Dosage

Clint trudges to the small building, ignoring the people around him. Letting himself in, he slips by Angel and his mother unnoticed as they were talking and looking after Chase in the corner. Quietly he enters the back room, shutting the door so the click wouldn't easily be heard.

Turning around, he looks at Wendy for a moment, just watching. His hand hurt... but that was the lesser of his pain.

His gaze falls to the floor as the walks slowly to the bed. Sitting down on the other side, his back is to her as he takes off his shoes. Then lying back, he rolls over, easing his arm around Wendy and nuzzling his face in close to hers. Her scent was so familiar... so soothing. He closes his eyes, giving her a little squeeze.


Bree's quip about his pager bring JT's laughter out. "Yeah okay... I do love my job. They've just been running me ragged up there."

Settling back, he points to her files. "Alright, come on. Let's get busy. I want pizza but we can't get it until we're done here."

He claps his hands twice to speed things up, then stops as his train of thought shifts. "Oh yeah, and I wanted to tell you that I finally got the painting done in that spare room down the hall. So if you ever want to crash here between shifts or at night or whatever, you're welcome to it."


Scott's smile spreads. "You'll have to pick me up again. But yeah... I need to get out of the house for a while anyway."


"I won't give up." Jeff tries to reassure Katie. "But you know life doesn't stop for anybody. You gotta make it through no matter what happens."

As he's talking, he looks up, catching Rick's eye. Something wasn't good. He swallows hard. "I'll see you soon, okay? Call any time... tell Rosetta hi for me."

Finishing up the conversation, he finally hangs up and wanders over to where Rick is sitting at the lab table. "What is it?"

"I'm not sure." Rick shakes his head slowly. "See, there was some kind of tiny capsule on the edge of that chip that was in you. There was a very minor crack in it - one that no one ever would have noticed without a microscope. I think there was something inside it. Perhaps some kind of formula. Something that was there for safe keeping. I don't think it was the metal that your body was reacting to before."

Jeff sinks down into a chair, listening intently. "You mean... you think something leaked out of the capsule?"

"That's my best guess. There are such small traces of anything left, I'm having a hard time reproducing it to figure out what it was. It could have been a form of the Agency poison. It could have been something else. My guess would be that it wasn't supposed to leak... that if the Agency needed whatever it was back, that they could have killed you and taken the chip and capsule back."

"But... it's so small. How could anything have affected me?"

"Again it's just as guess, but I think you were probably highly allergic to something in the formula. And if it was a condensed dose, even with something so small and so gradual - we're talking years - your body would have continually tried to get rid of it."

Jeff swallows hard. "Well... why then was I better after Angel removed the chip?"

"This is my theory..." Rick holds up his hand lamely, indicating that he really couldn't prove any of this, but it was his best guess. "From the study on the small traces of this...formula, I think that it's self-producing. In other words, it multiplies... grows. Like a bacteria. You were receiving a constant dosage of this, while medications were constantly flushing it out of your system. In and out, in and out. It was a constant battle, but nothing was destroying the actual source. When the chip went out, the medications took care of the rest."

Jeff tries to process everything, quiet for a moment. "But... what does this have to do with now?"

"You have the same symptoms, yes?

Jeff nods.

"Then I'm assuming the cause is similar."

"But... I don't have a chip in me now."

Rick purses his lips grimly. "You don't have any memory of what happened with the Agency?"

"No."

Rick reaches out and turns Jeff's arm slightly. "You have traces here of where someone may have given you shots."

"The formula?"

"Well..." Rick hesitates to give an answer. "I think... it's the mutation of the formula... I think it's more advanced, and... I think they injected it directly into your bloodstream."

Jeff hates to ask more questions, but he knows he has to. "So..."

Rick shakes his head slowly. "I don't know. But the medications I'm giving you aren't getting rid of it. I think whatever this is, is much more advanced than that original formula. It doesn't need a stable source to grow from, like the capsule before... it simply multiplies on its own, throughout your bloodstream."

"Like a poison."

"To you, it is, yes. Others, it might not harm at all."

"So... if the medications aren't getting rid of it..."

"If I keep increasing your dosage, the medications are going to kill you."

"But if you don't?"

Rick looks Jeff in the eye, feeling his own heart sinking. "I'm sorry."

Jeff looks down and his shoulders drop. "Don't be... you've done all you can and I appreciate it. Better to know anyway... at least I know what I'm up against."