Scuffle

Hal follows Nate's gaze, also realizing now that it was indeed Carson in the cell with Alec. "Yes," he mutters. "I gotta get down there before he kills him. I don't know how he got in there. Come with me."

Sprinting down the hall and taking the steps two at a time, Hal makes it to the keypad, quickly punching in the numbers to unlock the door. "Carson!"

Carson had no intention of killing Alec, so the intrusion is a surprise that makes him loosen his grip.

Unfortunately, Alec takes advantage of the moment. In one swift movement, he's out from under Carson's grasp, trying to gain the upper hand, and going for the knife. For a second or two, Carson is vulnerable, and whirls around in an attempt to get his control back, while at the same time, trying to keep Hal out of it.

Hal stands back from the dangerous scuffle, unsure whether to interfere or not. His hand remains resting on his sidearm and he glance to Nate, not knowing what should be done.

Carson and Alec continue their battle, until suddenly Alec cries out in pain, doubling over and kneeling on the floor. Carson is breathing heavily, his knife still clutched in his hand, his glare aimed at his brother. A sickening "click" makes him look to the side at Hal who now had a gun drawn on him.

"Drop the knife," Hal orders. For all he knew, this was a personal fight between newfound brothers.

Carson shifts his gaze to Nate with a look that mixed confusion and irritation. "You really think I'm gonna kill him?" he asks, shaking his head. "Put the gun away, Hal. You should know me better than that."

"You already stabbed him once. Put the knife away first."

"I didn't stab him!"

"Then what is that?" Hal gestures to Alec's still-doubled-over form.

Carson rolls his eyes. Closing his knife and putting it back in his pocket, he leans over and grabs Alec's arm, yanking him to his feet.

Alec cries out, wincing with the pain as his hand is jerked forward. The knife had sliced his palm from one side to the other, and was now bleeding badly.

Hal rolls his eyes and uncocks his gun. "Way to go."

"It was his own fault," Carson remarks coldly. He looks to Nate again. "We know it was the Agency that took Katie. This piece of..." He cuts himself off by biting his tongue then restarting. "This guy doesn't know any more than that. But at least now we do know it was them."

Hal moves forward taking Alec's good arm and twisting it behind his back to push him out the door. "I got a loaded gun on your back, kid," he mutters. "One wrong move and I won't hesitate. Don't try anything."

Watching the two leave, Carson is still breathing a little heavily, and wipes some sweat from his brow. "Well... that was invigorating." For now, he would ignore the strange emotions he felt for just having met his brother. "Now I have to go see Jason." He knows that if he gave Nate too much time, he'd be asked how he felt about this, and he didn't want to talk about it right now. Moving past Nate, he wipes his hand on his jeans, cleaning off some of Alec's blood.

Hal marches Alec upstairs and into the infirmary. "Misty!" he calls gruffly. "Patch this guy up and do it quick. And in the meantime, get it in your head not to go around letting people in where they don't belong."

His stern look is thrown in Misty's direction, proving that he'd come to the only logical conclusion about how Carson had been able to get into the holding cell. "Reese would have your hide. No one was to have spoken to this prisoner."

Alec is shoved down into a chair, his arm finally released. He holds his bleeding hand tightly, but the pressure doesn't do a whole lot of good. The blood just drips on the floor, determined to flow from the wound that was deeper than first thought. Alec's eyes remain down. While it felt good to be out of the holding cell, he was in pain, and he knew that everyone here despised him. He wouldn't have thought that would bother him... but his human feelings were starting to return after being away from the Agency, and knowing that he was alone did nothing but depress him.


Carson ambles to Jason's office, tapping on the door. He's met with Trooper's growl. "Hey, pooch, settle down, bub."

Trooper eyes him skeptically, but remains lying on the floor, putting his head back down to signal that he'd let Carson in.

Jason looks up wearily. "Hey, Carson."

"Hey." Carson sits down in a spare chair. "How's it going?"

"Not good." Jason rubs his eyes. "Can't find any leads."

Carson sighs. "They'll come." He cocks his head. "What about you and Katie? What's up there?"

"I don't know."

"Well how are you..."

"I don't know!" Jason sighs, not having meant to snap. "We were cut off. I don't know how. Rick had been working on something though that he gave me, hence, why I'm not dead."

"And Katie?"

Jason is quiet for a moment. "Logic says she's still alive - otherwise they would have just left a body. The only thing I can think of is that they gave her something too. So... for now I'm going to believe she's still alive."

Carson nods, knowing that they all had to keep that outlook. "If you're the one with the whole emotion thing though why..." His confusion is evident.

Jason smirks. "You think I know?" He shakes his head. "It's like... I don't know. On a normal day, my emotions need somewhere to go. On a normal day, Katie needs to soak up my emotions. They're my poison and her antidote. Just... works that way."

"How do you guys talk?"

Jason shrugs. "She can use emotions to some extent, just not like me - usually she can just receive or pull out, not push out. So the whole communication thing... I don't know... it's just... there. I've wondered if some of it is actually her rejecting certain emotions from me, that in turn, bounce back to me as messages."

"So you think without having your extra emotions to work with, she wouldn't be able to form messages at all?"

"I guess... something like that. I don't know."

"And... so... without your plethora of emotions... she'd just have her own to work with, but that wouldn't be enough for any communication?" Carson just stares at Jason lamely. "And you think about this every time?"

Jason manages a wry grin. "No. It's as easy as talking." He looks down then back up to Carson. "Usually I'm a walking time bomb. Katie keeps me from blowing. She's usually an empty basin. I keep her filled up. We've both learned to do the opposite to some extent.... I can try to pull from her in an attempt to force her to communicate with me, and she can push back some emotions to communicate with me. But outside of just her and me... all I can do is fire emotions and all she can do is extract them."

"So she couldn't go blowing me up like you could."

Jason would have laughed had he not been so stressed. "She could just make you go mad, that's all."

"Oh well then..." Carson rolls his eyes. "Guess I'm safe."

"Yeah, next time you see her, be careful, 'cause she'll reach into your mind and start pulling emotions to the surface just to watch you squirm."

"At least she wouldn't be hurling a ball of anger in my direction."

Jason shakes his head. "That's my job." He looks down again. "At least it was."

"And it will be," Carson states flatly. "We're going to find her. I just confirmed that it was indeed the Agency."

"How?"

"Talked to our prisoner."

"And?"

"That's all he knows. We're going to have to find leads elsewhere."


Reese paces his office, his cell phone to his ear. It was odd that he would have a TJY related call on his cell phone and not through their own lines. But from the conversation it was obviously work that he was talking about. He didn't realize that his door was cracked open, allowing anyone passing to hear.

"No. You stick to the case.... No! You're there for a reason. We will handle this... we have enough men on it... look... I.... no! My decision is final! I know you want to help, but the best you can do is stay right where you are. You have to stay on route or you'll blow that whole thing. ...Trust us... we will bring her back and when we do, you'll be one of the first to know.... no... Sit tight, alright? We'll solve this."