Hannah walked on one side of Flynn while Cheryl walked on the other, supporting him, as they made their way to the clinic. His face had gone ashen, his breathing laboured.

"You have to breathe, hun," Hannah encouraged. "You're going to faint on us before we get there."

"I'm dying, aren't I? I'm going to turn into him."

"You watch too many horror movies," Hannah said, patting him on the back. "Just breathe. You'll be fine."

It was decided that just the two of them would escort Flynn to the clinic. Dr. Booth was already there, preparing the room for him. He was going to do a thorough once over, blood work and everything, to make sure Flynn was okay. She hoped to God he was, because it was her fault that they were in this predicament.

Guilt washed over her. It was all her fault. She was the one that chose to remove the straps before they had him secure in the bubble. The last thing she expected was for him to wake up when they gave him enough drugs to keep him out for hours. But even then, what exactly caused him to flip the switch from docile to aggressive? They hadn't really done anything differently. There was no trigger that she could think of.

"Oh, I feel sick," Flynn said, tearing at his mask just as they entered the hallway by the clinic. "I need to get this mask off. I'm going to hurl."

"We're almost there," Cheryl said.

And no sooner had they got inside the clinic, he projectile vomited against the face shield of his helmet, dropping to his knees on the floor. Dr. Booth raced over, and they helped him into the isolation room. He'd already set up the large plastic tent around the poles on the ceiling.

"How bad's the bite? Has it been cleaned?" the doctor asked.

"It doesn't seem to be too bad. All we've done so far was flush it with alcohol," Hannah said, shutting the glass doors behind them.

"That stung like the dickens," Flynn grumbled, as he climbed onto the bed. The team helped him out of the hazmat suit and the doctor examined the bite.

"Have you figured out what that black stuff is?" Dr. Booth asked, pointing to the black ooze on Flynn's arm.

"It seems to be the boy's blood, but it has an element that we don't recognize."

Dr. Booth left the room and returned with two needles, and two small vials of medicine. "We'll be giving you a rabies shot and a tetanus shot."

"Do I really need a tetanus shot? I had one just before we came out here. I'd accidentally stepped on a nail," he said.

'Don't lie. You haven't had one," Cheryl admonished. "He needs both, doc."

Flynn sent an angry look her way because she knew he didn't like needles. And Hannah couldn't say she blamed him. He had, had allergic reactions to some of his vaccinations when he was a kid.

"Why don't you stay with him, Cheryl? I have to run back down to the lab and see how things are going. I'm also going to stop in to see Xavier and see if he's come up with anything."

When they left, Clint and Corey had stayed behind. Corey wanted to monitor the kid's behavior after everything that happened, and Clint was on duty until the evening. Fear was rampant in Flynn's eyes.

Hannah tried to hold herself together for his sake, but even she was worried. No one knew how the bite would affect him. They were dealing with the unknown, which was the reason for the suits, but sadly they hadn't done them any good and now Flynn was paying the price. It should have been only her in there and Corey. A third person wasn't absolutely necessary.

She squeezed Flynn's good arm, and then left her friends in the clinic while she made her way to the Security Office. They needed information and needed it now. If they couldn't figure out what they were dealing with, then Flynn was in danger. There was no way she was going to let anything happen to him on her watch. He'd become like a younger brother to her. She wanted to kick herself in the butt and knock herself into kingdom come for letting Flynn get so close to the boy.

Hannah stopped in front of the Security office door and knocked. A very disheveled Xavier answered her knock. His eyes were weary and his hair a mess, almost like he'd run his hand through it a hundred times.

Her stomach tightened. "No luck I take it?"

"I wish I could say yes, but there's been nothing far," he said, gesturing towards what looked like a super-computer on the wall. "I have the system scanning the deep web, but it may take a while. I've also put my feelers out to a few guys I know at the Pentagon. If it exists out there. I'll find it."

"Thank you. How's Clint? Is he okay?"

"Ya, he's fine, just a little shook up. How about you and your team?" he asked when an alarm sounded in the room. "One second." He clacked away on his keyboard momentarily before turning back to face her.

"Everything okay?" she asked, her eyes scanning over the monitors.

"Ya, just someone having trouble at a door. Did you guys have any trouble getting Flynn to the clinic? Is he okay?"

"He's freaking out as you can imagine, so Cheryl is staying with him for a little bit. I still can't wrap my head around it all. One minute the kid's trapped in ice, the next he's moving. Now, he's attacking my team. If I didn't know any better, I'd call him a zombie."

"Are you so certain he isn't?"

"I'm still leaning towards an alien of some sort, or an experiment gone wrong in the government, so they chose to bury him in the arctic."

"Now that's something that wouldn't surprise me. They have technology that only the highest clearance workers get to see. Every country out there is trying to get the jump on each other, whether it's via technological advances or biological."

"Always about conquering and besting each other, eh," Hannah said as she plopped onto the cushioned chair by the door. "What I don't get is how we still know next to nothing about him and we've had him here for days. I hate this."

When everything was going smoothly, she didn't mind being clueless, as they really had nothing to worry about, but now, without the necessary knowledge, they had no idea if Flynn was going to be okay.

"I really wish I had the answers you were lookin' for, but nada so far."

Hannah tapped the back of her head on the wall and closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that threatened to surface. Once again another person's life was on the line because of her.

"Hey, hey, none of that now you hear," he said, picking up a box of kleenex and handing it to her. "We'll figure it out. I won't stop until I find something. I promise."

"Thank you, Xavier."

"No need to thank me," he said, spinning his chair around once so he could quickly glance at the monitors before facing her again. "Hey, Hannah..."

"Hmm?" she said looking up at him.

"I'm sorry if I did anything to upset you when we were..." He stopped for a moment, his face turning red. "...you know."

"It wasn't you. It was me," upon saying those words she chuckled wryly. "How cliché of me, right?" Hannah knew those were the words that people said to let others down easy, but that wasn't what she was trying to do. It really was her.

"You weren't ready. I understand that."

"No. No. I was. I wanted to," she said, fumbling to find the right words to say. "It's that damn freckle."

"What about it? It's cute."

"So I've been told," she said bitterly. It was the professor's favorite thing about her whole body. He thought it brought him luck. He'd won enough poker games with her by his side.

"I'm sorry if what I said upset you. I'll ignore your freckle next time," he said, winking at her.

She knew he was just trying to make her laugh, but she should just come out and say it so he wouldn't think she was leading him on. "I'm not relationship material. The last guy messed me up pretty badly. I may never be able to have sex again."

"I'm a good listener if you need a sympathetic ear."

She almost sighed but swallowed it before she had a chance. He would definitely be a good listener, but how would that help? "Talking won't change anything."

"It might help sort out your emotions, just like when you go walking or running. It tends to unlock the side of the brain that ends up getting stuck in the trauma.

"Why can't you understand that nothing will ever sort my problems out? I'm permanently screwed up." Hannah squeezed her eyes closed, hoping it would hold back the flood that was pushing its way out.

"How do you mean?"

She opened her eyes again and found herself staring into his baby blues, and she couldn't help but wonder if his kids would share the same genetic mutation. And that thought made the tears flow. "I can't have kids."

"You're still young. Of course you will."

"I said I can't. Don't you get it?" Hannah lifted up her shirt and showed him the nasty scar. "I'm forever barren."

"Oh, hun," he said softly, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I deserved it. I deserve every bad thing that happens to me," she cried, burying her face in her hands. She deserved her dad abandoning her after they lost her mom. Now she might just lose her friend. It was her luck. Her crappy luck.

Xavier pulled her hands down, forcing her to look at him. "Hey, hey, these things happen. Of course, you don't deserve it. No one deserves the pain that you're going through."

"Yes, I do," she wailed.

"Okay, come on. You need a drink," he said, pulling her to a standing position. She stood willingly, her mind a jumbled mess.

"I can't drink. I'm work-ing," she hiccupped, sounding like a squeaky toy. "Great, now I sound like a mouse." Why couldn't something good happen for a change?

"How about a shower?" he asked. When her head snapped up, he added, "By yourself, I mean."

"That actually sounds wonderful." A hot shower would help cancel out the emotional pain that she felt and give her something else to focus on.

"It'll help you relax before going down to the lab. I'll walk you home."

"How chivalrous," she murmured. He probably thought that she'd invite him into the shower with her if he tagged along, but that was not going to happen. No way. No how. She didn't come out here to hook up and her earlier experience fortified that thought.

Xavier put his arm around her, and she leaned into the crook of his arm, resting her head on him, treasuring his strength as his arm tightened in a side hug. They walked in silence down the hall until she looked up at him. "Why are you helping me? I've done nothing but give you the runaround."

"Let's just say, I see you as a person worth caring for."

"You shouldn't."

"You act like you're this horrible person."

"I slept with a married man," she blurted. She couldn't hold it in any longer. It was like a bomb waiting to go off inside her. He needed to know what type of person he was helping. He should run far, far away from her.

Instead of looking disgusted, Xavier burst out laughing, and it left her momentarily stunned until he said, "Ya, right."

"How do you think I wound up with a hysterectomy? I slept with him, got pregnant. He asked me to abort the baby to save his marriage, and I did, then I was struck down by complications and voila, I'm serving a life sentence without the opportunity for parole."

When he heard that and saw the devastation in her eyes, he paused, his laughter halting. "Oh man, you're serious."

She nodded, her eyes misting again. Xavier swiped his card to enter the janitorial room beside them and pulled her inside, then once the door closed, he wrapped his arms around her. She broke down, all the agony she felt was barrelling through her. God, why couldn't the pain ever stop? She had thought coming up here would help her get away from it all. Away from the kids that played at the park across from her penthouse—a painful reminder of what would never be.

"How can you even stand to touch me?" she cried, her voice muffled by his shirt.

"Everyone has done something they regret," he said, brushing her hair back from her face and framing it with his hands. "The man was the fool, not you."

"Why aren't you asking if I knew he was married or not?"

"That's beside the point, isn't it? You are obviously traumatized by what happened. A truly bad person wouldn't care," he stated." How long ago did it happen?"

"Halfway through college."

"And you've carried the pain all this time?"

"I won't let myself forget. I don't deserve to."

"No matter what happened, you still deserve to be happy, sweetheart. Let me help you find that, even if it's just for a moment."

She wanted what he offered, but how could he not find her hideous? "You still want me?"

He grabbed her waist and showed her just how much he wanted her, his cock hard against her belly. "Very much so."

"You're crazy then."

"Maybe," he said, then lowered his lips to her neck, sucking away her heartache. "Just let yourself live in the moment. Not the past. Not the future. Just right now."

'Help me feel," she begged, bunching his shirt in her fists.

Locking the door, he then swept the contents of a slim wooden table onto the floor, pulled it away from the wall and placed her on top of it, taking up a position behind her. His breath was warm against her neck, sending a shiver through her system.

She undid her pants and went to pull them down along with her panties, but he grabbed them and held them in place. "It's my turn to make you come in yours."

"But—" she started to say, but he placed a finger on her lips.

"I'm the boss this time."