"She took a turn for the worst overnight. There was nothing they could do," Director Adams told her, his voice rough and worn. Tears weaving their way through the vocera.

Hannah flinched at the news. "Oh no, I'm so sorry." It must have happened after they'd moved Flynn back to the clinic. He had needed a respirator later that same night while she was at the lab.

"Dr Booth is in the lab now trying to determine cause of death. He's not sure if it was the wound or whatever is infecting those who were bit." All injured parties were now in the clinic, and they all followed the same pattern as Flynn. Her chest ached. If she didn't find an answer soon, they could lose each and every one of them.

Hannah stood up from her desk and wandered over to the observation window. Her back was aching from sitting for so long, wheeling between the different science tables in the lab.

"Have you come up with anything yet?" Director Adams asked.

"Aside from the element being found in all three of their blood, nothing so far. It's not reacting in a good or bad way to any of the antibiotics I've tried so far. So I still have no clue what we're dealing with. Any news on the CDC?"

"Unfortunately we're stuck in a wicked storm, there's nothing they can do for us yet."

"And I take it we're not close to any type of a military base with their own scientists that can just drive here?

"Negative."

"Okay, well I need you to spare me every single scientist we have. I need more people working on this with me."

"Now, that I can do. We'll dedicate your unit along with the one across from you to solving this problem."

Hannah wasn't so certain that it was solvable, but she was certainly going to try. They were dealing with something unlike anything she'd ever seen and nothing that was apparently current in their culture. Had they frozen the boy, hoping to eventually solve the problem? Had the illness destroyed his people? There were far too many mysteries and no answers.

"Thanks, Director. Have them report to my office as soon as they arrive."

"Will do."

Hannah rested her arms on the observation windowsill and watched him. He'd taken to just sitting on the floor, No activity. Nothing. She needed to figure out how he responded to them, whether it was by vibration alone or by scent too.

She called Xavier. "I need a mouse."

"Odd request. Why?"

"I need to test a theory." It's not one that would help her figure out what the heck was going on, but it would help determine what his trigger was. Maybe if they could determine a trigger, then maybe they could stop him from attacking, so that they could study him close up again.

It took Xavier about 15 minutes, but he arrived with a mouse in a cage. "I need to get this into that room."

"If we open the door, he'll charge you."

"Can we put the mouse in the decontamination chamber and then close this door and remotely open the one leading into him?"

"We can unlock it, but can't open it. Only standing in front of the censor will do that, but then you have a few second delay before the door closes again."

"Shoot! There goes that idea," Hannah groaned, throwing her hands up in the air. She had finally thought she found a way to test the boy more, but nope. Rubbing her chin, she stared at Josh who was sitting on the floor in the back of the isolation room. He'd gone back to a somewhat comatose state. It seemed when there was no stimuli, he reverted back to it.

"What are you trying to figure out?"

"I want to find his trigger. We've determined that he can't see or hear, so that leaves us with touch, vibrations, and scent. A mouse will give off enough of a scent for him to detect, but won't have the same vibration that a human would."

"For someone who can't see he moves pretty effectively to attack. He seems to know where everyone is."

"Well, if someone loses one of their senses, their brain rewires itself and makes the remaining senses more effective. Consider someone who's blind. They can tell who walks in the room simply by their smell and the way they move."

"I guess I haven't really paid attention to that sort of stuff."

Hannah looked up at him. "Most of us don't. We take what we have for granted." She'd been guilty of that herself. But in her case it wasn't her senses that were messed up, it was her body in general.

"Is there any way to de-scent you?" He laughed. "I'm not even sure how to phrase that."

Walking over to the closet where the hazmat suits are stored, she grabbed one and then laid it on the empty table. "If I keep my distance, this may be enough, especially if I spray on a strong smelling cleaner or something."

"It's too bad you can't just stand downwind."

"Ya, but this should work. I just have to be sure I'm far enough away, like stay in the decontamination chamber when I release the mouse into the room," she said, reaching down to grab some cleaner from the cupboard under the desk.

"What if it doesn't work? I don't want you getting in harm's way. You may be the only doctor in this hell hole that can solve this thing." Xavier reminded her. "I'll do it."

Hannah shook her head. "But I can't ask you to do that. You have a crew to watch over. It's too risky." He meant too much to the station, to Director Adams. She...she was just temporary.

"Precisely why it has to be me. I'm the boss in risky circumstances, not you. If something happened to you, then what would happen to solving this dilemma?"

Xavier was right. She knew he was, but she'd rather risk herself than him, so she shook her head again. He came over and took her in his arms. "Woman, don't argue with me or I'll—"

"Woman?" she interrupted.

"Ya, woman!"

"That's a little outdated don't you think?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well I have part A that fit into your part B, so if the shoe fits," he responded, with a cute grin.

Hannah stuck her tongue out at him, but before she could get it back in her mouth, he was kissing her and pulling her into the corner office. She hadn't had the chance to prepare herself for his touch and she found herself melting into his arms as his hands roamed over her back. With everything that was going on, she was grateful for this temporary distraction. He had the power to bring that spark alive inside her, the one that she thought had been snuffed out a long time ago. She desperately wanted to stay in his arms, but knew that she had a job to do. However, before she had the chance to pull away first, he did.

"I'm sorry," were the first words out of his lips as he stepped back.

"Why do you do that?" she asked, tilting her head.

He blinked a few times, like he couldn't understand her. "What?"

"Apologize?"

Xavier gripped the back of his neck, taking another step backwards, as though the distance would help him speak. What she wouldn't give to be able to read a guy's mind.

"Well?" she asked again.

"For overstepping my professional boundaries," he said, but she knew that was a lie.

"That ship already sailed, darling, when you took me from behind in the janitor room," she said, backing him up towards the empty wall in the office. He tried to scoot around her, but she blocked his exit with her body and a hand up against the wall. "So that's not it."

Xavier shrugged, obviously not interested in sharing, but she wasn't going to let him play this tug and pull game. Kiss her or don't kiss her, she didn't care; it was the apologizing afterwards that was driving her up the wall. "I shared my sordid details," she reminded him, playing with a loose strand of his hair at the nape of his neck. If she could share her worst moment with him, he could share his. No matter how embarrassing it was, it couldn't be worse than hers.

"You aren't going to let this go, are you?" he asked, sighing. "Okay, fine. Her name was Catherine. We were supposed to be married, but she left me standing at the altar, bled me dry and then went on the honeymoon that was meant for us with my best friend. I had to sell my dad's watch that was passed down to me just to survive."

"Harsh."

"It was all I had left of my dad," he said bitterly.

Hannah threw her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. "That's not true. You are what's left of your dad, along with the memories you have of him. Those are things no one can take away."

"It's not the same," he said, moving away from her and she let him this time. She knew all about having a rough life, and how you needed space occasionally.

"How long ago did you lose him?"

"When I was fifteen."

"That's a tough age to lose a parent," she said softly. "May I ask what happened?"

That's when the blinds came down, and he refused to let her in. "We should really do this thing," he said, pointing to the mouse in the cage outside the office. "Time is of the essence is it not?"

She held up a finger towards him. "We'll talk later."

He gave her a non-humorous half-chuckle, letting her know that he had no intention of discussing it. "Let's just deal with the boy."

From the look in his eyes, she knew that he still hadn't recovered from the pain he'd experienced, which explained the reason for why he was all the way out here in the middle of nowhere. The quiet seclusion from the rest of the world, away from the pity glances from those who knew him. Anyone who knew the truth about her never spared pity glances. They just said she got what was coming to her.

They stepped out of her office and returned their attention to Josh. Xavier climbed into the suit and Hannah doused it with cleaning supplies. She scrunched her nose and wished she had a clothespin to block out the smell.

"You're good to go," she said. "So all you're going to do is go into the decontamination chamber, open the inner door and quickly release the mouse before the door closes. Once the room is secure, then we can watch the action."

Xavier called Kevin, "Please resume normal door operations in room 218. We're performing a test."

"Ten-four."

He glanced at Hannah, then reached down and picked up the cage, taking it with him into the small chamber. The doors closed behind him, and she crossed her fingers, hoping he wouldn't get hurt. "If anything happens, do not—I repeat—do not open this door. Do you understand me?" he asked.

That would be the hard part because it was in her nature to reach out and help, no matter how detrimental it was to her health. It's what caused her to reach out to her professor. He'd had a loss in the family and she found him tearful later after class.

Xavier crouched down by the end of the door on the right side to hide behind it and gave her a thumbs up sign. Her anxiety was bouncing around like a football in her stomach. She wanted to tell him to stop, to come back. That they could do this another way, but they didn't have time to find another way.

He counted down on his fingers and she watched with eyes wide and hands in front of her lips. She looked like she was praying to god to save his ass. Swiping his card, Xavier tripped the sensor so the door would open. Reaching down, he opened the cage door and the mouse zipped out. He held his breath, keeping his eyes on the boy. That was the one lesson they taught you in self-defence, never take your eyes off your opponent. One hand was on his taser, hoping he wouldn't have to use it.

The mouse raced across the open floor, trying to find a safe haven to hide under. The boy began to stir when the mouse was ten feet away from him, then in a flash, he went after the mouse like a predator. Xavier froze as the door hadn't yet closed, but he didn't even try to come his way. Hannah's plan worked, either that or the mouse was more interesting than him. Hardly a better meal though.

When the door closed, Xavier rejoined Hannah. She threw her arms around him, letting out a shaky breath. "I had no idea what was going to happen," she said honestly.

He hugged her back, wanting to kiss her but was unable to with the mask on. It was almost like he couldn't help himself. She felt so good in his arms that it was almost inevitable. Their attention quickly turned back to the boy who was still chasing the mouse. It was giving the kid a good run for his money. Xavier hadn't realized how fast they could move until now.

The mouse, unlike the boy, eventually tired and the boy snagged him in his hands and promptly bit the head off the mouse, blood spurting out the neck. Hannah spun around quickly and raced towards the garbage can in the corner, and puked.

"I take it you don't watch horror movies much?" he commented.

"Sometimes," she gagged, her shoulders heaving with each retch.

"You're a doctor, how could that make you sick? Didn't you dissect things in school?"

She glared at him. "Those things weren't alive, so blood didn't spurt."

"I take it you've never dissected a cow's eye?" he said, pretending like something was spurting up into the eye.

"Okay, let's stop talking about this before I hurl again," she said, looking a little green around the gills.

He chuckled. "And here I thought doctor's could handle the gory details." Hannah was a strange one, unlike any other he'd ever met before. "So what did we learn with the science experiment?"

"He definitely responds to smells of living things. Not that that information helps us much right now," she said, walking over to the desk she was working at earlier with their blood samples.

'What now?"

She was just about to answer him when a call came through from Cheryl. "Hey hun what's up?" Hannah answered.

"He's gone," Cheryl cried.

Hannah's heart stopped. She couldn't mean what it sounded like. "Gone? What do you mean gone?"

"He-he—oh god," her friend wailed, seemingly unable to speak.

Hannah shot a look his way and said, "I have to get up to the clinic." This couldn't be happening. Cheryl had to mean that he left the clinic and was wandering somewhere in the station.

"I'll go with you. Clint can watch him for us." Xavier gestured towards the door, giving his fellow guard a head nod. He'd been sitting quietly at the back doing his thing.

"What happened to Mark?" she asked as they left the lab.

"After what happened, I decided he wasn't suitable for the position. He can just stay down in stores and cause them grief instead."

"Have you seen him since that night?" she asked, as they moved quickly down the hall and into the elevator.

"Nope, and I don't care to." The guy didn't seem to care that he endangered the entire station, nor did he care that people were hurt. He hasn't even gone up to visit them at the clinic. That made him a class A asshole in Xavier's mind. Last he heard, the guy hadn't even checked in with the Director to give his statement. But he wasn't going to go down and make him do it, his bosses could do that.

When they arrived at the office, they found Cheryl sitting out in the hallway, her knees pulled up to her chest with her face buried between them, crying.

Hannah kneeled down, placing her hands on Cheryl's knee. "Hun?"

Her friend looked up at her, tears flowing unceasingly. "They couldn't save him. He just...he just..." Cheryl wailed again, unable to say anything else.

"Can you see what's going on?" Hannah asked Xavier. "I'll stay with her."

Xavier went inside and found it to be a gongshow. Doctors and nurses were rushing this way and that tending to the patients, machines beeping up the ying-yang. All the bitten patients looked like Flynn had the day before.

He grabbed a nurse's arm when she rushed by. "Talk to me."