Disclaimer – Still own nothing (surprise surprise)
AN – This chapter is shorter than last chapter. I hope you all enjoy!
Tom was sitting on one of the chairs in the hospital room beside the bed where Hal was lying on, fast asleep. Once he had calmed down, Maggie and Tom brought him to the infirmary, with Ben and Matt following while Weaver made sure that Pope and the other soldiers kept what they had seen to themselves.
When they got Hal to the hospital, Anne led them to an empty room and had the young man lie down on the bed. She asked him a few questions, but he seemed to be in too much shock to answer any of them. The only thing he said was that his head was hurting. Anne then had Lourdes get some painkillers while she took another blood sample, wondering if there was something she had missed from the first test she ran.
Lourdes soon came back with the painkillers, Anne took the bottle, took out two pills, and gave them to Hal along with a cup of water. Less than ten minutes later, Hal was out cold. Anne then explained to the other people in the room that the painkillers were also sedatives, and that he would be out for a few hours. So, Tom, Maggie, Matt, and Ben got comfortable, none of them willing to leave him. Maggie and Tom sat in the chairs on each side of the bed, Ben sat in a chair at the foot of the bed where Matt was sitting.
"Tom? Weaver and Marina want to see you." Lourdes informed him from where she stood by the door. Tom looked away from the hospital bed where his son was sleeping to the doctor.
"I'll be right there." He told her, then looked back at Hal.
"Don't worry, we'll watch him." Maggie assured him. Tom nodded, got off the chair and left the room. He found Weaver on the other side of the hall with Marina.
"How's he doing?" Weaver asked as Tom came over to them.
"He's asleep, and he isn't injured or anything, but we don't know anything about what happened. Has word gotten around yet?" Tom questioned, knowing that once someone opened their mouth, the entire city would know within an hour.
"Anthony and Tec agreed to keep this quiet. Pope took a little more convincing, but Sara got him to agree. Tom, has Hal told you, or Maggie, or anyone about what happened during those five months, of what Karen did to him?" Weaver asked.
"He's only been back three weeks, and he's barely said anything, to anyone, about what happened. All we know is that he has been having random moments where he suddenly sees images and has no idea why, and Ben told me that what happened out there happened on patrol but Hal asked him not to say anything. That was all Hal had said, nothing about what actually happened." Tom informed the Colonel.
"And that's the problem. I know you don't want to push him to talk about what was obviously a traumatic experience, but we need to know what happened. If we are dealing with another mole situation, we have to know about it." Marine chimed in.
"If Karen really was making him into a mole again, when he blacked out, he wouldn't have been shooting at those skitters, he would've been shooting at us." Tom pointed out.
"He almost killed a rebel skitter, didn't he?" Marina argued.
"He probably didn't realize that it was a rebel, and he snapped out of it. He didn't actually kill him. Besides, Karen tried the mole thing before, and it failed. She's smart enough to know that it won't work a second time." Tom insisted.
"Be that as it may, we still need to know what we're dealing with. Tom, I'm not saying Hal's a spy, but there is something wrong and you know it. For all we know, whatever she did could kill him. We have to know." Weaver tried to stop the argument between the two leaders. Reluctantly, Tom nodded.
"When he wakes up, I'll talk to him, see if I can find out what happened. Anne's also going to be running more tests, see if she can find anything. I'll let you know, but for the meantime, let's try to keep all this quiet." Weaver and Marina had no objections to that.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
Hal opened his eyes, and found himself in the infirmary, in the same room he was in before. He turned his head and found Maggie sitting in a chair beside him, her head resting on the bed by his shoulder, fast asleep. Turning his head the other way, he found his Dad, also sitting in chair, holding his hand, head down on the mattress.
When he felt something move by his feet, he looked to the foot of the bed and saw Matt, curled up in a ball on the mattress, his head by his legs. It was then he noticed the only other person awake. Ben. He was sitting on the end of the bed by Matt.
"How long was I out?" Hal asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He didn't want to wake anyone.
"Well, it's morning now, so at least ten hours. You had us worried." Ben informed him, keeping his voice just as quiet, but Matt woke up, due to the fact he was right beside him.
"Hal, you're up." Matt stated, loudly enough to rouse Maggie and Tom from their sleep.
"How are you feeling?" Tom asked, moving to sit on the bed as Hal sat up.
"Kinda groggy," Hal stopped as the memory of Anne giving him two white pills came back and turned to his father asking, "Those weren't just painkillers Anne gave me, were they?"
"Nope. You needed to sleep." Tom explained. As though she had heard her name, Anne entered the room.
"Oh, you're up. Feeling better?" Anne repeated Tom's earlier question, as she came over to the group.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Hal responded, trying to brush off their concern, though he knew it was hopeless. After what happened last night, there was no way they'd let anything he said slide.
"Good. Now nothing came up on the bloods tests we ran, so Kadar is working on finding way to get a closer look, just to make sure, but in the meantime, I'd like to run a CT scan." Anne informed them.
"What? Seriously? Look, Anne, I'm fine okay?" Hal turned to his Dad, hoping that he would come to his defense, but once he saw the look on his face, he knew that his Dad was siding with the doctor. He looked over at Maggie, and saw the same look on her face.
After a moment, Tom asked, "Guys, can I talk to Hal alone for a moment?"
Everyone nodded, and they all got up and headed to the door, leaving the father and son alone in the room. Tom moved to sit on the bed beside Hal.
"Hal, Maggie and Ben filled me, and Anne in on what you told them, and on what happened while you were on patrol. I know, for whatever reason, you don't want to be in here and have all these tests run on you, but we need to know what's going on. If you know what Karen did-"
"I don't." Hal cut his father off sharply. Seeing the startled look in his Dad's eyes, Hal explained calmly, "I don't know what she did. She never told me, and over half the time I was drugged out of my mind."
"Hal, we need to find out what she did. I don't believe she made you a spy again, neither do your brothers, Anne, Marina, or Weaver, but there is something going on. You can't deny that." Tom tried to get his son to understand, but Hal turned his gaze down to his lap, and Tom took a moment to look at him.
The bruises that were there had all but faded. The gauze that was wrapped around his wrists were gone with only the still healing marks to show that there had been damage to them. His skin was no longer as pale, nor was he as thin as he was. The only thing wrong Tom could see was the very subtle dark smudges under his eyes showing his lack of sleep.
"Hal, you don't remember this, but when you were bugged, and learned that we were going to use this skitter device to get the bug out, you started panicking, and tried to convince us that the bug was gone. You had said something earlier to Maggie that made it pretty clear it was still there, but you really made us question it." Tom revealed.
"Dad," Hal started, not really wanting to hear about what had happened, but then Tom cut him off.
"Just, hear me out." At Hal's reluctant nod, Tom continued, "I told that I was sorry, but I wasn't going to let the aliens take you from me." At that, Hal lifted his head and looked his father directly in the eyes, and saw the pain and desperation.
"Hal, they already took you from me once, and I am not willing to risk them doing it again. Son, I'm asking you to please, trust me, and let us find out what's wrong. Please." Tom begged, putting his hand on his son's shoulder. Hal looked down again, before nodding.
"Alright."
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
Hal sat on the table, his Dad and Maggie beside him. Ben and Matt were standing by the door, while Anne stood in front of her patient.
"So, this test will take between half-an-hour to an hour. All you have to do is lie as still as you can on the table while the machine above you will take the pictures. Then we'll be able to see if there's anything wrong. Any questions?" Anne checked. Hal shook his head and tried to hide the fear of lying down on a metal table. He had enough of that when he was with Karen, but he tried to remember that it was different this time.
"Alright, then let's get this over with. Let's go." Anne told them. Matt and Ben gave Hal reassuring smiles and left the room with Anne. Tom squeezed his son's shoulder before he followed his youngest boys. Maggie moved to stand in front of Hal, and gave him a small kiss on the lips before leaving the room as well. Hal was now alone.
Swallowing his fear, Hal laid down on his back, as straight as he could. The cold metal seemed to bite his skin and he felt the panic rise up inside him. Every instinct was telling him to get off and run as far way as he could, but he forced it down, and started counting the seconds until the test was over.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
Tom, his sons, and Maggie stood in the hall. Anne was in the other room beside Hal's, working the other end of the machine. She didn't want everyone to crowd around her, so they were left to wait outside.
After they passed the half an hour period, they saw Weaver running around the corner towards them.
"Another skitter attack." The Colonel said, slightly out of breath.
"What? Another one?" Tom questioned, not recalling a time when the attacks had ever been so close together.
"Yeah, this one is bigger though. There's way more of them, super Mechs too. They're attacking on the east, south, and north perimeters." Weaver told them.
"You guys go, I'll stay with Hal." Maggie promised the family. Tom nodded, then they all ran towards the surface, leaving Maggie alone in the hallway.
FSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFSFS
The minute the door opened, Hal sat up. He was tempted to run out of the room, but he held himself back. Maggie came inside, but there was no sign on his Dad, Anne, or his brothers.
"The Espheni are attacking outside. They went to take care of it. And Anne is just looking over the pictures, she'll be here soon." Maggie answered his unspoken question.
Maggie came over and sat down on the table beside him. She could see how tense he was, and that he was clenching his jaw. She knew he wanted out of the room, and having to wait was becoming difficult, so she reached over and cupped his fist with her hand.
Hal looked over at her when he felt her fingers on his fist. Slowly, he unclenched the hand and let her slip her fingers in his, and held her hand tightly. That was when the door opened and Anne came in, with a regretful and pained look on her face.
Without saying a word, she crossed the room to the other end where there was one a metal device, hung up a picture on it, and turned the light on, revealing an x-ray of a person's brain.
"This, is an x-ray of someone who doesn't have anything wrong with them." Anne informed them, then put up another picture beside it and said, "This one is yours."
Neither Hal or Maggie needed to be a doctor to see the difference between the two. Hal's had different colors on it, and there were some parts that looked completely different then the other one.
"If you look closely right here at the base of the skull," Anne told them, pointing at the edge of the picture, right under where Hal's left ear was, "you can see a small fracture, that was actually a crack in your skull. Looking at the bone, and the muscles around it show that all of them in that area are at three different stages of healing. It means, that they cut into your skull at three times Hal."
Anne explained it to them very plainly, so they understood, and she tried to keep her voice professional, but seeing what they had done to the young man, as well as his and Maggie's expressions made it hard. Maggie looked at the scans in disbelief, while Hal looked like he was having trouble thinking. After a moment, Hal slowly brought his free hand, that one that Maggie wasn't holding up the healed cut behind his ear, the spot where the aliens had accessed his brain.
"Four." Hal whispered so quietly that Anne barely heard it.
"What?" Anne asked, taking a few steps closer to the table.
"They made that cut four times, not three." Hal told the two girls in the room.
"When did they make the fourth one?" Anne questioned, coming to stand in front of him.
"Right before I escaped. An alarm started going off right after this harnessed kid made the cut, and she dropped it on the table I was on and she, and these two skitters left. I used the scalpel to get free." Hal explained. This was the very first time he had said anything about what happened while he was held captive.
"Then, that means they didn't have time to cut into your skull." Anne responded.
"Meaning, they didn't finish whatever they were doing." Maggie realized. Anne nodded, also coming to the same conclusion, while Hal felt any food he had in his stomach start to make its way to his mouth.
He moved off the table and ran out of the room, unaware of Anne calling his name, and Maggie following him. Hal ran to the nearest bathroom he could find, and bent down in front of the toilet just in time. As his stomach emptied itself, he felt someone's hand rub his back comfortingly.
Once he was done, he sat up and moved to sit against the wall, seeing that it was Maggie who was with him. She also moved from her position to sit in front of him, her hand going to his shoulder, while he wiped his mouth with his wrist.
"Feel any better?" Maggie asked. Hal shook his head. Even though his stomach was now empty, he still felt the need to vomit, and his mind couldn't stop racing with what he had just learned. He may now know what was wrong, but he had more questions than ever, and was even more terrified of what the answers were.
"Why don't we get out of here, back to our room?" Maggie suggested, but Hal saw a few flaws in that plan.
"My Dad, and Anne, they'll want to run more tests, try and figure out what they did." Hal pointed out.
"They have the pictures, Anne can use those, and given what we just found out, I don't think anyone would blame you for wanting to be alone right now. Come on, let's go." Maggie told him, and she helped him to his feet. Hal wrapped an arm around her shoulders, feeling as though his legs would collapse under him. Maggie slid her arm around his waist in response.
"Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay." Maggie whispered, and Hal didn't have to point out that she was wrong. She already knew it.
AN – Yes, I'm finally giving you guys some answers. I know, there are still questions but don't worry, we'll get to them in the next couple of chapters.