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Continuing to listen Hope can feel herself become more and more confused. She new Katie, and she new her Aunt but the history in the family she didnt really know and this whole thing just made it worse. But trying her best to peace everything together Hope just continues to listing knowing that Scott needed her close. If for anything just to know he wasn't alone.

Coming up behind Rick Misty reaches out to touch the paper in witch Scott had drawn along with the other strand of DNA they had. Her brain taking there mental pictures, and the wheels already working as she saw a few possibility.

"I still don't understand any of this that's going on over in Texas with Katie, Jay, and Jeff but I can already see some possibles and its more than what we did have."

Looking to Scott and giving a smile and a slight nod of her head Misty was sensear.

"Thank you Scott, that was a great job you did."

Never leaving his side, writing, crumpling, throughing away, uncrumpling, throwing away again time and time again Misty continued to work with Rick. Calling off her date with Carson once again Misty gives her many sorrys as she explains what she was working on was big and could very well save Jeff's life. There was no time to wast. Even as her own body wanted to rest Misty will it forward, this was her job, this was her life, this is what she loved to do. And so they continues to work as day turned to night, and night turned to day once again...

Keeping to herself and working quietly Ryan's mind never stoped working. Only it wasnt work, or her races she was thinking about. Leo was what clouded her mind, a way to say sorry, a way to let him know she did care even as she came up blank her mind just reverted back to the look on his face two days ago. The pain she had seen, the hurt she had caused.

Not even hearing Jed at first Ryan continues to work trying to losen a bolt on the engine. At the moment his voice breaks through the bolt gives and Ryan slips slicing her hand on another sharp peace of metal. Letting a curse slip from her lips she looks up at Jed not noticing the harsh tone in her voice as her hand throbbed.

"What...what I am trying to work?!"

Relizing after she said it how her voice must have sounded Ryan shook her head as she wrapped her rag around her bleeding hand. Coming around the car she stops next to Jed giving him an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry Jed, I am not sure when Darrel will be back. I am pretty sure before he left he had said late tonight or early tomorrow, but....dont hold me to that might get me into trouble."

Letting out a long sigh Ryan holds up her hand to indacate she was going to take care of it before blood got everywhere. Turning to head over to the bathroom Ryan stops as she spots the blond and sees Leo go to her.

Ryan can feel her heart stop, and than start again as her stomach churns and it feels like someone reached in twisting it all around. Watching them leave Ryan cant help as her eyes follow them.

Once they are out of the shop her eyes stay on the door for a long moment as she blinks away something wet that had formed in her eyes. Finally moving again Ryan makes her way to the bathroom to clean and wrap her hand. It only takes moment to finish but before she leaves Ryan just looks for a long moment in the mirror. Giving a shake of her head Ryan turns and heads out of the bathroom once more heading back to the car she had been working on.

Looking down at it for a long moment Ryan couldnt get her brain to focus on it again. It just wouldnt work. Shutting the hood with a bang Ryan grabs her jacket and looks over at the other guys.

"I have to get out of here. Mind covering for me if Darrel decieds to come back early?"

Katie sat quietly at the end of the table not really joining in much conversation. She had been so tired and really didnt want to leave Jeff but Angel was with him and she needed to get something to eat. So coming to the dinning hall seemed to be the best solution if only for a little while.

Now thought after starting to hear a little bit of Mick and Cindy's conversation she wondered if she really would of been better off not knowing. Jason had been out, and not once did he come to the ranch. He new Jeff was dying, and he new Katie was having a hard time with it but still he didnt come? Why?

Standing almost abruptly Katie starts to make her way to the door. She didnt know if she was mad, or just hurt Jason hadnt come to see her. Stoping by Cindy to give Kaylee a little pat Katie looks at Cindy trying to give a small smile.

"I'm happy you had a nice time while Jason was out. Must of been good to see him."

Lowing her eyes again Katie finishs making her way to the door before slipping through it.

Watching from his own seat down Dan had noticed Katie's reaction and over heard the conversation himself. A little confused he was still concerned for Katie.

Poping the last chip into his mouth Dan stands as Mick called him. Looking twords him he throws his stetson back on his head before taking the short strides to Mick's side.

"Yeah, yeah yeah I'm ready."

Just standing there for a moment looking twords the door Katie had gone out he couldnt help but get a strange vibe and feel bad for her again.

"Sooo..who's Jason and why does Katie look so upset over not seeing him?"

Making her way across the grass once more Katie takes in a deep breath and lets it out seeing her own breath in front of her as it was a little colder today. She told herself not to over react, and to stay clam but she still couldn't help but be upset. Finally pulling her phone out Katie dials his number at the office wondering if he was back there yet.

Just letting it ring Katie figures the voice mail in his office would pick up any moment as all unanswered calls were reverted there. But much to Katie's surprise on the ring before the voice mail would pick up she heard a very familiar voice and for a moment was a little surprised.

"Thank your for calling The Elite how can I help you?"

"Sapphire?"

"Yes?"

"Hey its Katie long time no talk I guess I wasnt exspecting you to answer the phone."

Katie tryed to sound cheery but new she was doing a fail job at it. It was just so hard.

"Oh Hey Hero, yeah the last few says Susanne has been sick, and everyone had been pretty busy, Jamie has been using a bunch of sick time too so I was here and free. Did you need to talk to Reese?"

Katie pases in the grass a nervous habbit she noticed she had picked up since coming here.

"No actually I was wanting to talk to Jason please."

Thinking a moment Sapphire cocks her not seeing Jason back yet.

"He's out to lunch right now, but he's usely back in about a half hour. Camryn has to be to work but than most days."

Taken back for a moment and feeling like she had reserved a punch to the gut Katie managed a whisper, maybe she had heard wrong.

"Cam...Camryn is back in town?"

"Oh yeah, she had been back for a while now. Jason spends most of his lunches with her I am suprised he never said anything."

"Must...oh slipped his mind. Can you send me to his voice mail please?"

"Yeah sure thing Katie. It was good talking to you. We miss you here, hope you come home soon."

Hearing a beep Katie knows Sapphire was patching her over to Jason's voicemail. As the silence lingers Katie has time to think and she dosent like what her own mind come up with. Maybe thats why he didnt tell her he was here. Maybe things were....

Getting cut off Jason's voice mail comes on the link and Katie waits. She didnt even know what she was going to say but now she had to say something.

"Hey J. I...well..."

Katie lets out a long sigh as she shakes her head and sinks down onto the wet grass a small tear rolling out of her eye. She thought she was getting better, she felt like she was gaining control and now it felt like things were crumbling down.

"Sapphire told me you were out to lunch with Camryn, so I figured I wouldn't bother you on your cell. I just wanted to tell you, you mom really appreciated you came to see her. She really missed you a lot. I hope next time I'll get to see you too."

Katie is silent for a moment as she can feel her emotions well even more, like a brick was on her chest.

"Anyways, have a good lunch and I'll talk to ou soon I guess. Take care J. I...love you."

Katie's last words were soft and trailed off as she hung up the phone. Just continuing to sit in the glass as the small tears rolled down her cheek.

No visit

Rick stares at the paper, lost in thought before finally paying attention to Hope's question. "No... but this might get us started in the right direction. If this is a formula to something they gave Jeff, we can work backward. But... why would that be in Jay's file? That still doesn't make complete sense."

He turns the paper, still studying it, making sure Misty can see it, too. "Wait... I bet this isn't specifically anything from Jay... I bet this is a diagram of dna that's been manipulated by their own formula... But how does that help us?"

Scott furrows his brow, still trying to think. Surely he hadn't discovered something just for it to mean nothing. "Why did I think of Jay's file?" he whispers. He couldn't remember how his mind had gotten there.

"Okay..." Rick holds up his hands. "Let's start over. The Agency thinks that Jay is the one who had their formula in him because they believe Katie is his daughter. Somehow, it wound up being Jeff instead though. So any documentation about that particular formula would be in Jay's file. Right?"

Scott almost cringes, trying to keep it all straight. Hope's hand on his shoulder was about the only thing keeping him afloat at the moment. "How does that help us?"

"I don't know." If it weren't so serious, the situation would almost seem comical. Rick paces, paper in hand. "Wait! I got it! ...No... no that wouldn't be it. I didn't think there was a connection between this thing with Jeff and the ability phenomenon." He continues to pace.

Scott's eyes widen. "You said this looks like dna. What about Jeff's? What does his look like?"

Rick goes to his own files and digs out a printout, laying both papers side by side on the counter. "Misty, take a look at this.... here's the Agency's... here's Jeff's... they almost match... but... Jeff's has been broken down... almost like it's deteriorated compared to this other diagram. But... why?"

"It's what they gave him," Scott concludes. "The Agency didn't know Jeff's own dna had been manipulated from their formula - they thought it was Jay. So whatever was leaking out of his capsule to begin with, started breaking this down... it was a direct attack on what had been fused into his own system."

"That's it!" Rick straightens quickly. "That's it! The Agency has a way to destroy their own monster! It's not a pill or a suppressant like they gave Katie... or like I made for her and Jason. They still didn't know that Jeff is Katie's father, so they tested their new and improved agent on him... he was just an easy target because he was the first person to carry the original formula in the first place - in the capsule with the chip. This time perhaps they were even trying to place a substance in his bloodstream that wouldn't harm him or be detected like a chip, but if they ever lost their data, they could just get a hold of some of his blood, break it down and find their formula again."

Scott's eyes widen. "And they didn't realize they were working on their own target."

"Exactly. The formula that's in Jeff now, the Agency knows can destroy the connection between Katie and Jason. Unfortunately, they didn't know that they were injecting someone who already had a piece of the puzzle in his dna, so what happens... it starts eating him alive. If it were Katie and Jason, it would remove the elements from them that give them abilities and they would be forever normal. But for Jeff - he contains only a few pieces, enough for the formula to recognize and attack, but without the rest of the agent in him, this formula would attack his own system, and in turn, make him sick."

"Until he dies."

Rick's excitement over the discovery is brought to a solemn halt. "Yes."

"What can we do though? If what's killing him is basically an anti-mutation, then how can you fight that?"

"We give him what Jason and Katie have and let the formula destroy it without feeding on his own healthy system."

The rest of the day, into the night and all through the next day, Rick doesn't leave the infirmary. With little sleep, he works alongside Misty, trying to recreate a formula to give Jeff to give the substance something else to feed off of. But time was running out, and Rick feared that they would not find the solution in time. And even if they did, it was no guarantee that Jeff would ever recover...


"Yo, Leo, where were you yesterday, man? Looked all over for ya!"

Leo doesn't look up from his engine, in order to answer Jed. "I was out."

"Out. You can be so cryptic sometimes, you know that?"

"Naw, that's Axel."

"Now that guy can creep me out," Miles chimes in. "Yesterday I turned around and there he was. 'Bout scared me out of my pants. I swear he's part Indian."

Jed smirks and clinks around in an engine. "Hey, Ryan, I was..." He looks up. "Ryan... Ryan?" Turning around, he finally sees her in the far corner, working quietly. It had been like that the last few days. Everyone in the shop knew about her and Leo, even though no one talked about it. Even so, it was strange to see Ryan off by herself. "You know when Darrel's supposed to get back from that convention?" he calls.

Leo is still working when the side door opens and a tall, attractive blonde sticks her head in. "Hello?"

He throws her a grin. "Hey, gorgeous. You ready to go to lunch?"

"Am I ever." She lets herself in, smiling at him, and tosses her hair over her shoulder. "Subs or pizza today?"

"Mmm..." Leo thinks as he wipes his hands on his rag, wandering closer and slipping an arm around her waist. He leans in so his face is about two inches from hers. "Subs. Then we can split one."

She giggles and shakes her head, pulling away walk back outside. "Alright. But no onions."

Leo gives a little flirtatious growl before tossing his rag aside and running after her. "Later guys, after lunch!"

"Yeah, yeah." Miles waves him out the door. "You better be back in an hour!"


“No, he left early this morning.” Cindy bounces Kaylee lightly on her knee, the child gurgling with pleasure.

“Oh, I see.” Mick takes a sip of water while listening at the lunch table. “He came when?”

“Mm, about three days ago.”

“Surprised he didn’t come out here to see some people.” Mick’s eyes move to the side, barely able to see Katie, who sat behind him a few feet in the corner, taking a break from watching over Jeff. He didn’t think she’d heard the conversation, and it was just as well. Cindy had commented that Jason had been visiting for a couple days, but the young man had not shown up at the ranch once. Apparently, he had already started back to Nevada.

Cindy frowns a little. “He was… distant. His leg was still bothering him from where he got shot. Said he mostly just wanted some quiet time to work on some music he’d been meaning to write. We had a good time though. He didn’t talk much about work, but that was just as well. He seemed like he needed the break.”

“I see.” Mick nods a little.

A smile spreads on Cindy’s face. She had missed her son, and had enjoyed the time, even if he’d seemed bothered by something he hadn’t wanted to discuss. “Kaylee was glad to see him, too. Saw him and she blurted out ‘Jah!”” Cindy chuckles. “Wes and I figured that meant ‘Jason.’”

Kaylee giggles and throws her arms around. “Jah!” Her eyes sparkle as she stares up at Mick, very proud of herself for reasons only she knows. Squealing, she bounces enough that she almost falls off of Cindy’s knee.

Mick laughs and shakes his head, reaching out to ruffle Kaylee’s soft hair. “I wish I had your energy.” Downing the rest of his drink, he stands up and stretches. Lunch was over and it was time to get back to work. “Dan? Dan! Where is that-” Looking a few seats down, he realizes Dan hasn’t been that far away. “Oh, that’s where you’ve been hiding,” he teases. “You ready to go pick up that hay?”