DEVIANT [H.S.]

42 - Self-Sabotage

"What?! What's wrong?" Niall exclaims, bursting into the lab with Liam following behind him.

I must have screamed pretty loud for them to hear me all the way from the control room.

"His anesthesia is wearing off, something is messing with the controls... I can't do anything!" I cry out, tugging at my hair. "The antidote transfusion is nowhere near complete... he needs to be under!"

Liam rushes over to my side, pulling me into a tight embrace. "It will be okay. We will figure out what is going on and we will get everything back the way it's supposed to be."

My erratic breathing calms down as Liam holds me, but my thoughts run haywire. How can he possibly know that everything will go back the way it was? I can't lose Harry. Not now, not yet.. not ever.

Tara jumps down from her stool and runs out of the lab, not wanting to see the situation get any worse.

Niall looks at the control board, frowning. "His vitals are fine, the controls are fine, but his inducing anesthesia is low. Try redoing his I.V. needle, Serena."

I calm down enough to where my hands are not trembling and prep a new vein, slow and meticulous with my movements.

In the background I hear murmurs from the boys.

Niall glances over to Harry. "Look, Harry's going back to sleep now."

My gaze shifts back to Harry, his eyes slowly but surely fluttering closed. I stride over and press a kiss onto his forehead, urging him to fall deeper into slumber.

"You must have been a little hasty at the start," Liam laughs. "Don't panic, Serena... Harry is fine."

I inhale and exhale to the point where my lungs are exhausted, but I don't care.

Did I really just self-sabotage?

"Remember when you bumped into that barrel in the O2, and you thought it was the end of the world?" Niall asks me.

I nod. "I was super dramatic after we made it out of the Underground."

He chuckles, placing his hands on my shoulders. "And it wasn't the end of the world. Same goes here. Breathe, take a minute, then let's plan how to stop Jeriah."

///

After my scare with Harry's antidote transfusion, I insisted we stay in the lab to supervise anything else going awry.

Just to ease my delicate conscience.

Niall is deep in thought. "Where could the vaporizer be? It's too valuable to be in a large skyscraper like the Shard. It needs to be somewhere one wouldn't think twice."

"You guys have already checked out the headquarters. It's clear, right? No suspicious material? That's because all of it is in the O2," Liam tells me.

Niall shakes his head, denying the claim. "I don't think so. Too obvious, Liam. Serena, you've lived with the mad man. If you were a high-ranking, power-tripping, blood-thirsty millionaire, where would you keep a multi-million dollar device?"

Never have I ever imagined myself as Jeriah, but I am able to think like a rich white male. To avoid any threat impending his progress with the Core, he would steal away what could be used for the Core or the Coalition.

He would want to take comfort in knowing where it is. Knowing it's under the same roof.

"The mansion." I think out loud, confirming my suspicions. "It has to be in the mansion."

"Are you sure? We have to be sure," Niall says in a hushed tone.

I nod, gulping. "I'm sure. I know where it could be. What rich white male doesn't have a vault at their expense?"