Disclaimer: Not mine and surely they'll never be.

Ah, been watching a private DA re-run with my 10 year-old brother, who isn't paying much attention to S2 because says S1 was way funnier... he also wonders what the hell happened with Herbal. Yesterday's episode was Hello Goodbye, and despite the odd look he gave while I was sobbing at the final scene, he told me he was sorry Max and Logan broke up... If he knew how many times I've seen that...

Done with that, seems I got inspired for this one after the two months hiatus. I wasn't sure of how moving forward, but I'm doing.

-With the face of the Devil-

Chapter 5: Of Failures and Surprises

January 13, 2022

Somehow, the third floor was always the least occupied in the hospital. The patients who spent their time there were those who could not be accommodated in another area. The oldest nurse, Molly, used to say it was because there were ghosts around there. Jenny doubted of her use of reason, and also of the people who had hired her because the older woman spent much time ensuring she saw things in that place. In addition, Jenny did not believe in ghosts. She might consider that the floor was where they sent evil and abominable human beings as White, but no ghosts.

After the incident with White, Dr. Johnson gave her permission to take a personal day, and flirting with her more than concerned for her welfare, offered her a ride home. Jenny refused, claiming that her boyfriend would stop by her later. Boyfriend, ha! Never before, since her real life began, she had used to have a boyfriend as an excuse to reject a man. Indeed, all the concepts that Manticore had taught her were still very present in her mind, and having a partner was something she hadn't been interested in.

Thus, when the doctor gave up and disappeared from her sight, Jenny slid to the third floor, which was in its usual state of tranquility and solitude, as if frozen in time. Only Molly was there, sitting at the nurses station, praying for the souls who lived there for the eternity. The X5 was looking at her impatiently, behind the door of the bathroom out of service, waiting, dying for Molly to leave and enter the room of the man who haunted her kind.

The waiting was long, boring, and each second her blood boiled more, angry at the man behind the door, angry at herself for not knowing Ames White was there before, even angry at Logan for not having him dead earlier. Her eyes were locked in the greenish door, the cold look in them almost creepy. This could cost her job, which was not only a cover to help her manticorian brothers and sisters, but an escape from the reality it was the world brought to her. Nevertheless, if she got back to that room and killed Ames White, she'd be a fucking heroine. Chances are to be taken, not to be dismissed, she thought. It was the only good damn thing Manticore had taught her.

Desperation won, and quietly, gracefully, she crossed the corridor and went with Molly. How disappointed would the Colonel if he saw her at that moment...

"Hey Molly, what are you doing so late?"

"Sullivan," the woman greeted as usual, calling her by her last name, "the question is what are you doing here so late. Didn't you leave with your boyfriend?" She pointed.

"Nah. He... Billy," she pronounced the first name that crossed her mind, smiling in its mention to make it seem real, "called me, said something came up at work." Supporting her forearm on the old wooden counter, faded by the passing of time and the lack of maintenance, Jenny looked at the clock. It was about 8:30; Molly's turn finished until 9; she still had to spend half an hour before she left. And yet, possibly at that time Candace would be there, replacing the other woman. "Then I thought of coming here. Ultimately, I should be here."

Molly nodded slightly and stayed in silence, holding a rosary between her calloused hands. At this, Jenny could not help rolling her eyes, somewhat amused by the nurse's beliefs; certainly, ghosts wouldn't disappear just because Molly asked that to God; that, if God really existed. "Hey, I was thinking," Jenny commented, startling Molly, whose scared gray eyes were suddenly wide open, as the color drained her face, "sorry. I heard that your daughter and her little kid have come from Tampa to visit you, and I believe maybe you'd like to go home early to spend more time with them. I can stay here waiting for Candace." She offered, the order that she really wanted to give subtly concealed underneath her words.

A breeze down the hall and turned off the dim light of a candle that Molly had lit to pray. Holding even harder the rosarium, now against her chest, the woman refused, shaking her head compulsively. "I can not leave you alone with the demons," she replied with a weak voice.

"Demons?" Jenny's eyes widened, "I'd heard they were the souls of the dead patients." She shuddered, playing down the issue. "Moreover, I've fought demons all my life. There is not much they can do against me." Well, terrorists and soldiers weren't demons, but she had fought against very bad people... or at least she had believed so while in Manticore.

But the other woman scrutinized the candle whose flame had died. "Come on, Molly, you don't really believe in those things, do you?" She traveled the hall's lenght, only to find that the tape that covered part of the broken window had fallen away, the logical reason of the cold breeze. "See? Tape's off, that's all. Go and have fun with the kiddo, make him something delicious for dinner." On her return to the counter, she took another look at watch: it was 8:35, "if you leave now you can take the 8:45 bus." Jenny offered again, almost giving up, with a smile.

The response of the woman didn't arrive to her ears, and Jenny plunged her hand under the collar of her uniform, pulling out a medal, of a virgin, some lady to whom she had never asked for anything, but someone had told her that she always help. "I'll pray to her and I'll ask her for the souls of the dead and to protect me from any demons that still are hanging around here."

Molly almost jumped, excitedly, and fondled the girl in her red hair. "You're an angel," she said gratefully, and took all her things before disappearing in the elevator.

And now, Jenny thought, is showtime.

She stared at the metal door until the number at the top of it changed, and then prepared, in a small syringe, the magic formula she had learned back in Manticore, a substance not detectable in post-mortem examinations. After hiding it in her pocket, took off one of her small earrings, holding in her left hand. She walked with the stealth of a cat, reaching the green door, behind of which was White.

She was ready.

Her hand turned the knob gently, and then an amazing sense of power flooded through her. Her sober face turned happy, grazing on the macabre, while she pushed the door with a slowness that did nothing but increase her level of anxiety.

"Hey there, Jen!"

The earring fell from her hand, into the darkened room, at the surprise of being discovered. She turned his face, only to find Devon, the paramedic that White had beaten before her.

"Hello, Black," she said, referring to him by his last name, as the only good thing she had learned from Molly. "What'cha doing here?" She hissed, nervous, as she crouched down and began looking for the earring.

"You know, if you wanted to come to kill White, it's actually late. He was discharged in the afternoon."

At that time Jenny froze and couldn't stop a giggle, masking her nervousness and failure, of rising in her throat and spreading out of her mouth. "I was looking for my earring," she cocked her head to one side, showing the naked ear. "I think it fell among all the chaos." And then slid the door, allowing the bright light in the hall to illuminate the bed, empty, cold, where White should be. "Wasn't he supposed to be discharged on Monday?"

Devon kneeled, leveling his eyes with Jenny's, and grinned. "You know, it's not as if I hadn't thought about killing him, the son of a bitch kicked me hard." He began to feel the ground, trying to find the little gem that was fulfilling its purpose: her alibi. She was only looking for her earring... "Two of his men came saying that Agent White had to be deployed in the field to continue his work in relation to the trannie threat." He flinched as his hand found the earring, chipping with its tip, and taking it between his forefinger and thumb, put it in one of her delicate hands. "Here you go. And you should begin to call me Devon, for a change. It is bad if you stick to Molly's manners."

Looking at the small and insignificant silver circle in her hand, Jenny gave him what she thought was a grateful smile. "Well, Devon," she said, taking his suggestion, "I think it's time to go," and she pointed to Candace, who arrived complaining about the cold weather and the bus drivers' strike, which had stalled not only the streets, instead it had made her walk to work from her house in Sector 3. "I'll see if Bobby has come for me," and left, waving her hand in the air to both, without even thinking that she had just changed the name of her imaginary boyfriend.

What am I going to do?

The question bounced like a ball within the limits of his head the whole road home. Home, Logan thought, and wasn't able to picture home right then. Home had been the penthouse, home had been Terminal City, but home definitely wasn't going to be the place he was heading to. That was Ames White's home, not his.

Gottlieb and the other agent, whose last name he couldn't remember though he introduced himself in the hospital, glanced at him every once in a while, remaining in a blissful silence. Pain is a phantom of the mind. Max had shared White's belief with him. They couldn't feel pain? That was bullshit. Logan felt in so many ways better than he had ever been before, but pain... Pain was very present.

Thank God, the men were quiet in the front seats, delaying the imminent headache from rising. Burying his back in the leather, Logan hoped to get out of his condition soon.

"Sir?" Gottlieb started, unsure if his boss would be mad at the interruption of his tranquil moment. "Lindemann doesn't want you to be deployed in field ASAP. He says he wants to give you a couple days of rest as well, then get you back at work."

Logan reminded someone else as White's superior. Morgan, the unknown man, seemed to notice his confusion and clarified, "Lindemann is our new boss, Sir. He's replacing Simms."

"That's what the doctor said, he may have trouble remembering the events before his accident." Gottlieb whispered to his partner, who nodded and turned his attention back in the front.

Darkness surrounded the city as the sun went down, and Logan gave a second thought to his barely existent plan. He was, literally and figuratively, in White's shoes, which was going to be a more than strange experience, but as the girl in the dream had told him, it was a chance to help Max. Should I tell her? That was something Logan wasn't able to answer. Would she believe him?

Immersed into his doubts, Logan didn't pay attention to the rest of the route, and, as the black car parked in front of the house, wasn't sure of what to do. There was a lot running his mind, and he didn't view the brunette who down the steps in a blur, trying to reach the gates. He took the backpack Gottlieb gave him in Metro Medical and shoved his hand in one of the pockets of the sport jacket he was wearing, drawing a slim, brand new cellphone. "So, if I need anything, can I call you?" He asked, knowing he need to 'catch up' in several matters before figuring out the rest of his plan.

At this, both agents glared at him, then at each other, before Gottlieb replied his question. "Of course, Sir." He smirked, "But I'm afraid we're leaving you in good hands," and motioned toward him. Logan followed the movement, just in time before the brunnette opened the door and leaned down to kiss him deeply...

TBC...

Too much Jenny, I know, but she'll be necessary.

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