What We Lost

Lemon Juice

I'm so exhausted that I head to my room and take a nap. Before I know it Abe is knocking on the door to tell me we have landed in New York. Abe and I head down to the lab with Mitch, making sure he knows what's going on with the beacon tracker, "Take this. Use it to track the beacon." Abe hands him a device we had been working on to track the beacon. "We've had luck blocking the hybrid signal before, but this beacon is a whole different beast."

I nod, with a sigh, "we're going to work on a solution here and we'll talk you through it once you find the beacon."

"In the meantime, use these things for signal dampening. Wrap it in tinfoil. Use the copper wire to..."

"Yeah, I got it." Mitch nods, "make it all electric-y."

Abe, Jackson and I stay on the plane, trying to figure out how we are going to shut down the beacon, if and when we find it. I shake my head, "guys, Abigail is setting off the beacon inside Reiden Headquarters."

"What does she want with Reiden?" Jackson looks over my shoulder to the map.

"I don't know."

"Isn't the saying 'the enemy of your enemy is your friend'?" Abe looks around.

I chuckle, "if I wasn't sure that woman had a hand in destroying my marriage, maybe I'd say yes. All I know right now is that she better hope I never get my hands on her."

"It seems backwards, saving Reiden Tower."

"We're not saving Reiden Tower," Jackson shakes his head, "we're saving New York City and, perhaps, the entire East Coast."

I nod, looking over what Mitch should have to disarm the beacon, "alright, so, this is, hopefully, what Mitch will have access to inside Reiden. We'll need to boost our hybrid signal to match the intensity of the beacon."

"Lemon juice?"

I shrug, "it's a good conductor."

"But why do we have so much?" Abe picks up the large bottle.

"Because Jamie makes a mean Tom Collins," I chuckle.

"It's nice to know she had so much time for hobbies," Jackson walks around the hybrid, "in between destroying lives."

"Jackson, that's not fair."

"She's right," Abe nods.

Jackson scoffs as he looks up to us, "you lost a lot because of her, Abe. So did you, Kat."

"You need to stop using us as an excuse. Jamie was just doing what she thought was right. Despite everything that's happened, I'm glad we're back together. No matter how messy it gets, we're still a family. You, me, Kat, Jamie, Dariela, Mitch... Clem."

Abe pauses for a second and I call out to him, "what's going on, Abe?"

Jackson nods, sensing the same thing I am, "what aren't you telling us?"

Abe shakes his head, "I need to find Dariela."

"Abe, we need to talk."

"I'll be right back. Just, uh, use the electrical tape, and uh... Kat you know what to do."

I take a deep breath and look around, as I hear Jackson chuckle, "and here we are again."

"Yup," I nod, "it seems we can't avoid it."

"They're so used to leaving us alone, I guess they don't give it a second thought."

"I guess not," I scoff as I look down.

"Kat, I..."

"Jackson, please don't."

"I don't want us to be like this. Distant. Cold. Our marriage didn't work, we still know more about each other than anyone else on this plane. I want us to be able to talk and be there for each other."

I shake my head, "I can't do that, Jackson." I almost yell this at him.

"Why not?" He matches my volume and intensity.

"Because every time I look at you, I..." I shake my head and look down, "now is not the time for this."

"Then when is?"

"When we aren't trying to save the world."

"Kat, if we let that stop us we never would have gotten married in the first place."

"Every time I look at you, I see the pain in your eyes. I see the pain on your face and the way you looked at me that day in the safe zone and...."

Jackson moves closer to me and hugs me, tightly, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close, "I never blamed you for that. Not for a second. Because it wasn't your fault." Jackson pulls away and looks into my eyes, "and I'm sorry you didn't have time to heal, trying to help Jamie keep me safe and trying to help Abe find a cure. But I should have been there to help you through everything."

Before I can say anything else, I hear Mitch on the walkie, "alright, guys. I'm ready for you."

Jackson clears his throat and presses the button for the walkie, "so you're gonna need to find some electrical tape and then a whole lot of lemon juice."

"What? Uh, guys? Either this thing's broken or there's a swarm of hybrids heading for us."

"Is it bad I'm hoping something I made is actually broken." I look over to Jackson.

Jackson shakes his head, "we both know the likelihood of that."

"Uh, we have a new plan," Mitch calls out, a bit out of breath, "we are going to attach the beacon to a drone and send it out to the ocean."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," I nod, "do it."