2008-01-03: Finale/Prelude

Starring:

Mariska_icon.gif Charlotte_icon.gif Nathan_icon.gif Niki_icon.gif

Summary: Thanks to the fast-acting teleportation of Mariska and Charlotte, Nathan and Niki are whisked away to safety in one piece. …for a few seconds, anyway.

Date It Happened: January 3rd, 2008

Finale/Prelude


Pinehearst Research

Fort Lee, NJ

For the viewers at home, this is probably sorting out into something of a compare and contrast analyse between teleporter technique. In so far as sheer speed is concerned, Mariska seems to get it done faster. One second she's in some random building in the heart of New York City — the next, she's whip-cracking her way into what appears to be a hospital ward somewhere in New Jersey. How's that for service?

However, in so far as versatility and finesse, Charlotte has the edge. Her arrive is only a moment or two behind her fellow (rival?) relocation expert.

Mariska, while strong, is only capable of keeping Nathan's agonizingly cumbersome weight supported for so long before she's forced to try and prop herself up against something until the professional medical personnel sure to be milling about nearby rush to their aid. She isn't about to lay a man who's been shot in the back down on a bed… and so, she holds him in her arms (oh hi!) and braces herself against the wall.

Somewhere between the warehouse and Pinehearst's medical facility, Charlotte has changed positions. How does she do it? Chock it up to that finess, I suppose. She manages to teleport Niki into a chair, so she doesn't have to hold the woman up. As the two come into view, their particles coming together in a second or two, and Charlotte is standing over the chair, looking into Niki's eyes. She stands and turns, seeing her fellow Pinehearst lassie squished between a politician and a wall. "Oh good gracious!" She says, moving quickly to reach for Nathan and try to take some weight off the other girl.

Nathan's fingers dig into Mariska's arms… only after they've teleported. Fast like lightning, the sounds of gunfire cut out into silence, and he relaxes as she moves them in her jarring way through to a medical ward. There's a streak of red across his arm, a tear in his shirt, but it's a graze, barely needs stitches. Apparently spared the gunfire after all, he's still clinging to her as if his legs don't work the way they should. Uncaring of where they are and only glad they are away, Nathan shuts his eyes as Mariska braces them both against the wall. "Thank you," is murmured. He tips his head enough to see Charlotte moving to help him and his apparent saviour and, obligingly, he goes to reach for her help. No questions, maybe later. "Thank you. I need to lie down— "

And then something happens. So soon? Apparently. A sound - a rip of fabric— no, a rip of flesh, a splatter of red and the shock of pain crosses Nathan's features. His hands loosen, but he doesn't fall. Not yet. Just looks down. His midsection is suddenly red with fresh blood, the rich colour blossoming and staining fabric, shirt intact but seeming to hide something of like gunshot wound. But it's not. They escaped the firefight barely scathed. This is different. "Need to lie down," he repeats, as he body begins to collapse and do exactly that.

The woman who Charlotte whisked away from God knows where can do nothing but drop into the chair. Niki, unscathed save for a smattering of puncture wounds from different varieties of injections, fights to keep her eyes open in order to grasp some understanding of where they are. Never mind how they got there. Seconds after being sat down by the brunette whose eyes she stares quite blankly into for the time they're close-by, she starts to slide down, unable to control her over-relaxed muscles. The sudden explosion… inside… of Nathan doesn't go unnoticed. "You're…" she fights to hold her head up and move her lips. "You're bleeding…"

She passes out.

There are a number of professionals ready to take care of their guests in this hospital ward. Or … is it a hospital ward? If so, it's a small one. A private clinic? It's very well-decorated, walls, floors, even ceilings crafted with striking modern design. It lacks the distinct brightness and stark sterility of a regular hospital — not that Niki or Nathan are likely to pay any amount of attention to the decor of their sudden new habitat. The architect will forgive them this time.

The wee gutbuster bomb that suddenly erupts in Nathan's belly makes Mariska flinch, not only because of the unexpected and unusual noise but because she's so close to him at the moment of detonation that she feels it. She's uninjured, of course, but that makes little difference. As the Senator is pried somewhat unwillingly from the false safety of her arms, she worries after him with a shirt smeared in someone else's blood. She looks a mess but, really, she's A-OK. Her husband will be so relieved — or would, if he were to ever know.

Of course the doctors are on Nathan like white on rice. Charlotte missed the explosion, but she does see the blood, and feel it on her own shirt as well. "Oh good gracious." She murmurs, her face going pale. She doesn't look like she likes blood. But the doctors grab him and move him to a table, while they do the same to Niki and start doing…you know. Doctor things. "That's…that's a lot of blood." She murmurs, still pale.

Caught by doctors before he can fully hit the floor, Nathan isn't quite conscious when they move him off into what may as well be a hospital ward (or good enough), loose clasp on Mariska finally dislodged. Whoever implanted whatever that was didn't count on him being surrounded by medical professionals at the time.

If anyone were to ask after the very faint scars on his face from some sort of trauma years and years ago, they might then assume, once they get an answer, that Nathan has seen injuries like this before. Something like it, anyway. Can't say he ever thought it'd happen to him, of course. Who ever does?

What happens next escapes his awareness. The internal damage is messy, the external not much better. The doctors will have some overtime on their hands.

Niki seems to be spared Nathan's fate — it's been a few minutes since she lost consciousness, and nothing inside her has yet exploded. Not that she'd know if it did. She's a life-sized ragdoll in the hands of the lab-coated professionals who relieve her from Charlotte and Mariska and take her, feet dragging slightly, onto a rather elaborate stretcher to disappear into one of the nearby medical rooms. She doesn't need the immediate care Nathan needs; just rest, water, food, and maybe answers.

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