Recoiling from the thing, Nick tried to tear his hand free from it's grasp, but it held on with a death grip, digging her fingernails into his arm. Blood mixed with the dirty water, rising above them in a crimson cloud. Nick felt repulsed as he took in it's sight. It's thin long skeletal arms were just barely covered by an even thinner layer of rotting flesh. Nick could see peices of it's skin floating to the surface as they struggled, some getting tangled in it's long white hair. It's eyes were bulging and blueish white, yet dispite it's look, it sneered at him. O'Malley tried punching the link, and even though his hand was slowed down by the water, when he struck the things face, half of it crumpled around his fist. Nick was conciousness fast as his lungs screamed for air. He tried kicking his way to the surface, but the creature held him down like it took no strength at all.
Kate could hear the water thrashing and thought the worst. She was mortified when she saw her partners weapon laying to her right. He must have dropped it just before he fell in. Without thinking, Kate grabbed both weapons and dove in the hole after him. It was only than that the link let go of her grasp on Nick. Just as it did, Nick saw black, his entire body giving in to unconciousness. He began to drift towards the surface when Kate's arms pulled him up fast. She held his head above water for over two hours, the time it took for her backup unit to locate them.
"Ah, Shawn?" Jonathan gripped the phone, his hand growing sweaty from nerves. "You don't know me, but I'm the new...oh, you do? That's great. Ah, listen, we have a um, situation here and um, we could really use some help." Jonathan stuck his pencil behind his ear and flipped through some pages of his research book. "We originally thought it was a witch, but this isn't like anything I've ever seen before. I was going over some of your notes on the um water link, but there wasn't much there so I was thinking if you could...yeah well Nick thinks he ran into her today but he's not real sure...so I was thinking if you could..." Jonathan sat up in his seat. "You could? That's great. So do you like know when or...yeah, yeah, yeah...that's great. Ok, so we will see you than." Jonathan was about to hang up the phone when Shawn's voice stopped him. "um, yeah? What's that? Oh, yeah, she's still with us. Her and Nick are um, kinda, well, an item." The geek was happy he for once got to be the first to tell someone the news. "Hello?" Silence came from the other side. "Um, hello?" He placed the reciever on the phone and trotted off to the medical lab.
"Aside from being cold, and in need of a dry set of clothes, O'Malley seems to be doing fine. The med people say he most likely took a hard hit to his head on his way down, which is probley the reason you couldn't wake him, but nothing that won't heal in time. Take him home, get him a good night's sleep, detective." Page turned to Kate, looking her up and down. "Get yourself some dry clothes too, Benson. It's not that warm out. And stop dripping on my floor."
"Yes, Sir." Kate wrung her shirt out best she could without taking it off and tried to look professional in front of her boss. Well, as professional as anyone could look resembling a drownd rat.
"And Benson!" The Captain turned around to face her before he left.
"Yes, Sir?" She looked up from squeezing out her shirt.
"That hole was a long ways down. You and O'Malley both are lucky your not dead." He brought his voice down to a tone that showed empathy and compassion, at least for him, and added, "This department is lucky. Now take your boyfriend home and be back here at 8am sharp tomorrow."
"Yes, Sir, and thank you, Sir." Kate couldn't help but smile. The Captain was cute when he tried to be, even though it probley came close to killing him.
"Kate!" Jonathan danced his way goofily over to her. "This is so cool, your not going to believe this. I mean, this is like so entirely cool, it's not even like in the same catagory as cool. It's the coolness of cool. You know like when you were a kid, and the..."
"Jonathan, look at me, I'm soaked. Nick is soaked in there." She pointed to the doors she was just about to walk through before being delayed by him. "We really are dying to get home and take a shower."
"Together?" Carl roamed in the room, apparently pleased with his latest crime of home invasion and burglery.
Kate grimaced at him. "Carl, shut up. Now tell me, Jonathan, what is so "cool?" She did her best to look interested, although she really wasn't.
"Shawn Radman." Jonathan smiled ear to ear, putting his hands on his hips, waiting for to share his enthusiasm.
"Shawn? What about Shawn?" Kate put one hand on the door handle, her silent way of telling him to spit it out, whatever it was.
"Huh? Oh! He's taking a flight tonight. Here. Yeah, he's going to assist us on the link that..."
"Kicked O'Malley's butt tonight!" Carl strained his voice so even Nick could hear him on the other side of the door. Kate frowned down at him.
"Well, not to side with Carl, but yeah, that's what he's doing." Jonathan's smile faded for a second. "Not like I don't know what I'm doing or anything, but ya know, it's always nice to have a new set of ideas on investigative work." Jonathan extended his hands to crack his knuckles, trying to look suave, but failed when no sound came.
"That's great, Jonathan. I'm taking Nick home, but we can catch up with Shawn tomorrow morning, ok?"
Kate flipped on the light and started a pot of coffee for Nick, who was still shaking from the water. Kate had recovered fast from the freezing water, but he still seemed to be struggling at getting his body temperature up to a normal level. "Go hop in the shower and the coffee should be done by the time you get out." Nick nodded and headed off for the bathroom. Kate was worried about him, but she didn't lead on to it. They stayed up for another hour, before Nick said he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Kate wrapped her arms around him and did the best she could to keep him warm.
"Kate, something was down in that water with me before you jumped in. I saw it. It wasn't the water temperature messing with my head, something was there."
Kate held him tighter. "Maybe so, Nick, but don't worry about that now, ok. Just concentrate on getting warmed up. Your still shaking."
At four am, their phone rang. Kate leaned over Nick, who didn't seem to hear it ring, to answer it.
"Benson."
"Kate?"
She recognized the voice of Shawn's. "Shawn, hey, how are you?"
"I'm fine. Listen, you need to get Nick back to headquarters right away, as soon as possible. I'm sorry, Kate, I hope I'm wrong here, but I found out some information, and it's not looking good."
Kate dragged a reluctant Nick out of bed and drove him back to the station. She had no idea what to expect when she got their, she just knew she wasn't going to like it. Trying to keep Nick awake the fifteen minute drive was proving impossible as he continued to doze off. When they arrived, Shawn and Jonathan were outside waiting for them with a team to help them get O'Malley inside.
"It's just as I thought, he can't stay awake." Shawn said as he took a seat, his old seat which was now Jonathan's. "And he won't be able to for the next 48 hours. His body is shutting down from the links poison. Once it fully works through, and his system starts to break down from it, he will be more awake, back to his old self. But even that won't stay true for long."
Kate covered her face with her hand, taking it all in. She didn't notice how her hands were shaking.
"Are you saying, Shawn, that O'Malley will loose his memory shortly?" Page asked, walking around Jonathan to better confront Radman."
"I'm saying Nick will loose partial memory, whatever the link decided to take from him. And we won't know what part until he starts to forget. It's a big waiting game at this point." Shawn could barely look at Kate. He always had a crush on her, and looking at her wasn't a task he found hard to do, but seeing her like this was a bit more than he could take. He avoided her eyes like the plague.
Kate took her hand from her face and did her best to compose herself and think. She was no good to Nick if she didn't try to stay on the right path. "Is there any good news, Shawn? Do we know how to reverse it?"
"We know how to stahl for time." Shawn said with a sigh. "I wish there was more I could tell you, but unless we have the link here, to examine, there's not much we can do."
"Shawn. Is Nick going to die?"
"No. The poison isn't lethal. And it doesn't progress after time. The amount of memory the link took is all she can take, unless of course she attacked him again. "The markings or scratches on his arm where she grabbed him don't give us much help. It could be a little or a lot. But no, he won't die from it, Kate."
Kate walked away. If she didn't, she would have broken down in front of everyone.
"Shawn, did you bring Benson up to date on the information you've gathered?" Page reentered the group.
"I did. I don't know how she took it, though."
The Captain nodded in understanding. "Benson is strong, and she has Nick to keep her mind in check, she will do well. Right now we need to get a team in check and bring this foul beast into our custody. Any ideas on where to find this thing now or how to catch it when we do find it?"
"Yes, I do know." Shawn flipped through his notes and handed Page an illustration. "It's my design, it's similar to what fishermen use, the nets, only much much stronger. The link, or Helena, as I like to call her..."
"Helena?" The Captain questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey, some people name comets, some name hurricanes, I name links. Helena seemed fitting." Shawn almost seemed insulted by the look he was recieving by his old superior. "Helena, as I was saying, will basically not move from her dwelling, because she see's it as a fit and successful hiding spot. I mean, why move when you just nailed another victim, right? If we can get a team around this water filled shaft, lower it down somehow, and surround her, she's as good as ours." Radman smoothly shut his notebook with one hand and picked up a rubber band to play with. "So who's doing the research on her?"
Jonathan, who was listening intently to this discussion, suddenly sat straight up, hoping to get noticed by the Captain. He raised his eyebrows in hopes of hearing his name called. The Captain glanced around at all the faces. When his eyes rested on Jonathan's, he frowned. "Something bothering you, Jonathan?"
"Huh? Uh, no Sir. I was just thinking that I could do the ah...the um...research on it."
"Helena." Radman corrected.
Jonathan pointed his finger at Shawn. "Right, gotcha, Helena. Um, so what do you say, Sir? Could I ah...do it?"
Page looked unimpressed by the young mans eagerness. He gave a look of offering to Radman, who refused the offer by holding up his hands, as if warding off some invisible assault. "I guess it's yours, Jonathan. Work with the medical staff, and remember, this thing has infected one of our own. You will not screw this up! Is that understood?"
"Yes, Sir, Captain!" Jonathan saluted the man and smiled like a dork at Shawn.
"Say, when you took over my desk here, did you happen to find a Luke SkyWalker action figure?"
Jonathan looked glum. "Um, why, was that yours or something?" He put his hands on his hips, trying too look tough and defensive. Shawn looked annoyed.
"Yeah."
"Oh..." Now Jonathan just looked pathetic and crushed at the fact he would have to return the figure. "Yeah, I did find it. I suppose you want it back or something?"