The Art of Being Right

Finding The Details

"McKein! Hart wants us in his office now! C'mon, move it."

"Geez Maddy, how 'bout we take that stick outta your ass first, hm? What's got you so riled?"

Maddy stuck two fingers up at McKein before jerking her head towards the superintendent's office door.

"Could it be because Wilson's finally got himself a girlfriend? That why you're so pissed this morning?"

"Shut up McKein." She glared before going into the office, closely followed by the chuckling man behind her.

The look on Hart's face soon put a stop to McKein's joking. His eyes were red and there were dark rings underneath them - the guy looked dead. He placed the phone back down on the stand before gesturing for the two of them to sit down.

"Hart what's going on? Is everything okay?" Maddy asked anxiously, eyes tracing over the worry-stricken look her boss was sporting.

"There's no easy way to say this...um," Hart began to choke on his words, shaking his head slowly and sadly, "it's Wilson."

"What about him?" McKein asked, worried now. He leaned forwards in his chair, hands wringing against each other in concern, "Dammit Hart what happened?"

-

It had had been four days since the storm of Arkfield. Four days since Elliot Conan and his team were arrested for murder. Four days since the experiment subject that had killed so many was finally taken out. Four days since Wilson had been killed.

Or very nearly.

After a risky surgery to patch up several internal bleeds, Wilson had been in a comatose state and was entirely unresponsive. JJ had sat with him for the entire time, refusing to leave his room or go home. She barely ate, or slept, and was beginning to feel the exhaustion setting in. She just wanted him to wake up.

White bandages were wrapped tightly around his chest, covering the masses of stitches and staples holding him together. Tubes and IV lines fed into his forearms and wrists, and the monitor tracking his heart rate beeped monotonously in the corner. He looks so vulnerable like this, and JJ felt like it was her fault. If she'd have shot sooner, if she'd stopped him from going alone, he might be okay right now.

She hadn't touched him at all since he got to the hospital. Not held his hand or anything - she didn't feel it was right, it was partially her fault he was in this position in the first place.

As day five came to an end Spence insisted that she head home. Some of his friends from the city were coming down the next morning so she'd be best going and getting a good night's sleep, to come back and speak to them all the day after. JJ agreed reluctantly, and left Wilson's room without a word - only stopping to promise Wilson she'd be back soon.

The next morning was rough - JJ's sleep had been filled with nightmares of the huge beast in the lab, of Wilson bleeding out and telling her he couldn't hold on any longer. She'd woken up in tears, and had run to his room to dig out the jacket he lent her on the first night they met.

She wore it to the hospital, curling up on the chair next to his bed with it wrapped around her. The nurses said there'd been no change overnight - nothing at all. In a way it was good and bad news; he wasn't getting any better but at least he wasn't getting any worse.

Around midday she could hear voices outside the room. Spence was talking to three people, one around his age and the other two nearer to her and Wilson. After a short conversation there was a knock at the door. Without getting an answer from her, Spence and the three new people stepped inside, with mournful expressions.

"JJ," Spence said softly, "this is Wilson's superintendent, Seth Hart, and his friends Maddy and-"

"McKein, we've spoken before," he informed Spence as he smiled sadly, striding across the room to pull JJ into a tight hug, "it's good to finally meet you."

"You too," she answered, "I just wish it was under better circumstances."

Maddy said nothing to JJ, instead her eyes moved straight to Wilson.

"How long has he been like this?"

"Nearly six days now, he's been totally unresponsive."

Maddy reached out and took his hand - hopefully wishing it would gage some response from him - but nothing happened, apart from her earning a glare from JJ and a warning look from McKein, Hart and Spence.

After a few hours JJ's exhaustion took over again. She fell asleep sat upright next to Wilson's bed, McKein sat next to her and Maddy opposite. Hart had gone back to the station with Spence to make a start on the questioning, as JJ had already said she wanted nothing to do with it.

It was going to be a long few weeks if nothing changed.