Jack was only a step behind Doc Carl as they arrived running to Mac's room. Jack looked down and felt a clamp of fear squeeze his heart. Mac's face was so pale his typically light eye brows looked dark, and Jack swore he could see every blood vessel under his skin. He looked up at Jack his eyes barely focused. Jack was shoved back as his partner's eyes slid closed. The monitor beside the bed was flashing red, but the alarm had been turned off. Sally and Lenny were running around the bed as Doctor Carl rattled off orders. Sally brought out a large kit of some kind. The doc put on gloves and masks like he was going to do surgery. Jack stepped forward almost panicking. Carl looked up at him, although an oxygen mask covered the bottom half of his face, Jack guessed he was offering a reassuring smile.
"It's ok, Jack we just have to put in a PICC line." Jack opened his mouth to ask. Lenny turned as he carefully opened the kit, so the contents and doctor's gloves remained sterile.
"It's an IV from hell." Jack didn't like the excited tone in the man's voice. Jack realized that all medical people were a little touched in the head, a bit like Special Forces soldiers he guessed.
"We'll be able to give him some nutrition through the PICC line." Sally offered.
"You can't put a tube down his nose?" Jack had seen them do that after the theater battle.*
"Anything in his gut would upset the neural system…" Doc Carl began leaning over Mac's arm which was now gowned and yellowed by Betadine.
"The brain in the belly," Jack said pleased with himself- a guy who failed pretty much any science he ever came across. His smile when the doctor pulled out the needle for the PICC line. Jack's right arm covered his left inner elbow in unconscious sympathy.
"Holy shit!" He blurted. "I've seen smaller needles used in torture." Jack heard the three medics chuckle.
"It's a bronchial port. It lasts longer than an IV, and we can put a lot more through it." Sally said stepping back, so she stood beside Jack. Jack watched in fascinated horror as the doctor ran a wire two feet long through the needle. Lenny left at a run. Jack glanced at Sally. "Before we can use it we have to take a x-ray make sure it's placed ok and not in danger of puncturing the vessel or his heart."
"His heart! I wish you hadn't told me that." Jack said absently biting the cuticle around his thumb.
"It's just a precaution. We need to get some nutrients in." Jack didn't like the worry wrinkling her forehead. He put a hand on her shoulder and waited until she looked up at him.
"Sally? Tell me the truth. What's going on?" Sally glanced away and took a deep breath.
"His heart went into an abnormal rhythm and caused a cardiac spasm. He is critically low on electrolytes and a host of other stuff." Jack glanced at the monitor which was still flashing.
"Is he going to be alright?"
"The fluids we have going are settling his heart down and supporting his blood pressure so we can give him some nitro…"
"Nitro? Isn't that what they give to folks with heart attacks?" Sally nodded. "Is he going to be alright?" Sally frowned, it was Doc Carl who had pulled off his mask and gloves studying the transparent dressing over the bottom of the port and Mac's arm.
"He's almost stabilized. We need to find out the specific neurotoxin they used to cure him." Doc Call stepped back as Lenny pushed in a portable Xray machine. The doctor, Sally, and Jack stepped out into the hallway.
"Did you test the meds I brought?" Jack asked. Doc Carl nodded and ran his fingers through his curly hair. He had a damp forehead and upper lip.
"They all checked out ok. What else has Mac taken in?" Jack frowned.
"About two bites of Bozer's waffles and Primavera." The three stood in silence for a long minute. Jack half turned as Lenny stepped out beside them and pushed a button. They heard a whir then clunk. Lenny went in and came out pushing the Xray machine back the way he'd come.
"I'll get the plates up in a few minutes, he called." Doc Carl waved a hand and went back inside Mac's room. Sally automatically started cleaning up the debris from the PICC insertion, bags of IV fluids, tubes and other stuff Jack didn't recognize. Jack let out a long breath relaxing his shoulders as the monitor stopped flashing and showed a regular spike and squiggle on the line. Sally glanced over at him with a grin. Jack nodded and wiped his face with his hand. He looked up as a young girl wheeled in a cart full of a big white bag of fluids and several smaller bags with tubes of dry medicine dangling from the liquid.
"Hey, Chelsea," Jack said tiredly. The girl, woman, Jack corrected himself-they weren't that young, he was just that old, was a tall, gangly pharmacist with a wild mane of tight summer blond curls and green eyes that were wide apart enough to give her an unusual, hypnotizing look.
"Jack." Chelsea greeted with a heavy Georgian drawl. "Here Doc I got your TPN." Doc Carl nodded absently. Sally took all of the IV bags with the same delight a child opening Christmas gifts had. Jack glanced at Chelsea and shook his head Chelsea grinned and left. Jack watched Sally and the doc work together babbling in medical code as they set up more bags attached to pumps they programmed. Jack was impressed and relieved. Like everyone else in Phoenix, the medical staff was the best and committed to their jobs. Jack thought about the multitude of times he and Mac had been through medical. Jack promised that from now on he would give them less of a hard time.
All of their attention was drawn to Mac as he slowly blinked open his eyes. He frowned and ran a hand across his chest.
"How do you feel?" Doc Carl asked. Mac blinked him into focus and offered a weak smile.
"I'm all right." He whispered licking his dry lips. Sally leaned forward with a cup of ice water as the doc raised the head of the bed up. Mac sucked the cup dry in seconds and his eyes begged for more.
"You are thirs…"
"Water!" Jack blurted running forward. The other three looked at him surprised. Mac rubbed his eyes and looked down at his new PICC with a scowl.
"Jack?" Sally asked. Jack leaned on the foot of Mac's bed.
"That's the only other thing Mac took in, three bottles of water!"
"Did they come from the pharmacy?" Mac asked yawning.
"Two of them did."
"If they put it in water…" Doc Carl said, his voice losing some of his usual calm. Sally and Jack stared at him in horror picturing the thousands of people who drank bottled water a day.
"I think it's in only a small supply," Mac said closing his eyes in a yawn. He blinked to see three sets of eyes staring at him with impatience. "Think about it, if they were going to do a massive poisoning in bottled water there'd be a hell of a lot more cases and if this is a test run they want to stay under the radar."
"You think your exposure was an accident?" Sally said raising an eyebrow. Mac shrugged.
"It would explain why all the suits were stripping the pharmacy, but wouldn't they know it was in the water?" Jack asked. Mac laid his head back and frowned.
"It's possible they didn't know and wanted to test everything, or they knew and wanted it to look like the store had just closed down." A thought occurred to Mac. He looked over to Doc Carl. "What bacteria did they use to get the antitoxin?"
"We don't know the specific bacteria, but it's one of the ones associated with Lyme disease…"
"Lyme disease!" Mac bolted upright in shock. He moaned and put a hand to his forehead. The others looked at each other in surprise. Mac laid his head back down and took deep breaths.
"Mac?" Jack prompted. Mac spoke with his eyes closed.
"When we were taking down Valhalla I came across a program called Project Tantalus. It didn't have a lot of specifics, but it mentioned a facility on Plum Island that leaked Lyme disease to the mainland that closed down." He opened his eyes and met Jack's. "Of course we know by experience…"
"CIA projects never completely go away. Shit." Jack huffed and ran a hand through his hair. "I thought we were done with Valhalla."
"This might be something completely different," Mac said thoughtfully. Jack looked up smiling.
"I recognize that look in your eye, whatcha thinking?" Mac smiled weakly at his partner.
"We have the perfect resource to find out." Jack frowned a long minute. Mac stared at him waiting. Jack laughed and nodded.
"That we do. I guess we got more than just green slime out of Green Bay." Jack said. Mac scowled. "What? That wasn't a pun." Mac leaned back and looked at Sally.
"Save me." Sally laughed shooing the other men out of the room.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ritchie Barrister didn't look anything like the New Jersey bookie he'd started out as fifteen years ago. Jack paced back and forth eyeing the man with barely controlled hostility. The man watched him cowering. He wore the familiar bright orange clothes of a prisoner and had his hands cuffed to the table. Barrister was thin and had a long bulbous nose and bushy uncontrolled rat brown eyebrows which twitched with every step Jack took. His left eye was swollen and darkened, and a bandage crossed the bridge of his nose. A brace covered his right hand and wrist.
Matty stood looking at the suspicious man and smiled sitting down across from him.
"Hello, Ritchie." She started sweetly. Jack slowly came over to the table and glared down at the man who ducked lower in his seat. Jack smiled, pulled out the chair and turned it around sitting on it backward.
"What do you want?" Barrister whined. "I already answered all of your questions."
"I know Ritchie, you've been super helpful. We just have a couple of teeny tiny questions for you." Matty said. Jack held up his right hand his thumb an inch away from his index finger.
"Just teeny tiny ones." He said Jack's smile would have looked at home on a hungry shark. Barrister swallowed his prominent Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Matty gave him the full force of her gaze.
"Project Tantalus." She said slowly crossing her hands on the table in front of her. Barrister's eyes scoured the room for a way out.
"I...I don't know anything." The man's voice had raised another octave. Jack frowned.
"Do you want to do this dance again," Jack asked rubbing his right hand's knuckles with his left. Barrister paled.
"Look, they're crazy!" The man hissed softly bending forward as if hiding from someone behind him.
"The CIA?" Jack asked frowning.
"CIA? Nah man, the fricking Bosnians. Do you know what they do to squealers." Jack nodded. He had a pretty good idea what the Bosnian mafia did to people who crossed them.
"So I guess you better start talking," Matty said sitting back. Her smile belonged to a hunting cat. "We wouldn't want them to know how much you told us already do you?" Barrister leaned forward his eyes full.
"I didn't say anything about them!"
"See Ritchie that's the problem. I know that you know that, Matty knows that, but the mafiosos don't." Jack said tilting his head and laying it on his crossed arms. Barrister's eyes glittered with fear.
"Look, I don't know anything." He panted with desperation.
"Ritchie...come on, dude?" Jack drawled holding out his hands.
"I don't! Not really. I know the Bosnians were transporting something for the CIA and double crossed them, that's all I know. I swear!" Matty and Jack shared a long look. "I SWEAR!" Jack smiled leaned forward and pounded the table. Barrister yelped and backed away. He would have fallen if the handcuffs hadn't held him up. Jack laughed and followed Matty out of the cell. They stood watching the man crumble into a pile through the window.
"I think he's telling the truth," Jack said softly. Matty nodded and pushed a strand of hair back from her face. She led the way back to the war room.
"So what's next?" Jack asked running his hand through his hair and yawning. Matty turned to look at him and frowned.
"I have Riley getting info on the Bosnian Consulate. Tomorrow I think Bozer and I are going to make an official call on our fellow diplomats." Jack raised his eyebrows.
"You and Bozer?" Jack chuckled. "Can't wait to see that."
"Good because you and Riley are going to break into the back door and find out what they're hiding. We can't do anything until morning." Matty said. Jack nodded turning toward the elevator. Matty opened her mouth to order him to go home and rest. She sighed and shrugged deciding she was too tired to waste her breath.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mac watched the sky slowly turn gray streaked with reds. It looked like a wolf's fur ripped open by claws. Mac swallowed and slowly chewed on ice chips. The floor outside the room was quiet, hushed. Mac felt like he was hidden away from life, from the rest of the universe. He rubbed an eye and dried his face for the millionth time. Before they had left for the night, Lenny and Sally had given him a whole bed and clothing change.
Mac sighed. He felt the dim light and silence creep inside. Mac closed his eyes dearly wishing Mac could sleep. Mac felt better than he had, how could he feel worse? But Ma felt limp, thick, hollow. Mac turned and stared at the TV; he'd turned down the volume. The noise had given him a headache, and he couldn't concentrate. Mac tried to focus, to think about the case but Mac might as well have tried squeezing water. He smacked the side rail in frustration wincing as the skin on the side of his hand bruised. He rubbed his fingers across his forehead, but the steel prongs were digging into his temples wouldn't ease.
Mac heard a distant ding and smiled turning to face the door, his heart speeding up with excitement. He heard the familiar plodding of boots and leaned over to raise the head of his bed up more. Jack looked up startled at the door. Mac chuckled. Jack smiled and crossed to the bed holding out a hand. Mac slapped it.
"Well, my man, you look great," Jack said eyeing him from head to toe. Mac shrugged and spooned in another scoop of ice chips. Jack leaned in and frowned. The ice chips were a bright red which left Mac with punch teeth and lips. "What the hell is that?" Mac grinned.
"Bozer stopped by earlier and gave me that." Jack followed Mac's finger to a spray bottle that was full of red liquid. Jack opened it and sniffed.
"Koolaid?" Mac nodded as he crunched ice. He swallowed.
"Doc Carl wants to control my intake," Mac vaguely waved at the forest of IV bags dripping into him. "So I only get so many ice chips, Bozer came up with the Koolaid idea to at least let me think I'm eating something." Jack nodded and studied Mac carefully as he set the spray bottle down. The younger man was still pale and appeared more cheerful. Jack sighed. He knew his partner could fool everyone else, but the ragged edges were quickly apparent to Jack. Jack could see the haunted shadow, the tightness in his cheeks and eyes. The still shadow Mac sunk into when he looked away. Jack stretched and shed his jean jacket. Mac was holding on by his fingertips. Jack crossed the bed looking up at the TV as he went and sat in the chair beside the bed kicking out of his boots and resting his feet up on the side of the bed.
Mac absently handed him the remote. Jack raised an eye brow.
"What's on?" Jack asked. Mac shrugged and mopped his face with the wash cloth. Jack wondered how long he's stayed awake. "Ok, well let's see." He clicked on the volume and flipped through the channel. Jack found a movie with Vin Diesel in it. He glanced at Mac who offered a small smile and nodded. Jack sat back and sighed. Mac reached over to the table beside him and scooped ice into a cup then spritzed it with Koolaid. He handed it to Jack. Jack nodded. It was pretty good. He leaned back munching on ice. Jack felt Mac staring at him. He turned worried. The kid's eyes were glistening with unshed tears.
"What? What's wrong?" Jack asked. Mac smiled and shook his head. For the first time, Jack thought it was a genuine smile.
"Nothing, Jack. Nothing's wrong." Jack nodded and sat back relaxing.
*In my story Insomnia, prequel to Valhalla