Author's note at the end of this fic to avoid spoilers.
They were closing in on him, he knew.
He'd evaded them initially thanks to the element of surprise, but they'd recovered remarkably quickly and were hot on his trail again.
He could try to run, but the building was locked down, and there were only so many places he could hide before they'd find him. They knew him far too well to let him escape them for long.
After all, he was one of them, or had been until mere minutes ago, and all of them were accustomed to hunting down targets in their line of work.
He'd laugh at the irony if his life wasn't on the line.
"Spread out and find him," ordered a familiar voice. "You two search this floor. I'll check upstairs."
As he listened to the thundering footsteps running past his hiding spot, his heart sank. The one person he trusted above all others was involved in this too. Worse yet, he was the one giving orders to the other agents.
"Traitor…" He hissed under his breath.
"Did you hear that?"
Damn it!
Holding his breath, he pulled his knees up to his chest, huddling as closely as he could against the inner back wall of the cupboard he was hiding in. With his ear pressed against the side of the cupboard, he listened intently, willing his pounding heart to stop racing.
"Hear what?"
"I thought I heard a hissing noise." The sound of footsteps grew louder, stopping dangerously near his cupboard.
Go away… There's nothing here…
"I don't hear anything. Are you sure you didn't imagine it?" The voice sounded sceptical.
That's right, there's nothing to see here… Come on, leave!
"I could have sworn…" The other speaker sounded doubtful now.
They were on the verge of leaving again, he knew. He just needed to stay absolutely silent for a few moments more, and they would be gone.
It was then that he realised, to his horror, that he desperately needed to sneeze.
…No…!
"Maybe you're right. We should—"
"AH CHOO!"
DAMN IT!
"There!"
In an instant, the doors of his cupboard were thrown open and light flooded in.
With a panicked yell, he twisted to avoid the grip of his captors, lashing out with a well–aimed fist and catching the taller man squarely in the gut.
"Oof!" Winded, his would–be captor fell back half a step, and he took the opportunity to try to slip past him…
Only to have the shorter man grab hold of his arms with an iron grip, tackling him to the ground.
"I've got him! Secure his legs!"
He struggled futilely, desperately trying to break free, but to no avail. Another pair of hands clamped down on his legs, robbing him of his last shred of hope.
"No… NO!"
15 minutes earlier
One of the first things you learn as a VSSE agent is that there is no such thing as a quiet day.
Even if you aren't halfway across the world fighting terrorists, giant robots or Wild Dog, one must always remain vigilant and prepared for danger.
Somehow, Evan hadn't expected that to apply to a boring day stuck inside VSSE HQ filing paperwork.
It was just past lunch, and he and Giorgio were tackling a massive stack of files and mission reports at their desks.
For someone as active as Evan, this was essentially the equivalent of a slow, painful death. Or so it felt at the moment.
Even Giorgio, who was supposed to be the more responsible one, was looking incredibly bored as he half–heartedly scribbled something in the file he was reading.
Sighing, Evan found himself wishing for something interesting to break up the monotony of their work day.
In hindsight, it probably wasn't wise for him to tempt fate like that.
The loud blaring of an alarm cut through the fog in his mind and sent him jumping to his feet. From the corner of his eye, he saw his suddenly alert partner doing the same.
"All agents, we have a code 504. Regular field agents, do not engage unless you wish to lose your limbs. Repeat, we have a code 504."
Evan recognised the crackling voice on the intercom as that of the infirmary's head doctor, but the code she mentioned didn't ring a bell.
"Code 504… Was that… Rogue agent on the loose?!" Suddenly nervous, he found himself involuntarily reaching for the gun he wasn't carrying at the moment.
Giorgio shook his head. "No, that's 502. 504 is… It sounds familiar, but…Wait. Isn't this the week that all of us are supposed to be getting our medical checkups?"
"Uh, yeah… Why?" Evan replied, perplexed by the abrupt change of topic.
His partner sighed heavily, visibly relaxing. "Come on, let's head to the infirmary. We need to meet Alan."
"Wait what? Why?" He jogged to keep up with Giorgio, who was hurrying towards the entrance of the office with a thoroughly annoyed look on his face.
"Code 504 means Wesley's done a runner, and we need to go hunt him down and drag him back," Giorgio explained.
The explanation left Evan no less confused. "What do you mean, 'done a runner'?"
"Heck if I know either. Probably some rookie nurse messed up, and he freaked out and bolted before they could stop him."
"Gi, wait." Evan put a hand on his partner's arm, stopping him. "I don't understand what you're talking about at all. What is Wesley running from?"
"His medical checkup of course, what else?" Giorgio replied, looking surprised.
Evan couldn't believe his ears. "He… What?! Why?!"
Granted, Evan was a relatively new recruit of the VSSE, but he knew the older agent well enough to know that this sounded like incredibly strange behaviour for Wesley.
Giorgio gave him a strange look. "Well, he's afraid of needles, isn't he?"
"He is?!" Evan gaped.
"I guess Alan and Wesley didn't tell you that story then? Come on, walk and talk. I'll explain along the way. And before you ask, Alan told me about it sometime ago when we were hanging out."
As they resumed their hurried pace towards the infirmary, Giorgio began to explain.
"You know how we all had to undergo a full medical check–up when we first joined, including vaccinations? Well, I wasn't here yet, but apparently when Alan and Wesley joined, Wesley had a huge freak out when they were supposed to get a flu jab and ran off."
"The building went into lockdown for five hours, and several agents ended up with bruises from trying to capture Wesley. Some smartass, probably Agent Martin, even suggested using 'Wesley during vaccinations' as a training scenario for rookie agents."
Evan tried to reconcile the image of cool, "protective big brother" Wesley and his somewhat wicked sense of humour with the crazed maniac Giorgio was describing.
"Are you sure? I mean…"
"Trust me, you'll see for yourself later," Giorgio interrupted wearily.
"Anyway, since we have to get updated vaccinations at our yearly checkups, the agency eventually figured out a smoother way of dealing with this so we don't have to play 'Hunt the Wesley' every single year."
"Basically, after the rest of the checkup is finished, the doctors use anaesthetic gas to knock Wesley out and give him his shot while he's unconscious. It's more the expectation and dread of seeing the needle than the actual sensation that freaks him out, so putting Wesley to sleep first helps to circumvent the issue somewhat."
"Obviously, something must have gone wrong this time. Hence the red alert."
At this point, they arrived at the infirmary to see a harried–looking Alan standing in the doorway, with the infirmary in chaos behind him.
Doctors were barking orders, medical personnel were hurrying across the room, and one very flustered rookie nurse with what appeared to be a recently broken and taped–over nose was apparently being chewed out by his supervisor.
"Giorgio, Evan. Thanks for coming. The other Crisis Agents aren't around today, so we'll have to split up and find Wesley as soon as we can." Alan scrubbed a hand across his face as he let out a huge sigh.
"What happened?" Giorgio asked.
Alan gestured towards the rookie nurse. "There was a mix–up. The kid here didn't get the memo, tried to get Wesley ready for the jab while he was still sitting and waiting."
"Wesley freaked, swung at the kid, broke his nose and then ran for it. I was still in the middle of my own checkup, so I wasn't able to stop him before he fled."
"How many times has this happened?" Evan asked as the trio headed back towards the office block.
"Excluding the first time, just once, before we figured out the best way to work around the issue," Alan replied.
"And yet we have a dedicated code for this scenario?"
"To be fair, we also have a dedicated code for Cthulhu rising from the depths and flooding the whole world. Code 641," Giorgio said drily.
"WHAT?!" Evan gaped at him, momentarily speechless.
"That's not a thing. You're just messing with me, right?"
"You'll never know," was Giorgio's only reply, a faint smirk tugging at his lips.
Present
"Damn it Wesley, stop struggling!" Giorgio snarled, wincing at the pain in his stomach.
"Let go of me!"
Sighing in exasperation, Giorgio tightened his grip, turning his head to look at Evan as the younger agent hung up his phone.
"Alan's on his way back down," Evan reported.
"Traitors, all of you…" Wesley glared at both of them from his position on the floor. A feat made harder by the fact that Giorgio was still restraining Wesley to keep him from taking a swing at either of them or running off again.
"Look, we'll get you back down there, put you to sleep and get this over with quickly so we can all get on with our lives, alright?" Giorgio suggested.
And at least you don't need to have your blood drawn today, he thought but didn't say. The last thing Wesley needed was to be freaked out even more by flippant comments like that.
"Wesley, there you are, finally." Alan jogged up to the trio, looking both relieved and annoyed.
"Alan, how could you?!" Wesley cried out, looking wounded and betrayed. "My best friend and partner!"
Alan folded his arms, giving his partner an unimpressed look.
"Wesley, you know this is standard procedure. You're already getting special treatment as it is. Nobody likes needles, but you don't see the rest of us making such a fuss about our annual vaccinations."
"Making a fuss?! There's nothing irrational about not wanting to be jabbed with a sharp, pointy…"
At this, Giorgio realised Wesley had stopped fighting his grip and was beginning to shake like a leaf instead.
Exchanging a look with Evan and Alan, he cautiously loosened his hold on Wesley, helping him into a sitting position. Alan took a seat beside Wesley on the ground, gently rubbing a soothing hand up and down his back. Evan hung back awkwardly, unsure of what to do.
The silence in the room stretched on for several long moments, punctuated only by Wesley's sniffling.
"…I know it's stupid and childish of me," he finally said. "I just… I… When I feel the antiseptic being applied, I know what's coming, and I tense up really hard. And of course they always tell me to relax and not be so tense, but that just makes me tense up even more."
"I didn't mean to hurt anyone this time, or the time before that, or the time before that either. But when I'm that freaked out my body just… reacts. It's like being in the middle of a firefight and knowing you're about to get shot. Your fight or flight instinct kicks in."
"And I can't run while I'm surrounded like that, so I just… start swinging and then run as fast as I can, until my body tells me I can feel safe again."
"Have you tried talking to a therapist about this?" Giorgio asked.
"This coming from the guy who made the agency's psychologist quit after one session of dealing with you?" Wesley spat venomously.
The words echoed in the stunned silence that followed. Giorgio's eyes were wide, lips parted slightly in shock.
"… Oh God, that wasn't… I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry…" Wesley clapped his hands over his mouth, looking horrified and disgusted with himself.
It was only recently that the younger agent had opened up to his friends about his past and the emotional baggage that it had caused him to develop as a result. To have deliberately thrown his issues in his face like that was a far crueller act than Wesley had thought himself capable of.
Giorgio closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath, then opened his eyes and looked squarely at Wesley again.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, because I know you didn't mean it. But if you ever say that again…"
"I know, I'm sorry. That was cruel of me and uncalled for." Wesley blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill forth.
Why do I keep messing things up today?!
"Apology accepted then." Giorgio swallowed the hurt that he'd felt at Wesley's words, returning to the matter at hand.
"As for your question…" Wesley continued. "I've tried, yes. It hasn't helped though. I've tried learning coping methods and techniques, but as soon as I get within range of a needle, all rational thought leaves my mind completely and I just freeze up and freak out."
"In the end, the only solution is for the agency to waste time and resources by putting me to sleep, like I'm some deranged animal at the vet's office. I'm a coward and a jackass," Wesley concluded.
There was a moment of silence, then Evan spoke up.
"I don't think that's true. You may be scared of needles, but that doesn't mean you're a coward. A coward wouldn't be putting his life on the line to protect others and keep the world safe, after all," he pointed out.
"As for being a jackass…" Giorgio interjected. "Well, all of us can be jackasses at times, right? Besides, we tend to lash out when we feel cornered and scared. Doesn't mean it's right, but it's human. Just gotta apologise and try to do better next time."
"…Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Thanks guys." Wesley swiped a hand across his face, wiping away the lingering tears.
"Come on, we should go back. They're preparing the anaesthetic gas right now." Alan got to his feet, offering Wesley a hand.
"…Alright." The needle–phobic agent pressed his lips together, trying to look brave even though he was still trembling slightly.
"Want me to hold your hand on the way back?" Alan offered.
Wesley flushed, looking embarrassed, but as they began walking out of the office, he slipped his right hand into Alan's left hand, squeezing hard.
Alan didn't seem to mind, squeezing his hand back reassuringly. Evan put a comforting hand on Wesley's back as he walked, with Giorgio trailing close behind them.
"I have a lot of apologising to do after this, I know," Wesley admitted. "I'll probably be buying apology drinks for at least half the infirmary staff."
"They'll forgive you eventually, I'm sure," Alan said reassuringly. "Besides, at least it's not as bad as the time that Keith nearly blew up the training rooms by accident."
"WHAT?!" Evan shouted. "Okay, now I KNOW you guys have to be messing with me. There's no way…"
As the four agents made their way back towards the infirmary, Wesley found himself smiling a bit in spite of his fear.
Perhaps I'll be alright after all.
What's this? For once, Giorgio *isn't* the star of this oneshot, unlike in (most of) the rest of my fics.
This fic was written in two hours the night before I got my second Covid booster jab (OW!). Did I mention I am TERRIFIED of needles? Since misery loves company, I decided Wesley should share my pain and gave him a needle–phobia of his own to match mine, with the exception that I don't freak out as *violently* as Wesley does.
The opening section of the fic was the first thing I thought of. I tried to make it sound as ambiguous as possible so you'd read it thinking it was a high-stakes situation and not realise it's just Wesley being a massive drama queen until you read the second part.
I have no idea whether you can give an injection to someone who's under anaesthesia, but I dearly wish that was an option to make life less terrifying. Let's just pretend that the VSSE can afford to waste a bit of resources to prevent Wesley from incapacitating half the agency every year.
Wesley's complaints about being told to relax are my own. Seriously, telling a freaked–out needle–phobe to relax and not tense up so much because it'll hurt more is… Spoiler alert… Just going to make them tense up even more!
As for why this fic is marked as being part of my Temporal Fates universe, two reasons:
1) Wesley's characterisation of being terrified of needles is part of my headcanon worldbuilding stuff, and since I've been using various parts of Temporal Fates for the headcanons I reference in other fics, I figured I might as well put it in together.
2) Timeline–wise, this takes place in an ambiguous "in–between" time period. I personally imagine it taking place as a constant in every universe sometime between the start of Giorgio and Evan's partnership and the events of TC4 (ie. sometime after Chapter 9 of Temporal Fates), though you don't have to read Temporal Fates to understand this fic.