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serene_quillTitle: A Modest Proposal, Chapter 8: Memory Bugs (Part 2)
Pairing: Jack/Nathan, Jack/Allison, Nathan/Allison, Jack/Nathan/Allison
Rating: FRAO
Disclaimer: Don’t own!
Warnings: slash, threesome, spoilers through 304: I Do Over, AU
Summary: It starts as vivid dreams, but clearly becomes more as memories spread, threatening the secrets each of them keeps...
Previous Parts can be found here
Henry stared at Nathan wide eyed, and Nathan fought the urge to squirm under his mentor’s glare. “What did you see?” he asked, sighing in resignation.
“You and Jack?” Henry hissed, and Nathan had a brief flash of Zoë when she found out. In the next moment, he was almost relieved Henry had seen something about Jack, not the time loop and Zoë. “In bed with Allison?” Henry tacked on pointedly.
Not quite the same then, Nathan thought, setting down his tablet. “You’re going to have to narrow it down more,” he said, instantly wanting to kick the part of his brain that put sarcastic words in his mouth before he could check them.
Interestingly, this drew Henry up short. “It wasn’t…” he trailed off, forehead wrinkling in confusion. “I think I need you to explain to me what I just saw, Nathan, because that doesn’t sound like some screwy little game you and Allison decided to play with Jack.”
“No game, not screwing with each other, any of the three of us,” Nathan replied, bracing his hands against the lab table to stop himself from fidgeting. “One intimate, functioning, polyamorous relationship,” he spelled out carefully. “Not just Allison and I, or Jack and Allison, but also Jack and I.”
Henry folded his arms, drawing back into thought, the angry posturing and edginess fading into familiar curiosity. “Whose idea?” he asked after a long moment of thought. “Allison’s?”
“Mine,” Nathan admitted, grinning self-deprecatingly when Henry’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh come on, you know how selfish I am. Finally get the girl, but can’t give up the guy either, so I present them with this idea. My idea.” He was even more surprised to see most of the tension leave Henry at that.
“So… you and Jack?” Henry asked, smirking.
“Since the house locked us in,” Nathan replied, and suddenly Henry was laughing.
“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t, but,” Henry wheezed, then started laughing again. “God, of course you were. Or you’d have killed each other. So instead you… And he’s, Jack’s…”
“He worries about being the extra piece, I try to convince him I can’t live without him,” Nathan shrugged, giving Henry a crooked smile. “I love him, he loves me.”
Henry was silent for a long time, and Nathan could only watch as the other man considered all the information. “He’s clearly happy,” Henry said suddenly. “And you too. So I guess that’s what counts.”
“Really?” It escaped Nathan before he could stop it, and Henry clapped his shoulder, then changed his mind and pulled him into a hug.
“If it’s what you need,” Henry said softly. “Nathan, I’ve never made a secret of how much I admire you, thought of you like a son sometimes. I know your own father wouldn’t see it this way, but I just want you to be happy. I’ve never seen you completely whole and happy till recently. If this is what it takes, then I’ll find a way to shift my paradigm. It’ll take a little time for me to get used to it, but I’ll find a way.”
Nathan snorted at the mention of his own father, shaking his head. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re the closest thing to a father I’ve ever had, Henry. So… thanks.”
“So… all three of you,” Henry mused a few minutes later, tilting his head oddly. “Yeah, paradigm needs some shifting,” he admitted, laughing. Nathan joined in, relieved.
*-*
Jack strode into GD, deciding to first hit Taggart’s lab. It had been a hard call between Taggart, Seth, and the neural networking scientist, Childress, but his favorite troublemaker won out. “Oye!” Taggart snorted as soon as Jack walked through the sliding doors. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not my project.”
“Well, let’s be fair,” Jack indicated expansively to the lab, where dozens of brains were laid out, in various states of dissection and exploration, some hooked up to IV’s of fluid, others wired to each other.
“Listen, mate, I know how it looks,” Taggart agreed, placatingly. “But I’ve shut down all the electrical current in the experiments, and I’ve gathered samples of every fluid composition and biopsies of all of my brains, none of which are infected. Stark can check them for himself.”
“I’m sure he will,” Jack agreed, accepting the large sample bag. “You’re being surprisingly helpful. What gives?”
“Come and see,” Taggart replied eagerly, waving him over to a brain that looked like was receiving fluids from another, smaller brain. “Shark,” Taggart explained, when he caught Jack eyeing the smaller brain. “Wrestled him in myself. Sharks don’t get Alzheimer’s. And this brain,” he indicated the human brain wired into the shark brain. “Had Alzheimer’s.”
“Had?” Jack asked, blinking rapidly. “Past tense?”
“Yeah,” Taggart agreed. “And since your father has…” Taggart trailed off, Jack’s glare warning him off. Jack didn’t think Lexi even knew about their father. “This is important work, Sheriff, and I don’t want it shut down. I figured I’d have your support.”
“These come back clean, and you’re free to work,” Jack replied. “But you may want to wait till you’re memory bug free. No one knows about my father, not even my daughter or sister.”
“Ah, point taken,” Taggart agreed, stepping back from his lab table. “Let me know when my samples come back clean, Sheriff.”
“Can do,” Jack agreed, taking the samples up to the virology lab. He grinned when he spotted Henry at work and headed in. “Hey, Henry, got presents from Taggart for you.”
Henry was looking at him oddly for a moment, then took the samples and set them aside, clapping Jack’s arm. “You’re happy, right?” he asked, and Jack tilted his head.
“I’d be happier if there wasn’t a memory bug running around my town,” Jack said, then was hit with a sudden epiphany. “Ah, caught a memory off Nathan?” he asked, and Henry nodded.
Jack started to answer, then Nathan came back in, nodding to Jack, and Henry chuckled. “God, how can anyone not see,” he observed, watching them. “The way you just lit up from him just walking in.”
“Really?” Nathan looked over at Jack, grinning as Jack flushed.
“Okay, I have to go harass Childress and Seth now,” Jack backpeddled, knowing he would be teased if he stayed. “Try to stop leaking our bedroom activities to my friends,” he advised Nathan, pleased to see he managed to get a bit of embarrassment out of the normally staid scientist.
Childress had an offsite lab, but the scientist was nowhere to be found. The machine in the room was definitely transmitting, so Jack made a quick call up to GD, asking Zane to come down and shut off the machine. Seth’s offsite lab was even less useful.
“You are not coming in, Sheriff! Every time I allow you near my research, I lose my projects!”
“Aw, come on Seth, I just need samples of your work for GD to analyze, make sure your work didn’t mutate the micro-virus!”
“Last time you were in my lab, there was water turning into blood!”
“It was algae, even I know that!” Jack shot back, pounding on the sealed door once more. “All right, fine, you forced my hand,” he shouted, before heading to the Jeep and pulling out his radio. “Jo, I need backup and the really big door destroying sonic ram out at Seth’s, over.”
“On my way!” Jo came back, sounding delighted to get a chance at using her insanely overpowered toy. “Over.”
Jack leaned back to wait, frowning at the barricaded door. A moment later, the building was rocked by an explosion, the barricaded door flying open and Seth running out, coughing and choking. “You!” he yelled at Jack, before succumbing to another coughing fit. “You—”
“Okay, calm down, breathe,” Jack replied, pulling Seth around the Jeep, sitting him down and pulling a portable oxygen tank out of the first aid kit. “Stay put,” he ordered the scientist, pulling out his cell phone as he evaluated the fire. “Henry, I need fire suppression out at Seth’s lab. His project just blew up. And do me a favor and tell the worrywart next to you I’m fine when he panics.”
*-*
Allison hopped out of Thorne’s SUV, hurrying ahead of the director to Jack. “You okay?” she demanded, eyes raking up and down him to be certain.
“Was well outside the blast,” Jack replied, and Seth groaned.
“You’re like my personal bad luck charm!” he shot at Jack, rolling his eyes. “You come near my lab and everything goes straight to Hell!”
“It’s not the sheriff’s fault, as fun as it would be to blame him for everything that goes wrong here,” Nathan interrupted, coming from the burned out rubble, removing his mask. “Looks like the same radiation that mutated the micro-virus happened here. In the case of the micro-viruses, it just altered them so they run around replicating RNA of memories and transferring them from person to person. Airborne for the past 24 hours, so we don’t even have the luxury of a quarantine. In this case, the chemicals Seth was working with were extremely delicate, and the radiation set off an explosion. The good news is we can eliminate this lab as the source of the radiation.”
“From what you’re telling me though, this problem is going to get worse,” Thorne remarked. “The virus has been limited so far to exposure range, but it’s going to spread exponentially.”
“It’s still limited to the town, the electrostatic barrier was up before the micro-virus was even confirmed mutating thanks to an unrelated project in Section 5,” Nathan replied, with a little smirk in Jack’s direction that made Allison roll her eyes. “While we’re probably going to all get a little embarrassed, at least everyone in town has relatively high clearance and can be signed over to secrecy if need be.”
“But you can’t sign me to silence about your apparent love of classic baseball,” Jack said, turning to Thorne, smirking in amusement. Allison blinked, not liking the way Thorne went too still at Jack’s words. “I will, however, try to recruit you for my baseball team.”
Thorne seemed to relax, but Allison carefully filed away her suspicion that Thorne had some bigger secrets to hide. “Well, Sheriff, if you have an opening at shortstop,” Thorne replied wryly. “In the meantime, do we have any idea how to stop this before we start seeing too much more we’d rather not?”
“Too late,” Henry replied dryly as he and Jo, finished combing the rubble, joined them, samples in hand. “I’ve already seen way more of Nathan than Allison would like,” he said, before handing the bag with a piece of metal inside to Jack. “This contains the trace radiation we need to track, and I don’t think this is supposed to be impacting viruses or brain tissue.”
“So basically, any of the projects emitting radiation or that could emit radiation,” Allison said dryly, then Henry’s words caught up to her. “Uh, just how much of my fiancé did you see?”
“Everything,” Nathan remarked cheerfully. “Let’s just say Henry got quite a shocking eyeful of my personal life.”
Allison paused, eyes flickering to Jack, who shrugged. “Better him than me, I suppose. Besides, I understand Henry’s quite impressed,” Jack joked, but Allison caught the hidden meaning.
“All right,” Thorne broke in, rolling her eyes at them. “Henry, can you and Sheriff Carter track the radiation?”
“Given the data here, yes, I think so,” Henry agreed.
“All right,” Thorne agreed, nodding to them. “I want a report as soon as you find the source, preferably before I learn when the sheriff lost his virginity first hand.”
Allison couldn’t hide a smile when Jack flinched, nodding. “Uh, yeah, let’s not go there,” he muttered, and Allison was suddenly overwhelmed by the image of broken glass, grinding metal, the taste of blood in her mouth…
She gasped, surprised to find herself half on the ground, Jack supporting her on one side, Nathan on the other. “What happened?” she asked, still tasting blood and realizing she had a nose bleed.
“You staggered, then went down,” Jack said softly, accepting the gauze Jo handed him from the first aid kit. “Here, your nose,” he told her, and Allison pressed it to her nose, sighing.
“I think we’re going to need to avoid strong memories,” she groaned, struggling to sit up. Nathan shifted so she could lean against him, and she continued, “Angela. And she was killed in a car crash. I saw the crash.”
Jack swallowed, pulling away from her. “This is getting worse,” he observed to Henry, teeth clenched.
“The human brain’s not made for just sticking in memories, especially when they’re added so haphazardly,” Henry replied quietly. “The more strain, the more memories, the sooner we’ll see the effects on the blood brain barrier, small blood vessels, anywhere the brain is weakest. Eventually we’ll be looking at aneurisms and brain damage.”
“Supplemental medication,” Allison put in, trying for her feet and flushing slightly as she fell back, dizzy, and Nathan scooped her up like she weighed nothing. “My migraine medicines. I’m more susceptible to the effects of the virus.”
“Okay, let’s get you into the infirmary, try to isolate you, filter in pure air,” Nathan suggested. “It’ll at least slow the virus down.”
“Find that radiation,” Thorne snapped at Jack and Henry. “Stark, take her up to GD, get her isolated. Find out who else is on migraine medicines, blood thinners, seizure meds, anything that could make them more susceptible to the symptoms, and get them into isolation.”
“Come on, I’ve got something we can rig up at the garage,” Henry was telling Jack, but Allison stopped Nathan with a quick touch to his shoulder.
“Carter,” she said, and Jack was at her side, worry clear on his face a moment later. “I’m sorry about your girlfriend.”
“Just take care of yourself, okay?” he instructed her, offering her a soft look. “We’ll find Stark what he needs, and you’ll be fine, I promise.”
Allison nodded, and closed her eyes as Nathan loaded her into the car, very gently buckling her in. Outside, she heard Jack ordering SARAH to replicate the procedures for her on Zoë and Lexi, isolating and purifying their air. She realized a moment later Jack was probably worried about Lexi’s baby, too. “I’m okay,” she reassured Nathan when he climbed in the driver’s seat, offering him her hand. He squeezed it gently, the worry not fading from his face.
“Your nose is bleeding again,” Nathan told her, and she sighed, bringing the cloth to her nose.
“Did you know Jack’s childhood sweetheart was killed in a car crash?” Allison asked him after a long silence, and Nathan nodded, a tight jerk of his head.
“Records were sealed, but that’s never stopped me,” Nathan replied. “Does it bother you?”
“That you hacked something?” Allison rolled her eyes. “I imagine there are things you’ve figured out about me that even I don’t know.”
“I meant about his… about Angela,” Nathan replied, jaw tight.
“I guess I feel bad for Jack,” Allison suggested, baffled. “Am I missing something?”
“It’s sort of a big deal. It’s why Jack couldn’t join the military, juvenile record, on top of losing her,” Nathan explained. “He pled down to a charge—”
“Charges?” Allison interrupted, frowning at Nathan. “What are you talking about? He wasn’t even driving.”
Something dawned on Nathan’s face. “That stupid, noble, son of a bitch,” Nathan cursed, chuckling. “He told everyone he was driving. Or let them think it. She’d just turned 16, didn’t have a license.”
“But she died, why would it matter?” Allison asked.
“It mattered to Jack,” Nathan said firmly. Allison sat back, considering.
“Yeah, I guess it would,” she agreed, looking sideways at Nathan. “Now something’s bothering you.”
“He’s a fucking saint compared to me,” Nathan admitted, gripping the wheel tighter. “How the hell is one person that… Mayberry,” he managed in frustration.
Allison began to shake trying not to laugh. “I’m sorry,” she managed, knowing she wasn’t helping. “But seriously, Nathan, the pair of you sometimes!”
“What?” Nathan asked, a little baffled.
“Jack looks at you and thinks he’ll never be smart enough. You look at Jack and think you’ll never be good enough. I’m thinking both of you are idiots,” Allison added dryly. “At least you both make the other one try harder.”
Nathan pulled into GD, stroking Allison’s hair. “Okay, Angel, now you’ll have to let the idiots save you.”
“I have faith in you,” Allison replied, letting him help her out of the car. “I’ll walk,” she added when he threatened to pick her up again. She was about to give him a hard time about his hovering when they brushed past a researcher from section 3, and after a barrage of images about a hostage situation, guns, panic, a blur of sounds and feeling, Allison came to in the infirmary, already scrubbed down and in isolation.
“Nathan?” she managed to croak, and a woman in a clean suit turned, handing her a cup of water.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Blake, he wanted to wait till you woke up, but Thorne ordered him back to work on figuring out this virus,” the nurse explained. “Once I’m sure you have everything you need, I’m supposed to call him.”
“Tell him I’m fine, to keep working,” Allison told her, fussing with the bandages at her nose. “Uh, and call the sheriff, tell him I said to check out the project at offsite lab 1242. They were having containment issues earlier this week.” Which would double as telling him she was okay, Allison mused mentally, as the nurse gently eased her back down.
“You need to lay still, keep this on your finger so it will alert me if you pass out again,” the nurse told her, and Allison sighed, resigning herself to an infirmary stay.
*-*
“You okay?” Henry asked Jack as they paused while Henry’s tracking device tried to sort out a clear trail of radiation. The night was cloudless, moon bright and full, which made their current trek through the woods easier than it could have been.
“Worried about Allie,” Jack admitted, ducking his head when Henry gave him an all too knowing look. “Go ahead, mock me,” Jack invited the older man, sighing.
“Like I told Nathan, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing,” Henry admitted.
“Heh, I still have days like that,” Jack replied, shrugging at Henry’s curious look. “They’re both really good at not letting me panic out of this, of reassuring me.”
“Jack, if they make you happy, I’m glad for you,” Henry replied. “And you’ve all certainly worked better together lately.”
Jack started to answer, but his phone ringing stopped him. “Hello?” he asked, listening to the nurse on the other end. “Lab 1242?” he asked Henry, who pointed. “Looks like we’re headed that way. Tell Dr. Blake thanks for the heads up.”
He closed his phone, and Henry started walking toward the lab, making it a few steps before Jack’s phone sounded again. “Hey, Nathan,” Jack greeted the other man, catching the knowing look Henry shot him. “How’s Allie doing?”
“She’s okay, the clean room is helping,” Nathan’s voice sounded worried and weary. “I’m hoping her hunch about Milner’s lab is right, because I really need to analyze the source of the radiation and we’re starting to need clean room space for people with no special susceptibility to the virus.”
“Time crunch, gotcha,” Jack replied. “Look, be careful.”
“You too,” Nathan replied. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Jack replied before hanging up the phone. Henry grinned, and they headed up to the offsite lab.
“Dr. Milner?” Jack called out, as Henry checked his monitor.
“This is definitely the source of our radiation,” Henry remarked, starting to tap his data tablet rapidly. “Looks like Milner was working on effects of exotic radiation on aquatic plant life.”
“All right, good enough for me,” Jack said, unbuckling his holster, just in case. “Dr. Milner, it’s Sheriff Carter! I’m coming in!” He tugged open the door, and a hand flopped into the open doorway. “Dr. Milner?” Jack asked Henry as the other many checked for a pulse.
“Yeah,” Henry confirmed, sighing. “He’s cool, been dead a little while.”
“I figured from the dried blood coming out of his ears,” Jack observed. “Let’s get the sample for Nathan and get back up to GD.”
He called a cleanup crew for the body and the radioactive materials, while Henry measured a sample carefully. “Thanks,” he told Zane, starting to walk back over to Henry, the image of Henry carefully adjusting wires on Walter Perkins’ time device filling his mind.
“Jack!”
Jack blinked, hand rising to the wetness on his face, drawing away fingers red with blood. In the next moment, he realized why he was looking up at Henry and Zane. “I think it’s time to get back up to GD,” Jack said faintly, struggling to his feet.
Nathan met them in the atrium, hand curling around Jack’s bicep, tugging him to a halt and checking Jack’s eyes and ears as soon as he spotted the dried blood. “Get him to the infirmary,” he snapped at Fargo, even though he hadn’t let go. “I’ll fix this,” he promised Jack quietly, the growled vehemence reassuring.
“Sheriff?” Fargo said faintly, prompting Jack to move. Jack wondered why the young scientist was looking so concerned, then he saw his reflection, noticing a small smudge of red on one ear. “We’re doubling up, so I’m going to have to put you in with Dr. Blake,” Fargo said, looking through his data. “She’s our last one to double up.”
“Fine,” Jack agreed, following Fargo and resisting the urge to duck away and hide from the barrage of doctors. “Hey,” he greeted Allison sheepishly as they approached her cube, waving her down. “Thought you could use company.”
“And you had to bleed to get into this exclusive club,” Allison remarked dryly. Jack removed his gun belt and uniform, turning his nose up at the scrubs sitting out and instead settling on the bed in his undershirt and slacks. Allison slid out of her bed, coming over to sit on Jack’s bed.
“Hold still, she instructed him, gently cleaning up the blood on his face. “You find the radiation?”
“Right where you said,” Jack said, sliding his fingers through hers, hidden between their bodies. “How are you feeling?”
“Passed out once, but nothing else,” she reassured him. “Did you know Vince is dating Paul Sueños?” Jack lifted an eyebrow, and Allison smiled. “No, it was PG rated, I promise.”
“Good,” Jack replied, looking around. “Think I would get away with kissing you right now?”
“Cameras, nurses, not a chance,” Allison replied dryly. “Are you okay?”
“Just a little blood,” Jack brushed it off easily. “Henry and I got close to the radiation source. Apparently that didn’t work so well for me.”
Jack’s vision filled with the memory of Allison propositioning him while under the influence of the purple haze. What felt like a moment later, he came to, Allison dabbing at his nose, hand gripping his too tightly while a nurse in hazmat checked his vitals. “Jack,” she said, and he shook his head.
“Well, as far as memories go, not a bad one to risk brain damage for,” he told Allison, and she smiled weakly.
“Dr. Blake, if you could let me finish,” the nurse prompted Allison, obviously trying to move Allison back to her own bed. Allison scowled, but stepped back, one worried eye staying on Jack the whole time.
“Try to meditate,” the nurse advised him, apparently satisfied with Jack’s vitals. “Having your mind blank seems to help.”
“Thanks,” Jack replied, waiting for the cube to seal behind her. “What happened to me?”
“You had a seizure,” Allison replied, voice small. “Scared me half to death.”
“You hear anything from Kevin?” Jack changed the subject quickly, knowing Allison couldn’t afford to break down right now.
“Clean room at my house with the nanny and a nurse,” she told him, sighing. “I’ve talked to him a couple times, told him I’m okay. How about Zoë?”
“No symptoms yet, same with Lexi,” Jack reassured her.
They were quiet for a long time, and the next thing Jack was aware of, Nathan was carefully injecting a serum into his arm. “You killing me in my sleep?’ he asked, getting a hand ruffling his hair gently in return.
“This should fix your brain,” Nathan teased gently. “Well, bring it back to normal anyway. Not sure modern science can fix the many, many things wrong with your brain.”
“Aww, scientist, knew you cared,” Jack replied, arching into Nathan’s touch automatically when the scientist touched his throat. “How long this stuff going to take to kill the virus?”
“About 6 hours,” Nathan replied. “You should be able to go home before then, especially since the bunker is about as good a place to recover as any in town.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, feeling a little tired. “Why am I so sleepy?”
“You’ve had three seizures,” Nathan replied, adjusting an IV tube that Jack realized was hooked into the back of his hand. “Jack, did you know you have a clotting disorder?”
“In English?” Jack asked, and Nathan’s doctor façade melted into something gentler.
“You have too much of one type of protein in your blood, and it’s a type that sometimes causes blood clots,” Nathan explained. “Coupled with the virus, it caused petit mal seizures, tiny clots in your brain. Allison had you sedated to slow the virus, and the anticonvulsants probably also made you sleepy.”
“So, clotting disorder,” Jack mused, filing it away to have SARAH talk him through another time. “You’re gonna make SARAH put green leafy stuff in my diet, aren’t you?”
“No, that’d actually make it worse. I’m just prescribing a very mild blood thinner,” Nathan replied. “It’s a Eureka advancement, so you won’t require weekly blood tests or special diets like other people with the disorder. Just a finger prick every two months.”
“Okay,” Jack replied, curling onto his side, hand landing on Nathan’s thigh, but the scientist didn’t bother moving it.
“Rest,” Nathan advised him, and Jack nodded as he drifted off.
*-*
Nathan sat with Allison and Jack as they slept off the anti-viral serum, stubbornly refusing to succumb to sleep, even though the anti-viral was making him drowsy. Jack stretched suddenly, looking over at Nathan. “Hey, shouldn’t you have gone home?” he asked, and Nathan shook his head.
“Not without you and Allison home safe too,” he replied. He did a quick check of Jack’s vitals and stuck his finger to check the blood, relieved to see the viral load had dropped significantly. “You think you’ll be okay to drive yourself home if I sign you out?”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed easily. “I feel a lot better, and with luck, maybe I catch Zoë’s grades from her head before the virus dies out.”
Nathan chuckled. “You want me to call you when Allison wakes up?”
“Call and let me know you both made it home?” Jack countered, and Nathan nodded. The room was darkened, and most of the staff had settled in elsewhere, so Nathan snuck a quick kiss as Jack started to leave.
The sheriff froze as his hand was loosening in Nathan’s grasp, staring back at Nathan. Nathan felt a sudden sinking sensation in his stomach when Jack’s grip on his fingers suddenly turned painful.
“Why is there an image of my daughter… of her…being dead in your memory?” Jack asked, voice low and deadly.
“I didn’t want you to know,” Nathan was on his feet, trying to hold onto Jack, who was now squirming to get away. “Jack, no one should have to see that, I didn’t want you—”
“Let. Me. Go.” Jack jerked his hand away, looking aghast. “Just… how could you?” Jack whispered, grabbing his uniform shirt and gun belt.
Nathan waited, unable to draw breath, waiting, but Jack’s next blow never fell. The sheriff shoved past him, storming out of the room, the silence worse than any words Jack could have hurled at him. Jack’s nameplate, having fallen free of his uniform shirt in his haste, glimmered up at Nathan. He scooped it up, running his thumb over the engraved letters, feeling more helpless than he could ever remember.
Pairing: Jack/Nathan, Jack/Allison, Nathan/Allison, Jack/Nathan/Allison
Rating: FRAO
Disclaimer: Don’t own!
Warnings: slash, threesome, spoilers through 304: I Do Over, AU
Summary: It starts as vivid dreams, but clearly becomes more as memories spread, threatening the secrets each of them keeps...
Previous Parts can be found here
Henry stared at Nathan wide eyed, and Nathan fought the urge to squirm under his mentor’s glare. “What did you see?” he asked, sighing in resignation.
“You and Jack?” Henry hissed, and Nathan had a brief flash of Zoë when she found out. In the next moment, he was almost relieved Henry had seen something about Jack, not the time loop and Zoë. “In bed with Allison?” Henry tacked on pointedly.
Not quite the same then, Nathan thought, setting down his tablet. “You’re going to have to narrow it down more,” he said, instantly wanting to kick the part of his brain that put sarcastic words in his mouth before he could check them.
Interestingly, this drew Henry up short. “It wasn’t…” he trailed off, forehead wrinkling in confusion. “I think I need you to explain to me what I just saw, Nathan, because that doesn’t sound like some screwy little game you and Allison decided to play with Jack.”
“No game, not screwing with each other, any of the three of us,” Nathan replied, bracing his hands against the lab table to stop himself from fidgeting. “One intimate, functioning, polyamorous relationship,” he spelled out carefully. “Not just Allison and I, or Jack and Allison, but also Jack and I.”
Henry folded his arms, drawing back into thought, the angry posturing and edginess fading into familiar curiosity. “Whose idea?” he asked after a long moment of thought. “Allison’s?”
“Mine,” Nathan admitted, grinning self-deprecatingly when Henry’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh come on, you know how selfish I am. Finally get the girl, but can’t give up the guy either, so I present them with this idea. My idea.” He was even more surprised to see most of the tension leave Henry at that.
“So… you and Jack?” Henry asked, smirking.
“Since the house locked us in,” Nathan replied, and suddenly Henry was laughing.
“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t, but,” Henry wheezed, then started laughing again. “God, of course you were. Or you’d have killed each other. So instead you… And he’s, Jack’s…”
“He worries about being the extra piece, I try to convince him I can’t live without him,” Nathan shrugged, giving Henry a crooked smile. “I love him, he loves me.”
Henry was silent for a long time, and Nathan could only watch as the other man considered all the information. “He’s clearly happy,” Henry said suddenly. “And you too. So I guess that’s what counts.”
“Really?” It escaped Nathan before he could stop it, and Henry clapped his shoulder, then changed his mind and pulled him into a hug.
“If it’s what you need,” Henry said softly. “Nathan, I’ve never made a secret of how much I admire you, thought of you like a son sometimes. I know your own father wouldn’t see it this way, but I just want you to be happy. I’ve never seen you completely whole and happy till recently. If this is what it takes, then I’ll find a way to shift my paradigm. It’ll take a little time for me to get used to it, but I’ll find a way.”
Nathan snorted at the mention of his own father, shaking his head. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re the closest thing to a father I’ve ever had, Henry. So… thanks.”
“So… all three of you,” Henry mused a few minutes later, tilting his head oddly. “Yeah, paradigm needs some shifting,” he admitted, laughing. Nathan joined in, relieved.
*-*
Jack strode into GD, deciding to first hit Taggart’s lab. It had been a hard call between Taggart, Seth, and the neural networking scientist, Childress, but his favorite troublemaker won out. “Oye!” Taggart snorted as soon as Jack walked through the sliding doors. “I know what you’re thinking, but it’s not my project.”
“Well, let’s be fair,” Jack indicated expansively to the lab, where dozens of brains were laid out, in various states of dissection and exploration, some hooked up to IV’s of fluid, others wired to each other.
“Listen, mate, I know how it looks,” Taggart agreed, placatingly. “But I’ve shut down all the electrical current in the experiments, and I’ve gathered samples of every fluid composition and biopsies of all of my brains, none of which are infected. Stark can check them for himself.”
“I’m sure he will,” Jack agreed, accepting the large sample bag. “You’re being surprisingly helpful. What gives?”
“Come and see,” Taggart replied eagerly, waving him over to a brain that looked like was receiving fluids from another, smaller brain. “Shark,” Taggart explained, when he caught Jack eyeing the smaller brain. “Wrestled him in myself. Sharks don’t get Alzheimer’s. And this brain,” he indicated the human brain wired into the shark brain. “Had Alzheimer’s.”
“Had?” Jack asked, blinking rapidly. “Past tense?”
“Yeah,” Taggart agreed. “And since your father has…” Taggart trailed off, Jack’s glare warning him off. Jack didn’t think Lexi even knew about their father. “This is important work, Sheriff, and I don’t want it shut down. I figured I’d have your support.”
“These come back clean, and you’re free to work,” Jack replied. “But you may want to wait till you’re memory bug free. No one knows about my father, not even my daughter or sister.”
“Ah, point taken,” Taggart agreed, stepping back from his lab table. “Let me know when my samples come back clean, Sheriff.”
“Can do,” Jack agreed, taking the samples up to the virology lab. He grinned when he spotted Henry at work and headed in. “Hey, Henry, got presents from Taggart for you.”
Henry was looking at him oddly for a moment, then took the samples and set them aside, clapping Jack’s arm. “You’re happy, right?” he asked, and Jack tilted his head.
“I’d be happier if there wasn’t a memory bug running around my town,” Jack said, then was hit with a sudden epiphany. “Ah, caught a memory off Nathan?” he asked, and Henry nodded.
Jack started to answer, then Nathan came back in, nodding to Jack, and Henry chuckled. “God, how can anyone not see,” he observed, watching them. “The way you just lit up from him just walking in.”
“Really?” Nathan looked over at Jack, grinning as Jack flushed.
“Okay, I have to go harass Childress and Seth now,” Jack backpeddled, knowing he would be teased if he stayed. “Try to stop leaking our bedroom activities to my friends,” he advised Nathan, pleased to see he managed to get a bit of embarrassment out of the normally staid scientist.
Childress had an offsite lab, but the scientist was nowhere to be found. The machine in the room was definitely transmitting, so Jack made a quick call up to GD, asking Zane to come down and shut off the machine. Seth’s offsite lab was even less useful.
“You are not coming in, Sheriff! Every time I allow you near my research, I lose my projects!”
“Aw, come on Seth, I just need samples of your work for GD to analyze, make sure your work didn’t mutate the micro-virus!”
“Last time you were in my lab, there was water turning into blood!”
“It was algae, even I know that!” Jack shot back, pounding on the sealed door once more. “All right, fine, you forced my hand,” he shouted, before heading to the Jeep and pulling out his radio. “Jo, I need backup and the really big door destroying sonic ram out at Seth’s, over.”
“On my way!” Jo came back, sounding delighted to get a chance at using her insanely overpowered toy. “Over.”
Jack leaned back to wait, frowning at the barricaded door. A moment later, the building was rocked by an explosion, the barricaded door flying open and Seth running out, coughing and choking. “You!” he yelled at Jack, before succumbing to another coughing fit. “You—”
“Okay, calm down, breathe,” Jack replied, pulling Seth around the Jeep, sitting him down and pulling a portable oxygen tank out of the first aid kit. “Stay put,” he ordered the scientist, pulling out his cell phone as he evaluated the fire. “Henry, I need fire suppression out at Seth’s lab. His project just blew up. And do me a favor and tell the worrywart next to you I’m fine when he panics.”
*-*
Allison hopped out of Thorne’s SUV, hurrying ahead of the director to Jack. “You okay?” she demanded, eyes raking up and down him to be certain.
“Was well outside the blast,” Jack replied, and Seth groaned.
“You’re like my personal bad luck charm!” he shot at Jack, rolling his eyes. “You come near my lab and everything goes straight to Hell!”
“It’s not the sheriff’s fault, as fun as it would be to blame him for everything that goes wrong here,” Nathan interrupted, coming from the burned out rubble, removing his mask. “Looks like the same radiation that mutated the micro-virus happened here. In the case of the micro-viruses, it just altered them so they run around replicating RNA of memories and transferring them from person to person. Airborne for the past 24 hours, so we don’t even have the luxury of a quarantine. In this case, the chemicals Seth was working with were extremely delicate, and the radiation set off an explosion. The good news is we can eliminate this lab as the source of the radiation.”
“From what you’re telling me though, this problem is going to get worse,” Thorne remarked. “The virus has been limited so far to exposure range, but it’s going to spread exponentially.”
“It’s still limited to the town, the electrostatic barrier was up before the micro-virus was even confirmed mutating thanks to an unrelated project in Section 5,” Nathan replied, with a little smirk in Jack’s direction that made Allison roll her eyes. “While we’re probably going to all get a little embarrassed, at least everyone in town has relatively high clearance and can be signed over to secrecy if need be.”
“But you can’t sign me to silence about your apparent love of classic baseball,” Jack said, turning to Thorne, smirking in amusement. Allison blinked, not liking the way Thorne went too still at Jack’s words. “I will, however, try to recruit you for my baseball team.”
Thorne seemed to relax, but Allison carefully filed away her suspicion that Thorne had some bigger secrets to hide. “Well, Sheriff, if you have an opening at shortstop,” Thorne replied wryly. “In the meantime, do we have any idea how to stop this before we start seeing too much more we’d rather not?”
“Too late,” Henry replied dryly as he and Jo, finished combing the rubble, joined them, samples in hand. “I’ve already seen way more of Nathan than Allison would like,” he said, before handing the bag with a piece of metal inside to Jack. “This contains the trace radiation we need to track, and I don’t think this is supposed to be impacting viruses or brain tissue.”
“So basically, any of the projects emitting radiation or that could emit radiation,” Allison said dryly, then Henry’s words caught up to her. “Uh, just how much of my fiancé did you see?”
“Everything,” Nathan remarked cheerfully. “Let’s just say Henry got quite a shocking eyeful of my personal life.”
Allison paused, eyes flickering to Jack, who shrugged. “Better him than me, I suppose. Besides, I understand Henry’s quite impressed,” Jack joked, but Allison caught the hidden meaning.
“All right,” Thorne broke in, rolling her eyes at them. “Henry, can you and Sheriff Carter track the radiation?”
“Given the data here, yes, I think so,” Henry agreed.
“All right,” Thorne agreed, nodding to them. “I want a report as soon as you find the source, preferably before I learn when the sheriff lost his virginity first hand.”
Allison couldn’t hide a smile when Jack flinched, nodding. “Uh, yeah, let’s not go there,” he muttered, and Allison was suddenly overwhelmed by the image of broken glass, grinding metal, the taste of blood in her mouth…
She gasped, surprised to find herself half on the ground, Jack supporting her on one side, Nathan on the other. “What happened?” she asked, still tasting blood and realizing she had a nose bleed.
“You staggered, then went down,” Jack said softly, accepting the gauze Jo handed him from the first aid kit. “Here, your nose,” he told her, and Allison pressed it to her nose, sighing.
“I think we’re going to need to avoid strong memories,” she groaned, struggling to sit up. Nathan shifted so she could lean against him, and she continued, “Angela. And she was killed in a car crash. I saw the crash.”
Jack swallowed, pulling away from her. “This is getting worse,” he observed to Henry, teeth clenched.
“The human brain’s not made for just sticking in memories, especially when they’re added so haphazardly,” Henry replied quietly. “The more strain, the more memories, the sooner we’ll see the effects on the blood brain barrier, small blood vessels, anywhere the brain is weakest. Eventually we’ll be looking at aneurisms and brain damage.”
“Supplemental medication,” Allison put in, trying for her feet and flushing slightly as she fell back, dizzy, and Nathan scooped her up like she weighed nothing. “My migraine medicines. I’m more susceptible to the effects of the virus.”
“Okay, let’s get you into the infirmary, try to isolate you, filter in pure air,” Nathan suggested. “It’ll at least slow the virus down.”
“Find that radiation,” Thorne snapped at Jack and Henry. “Stark, take her up to GD, get her isolated. Find out who else is on migraine medicines, blood thinners, seizure meds, anything that could make them more susceptible to the symptoms, and get them into isolation.”
“Come on, I’ve got something we can rig up at the garage,” Henry was telling Jack, but Allison stopped Nathan with a quick touch to his shoulder.
“Carter,” she said, and Jack was at her side, worry clear on his face a moment later. “I’m sorry about your girlfriend.”
“Just take care of yourself, okay?” he instructed her, offering her a soft look. “We’ll find Stark what he needs, and you’ll be fine, I promise.”
Allison nodded, and closed her eyes as Nathan loaded her into the car, very gently buckling her in. Outside, she heard Jack ordering SARAH to replicate the procedures for her on Zoë and Lexi, isolating and purifying their air. She realized a moment later Jack was probably worried about Lexi’s baby, too. “I’m okay,” she reassured Nathan when he climbed in the driver’s seat, offering him her hand. He squeezed it gently, the worry not fading from his face.
“Your nose is bleeding again,” Nathan told her, and she sighed, bringing the cloth to her nose.
“Did you know Jack’s childhood sweetheart was killed in a car crash?” Allison asked him after a long silence, and Nathan nodded, a tight jerk of his head.
“Records were sealed, but that’s never stopped me,” Nathan replied. “Does it bother you?”
“That you hacked something?” Allison rolled her eyes. “I imagine there are things you’ve figured out about me that even I don’t know.”
“I meant about his… about Angela,” Nathan replied, jaw tight.
“I guess I feel bad for Jack,” Allison suggested, baffled. “Am I missing something?”
“It’s sort of a big deal. It’s why Jack couldn’t join the military, juvenile record, on top of losing her,” Nathan explained. “He pled down to a charge—”
“Charges?” Allison interrupted, frowning at Nathan. “What are you talking about? He wasn’t even driving.”
Something dawned on Nathan’s face. “That stupid, noble, son of a bitch,” Nathan cursed, chuckling. “He told everyone he was driving. Or let them think it. She’d just turned 16, didn’t have a license.”
“But she died, why would it matter?” Allison asked.
“It mattered to Jack,” Nathan said firmly. Allison sat back, considering.
“Yeah, I guess it would,” she agreed, looking sideways at Nathan. “Now something’s bothering you.”
“He’s a fucking saint compared to me,” Nathan admitted, gripping the wheel tighter. “How the hell is one person that… Mayberry,” he managed in frustration.
Allison began to shake trying not to laugh. “I’m sorry,” she managed, knowing she wasn’t helping. “But seriously, Nathan, the pair of you sometimes!”
“What?” Nathan asked, a little baffled.
“Jack looks at you and thinks he’ll never be smart enough. You look at Jack and think you’ll never be good enough. I’m thinking both of you are idiots,” Allison added dryly. “At least you both make the other one try harder.”
Nathan pulled into GD, stroking Allison’s hair. “Okay, Angel, now you’ll have to let the idiots save you.”
“I have faith in you,” Allison replied, letting him help her out of the car. “I’ll walk,” she added when he threatened to pick her up again. She was about to give him a hard time about his hovering when they brushed past a researcher from section 3, and after a barrage of images about a hostage situation, guns, panic, a blur of sounds and feeling, Allison came to in the infirmary, already scrubbed down and in isolation.
“Nathan?” she managed to croak, and a woman in a clean suit turned, handing her a cup of water.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Blake, he wanted to wait till you woke up, but Thorne ordered him back to work on figuring out this virus,” the nurse explained. “Once I’m sure you have everything you need, I’m supposed to call him.”
“Tell him I’m fine, to keep working,” Allison told her, fussing with the bandages at her nose. “Uh, and call the sheriff, tell him I said to check out the project at offsite lab 1242. They were having containment issues earlier this week.” Which would double as telling him she was okay, Allison mused mentally, as the nurse gently eased her back down.
“You need to lay still, keep this on your finger so it will alert me if you pass out again,” the nurse told her, and Allison sighed, resigning herself to an infirmary stay.
*-*
“You okay?” Henry asked Jack as they paused while Henry’s tracking device tried to sort out a clear trail of radiation. The night was cloudless, moon bright and full, which made their current trek through the woods easier than it could have been.
“Worried about Allie,” Jack admitted, ducking his head when Henry gave him an all too knowing look. “Go ahead, mock me,” Jack invited the older man, sighing.
“Like I told Nathan, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing,” Henry admitted.
“Heh, I still have days like that,” Jack replied, shrugging at Henry’s curious look. “They’re both really good at not letting me panic out of this, of reassuring me.”
“Jack, if they make you happy, I’m glad for you,” Henry replied. “And you’ve all certainly worked better together lately.”
Jack started to answer, but his phone ringing stopped him. “Hello?” he asked, listening to the nurse on the other end. “Lab 1242?” he asked Henry, who pointed. “Looks like we’re headed that way. Tell Dr. Blake thanks for the heads up.”
He closed his phone, and Henry started walking toward the lab, making it a few steps before Jack’s phone sounded again. “Hey, Nathan,” Jack greeted the other man, catching the knowing look Henry shot him. “How’s Allie doing?”
“She’s okay, the clean room is helping,” Nathan’s voice sounded worried and weary. “I’m hoping her hunch about Milner’s lab is right, because I really need to analyze the source of the radiation and we’re starting to need clean room space for people with no special susceptibility to the virus.”
“Time crunch, gotcha,” Jack replied. “Look, be careful.”
“You too,” Nathan replied. “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Jack replied before hanging up the phone. Henry grinned, and they headed up to the offsite lab.
“Dr. Milner?” Jack called out, as Henry checked his monitor.
“This is definitely the source of our radiation,” Henry remarked, starting to tap his data tablet rapidly. “Looks like Milner was working on effects of exotic radiation on aquatic plant life.”
“All right, good enough for me,” Jack said, unbuckling his holster, just in case. “Dr. Milner, it’s Sheriff Carter! I’m coming in!” He tugged open the door, and a hand flopped into the open doorway. “Dr. Milner?” Jack asked Henry as the other many checked for a pulse.
“Yeah,” Henry confirmed, sighing. “He’s cool, been dead a little while.”
“I figured from the dried blood coming out of his ears,” Jack observed. “Let’s get the sample for Nathan and get back up to GD.”
He called a cleanup crew for the body and the radioactive materials, while Henry measured a sample carefully. “Thanks,” he told Zane, starting to walk back over to Henry, the image of Henry carefully adjusting wires on Walter Perkins’ time device filling his mind.
“Jack!”
Jack blinked, hand rising to the wetness on his face, drawing away fingers red with blood. In the next moment, he realized why he was looking up at Henry and Zane. “I think it’s time to get back up to GD,” Jack said faintly, struggling to his feet.
Nathan met them in the atrium, hand curling around Jack’s bicep, tugging him to a halt and checking Jack’s eyes and ears as soon as he spotted the dried blood. “Get him to the infirmary,” he snapped at Fargo, even though he hadn’t let go. “I’ll fix this,” he promised Jack quietly, the growled vehemence reassuring.
“Sheriff?” Fargo said faintly, prompting Jack to move. Jack wondered why the young scientist was looking so concerned, then he saw his reflection, noticing a small smudge of red on one ear. “We’re doubling up, so I’m going to have to put you in with Dr. Blake,” Fargo said, looking through his data. “She’s our last one to double up.”
“Fine,” Jack agreed, following Fargo and resisting the urge to duck away and hide from the barrage of doctors. “Hey,” he greeted Allison sheepishly as they approached her cube, waving her down. “Thought you could use company.”
“And you had to bleed to get into this exclusive club,” Allison remarked dryly. Jack removed his gun belt and uniform, turning his nose up at the scrubs sitting out and instead settling on the bed in his undershirt and slacks. Allison slid out of her bed, coming over to sit on Jack’s bed.
“Hold still, she instructed him, gently cleaning up the blood on his face. “You find the radiation?”
“Right where you said,” Jack said, sliding his fingers through hers, hidden between their bodies. “How are you feeling?”
“Passed out once, but nothing else,” she reassured him. “Did you know Vince is dating Paul Sueños?” Jack lifted an eyebrow, and Allison smiled. “No, it was PG rated, I promise.”
“Good,” Jack replied, looking around. “Think I would get away with kissing you right now?”
“Cameras, nurses, not a chance,” Allison replied dryly. “Are you okay?”
“Just a little blood,” Jack brushed it off easily. “Henry and I got close to the radiation source. Apparently that didn’t work so well for me.”
Jack’s vision filled with the memory of Allison propositioning him while under the influence of the purple haze. What felt like a moment later, he came to, Allison dabbing at his nose, hand gripping his too tightly while a nurse in hazmat checked his vitals. “Jack,” she said, and he shook his head.
“Well, as far as memories go, not a bad one to risk brain damage for,” he told Allison, and she smiled weakly.
“Dr. Blake, if you could let me finish,” the nurse prompted Allison, obviously trying to move Allison back to her own bed. Allison scowled, but stepped back, one worried eye staying on Jack the whole time.
“Try to meditate,” the nurse advised him, apparently satisfied with Jack’s vitals. “Having your mind blank seems to help.”
“Thanks,” Jack replied, waiting for the cube to seal behind her. “What happened to me?”
“You had a seizure,” Allison replied, voice small. “Scared me half to death.”
“You hear anything from Kevin?” Jack changed the subject quickly, knowing Allison couldn’t afford to break down right now.
“Clean room at my house with the nanny and a nurse,” she told him, sighing. “I’ve talked to him a couple times, told him I’m okay. How about Zoë?”
“No symptoms yet, same with Lexi,” Jack reassured her.
They were quiet for a long time, and the next thing Jack was aware of, Nathan was carefully injecting a serum into his arm. “You killing me in my sleep?’ he asked, getting a hand ruffling his hair gently in return.
“This should fix your brain,” Nathan teased gently. “Well, bring it back to normal anyway. Not sure modern science can fix the many, many things wrong with your brain.”
“Aww, scientist, knew you cared,” Jack replied, arching into Nathan’s touch automatically when the scientist touched his throat. “How long this stuff going to take to kill the virus?”
“About 6 hours,” Nathan replied. “You should be able to go home before then, especially since the bunker is about as good a place to recover as any in town.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, feeling a little tired. “Why am I so sleepy?”
“You’ve had three seizures,” Nathan replied, adjusting an IV tube that Jack realized was hooked into the back of his hand. “Jack, did you know you have a clotting disorder?”
“In English?” Jack asked, and Nathan’s doctor façade melted into something gentler.
“You have too much of one type of protein in your blood, and it’s a type that sometimes causes blood clots,” Nathan explained. “Coupled with the virus, it caused petit mal seizures, tiny clots in your brain. Allison had you sedated to slow the virus, and the anticonvulsants probably also made you sleepy.”
“So, clotting disorder,” Jack mused, filing it away to have SARAH talk him through another time. “You’re gonna make SARAH put green leafy stuff in my diet, aren’t you?”
“No, that’d actually make it worse. I’m just prescribing a very mild blood thinner,” Nathan replied. “It’s a Eureka advancement, so you won’t require weekly blood tests or special diets like other people with the disorder. Just a finger prick every two months.”
“Okay,” Jack replied, curling onto his side, hand landing on Nathan’s thigh, but the scientist didn’t bother moving it.
“Rest,” Nathan advised him, and Jack nodded as he drifted off.
*-*
Nathan sat with Allison and Jack as they slept off the anti-viral serum, stubbornly refusing to succumb to sleep, even though the anti-viral was making him drowsy. Jack stretched suddenly, looking over at Nathan. “Hey, shouldn’t you have gone home?” he asked, and Nathan shook his head.
“Not without you and Allison home safe too,” he replied. He did a quick check of Jack’s vitals and stuck his finger to check the blood, relieved to see the viral load had dropped significantly. “You think you’ll be okay to drive yourself home if I sign you out?”
“Yeah,” Jack agreed easily. “I feel a lot better, and with luck, maybe I catch Zoë’s grades from her head before the virus dies out.”
Nathan chuckled. “You want me to call you when Allison wakes up?”
“Call and let me know you both made it home?” Jack countered, and Nathan nodded. The room was darkened, and most of the staff had settled in elsewhere, so Nathan snuck a quick kiss as Jack started to leave.
The sheriff froze as his hand was loosening in Nathan’s grasp, staring back at Nathan. Nathan felt a sudden sinking sensation in his stomach when Jack’s grip on his fingers suddenly turned painful.
“Why is there an image of my daughter… of her…being dead in your memory?” Jack asked, voice low and deadly.
“I didn’t want you to know,” Nathan was on his feet, trying to hold onto Jack, who was now squirming to get away. “Jack, no one should have to see that, I didn’t want you—”
“Let. Me. Go.” Jack jerked his hand away, looking aghast. “Just… how could you?” Jack whispered, grabbing his uniform shirt and gun belt.
Nathan waited, unable to draw breath, waiting, but Jack’s next blow never fell. The sheriff shoved past him, storming out of the room, the silence worse than any words Jack could have hurled at him. Jack’s nameplate, having fallen free of his uniform shirt in his haste, glimmered up at Nathan. He scooped it up, running his thumb over the engraved letters, feeling more helpless than he could ever remember.
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Date: 2009-06-28 10:12 pm (UTC)LOL... I don't have to fix anything, yell at Jack and Nathan! Stupid boys not doing things properly!
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