"Here's how this is going to work," Amelia began, "it's going to be an open Q&A forum. You all can answer anything you like but if the answer involves Reiden Global, defer it to Jamie. You may not explicitly discuss the immunity deals or the non-disclosure agreements. Everyone clear? Good. Remember, some of these reporters are going to be on the attack, possibly an attempt by Reiden to discredit you. If you stand your ground, the public will respect you for it. You have the evidence on your side. You've all waited a long time to be recognized for your accomplishments. Now is your chance to get it all out there. If you play your cards right, public pressure should lead to the government dropping the restrictions on you."

She walked them into the press room and showed them the table being prepared.

"Assigned seating," Mitch noted. "How very third grade of them."

Amelia didn't miss a beat. "You can sit wherever you like. Just move the name cards."

They returned to the green room for the last minute preparations. Jamie couldn't sit still.

"Why are you so nervous?" Mitch asked. "You look great, you know your material, you're going to be fine. You got this."

He tried to keep his argument with Audra out of his mind, but it kept pushing its way back to the forefront. How dare she judge Jamie when she'd never met her? If she wanted to judge him, that was fine; she had ample evidence from which to draw her conclusions. But she'd damn well better leave Jamie out of it.

He was snapped from his thoughts by Chloe propping her laptop on the desk.

"To make sure you are all in the right frame of mind, I smuggled this video. Here's what was about to happen if we didn't find the cure. For your viewing pleasure, 'Project Noah', courtesy of Reiden Global."

While they had all heard about the plan, no one but Chloe had actually seen the commercial. They all stood dumbfounded as it played.

"Well, that was…nauseating," Mitch declared. "Like a bad Saturday Night Live skit."

"Come on," Abe said. "At Reiden Global their most precious resource is you."

"I don't even know where to start with that," Jamie stammered. "So much wrong, on so many levels."

"Kill all you want," Mitch snarked. "We'll make more."

"Just makes you all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?" Jackson agreed.

On their cue, they filed back to the press room and sat at the semi-circular table behind their respective name cards. Abraham Kenyatta, Jamie Campbell Morgan, Dr. Mitchell Morgan, Jackson Oz, and Chloe Tousignant.

Brief introductions and an opening statement were made, then the forum was opened to questions.

One by one, the reporters stood: "Dr Morgan, it's said that you used a coffee pot to isolate an unusual bacteria in wolves that attacked the prison in Alabama. Can you elaborate?"

"The coffee pot thing ended up giving us no useful information," Mitch answered. "We don't believe it affected the behavior of the wolves at all, it was the identification of the bacteria that yielded results. But if anyone's kid needs a really cool science fair idea, feel free to shoot me an email. Though I'll add the caveat that it did cost us a pretty hefty tip for the hotel maid."

"Yeah, um, when can we get reimbursed for that?" Jackson joked.

Reporter: "So what was the significance of the identification of the bacteria?"

"I believe Jamie may be better able to answer that," said Chloe.

"The bacteria led us to its creator, a man named Leo Butler. As you've seen, Mr. Butler kept meticulous records. Without that bacteria, we don't find Leo. Without Leo, we don't find the mother cell that he'd appropriated from Reiden global. Without the mother cell, we don't have a cure," Jamie told them.

Reporter: "Mr. Oz, you were the only witness to the murder of Special Agent Shaffer, is that true?"

"Yes and no," Jackson said. "Yes, I was there and saw the whole thing. No, it most definitely was not murder."

Reporter: "So, what exactly was it?"

"Self-defense. Agent Shaffer was attempting to steal the mother cell. He had already assaulted Jamie and left her tied up. I confronted him in the stairwell, and he got the best of me. He dropped his gun on the stairs in the struggle. I was down and he kept hitting, until Jamie got free and got there and yelled for him to get off me. He started to move toward her, she was cornered and she shot him. She saved both of our lives, and who knows how many more she saved by keeping the mother cell from falling into the wrong hands."

Reporter: "Who would that be? Who was he working for?"

Jackson winked. "No comment."

Reporter:"Ms. Tousignant, can you respond to rumors that your team was actually assembled by none other than Reiden Global?"

"I will not," Chloe replied, "but Jamie will."

"We were hired by men that we later learned were, indeed, on Reiden's payroll. We can only speculate on why exactly they did that."

Reporter: "Are any of you concerned at all that the virus could spread to humans?"

"I think Mitch would like this one," Chloe answered tersely.

"It's not a virus. It's a cellular mutation." Mitch informed the room, irritation obvious in his voice. "Thus far, we've only seen one human affected, and we—"

The reporter interrupted confrontationally: "You say it's not a virus, then you use the word 'infected'."

Mitch gave his best 'I'm going to eat you alive' glare. "No. I said affected, not infected. Entirely different words with entirely different meanings. May I finish? We've only seen one human affected, and we suspect that it didn't occur naturally. We don't know how or why that was done to him. As far as the question of whether humans could receive it from saliva in animal bites, or even from scratches, I suppose it's theoretically possible, but we've seen absolutely no evidence of that."

"Also," Abe chimed in, "the cure will find its way into the water supply, so humans will get it too. All of the bases should be covered."

Reporter: "My question is for Dr. Morgan. One of the rumors circulating that is not in the article insinuates that you actually betrayed your colleagues at one point and cut a deal with Reiden Global to return the mother cell to them. Can you clear that up for the record?"

Mitch leaned forward in his seat. Damned non-disclosure. He very much wanted to speak to this issue. " I would really like to answer that question…but I won't."

Reporter: "Gag order?"

"No comment," Mitch said dryly. "However, if Jamie would like to address it, I'm fine with that."

Off Mitch's glance, Jamie spoke up. "Mitch has a child who was very ill at the time, and learned that Reiden was doing very successful trials on a medication which could help her. I did initially feel betrayed, um, but the reality is that if I were in his shoes, I'd do whatever I had to do to help someone I loved, so…it's all water under the bridge now. And as it turned out he got the medication, didn't have to give up the mother cell and went on to create the cure." She thought better of exposing Delavenne's duplicity; after all, he had come through when they needed him.

Jackson adjusted his microphone. "Yeah, uh, we were all pretty angry when it all went down, but the bottom line is no harm done, and, frankly, I have to have a measure of respect for someone who would lay it all on the line like that for family. So it's all good." He smiled, and playfully put his arm around Mitch's shoulders. "I'd trust this guy to the ends of the earth."

"He's more than earned our trust and respect and deserves yours as well," Chloe added.

Reporter: "If I'm reading this correctly, you guys had the cure four months ago. Is that true? And then it was lost in a plane crash?"

"Yes. We were—we were devastated," Jackson replied. "We lost Jamie, and we lost the leopard that we needed for the cure. Thank God, both were eventually found. But, yeah, the cure was delayed by four months, so, essentially, a horrific number of people were killed by that plane crash."

Reporter: "But, Ms. Campbell, you had the leopard all along, right?"

"I spent three months totally incapacitated. I reached out as soon as I possibly could. Believe me, nobody wanted me found more than I did," Jamie responded.

Reporter: "Could you run us through your thought process when you did reach out? Because logic would have dictated that you call Ms. Tousignant."

"It took about ten minutes once I had the sat phone in my hand to start dialing. Yeah, I knew Chloe wasn't on the plane, so I had every reason to think that she was ok, and I didn't have any idea what happened to the others, or if they were even alive. So, yeah, she would've been the logical choice. But honestly there was never even a question in my mind of who I was going to call. I called the person I most needed to connect with. And when he answered the phone, in that instant, I knew he was ok. And everything was going to be ok."

Reporter: " , you have a reputation throughout the pathology and teaching communities as being 'prickly' and 'difficult' to work with."

Jackson laughed, prompting laughter from the others. "You don't say."

Mitch fought back his laughter, then continued true to form. "Um, no comment? I've said it before, I'll say it again: I'm an acquired taste. I don't generally make a very good first impression. Or even a mediocre first impression. This isn't news to me. I know Chloe wanted me dead those first days in Rio, and I'm pretty sure Jackson did initially, too. But here we are." He made a show of returning Jackson's earlier gesture, leaning over and playfully putting his arm around the younger man's shoulders.

"The man was impossible!" Chloe agreed. "Maybe I can get by the censors if I use French to say what I thought of him?" She began laughing again, "He can be condescending, rude, arrogant and moody. But then I got to know him, who he is on the inside and I'm very happy that I took the time to look past the surface."

Jackson took over. "We totally got off on the wrong foot, but it doesn't take long to realize what a great guy he is to have on your side. You know I'm the gung-ho 'hey, let's do this!' never say quit type and he's the cautious, cynical 'slow down, there, let's think this through' type. I'm more diplomatic, and he's not afraid to call like it is, even if it's blunt or not what the other person wants to hear. So we've clashed a bit. But we've always worked it out. He brings an incredible amount of intelligence, humor, common sense, compassion, loyalty and yes, even emotion to the table. He will deny the mushy stuff, but trust us, it's there."

Jamie pointed to Mitch in mock dismay, "Guys, stop feeding into the smug! I have to live with this!"

Mitch took her hand in his and kissed it whimsically, "You know you love it." He then reached across her and put his hand on Abe's forearm. "You too, big guy. We'll always have that night by the campfire."

Abe laughed, shaking his head, "Never change, professor. Never change."

Reporter: "Some would say that this panel seems awfully cavalier considering the seriousness of the subject matter. Is that a fair assessment?"

Abe raised his hands in the universal 'stop' sign. "You misunderstand. My colleagues and I are well aware of the gravity of these events. We have traveled all over the world, risked our lives, made many sacrifices. We, too, have lost friends and loved ones. We have seen and experienced things that we will never be able to un-see. And yet we were able to accomplish what we set out to do. Our laughter, though some may find it inappropriate, is what preserves our sanity. It makes bearable the horrors we have experienced. Our teasing is as brothers and sisters; we have bonded together and take comfort in knowing that the others will always have our backs."

Reporter: "Ms. Campbell, Anissa Coleman was interviewed from prison this afternoon. She maintains that the break-in at the Clearwater Zoo, which ended with two people being shot, only ended violently because you made an error with the security camera feeds. Can you respond to that?"

Jamie nodded, "I do feel a little responsible for that, because I did make a mistake that snowballed out of control—"

Mitch cut in angrily, "Things went south because Anissa and her merry band of nutjobs didn't follow the plan. If they had gone with the plan that we laid out, none of that would have ever happened. They can't put that all on Jamie."

"F.A.R.M. s initial plan of action was to go in with a blitz attack," Abraham elaborated. "They were going to use violence and flash bangs. We showed them a nonviolent alternative, and they agreed to it. We had no idea they were armed until the gunfight began. How can they blame this on inadequate backup when they originally were content to have no backup at all?"

Reporter: "So you guys deny any part in the violence that ensued?"

"Absolutely," Mitch averred. "Four of the five of us went into that zoo. None of us was armed. Also note that Chloe was arrested while trying to stop your friend Anissa from shooting at officers. You know, preventing more blood from being spilled."

Chloe spoke, "Our reason for agreeing to break into the zoo was two-fold: we needed a plane to get to Zambia, which Ray would give us in exchange for helping him and his friends, and we needed an electroporator, which the zoo was likely to have. We obtained both. No one was ever supposed to get hurt."

Reporter: "Mr. Oz, what are your feelings now regarding your father's research? It was touched on in the article, but I'd like your perspective."

Jackson cleared his throat. "To be honest, I need a lot more time to fully understand his work. When he was alive, I didn't take it seriously—no one did—and now that I know that he was right, I really regret that I can't ask him about the parts that I don't yet understand. He described, in detail, these aberrations with the animals many years before any of us ever observed them. He knew the animal apocalypse was coming. But he didn't know why, or how to stop it. And no one believed him." His eyes misted up. "I'm very grateful to Jamie for treating him so kindly in the article."

"The fact of the matter is that nobody took him seriously, myself included. I spoke very poorly of Dr. Oz when I first met Jackson, and for that I am truly sorry. He was written off as some kind of lunatic when, as it turns out, he was absolutely correct, right down to the ocular and brain changes in the affected animals," Mitch added. "Everything that he predicted would happen has happened."

Reporter: "One quick question. You guys needed a second mother cell to test your cure again because the first one was lost in Harare. Where did you get it?"

"Um…no comment," Jamie laughed.

Reporter: "So, Ms. Campbell, you were presumed dead from September 1 until three days ago. Even though you were reunited with your friends three weeks ago".

"it was not believed that I could be safe at that point. You have to remember, up until the plane crash, Reiden had hits out on all of us. The others became safe afterward because Reiden knew that they couldn't tell anyone the truth. I wasn't around, so I never signed anything, and Reiden would never have believed I would honor it, anyway. So until I could get my story told, it was too dangerous for me to come forward."

Reporter: "Too dangerous for you? Or for someone else?"

Jamie continued. "For everyone I care about. As an example, when we were in Zambia, they tortured Chloe's sister in an attempt to get Chloe to reveal our location so they could kill us. Take a note: if anything mysteriously happens to me, suspect Reiden Global first."

Reporter: "Mr. Kenyatta, what are your plans now? Will you be returning to Botswana?"

"At this point, I don't know. I'll take it as it comes."

Reporter: "And Ms. Tousignant, as the other non U.S. Citizen, how about you? Is it back to Paris?"

Chloe leaned into the mic, "That's something Jackson and I will have to decide."

Reporter: "So you're planning together…"

"Yes, " Jackson replied. "I'll go wherever Chloe goes. As soon as it's safe to do so, I need to go back to Botswana to check on my mom, but after that, I'm open for anything."

Reporter: "What about you, Dr. Morgan?"

Mitch didn't hesitate, "We can't wait to get back to L.A."

Reporter: "We?"

"Yes," Jamie pointed lifted up the name card in front of her and set it back down. "And we were both living in L.A. when we met, so, yeah, we're headed back."

Reporter: "You used to work for the Telegraph there, right? But you were fired."

"Yes."

Reporter: "And why is that?"

"Because I knew I was right about Reiden Global, who, as it happens, owns the company that owns the Telegraph, and I refused to shut up about it," Jamie answered with conviction.

Reporter: "Any regrets?"

"None at all."