THREE
"Where do you think you're going?" A voice breaks through the darkness. I can feel warm hands pushing me gently downward. Was I sitting up?"Lay still now." I struggle to open my eyes, but only see shadows moving about. I try to speak, but my voice won't work.
"Here suck on this," The same voice commands softly and I feel a damp cloth pressed against my lips. I suck on it realizing I'm very thirsty. The shadows fade. Did I imagine it? I hear more voices now, whispers. I open my eyes again. The shadows are brighter this time. I can feel the oxygen tube up my nose, and know I'm in the hospital again.
"JD?" Buck's here. I blink a few times trying to focus on his voice. A hand touches mine.
"Hey kid."
"Hey," my voice is raspy, my throat hurts. I hear the others. They're all here.
"How are you doing JD?" Chris asks.
I smile, how does he think I'm doing? I can see them now, all worried again. There's something I'm suppose to remember. Why am I in the hospital? Didn't I just go home?
"Can't stay awake," I hear my own voice whisper.
"Then go back to sleep."
I dream in flashes. The basement. Watson. I'm nervous. Something's wrong right off the bat. They know I'm an agent. Ezra's different. Why is he helping Watson? Someone's holding me. I feel a stab in my arm, then another. A voice whispers in my ear. "Run, Ezra will kill you. No one is coming to help you. Run." Over and over and over. It doesn't' seem to stop. Ezra's sneering at me, pointing his gun. No one is coming to help me.
"Ezra, NO!"
JD's outburst startled the six men in his room. Their quiet conversations fell into a shattering silence, as they stared at JD's restless form. Chris heard Ezra's sharp intake of breath and looked up to see him turn for the door. He stood and followed him hearing Josiah calmly whisper to JD.
"Easy son, It's just a dream."
"Ezra wait." Ezra slowed his steps and finally stopped walking, but didn't turn around to look at Chris. He knew he shouldn't be here, not after what he had done. JD was terrified of him and the others were trying to hide their anger and hatred. He felt Chris drape an arm around his neck and grip his shoulder propelling him forward.
"Let's walk." Chris squeezed his shoulder once, as they began to move, but then let him go. After a few moments they came to a small waiting room. It looked like all the others in the hospital. Plastic chairs lining bland walls, two windows over looking the city. Ancient magazine, ragged and worn from countless fingers flipping through them, scattered on a few battered tables. Without speaking Chris steered Ezra into the small room. He waited and watched, as Ezra walked rigidly to one of the windows.
"I did this!" the emotional statement caught Chris off guard.
"Ezra we've talked about this." He watched the back of Ezra's head as the agent nodded.
"I know."
"It wasn't your fault."
"But it was."
This was not the Ezra Standish Chris knew so well. He was used to being pushed to anger by Ezra's defensive barbed retorts. That he could handle. It was watching his friend fold in on himself that he couldn't fathom. Chris sighed heavily and leaned against the wall separating the two windows. He faced Ezra now, but Ezra kept his green eyes focused on something out the window.
"You were drugged." Chris watched for any change in Ezra's expression. There wasn't any.
"I should have fought it."
"Who do you think you are?" Chris' voice lowered to a growl. This caused Ezra to glance at him. "You possess some kind of super powers the rest of us don't know about?" he went on before Ezra could speak, "Ezra whether you like it or not you're as human as any one of us and if it had been anyone of us, I can bet you the results would have been the same. You were given shots of a powerful hypnotic drug." Ezra unconsciously rubbed his arm, as Chris spoke. "It wasn't you in control. It was that bastard Watson."
"But I should have been in control!" Ezra fairly spit the words, as he turned and strode angrily from the room. Chris sank back against the wall and ran a hand through his blond hair. He found himself staring at the ceiling unsure of what to do next. He'd never seen Ezra like this before. He could still hear the doctor explaining it to them that night after the sting, after they'd brought JD and Ezra in. They were confused and angry trying to process what had happened when the doctor sat them all down.
"Mr. Standish has been given a powerful hypnotic." Chris couldn't recall the name of the drug now, just the description, "From the doses he was given Mr. Standish was left open to any suggestion. Whoever did this could have gotten your man to do anything and he'd have had no control or power to stop himself. Wouldn't even know what he'd done until after the fact."
Chris had asked the doctor then if Ezra was okay now and the man had told them that as long as Ezra was totally out of his hypnotic state it would take time, but he'd be back to normal fairly soon. Chris was still waiting. He sighed again and pushed himself away from the wall to head back to JD's room.
+ + + + + + +
Someone is touching me again. Someone else is holding my hand. Buck.
"Hey kid I'm here."
Opening my eyes I can see better this time. A nurse is standing to one side of me checking my vitals I guess.
"How are you feeling?" She has a pretty voice and gentle eyes. I wonder if Buck has hit on her yet.
"Thirsty." I feel like I could drink forever and not be satisfied. Buck holds the cup and straw close to my mouth. I sip it slowly raising my head a little bit. Knowing that if I gulp, he'll take it away. His fingers are shaking slightly as he holds the straw still.
"Thanks." I look around the room now seeing everyone except Ezra. Ezra! "Ezra's going to kill me," the words were out before I realized it.
"No JD," Josiah looms over my bed behind Buck, "Ezra won't hurt you."
I can feel the panic rising in my chest again. The quieted voices begin to shout again. "Run, Ezra will kill you. Run." I shake my head trying to chase them away. Buck puts a hand on my shoulder. It's warm and heavy.
"Easy, no one's going to hurt you."
I have to hide. I struggle to sit up, but the pain and Buck keep me down. No one is coming to help you. The voice is stronger then the rest, clearer. I can't breathe.
"What's wrong with him?" Vin's voice. I can't see them anymore, they've blurred together, as the room spins.
"Focus JD. You're in the hospital. You're safe." Chris.
Chris would never lie to me. I have to calm down. I can't think, there are just those stupid voices. I must be safe. Chris said it, but I can't. I have to run, must escape. "Let me give him a mild sedative before he rips out the new sutures." I watch the nurse now, focusing on her. She's holding a needle.
"No." I try to scream but it comes out like more of a croak.
"JD, JD! it's just a little shot. It'll help you relax. We're here, no one's going to hurt you." Buck's voice sounds like he's trying to stay calm himself. Nathan moves forward and helps the nurse hold me still, as she gives me the shot. I flinch when the needle pierces my skin and lay still exhausted from the fight. I feel like I weigh a ton. It' s no use to fight. No one's coming to help you. Run or Ezra will kill you. Everyone is staring at me. My eyes are to heavy all of a sudden, I can't keep them open. God, I don't want to die.
Buck gently rubbed JD's shoulder, as he watched the younger man slip into an uneasy sleep. The room was still except for the sound of the door closing behind the nurse and the soft murmurings of JD.
"What is he saying?" Josiah asked. Nathan leaned in a bit closer to listen, and repeated the words he could understand to the others.
"No one is coming to help. Run or Ezra will kill," he looked up "that's all I can make out."
"What the hell is going on?" Chris voiced his frustrations, as he met Vin's gaze for a moment. Something was unusually wrong. He thought a moment. "JD relax, we're here." Buck's voice was steady and calming now.
"Wait a sec!" Vin almost shouted.
"What?" Josiah asked.
"When we first brought JD and Ezra in the doctor told us about Ezra being drugged and hypnotized or something like that, right?"
"Well yeah, but what does that have to do with JD? " Nathan asked before the obvious could sink in.
"That if Ezra was drugged, JD might have been too," Chris answered.
"Was there time?" Buck looked up from JD. "He wasn't in there much more than a half hour before we could get moved in."
Chris nodded, "But the wire cut out as soon as he went in. If they were waiting for him they could have drugged him immediately, hypnotized him and got out while leaving Ezra to kill him."
"If they wanted Ezra to kill him, then why did they bother to hypnotize him at all?" Josiah asked thoughtfully.
"Increase JD's fear maybe?" Nathan offered a guess.
"Or maybe covering their backs in case he didn't die," Buck added.
"Damn." Chris looked at JD then continued, "Buck , you stay with JD. Nathan see if his doctor can run tests to find any drugs in JD's system and if there is what we can do about it. Vin, Josiah and I will go find Ezra first and see if he can remember anything else, then we are going to find Watson."
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