WALKING DISASTERS | Jack Thompson

25.

SERA CAME TO AS JACK was driving back to the SSR headquarters. He was going to take her to the hospital, but the New York Bell was closer and they had the means of fixing her up there. She groaned as she felt a shooting pain in her side.

"Wh..." she breathed. "Wha..."

"Don't say anything," Jack said. "Just try and stay calm."

"What... happened?" Sera whispered.

"You got stabbed, Stark," Jack replied. "Do you remember who did it?"

"A girl in my building," Sera said quietly. "A girl... had a knife. Knocked Peggy out... stabbed me. She's the one, Jack; the one you want. Not me."

"Alright, you just hang in there, okay?" Jack asked, slamming on the brakes outside the Bell and chasing Sera to jolt a little too harshly. She groaned in pain and remained doubled over as Jack turned to her. "I'm gonna need you to walk inside, okay?"

"No."

"Stark."

"I got stabbed," she said, her voice strained. "And you want me to walk?"

Jack sighed, but reluctantly helped Sera out of the car and into his arms. Thankfully, nobody really paid any mind to him carrying a half-conscious girl wearing a blood-soaked blouse into the telephone company building, and he carried her all the way up to the medical room. It wasn't much, because it was mostly used when agents came back to the building with bruises or small cuts that were easily dealt with. Most serious injuries were cause for a hospital, but Jack didn't have time to get Sera there.

When he was inside, he laid Sera down on the table and called in the doctor they had on hand. "She's been stabbed. Needs stitching up."

The doctor nodded, and began an assessment to check whether Sera had any internal bleeding. When he told her that she was fortunate that she didn't have any after a stab wound like this, Sera's eyes found Jack's.

"She could've killed me," Sera said. "She... She could have... Why didn't she...?"

"You just stay quiet, okay?" Jack said. "Let the doc fix you up, then we're gonna have a talk."

"It's not what you think, Jack," Sera said, her eyes desperately pleading with him to believe her. "You have to listen to me."

"And I will," he replied, watching as the doctor prepared a needle.

When he made the first stitch, Sera winced and grabbed Jack's hand, squeezing painfully. Her eyes found his and he could see the worry in her eyes as she whispered, "Please don't go anywhere."

"I won't," he replied.

Dooley walked into the medical room, finding a half-dressed Sera getting stitched up by the doctor. "Ah, Jesus," he groaned, averting his eyes. "Thompson, what the hell happened?"

"She got stabbed, sir," Jack answered. "The doc's gonna fix her up and then we'll begin the interrogation."

"Well, Sousa just got here with Carter, so you need to get down there," he said. "Stark's a big girl. She can handle herself. Doc, when you're finished, bring her down to the interrogation room."

Jack cast one last look at Sera before he left the room, making sure to leave his jacket on the back of the chair, hoping Sera would pick it up on her way out. He was going to need to put on his tough-guy persona in order for this interrogation to move smoothly, and as he left Sera on the doctor's table, he sighed. Something was up, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.

When it was seen to that Sera wasn't going to bleed out, she was taken to the interrogation room and forced into a seat. She had picked up Jack's jacket before leaving the room and had pulled it on over her blouse, which was soaked with blood and beyond saving. The jolt she received when pushed into the seat was enough to elicit a groan of pain from her as she was handcuffed to the table.