking towards the kitchen he heard laughter and chatter coming from there. He paused. Listen to them, he thought, having fun without me around, just because I've been convalescing and not in action for a couple of weeks so I don't exist anymore, huh?
"Hey, look who's up and about this morning," Bren remark, smiling at Jesse. "Hey sunshine. Sleep alright?" Shalimar greeted him. "Just peachy," he replied curtly. He moved forward to grab a cup of coffee and left the kitchen as abruptly as he had entered it.
"What was that all about?" Brennan said eyebrows raised looking at Shalimar who frowned and shrugged her shoulders before bolting after Jesse. Emma was silent all the while. She could feel the irritation and anger coming from Jesse even with the short period he was in the kitchen. She followed Shalimar's footsteps but instead of going after Jesse, she went another way to see Adam.
"Adam," she spoke to him softly trying hard not to startle the man who was busy concentrating on something in the lab. "Hmm…? Oh, Emma it's you; sorry I didn't notice you earlier" he apologised to her sheepishly. He had been busy finding a neutraliser for the serum but so far the serum seemed invincible. To make matters worse, the blood sample he took from Jesse yesterday seemed to contain traces of the serum but he still need further tests to confirm his suspicion and that means more blood samples from Jesse. He is definitely not looking forward to that, knowing Jesse's repulsion towards the blood taking process.
Looking up he saw that she seemed a bit hesitant. "Emma? What's wrong?" Se looked away as if pondering what to say and turn to looked at him. "There's something wrong with Jesse." She looked him straight in the eye to show him how serious she was. "I got a reading off him just now and the emotions he was portraying matched the same ones I've read off Jean. Adam, this is serious. I'm afraid for him."
Jesse was already fighting when Shalimar arrived at the dojo. She switched off the stimulants. "Hey, why did you do that for? I was in the middle of a fight here" he practically glowered at her, annoyed at being interrupted. The headache had strike again; this time with a vengeance, radiating pain across his brain. He was not in a good mood this morning. "What's going on, Jess. Why the long face?" she confronted him. "Just leave me alone, I want to fight!" he walked past her to switch back the stimulator but she stopped him. He is really getting on my nerves. I've got to do something about this.
"You want a fight; well you're gonna have one" she said, moving into position. Jesse gave her a look that says I meant business and proceeded to the centre of the dojo. Good god, he didn't even hesitate, Shal observed.
"Uuhh!" Shal fell to the floor having missed her target and got up to rub her elbow just in time to dodge the kick that Jesse was gonna give her. Jesse had massed when he gave that kick. Hey, he's playing rough. O.k. Jesse, you asked for it, no more fooling around; I'm gonna knocked back some sense into you, Shalimar thought before assaulting Jesse with her slicked moves.
Catching Jesse off guard, one of her kicks hit him on the head; sending him sliding across the floor. When he didn't get up immediately, Shal thought she hit him too hard but Jesse could be full of tricks and she's not gonna let her guard down.
When she saw that he still hadn't gotten up from his foetal position she began to worry and moved cautiously to him. As she got closer she noticed that his breathing is haggard and as she moved in to see his face she saw that it was pale. She touched his neck and was shocked that he's neck seemed cool even though he's sweating. She felt his pulse and noted the erratic pounding of his heart. She knew she got to get Adam right away.
"Adam, what happened? Is it a relapsed or something?" Shal enquired of the scientist; pacing to and fro in the med bay. She looked on at her brother lying on the bed with an oxygen mask covering his pale face. His body was again decorated with the tubes that were just taken off him about a week ago. Adam's silence when she had brought him to the lab with Brennan's help unnerved her. It was as if he had anticipated for something like this to happen.
"Shal," he began, "Jesse's been infected. Emma had alerted me earlier of his behaviour and I did a swap on the bullet that was extracted from him and the tests show that it had been coated with the serum. The only problem now is I'm not sure why it took this long to make itself known and how long it would take for Jesse to, to…"Adam couldn't bring himself to say those words out loud.
"Maybe it's a slow-acting version of the serum" offered Brennan, "and since it took this long to emerge, we might still have time to find a cure." he tried to reassure Adam, Shal and Emma though he's finding it hard to believe his own words himself.
Adam stared at Jesse's still figure before moving on to his lab to find a cure for Jesse. Based on my calculations, he thought, busy typing on the keyboard while occasionally scribbling on his notepad; if it took him two weeks for his body to succumbed to the serums effect…we have less than forty-eight hours to find a cure.
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Aaarrrggghh! I know, I know, I took longer than I expected to finish this chapter but I did it anyway. Finally done with this chpt; I have absolutely no idea how long I will keep this up…but it shall be determined by the amount of reviews I get…heheehee…*grins* it's about 4 am rite now n I have to wake up at 7 later… insomnia has its drawbacks..but if not for them…I won't have my muse! Hope u guys r appease with this chpt…gonna be thinking ofwat else to add on…more torture for jesse? More eckhart? Or wat…let me know o.k?!
p.s…by the way…I soooo LLLOOOVVEED all ur reviews…*blows wet kisses around* (yuck!) as I'm getting sleepy rite now (finally) I do apologise if I can't thank u guys personally…my brain is disconnecting soon. anyway…this chpt is dedicated to all my fans…(sob! I'm a celebrity…but a poor one…which is even worse sob!) thanks for following the story…I will try to make the plot longer…I will try…so gotta go now…my bed is calling my name…and so is my winnie-e-pooh!nite! I mean morning…!!!!