"My son?" Sam's eyes went wide as he looked from his brother to Noah and back again, at first not really understanding what his brother was trying to tell him, before it hit him full force. Patrick. Kevin was saying that Noah was... How could... The tech that they apparently had here, though, the way that it had fixed Noah, surely it was good enough for a DNA analysis. His son. No, their son, his and Catherine's. They were getting their baby back, the baby Cath had almost died for. Nearly died. Sam's mood switched abruptly from wonder and paternal pride to anger as he remembered what had happened to Catherine. When he had came into that hospital room, still not half believing that their baby was gone just like that, and had seen her, looking almost as bad as Noah had looked at the nursing home…. And how she had been treated, worse than a criminal, just because they weren't married. He'd finally snapped at a nurse who had taken forever to bring medicine for the pain Cath had been in, and he had given in to her frantic pleadings to take her home. Three days she had somehow stayed awake once they were home, so scared that she would slip away in her sleep, and it had taken weeks for him to be able to do more than doze. So, so close and…. "Her family? They did it to them, didn't they? How?" And once he knew how, he was going to be hard pressed to keep from hunting them down and killing them for it.
"Must have slipped her something." Kay told Sam, repeating what he had called Elle about as soon as he had sensed his twin on the loose. "That part we can't be too sure of. There are a couple of things that would have caused contractions, maybe not full blown labor but enough to send her to the hospital. Then when she got there, instead of giving her something to stop things, they ended up giving her drugs to induce labor."
"They gave her too much, didn't they?" Sam said as he reached out and put a hand on Noah's shoulder again. His son. His son was right there and... Thirty years. They had lost almost thirty years with their baby thanks to her family. Had lost... Catherine had wanted more children, had told him from the start that she wanted a big family. If not for her family and then his fear that trying for another baby could kill her... "They knew they were taking a chance." he muttered almost to himself. "Cath told me a few times, when she was a kid, how she reacted to meds. They had to know they were maybe risking... She almost died. Thought she was going to die no matter what I did for awhile. Thought..." He had thought he was losing his entire family again, and he hadn't been sure he could have made it through a second loss.
"They gave her way too much." Kay agreed. Honestly, he wasn't sure that what they had done shouldn't be counted as an attempted murder, based on what Elle had said when he had called her once he sensed his twin on the loose, and how ticked X's cousin seemed to be by the situation. "But she made it. Tough little thing you picked out there, didn't you? Aileen's really going to enjoy meeting her."
"You actually are dating an alien, aren't you?" Sam said with a look at his brother.
"Planning to ask one to marry me, if my little brother can keep out of trouble for long enough."
"Hope she's not from the same planet as Cosmo, and how long are you going to keep bringing up ten minutes? Wait. Noah?" Had he seen some sort of movement, a twitch or a light flutter of the boy's eyelids? "Son?"
"Sam?" His eyes felt too heavy to open and Noah didn't even try, His head felt funny, and it was all he could do to keep from slipping back into the welcoming darkness again, but he knew he couldn't. Sam didn't know what had happened in that room, what Royce had nearly done. If he didn't know, and went after Sheridan... "Sam?" His voice took on a more urgent tone. Sam might have claimed a time or two that he didn't care, but Noah knew that he cared more than he would ever let on. If an innocent man got killed on his watch...
"Son? It's alright." Sam reached out and put a hand on Noah's shoulder. Even seeing with his own two eyes that Noah was in one piece, he hadn't totally believed it until he heard that boy's voice. Weak, a bit groggy, but fine. When Cath got there and found out... "You're going to be fine. You just go back to sleep now, and get some rest. You're going to be fine."
"Wasn't Sheridan." Rest sounded like an excellent idea although he was a bit surprised that Sam was suggesting it instead of sleeping next month, but he couldn't let himself sleep, not until he was sure that Sam knew what had happened. "Royce. Was going to shoot him in the head. It was Royce."
A head shot? "Kevin?" What if that weasel, the phrase the alien girl had used definitely fit, although possibly the weasel family would object to the implication that Royce was any kin of theirs, what if he had gone for a head shot with Noah, instead of what he had done? He wasn't sure that even the tech his brother had access to could fix something like that.
"Wouldn't be surprised if Zara didn't shove him out of a window if she runs into him while they're making that pickup, without making sure there was a pool or a dumpster below." Kay said with a chuckle. "That family doesn't suffer fools. Just take care of your boy now. Don't worry about Royce."
"Sam?" What was he hearing? It almost sounded like two Sams. Two Sams. There was something about that on the edge of his memory, if he just didn't feel so lightheaded and... He let out a slight moan as pain begin to make itself felt, not in his chest, and nowhere near as bad as before, but still enough, dancing up his back. He twitched, trying to move to relieve the pain, but all it did was make his head swim even more.
"Noah?" Sam looked from his son to his brother as panic washed over him at that sound. If something was wrong...
"I'll get Elle down here to take a look." Kay said, sending a firm message through the link, telling his twin to calm down, before leaning over Noah, seeing if he could get a clue what might be wrong himself. "Your back, right around here?" He eased a hand beneath Noah, gently touching an area where tender new flesh covering the exit wound was still slightly raw.
Noah winced slightly as he nodded. Sam, it sounded like Sam talking to him, but somehow not Sam. There was something, fluttering at the edge of his memory, something about Sam. Two Sams? He had seen…. He struggled and this time his eyes cooperated, opening slightly and then wider when he took in the sight before him. Two Sams, there were two Sams! No, not two Sams. More was coming back now. Sam and a twin brother. "Hope you told Marshal Walsh you had a twin or you're going to be in that chicken suit again." As he spoke, he felt the pain in his back easing up and the urge to sleep creeping over him again.
"Chicken suit didn't look too bad." Kay said as he touched a couple more places before he was satisfied with the results. "Sam will probably do fine in there for a few years. Go back to sleep. Nerves can be a little touchy after regeneration treatment. You'll feel better when you wake up. Don't worry. He'll wake you up before he has to go out to serve nuggets."
Noah wasn't sure exactly what that meant but the pain was gone so whatever it was he would be fine with. And the urge to sleep was overpowering now. "Chicken suit." He muttered with a slightly groggy chuckle as he drifted off again.
"What did you do?" Sam asked his brother. Noah seemed comfortable. He seemed fine. He seemed fine. He tried to reassure himself.
"Something to help with the pain for a little while. I'll get Elle to take a look, but like I said, sometimes nerves can be touchy right after they're regenerated, and they would have had to do a few when they got that rib back together and sealed off the exit wound." Kay told him. "Couple of hours, it should settle right down. So, was that chicken suit a rental? You might need to see about buying it."
"You are getting entirely too much enjoyment out of this. You know that, right? Get whoever you were talking about down here to double check things, though. Anything happens before Cath gets here, I might not be the only one in a chicken suit." He reached out and gently rested a hand on Noah's shoulder as he spoke. Fine. This had to be fine.