Author's Note: Hugs and thanks to all of you for staying with me! :) This will be the last chapter, but I've got a short epilogue up my sleeve.
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When Will arrived at the van, neither Ethan nor their fellow IMF agent were anywhere in sight. There was only Jane, waiting for him with a serious expression on her face and an open car door. They didn't speak as she helped him secure Benji in the back of the van before jumping into the driver's seat. The analyst settled in next to the technician, never letting go of his hand, although the cold skin drove shivers of fear down his spine.
"Ethan stole a car and went ahead with Agent McGrath. It's not far."
Will nodded automatically, not really taking in what she told him. He couldn't believe that Benji had been suffering from a disease that should have forced him to change his entire way of life – and none of them had noticed! What kind of agents were they if they didn't even spot a major detail like that in their midst? What kind of boyfriend was he? His analyst brain ran through all the conversations they had lead over the phone over the last few weeks, ever since that appointment. That appointment! A strangled noise of anger escaped him as he wished he were in the position to bang his head against a solid wall.
"Will? We're here."
He didn't even have the time to calm down the storm of thoughts that raged in his head before Jane was out of the van and shouting for help. He could only watch helplessly as paramedics took Benji with them while Jane told them what she knew in words he didn't understand. So he let himself be guided to a seat in the waiting room and sat down without any protest while his mind was still trying to process what had happened in the last two hours. When Jane found him ten minutes later, he hadn't moved at all, slumped forward with his head in his hands.
"Will?"
Jane's cautious voice ripped him out of his thoughts and all of a sudden, a new emotion was added to the mess and he himself wasn't the only one he was angry with any more. He looked up and locked eyes with her, his expression furious.
"He fucking lied to me! What did he think he was doing? Doesn't he trust me?" The last sentence was a mere whisper and he covered his face with his hands, all his anger already spent and leaving only a cold feeling of dread behind. "Oh God..."
"Will." He just shook his head in return. "Will, listen. He must have been scared as hell to lose everything – his job, his team, and you." The analyst ran his hands down his face and let his head fall back against the wall, his exhausted eyes closed against the relentless hospital lights.
After a few moments of silence, he sighed. "How can you be so damn calm about this?"
Jane smiled a sad smile, glad that he had calmed down after all. "I've seen it happen before. My brother suffers from diabetes and I remember how devastated our family felt at the news. But it's not the end of the world, not in the 21st century. True, it turned his whole life inside out, but he is able to live with it. And Benji can do that, too, I'm sure."
Will opened his eyes to regard her with a half curious, half disbelieving stare. "What about tonight? He could have died, because he didn't tell us." Didn't tell me. He didn't say those words, but he knew that Jane could see it in his eyes.
"The only explanation I can think of is that he underestimated the consequences when he went on the mission without eating anything. He must have thought that he'd make it home before a hypoglycaemia could happen. Well, at least he had the glucagon with him." She smiled again. "It would have been much worse otherwise."
Will shook his head. "But that's exactly what I was talking about. If we had known that-" He froze and sat up straighter when a memory hit him out of the blue.
"What?" Jane frowned. "What is it?"
She jumped, startled, when he shot out of his seat, unable to sit still any longer. "He tried to tell me! In the car, before we went to pick you up. I'm sure he did!" He laughed a desperate laugh. "Ethan interrupted him... Dammit!"
"Will." Jane stood and took him by the shoulders, forcing him to look at her. "What happened, has happened and there's no way you can change that. But you can be there for Benji and ensure that it doesn't happen again."
He nodded reluctantly, catching the undertone that clearly said 'And if you don't, you'll answer to me!'. "You're right. I'm sorry." Raising his hands in surrender, he let himself fall back into his seat.
Now all they could do was wait.
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They spent the next two hours with alternately pacing, getting lost in their own thoughts and talking. Will asked every question about diabetes he could think of and every answer Jane gave him made him realize in a painful way how hard it must have been for Benji to keep this tremendous secret to himself, to what lengths he had gone to let them believe that everything was back to normal after that few days off. A few days the technician had used to modify his entire life in keeping with the new requirements of his own body – up to a point where even the closest thing he had to a family couldn't tell the difference.
At first, Will had been incredibly angry with himself, for not realizing how serious the situation really had been – and how dangerous. But after thinking through the last few weeks, and especially the weeks leading up to that appointment where he was sure Benji had gotten that dreadful diagnosis, he had to admit to himself that he couldn't have reacted any other way. Jane was right. It was no use dwelling in the past and thinking about what could have been. Then and there, Will was only interested in getting Benji back on his own two feet, and nothing else.
He was just mulling over what he would say to his lover once he was allowed to see him when Ethan finally appeared in the doorway, exhausted but in one piece. "There you are."
"Yes, where else?" The quiet amusement in Jane's voice made Will smile despite the situation. "How is Agent McGrath?"
"He'll be fine. No permanent damage." Ethan raised an eyebrow at Will who tried to look like he didn't forget about the agent they had rescued. "I spoke to Benji, too."
Will stood so quickly that he felt dizzy for a moment. "What? How is he? What did he say? What did you say? Is he going to quit?"
His team leader tried not to smile at this onslaught of questions, but failed miserably. "Easy. One thing after the other. One, he'll recover with no permanent damage. But the doctors said that it was a close call. Two, he said that he didn't want to lose his job, so he wouldn't lose us. Three, I told him that he shouldn't worry and that everything would work out nicely if I had a say in this. So four, no, he's not going to quit. I'll see to that."
Will couldn't help himself. He crossed the room with a few quick steps and pulled his team leader into a short hug. "Thank you." He pulled back and took a deep breath. "Can I see him?"
Ethan smiled, without restraints this time. "Yes. Room 514. Go easy on him, will you?"
But the analyst was already out the door.
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Thank you for reading! ;) What say you?
(I hope that this is not met with an evil laugh and a flood of skulls.)
(Never mind. ^^)