Hawk and Dove

"We're fine."

Dan was hydrated and rested before late afternoon. And when that happened, he immediately got out of bed and told Phil he needed to see Louise. He was done lying around and healing and letting other people do his job for him.

Jesus. It was the little things with leading a team.

Now showered and in clean clothes, Dan walked briskly through the halls of the facility to find Louise. Phil assured him she was in her office, that she hadn't left since he was taken. He made it all the way up the stairs without loosing his breath, which was surprising because that meant he was more in shape than he was when he first arrived. That meant his training was working. That was basically the best news he's heard in a few days.

Dan didn't knock on the door when they arrived at the office; he just strode right in and up to Louise. Phil was only a few steps behind, his hand intertwined with Dan's. In the small room, Louise and Jim looked very busy. There was a blood pressure cuff around Jim's right bicep, and he sat on the desk while Louise looked very interested in her computer screen. Jim noticed them right away and waved a little, but it took Dan clearing his throat for Louise to look up.

"Dan!" she squealed, bolting up, "You're okay!"

She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed, and he let out a soft 'oof' at the impact but didn't fall over. He put his free arm around Louise to hug her back but the other one stayed firmly in Phil's grasp, as neither of them was quite ready to let go yet.

"Yes, I'm okay. What are you doing in here?" he asked as she stepped away.

"We're studying Jim's blood. He let me take a sample and all went swimmingly," Louise said, adding the last part as if she could hear Dan's heart lurch uncomfortably, "I found a few abnormalities."

He tilted his head curiously and Phil piped up, "Like what?"

"Well, first of all, heightened blood pressure," she replied and Jim helpfully held up the arm with the cuff on it, "While it's not exactly unhealthy, it's a bit of a concern considering the blood was forcibly mutated. I've also been closely moderating the sample I took to make sure it wouldn't mutate further."

Dan passed a look over at Phil. He looked equally as worried. "Is that possible?" the former asked.

Louise took a breath. "I'm not sure. It could, especially if Jim were to be put in another high stress situation. But there's no saying what could happen to him," she said.

"So..." Dan said slowly, trying to understand.

"If Jim were to be in a life-threatening situation at any point in the future, his mutation could get out of control because his body is now conditioned to react that way," she supplied.

Jim interjected. "So I could die."

"You'd probably die," Louise corrected.

Huffing sharply, Dan shook his head. "The point of the experiments was to make the mutations further adapt for self preservation. So why wouldn't that keep happening? Why wouldn't the mutation keep him from dying?" he said. Just talking about what he went through caused a spark of anxiety to flare up in his chest. He was glad Phil's hand was still in his, so he had something to focus on.

"I've thought about that too. I tried it with Jim's blood sample," continued Louise, "His mutation isn't natural, like the lot of us. In nearly every case, you and I would keep mutating to stay alive. But Jim's body isn't prepared for that, so if his blood were to mutate further it wouldn't be able to react fast enough. So, that spells coma, if he's lucky, or death."

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Jim said sardonically.

Dan took in another steadying breath. It was shakier than it should have been. He knew for a fact that Jim wasn't the only agent who was, well, infected with mutated blood. "There's a lot of you, aren't there?" he asked.