Barren Crossroads

Diseases of the Mind and Body

Kaelie rolled her eyes. "What is it then?"

"You realize you've been standing here all night?" he asked, avoiding her question and she lifted a brow at him.

"Have I?" she said, and shrugged, wrapping her arms around her middle. "I guess I didn't think it'd been that long."

He looked at her with something close to pity in his eyes and Kaelie looked down at the floor. After another moment, he spoke again, and his voice didn't hold any of the emotion that his eyes did. Instead he sounded hopeful, almost happy. "I think I can do it."

"Do what?" she asked, and she hoped she knew the answer.

"I know, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I spent all night working on it. It was about 1 in the morning when I figured out the notes- he had them jumbled and out of order like that on purpose. I think he was trying to confuse anyone else that came looking for it, maybe even you. Second, it's shockingly simple. For me, at least. I think I can make it," he said in a ramble.

"But?" Kaelie asked, waiting for her usual bad luck to catch up with her.

"But," he started and she slumped back against the cool glass wall. "I don't think we have enough here for more than one round."

"What do you mean, round?" she asked, and he was already reaching for her hand, his warmth searing into her, and he dragged her back up to the operating room.

When they got there, she saw all of Jordan's notes scattered over the walls, held there with tape, and then another sheet of paper flipped over and filled with a different, cramped handwriting. She looked down at Rick's ink stained fingers. He pulled her to a smaller room behind the one they were in.

"Secret office?" she said. He nodded.

"Lot of materials here, or were. Things he didn't want anyone else to find. You told me that Mrs. Dae, Jace's mom, she was a doctor. She patched you up sometimes, she did the surgery. Maybe he was worried she would know what they were for? Maybe Jordan was just one hell of a paranoid bastard, who knows. But I am almost ninety percent sure it is everything we need."

She nodded at him to continue, and his blue eyes were bright with a manic, frenzied sort of energy. "It's a round of injections. One every 24 hours, for a week. You do that, you're cured. If you live."

She just watched him. She didn't know what he wanted her to say to that. Finally, she said "If I live? What do you mean by that?"

He almost smiled, like he was hoping she'd ask at least one life preserving question. The smile faded as fast as it appeared. "I don't know what any of the side effects could be. I don't know what will happen to you at all."

"And there's only enough for one course?" He nodded at her. "And how soon can you have it ready?"

He sighed, like he didn't want to tell her. "Tomorrow morning," he said softly.

She leaned up suddenly and swiftly, cupping his cheek maybe too roughly and slotting her mouth over his. He still tasted like him, he still felt the same, and his hands wrapped around her back to hold her tightly to his broad chest. She kissed him with a desperation she hadn't felt since she'd last seen Jace, and when she pulled away, she rubbed her thumb along the coarseness of his beard.

"I'll fight, Rick. I'll try to live. I swear it. But if I don't, if it doesn't work, just let me go. Go back to your people. Rebuild. Move on," she said.

"I don't think I can."

"I do."

---

Jace woke up in the gas station, and he was not sure how long he'd been out. It had been dusk when he fell asleep, with Lilith's head on his shoulder and Michael's feet haphazardly in his lap. When he looked outside, it was daylight, but that still didn't tell him how many days they could have lost. He hoped it wasn't more than one.