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serene_quillTitle: A Modest Proposal, Chapter 9: Mummy Can’t Buy Love
Pairing: Jack/Nathan, Jack/Allison, Nathan/Allison, Jack/Nathan/Allison
Rating: FRAO
Disclaimer: Don’t own!
Warnings: slash, threesome, spoilers through 305: Show Me the Mummy
Summary: Ancient Egypt meets modern science, while Jack avoids meeting Nathan.
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long, real life has been insane lately!
Previous Parts can be found here
Nathan looked up as a soft chirp came from his desktop. “Good evening, Dr. Stark,” SARAH’s voice greeted him when he opened the window. “You asked me to report to you if Jack was headed up to GD.”
“Who called him up here?” Nathan asked, shutting down his work. Nathan had been patient, trying to give Jack his space, but he was at his wits end. If stalking Jack to force him to talk was the only way, Nathan certainly wasn’t above it. Not to mention if Jack hadn’t come up to GD soon, Nathan would have taken the argument to the bunker, Lexi be damned. Jack could throw an icy shoulder that had Nathan ready to hand over his crown and bow down before Jack.
“Ms. Thorne called, apparently Dr. Wilding has chained himself to a door to try to stop a very important project,” SARAH told him, and Nathan hid a smile.
“Thank you, SARAH,” Nathan told the AI before shutting down the video call. “Guess it’s time I showed an interest in Egyptology.”
It had been a week since Jack stormed out, and Jack hadn’t spoken to Nathan since then. Allison was trying hard to avoid being a go between, thoroughly depressed at the idea of the trio falling apart. She’d gone back to her house and turned both men away when they visited, telling them to find her when they’d resolved things. Every time she saw one of them, her comments were barbed and pointed, her impatience with the whole affair clear.
Zoë, to her credit, had come in spitting mad for all of ten minutes, demanding the full story behind her death when she’d arrived for her internship at GD the next morning. Once Nathan had explained it to her, she had told him, “You know that was a really stupid move, right? I get you wanting to protect Dad, and I’m really glad you didn’t let him see me like that, but you should have just told him afterwards.”
“How do you tell someone you love that you got his daughter killed?” Nathan had asked, and Zoë had surprised him by hugging him tightly.
“I can read between the lines. I know I talked you guys into letting me help, didn’t I?” Zoë had observed. “So it’s not your fault.”
“I’m surprised your dad let you come back up here to work with me,” Nathan had said after a moment, and Zoë had suddenly been very interested in her lab work.
Nathan took a moment to straighten his tie and ruffle his hair the way Jack liked it, then cursed himself for being a teenage girl before heading down to an empty hall he was fairly certain he could intercept Jack in.
He waited, ignoring a page from Fargo, which was probably about the project his worry about Jack was leading him to neglect, schooling himself against fidgeting. A moment later, his hunch paid off. Jack froze as he came around the corner, then started to push past him, looking surprised when Nathan grabbed hold of his wrist, refusing to let him through. “We have to talk,” Nathan said firmly.
“Nathan, you told me my daughter got hurt,” Jack reminded him acidly, “when it was a hell of a lot more serious.”
“Yeah, it’s why I risked the fucking universe, so maybe it warrants a conversation,” Nathan shot back before he could stop himself. “Jack, please.”
“I thought we agreed we were done with the lies and secrets,” Jack hissed, jerking his wrist away. “And I have work to do right now.”
This time Jack managed to elbow past Nathan, but Nathan called after him. “Are we done then?”
Jack halted, shoulders slumping. He turned back, eyes raking over Nathan, and Nathan knew what the sheriff was seeing. Dark circles Nathan couldn’t hide, his slouched posture, and his scraped knuckles from hitting the punching bag too much over the past week. “I don’t want to be,” Jack admitted, his eyes closing as Nathan stepped closer. “But if you can’t trust me with the truth about my own daughter, Nathan…”
“I trust you with anything,” Nathan insisted. “Ask me anything, I’ll tell you anything, if that’s what you need.” He could hear the desperation in his voice but didn’t care.
“Why’d you hide this from me?” Jack asked pointedly, and Nathan sighed.
“I… I wasn’t going to let you see her that way, not when I was going to let time loop, make sure we saved her,” Nathan said roughly. “And then… then telling you what I’d let happen to her seemed too horrible. I couldn’t tell you I’d gotten her killed.”
Jack pressed his hands to his face, groaning. “Zoë talked us into letting her stay, and I watched you keep an eye on her and Lucas, Nathan, you were careful. I know if you’d thought there was a threat, you’d have sent them home. I don’t blame you for that!”
“That makes one of us,” Nathan muttered, running a hand through his hair. “And I am sorry for lying to you, but every time I opened my mouth to tell you, to hurt you that way, I couldn’t do it! What would you have done if it was Kevin, and Allie didn’t know?”
Jack paused, obviously turning it over in his mind. “I need to go unchain a scientist,” Jack told Nathan, who nodded, a very real, physical pain in his chest at Jack’s apparent dismissal. Jack paused at the end of the hall, turning back to Nathan. “Let me think for a while, then… I’ll come find you, to talk,” Jack promised, and Nathan felt a little weight shift off his shoulders.
*-*
Jack left Thorne’s little mummy consumer video project and headed straight up to Allison’s office, the exhaustion of little to no sleep for a week suddenly catching up to him, every joint in his body suddenly aching. Allison waved him in, not breaking from her business call, and Jack sat down on her couch, fighting to keep his eyes open.
“You okay?” Allison asked, coming over to the couch and sitting next to him, holding her distance.
“Can you not for a minute?” Jack demanded, and Allison sighed, offering him her hand. After she had told him to talk to Nathan and sort out things, she decided she would be keeping her distance, an effective threat that had made Jack pick up the phone hundreds of times, but he never made it to actually dialing.
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
“Talked to Nathan,” he admitted, letting his head drop. “I don’t know what to do, Allie. I’m so pissed I can’t think straight and then I see him and I can’t make sense of being angry anymore!”
“Why are you mad at him?” Allison asked, and Jack gave her a look. “Jack, I know he lied to you. And he did it to protect you from something horrible. No gain for himself or GD, nothing but pure concern for you and Zoë. So why are you mad?”
Jack stopped, searching his head. “If it had been Kevin, would you have wanted us to tell you?”
Allison drew back, considering. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t want to know, because it didn’t really happen. But I wouldn’t want the two of you living with keeping it a secret.”
“That’s not helpful,” Jack groaned, but since he’d buried his face in her shoulder, it sounded like mumbled whining.
“Jack,” Allison said firmly, tugging his chin up so she could look at him. “You’re miserable. You haven’t slept in days. Nathan’s no better. This is for your own good.”
“What is?” Jack started to ask, as he felt a small sting at the back of his neck. Allison stroked his hair for a moment, and Jack shook his head as she gently guided him to lie down on the couch. “Jo gonna kill’ou,” he slurred, and Allison kissed his forehead gently.
“Jo gave me permission after you snapped at her this morning,” he dimly heard Allison say as he drifted off.
*-*
Nathan looked up as she entered, and then buried his head in his arms on his desk again, his thumb rubbing one of Jack’s burnished uniform nameplates reassuringly. “I screwed up,” he told her, which surprised Allison. “Ambushed him. Made him talk. Probably was supposed to wait, wasn’t I?”
“You gave him enough time,” Allison reassured him, rubbing the back of his neck gently. “And he’s thinking more rationally since you talked. Or will be once he’s slept.”
“Hmm, you think he hasn’t slept?” Nathan mumbled, sounding worried. “He didn’t look like he had. I know you said you didn’t want to be with either of us while we figured this out, but you should go see him, try to get him to sleep.”
“What a good idea,” Allison couldn’t resist quipping. “Can I convince you to go lie down on your couch for a few minutes, let me rub your neck?” She knew she was shamelessly angling for his weak points, but Nathan was either too tired to notice or too tired to care. He got up and lay down on the couch, sighing as Allison rubbed at his shoulders. She carefully removed the sedative from her pocket, but Nathan barely reacted when she stuck him.
“You think I don’t know your tricks by now?” Nathan asked, turning so he could kiss her hand. “You took care of Jack?”
“Yeah,” she reassured him, running her fingers through his curls. “Sleep, Nathan, and once you’ve both gotten some rest, you can sort things out.”
Nathan murmured something that only years of practice allowed her to decode. “Love you too,” she said softly, sighing as she locked Nathan’s office behind her, heading down to level 3 to find Thorne.
“Where’s Dr. Stark?” Thorne asked when Allison entered, and Allison forced a smile.
“Sedated in his office for the day,” she replied dryly. “I’m not above forcing rest on him when he gets to be an idiot.”
“And the sheriff?” Thorne asked, her lips twitching.
“My office,” Allison managed, before she smiled. “I don’t think I could have handled another day of their sniping at everyone around them.”
“Well done,” Thorne told her, sighing. “Any idea what got into the two of them?”
“I know with Jack, it involved Zoë,” Allison replied, shrugging. “At that point, reason stops working for him. And Nathan gets this way once a year, usually with stress migraines he tries to hide, so anything rational is gone there, too. Both at the same time, and most of us are reaching for panic buttons and shot glasses.”
“No kidding,” Thorne murmured, attention already back on the monitor. “Thank you for handling it.”
*-*
Jack woke to the soft click of keys typing. “Hey,” Allison greeted him. “How you feeling?”
“Like you hit me with a 2 by 4,” he replied, adjusting his neck to work out the kinks. “Which is oddly a lot better.”
“Fargo needs you to sign some forms tonight, since we did the whole unsealing the tomb, filmed the mummy queen, etc.,” Allison told him. “Then maybe go find Nathan and talk?”
“Okay,” Jack agreed slowly. “I miss anything important while I was out, the mummy rise, people struck dead from her curse?”
“Your sister is peddling her CDs at Café Diem,” Allison told him, smiling. “I picked one up. It’s not bad.”
“Yeah, I got a preview this morning as a wakeup call,” Jack recalled, making a face. “There are definitely stronger words for it than ‘bad’.”
“Fargo should be in his office,” Allison laughed, shooing him out. “And, fair warning, Nathan may still be asleep when you get there. I drugged him too.”
“Gotcha,” Jack said, stamping down the nervous butterflies in his stomach. Fargo first, he reminded himself and headed down to the small recess in the wall outside Nathan’s office generously called Fargo’s office. The office appeared empty, but Fargo’s phone was on his desk. “Fargo?” he called out, and a small squeak came from under the desk. “What are you doing?”
“The mummy!” Fargo said, sticking his head up just enough to point a trembling finger toward the hall. “I saw the mummy.”
“Queen Neato rose from the dead, huh?” Jack joked dryly. When Fargo simply stared, too pale, Jack sighed. “All right, I’ll check it out. Get those papers I need to sign ready for me.”
He headed down the hall, frowning at the dim lighting and pulling out his small flashlight. “Can’t see a damn thing,” he muttered, passing through a hall under construction. The plastic was rustling around him, but Jack thought he could see something moving, heading toward it cautiously. “Hello?” he called out, and the rustling increased.
Reflexively, Jack transferred the penlight to his left hand and unfastened his holster, unable to see anything in the dim light. A moment later, a hand gripped his forearm, and Jack whirled, still clumsy from the sedative, losing his footing and hitting his head on a metal scaffold. It took him a minute to get his bearings again, and the hall was empty as he did. “Very funny, Larry,” he muttered, suspecting the prank had been engineered by Fargo’s rival.
He headed back up to Fargo’s office, nodding to Nathan, who had apparently just emerged from his office. “Fargo, I think it’s probably someone’s idea of a prank. Larry maybe?” he suggested, trying to ignore the fact that Nathan was looking at the rapidly purpling bruise on the side of his forehead.
“What happened there?” Nathan asked, frowning.
“Larry or whoever tried to pull their night of the living mummy trick on me, startled me into hitting my head when they grabbed me,” Jack explained, hissing and pulling back when Nathan poked at it. “Ouch! They’re just lucky I didn’t shoot them.”
“I’m telling you, it’s the curse of Queen Niota!” Fargo insisted, folding his arms stubbornly. “I’d have known if it was Larry who grabbed my arm!”
Jack rolled his eyes, but given the opportunity, he’d take putting off talking with Nathan. “All right, let’s go see,” he said simply. “If the queen is in her sarcophagus, it’s a prank.”
“Come on, Fargo,” Nathan instructed his assistant, nudging him forward. They headed into the elevator, and Jack tried not to fidget uncomfortably when Nathan shifted a little closer to him. Part of him was screaming to burrow into Nathan, wrap his arms around his lover and hold him till they figured something out, while the other part flashed on the image of Zoë, too still and glassy eyed, making him stop short.
He moved a little too quickly when the elevator opened, and he saw Nathan set his jaw, pain raw in his eyes. He flipped on a light in the lab. “See, the mummy… is gone,” Jack finished in astonishment, spotting Dr. Marx lying on the ground. “Not a prank,” he said to Nathan, as they turned Marx over, Nathan checking his pulse.
“It’s the curse!” Fargo insisted, gulping air rapidly.
Half an hour later, Jack was taking Marx’s statement, which consisted of blaming Dr. Wilding every other breath and insisting he’d simply passed out in the next. The doctor examining him confirmed dehydration, and beyond Jack being a little disturbed by just how well Thorne seemed to know the pompous scientist, he wasn’t really managing to learn anything from the process.
“All right,” Jack caved finally, shaking his head. “Security will sweep the building for the mummy tonight. I’ll call Wilding in first thing in the morning. In the meantime, I’m still half out from the sedative Allison gave me, so I need some sleep,” he insisted.
“It can wait till morning,” Nathan agreed, gravelly voice soothing Jack quickly. He scowled inwardly, wondering when his responses to the other man had become so automatic.
“Agreed,” Thorne conceded. “Sebastian, do you want me to take you back to the bed and breakfast?”
Jack decided he was getting a little too close to learning how close Thorne and Marx were and slipped out, nodding to Nathan. They slipped into a darkened corridor, and Jack leaned against the wall wearily. “I wanted to talk, but things sort of got out of control,” he observed neutrally, and Nathan smirked.
“The dead walking isn’t exactly a new excuse for us, Jack,” he observed. “You up to hashing this out tonight?”
Jack shook his head, knowing his temper had a tendency to get worse when he was this tired. “Me either,” Nathan conceded, but Jack could see the disappointment on his face.
“Tomorrow?” Jack asked, reaching out idly and playing with the end of Nathan’s tie.
Nathan responded automatically, sliding closer, nuzzling at Jack’s temple, and Jack found his hands automatically settling on Nathan’s waist. “I miss you,” Nathan admitted softly.
“Tomorrow,” Jack repeated, and Nathan nodded, kissing Jack’s forehead gently. Jack closed his eyes, fighting his instinct to lean in and make it a proper kiss. Nathan pulled away, hurrying out of the hall, obviously just as torn. Some corner of Jack’s mind observed coolly that it’d be easier to push Nathan away if he would try to pursue Jack. Instead the distance was making him crave Nathan.
“I need a drink,” Jack decided, heading home.
*-*
Nathan looked up eagerly when his office door opened, trying not to look too disappointed when Henry came in. “Not Jack, I know,” Henry replied, shrugging. “He questioned Wilding, eliminated him as a suspect, and he and Jo went to track down Marx, who is apparently AWOL,” Henry filled him in. “Oh, and Fargo has a theory about the lasers they used to open the tomb and regenerated fish tissue as how the mummy came back. He has a demonstration that’s… disturbing.”
“This is my life- mummies, Fargo’s fish cells, drugged by my girlfriend and a pissed off boyfriend,” Nathan observed sarcastically. “Anything else?”
“Uh, yeah, Thorne just approached me with a cryptex she wanted me to crack,” Henry told him. “I tried to get more information out of her, but she wouldn’t tell me. Best guess, I’d say it’s her way into that underground facility.”
“You turned her down, I’m guessing?” Nathan observed, thoughtful.
“Figured we’ve got nothing to gain by my continuing to help her,” Henry said. “I’ll keep an eye out, see if she taps anyone else, but if we can keep her out of that facility, we’re still a step ahead.”
“Thanks, Henry,” Nathan said, carefully filing away the information in his head. “Make sure you fill Jack in.”
“He’ll come around, Nathan,” Henry told him, shrugging. “Jack’s more forgiving than most of us.”
“I hope you’re right,” Nathan sighed, turning back to his work. Henry’s phone went off, and a moment later, Nathan’s sounded.
*-*
“The mummy?” Allison asked, wrinkling her nose at the tent that was quarantining the corpse.
“Just Marx, looking worse than Niota did,” Jack replied, drinking from a rather large water bottle.
“Well, my preliminary finding suggests dehydration,” Henry told the assembled group as he joined them, yanking off his protective mask.
“Uh, Henry, we found him in an overflowing bathtub,” Jo observed, shaking her head. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but I’m thinking it’s bacterial, given the rate of decomposition,” Henry replied, waving a hand at the tent. “Thus the quarantine.”
“Sebastian just got back from Egypt, maybe he picked up something there,” Thorne put in.
“Or maybe from the tomb, with the fancy danger signs on it,” Jack replied dryly, and Nathan snorted, poorly hiding a smile.
“Could also be fungal, or poison,” Henry continued, rolling his eyes at their antics.
“Poison? So this could have been deliberate,” Thorne said, turning to Jack. “Because Wilding—”
“No, I questioned him. It’s not in his nature,” Jack interjected quickly. “Look, if this thing is from the tomb or the missing mummy…”
“Well, it’s not airborne, or we’d have seen more cases,” Henry observed.
“Contact,” Nathan concluded. “We need to find the missing mummy before anyone else is infected. And didn’t Marx have an assistant?”
“The camerawoman, Eileen Michaels,” Thorne confirmed, nodding.
“All right, I’m on finding her,” Jack said, folding his arms. “Jo, you’ve got the mummy.”
*-*
It was Fargo chugging down a pitcher of water at Café Diem that put the idea into Nathan’s head, as he hurriedly escaped the boombox wails, dragging his assistant after him. “Carter, it’s Stark,” he said, sighing in relief as the door closed on Lexi’s music. “Where’d you lose Fargo’s mummy last night?”
“That hall that’s under construction, a waterfall installation I think?” Jack replied, sounding curious. “Why?”
“Meet me there,” Nathan replied shortly, shoving Fargo toward his car. He drove too quickly, nodding to Jack as they met mid-hallway. “Help me get this down,” Nathan said, yanking on some of the construction plastic. Jack frowned but tugged off a sheet, seeing the pools underneath and nodding.
“I see where you’re going, Scientist,” Jack muttered, clearing his throat. They tugged down another sheet, and a dried up corpse floated near just under the surface.
“The mummy!” Fargo shouted, backing up quickly.
“Eileen Michaels,” Jack corrected him, sighing and kneeling down, finishing his bottle of water as he knelt. “Fargo, can you refill that?” Jack handed it off absently, and Nathan looked up, eyes wide.
“When you came down into the hall, she touched you, didn’t she?” Nathan asked, looking over to where Fargo was lapping up water from the water fountain. “She touched both of you. Dammit!” He slammed a hand into the wall, pulling out his phone. “I need a medical team to level 2, corridor 14,” he barked, swallowing hard. Jack was looking quizzical, then looked over at Fargo, the dawning knowledge on his face almost sickening.
“She infected us,” Jack observed, paling. “God, we need to test Lexi and Zoë. And you,” he added, suddenly remembering. “I touched you.”
*-*
Allison didn’t get the call until Jack was already installed in the infirmary, due in large part to the fact that Thorne had stuck Nathan in quarantine as well, taking no chances when she heard that Jack had touched Nathan. Lexi and Zoë were a higher priority for the tests, though, so Nathan was pacing his glass cube impatiently when Allison arrived.
“Good news is Lexi and Zoë tested negative, we’re waiting on your results next,” Allison told Nathan. “Henry’s doing an autopsy of Eileen Michaels, and we’re testing anyone Fargo came in contact with as well. Better news is Fargo isn’t prone to touching people the way Jack is so it’s a short list. Wilding and Zane are looking into the markings on the tomb. Both of them are now thinking the danger markings indicate a plague. They’re hoping they’ll find how the ancient Egyptians stopped it.” She could hear herself faintly, babbling practically, but Nathan was keeping up, allowing her to get it out of her system, so she finished, “We haven’t found the mummy yet, but I think—”
Her PDA beeped, and she looked down, able to breathe a little better when she saw the test results. She hit the quarantine release code, smiling at Nathan. “Your test results are negative,” she said, letting him hug her tightly, soaking in the warmth and comfort. “Now let’s go fix Carter,” she added firmly when he pulled away, jerking her head over to where Jack and Fargo were being monitored.
Allison was listening to Henry filling in Nathan with one ear, looking over Jack’s latest blood work. When Henry mentioned that Eileen Michaels’ remains had disintegrated, she saw Nathan light up, putting pieces together. “The mummy didn’t go anywhere,” he said, taking off. She and Henry exchanged a look before hurrying after him.
“Zane, the security cameras, what’d they show?” Nathan demanded as they entered, Thorne looking over her glasses at him warily.
“Nothing,” Zane replied. “The mummy just sort of vanished.”
“She’s still there,” Nathan said, pointing. Allison glanced at the empty sarcophagus, wondering briefly if the strain of the situation was getting to Nathan, but Henry lit up, nodding.
“The ashes!” he exclaimed, looking closer. “She disintegrated, like Eileen Michaels!”
“We’ll need to run some tests to confirm it, but that would be good news,” Thorne said with a small smile. “This should be contained.”
“To Fargo and Jack,” Allison burst out, surprised at her own vehemence. Thorne instantly looked apologetic, but Allison brushed it off. “Zane, keep working on the engravings, I need to go look at blood work,” she muttered, pushing past Henry to escape the room.
She wasn’t surprised when Nathan caught up with her a few moments later, giving her a worried look. “Where do you need to be?” he asked her, and she sighed shakily, running a hand through her hair.
“Blood work,” she repeated finally. “I need to be working on the research, as long as you can handle keeping Jack company.”
“It’s where I need to be,” Nathan agreed sadly, accepting Allison’s fierce hug. “Go on,” he urged her, once she had reassembled what remained of her control. She left him to collect his courage, hoping leaving the two men together was the right thing to do.
*-*
“Feel like having that chat now?” Jack joked as Nathan stepped in front of the monitor.
“You look horrible,” Nathan informed him, sighing as he leaned against the wall, trying to think of something to say.
“You’ve got a really shitty bedside manner,” Jack replied, sipping his water. “Seriously, Dr. House has nothing on you.”
“Well, give me a cane and maybe I can tone it down,” Nathan replied, teasingly. “You want me to get Zoë in here?”
“No,” Jack replied, shaking his head. “I talked to her earlier, before I was looking so horrible. I don’t want her to see me this way.” He paused, drinking some water, and Nathan sighed, resisting the urge to touch the image. “I guess that makes me a bit of a hypocrite.”
“How so?” Nathan asked, not following his logic.
“I’m angry with you for not telling me that in some convoluted reality that didn’t happen my daughter died, but I won’t let her be here now,” Jack pointed out, sighing.
“You’re protecting her,” Nathan replied quietly. “It’s what you’re supposed to do when you care about someone.”
“Even if she doesn’t need it anymore?” Jack replied, and Nathan suspected Jack had caught on that they weren’t talking about Zoë anymore.
“Even if she hates you for it,” Nathan replied, nodding to Allison as she came in slowly. “They’ve got him on IV fluids, why isn’t he getting better?” Nathan asked, keeping the video line open deliberately, not wanting Jack to feel shut out.
“Here, this is the blood work,” Allison told him, handing the data pad over. “Our best guess is those microbes require the water for replicating, which is why Jack’s getting worse as we hydrate him.”
“Zane said they think those hieroglyphs warn about some sort of plague, and maybe we’re not talking about a bacterial kind,” Nathan muttered, looking over the image. “And Fargo showed us the fish tissue that could be regenerated by the cutting laser,” he added, watching Allison catch up to his theory.
“And an insect could survive in a microbial state like this indefinitely,” she said, eyes going round. “So the hydration is for metamorphosis, not replication! We have to warn Henry, those bodies could be a virtual cocoon!” She tugged out her phone, stepping away and Jack motioned to get Nathan’s attention.
“Marx might be, but the camera woman crumbled,” Jack said. “Maybe something in the fountain water?”
Nathan double checked the tablet for the tests he’d ordered when they found the body as Allison rejoined him. “Too late,” she told them grimly. “The swarm hatched, headed back into town,” she reported. “Henry’s on his way here, but we need to find a way to stop them before they start laying eggs.”
“The water in the fountain looks like normal water, no different than the bath water,” Nathan observed, scrolling through data. “No chemical treatment, no filtering.”
“What about Ph levels?” Allison suggested and Nathan double checked.
“No difference,” Nathan thumped the pad in disappointment, wishing there had been an easy answer.
“Cold,” Jack interrupted, coughing. “Bathwater was steaming.”
“And the waterfall is spring fed, icy cold,” Allison replied. “Maybe—”
Nathan jumped, his phone ringing, Zoë’s number on the screen. “Zoë, what’s up?”
“Um, there’s a swarm of bugs trying to get into Café Diem,” she shouted, and Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose, barely able to hear her over the music.
“Tell your aunt to turn that noise off,” he barked, sighing gratefully when he could suddenly hear Zoë.
“The swarm is huge,” Zoë told him, but she sounded surprisingly calm, telling Nathan they were still secure in the café. “And… wait, they’re leaving.”
Nathan frowned, suddenly curious. “Turn the music back on,” he said, waiting for her to relay the request to Lexi.
“They’re… they’re coming back,” Zoë told him, only a small stammer betraying her concern.
“Okay, hang tight, we may have a way to fix this,” Nathan told her. “Just stick with Jo and be careful, okay?”
“Promise,” she agreed easily. “How’s my dad doing?”
“We’re working on it,” he told her, closing his eyes briefly. “I’ll get back to you soon.”
He hung up, turning back to Allison as Henry sprinted in. “The swarm seems to be attracted to Café Diem,” Henry reported in a quick gasp. “Which is baffling, because we’ve got more people in the shelter out at Tesla.”
“It’s the music… Lexi’s CD,” Nathan told them. “The bugs are attracted to it.”
“Heh,” Jack joked weakly. “No taste.”
“No kidding,” Nathan agreed. “Or it’s the harmonics,” he conceded when Allison gave him a dark look. “The point is, we can attract them. We just need to test our theory about the cold killing them, and I have an idea on how. Cryogenically.”
“Test it on Fargo or Jack, see if it kills the microbes,” Allison said, lips pursed with concern as she considered the screen.
“You test it on me, not Fargo,” Jack ground out, the dark circles under his eyes making any implied threat useless. Allison shook her head, obviously unable to agree, and Jack turned his face, looking at Nathan.
“I’ll set it up,” Nathan reassured him, sliding a hand around Allison’s elbow. “He’s got to protect the town, protect Fargo,” he reminded her softly. “This isn’t one of the times you or I can protect him.” His eyes met Jack’s, and he forced himself to acknowledge the gratitude written there.
It took only ten minutes for the cryogenics team to set up a module, far too quick for Nathan to come up with a good reason to stop Jack from being the one Henry was injecting with an anesthetic. The module was sealed up, and Nathan was allowed to move in closer as Henry removed his protective gloves.
“Nathan,” Jack called out, pressing a hand to the lid of the cryo-chamber. Nathan checked that the lab techs had left, and then set his hand against the glass. “You’ll take care of Zoë.”
“Of course,” Nathan reassured him, trying not to let his worry lash out.
“No, I mean, I know you will, I get it,” Jack replied distractedly, the sedative taking hold. “You didn’t risk the universe for me… risked it for her.”
Nathan’s breath caught, and he forced a smile. “Go to sleep, Jack, we’ll talk about this later.”
“Love you,” Jack whispered as he went under. Nathan steeled himself before nodding to Henry, starting the cryo process.
“All right, we’re at our target temperature,” Henry reported a moment later, and Allison shook her head.
“Internal sensors are still detecting movement,” she told them, cursing under her breath. “It’s slowing, but Jack’s vitals are really low as well.”
“Come on, Jack,” Henry said, tweaking the temperature a little on his console.
“No more movement,” Allison confirmed a moment later, a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Moment of truth, we have to bring him back out and make sure they aren’t hibernating,” Nathan reminded them, and Henry nodded, adjusting his controls. Allison left her console, coming down and lacing her fingers through Nathan’s.
“Pulse rate not responding,” Henry told them a moment later, and Nathan turned, checking the vitals for himself.
“Don’t you die on us,” Allison snapped at Jack, and a moment later, the slow beeping began to speed up.
“Approaching normal rate and rhythm,” Henry confirmed, grinning, and Allison moved back to the console, checking the MRI.
“No movement,” she told Nathan triumphantly.
“All right,” Nathan said, nodding to them. “Allison, can you handle treating Fargo? Henry and I have a swarm to take care of.”
*-*
Jack woke slowly, head aching fiercely, which somehow must have shown in his face, because the lights dimmed enough for him to open his eyes a moment later. “Better?” Allison asked, running a soothing hand over his head.
“You’re an angel,” Jack grumbled hoarsely. “If you have water, I’ll even upgrade you to goddess.”
“Sweet talk will get you nowhere, Carter,” Allison remarked, handing him a cup with a straw in it, though she was struggling not to smile. “Nathan should be back in a little bit, save it for him.”
“He take care of the bugs?” Jack asked, fighting a smirk. “Doing my job?”
“Attracted them with the music, then put them in the deep freeze in Vince’s freezer,” Allison told him, stroking Jack’s hair gently. “Vince made him stay to clean up.”
“I’d have come up with a better plan than that,” Jack scoffed, rolling his eyes. “What’d he do, run down the street with a boom box?”
“He and Henry drove, actually, but yeah, same idea,” Allison admitted, shaking her head. “Just between you and me, I wish you had been awake. I’m sure you’d have had a better idea.”
“I heard that.” Nathan’s voice rumbled from the doorway, where he was leaning against the doorframe, tie looped loosely around his neck, shirt half undone. “Sheriff can have his job back, it’s thankless. Vince just shoved a broom at me and said he wasn’t cleaning up bugsicles.”
“So you just called in GD cleanup,” Jack remarked dryly, and Allison smiled, standing and leaning down to brush a quick kiss over Jack’s forehead.
He pouted at her, and she raised an eyebrow. “You can have a real one when you and Nathan…”
“Allie,” Nathan stopped her, giving her a soft look.
She turned back, pulling Jack into a tight embrace. Jack looped his arms around her, holding her for a long moment. “Go get some rest,” Jack told her, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, leaning in as he did, whispering, “And maybe we’ll come join you.”
Allison looked up quickly, tugging him into a quick kiss. “Thank you,” she whispered back. “But not till tomorrow. Tonight you two figure it out, physically too,” she finished, giving him a knowing smile.
Allison walked to the door, leaning up and kissing Nathan before she left. “Camera,” Jack suddenly realized with a groan.
“Everyone’s gone home, and I’ll snag the footage,” Nathan reassured him, slowly making his way over to sit on the bed, facing Jack. “Jack, I don’t expect you to forgive me for lying to you…”
“I do though,” Jack replied quietly. “You turned back time, so it never actually happened. And I started thinking, if I could have done it for Callister, if it had been Kevin…” he trailed off, taking a deep breath. “I would have done it too.”
“You wouldn’t have put them in that position in the first place,” Nathan started to object, and Jack snorted.
“Have you met my daughter? About 5’5”, blonde, gets her way far too often?” he teased Nathan, trying to cover how his stomach was fluttering nervously as he inched his fingers into Nathan’s. “Just tell me… do you trust me?” Jack asked softly, finally able to voice what worried him.
“With my life,” Nathan replied quietly. “Even when I didn’t like you, I knew I could trust you.”
“And this thing with us… you being…” Jack’s breath caught, unable to force the words out.
“I can’t live without you,” Nathan swore, squeezing Jack’s fingers tightly. “I know you think because I have Allie too I might just as easily give you up, but being away from either of you physically hurts, Jack. I need you. Badly need you.”
Nathan’s face was open, so easy to read that Jack couldn’t find it in himself to disbelieve it. “Yeah, me too,” he confessed, hands shaking a little when Nathan drew it up to his lips.
“Okay?” Nathan asked, obviously concerned.
“Need you,” Jack managed, not sure why he was shaking. Nathan pulled him into a hug, Jack burrowing his nose into the open v of Nathan’s shirt, finally feeling able to breathe deep enough once he was settled against the other man.
“Take me home?” Jack asked Nathan quietly, and Nathan pulled back, running the backs of his fingers along Jack’s cheekbone.
“You’re recovering—”
“So we’ll go very, very slow,” Jack informed him, voice a little husky.
“Your sister is home,” Nathan reminded him.
“She’ll be asleep,” Jack said, looking at his watch. “We’ll explain the birds, bees, and bees all in one nest in the morning.”
“Are you sure?” Nathan tried one last time, though he’d leaned in so his forehead was resting on Jack’s.
“I need you with me,” Jack told him, managing a crooked smile. “Half crazy wanting you to make love to me.”
“I’ll get the forms to release you to the bunker,” Nathan replied. “No work for a few days though.”
“All right,” Jack agreed, though he was already plotting his way around that edict.
*-*
Nathan helped Jack into the bunker, unsurprised to see Zoë still awake, jumping up the minute Jack came in. “Dad,” she cried out, hurrying over to hug him. “I thought they would keep you at GD for the night.” She looked suspiciously over at Nathan.
“His vitals are good, and there’s nothing more GD can actually do to help,” Nathan observed. “It’s a matter of rest and recovering, which you and I both know will be easier with SARAH around to help police him.”
“I’m happy to help,” the AI chirped in. “When will Sheriff Carter be permitted to return to work?”
“Three days, minimum,” Nathan spoke up quickly, before Jack could try to con his house. “And only with my say-so, SARAH.”
“Noted,” the house said, and Jack scowled at him.
“Hope the couch is comfortable, traitor,” he joked, leaning against Nathan wearily.
“Um, so, we telling Aunt Lexi he’s here because you need medical supervision?” Zoë guessed, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. Nathan picked up that she was also wondering what to read into Nathan’s presence.
“Nah, we’ll tell her everything tomorrow,” Jack told her, pulling her into another hug when she lit up happily. “Not too much longer on the homework, okay?”
“Just a few more equations,” she promised, and Nathan rolled his eyes.
“You know, this is why you have an AI,” he reminded Jack. “SARAH, please enforce Zoë’s bedtime.”
“Counting down, 42 minutes,” SARAH agreed pleasantly, and Zoë scowled up at him.
“I was going to say I was glad you two made up, but I’m not now,” she informed him, sniffing as she settled in to her work.
Getting Jack stripped and into bed proved easier than Nathan had foreseen, and a few minutes later, Nathan curled into the inviting embrace, accepting a languid kiss. “You’re too sleepy,” he warned Jack, who snuffled a negative sound, all legs and hands and enwrapping Nathan tightly as he nibbled at the scientist’s collarbone.
“Don’t think your body knows that,” Jack remarked quietly, hand slipping under Nathan’s boxers and wrapping around the hardening cock, playing slowly, the touch soft and exploring.
“Jack,” Nathan groaned, rolling closer to his lover, trying not to feel turned on. “I just brought you home from the infirmary.”
“I’m fine, except for needing you,” Jack replied, and Nathan leaned up and kissed him slowly, sliding a hand down to cup Jack, surprised to find the sheriff hard and arching into the touch automatically. Deciding that compromise was a good plan, Nathan slid Jack’s boxers down, freeing his cock, mirroring Jack’s soft strokes. Jack cupped Nathan’s chin gently, raising his face into a gentle kiss.
The movements were slow, soft, teasing and caressing, not pushing for anything more, so Nathan relaxed into the rhythm, kissing every bit of Jack’s face he could reach, feather light touches that coaxed a soft laugh from Jack. “I won’t break,” Jack reminded him, catching Nathan’s lower lip between his teeth.
“Missed you,” Nathan countered. “Love you.” He arched a little into Jack’s touch, coming silently, fighting to keep his eyes locked on Jack’s.
“Shit,” Jack cursed, eyes widening hungrily as he pulled Nathan into a kiss. “Just when I think you can’t get any hotter.” Nathan deliberately angled his fingers into Jack’s weak points, sliding and sending him over the edge with a soft cry. Jack buried his head in Nathan’s shoulder, the exhaustion suddenly to hard for him to hide. Nathan snagged a handful of tissues from the nightstand and cleaned them up, smiling at Jack’s sleepy incoherent murmurs.
“N’more lies,” Jack slurred at Nathan as he tucked them in, wrapping his arms around Jack.
“I promise,” Nathan said softly into Jack’s ear, thinking he might have actually learned that lesson at last. Where his mind had once broken down his actions as acceptable risk, he saw nothing but risk.
Pairing: Jack/Nathan, Jack/Allison, Nathan/Allison, Jack/Nathan/Allison
Rating: FRAO
Disclaimer: Don’t own!
Warnings: slash, threesome, spoilers through 305: Show Me the Mummy
Summary: Ancient Egypt meets modern science, while Jack avoids meeting Nathan.
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long, real life has been insane lately!
Previous Parts can be found here
Nathan looked up as a soft chirp came from his desktop. “Good evening, Dr. Stark,” SARAH’s voice greeted him when he opened the window. “You asked me to report to you if Jack was headed up to GD.”
“Who called him up here?” Nathan asked, shutting down his work. Nathan had been patient, trying to give Jack his space, but he was at his wits end. If stalking Jack to force him to talk was the only way, Nathan certainly wasn’t above it. Not to mention if Jack hadn’t come up to GD soon, Nathan would have taken the argument to the bunker, Lexi be damned. Jack could throw an icy shoulder that had Nathan ready to hand over his crown and bow down before Jack.
“Ms. Thorne called, apparently Dr. Wilding has chained himself to a door to try to stop a very important project,” SARAH told him, and Nathan hid a smile.
“Thank you, SARAH,” Nathan told the AI before shutting down the video call. “Guess it’s time I showed an interest in Egyptology.”
It had been a week since Jack stormed out, and Jack hadn’t spoken to Nathan since then. Allison was trying hard to avoid being a go between, thoroughly depressed at the idea of the trio falling apart. She’d gone back to her house and turned both men away when they visited, telling them to find her when they’d resolved things. Every time she saw one of them, her comments were barbed and pointed, her impatience with the whole affair clear.
Zoë, to her credit, had come in spitting mad for all of ten minutes, demanding the full story behind her death when she’d arrived for her internship at GD the next morning. Once Nathan had explained it to her, she had told him, “You know that was a really stupid move, right? I get you wanting to protect Dad, and I’m really glad you didn’t let him see me like that, but you should have just told him afterwards.”
“How do you tell someone you love that you got his daughter killed?” Nathan had asked, and Zoë had surprised him by hugging him tightly.
“I can read between the lines. I know I talked you guys into letting me help, didn’t I?” Zoë had observed. “So it’s not your fault.”
“I’m surprised your dad let you come back up here to work with me,” Nathan had said after a moment, and Zoë had suddenly been very interested in her lab work.
Nathan took a moment to straighten his tie and ruffle his hair the way Jack liked it, then cursed himself for being a teenage girl before heading down to an empty hall he was fairly certain he could intercept Jack in.
He waited, ignoring a page from Fargo, which was probably about the project his worry about Jack was leading him to neglect, schooling himself against fidgeting. A moment later, his hunch paid off. Jack froze as he came around the corner, then started to push past him, looking surprised when Nathan grabbed hold of his wrist, refusing to let him through. “We have to talk,” Nathan said firmly.
“Nathan, you told me my daughter got hurt,” Jack reminded him acidly, “when it was a hell of a lot more serious.”
“Yeah, it’s why I risked the fucking universe, so maybe it warrants a conversation,” Nathan shot back before he could stop himself. “Jack, please.”
“I thought we agreed we were done with the lies and secrets,” Jack hissed, jerking his wrist away. “And I have work to do right now.”
This time Jack managed to elbow past Nathan, but Nathan called after him. “Are we done then?”
Jack halted, shoulders slumping. He turned back, eyes raking over Nathan, and Nathan knew what the sheriff was seeing. Dark circles Nathan couldn’t hide, his slouched posture, and his scraped knuckles from hitting the punching bag too much over the past week. “I don’t want to be,” Jack admitted, his eyes closing as Nathan stepped closer. “But if you can’t trust me with the truth about my own daughter, Nathan…”
“I trust you with anything,” Nathan insisted. “Ask me anything, I’ll tell you anything, if that’s what you need.” He could hear the desperation in his voice but didn’t care.
“Why’d you hide this from me?” Jack asked pointedly, and Nathan sighed.
“I… I wasn’t going to let you see her that way, not when I was going to let time loop, make sure we saved her,” Nathan said roughly. “And then… then telling you what I’d let happen to her seemed too horrible. I couldn’t tell you I’d gotten her killed.”
Jack pressed his hands to his face, groaning. “Zoë talked us into letting her stay, and I watched you keep an eye on her and Lucas, Nathan, you were careful. I know if you’d thought there was a threat, you’d have sent them home. I don’t blame you for that!”
“That makes one of us,” Nathan muttered, running a hand through his hair. “And I am sorry for lying to you, but every time I opened my mouth to tell you, to hurt you that way, I couldn’t do it! What would you have done if it was Kevin, and Allie didn’t know?”
Jack paused, obviously turning it over in his mind. “I need to go unchain a scientist,” Jack told Nathan, who nodded, a very real, physical pain in his chest at Jack’s apparent dismissal. Jack paused at the end of the hall, turning back to Nathan. “Let me think for a while, then… I’ll come find you, to talk,” Jack promised, and Nathan felt a little weight shift off his shoulders.
*-*
Jack left Thorne’s little mummy consumer video project and headed straight up to Allison’s office, the exhaustion of little to no sleep for a week suddenly catching up to him, every joint in his body suddenly aching. Allison waved him in, not breaking from her business call, and Jack sat down on her couch, fighting to keep his eyes open.
“You okay?” Allison asked, coming over to the couch and sitting next to him, holding her distance.
“Can you not for a minute?” Jack demanded, and Allison sighed, offering him her hand. After she had told him to talk to Nathan and sort out things, she decided she would be keeping her distance, an effective threat that had made Jack pick up the phone hundreds of times, but he never made it to actually dialing.
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
“Talked to Nathan,” he admitted, letting his head drop. “I don’t know what to do, Allie. I’m so pissed I can’t think straight and then I see him and I can’t make sense of being angry anymore!”
“Why are you mad at him?” Allison asked, and Jack gave her a look. “Jack, I know he lied to you. And he did it to protect you from something horrible. No gain for himself or GD, nothing but pure concern for you and Zoë. So why are you mad?”
Jack stopped, searching his head. “If it had been Kevin, would you have wanted us to tell you?”
Allison drew back, considering. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t want to know, because it didn’t really happen. But I wouldn’t want the two of you living with keeping it a secret.”
“That’s not helpful,” Jack groaned, but since he’d buried his face in her shoulder, it sounded like mumbled whining.
“Jack,” Allison said firmly, tugging his chin up so she could look at him. “You’re miserable. You haven’t slept in days. Nathan’s no better. This is for your own good.”
“What is?” Jack started to ask, as he felt a small sting at the back of his neck. Allison stroked his hair for a moment, and Jack shook his head as she gently guided him to lie down on the couch. “Jo gonna kill’ou,” he slurred, and Allison kissed his forehead gently.
“Jo gave me permission after you snapped at her this morning,” he dimly heard Allison say as he drifted off.
*-*
Nathan looked up as she entered, and then buried his head in his arms on his desk again, his thumb rubbing one of Jack’s burnished uniform nameplates reassuringly. “I screwed up,” he told her, which surprised Allison. “Ambushed him. Made him talk. Probably was supposed to wait, wasn’t I?”
“You gave him enough time,” Allison reassured him, rubbing the back of his neck gently. “And he’s thinking more rationally since you talked. Or will be once he’s slept.”
“Hmm, you think he hasn’t slept?” Nathan mumbled, sounding worried. “He didn’t look like he had. I know you said you didn’t want to be with either of us while we figured this out, but you should go see him, try to get him to sleep.”
“What a good idea,” Allison couldn’t resist quipping. “Can I convince you to go lie down on your couch for a few minutes, let me rub your neck?” She knew she was shamelessly angling for his weak points, but Nathan was either too tired to notice or too tired to care. He got up and lay down on the couch, sighing as Allison rubbed at his shoulders. She carefully removed the sedative from her pocket, but Nathan barely reacted when she stuck him.
“You think I don’t know your tricks by now?” Nathan asked, turning so he could kiss her hand. “You took care of Jack?”
“Yeah,” she reassured him, running her fingers through his curls. “Sleep, Nathan, and once you’ve both gotten some rest, you can sort things out.”
Nathan murmured something that only years of practice allowed her to decode. “Love you too,” she said softly, sighing as she locked Nathan’s office behind her, heading down to level 3 to find Thorne.
“Where’s Dr. Stark?” Thorne asked when Allison entered, and Allison forced a smile.
“Sedated in his office for the day,” she replied dryly. “I’m not above forcing rest on him when he gets to be an idiot.”
“And the sheriff?” Thorne asked, her lips twitching.
“My office,” Allison managed, before she smiled. “I don’t think I could have handled another day of their sniping at everyone around them.”
“Well done,” Thorne told her, sighing. “Any idea what got into the two of them?”
“I know with Jack, it involved Zoë,” Allison replied, shrugging. “At that point, reason stops working for him. And Nathan gets this way once a year, usually with stress migraines he tries to hide, so anything rational is gone there, too. Both at the same time, and most of us are reaching for panic buttons and shot glasses.”
“No kidding,” Thorne murmured, attention already back on the monitor. “Thank you for handling it.”
*-*
Jack woke to the soft click of keys typing. “Hey,” Allison greeted him. “How you feeling?”
“Like you hit me with a 2 by 4,” he replied, adjusting his neck to work out the kinks. “Which is oddly a lot better.”
“Fargo needs you to sign some forms tonight, since we did the whole unsealing the tomb, filmed the mummy queen, etc.,” Allison told him. “Then maybe go find Nathan and talk?”
“Okay,” Jack agreed slowly. “I miss anything important while I was out, the mummy rise, people struck dead from her curse?”
“Your sister is peddling her CDs at Café Diem,” Allison told him, smiling. “I picked one up. It’s not bad.”
“Yeah, I got a preview this morning as a wakeup call,” Jack recalled, making a face. “There are definitely stronger words for it than ‘bad’.”
“Fargo should be in his office,” Allison laughed, shooing him out. “And, fair warning, Nathan may still be asleep when you get there. I drugged him too.”
“Gotcha,” Jack said, stamping down the nervous butterflies in his stomach. Fargo first, he reminded himself and headed down to the small recess in the wall outside Nathan’s office generously called Fargo’s office. The office appeared empty, but Fargo’s phone was on his desk. “Fargo?” he called out, and a small squeak came from under the desk. “What are you doing?”
“The mummy!” Fargo said, sticking his head up just enough to point a trembling finger toward the hall. “I saw the mummy.”
“Queen Neato rose from the dead, huh?” Jack joked dryly. When Fargo simply stared, too pale, Jack sighed. “All right, I’ll check it out. Get those papers I need to sign ready for me.”
He headed down the hall, frowning at the dim lighting and pulling out his small flashlight. “Can’t see a damn thing,” he muttered, passing through a hall under construction. The plastic was rustling around him, but Jack thought he could see something moving, heading toward it cautiously. “Hello?” he called out, and the rustling increased.
Reflexively, Jack transferred the penlight to his left hand and unfastened his holster, unable to see anything in the dim light. A moment later, a hand gripped his forearm, and Jack whirled, still clumsy from the sedative, losing his footing and hitting his head on a metal scaffold. It took him a minute to get his bearings again, and the hall was empty as he did. “Very funny, Larry,” he muttered, suspecting the prank had been engineered by Fargo’s rival.
He headed back up to Fargo’s office, nodding to Nathan, who had apparently just emerged from his office. “Fargo, I think it’s probably someone’s idea of a prank. Larry maybe?” he suggested, trying to ignore the fact that Nathan was looking at the rapidly purpling bruise on the side of his forehead.
“What happened there?” Nathan asked, frowning.
“Larry or whoever tried to pull their night of the living mummy trick on me, startled me into hitting my head when they grabbed me,” Jack explained, hissing and pulling back when Nathan poked at it. “Ouch! They’re just lucky I didn’t shoot them.”
“I’m telling you, it’s the curse of Queen Niota!” Fargo insisted, folding his arms stubbornly. “I’d have known if it was Larry who grabbed my arm!”
Jack rolled his eyes, but given the opportunity, he’d take putting off talking with Nathan. “All right, let’s go see,” he said simply. “If the queen is in her sarcophagus, it’s a prank.”
“Come on, Fargo,” Nathan instructed his assistant, nudging him forward. They headed into the elevator, and Jack tried not to fidget uncomfortably when Nathan shifted a little closer to him. Part of him was screaming to burrow into Nathan, wrap his arms around his lover and hold him till they figured something out, while the other part flashed on the image of Zoë, too still and glassy eyed, making him stop short.
He moved a little too quickly when the elevator opened, and he saw Nathan set his jaw, pain raw in his eyes. He flipped on a light in the lab. “See, the mummy… is gone,” Jack finished in astonishment, spotting Dr. Marx lying on the ground. “Not a prank,” he said to Nathan, as they turned Marx over, Nathan checking his pulse.
“It’s the curse!” Fargo insisted, gulping air rapidly.
Half an hour later, Jack was taking Marx’s statement, which consisted of blaming Dr. Wilding every other breath and insisting he’d simply passed out in the next. The doctor examining him confirmed dehydration, and beyond Jack being a little disturbed by just how well Thorne seemed to know the pompous scientist, he wasn’t really managing to learn anything from the process.
“All right,” Jack caved finally, shaking his head. “Security will sweep the building for the mummy tonight. I’ll call Wilding in first thing in the morning. In the meantime, I’m still half out from the sedative Allison gave me, so I need some sleep,” he insisted.
“It can wait till morning,” Nathan agreed, gravelly voice soothing Jack quickly. He scowled inwardly, wondering when his responses to the other man had become so automatic.
“Agreed,” Thorne conceded. “Sebastian, do you want me to take you back to the bed and breakfast?”
Jack decided he was getting a little too close to learning how close Thorne and Marx were and slipped out, nodding to Nathan. They slipped into a darkened corridor, and Jack leaned against the wall wearily. “I wanted to talk, but things sort of got out of control,” he observed neutrally, and Nathan smirked.
“The dead walking isn’t exactly a new excuse for us, Jack,” he observed. “You up to hashing this out tonight?”
Jack shook his head, knowing his temper had a tendency to get worse when he was this tired. “Me either,” Nathan conceded, but Jack could see the disappointment on his face.
“Tomorrow?” Jack asked, reaching out idly and playing with the end of Nathan’s tie.
Nathan responded automatically, sliding closer, nuzzling at Jack’s temple, and Jack found his hands automatically settling on Nathan’s waist. “I miss you,” Nathan admitted softly.
“Tomorrow,” Jack repeated, and Nathan nodded, kissing Jack’s forehead gently. Jack closed his eyes, fighting his instinct to lean in and make it a proper kiss. Nathan pulled away, hurrying out of the hall, obviously just as torn. Some corner of Jack’s mind observed coolly that it’d be easier to push Nathan away if he would try to pursue Jack. Instead the distance was making him crave Nathan.
“I need a drink,” Jack decided, heading home.
*-*
Nathan looked up eagerly when his office door opened, trying not to look too disappointed when Henry came in. “Not Jack, I know,” Henry replied, shrugging. “He questioned Wilding, eliminated him as a suspect, and he and Jo went to track down Marx, who is apparently AWOL,” Henry filled him in. “Oh, and Fargo has a theory about the lasers they used to open the tomb and regenerated fish tissue as how the mummy came back. He has a demonstration that’s… disturbing.”
“This is my life- mummies, Fargo’s fish cells, drugged by my girlfriend and a pissed off boyfriend,” Nathan observed sarcastically. “Anything else?”
“Uh, yeah, Thorne just approached me with a cryptex she wanted me to crack,” Henry told him. “I tried to get more information out of her, but she wouldn’t tell me. Best guess, I’d say it’s her way into that underground facility.”
“You turned her down, I’m guessing?” Nathan observed, thoughtful.
“Figured we’ve got nothing to gain by my continuing to help her,” Henry said. “I’ll keep an eye out, see if she taps anyone else, but if we can keep her out of that facility, we’re still a step ahead.”
“Thanks, Henry,” Nathan said, carefully filing away the information in his head. “Make sure you fill Jack in.”
“He’ll come around, Nathan,” Henry told him, shrugging. “Jack’s more forgiving than most of us.”
“I hope you’re right,” Nathan sighed, turning back to his work. Henry’s phone went off, and a moment later, Nathan’s sounded.
*-*
“The mummy?” Allison asked, wrinkling her nose at the tent that was quarantining the corpse.
“Just Marx, looking worse than Niota did,” Jack replied, drinking from a rather large water bottle.
“Well, my preliminary finding suggests dehydration,” Henry told the assembled group as he joined them, yanking off his protective mask.
“Uh, Henry, we found him in an overflowing bathtub,” Jo observed, shaking her head. “How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but I’m thinking it’s bacterial, given the rate of decomposition,” Henry replied, waving a hand at the tent. “Thus the quarantine.”
“Sebastian just got back from Egypt, maybe he picked up something there,” Thorne put in.
“Or maybe from the tomb, with the fancy danger signs on it,” Jack replied dryly, and Nathan snorted, poorly hiding a smile.
“Could also be fungal, or poison,” Henry continued, rolling his eyes at their antics.
“Poison? So this could have been deliberate,” Thorne said, turning to Jack. “Because Wilding—”
“No, I questioned him. It’s not in his nature,” Jack interjected quickly. “Look, if this thing is from the tomb or the missing mummy…”
“Well, it’s not airborne, or we’d have seen more cases,” Henry observed.
“Contact,” Nathan concluded. “We need to find the missing mummy before anyone else is infected. And didn’t Marx have an assistant?”
“The camerawoman, Eileen Michaels,” Thorne confirmed, nodding.
“All right, I’m on finding her,” Jack said, folding his arms. “Jo, you’ve got the mummy.”
*-*
It was Fargo chugging down a pitcher of water at Café Diem that put the idea into Nathan’s head, as he hurriedly escaped the boombox wails, dragging his assistant after him. “Carter, it’s Stark,” he said, sighing in relief as the door closed on Lexi’s music. “Where’d you lose Fargo’s mummy last night?”
“That hall that’s under construction, a waterfall installation I think?” Jack replied, sounding curious. “Why?”
“Meet me there,” Nathan replied shortly, shoving Fargo toward his car. He drove too quickly, nodding to Jack as they met mid-hallway. “Help me get this down,” Nathan said, yanking on some of the construction plastic. Jack frowned but tugged off a sheet, seeing the pools underneath and nodding.
“I see where you’re going, Scientist,” Jack muttered, clearing his throat. They tugged down another sheet, and a dried up corpse floated near just under the surface.
“The mummy!” Fargo shouted, backing up quickly.
“Eileen Michaels,” Jack corrected him, sighing and kneeling down, finishing his bottle of water as he knelt. “Fargo, can you refill that?” Jack handed it off absently, and Nathan looked up, eyes wide.
“When you came down into the hall, she touched you, didn’t she?” Nathan asked, looking over to where Fargo was lapping up water from the water fountain. “She touched both of you. Dammit!” He slammed a hand into the wall, pulling out his phone. “I need a medical team to level 2, corridor 14,” he barked, swallowing hard. Jack was looking quizzical, then looked over at Fargo, the dawning knowledge on his face almost sickening.
“She infected us,” Jack observed, paling. “God, we need to test Lexi and Zoë. And you,” he added, suddenly remembering. “I touched you.”
*-*
Allison didn’t get the call until Jack was already installed in the infirmary, due in large part to the fact that Thorne had stuck Nathan in quarantine as well, taking no chances when she heard that Jack had touched Nathan. Lexi and Zoë were a higher priority for the tests, though, so Nathan was pacing his glass cube impatiently when Allison arrived.
“Good news is Lexi and Zoë tested negative, we’re waiting on your results next,” Allison told Nathan. “Henry’s doing an autopsy of Eileen Michaels, and we’re testing anyone Fargo came in contact with as well. Better news is Fargo isn’t prone to touching people the way Jack is so it’s a short list. Wilding and Zane are looking into the markings on the tomb. Both of them are now thinking the danger markings indicate a plague. They’re hoping they’ll find how the ancient Egyptians stopped it.” She could hear herself faintly, babbling practically, but Nathan was keeping up, allowing her to get it out of her system, so she finished, “We haven’t found the mummy yet, but I think—”
Her PDA beeped, and she looked down, able to breathe a little better when she saw the test results. She hit the quarantine release code, smiling at Nathan. “Your test results are negative,” she said, letting him hug her tightly, soaking in the warmth and comfort. “Now let’s go fix Carter,” she added firmly when he pulled away, jerking her head over to where Jack and Fargo were being monitored.
Allison was listening to Henry filling in Nathan with one ear, looking over Jack’s latest blood work. When Henry mentioned that Eileen Michaels’ remains had disintegrated, she saw Nathan light up, putting pieces together. “The mummy didn’t go anywhere,” he said, taking off. She and Henry exchanged a look before hurrying after him.
“Zane, the security cameras, what’d they show?” Nathan demanded as they entered, Thorne looking over her glasses at him warily.
“Nothing,” Zane replied. “The mummy just sort of vanished.”
“She’s still there,” Nathan said, pointing. Allison glanced at the empty sarcophagus, wondering briefly if the strain of the situation was getting to Nathan, but Henry lit up, nodding.
“The ashes!” he exclaimed, looking closer. “She disintegrated, like Eileen Michaels!”
“We’ll need to run some tests to confirm it, but that would be good news,” Thorne said with a small smile. “This should be contained.”
“To Fargo and Jack,” Allison burst out, surprised at her own vehemence. Thorne instantly looked apologetic, but Allison brushed it off. “Zane, keep working on the engravings, I need to go look at blood work,” she muttered, pushing past Henry to escape the room.
She wasn’t surprised when Nathan caught up with her a few moments later, giving her a worried look. “Where do you need to be?” he asked her, and she sighed shakily, running a hand through her hair.
“Blood work,” she repeated finally. “I need to be working on the research, as long as you can handle keeping Jack company.”
“It’s where I need to be,” Nathan agreed sadly, accepting Allison’s fierce hug. “Go on,” he urged her, once she had reassembled what remained of her control. She left him to collect his courage, hoping leaving the two men together was the right thing to do.
*-*
“Feel like having that chat now?” Jack joked as Nathan stepped in front of the monitor.
“You look horrible,” Nathan informed him, sighing as he leaned against the wall, trying to think of something to say.
“You’ve got a really shitty bedside manner,” Jack replied, sipping his water. “Seriously, Dr. House has nothing on you.”
“Well, give me a cane and maybe I can tone it down,” Nathan replied, teasingly. “You want me to get Zoë in here?”
“No,” Jack replied, shaking his head. “I talked to her earlier, before I was looking so horrible. I don’t want her to see me this way.” He paused, drinking some water, and Nathan sighed, resisting the urge to touch the image. “I guess that makes me a bit of a hypocrite.”
“How so?” Nathan asked, not following his logic.
“I’m angry with you for not telling me that in some convoluted reality that didn’t happen my daughter died, but I won’t let her be here now,” Jack pointed out, sighing.
“You’re protecting her,” Nathan replied quietly. “It’s what you’re supposed to do when you care about someone.”
“Even if she doesn’t need it anymore?” Jack replied, and Nathan suspected Jack had caught on that they weren’t talking about Zoë anymore.
“Even if she hates you for it,” Nathan replied, nodding to Allison as she came in slowly. “They’ve got him on IV fluids, why isn’t he getting better?” Nathan asked, keeping the video line open deliberately, not wanting Jack to feel shut out.
“Here, this is the blood work,” Allison told him, handing the data pad over. “Our best guess is those microbes require the water for replicating, which is why Jack’s getting worse as we hydrate him.”
“Zane said they think those hieroglyphs warn about some sort of plague, and maybe we’re not talking about a bacterial kind,” Nathan muttered, looking over the image. “And Fargo showed us the fish tissue that could be regenerated by the cutting laser,” he added, watching Allison catch up to his theory.
“And an insect could survive in a microbial state like this indefinitely,” she said, eyes going round. “So the hydration is for metamorphosis, not replication! We have to warn Henry, those bodies could be a virtual cocoon!” She tugged out her phone, stepping away and Jack motioned to get Nathan’s attention.
“Marx might be, but the camera woman crumbled,” Jack said. “Maybe something in the fountain water?”
Nathan double checked the tablet for the tests he’d ordered when they found the body as Allison rejoined him. “Too late,” she told them grimly. “The swarm hatched, headed back into town,” she reported. “Henry’s on his way here, but we need to find a way to stop them before they start laying eggs.”
“The water in the fountain looks like normal water, no different than the bath water,” Nathan observed, scrolling through data. “No chemical treatment, no filtering.”
“What about Ph levels?” Allison suggested and Nathan double checked.
“No difference,” Nathan thumped the pad in disappointment, wishing there had been an easy answer.
“Cold,” Jack interrupted, coughing. “Bathwater was steaming.”
“And the waterfall is spring fed, icy cold,” Allison replied. “Maybe—”
Nathan jumped, his phone ringing, Zoë’s number on the screen. “Zoë, what’s up?”
“Um, there’s a swarm of bugs trying to get into Café Diem,” she shouted, and Nathan pinched the bridge of his nose, barely able to hear her over the music.
“Tell your aunt to turn that noise off,” he barked, sighing gratefully when he could suddenly hear Zoë.
“The swarm is huge,” Zoë told him, but she sounded surprisingly calm, telling Nathan they were still secure in the café. “And… wait, they’re leaving.”
Nathan frowned, suddenly curious. “Turn the music back on,” he said, waiting for her to relay the request to Lexi.
“They’re… they’re coming back,” Zoë told him, only a small stammer betraying her concern.
“Okay, hang tight, we may have a way to fix this,” Nathan told her. “Just stick with Jo and be careful, okay?”
“Promise,” she agreed easily. “How’s my dad doing?”
“We’re working on it,” he told her, closing his eyes briefly. “I’ll get back to you soon.”
He hung up, turning back to Allison as Henry sprinted in. “The swarm seems to be attracted to Café Diem,” Henry reported in a quick gasp. “Which is baffling, because we’ve got more people in the shelter out at Tesla.”
“It’s the music… Lexi’s CD,” Nathan told them. “The bugs are attracted to it.”
“Heh,” Jack joked weakly. “No taste.”
“No kidding,” Nathan agreed. “Or it’s the harmonics,” he conceded when Allison gave him a dark look. “The point is, we can attract them. We just need to test our theory about the cold killing them, and I have an idea on how. Cryogenically.”
“Test it on Fargo or Jack, see if it kills the microbes,” Allison said, lips pursed with concern as she considered the screen.
“You test it on me, not Fargo,” Jack ground out, the dark circles under his eyes making any implied threat useless. Allison shook her head, obviously unable to agree, and Jack turned his face, looking at Nathan.
“I’ll set it up,” Nathan reassured him, sliding a hand around Allison’s elbow. “He’s got to protect the town, protect Fargo,” he reminded her softly. “This isn’t one of the times you or I can protect him.” His eyes met Jack’s, and he forced himself to acknowledge the gratitude written there.
It took only ten minutes for the cryogenics team to set up a module, far too quick for Nathan to come up with a good reason to stop Jack from being the one Henry was injecting with an anesthetic. The module was sealed up, and Nathan was allowed to move in closer as Henry removed his protective gloves.
“Nathan,” Jack called out, pressing a hand to the lid of the cryo-chamber. Nathan checked that the lab techs had left, and then set his hand against the glass. “You’ll take care of Zoë.”
“Of course,” Nathan reassured him, trying not to let his worry lash out.
“No, I mean, I know you will, I get it,” Jack replied distractedly, the sedative taking hold. “You didn’t risk the universe for me… risked it for her.”
Nathan’s breath caught, and he forced a smile. “Go to sleep, Jack, we’ll talk about this later.”
“Love you,” Jack whispered as he went under. Nathan steeled himself before nodding to Henry, starting the cryo process.
“All right, we’re at our target temperature,” Henry reported a moment later, and Allison shook her head.
“Internal sensors are still detecting movement,” she told them, cursing under her breath. “It’s slowing, but Jack’s vitals are really low as well.”
“Come on, Jack,” Henry said, tweaking the temperature a little on his console.
“No more movement,” Allison confirmed a moment later, a hint of a smile on her lips.
“Moment of truth, we have to bring him back out and make sure they aren’t hibernating,” Nathan reminded them, and Henry nodded, adjusting his controls. Allison left her console, coming down and lacing her fingers through Nathan’s.
“Pulse rate not responding,” Henry told them a moment later, and Nathan turned, checking the vitals for himself.
“Don’t you die on us,” Allison snapped at Jack, and a moment later, the slow beeping began to speed up.
“Approaching normal rate and rhythm,” Henry confirmed, grinning, and Allison moved back to the console, checking the MRI.
“No movement,” she told Nathan triumphantly.
“All right,” Nathan said, nodding to them. “Allison, can you handle treating Fargo? Henry and I have a swarm to take care of.”
*-*
Jack woke slowly, head aching fiercely, which somehow must have shown in his face, because the lights dimmed enough for him to open his eyes a moment later. “Better?” Allison asked, running a soothing hand over his head.
“You’re an angel,” Jack grumbled hoarsely. “If you have water, I’ll even upgrade you to goddess.”
“Sweet talk will get you nowhere, Carter,” Allison remarked, handing him a cup with a straw in it, though she was struggling not to smile. “Nathan should be back in a little bit, save it for him.”
“He take care of the bugs?” Jack asked, fighting a smirk. “Doing my job?”
“Attracted them with the music, then put them in the deep freeze in Vince’s freezer,” Allison told him, stroking Jack’s hair gently. “Vince made him stay to clean up.”
“I’d have come up with a better plan than that,” Jack scoffed, rolling his eyes. “What’d he do, run down the street with a boom box?”
“He and Henry drove, actually, but yeah, same idea,” Allison admitted, shaking her head. “Just between you and me, I wish you had been awake. I’m sure you’d have had a better idea.”
“I heard that.” Nathan’s voice rumbled from the doorway, where he was leaning against the doorframe, tie looped loosely around his neck, shirt half undone. “Sheriff can have his job back, it’s thankless. Vince just shoved a broom at me and said he wasn’t cleaning up bugsicles.”
“So you just called in GD cleanup,” Jack remarked dryly, and Allison smiled, standing and leaning down to brush a quick kiss over Jack’s forehead.
He pouted at her, and she raised an eyebrow. “You can have a real one when you and Nathan…”
“Allie,” Nathan stopped her, giving her a soft look.
She turned back, pulling Jack into a tight embrace. Jack looped his arms around her, holding her for a long moment. “Go get some rest,” Jack told her, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear, leaning in as he did, whispering, “And maybe we’ll come join you.”
Allison looked up quickly, tugging him into a quick kiss. “Thank you,” she whispered back. “But not till tomorrow. Tonight you two figure it out, physically too,” she finished, giving him a knowing smile.
Allison walked to the door, leaning up and kissing Nathan before she left. “Camera,” Jack suddenly realized with a groan.
“Everyone’s gone home, and I’ll snag the footage,” Nathan reassured him, slowly making his way over to sit on the bed, facing Jack. “Jack, I don’t expect you to forgive me for lying to you…”
“I do though,” Jack replied quietly. “You turned back time, so it never actually happened. And I started thinking, if I could have done it for Callister, if it had been Kevin…” he trailed off, taking a deep breath. “I would have done it too.”
“You wouldn’t have put them in that position in the first place,” Nathan started to object, and Jack snorted.
“Have you met my daughter? About 5’5”, blonde, gets her way far too often?” he teased Nathan, trying to cover how his stomach was fluttering nervously as he inched his fingers into Nathan’s. “Just tell me… do you trust me?” Jack asked softly, finally able to voice what worried him.
“With my life,” Nathan replied quietly. “Even when I didn’t like you, I knew I could trust you.”
“And this thing with us… you being…” Jack’s breath caught, unable to force the words out.
“I can’t live without you,” Nathan swore, squeezing Jack’s fingers tightly. “I know you think because I have Allie too I might just as easily give you up, but being away from either of you physically hurts, Jack. I need you. Badly need you.”
Nathan’s face was open, so easy to read that Jack couldn’t find it in himself to disbelieve it. “Yeah, me too,” he confessed, hands shaking a little when Nathan drew it up to his lips.
“Okay?” Nathan asked, obviously concerned.
“Need you,” Jack managed, not sure why he was shaking. Nathan pulled him into a hug, Jack burrowing his nose into the open v of Nathan’s shirt, finally feeling able to breathe deep enough once he was settled against the other man.
“Take me home?” Jack asked Nathan quietly, and Nathan pulled back, running the backs of his fingers along Jack’s cheekbone.
“You’re recovering—”
“So we’ll go very, very slow,” Jack informed him, voice a little husky.
“Your sister is home,” Nathan reminded him.
“She’ll be asleep,” Jack said, looking at his watch. “We’ll explain the birds, bees, and bees all in one nest in the morning.”
“Are you sure?” Nathan tried one last time, though he’d leaned in so his forehead was resting on Jack’s.
“I need you with me,” Jack told him, managing a crooked smile. “Half crazy wanting you to make love to me.”
“I’ll get the forms to release you to the bunker,” Nathan replied. “No work for a few days though.”
“All right,” Jack agreed, though he was already plotting his way around that edict.
*-*
Nathan helped Jack into the bunker, unsurprised to see Zoë still awake, jumping up the minute Jack came in. “Dad,” she cried out, hurrying over to hug him. “I thought they would keep you at GD for the night.” She looked suspiciously over at Nathan.
“His vitals are good, and there’s nothing more GD can actually do to help,” Nathan observed. “It’s a matter of rest and recovering, which you and I both know will be easier with SARAH around to help police him.”
“I’m happy to help,” the AI chirped in. “When will Sheriff Carter be permitted to return to work?”
“Three days, minimum,” Nathan spoke up quickly, before Jack could try to con his house. “And only with my say-so, SARAH.”
“Noted,” the house said, and Jack scowled at him.
“Hope the couch is comfortable, traitor,” he joked, leaning against Nathan wearily.
“Um, so, we telling Aunt Lexi he’s here because you need medical supervision?” Zoë guessed, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. Nathan picked up that she was also wondering what to read into Nathan’s presence.
“Nah, we’ll tell her everything tomorrow,” Jack told her, pulling her into another hug when she lit up happily. “Not too much longer on the homework, okay?”
“Just a few more equations,” she promised, and Nathan rolled his eyes.
“You know, this is why you have an AI,” he reminded Jack. “SARAH, please enforce Zoë’s bedtime.”
“Counting down, 42 minutes,” SARAH agreed pleasantly, and Zoë scowled up at him.
“I was going to say I was glad you two made up, but I’m not now,” she informed him, sniffing as she settled in to her work.
Getting Jack stripped and into bed proved easier than Nathan had foreseen, and a few minutes later, Nathan curled into the inviting embrace, accepting a languid kiss. “You’re too sleepy,” he warned Jack, who snuffled a negative sound, all legs and hands and enwrapping Nathan tightly as he nibbled at the scientist’s collarbone.
“Don’t think your body knows that,” Jack remarked quietly, hand slipping under Nathan’s boxers and wrapping around the hardening cock, playing slowly, the touch soft and exploring.
“Jack,” Nathan groaned, rolling closer to his lover, trying not to feel turned on. “I just brought you home from the infirmary.”
“I’m fine, except for needing you,” Jack replied, and Nathan leaned up and kissed him slowly, sliding a hand down to cup Jack, surprised to find the sheriff hard and arching into the touch automatically. Deciding that compromise was a good plan, Nathan slid Jack’s boxers down, freeing his cock, mirroring Jack’s soft strokes. Jack cupped Nathan’s chin gently, raising his face into a gentle kiss.
The movements were slow, soft, teasing and caressing, not pushing for anything more, so Nathan relaxed into the rhythm, kissing every bit of Jack’s face he could reach, feather light touches that coaxed a soft laugh from Jack. “I won’t break,” Jack reminded him, catching Nathan’s lower lip between his teeth.
“Missed you,” Nathan countered. “Love you.” He arched a little into Jack’s touch, coming silently, fighting to keep his eyes locked on Jack’s.
“Shit,” Jack cursed, eyes widening hungrily as he pulled Nathan into a kiss. “Just when I think you can’t get any hotter.” Nathan deliberately angled his fingers into Jack’s weak points, sliding and sending him over the edge with a soft cry. Jack buried his head in Nathan’s shoulder, the exhaustion suddenly to hard for him to hide. Nathan snagged a handful of tissues from the nightstand and cleaned them up, smiling at Jack’s sleepy incoherent murmurs.
“N’more lies,” Jack slurred at Nathan as he tucked them in, wrapping his arms around Jack.
“I promise,” Nathan said softly into Jack’s ear, thinking he might have actually learned that lesson at last. Where his mind had once broken down his actions as acceptable risk, he saw nothing but risk.
