Roll the Dice - Chapter three (4/9)
Jan. 21st, 2012 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mangacat201The landscape was bleak, everything washed grey like desert dusk, but infernal heat still beat down like it was midday, and the sun was in its zenith. Derelict buildings all around, lifeless like the ruins of a city covered in volcanic ash. He lay in a wide open space in the middle, spread-eagled in the searing sun that would burn his skin until it peeled. There was no shade, no protection in the immediate vicinity, and, while his thoughts were sluggish and slow, he still knew that he had to get up, get out of there, find cover and regroup. He had been trained to work past the physical trappings of his body and ignore injury or exhaustion, until he was in a position where he could plan his next move without being interrupted. When he tried to lift his arms to heft himself up, however, he found his left wrist bound to a stake that was rammed in the earth just over his head, coarse rope abrading the heated skin when he tried to tug at it.
His right arm was another matter entirely, he noticed with a kind of stunned detachment. Before he had the chance to move it, it just sank into the ground till up over his elbow, and then there was only packed earth, hard like concrete as if it had never been disturbed, biting into his skin and cutting off the circulation. As he whipped his head around quickly to try and figure out what the hell was going on, the wind picked up and a cloud of dust billowed over his face, making it difficult to breathe. His heart began to race as he choked for air, but even though the dust cleared after a minute, he couldn’t draw enough air into his lungs no matter how hard he tried. Panic made his muscles seize and strain against the trap, but he couldn’t break free. When it first reached his ears, he thought he was imagining things, but he couldn’t ignore the low rumble that ran so deep that he could feel the tremors running through the earth under his back. He frantically looked around and spotted them finally through the last vestiges of the dust cloud – a pack of hounds circling the square, slinking along the buildings in shadows darker than night. Their eyes glowed in a vicious yellow like the desert sun and they were coming close, more confident as he didn’t move that he was trapped, easy prey.
“No, nononono… don’t…”
The growling didn’t stop, came closer as they still circled out of his range of sight, but he knew, he knew they were coming, coming fast.
The pack pounced from the right, sharp claws and vicious teeth biting into his side and he screamed in terror as they sliced his skin to ribbons, ribs laying open, stark white against the bloody mess of his flesh. Instinctively, he tried to lash out with his legs, but they were on him first, crushing his bones with powerful jaws and presenting him with the horrifying image of mangled muscles while everything else in his body was on fire with fear or pain or shock he couldn’t tell. He couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly, shredding the skin of his wrist on the coarse rope until it was slick with blood and then like a deathblow a haunting screech sounded in the air above his head. He only had a moment before the flap of ebony wings next to his face made him flinch away from the large carrion crow landed right next his head. Vaguely, he sensed the hounds still busy with their gruesome work in the background as he stared frozen into the beady black eyes of the bird that cocked his head and seemed to look back quizzically for a moment as if it couldn’t quite decide what to do next. He had no time to brace himself before it clacked once with his sharp-edged beak and then hacked right down into his left eye.
His cry of sheer agony bellowed to the outside, into the waking world and ripped him right out of sleep, surging up with raging breath, and his heart pounding in heavily in his throat, sweat drenching his whole body.
“What the fuck happened to me?”
Well, that was what Jared was going for, but it came out more like ‘Wha ‘h f’k h’pp t’ me?’
“You shouldn’t try to talk just yet.”
The voice out of nowhere made him whip his head around, fists balled and ready, until his eyes settled onto the grave looking man sitting next to the bed holding a little paper cup. Jared realized it was the doctor who had been there when he’d first woken up, blissfully undisturbed by the horrific images that still played before his eyes, and he assured himself that he was back at the hospital, whole and safe, and there was no reason to be upset. That didn’t keep his hands from trembling though, which is why he balled his fists tighter. The doctor offered him the contents of the cup, and Jared nodded, letting the man set the rim on his lips lightly and tip it up with diligence, until a few icy chips slid onto his tongue and soothed his raw throat. He was still shaken up from the terrible nightmare, but Jared couldn’t help noticing that the man’s behaviour towards him seemed… off somehow, gone was the giddy exuberance that had poured off the doctor in waves when he’d first found him awake, replaced by something mellow and reserved. Jared wondered if he’d talked in his sleep, and the doctor was somehow privy to his subconscious terrors. The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
Jensen rigorously kept himself from touching Jay – the patient – in any way possible, only giving the cup the slightest tip against the young man’s lips. He told himself that his reserve was entirely due to the issues with the sensory transmission, but if he was quite honest in the back of his own mind, he was terribly embarrassed and felt like his night-time ventures would be written across his face in stark letters if he got too close. Instead he busied himself with the familiar steps of professional evaluation and diagnostic protocol. He lifted the cup from the young man’s lips and set it to the side before retrieving his thankfully repaired control pad. Then he looked up, fully prepared to go the through the routine as fast and clinically as possible, only to meet a pair of guileless and curious eyes, and his resolve flew right out of the window.
“Well, it’s good to have you back among the living, finally. I’m Dr. Jensen Ackles by the way, and I’m in charge of your treatment here. Do you feel up some questions and basic diagnostics?”
He knew that the goofiest smile stretched his lips when the delivered the quip, but he’d somehow lost control of his features.
Jared smiled and nodded, marvelling at the transformation that took place in the doctor’s face when he looked up and a playful smile lit up his features. His voice was deep and pleasant, but his tone made a quiver of anticipation settle in Jared’s belly for some reason. He thought it seemed familiar, though he was sure he had never seen the man before, still it felt… safe and welcoming.
“Ye’h,” Jared cleared his throat and tried again, this time his voice came out raspy, but understandable, “Yes, I think I’d be up to that.”
The smile broadened in return, and Jared felt himself relax, tension draining from his limbs that he hadn’t even known was there.
“That’s great. Like I said, I am personally responsible for your recovery, and my team will continue to monitor your condition. We are very confident that your healing process is going great, so you don’t need to worry. For now I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions and run some small tests. Please, tell me at once if you feel like you need to rest, then we’ll take a break, and I’ll come back later, alright?”
Jared nodded and concentrated on Dr. Ackles’ reassuring expression.
“Let’s see… upon waking up, yesterday as well as right now, did you have any orientation problems? Dizzy spells, distorted vision, lacking depth perception, vertigo, that sort of thing?”
Jared shook his head.
“No, I mean, things were a little blurry at the beginning, but I blinked, and everything turned as sharp as it’s ever been.”
Dr. Ackles tapped away on his pad with a little frown and nodded absentmindedly. He grabbed a little light pen and shone into Jared’s eyes with it. The bright light was uncomfortable, but the doctor seemed satisfied with Jared’s reactions.
“That looks good, now anything with other sensory perception? I don’t think you have any difficulties following my speech, so I’m assuming your hearing is satisfactory.” When Jared nodded, he went on,” problems with itchy skin, feverish feelings or numbness?”
“Well, I feel like I have a very bad case of sore muscles involving my whole body, and my left arm was very difficult to coordinate yesterday, but I managed to wriggle my toes and all, which calmed me down a lot, I can tell you.”
“So you have both sensory perception and motor control over the extremities, that’s very good, and very little muscle atrophy which is excellent. Once we’ve cleared you for exercise you will of course have to start training again to get back to your original shape and adjust, but I’m sure that we will have you back on your feet in no time. Now, I have one small test left, for which I need to place this little device behind your ear for a moment, are you ok with that?”
The doctor produced a little button shaped thing that looked a little like bug and made Jared wonder just what kind of super-advanced hospital he’d landed himself in that had this sort of diagnostic technology. He nodded anyway, and the doctor reached out to put the device right against the skin behind his ear.
“This is going to sting a little for just a moment.”
A jolt went through his head, and Jared flinched, it didn’t really hurt, more like getting zapped after you’d rubbed some static electricity into your clothes.
“Everything alright?”
There was that smile again, and Jared felt the flutter in his stomach increase, mortified when his cheeks started to heat up as he answered.
“Yeah, fine.”
Dr. Ackles nodded and started tapping away again on his tablet pc.
“Now, tell me if you feel anything out of the ordinary and try to describe it as accurately as possible.”
Jared wanted to open his mouth and tell the doctor that he felt completely fine, when it suddenly started.
“Wait, there’s a tingle in my fingertips.”
“Painful, or…?”
“No, no, just… like they’d fallen asleep, and the blood is rushing back.”
“Hmhhhmm, alright, the same in both hands?”
“Yes, what… wait, now it’s in my toes… hey, are you tickling me?”
Dr. Ackles chuckled and bent a little lower over the screen on his knees.
“No, just checking up on your sensory responses.”
Suddenly he reached out and put his hand on Jared’s shoulder.
“Is this uncomfortable in any way?”
Jared could feel the soft pads of the doctor’s fingers pressing lightly into his skin, warmth seeping down through his palm, and his breath caught in his throat as he glanced down, completely bewildered for a moment.
“I… uhm, yes it’s… it’s fine.”
He looked up again, noticing that Dr. Ackles had kept his hand where it was a lot longer than was strictly necessary for a simple test, and once their eyes locked. The doctor seemed to notice as well, blushing a little under Jared’s inquiring gaze. To his credit though, he didn’t snatch his hand away, but lifted it calmly, like nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
“I’m just going to run the data through our system and let you get some rest.”
“Wait, I… aren’t you going to tell me about what happened to me?”
The memory was hazy in Jared’s mind, buried somewhere between nightmarish visions and blank, grey denial, but he knew that he needed to know the truth.
Jensen looked down onto the hand on his arm, barely keeping a flinch in check at the unconsciously strong grip. He was truly amazed at Jay’s ability to control the newly operating systems so seamlessly, even though the strength was somewhat unexpected. Normally, their patients needed a few days at least to adjust and get that kind of dexterity back that Jay seemed to have acquired in mere minutes after waking up. When he had told Chris about the events the day before, he had barely had the words to describe what had happened much less think about what it had meant, and he knew that Chris had probably thought he was exaggerating in his excitement. But now that he had the physical evidence in plain sight, his brain finally decided to kick into gear and pick up on something that he should have pieced together already, but which had been buried under stress and his tangled mess of emotions.
Now it hit him like a ton of bricks.
Jay shouldn’t be able to do what he did.
Jensen looked up to meet Jay’s apprehensive eyes and realized that he’d been standing there, lost in his own thoughts without ever answering the question.
“I’m sorry, I just… of course, I’ll explain everything to you, I just have to… go now, check up on something.”
“Is that… did something happen?”
The fingers around Jensen’s wrist tightened a little before the pressure let up, but suddenly, the touch burned into his skin.
“No, nothing to worry about, just… I realized something. I need to… I’ll right back, I swear.”
Jared wondered at the abrupt exit of the doctor, but he had said that it was nothing worrisome, and he believed the man, since he’d looked more excited than upset. Still, something was definitely off here, and it was not only that half a dozen plasma flat-screens for monitoring and diagnostic microcomputers were definitely not your run-of-the-mill medical equipment even in military hospitals. Plus, they sure as hell normally didn’t have doctors who were that kind of hot, but Jared was willing to concede that this point was not quite statistically conclusive and shouldn’t get him sidetracked. He wasn’t some kind of conspiracy buff or anything – that was Chad’s pet peeve –, but even in his unit there had been many a joke about all kinds of crazy programs the government funded for their military campaigns. He had the ominous feeling that he’d come out of Dodge in a much worse shape than it appeared right now and landed himself in some top secret underground bunker, where they’d used some highly experimental, probably halfway illegal procedures to put the pieces back together. Suddenly, Jared was almost afraid to ask again where he was, how long he’d been here, and what exactly had happened to him. Then he examined his own thoughts for a moment and laughed at himself for being so paranoid that his inner Chad had riled him up like that… which was of course when the weird shit actually started.
Jensen hurried outside to the big control centre of the lab while numbers and images and codes danced a jig in his head, piecing a picture together that he couldn’t believe he’d missed up to now. When he slid the control pad into the slight depression that made up the interface to the big servers, his hands shook from barely contained excitement. He absently opened a communications channel to Chris in the research labs while simultaneously calling up Jay’s complete records.
He started babbling away the second Chris answered the call:
“Chris, you’ve GOT to come see this right now.”
<“Jensen, what’s up, did something happen? Are you alright?”>
“I need you here yesterday, and I’m perfectly fine, better than that in fact if my findings prove to be correct. I talked to Jay, ran some sensory diagnostics and…”
<”Wait, WHAT? He’s awake again? Jensen, I told you to call immediately and not to handle him all on your own again.”>
“Chris, I can handle myself perfectly well without your pretentious mother-henning, so spare me and get your ass down here pronto, so I can show you what I found!”
<”I know you can handle yourself, Jensen, but I still want you to be careful to avoid a repeat of…> yesterday, jackass”, Chris answered as he stepped through the door and shut off his headpiece. “So, what’s got your panties in a twist, Princess?”
Jensen scowled darkly at the nickname, but he was too absorbed in the analysis of the data on screen to meet Chris with a proper response.
“I just figured out something that’s been missing in our diagnostic profile the whole time. Remember the incident during the muscle restoration procedure, and how we couldn’t make sense of how he would manage to wake halfway up under such heavy medication and all? Well, I think his brain has been outsmarting us, working through the back door.”
Jensen brought up all the data sheets with the EEG readings in question for Chris to take a closer look, while he searched for more clues to support his theory.
“I thought something about his readings was odd the whole time, but I couldn’t make head or tail of it, because I was looking in completely the wrong direction, but Chris, he just grabbed my wrist in there with his right hand. His fine motor skills are extremely precise, and the strength of his grip was…”
Chris looked stormily at the data spread on the screens.
“But Jensen, that’s not possible, the readings must have been messed up somehow…”
“No, I’m telling you, it’s not a fluke. And look what I got off the neuronal interface just now, when I did the sensory adjustment tests, you’re… this is so big I tell you…”
Jensen pulled up the data for the neuronal interface that connected all the new subsystems to the central nervous system and made it possible for them to
interact with the body like they belonged. The readings told him exactly what he had expected, but he waited for Chris to come to the same conclusion first. A sharp intake of breath told him that Chris had found precisely what he’d just seen with his own two eyes in the numbers.
“But that’s not possible, how can he…?”
“He’s accessing the mainframe.”
“Again, Jensen, how would he do that? The system’s not designed for active operation, he couldn’t…”
“Of course it’s not active operation, he doesn’t even know that he’s got a micro-computing system in the back of his skull; it’s subconscious control.”
“You’re kidding, right? No way his brain is treating an artificial subsidiary like an actual part of his nervous system.”
“I think – and you need to agree that the readings support the theory – that this is exactly what he’s doing. Somehow his brain is processing the raw data of the system like it is legitimate sensory input, and, what’s more, I think the same is true for motor output. He might even be able to reach a performance way above a hundred and ten percent of original capacity, and all this without a noticeable adjustment period. This is huge, Chris!”
Chris was still standing in front of the screens with his arms crossed defiantly, but even he couldn’t deny the hard evidence of the data in front of them, and from the gleam in his wide eyes, Jensen knew that he would only take a couple of minutes of in depth analysis to get on board the way Jensen already was. He didn’t get a chance to revel in this break-through, because suddenly all systems went on alert, with some major distress signals coming from their patient down in the lab.
Ever since the doctor had left, Jared had noticed a slight ache radiating from the back of his neck, but during his musings he had dismissed it as some residual discomfort. Now though, it suddenly bloomed up into his head, a sharp stab that concentrated primarily behind his left eye. Jared groaned slightly and leaned back, pressing his eyes shut and massaging the bridge of his nose with his fingers, in the slim hope of alleviating the pain a little. He wondered if Dr. Ackles would be able to hear him if he called out, or if there was some kind of emergency button, but before he could bring himself to open his eyes to look around, a high pitched whine started in his ear, drilling agony into his skull. It felt for a moment like his brain was going to melt and leak out of his ears, but from one second to the next, the pain was just … gone, and all the sounds around him seemed normal. Jared took a relieved breath and opened his eyes to see whether he could well… see.
What he got was… surreal.
He had hardly opened his eyes when something that felt like a camera flare
distorted his vision, and suddenly everything in front of him went two shades darker, more contrasted and strangely digital. Numbers started to swirl through his line of sight that he couldn’t really make sense of, except that they appeared to be measurements of some kind, calculations of the perimeter environment. It looked like two different perceptions of his field of vision one overlaid above the other, and it was disorienting and frightening as fuck. Jared felt the first tendrils of panic creeping up his spine, heart beating frantically, and breath going fast, and now he wanted to know what the fuck they had done to him here right this instant. He felt like he was wearing glasses with holographic projections that belonged strictly on the sci-fi section of the movie shelves and not inside his head.
The big shock however, came when he stopped looking around himself and tried to concentrate on something closer, catching sight of his right hand that was
clenched in the bed sheets out of the corner of his eyes. He lifted his hand in front of his and watched in horror as the image was virtually peeled back like a floor plan, skin, muscle, sinew and bone, only it wasn’t right, it was something metallic, or… fluorescent blue particles moving in the veins with rapid speed, and… someone was screaming, and it boomed in his ears with the strength of a jet lifting off next to his head, and something was wrong, wrong, wrong… He heard footsteps, and suddenly there was the face of a man in front of him, complete with figures about his height, proximity, threat assessment, and he couldn’t… couldn’t look, so he lashed out, flesh something else, something connecting with flesh, and resounding crash, and the man was gone, but the images still weren’t, and Jared couldn’t… breathe. It was … then there was a sound, a groan that resounded in his addled brain, and suddenly, Jay, everything was, Jay, you’ve got to, focused on that sound, that…voice,… just listen,… you’ve got to calm down.
And everything ground to halt, like it went from sixty to zero in a heartbeat, and there was a prick in his neck, and cold, black darkness spread all over.
Chris barely took his time to slide the needle safely out of their patient’s neck and lower him back to the bed before he dropped everything on a tray and sprinted around the bed to where Jensen was lying dazed on the floor among the remnants of half of their monitoring equipment.
“Jensen, are you alright? Fuck, man, you’ve got to stop doing that.”
Jensen blinked up at him through the blood running into his eye from a cut above his brow. Chris noticed his careful, shallow breathing instantly, and cursed at the thought of the ribs. He decided to keep Jensen where he was for the moment, until Traci arrived to look him over, while the rest of the team rushed in, roused by the amber alert and flocked around the bed. Chris barely had the presence of mind to brief them on the most important facts and kept Jensen lying down until Traci had examined him and pronounced him fit to walk the
short distance to the staff medical centre on his own feet. He supported Jensen until he could leave him safely on the cot with Traci to do the patching up and then left reluctantly to go back and organize this incredible mess their latest case had turned into just now.
Jensen groaned pitifully when Traci bandaged his ribs with the relentless practicality of an experienced physician. She’d already pronounced a couple of them cracked and a few more severely bruised, but there was not much else she could do for the moment besides order him to rest. She pointedly didn’t ask him about the older bruises, but he knew that if something else happened, she’d confront him anyway. The stitches in his brow pulled slightly with every frown.
“You’re lucky that I know how to do stitches right from my stint as a plastic surgeon. Fear not, your eternal beauty will be preserved. Well… until you’re old and wrinkly and your skin gets floppy at the edges and all that. But since the world is unfair, and you probably have all the really good genes, you won’t be worrying about that for a loooong time.”
Jensen grinned at her despite himself.
“You always give out the most extraordinary compliments, you know that?”
Traci rolled her eyes before she answered:
“You would be the one man to appreciate my candour, why oh why couldn’t it be one that’d actually take me if I offered? But now, no more diversionary tactics, you mind telling me what’s up with the Hulk down the hall?”
The casual nickname made Jensen sputter, then wheeze and lie back, groaning from the pain.
“You… You can’t call him that.”
Traci shrugged, completely unfazed.
“Just because you are completely unimaginative and give them names based on their files of all things doesn’t mean that other people can’t use comic book heroes. And you have to admit from the way he looks and the way you look that it’s a pretty damn fitting description.”
Jensen stared at her incredulously for a moment, but then he just shook his head slightly and prayed for acceptance.
“It’s not his fault. I can’t exactly say what happened to rile him up so badly, but if what I just found out is true, then it would have been pretty damn scary, especially if he had no idea what he was dealing with. If I’m right, this case might speed up our prospective research plan by years. I have to find out what happened as soon as he wakes up again.”
“What you need to do is keep yourself out of harm’s way for the next few weeks until those ribs are healed and rest up for a bit. Chris is more than capable of keeping the ball rolling for a day or two.”
“But I…”
“No discussion about this, Jensen. I’m serious. You need give yourself some time before you jump back into the fray. I get that you’re excited about these new developments and all, but that doesn’t change that you’re just human, like the rest of us. You need to take a break.”
Jensen sighed, chastised, but he couldn’t very well argue with Traci’s logic. Besides, Jay was sedated for the moment, and it would take some time for him to wake up again anyways. He decided to give in for now and get some sleep. There were a whole lot of problems that was still going to be waiting for him once he woke up.
“Alright, alright, I give. I can’t do anything right now anyway. But I’m not taking a vacation, just so you know. I know you all like to pamper me and all that, but I’m responsible for what happens to this man, and I need to find out what exactly we’re dealing with.”
Traci sighed dramatically for a moment, but obviously decided to take what she could get.
“I know I can’t keep you away for long, just get one good night’s sleep at least and be sure to take the meds that I left on your bedside table, are we clear? And we’re talking about what needs to be done for those ribs soon.”
She threw him a stern look, but he nodded obediently, trying to ignore his smarting ribs as he drifted off to sleep.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-25 03:04 pm (UTC)Great update. Poor Jensen - twice with the ribs.
Can't wait for more - to see Jared's reaction to the whole thing.
Thanks for sharing.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-25 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-25 09:13 pm (UTC)Poor Jensen getting his ribs hurt twice now but I can't blame Jared because he doesn't know what's happened to him yet or what the team of doctors did to him.
Looking forward to tomorrows post.
*hugs*
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-25 09:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-26 05:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-26 01:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-28 03:39 pm (UTC)