Author: Quicksilvermad/Jenn

Content Warnings: This is a bit of a tear jerker in spots...

Part One:

Lilli Andrews jogged her way hurriedly to the Department of Fish and Game, too worried about herself to wait for Darien to come pick her up. She was sick. Not just a normal common cold or stomach flu, this was worse.

It all started when she got up yesterday, she had a very high fever, and she wasn't sweating at all. She did all she could think of to bring it down, alcohol baths, ice, and fans. It hadn't worked though, and later, she had little fits of anger mixed with small leg or arm seizures. The anger was only half natural though, and the seizures drove her insane, so she sat on the couch all day watching re-runs of The A-Team and having spasms now and then.

Now, while she jogged, she could feel her legs spasm, and they were pumping a little faster than normal. People stared at her, amazed at how FAST she was going, dropping all they were doing and just gawking at her.

She stopped at the glass door to the building, neck jerking, shaking her short little ponytail up and down really hard. Frustrated, she yelled loud enough to bring Eberts down the stairs. "Miss. Andrews? Are you all right?"

Her head was still jerking, "N-n-n-no buddy. I haven't been so good lately...Can you help me up the stairs? It's getting hard to concentrate."

Eberts nodded and allowed her to grab his arm and nearly pull him down the steep steps.

"Do you need The Keeper? I'm sure she'll know what's wrong."

"That'd be super, Ebe," she paused again and growled at her jerking leg. She almost stumbled down the steps again, but luckily he caught her and nearly carried her down them.

*************************

"To tell you the truth, Lilli, I haven't the slightest idea what's wrong with you," Claire gently placed Lilli's blood in a cooler and tore her rubber gloves off.

Lilli's actual eyeball began to spasm, and she screamed out loud, furiously rubbing at her eye. Claire jumped back in surprise and blinked a few times, and in finally gaining her thoughts, she quickly ran to the intercom and buzzed The Official.

"What?"

"I need some agents down here NOW!" she struggled to be heard over Lilli's angry screaming.

"Done. It sounds like you need to take her to the white room. I'll let them know."

*************************

Lilli was forced into a straight jacket, still screaming the whole time and cursing anyone who touched her. The agents struggled to hold her down, buckling the jacket and picking her up off the ground, carrying her out the Lab doors, and down to the padded room where she was thrown in.

Claire watched her rock back and forth on the floor, get up, and start running faster and faster in the room, burning a path in the padding. She sat back down on the floor, began twitching again, and cried. She sobbed and had short micro-seizures all over her body. That's when Darien and Hobbes came in the viewing room.

"It's not fun being in there," Darien spoke softly, and Claire turned to face him, her own eyes wet with tears. She bit her lower lip, and her chin trembled as she carefully spoke.

"I don't know what's wrong with her. I think the symbiotic may be regrouping itself, but that can't be possible since I took it all out of her. The problem is, I can't do a THING to help her if I'm not right, and if I am right, she might die anyway."

Darien knelt down to be eye-level with her from where she sat. She looked up from wiping her eyes and accidentally made eye contact with him, and he hugged her. Hobbes reached over and gently held her shoulder and let her know that he too cared.

"Darien?" Claire spoke into his shirt, trying very hard not to cry again.

"What?" He held her at arm's length to see her face.

"Go in there and talk to her. Both of you. But not at once, Darien, you go first."

He nodded quietly and let her go, walking out of the viewing room, and into Lilli's own personal Hades. She was still on the floor, but her eyes were hollow and unfeeling as she stared at his figure, and the lower lids on them were also twitching. Her eyes weren't exactly focusing on him, but more focused on his outline.

"What do you want?" she croaked.

"I want to know what's wrong."

"You have no idea. You never will. Leave," she sat up, still not seeing him. "What if I don't want to? I know what it's like being in here, Lilli. See that mirror over there? We can watch you through it."

"You don't think I've figured that out already? I'm not stupid, I'm just sick."

"I know that. That's why I'm here."

"Because I'm not stupid, or because I'm sick?"

He chuckled at that, just to make her feel a little better.

"I'm sorry for screaming at Claire and kicking the agents. Will you tell them that?"

"They already know. What've you been going through?"

"Well, I've been feverish, but I can't get rid of that, and I've been having little seizures all the time, and I can't control my anger, and I can't think, AND I can't keep from thinking what'll happen next. So, how's your day been?"

Darien's eyebrows raised and he sat on the floor next to her, putting a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Not as bad. I'm sure we'll find a way to cure you. Do you think it may have anything to do with that old symbiotic?"

She perked at that, then soured, jumping up off the floor and facing him. "Do you realize what that may mean? I will probably DIE soon. They warned me about this. They told me I could have residual side effects from removal. I told Claire, but she said it'd be OK, and now I'm going to DIE!"

"We all will someday. You and me. I know what pain you're going through. Madness is almost same-your symptoms make you go insane, my own blood does it to me. I think Hobbes wants to talk to you."

She blinked at him, finally seeing more than just his outline. He smiled warmly at her, reached down, and squeezed her twitching shoulder.

Hobbes entered the room immediately after Darien left, standing in front of her with his fists jammed in his pockets, looking more at the padded floor than her. "What? He said you wanted to talk to me..." she faltered, her throat was jumping up and down, and she was getting frustrated. Hobbes sat on the soft floor, and she carefully sat next to him, about to go nuts from all the twitching.

"I wanted to know if I could help you in any way," he tried to force her to look him in the eye.

"The only way you could help me is to shut up and go away."

Hobbes winced a little at that, then he jut his chin out and glared at her.

"I want to help you, Lilli. But I can't just go away. I don't know if I could help you with your little...curse or whatever, but I can help your feelings..."

"Curse?" Lilli finally looked at him and her eyebrows started twitching, making it hard for Hobbes to hold down laughter.

"Uh...I dunno, that just popped out. I couldn't think of the right word to use. Need a hug? I'll be there for you..."

Lilli finally giggled a little, and Hobbes pinched her cheek sweetly.

"That's the Lilli I know and love," he glanced around the padded walls a bit and turned back to her. "I could never stand it in here. I'm already paranoid enough; it wouldn't help me anymore. They'd have to put me on ANOTHER drug."

"I think I'm feeling a little better now," she smiled, but her twitching ear lobe betrayed her. "Sure. Let's get you cured," with that, he helped her stand up, and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks, Bobby."

*************************

Darien hobbled slowly behind the group of people down the hall. A few agents glanced at him curiously, but kept walking, wondering what was wrong with him. That was when he felt ice-cold all over, and fell to the floor, shivering and moaning. Lilli stopped her uneven pace of walking to stagger back next to him, and she touched the back of her hand to his forehead, her middle finger spasm.

"Oh Lord! You're burning up, Darien!" she turned back to Claire. "Claire! He's going through the same thing I did yesterday!"

"What? That's not possible!" she rushed back to Darien's shivering form and tried to sit him up. Next to her, Lilli collapsed on the ground, a full-blown seizure causing her to lose control of her body. Hobbes quickly ran to her, lifting her up and running her to Lab 3. Darien was starting the second stage of the "curse," micro-seizures ranging all over his body.

"Oh no. no no no no no no...NO!" Claire slammed frustrated fists on the cement floor and tears came freely from her pained eyes. *This can't be happening! It's not real! I'm only dreaming all of this. Darien has NO possibility of getting this! * She glanced at his startled eyes, his mouth whispering the name Lilli, and she remembered. Uncertain of leaving him in the hallway, she stood up, looked in his eyes again, and ran into Lab 3 for Lilli.

"She can't breathe!" Hobbes was frantic, not knowing what to do.

Claire all but sprinted to Lilli's side on the exam bed. Her seizing hadn't ceased, and she was gasping for oxygen.

"I need to intubate."

"To what?" Hobbes couldn't peel his eyes away from the suffering woman.

"I need to insert a tube down her windpipe and help her breathe," The Keeper rushed around the Lab, looking for the bag she needed to use with it.

Darien hobbled in, nabbed it off a higher shelf and handed it to her. She muttered a quick thanks, ran to Lilli's prone body, and began the procedure.

Claire searched a few seconds for the right angle to insert the tube, and when she found it, she gently slid the tube down the windpipe, connecting the bag to the end of the tube and pumping it every three seconds. Her seizing still continued, and Claire handed the bag to Hobbes, informing him on when to squeeze. She rushed to find the right medication to stop the seizing, and when she did, she carefully stuck the woman in the arm with it. Lilli jerked a few more times, then stopped, starting to accept the pumping on her own. Darien was now standing over head, his arm quicksilvered from the shoulder down. The three other people in the room stared at him funny, eyebrows quirked.

"What? It isn't going into spasms anymore."

Part 2:

Eberts walked as quietly as he could back into The Official's office. He WASN'T supposed to be on a break, and Charlie would have a fit if he knew. Well, he did know.

"EBERTS!"

Eberts jumped slightly. "Sir?"

"Where were you?" his voice was like boulders crashing down on Eberts' ears.

"I was-uh-I'm not sure."

"Just make sure you don't leave this office without asking again. I have some paper work for you to do."

Eberts sighed dejectedly. "Yessir."

*************************

Over three hours of paper work on the migration of salmon was not Eberts' idea of a good time. He tapped the pen he was using on the desk, humming a tuneless song to himself. A loud, annoyed cough from The Official reminded him to shut up. Sighing, Eberts wondered if he'd EVER get to do anything as great as going on a mission with one of the agents.

As if to answer his silent prayer, Hobbes burst into the office.

"Use your fist to hit the door next time so I know you're coming in..." The Official barked.

"I need a temporary partner. Darien and Lilli have an infectious illness, and apparently it's only infectious between experiments. We've noticed the rats in Keep's lab exhibiting the same symptoms as OUR two favorite lab rats."

"I'll get you one soon..."

"No, now. I need to get this guy NOW."

"So I'll get you one of the guys we already have."

Hobbes was about to nod in ascent, but he saw Eberts' pleading puppy-dog eyes look up from the paper work. He thought a second, and smiled.

"What about Eberts?"

The Official laughed openly at that, causing Eberts' hopeful look to fall.

"Aw come on, sir. We both know," he gulped a little, "he can do this."

The Official gnawed on this thought for what seemed, to Eberts, an eternity before nodding.

"But you'll have to loan him one of your firearms!" The Official shouted as they left.

*************************

"Let's get this straight. I only decided on choosing you since you need the fieldwork, you need some sun, and you're smart. So, I'll lend you a gun, but you'll have to PROMISE to keep me covered. You do know how to fire a gun, right?"

Eberts took the gun from him and expertly cocked it, getting a bullet in the chamber and holding it up, safety off, and an assuring grin pasted on his face.

"Of course."

Not surprisingly, Hobbes was a bit startled at the fact that quiet little Eberts knew how to use a gun.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "OK, we gotta make a stop at both the Labs to check on our two sick people."

*************************

Darien was doing fine; in fact, he was standing up next to Claire by the microscope, not a limb twitching. But he still needed to stay off the job for a while considering he still had a high fever and was irritable-downright cranky to be more blunt. He was also showing (or not showing) signs of involuntary quicksilvering, and Claire wanted to keep him around just in case he needed counteragent. Hobbes decided to just say 'hi' and check on Lilli two doors down. What he saw shocked him. His poor Lilli was hooked up to an IV, she was covered in electrodes, and oxygen was helping her breathe. Her eyes were even more hollow than they had been in the rubber-room. It frightened him to look at her. She wasn't the type of person that would ever look like that-all helpless and tired of fighting. She was a fighter, just like him, and she'd never give up. At least that was what Hobbes thought before he saw those hollow eyes staring blankly back at him. He shivered and closed the space between them. Taking her hand, he spoke softly and reassuringly.

"We're gonna make you better, understand?"

She nodded vaguely and squeezed his hand. A tear cascaded silently down her pulsating cheek. He wiped it away with the back of his hand, and smiled, his dimples standing out.

"Don't give up on me."

She shook her head and more tears fell from her eyes to the stark white pillow underneath her head. In an audacious moment, he reached down and took her face in his hands, gently kissing her lips and wiping the new tears away.

"Don't worry. You aren't leaving us now," he held her hand for a few more seconds, and released it slowly, walking out of the room.

*************************

Eberts tried as hard as he could to keep quiet around Hobbes, biting his tongue every so often. The man was simply a pain to work with, always wanting to do things his way rather than anyone else's way. The man that Hobbes and Darien had been after was a rather burly looking fellow-unibrow, dark hair and eyes, mustache, HUGE hands and arms, and he had the tendency to break things. A lot. Like breaking into the museum and stealing a stuffed white Bengal tiger -which was worth more than 70 million dollars, and was actually considered a job for the F&G. So here he was, Eberts, normally the guy in the background finishing The Official's sentences, holding his gun up and entering the perps hide-out-which happened to be in a dilapidated, crusty house in the middle of nowhere. Eberts sneezed at the smell of mildew invading his sensitive nostrils, and he nearly pulled the trigger at his foot.

That's when Igor (as Bobby called him) burst into the small living room with the entire tiger held over his head. Eberts reacted as any normal agent would, and pealed off a couple of shots before Hobbes could react in kind. The tiger dropped to the musty floor with a loud crash, and Igor toppled over it, a look of complete surprise that such a calm looking man could have done this to him, and that same calm man now had a tough look on his face, lip curled at him.

Bobby quickly kicked Igor off the tiger so as not to stain the perfect thing with such an idiot of a man's blood. Eberts checked the man's pulse but found none, and Hobbes clapped his back hard smiling like a proud father beaming at his son over a first kill in deer hunting.

"Nice work Eberts!"

Eberts was too stunned at himself to talk much less nod.

*************************

"Are you done yet?" Darien's neck asked. His head had quicksilvered on its own, and Claire was getting VERY frustrated. She swatted his roaming hand away and continued to stare into the petri dish under the microscope. "Not remotely," she snapped.

Darien's head reappeared, but his upper torso vanished, and he let out a frustrated yelp of his own. That was when Lilli walked slowly in the Lab, an oxygen tank trailing behind her.

Claire dashed from her microscope to Lilli's side, slightly peeved. "What are you doing out of bed? I told you to stay there until I came back with the results!"

"I wanted to get out of that stupid bed," she wheeled herself around to glance into the microscope, grimacing at the image on the dish before her. "Not good, eh?"

"Unfortunately, no. I'm not sure why, but the R3 that's still in you bloodstream may be doing this to you. But I don't see how that travels over to Darien and my other experimental animals-"

"OTHER? You think of my as one of your 'experimental animals'?" Darien cut in.

"-Since they don't have any way of reacting to your R3-"

"ANSWER ME!"

"-Then I suppose my conclusion is wrong. I'll have to work on it more."

That was about the time Darien gave up and hit his head repeatedly on the cabinet. Claire reached over and grabbed the hair that stuck out everywhere and yanked his head up away from the cabinet, and he struggled to slam it on there once more.

Lilli began to laugh, crack a smile, laugh some more and then cough her lungs up. Darien reached up with his no longer visible arm and patted her back hard. Once the coughing subsided, she sat down shakily and tried to breathe. Claire sighed and ushered her back to the other lab, still explaining a few things to her.

*************************

Eberts sat on the floor outside Charlie's office, straining to hear what he was telling Hobbes. So far he hadn't heard any yelling, but that could also be a bad sign. Giving up on trying to hear what was going on, Eberts rested his head in his palms. The door opened a crack, and Hobbes told him to enter.

"Eberts!" Charlie actually seemed proud.

"Sir?"

"Great job! I didn't expect you to do so well on your first mission. Hobbes here tells me you took Riener down all on your own. Did you realize how dangerous that man was? He's one of the biggest and toughest thieves there was!" Charlie almost talked as if he were speaking to a two-year-old.

Eberts' cheeks turned a bright pink when he made the connection. Little guy beats big guy-big guy turns out to be even tougher than he actually looks-which is pretty darn tough-little guy makes big guy look weak and stupid.

"If you'll consider it, I'm asking you to replace Darien when he's incapacitated, or replace agent Hobbes when he's incapacitated."

Eberts swallowed. "Yessir. I will"

"Good! Now, here's some paper-work..."

*************************

"Hello Lilli!" Claire smiled. Lilli had to be put on the treadmill every hour to keep her R3 pumping. Claire had to introduce some more of it to get the process going, and Lilli was now burning up the track again. She slowed down to greet Claire.

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

"A little better. Though I still have a micro-seizure now and then, and I still have a high fever, AND I still have a really bad attitude."

Claire nodded. "Well, I found out what's happening to you."

Lilli stopped the treadmill and looked at Claire. *It can't be any good news if she's looking that concerned...*

"Your symbiotic is in-fact regrouping. Part of it seems to have hidden from me when I took you through the removal process, and now it's growing larger. Right now, I expect it to be the size of a golfball, and it will keep growing as long as you don't run. The R3 that's still in your blood is keeping it from growing more by destroying the hormone that builds up in your blood made to feed the symbiotic, and the R3 is only manufactured when you use up energy. I know that's different than before, but I was able to purge most of the harmful hormones out of you. All you have left is the R3, the symbiotic, and the feeding hormone-which never got a name. In time, I can find a way to kill the symbiotic without killing you."

Lilli frowned. "So it kinda turned into a parasite?"

"In a way, yes. Instead of helping you now, it's taking you over. It's really alive, Lilli."

Lilli almost retched at the thought of a living organism trying to take over her body. "Kind like in those scifi movies, huh?"

Claire shrugged. "I'm going to replicate the R3 and try an IV-like administration."

Lilli smiled. "So there's hope for me yet?"

"Yes. It won't take me long to re-make it, so just relax in the meantime."

*************************

Darien teased the iguanas in the lab, flicking the glass with his invisible fingertips and rapping to himself. The normal one he sang--about himself.

"...hole in my head, gland in my brain, needle in my vein or I go insane. Cuz that's the curse of quicksilva' the stuff that bends light..." he trailed off, a file open on Claire's computer catching his eye.

"A-HA! What have we here?" he scrolled to read it, making sure no one was going to come in while he spied on this ever-so-interesting file.

It was about Lilli's condition. Reading it, he got the sudden sense of dread. Lilli's best estimate of living without running was at least one full week. Only one measly little week. Darien suddenly felt the oxygen in the room lose its effect, and sat down in his chair, a queasy feeling coming on. Closing his eyes, he could only imagine what it would be like when that time came-Lilli would be in so much pain that she wouldn't be able to observe that anyone was around her. Either that or she'd be a shell- seeing and hearing everything, but not being able to react to it. Then death would come like and icy hand that gripped her throat and the symbiotic would be the only thing left of her.

Darien shuddered. *No! Don't think like that! She's gonna make it through this! Think about it: Claire's fixed you a bunch of times, and this time will be the same as all others-whatever has to be done will work. * He held onto that thought and drifted off into another deep sleep. He had a knack for doing that.

*************************

Hobbes wandered through the lower basement of the Agency, pacing from between the lab Lilli was still in, and the lab Darien was in. All the thinking he had been doing was wearing him out, his eyes had bags under them, and he felt tired all over. Claire's footsteps reached his ears, and he jerked his head up to face her, noticing an IV bag filled with a red liquid.

"What's that stuff?"

"It's the R3 chemical that might save Lilli. I have to give it to her in an IV because she needs to have it constantly or the symbiotic will take over and turn into an organism that doesn't need someone else to survive."

Hobbes grimaced. "So you're saying that we might have a creature running around trying to EAT everyone if we can't save her??"

Claire frantically waved her hand for him to stop. "I'm not SURE, OK?"

Hobbes nodded and let her go past him to enter Lab 3.

Part 3:

Darien was dreaming again. The room he was in was long and had blinds lining the left side of it, a desk at the very end of it. It was the Official's office, but only he, Lilli, and Claire stood in it, an unidentifiable THING sitting in Charlie's desk, eyeing all three of them hungrily. Lilli was the first to step forward, eyes blazing and fists clenched. She inched toward the thing for what seemed to be an eternity when she stopped in front of it. Before even giving her the chance to speak, the thing lashed out and swallowed her whole, he and Claire screaming for it to stop. In a split second, the thing raised itself out of Charlie's chair, and scooted across the floor toward them, beady eyes glaring. Darien stood in front of Claire, planning to save her no matter what, but before anything could happen, he was jerked awake by the real Claire, back in the Lab.

"Wake up, sleepy head!" she chirped. Darien had the sudden urge to smack that little smile off her face but thought better of it.

"How's Lilli?" he struggled to get the words out, his throat too dry to even swallow. Claire forced a cup of water to his lips and he drank deeply, down to the very last drop.

"Doing better. The IV is working a bit, but she still needs to rest. I'm trying to find a way to kill the symbiotic without harming her."

Darien cleared his throat to get rid of the raspy feeling. "What about me?"

"Well," she reached across him to feel his forehead with the back of her hand, mentally gauging his temperature, "You're fever is down."

He cleared his throat again. Her hand hadn't moved still, and he was feeling a little odd about the whole thing. When he looked up, he found her staring into his eyes. The room got a little hot, and he cleared his throat a third time. Finally, she removed her hand, but still stared at him.

"What?" he croaked. Claire shook herself back to reality, apparently unaware that she had just spaced-out.

"Hmm? Well, the only thing wrong with you now is that you're slightly dehydrated." she looked a bit flustered, her cheeks pinking up.

This time it was Darien's turn to feel her forehead. "Claire, you've got a fever."

"I do not," she protested, flinging his hand away.

"Claire..."

"I'm FINE, Darien. Nothing at all is wrong with me," she closed her eyes and swayed a bit.

"Whoah! No you're not!" he caught her before she fell flat on her face and sat her down in the chair.

"I-I'm alright. I just need to...sit for a while."

Darien filled the same glass he had drank out of with water and handed it to her. She paused before she swallowed its contents, wondering why in the world SHE was exhibiting similar symptoms...she wasn't even involved in and experiment. "I think you're just stressed. Take a nap. Rest."

Claire nodded numbly, barely hearing his words as she drifted off...

*************************

Lilli sat silently in the Lab, eyes wandering around the room and landing on the figure of Bobby Hobbes standing just inside the doorway.

"Hey," he tried to smile, but it was still hard for him to see her in such a weak state.

"Hey," she paused, not knowing if she should tell him that she knew she'd die anyway even with the treatments. It was like she could actually feel a battle going on inside her. And the R3 wasn't winning.

"Soooo...how you holdin up?"

"Fine," she lied.

He tilted his head and squinted at her. "You're lying."

*Shoot! * "Yeah. I am."

"How are you REALLY?"

"Not too good. Bobby, I'm dying. I don't think I'll live to see next week, and I'm worried that I'm endangering everyone else with this symbiotic if I'm still living..."

He stopped her, lips pursed in a stern look of frustration. "You'll live. Whether you like it or NOT," he then spoke in a barely audible whisper. "I don't want to lose you..."

Lilli was at a loss for words, her tongue refusing to let her talk. Hobbes looked back up into her eyes, and she lost her calm appearance. Her hot tears flew from her already reddened eyes freely, and she buried her face into his chest. He held her like that for what seemed hours, shushing her and giving her false but hope filled promises that she'd get better. Soon she sobbed herself to sleep, and he quietly left the room, unfamiliar tears forming in his own eyes.

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