Kurt cradled Remi in the back seat, her head resting in his lap. Her slack features made it easier to see his wife and harder to quell his concern for her seeping in a silent tear from the corner of his eye. He couldn't trust his voice, yet his head urged go faster, go faster.
Rich sped toward the hospital, nervous that he'd make a mistake to mess up their important mission. Avoid that car, miss that pedestrian, oh no stop moving car, stop moving, okay, through the next light, his mind raced, knowing that babbling now would launch his friends over the edge. His friends. He looked over at Patterson for reassurance. When she caught his eyes, she pulled her phone away from her ear and held her hand over it. "Keep your eyes on the road, Rich," she chided, "just get us there. You got this."
Patterson was on the phone with Remi's neurologist, calling ahead that they had the patient and were in route to the emergency room. The patient. Much easier to say than my teammate, my friend. The friend she had to sedate to get medical attention.
At least she had the wherewithal to keep track of the different doctors as she had connected them with Jane and Kurt, as Kurt was in no position to share the information with her now. Patterson hung up and returned her eyes to the back seat, back to Remi. Her grey t-shirt was damp with spots of sweat, her jacket askew. The front of her hair melted into the sides of her face, clumped together with sweat. Kurt tucked the clingy strands behind her ear and brushed her jawline with his thumb in soft support.
Rich clipped the curb, bouncing the already jumpy passengers in the SUV. "Dammit, Rich - get us there in one piece," Patterson scolded.
Kurt's frown deepened, yet his attention didn't break from Remi. "We're almost there," Patterson relayed.
Kurt hopped out of the SUV and carried Remi into the emergency room as soon as Rich stopped the vehicle, Patterson keeping up by his side. They found Dr. Welton and a nurse waiting with a gurney just inside the sliding doors. "I need you to lay her here," Dr. Welton motioned to Kurt, "and follow me."
Kurt eased Remi onto the gurney, straightening her legs and placing her arms at her side. He again brushed her hair away from her face and took her hand, not wanting to let go of all touch with her. Not wanting to lose her again.
The nurse started pushing the gurney. They walked through double doors, past several curtained exam rooms, to an isolation room tucked around the corner. Typically used for violent patients, Patterson's mind taunted, but she tucked it away. Jane wasn't violent; she was confused. Contrarily, Remi…
Dr. Welton closed the door and the nurse started taking Remi's vitals. "Denis is going to help with Jane's care," she introduced, pointing to the nurse. "Tell me what happened."
Kurt kept holding Remi's hand, intently focused on her rather than the doctor, leaving Patterson to take the lead from the other side of the gurney. "She's having hallucinations, expressing a second personality - Remi, forgetting things," Patterson explained, "we brought her in before she could get herself killed. She's a threat to herself; we had to sedate her to bring her here. I estimate we have another hour before she comes around."
The doctor turned her attention from Patterson to Denis. "Denis, meet Jane. She's suffering from ZIP poisoning; a rare condition as a result of exposure to an experimental military memory erasing drug. She's been suffering headaches, memory loss, irritability, and several new symptoms it sounds like. I've been monitoring her symptoms and evaluating trials, though we haven't found a cure yet."
Denis took Remi's vitals and showed her temperature to the doctor. "And she has a high fever - Denis, get me a full blood workup," Dr. Welton requested.
"Let me get her jacket…" Denis started, yet Patterson jumped in.
"We got it," Patterson explained, touching Kurt's arm and shaking it, his eyes popping to hers. "Help me remove Remi's jacket so the nurse can take some blood."
Kurt pulled her forward, and Patterson slipped the jacket off of one of Remi's arms. Kurt pulled her jacket around her back and laid her back, removing the jacket from her other arm, leaving her in her t-shirt. Denis cleaned her skin and used a butterfly needle to take a few vials of blood.
"Sit tight, I'll be back soon," Denis said, leaving the room.
They both watched Remi's breathing, wondering what version of Remi they would encounter when she woke.
Rich found them after being led back by a nurse at the check in desk. Kurt sat with both of his hands around one of Remi's, watching her breathe. "Do we need to restrain her?" he voiced the concern that bounced in his head as the minutes ticked by, sighing.
What did he walk into? "Nooo, we will not," Rich jumped in.
"Rich," Kurt warned with a rough edge in his voice.
Rich stood taller, readying for a fight. "She is not actively violent. She is not posing a threat to anyone else. She is not under arrest. She -" his growing tirade was sliced by Kurt.
"She is unconscious!" Kurt stood and roared, "as soon as she wakes up, we're going to have one angry Remi on our hands."
"Hey, hey, hey," Patterson interrupted, putting herself between the men and glaring at them back and forth, "she's going to be out of it for a bit when she wakes up. We wait and reassess then."
Kurt glared at Rich, and Rich cowered into the corner, sitting on the floor out of argument's way yet close enough to advocate for his friend again. He had agreed to help bring her in so she wouldn't get herself killed, not treat her like a criminal. Not take all of her will away.
"Sit," Patterson firmly told Kurt, and he dropped back into his chair.
Elbows on his knees, he dropped his head into his hands. "I don't want her to hurt someone and end up dead," Kurt grumbled, "I'd never forgive myself."
Patterson put a light hand on his back in comfort, encouraging him that they were there for him. "We got her here; now we can help her," she reminded.
Kurt monitored Remi quietly, her head stirring a bit against the pillow and her hands clenching. Patterson pressed the call button and Kurt stood over Remi, ready to respond quickly to whatever scenario her waking would bring.
"Roman? Roman, I'm sick," Remi spoke, her voice raspy.
The nurse entered the room and maneuvered to Remi's side. Remi's eyes opened and quickly closed again, crinkled with pain. She raised her hand to her head, pressing into her temple, trying to make the thundering go away. "Mmmmm," she moaned in pain.
Remi grabbed Kurt's hand. "Roman, it hurts. Make it stop," she begged, squeezing her pain into his hand.
Kurt's eyebrows shot through his forehead, and Patterson shared a shocked glance with Rich. When she roused, it wasn't quite the scenario any of them were expecting. She thought he was Roman? The nurse interjected. "Jane, you're in the hospital," Denis recapped, "do you understand?"
Kurt noted she didn't correct him and used his thumb to share soothing strokes with her hand that gripped his. "Yes. I don't like hospitals," she sighed, her voice thick with confusion, "What's wrong with me?"
"You have an infection," Denis explained, "given your symptoms, Dr. Welton would like to do a spinal tap. You're going to be here a little while - I'm going to need you to change into a gown. Do you understand?"
Denis set a gown and blanket on the gurney. "Yes," she responded.
"I'll be right back," Denis said, leaving the room.
Patterson looked sympathetically at Kurt. "We'll be right in the hall," Patterson explained, offering a hand to Rich to get off of the floor.
They left the room, and Remi turned away from Kurt and pulled at the hem of her shirt. "Roman, stay there," she requested, pulling off her shirt and sports bra and sliding her arms through the gown.
Where did those bruises come from? he thought, eying the purple marring her ribs along her back. Her exposed back was more of her skin than he had seen in a while. He wanted to touch her, hold her, tell her they would figure everything out. Everything. Focus, Weller. Remi tied the back of her gown, returned to her back, and unfolded the blanket over her. The small movements seemed to exhaust her, her eyes heavy-lidded. "Can you help me with my boots?" she asked.
He moved to her feet, untied and removed each of her boots and socks, set them on the floor, and returned to her side. Under different circumstances, he would have caressed her feet in comfort and reached up to slide her pants off of her legs. But those were circumstances that did not involve a suffering wife thinking he was her dead brother. She then undid her belt, removed her pants under the blanket, and tossed them out the side. "Thanks," she indicated, closing her eyes again.
Kurt occupied himself fiddling with the blanket, making sure she was fully covered. He could feel the heat radiating from her skin through the blanket crying like his wife: let me out, let me out. He folded her clothes into a neat pile and held her hand, waiting for the nurse. "I'm scared," she admitted, pressing her free hand to her temple again.
"I'll be right here. You're going to be okay," he coaxed with confidence he didn't have. Or at least he hoped so.
A couple brief knocks, and Denis returned to the room, ready to take Remi for her procedure. Kurt stood, motioning that he wanted to speak to Denis in the hall for a moment.
"She's hallucinating worse," Kurt spoke very directly, "She thinks I'm her dead brother."
The nurse hid his surprise in a shroud grown through years of experience. "I'll let the doctor know."
"I'd also like to keep an agent posted outside of wherever you take her in case she decides to escape again," Kurt rubbed his face with his hand, stressed by the notion he even had to ask for this in reference to his wife, and forgetting he had an audience.
"I volunteer as tribute," Rich jumped in, his nervous energy bubbling to the surface.
Kurt shot Rich a look of contempt. "Weller, let him go," Patterson encouraged.
Kurt kept quiet and dropped his head in a brief nod before impressing a stare upon Rich. For the love of everything don't mess this up. "He stays in the hallway," Denis instructed, "I'll need the rest of you to wait in the waiting room, and I'll come get you shortly."
Kurt was surprised again. "I can't come with her? Last time they let me sit with her…" Kurt trailed off, worried to be letting her out of his sight.
"I promise you I'll come get you as soon as we're done," the nurse reassured.
Patterson squeezed Kurt's shoulder, knowing he didn't want to listen. "Go see that she's okay, and then we can go call my friend to get an ETA on when she can be here to collaborate with Dr. Welton," she offered him a distraction.
Kurt relented and Denis and Kurt reentered the room. "The nurse is going to take you for a test, and then I'll see you very soon," Kurt explained, squeezing Remi's hand, "I love you."
She gave a joking smile in return. "Don't worry, I won't die."
Oh, Jane.