Clues

Sparky grabs a cup of coffee and wanders the mess hall, trying to focus his mind for the day. He meanders to the living room, taking a glance after realizing this morning that Mick hadn't been in bed all night. Seeing his brother and Rosetta on the couch, he lingers, leaning in the doorway, just watching them for a moment. Maybe a little bit of peace could be found amongst the turmoil.

"They look happy, don't they."

Sparky turns quickly at Mel's whisper, not having heard her behind him. "Yeah..."

A small smile creases Mel's lips as she sees Mick. "I'm glad he came back here...I was afraid at one point that he'd gone too far down to turn around."

Sparky takes a sip of his coffee and nods. "Me too."

Mel gives him a sidelong glance. "Ever wish you could find that happy spot like him?"

"You mean that he's found with Rosetta?"

"Yeah."

Sparky shrugs, still keeping his voice low so as not to wake anyone. "Not sure I was meant to...I suppose a part of me gave up on that a few years back."

Mel eyes him for a moment then turns to go, but not before laying a hand on his shoulder. "There's always tomorrow."

Sparky lifts an eyebrow as he watches her leave, his mind suddenly a thousand miles away from where it was.


As the scent of coffee drifts into the adjoining room, Mick opens one eye groggily, then the other, slowly coming out of a fog. As his surroundings come into focus, he realizes that Rosetta's face is inches from his, a smile prompting his own grin. He draws her a little closer to plant a kiss on her forehead. "One of these days I'll grow up enough to go to my own bed at night." He rolls his eyes then reaches his arms over his head to stretch as he yawns. Recalling the evening before, he knows he owes Rosetta a thanks, though understands that she wouldn't have stayed had she not wanted to. He lets is own look into her eyes convey his gratefulness. "What time is it anyway?"


Luke slips into the kitchen, a smile on his face as he creeps up behind Angel to grab her around the waist and lean down to give her cheek a kiss, his hair still wet from his shower. He rests his chin on her shoulder for a moment, looking at what she's cooking. "Mm-mmm. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you knew what you were doing."


Cindy leans over her stationery on the mess hall table, concentrating on the letters she's writing.


Clint trudges groggily to the mess hall, his hair still askew, having had only one thing on his mind since rolling out of bed: coffee. Passing Wendy's bunk, he reaches up to bang his palm on the window pane, letting out a holler. "Rise and shine!" He continues his saunter to the mess hall yawning big.



Laura follows Katie out the door, locking it behind her. Catching up as they get to the jeep, she slips in the backseat again.

Wyatt raises his eyebrows as Katie hands him the container of food. "What have we here?" He cracks the lid to look inside, a grin spreading across his face. "Now that's what I'd call a right good wakeup call." He smacks his lips, setting the container down on the floor by his seat. "I have a date with that as soon as I get sat down at my desk." He throws Katie a look that conveys he's pleasantly surprised by the breakfast. "Thank you."

As they pull away from the curb, Laura chuckles. "Now if I would have given you something, you would have asked me what favor I wanted."

Wyatt laughs, keeping his eyes on the road. "That's because I know you. This damsel on the other hand...." He gives Katie a sly sidelong glance. "I'm still figuring out. But between you and me, I think she's driven by purer motives than you."

Laura grimaces good-naturedly and whacks the back of the driver's seat. "Thanks a lot."

Wyatt just grins and steers his jeep into traffic.



Most everyone is already seated and eating breakfast by the time Jason enters the mess hall, met by Jade, who helps him with the door. "Hey there handsome." She smiles. "I was just ready to come see if you were joining us this morning."

Jason returns the smile, his eyes and mind clearer than the day before. "I am, but I appreciate knowing you'd find me if I died or something."

The mischief in his eye makes Jade laugh. "Come on. I saved a seat for you."

"Nope." Jason shakes his head. "I got something to share first." He holds up his papers. "This is gonna be of interest to everyone." He makes his way to the end of the room, tossing the papers onto the end of one of the tables. Glancing around, he clears his throat, trying to gain everyone's attention. "Hey, y'all... I got something I want to share with you... last night I found some interesting facts..." He glances at Austin and Con. "I haven't even told you two about it yet."

Austin and Con exchanges glances that convey both surprise at Jason's discovery and surprise that he's that confident this morning - something has changed.

Jason leans on his crutches, glancing down at his printouts. I ran across a name the other day that I finally remembered I'd seen while perusing some Agency files once. After some double checking, and comparing records, I wound up hacking into a system, getting in pretty much by luck. But once there I found some records of a department of the Agency, in which was a partial personnel file, including these." He points to his papers. "This is a file on a Dr. Kent Medridge. He's basically a psychopath. Apparently he's got quite the status at the Agency, having been with them since way back when. We can go over details later, but the bottom line is that y'all have always wondered why you were tortured in a sense, never left alone, even when you weren't trying to go up against the Agency."

Sparky and the others listen intently, confused, but wanting to know more. Jason goes on. "Really, it all boils down to lab rats. That's how you're viewed by Medridge. After the Agency sucked in your families, you received implants and the works, Medridge started his own program of evaluating human behavior under stress. He was allowed to use your families as a testing ground, basically." Jason shrugs. "It's hard to believe, but from what I've gained from these records is that he's been the one behind all the random attacks, kidnappings, you name it. The Agency itself would have been satisfied to leave everyone alone after the implants were in place, but they allowed Medridge to play. There's records on all of you that I couldn't get access to - I'm sure they list reactions, behaviors and results from stressful situations."
He scans the room grimly. "So you've got a double whammy here. Not only does the Agency want you because of the implants, but Medridge is going after you too. He's the type to put an ant under a magnifying glass just to see how long it takes to kill the thing as it burns. It's my theory that the Agency's only motives are the computer chips, and for all we know, they don't realize yet that we're on to them in that area. But Medridge basically has free rein, so he can torture while the Agency can still keep an eye on where everyone is."

Sparky shakes his head in disbelief. "What kind of a sick person would do that?"

"Medridge," Jason states flatly. "He needs to be locked up in a padded room somewhere."

"So what about the last eighteen years?"

"He was locked up," Jason explains, shifting to another printout. "He got in trouble for a wrong diagnosis on a patient a while back, blew the whole thing out of proportion and wound up behind bars. It just happened that he got out about the same time Mick started digging around and the case blew open again."