The Kids in the Dark

Tested

Weir....Weir the weird.....

The strange yet familiar words floated over Jacob from what seemed like miles away. He could reach for them if he wanted. If he wanted to...... he didn't want to.... he was so tired...

Jacob....Weirdo.....You gonna cry?...... Jakey-Boy.....

Where was all this coming from...? He couldn't manage to string a whole thought together. The world was in a blur of fact and fiction.

"JACOB!" another voice called through the haze. Was that voice real? He couldn't tell.

"Don't just sit there with your hands in your pockets, get him down!" barked the man's authoritative voice. He sounded familiar, but from where...?

Jake felt arms stretching to reach where he was. Why couldn't they just leave him up there? All he wanted was to rest. He was let down and tumbled into what seemed to be someones' lap. The person laid him out straight. He was so comfortable.... he could sleep here....

"No....no, Jake stay with me, buddy, come on...," Jacob felt a gentle hand slap at his cheek until he strained his eyes open.

Visions swam before him in a bleary sea of red. They were in some sort of car... military it seemed. A strong wind came in through a hole in the side of it.... something was supposed to go there but he couldn't put his finger on it. Distant sounds of gunfire echoed around them. There was a fire or something in the front of the car... is that supposed to happen?

"Jake, you're gonna be okay. RALPH, PRESSURE PACK, NOW."

They were swerving through the streets so fast he felt his stomach lurch. There was a man in the floorboards.... he looked so peaceful sleeping like that... like nothing would ever wake him up... Jacob suddenly felt an ache in his neck, like someone was pressing on it hard enough to to make it snap.

Apparently he made a sound because he heard the man's voice gently shushing him before the black finally swallowed his vision.

~

Car bomb, that's what the records said. Jacob should know. He'd read the record of the event twelve times over while he was in the hospital, willing himself to remeber anything of the incident. He, Hawkeye, Ralph Davis, and David Draime were all escorting the president back towards DC when the roadside bomb detonated. Of course it was Jake's turn to be on the gun. He was in a drugged sleep for a week as they tried to save the major artery in his neck and get as much shrapnel out of his face as possible. Once he was allowed to go back to SHIELD, he was put on a three week suspension from missions until he was completely healed. Those jerks.

Jacob needs action. He cannot be still, nor can he stand being cooped up in the agency for too long. He may die of boredom. However, Barton had him barred from any and every activity that could risk his health. In an agency, that's, hm, EVERYTHING. By day six of that disturbing consistency, he was begging Barton to let him do anything at all. Barton was unmerciful, however. Thus, he was left to wander the vacant halls while everyone else was at work. Jacob was starting to dearly miss the morphine they gave him in the hospital.

David Draime died on that mission. He was always pretty nice to Jake, as nice as a Quartermaster can be. He treated him like any other agent, not like he was a kniving teenager. That kind of treatment for Jacob was scarce here at SHIELD.

However, since David died, SHIELD has been without a Quartermaster for nearly a month now. The agency has been thrown into a confused chaos without someone managing the weapons stores and watching intelligence. Director Fury has been interviewing, but none have seemed to stick yet. Hopefully they'll get one soon, before they collapse into themselves.