Chapter 8

When he woke up, he saw that Bobby was still asleep in the armchair. Quietly throwing off his covers, he stood up. The affects of the drug seemed to have completely worn off, and so he headed into the bathroom and took his heart medication. When he came back into the living room, Bobby woke up.

"How you feeling, Sparky?" He asked, getting up.

"Good." He told him. Bobby looked at him closely. "What?"

"You still look a little pale." Bobby told him.

"Well, I feel fine. Whatever it was seems to have completely worn off." Jack told him, wishing Bobby would stop acting like a mother hen. Jack headed to his bedroom and got changed while Bobby got washed up. Together they managed to make eggs and toast without burning the place down, or setting off the fire alarms, like they usually did. Then they headed to work, and Jack was rather annoyed that Bobby wouldn't let him drive himself to work. They argued about it until Bobby physically ended it by shoving Jack into the backseat of his car. Jack tried to get out but discovered that Bobby had activated the childproof locks so that the back doors couldn't be opened from the inside. He sat in stony silence for the duration of the trip, glowering at Bobby from the backseat. When they got to the office, he was forced to wait until Bobby opened the door for him to get out. He glared at Bobby as he let him out of the car and pushed past him into the building. When he got up to the office, everyone else was already there. As he entered, Lucy and Sue nearly ran into him. Lucy took a step back and looked at him carefully.

"Are you ok?" She asked. "You look kind of pale." Sue who had been watching her took a good look at him.

"She's right. You do look pale." Sue said as Levi woofed his agreement.

"I told you so." Bobby said, coming up behind him and clapping a hand on his shoulder. Jack just glared at him.

"Are you ok?" Sue asked, concerned.

"I'm fine." Jack said getting irritated from all of the attention he was getting. Walking over to his desk, he threw himself down in his chair and threw a challenging glance at everyone in the room before starting on his paperwork. Levi came over and put his head on Jack's knee, whining his sympathy. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Bobby and Tara conversing in low tones while examining a document. Whatever they were saying caught Sue's attention. She also walked over to them. About that time, they motioned everyone over silently, not knowing that Jack was paying attention trying to catch what was going on. He got up and went over to the coffee maker, and under the guise that he was getting himself some coffee, he listened in as best he could.

"… identified what Shiva gave…. It's…symptoms…exactly…" he heard Tara say. "According to this…for 1 hour…12 hours later…unconscious…another hour."

"…around 7:30, 8 o'clock…pass out…." Bobby's voice was louder so he heard more, but still not the whole of what he was saying. "We'll…sleep it off."

"…Jack…alright?" Sue asked, concern lacing her voice, and Bobby nodded.

"…explain…Garret?" Jack heard Dimitrius ask.

"…easy. We'll just…truth." Myles said in his usual straightforward way. Jack quietly walked back to his desk, getting the feeling that no one was actually planning on telling him about this, so it was best that they think he didn't know. What they really didn't know was that he was going to bunk out in Bobby's car. The only hitch was that he had to get his keys first, which, he just happened to know were in the right pocket of Bobby's coat. Jack got up and casually walked over to the white board, which happened to be conveniently located next to Bobby's desk and his coat. Sidling over to the edge of the board, he slipped his hand in the pocket and grabbed Bobby's keys. Quietly pulling them out, he returned to his desk. In a minute the group had disbanded and the others returned to their desk. Jack didn't miss the covert glances that were thrown his way. When Jack started to feel muzzy headed again, he got up and headed towards the door. Realizing that he was probably the focus of everyone's attention at the moment, he headed over to Lucy's desk instead and thought up a quick excuse. Leaning over so that Sue wouldn't see and the rest of the office wouldn't hear, he whispered in her ear.

"Lucy, does Sue have any plans for lunch?" he asked.

"No." She whispered back. "Why?"

"Because I wanted to talk to her, that's all." Jack answered, kicking himself for not being able to come up with some other excuse, but realizing that this one would distract everyone the most.

"Not that I know of." Lucy answered, a grin on her face. She was obviously taking the bait. "Hold on a sec, I'll go ask her." As she walked over to Sue, Jack could tell that she was mouthing and signing what had just transpired to everyone. As Lucy tapped Sue on the shoulder, everyone's attention was drawn to Sue, giving Jack the perfect opportunity to escape, just as he wanted. He quickly headed out to the car garage. By the time he reached Bobby's car his vision was almost completely dark. Opening the back door he barely remembered to undo the child locks before closing the door and passing out on the floor of the car.