Here it is, folks! The beginning of Season 2! I'm super excited, because there's a lot of unexplored potential in this season. Expect loads more J/M interaction than we got. As always, thank you for reading and any comments are welcome!
Determinant: a gene or other factor that determines the character and development of a cell or group of cells in an organism.
Chapter 14: Day of the Beast - Carry it On
The team runs into trouble in their mission to retrieve Jamie and the leopard from Canada. Mitch strikes a deal as new threats emerge. A Jamie/Mitch rewrite
Mitch's entire body thrummed with energy as he buckled himself into the back of Abe's Hummer. Jackson climbed in next to him as Chloe slid into the front seat. It felt good, all of them back together again.
Not all of us, Mitch corrected. Jamie was alive, and they were going to get her.
Abe had already maneuvered his way out onto the main road. Mitch pulled his scarf off of his neck and settled in. "What's the plan?"
Chloe glanced over her shoulder. "We drive to Delaware," she said. "There is a boat that will take us to Jamie."
"A boat?"
"Yeah," Jackson added. "It'll take eighteen hours or so but, you know...air travel."
Mitch forced the sound of a woman's scream from his mind. "Yeah, I'm okay not getting a plane for a while." Mitch looked over in time to see him dabbing tenderly at a wound on his arm. "Hey," he shifted slightly in his seat, "what is that? You alright?"
"Oh yeah," Jackson . "Yeah, yeah, it's nothing. It's a dog bite; it's fine."
Mitch winced at the red, swollen skin around the puncture marks. "That needs to be cleaned out. Doesn't look too good."
"Yeah," Jackson swabbed at it again. Mitch let him be, but made a note to check on him that evening for signs of infection.
"Hang on," Abe murmured, pulling his attention from Jackson's doctoring attempts.
"What the hell?"
Mitch leaned forward in his seat slightly as they rolled to a stop. "This doesn't look so good, either." Ahead of them, the road was blocked by a wall of fur, feathers, and scales. Dozens of animals stood together, snarling and growling at the vehicle. He had heard the National Zoo had lost containment, but he hadn't realized all of the animals had escaped.
"Any ideas?" Abe kept his eyes glued to the menagerie standing in their way. "I'm open to suggestions."
Mitch had one. "Yeah, man, get us out of here."
"Hold on." Abe shifted into reverse with an almost dismissive glance behind them. He didn't need to bother; there was no one there. The tires complained about their treatment as he spun the steering wheel and pointed them in a direction that wasn't barred by the entire population of the National Zoo.
Almost as one, the animals charged. Abe had already mostly spun them around, and as he shifted into drive Mitch could feel the rumble of the ground as the collective tons of creatures barrelled towards them.
"Turn here!" Jackson pointed over Abe's shoulder.
"We need to get to Jamie," Abe insisted, and Mitch didn't argue.
"And the cure," Chloe added.
They were all looking to their left, waiting for the horde to come cresting the hill, so none of them saw the rhino that slammed into the passenger side and sent the Hummer spinning. Mitch felt the door next to him cave in under the force of its charge, and the impact jarred his leg from knee to hip.
They all scrambled out, Abe and Jackson just a bit faster than the other two. Chloe grabbed her head as Mitch stumbled out next to her, his leg throbbing from the collision.
"We've got to keep moving," Jackson huffed. Mitch followed his gaze and groaned at the sight of gas leaking from the ruptured tank beneath the vehicle. "If the harbor's anything like this, the captain won't wait long."
The thought of having to wait even longer to get to Jamie didn't sit well with Mitch. Hell, not being able to see her, hold her, touch her...every second since finding out she was alive had been a painfully pleasurable combination of anticipation and agony.
An elephant trumpeted in the distance, and they all looked up to see the mob of animals bearing down on them. "Neither will they," Chloe groaned.
Mitch was watching their imminent demise approach, so he didn't see Jackson's calculated gaze dancing around in search of a solution. Nor did he see the triumphant gleam that meant he'd found one.
"Abe," Jackson said as he tossed a small metal beam at his friend, "count to five, then light me." He began to climb back into the Hummer.
Chloe stepped around the back of the car towards him. "What are you doing?"
Jackson paused with a foot on the running board. "I'm making a wall. Meet me at Amelia's office. She'll get us another car."
"Are you crazy?"
"Probably." Jackson's devil-may-care smile was likely meant as a reassurance; Mitch just felt queasy. Before anyone could protest, Jackson hoisted himself up into the driver's seat and slammed the door. It was still running, and Mitch could only watch from his half-bent position as the Hummer lurched forward and began accelerating toward the charging mob.
"Oh boy," Abe hoisted the bar up over his shoulder like a baseball player and took a mighty swing at the trail of gas Jackson was leaving behind him. It sparked then caught, and they watched as the flames sped across the fuel-soaked pavement. Jackson took a sharp left, effectively trapping the horde behind a wall of fire.
"Let's go." Mitch limped toward Chloe, but she was focused on the corner where Jackson had disappeared.
"No!' Chloe began moving toward the fire. "We can't just leave him!"
Mitch reached out and gripped her arm to keep her from taking another step. Abe dropped the bar and moved to cut her off. "He said he'll meet us at Amelia's office, and he will."
"No!" Chloe's face was desperate, and Mitch sympathized.
"He's an African safari guide," he reasoned. "I like his chances way better than ours." He tugged her forward and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as Abe led the way. He could feel her hesitation coiled in her muscles as he half-pushed, half-leaned on her. Her head turned sharply as one of the animals (the gorilla, he thought) let out a bellow of rage.
"He's gonna be okay," he told her. "We need to get back to the IADG."
"This way," Abe turned down an alley, leaving the other two no choice but to follow. Chloe seemed to realize Mitch was limping and began to actively support some of his weight to make it easier for him to run.
"How far?" Chloe looked around frantically, but only Abe seemed to know where they were. Mitch suspected spending months as a beefed up chauffeur had that going for it, at least.
"Just a few blocks," Abe answered. "Come on!"
They finally hit a corner that was familiar and their strides increased. The adrenaline had all but eliminated Mitch's pain and Chloe was a few steps ahead as they entered the courtyard.
The ominous hum of a swarm surrounded them instantly, and Mitch felt Chloe slip away from him in panic. Her scream filled his ears and he reached for her.
"Run, Chloe!" he tried to keep sight of her, but the insects forced him to duck his head and veer toward the building. He heard Abe's heavy footfalls and followed them into an alcove that provided a little shelter. A few more steps took him inside the building, and the hornets seemed to vanish.
"Where's Chloe?" Mitch looked around frantically for any sign of the blonde. "Chloe!"
"This way," Abe pointed him through a door where a throng of military uniforms and business suits were buzzing in twisted imitation of the hornets outside.
"Hey!" Mitch barreled through checkpoint and launched himself at the nearest person who looked like he knew what he was doing. His first instinct was to grab him, shake him and demand to send one of these military squads after Chloe. Then he remembered he wasn't exactly well-liked around here and changed tack. "Hey, uh, we're...we're here to see Amelia Sage."
Abe, however, seemed to have lost any sense of reason. He reached out and grabbed the man's arm firmly. "And we're looking for Chloe Tousignant and Jackson Oz. Have they checked in yet?"
"Couldn't tell you, pal" the man replied. "We're a little busy." He zoomed off without another word, leaving Mitch and Abe desperately searching for their friends.
"I don't see them anywhere," Abe sounded almost hopeless, but Mitch wasn't giving up. He followed Abe past a wall of television screens as they blasted out news stories from almost every major city across the globe. It was as if the animals had finally realized, all at the same time, that they had the human race on the ropes.
The "Day of the Beast", they were calling it. It was dramatic, but very appropriate - Jamie would love it. Mitch prowled around hunting for anyone that could help until a flash of blonde hair caught his eye and he whirled around.
"Chloe!"
"Hey!" She was cradling something in her arms, and as they got closed Mitch saw the small features of an infant peeking from beneath the folds of the blanket. "Where's Jackson?"
"We hoped he was here," Abe glanced up as though he expected his friend to magically appear.
Mitch, however, was quickly doing a mental check of Chloe, making sure she was unharmed. There didn't seem to be any welts or stings on her face; she had gotten lucky. His attention was returned immediately to the bundle in her arms. "Why do you have a baby?"
"It happened after the hornets," she was unconsciously bouncing the baby in an attempt to calm it, though from what Mitch could see it was relatively content in Chloe's arms. "The mother, she...she didn't survive."
"That's terrible," Abe reached out to caress the infant's head in a loving gesture.
"Yeah," Mitch added, "this day's chock full of terrible." Not the least of which was, now they had to find another way to get to Jamie. "Hopefully Amelia can salvage it, find us a way out of town."
"She hasn't checked in yet," Chloe shook her head.
"Jackson!" Abe's shout startled them, and both Mitch and Chloe turned to see a very bloody - but very alive - Jackson hobbling toward them.
Chloe met him halfway. "What happened to you? You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he reassured her, though it lost a little of its power as more blood tricked down the side of his face. "I'm fine."
As he neared, Mitch saw the tears in his shirt and the multiple scrapes and cuts he now sported. He thought about making a joke about heroes and action movies, but Abe cut him off before he could get it out.
"Rafiki, what happened out there?"
"Brakes failed," Jackson seemed to still be trying to catch his breath. "I had to jump, but the fire did the trick."
There was something off, something flat about Jackson's retelling, but Mitch guessed it was probably just the crash that occurred after a high dose of adrenaline. "Scared all the animals away?"
"Yeah, I didn't see any after the explosion." There was another perfect opportunity for an action hero joke, but Mitch was too intent on other things to jump on it. "Got lucky, I guess."
"You need to see a doctor," Chloe insisted. "The medics are over here."
"I'm fine," Jackson insisted again, but Mitch agreed.
"Go get checked out. Abe and I will try to track someone down who can help us."
Chloe led him over to the medic station as Abe made a path through the crowd to the back where a makeshift command center had been established to coordinate all of the incoming civilians.
"We're looking for Amelia Sage," Abe said when one of them finally looked up.
"Please sign in at the desk. Someone will be with you as soon as possible." It was a line, a blanket statement meant to acknowledge and dismiss, and it was Mitch's last straw.
"Look," he pushed past Abe and leaned into the young soldier's face. "We don't have time to play your 'hurry up and wait' bull. We were sent - by Amelia Sage - to get the one thing that will save the world. Since our first means of transport is no longer an option, we need to find another one. And now, the only thing keeping us from doing that is you. So either find us Amelia Sage, or find us someone who can!"
The boy blinked in the face of the unexpected tirade, but his face remained impassive. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't -"
"Doctor Morgan!" An unfamiliar voice called from the other side of the room, pulling Mitch's attention from the vicious burst of emotion that was beginning to coil in his chest. An older man with a red beard and bald head jogged up to them. It took a moment, but Mitch finally recognized him as one of the IADG's scientists. Jefferson? Jergens? "Doctor Morgan, it's good to see you. When the harbormaster called and said you didn't show, we got worried."
"We're fine," Mitch grabbed the man's elbow and steered him away from the line of military personnel. "We need to get to New Brunswick." He was keyed up now, and the other man winced at the force of Mitch's grip.
"When Amelia didn't report in, I contacted the next in line. She's on her way now."
Mitch deflated as the frustration that had swelled within him abated a little. "Thanks, uh," he glanced down briefly at the doctor's badge in hopes of catching a glimpse of a name, but it was covered by the lapel of his white coat. "Thanks."
"I'll stay here," Abe offered, "you go get the others."
It took half an hour to get everything coordinated. Mitch had given them specifications on the crate and a request for clamps to keep it from rocking too much on the chopper. Eleanor had assured them that it would handled. They had been directed to a back hall that led to the bowels of the building. Mitch had only been here a handful of times, but he remembered the way to the service elevator that would take them to the helipad on the roof.
Jackson had charged his phone and was now checking the news. "President just declared a state of emergency," he said. "He's starting mandatory evacuations all across New England."
Mitch thought of Clementine and Audra. Their safe zone in Maine was about to get a lot more crowded. They rounded a corner and came face to face with a Navy SEAL team. "Chopper's on its way," the lead man reported. His nametag was partially obscured by the tac-vest, but the first four letters suggested it was probably Johnson.
"Did you install those titanium clamps I asked for to secure the crate?" Mitch asked.
"Yes, sir." He shifted slightly, taking in the three men before him. "So you're the ones who figured out why the animals went crazy."
"That would be us," Jackson nodded.
"Didn't think you guys really existed," he told them. "Thought you were some kind of urban myth." It sounded ludicrous, but Mitch could understand why. If he thought about it too much, it sounded crazy to his ears, too. "So what happens when we get this leopard?" Johnson asked.
"We use its DNA to make a cure, fix the animals." Mitch wanted to skip the chatter and get on the helicopter.
"Just like that? Wow. It's an honor to serve alongside you."
Mitch reeled from the unexpected compliment. He was used to being called surly, accused of being snide or overly-sarcastic. He could only recall once in recent memory when someone had made a similar comment on his character.
"As you can imagine, I'm an acquired taste," he'd told her.
"In the beginning," she'd agreed. "But in the end, you come through."
Seeing her soft smile in his mind's eye only strengthened his need to see her again. I'm coming, Jamie.
"We'll have you in the air in two minutes," Johnson and his squad pushed past them and disappeared around a corner. Jackson and Abe turned toward Mitch, and he could see his own anticipation mirrored in their eyes.
"After everything we've been through, we're finally going to do this," Jackson smiled.
Abe grinned with him. "We're going to get a cure."
Tears stung the back of Mitch's eyes as he added the most important piece. "And Jamie." Abe's hand was warm on his shoulder, a comforting gesture that quelled the last of his lingering anger. It was time to make their family whole again.
Mitch thought if he never rode in another helicopter in his life, he would consider himself lucky. This one was nothing like the smooth, clipped pace they had set from the hospital in Harare. This SEAL team had a mission, and from the moment they lifted from the helipad they were zipping through the air at a dizzying speed. They had to stop and refuel once, but the military precision displayed by the ground team had them ready to go in under five minutes.
Hot fuel, one of the men remarked with a smug grin that told Mitch it wasn't an easy feat. Mitch barely had time to reorient to being on the ground before they were airborne once more.
"We're fifteen minutes out from the coordinates you gave us," Johnson's voice crackled over the headset that had been issued to Mitch at the start of their flight. Jackson and Abe had one as well, and as the announcement came over they all looked out at the vast wilderness below them. It was a wonder anyone lived out here at all, cut off from any form of civilization. For someone like Jamie, a technophile with a healthy appreciation for the little luxuries of life, being isolated out here was probably akin to torture of the worst kind. Mitch tuned out the military chatter as he forced himself to take steady, regular breaths. The rush of the flight only compounded upon the anxious energy churning in his stomach, and it was enough to make him nauseous as the chopper dipped forward.
"On our approach," Johnson reported. "Looks lively down there."
He'd missed the small farmstead in the distance as he'd gazed out over the Canadian wilderness. Now, at the pilot's words, Mitch sat a little straighter and strained for any sign of Jamie as they neared.
"Tranq's ready," the soldier at Jackson's left answered. "No live rounds." Mitch was grateful for that at least; no one could accidentally shoot Jamie or the leopard thinking they were vicious wildlife.
"We're coming in!" Johnson warned. "Brace yourselves."
The landing was quicker than the takeoff, but the pilot executed it perfectly. Only the fact that they were quicker to their feet meant the soldiers were on the ground before Mitch. The moment his feet hit the grass he was sprinting toward the house.
"Jamie!"
Jackson was right behind him, his own shout echoing her name as they searched for their friend. Mitch hit the stairs first, leaping up to the porch in one bound. The door was open, cracked and splintered under the weight of something large.
Bile rose in his throat at the sight of blood, and for a split second he thought he was too late. But the body lying gutted on the floor wasn't Jamie, and a quick inspection revealed an empty house.
"We found a body, male," one of the men shouted as they exited the house. "No sign of the leopard." Mitch bit back a scathing remark, wondering who the hell cared about a leopard when Jamie was missing.
"The leopard!" Abe's voice came from the side of the house, and the unit converged on him in seconds.
"What?" Mitch glanced at the small window that led to a basement, and the yellow rope that led from it. "You got him?"
The corporal got there before he did. "We have eyes on the target!"
"Any sign of the girl?" Johnson shouted back.
"Negative!" The two men with the crate bustled over, and Mitch stepped back as they maneuvered into position.
"Jamie did this," he told Abe.
"Yes, Mitch."
"She was here," he walked the length of the rope until it disappeared up an embankment. "She was right here!" He tried to reach out and feel her, to get an idea of where she might have gone, but nothing came to him. For the first time in his life, he cursed his cold, scientific mind. "Jamie!"
Jackson was on the other side of the house, but Mitch could hear him calling for her, too. She had to be here.
Growls heralded the arrival of a small pack of wolves, and Mitch felt heart rate double as their shadows solidified into a mass of teeth and fur.
"Everyone fall in!" Johnson ordered as the leopard was loaded into the chopper.
Mitch ignored him. "Jamie!" She was here, he knew she was. She couldn't have gone far, not knowing he was coming for her. She had probably heard the chopper and the commotion and was on her way back right now.
A weight settled on his shoulders as he took another step toward the tree line. It was Abe. "We have to go!"
Mitch balked. "I am not leaving her here! She left that rope. That means she's still alive, okay?" Abe looked determined, but there wasn't a force devised by the heavens that would convince Mitch that getting in that helicopter without Jamie was a good idea.
"She left the rope so we could find the leopard," Abe reasoned. "And we did."
"We can't leave her here!" Mitch turned and started back toward the trees. He'd search the entire Canadian wilderness himself if he had to. He would not abandon her again.
"We can come back!" Abe was saying, but Mitch refused to listen. A strong hand closed around his arm, but Mitch wrenched it away.
"No, no, no!" he tore himself away. "I'm not...I'm not leaving!" Desperation and worry mingled into a dark mass in his chest, and he did the only thing he could think of to do. He sat down. "I'm not leaving."
"What the hell are you doing?" Jackson was standing next to the chopper as the team loaded in, his entire posture screaming confused panic as he looked back on the scene.
"I'm not leaving without you." Abe reached down and hauled Mitch to his feet.
"Get your hands off me!" Mitch fought with every ounce of strength he possessed as Abe tried to lift him up and carry him to the chopper. A soldier came to help, but despair fueled Mitch's strength and he broke free. He took off at a dead run toward the forest, heedless of the snarling creatures closing in on their position. "Jamie!"
The wind was taken from him as two soldiers tackled him from behind. He spit out a mouthful of dirt and struggled as they each grabbed an arm and pulled him to his feet. "Let go of me!" He choked out Jamie's name again at the back of a sob. "She's still out there. She's out there! We can still find her. Please!" They wrapped their arms around him and began to haul him toward the chopper despite his begging. "Please, we can't just leave her!" His vision blurred with tears as he fought with everything he had, but he couldn't break their hold.
"We did it to save your life. We can come back for Jamie!" Abe said as they bodily loaded Mitch onto the chopper between him and Jackson.
Rage and helplessness erupted from within him, and he slammed his hand down on the top of the crate.
"Hey!" Jackson pushed him back in his seat. "Keep your head!"
Mitch howled in pain, though the sting in his palm paled in comparison to the agony that seeped into every fibre of his being. They were sentencing her to death. Abe's words were nothing more than platitudes; they all knew the odds of her survival out here, and they were leaving her anyway.
He turned to Abe as the motor began whirring faster, ready to lift him up and away. "I hate you for this," he hissed, meaning every word. He would never forgive Abe, not as long as he drew breath. He was losing her all over again, and the grief of it slammed into him with a force that was compounded by his failure. He had promised her he was coming, that he would find her and hold her to him and never let her go again. She'd probably die knowing he hadn't kept that promise.
As the chopper rose from the ground, shadows emerged from the tree line. Wolves - dozens of them - all of them howling and hungry and yearning for human blood. For a crazy, grief-stricken moment, Mitch contemplated lunging for the still-open door. The fall would most certainly cripple him, leaving him for the ravenous creatures that were now barking and snapping at the air. But just as quickly as the thought had come it was gone, leaving a gaping, cavernous yawn where his heart should have been. It took him a moment to process the sensation, the sudden realization washing over him like a cold rain. Logically, he understood that the organ was still beating steadily under his ribs, carrying out its intended function in measured time. But that's all it was - a muscle.
His real heart had just been abandoned to the cold, unforgiving wilderness.
Mitch barely registered anything on the flight back to D.C. Abe tried talking to him once, but Mitch refused to even look at him for fear he'd do something stupid. He'd never been a particularly violent man, but as the distance between him and Jamie grew further and further apart, Mitch felt the urge to throttle the man he'd once called friend.
Chloe was waiting for them when they landed. She greeted them with a curt nod, falling in behind Mitch and Abe as they followed the leopard to the lab.
"Where's Jamie?"
A thousand answers, each more vicious than the last, came to his mind. Finally, he settled on a cold glance and snide growl. "Ask him," he nodded at Abe and stalked away without a backwards glance.
The halls were somewhat familiar from the few and far between visits he'd made to the IADG headquarters, but it still took him a few tries to find the small office that had been converted into a break room. The coffee in the pot was hours old, but Mitch didn't care. He sighed wearily and felt the beginnings of tears in his eyes. He forced himself to study the cracks in the linoleum to keep them from falling. The soft knock came a few minutes later than he was expecting, and when Chloe slipped in he didn't even look up.
"Jackson told me what happened," she spoke softly, as if she was afraid he would shatter if she didn't. He was, too. "I'm sorry."
"Don't," he choked, finally raising his eyes to hers and seeing his sorrow mirrored in their depths.
Chloe pushed away from the door and came to stand in front of him. "I know how you must be feeling, but -"
"Oh you know?" Mitch knew it wasn't fair for Chloe to take the brunt of his anger, but now that it had been given an outlet it rushed forward like a great beast. "We left her out there, alone. It's January, Chloe. In God-Knows-Where, Canada. If the cold doesn't kill her, the animals will. And we didn't even look!" He turned and hurled the half-full mug in his hand. The porcelain shattered noisily as cold coffee painted the wall. Chloe's flinch cooled his anger a little, but he was still seething as he stared at her. "Please tell me how you know what it feels like to condemn someone you love to death."
There was a beat of silence as his words hung between them. There was a flash of something in her eyes, and for an instant it looked like she might cry. Then her face hardened and she took a step back.
"I never told you, or anyone else, what happened when they captured me. After Brannigan was killed, I was kept in an old warehouse by Gaspard," her voice was pitched low and even but he could hear the quiver she was trying to hide. "They tied me to a chair and made me watch as they tortured my sister. They cut off her hand when I wouldn't tell them what they wanted to know, and it was made clear that if I didn't cooperate they would kill her. Slowly." She stared pointedly, refusing to break eye contact with him as she spoke her secret. "All I had to do to save her life was tell them where the team was, where you were going. But I couldn't. Not if it meant endangering the mission. Because, in the end, that's what matters. Saving the world. The world, Mitch."
Hearing the pain and torment she'd gone through took the last of the wind from his sails. He sank back against the counter and shut his eyes. He heard the shuffle of her feet half a second before he felt her fit against him in a tight hug.
"I'll talk to Eleanor, ask her to send another team as soon as one is available," Chloe murmured. "We won't give up on her, Mitch."
Tears fell on her shoulder as he sagged against her. "Thank you."
She held onto him for a moment more, then pushed back. "We need you, Mitch. They're prepping the leopard now, but it's your procedure. We need you to oversee it."
"Alright," Mitch straightened up and cleared his throat. "Let's go."
"It's not working," Jorgensen looked up from the lab to the observation room where Mitch stood with the team and a few of Eleanor's people. IADG scientists had recreated Mitch's work and produced a small vial of the cure from the leopard's DNA. They'd immediately administered it into their test subject - a German Shepherd who was still snarling and growling ten minutes later.
"It works," Mitch pushed away from the glass with a disgusted sneer. "You're doing it wrong."
The short walk down the stairs was just enough to stoke the fire in him again. The moment he pushed through the door he was pointing at the lead doctor. "You! You did something wrong."
"Doctor Morgan, we followed your protocol to the last detail," Jorgensen contended.
Several feet away, their test subject snarled viciously. "Dog seems to disagree," Mitch sniped. "Did you verify the viability of these stem cells?"
"Measured eighty-nine percent with 7-AAD dye exclusion," Jorgensen replied curtly.
"Cross-check for contamination?" They'd done something wrong, Mitch knew it. The cure worked.
"Zero ppm detected."
"Resuspend at the right temperature?"
"Obviously."
"Well obviously not," Mitch cut him off before he could continue. "Something's wrong." He reached for the equipment with every intention of correcting Jorgensen's mistakes, but the scientist protested.
"You don't have the clearance -"
"Clearance?" Mitch rounded on him furiously. "We didn't fly around the world for that leopard so that you textbook hacks could screw it up."
Jorgensen started forward, but Jackson intervened. "Hey, what's he gonna do, Doc? Make it not work more? It's okay."
Mitch ignored everything and everyone as he worked, following the procedure from memory. Once, as the solution whirred inside the electroporator, Mitch's mind tried to call up the memory of a brilliant smile and shining eyes, but he forced it away.
When it was done, he filled a syringe and turned toward the dog. "Easy, easy," he soothed the raging animal as he sprayed the mixture into its mouth. "Easy. Good boy." He turned to the monitor, fully expecting the dog's heart rate to drop back to a normal rhythm. When nothing happened, Mitch became agitated. "Just drop," he breathed, willing the machine to listen. "Come on, just drop. Drop!"
But it didn't.
"This baseline heart rate is way higher than anything we've seen before," Jackson said. "It's like...it's like the dog's still mutating."
Which meant that they'd flown all the way to New Brunswick and come back without Jamie for nothing. The cure no longer worked.
"We're too late," Mitch growled. He'd failed. Again. "Total waste!" He surged forward and upended the nearest table, sending equipment and machinery crashing to the floor. Abe reached for him as he stormed past, but he pushed him away. "Get your hands off me, Kenyatta," he spat. "Don't touch me, don't even think about me, alright?" He turned to storm out of the lab, eager to be anywhere but here.
"We can find another way," Abe implored.
Mitch whirled at his words. "We will not find another way!" he roared. "We will not find another way."
"Mitch, wait," Chloe called after him, but he had already slammed through the lab door. It ricocheted off the wall with a crash. "Wait!" Her footfalls were quick and light behind his, and she caught him at the first bend. "We still need you."
"You need me," he snarled derisively. "For what? The cure failed."
"Yes, it did," Chloe replied. "So we need to figure out the next step. And we can't do that without you."
For a moment he said nothing, just continued to stare her down. But she didn't blink, didn't falter, and her words came back to him in a flash.
That's what matters. Saving the world.
"Alright," he gestured vaguely down the corridor. "Let's go talk to Eleanor."
They ended up with a plane - a state of the art, completely outfitted plane (minus a basketball hoop, unfortunately) and a mission: fly to Argentina and find Dr. Vickers. Mitch spent the flight getting acquainted with his new lab and rearranging everything. Whoever had initially set it up had done so very poorly.
"Getting settled in?" Abe's deep voice resonated in the open space.
Mitch looked up to the landing and adjusted his glasses. "Uh, yeah," he cleared his throat. "Yeah, this place has pretty much everything to research this new mutation." Abe shifted nervously at the top of the stairs, and Mitch realized he was waiting for an invitation. Or an apology. Mitch almost gave him one, then the spiteful voice in the back of his head reminded him that it was Abe who had made the decision to leave Jamie behind. Mitch stayed silent.
"Trotter says we should land in Argentina in a few hours," Abe said finally. "We should get some sleep."
"Right," Mitch turned back to his work, effectively dismissing Abe. He heard the other man's sigh of frustration, then his footsteps as he retreated to the sleeping quarters.
Mitch didn't look up again until his phone vibrated in his pocket. He was reorganizing the distillation glassware, and he pulled it out and answered without looking at the screen.
"Mitch Morgan."
"Mitch?" the woman answered. "Mitch, are you there?"
His blood ran cold. Blinded by his own rage and despair, he'd completely forgotten about updating Jamie's family. "Yes, Fran, I'm here." Jamie's aunt could only be calling for one reason.
"Is Jamie there? Can I speak to her? Is she alright?" Each question was a dagger in his heart, and he sat down bonelessly on the stool behind him.
"Fran, I -" He pinched the bridge of his nose and took several deep breaths. "There were…" He faltered. "Things didn't go as planned."
"Mitch," Fran's excitement had transformed instantly into concern. "Mitch tell me what's happened."
Mitch swallowed thickly and forced his voice to remain steady through the telling. "We went to Canada, where she said she'd been staying. But when we got there…" His throat closed painfully over the words, but she deserved to hear the truth. "She was gone. But she's alive," he rushed on. "Fran, you hear me? She's alive. And we're not giving up on her. The IADG is sending team after team until they find her."
Fran's soft sob on the other end broke his heart, but he made himself listen. He deserved that much, at least. She collected herself quickly. "How are you holding up, dear?"
Mitch smiled at that. "I'm…" His smile faded just as quickly.
"I understand," Fran soothed. "Just take care of yourself. And please keep me updated."
"I will." He let her hang up first, waiting a few more seconds before slipping the phone back in his pocket. The reorganizing could wait; he needed to rest.
"This is Trotter," a voice crackled over the intercom, pulling Mitch from his nap. "We'll be landing in Argentina in just a few minutes." Mitch changed his shirt and met the others in the main area. Eleanor's face filled a screen on the wall, and she was nodding at something Chloe had just said.
"I've forwarded coordinates to your phone," she was saying. "The Ranger team assigned to Doctor Vickers radioed in last night. From your current position, it's only about a three mile trek."
"Great," Mitch groaned. "Another jaunt through the woods."
"Don't forget the bug spray," Eleanor disconnected with a wave.
"We should get going," Jackson was already shouldering a go bag. "We need to find Doctor Vickers, and fast."
Chloe stood and grabbed her own bag. "Then let's go."
Mitch watched them all move toward the rear of the plane, then grudgingly followed after. "Once more unto the breach."
The title for this chapter comes from a Daughtry song, "Torches." The lyrics speak well to what Mitch and Jamie go through these first few episodes:
"Love is like a torch that's burning bright
Carry it on, carry it on and you'll see
Fire will shine a light on the darkest side
Carry it on, carry it on"