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Need To Know-Part Two

by: Terissa Brozina

Disclaimer: The Invisible Man (2000 series) and its characters are copyrighted to the Sci-Fi channel and USA Cable Entertainment. All rights reserved.

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"I need help here!" Hobbes slid the van door open as the nurses and doctors swarmed around the van at the emergency enterance.

"What's your emergency Sir?" A young dark haired thin man was asking while Hobbes hoisted Darien's now motionless body out of the van.

"I have a gun shot victim here, shot in the back close range, maybe two feet about ten minutes ago!" The nurses and doctors releived Hobbes of Darien's weight and placed him on a gurney with a set IV, an oxygen mask covered his mouth. The doctors and nurses shouted back and forth to each other while Hobbes jogged along side his partner taking in his pale color and motionless form. "You're gonna be fine Fawkes. You hear me?"

"Are you family Sir.? Sir. you are going to have to wait here. Sir!" A young female nurse was leading him away from Darien who was being hustled into a trauma emergency room. "Sir? Are you family?" She asked again.

Hobbes ran his hands over his head and down his face before turning around to face the her. "Uh? What did you say?"

"I asked if you were family?"

"No, I'm his partner. Is he going to be ok?" He glanced back at the closed doors where Darien was.

"The doctor will be able to tell you when he is finished. Does your partner have any family or relatives that we can conntact? Anybody that you know of?"

"Yea, he has this Aunt. But I do not know her name or how to get a hold of her." He stared at the doors, stomach nauseated by the still frame pictures playing in his mind.

"You are going to have to wait in the waiting room Sir. This way." She led him out of the emergecy room to a long white hall way with some benches strung along the walls. It was right outside the trauma center. Hobbes took a seat, dangling his hands between his knees hunched over he waited.

"Mr. Hobbes."

The voice startled Hobbes and he jerked his head up already knowing well enough who was in front of him."Yes, Sir." He stood up.

"Hobbes, what in Gods name were you thinking!?" The Official bore a furrious tone and manner as he spoke. "Bringing Fawkes to a local hospital, you know what kind of consequences that could mean?"

Clarie was beside the Official along with Eberts and two government men dressed in black suit.

"What was I thinking? Here's what I was thinking fat man! I was thinking that the agency happened to be twenty more minutes away and I got a bleeding partner with a gun shot wound in the back of a rusted out hole you call a vehicle! That is what I was thinking! And you know what else I was thinking? I'll tell you!" I was thinking what the Hell do two men in black come up with shootin' monkey's, I'll tell you why, because it was need to know and we didn't need to know, but we did! You know why? Because if we had known what we needed to know when we needed to know it, then we would'nt be here!

So as I see it you need to back off!" Hobbes turned and walked down to the surgery door where he tried to peer in through the bodies of blue and white.

Clarie was a bit nervous at first to break the silence between. Never had the Official had nothing to say when Hobbes went off, but this time he only stood and took it all and it was no understatment to say that Hobbes gave it to him. "What does he mean?" Clarie turned from looking at Hobbes to the Official who still stood facing the place where Hobbes had currently removed himself. "I thought they were just after a few stolen monkeys to help out the Fish and Game."

The Official turned around to face her. "We were not sure as to whether it was just monkeys or illegal arms."

"You sent them on a mission without even giving them any such knowledge of what it 'could' be about?" Her eyes were ablaze with both shock amazement and pure disgust. "I know the agency is Need to Know, but this is ridiculous, They could have been killed!" Gesturing toward Hobbes who still stood infront of the emergency room doors.

Eberts had taken up a unsureing stance beside the Official thinking of someway to defend his motives but coming up with nothing he retreated to just standing as erect as humanly possible.

"Oh, calm down Eberts." Claire huffed sarcastically.

"We did not have enough solid evidence to prove anything was being done except smuggling. Need to Know Keeper, is Need to Know, and they did not. This is just an unfortunate incident." The Official remained calm as he spoke watching Claire's temperature rise in her face.

"Unfortunate! We don't even know if Darien is going to be alright!" Just then the doctor emerged from the emergency room, behind him a still form was being scurried down the hall. Hobbes tried to go after the gurney to see, but the doctor held him back. His face was not cover Bobby thought, that was a good sign, if he had been dead they would cover the face, wouldn't they?

"Doctor?" Claire was the first to speak being a type of doctor herself.

"Yea, Doc. How is he? Is he ok? Where are you taking him?" Hobbes sounded like a little child probing for answers about how his puppy dog when at the vet's. Claire held a hand to him to cease his bombarding of questions.

"Ok. Your friend has suffered major blood loss and massive trauma in his lower back. The bullet entered the middle back region, once inside it punctured the right lung and then exited through the upper right abdominal wall. We have repaired the punctured lung and we have tried to compensate for the blood loss but you have to realize that the amount of blood loss he experienced was exceedingly over the regular percentage of survival in his case survival rate is below thirty percent. I am sorry."

"Can we see him?" Hobbes popped in not even letting the doctors words sink in. He was wrong Hobbes knew it, Darien was too much of a obstinate jackass not to survive.

"Yes, but I have to inform you to be prepared for the appearance of things. You might also want to check out his donor information."

"Hey there Doc! He's not going to die, unless you guys sew a scalpel or sponge inside him. You got it?" Hobbes poked at the young doctors chest. "Now where can I see my partner?"

The doctor looked sympathetic at the words Hobbes had spouted off and seemed to consider them for a moment. "Well, if he has the will you describe he will survive." A weak smile. "This way."

They were led down the hall and then up two floors to a white washed room. Darien lay on a bed close to a large window about half way into the room.. The walls were spotless and the smell of sterilization was more nauseating than comforting. The doctor had not been kidding, Darien looked like crap. Claire looked sympathetic while standing in the door way beside the Official. Eberts on the edge of running away and the Official with no comprehensible look as he stared at the bed.

"We have to get back." The Official spoke up. "Hobbes I expect you in the morning for a complete debriefing. Understood?"

Hobbes had wandered over to the far side of Darien's bed and nodded in affirmation. The crowd exited leaving Hobbes alone. He sat down in the perverbial seat beside the recovery bed. "Awe, crap. Fawkes." Darien laid motionless on the bed, an oxygen tube for breathing and another inserted down his throat. An IV drip in his right hand and a blood dilution in the left. His torso was bare revealing the bandages around the bullets exit point, a light red was beginning to appear through the cotton and gauze. The blood drawn from his face left it pasty white creating the illusion of his matted hair being black. Hobbes pulled the thin layered sheet up further over Darien's chest tucking it slightly around him, his breaths were shallow and almost inaudible. Hobbes noticed some blood still on Darien's brow and reached for a tissue. "What is with these doctors can't even clean the guy up. I hate hospitals." He grumbled while rubbing away the small speck of blood and returning to his seat beside Fawkes with a loud sigh of both relief and defeat.

***

Bobby Hobbes reported in to the Official first thing in the morning. He had not wanted to leave Fawkes' side it seemed that he was abandoning his partner and that was a very uncomfortable feeling. The Official sat behind his desk, Eberts at his side, shuffling through a pile of papers.

"Mr. Hobbes." The Official called in a monotone voice. If he thought that Hobbes was going to apologize for is spout off he had another thing coming, only rarely did Bobby ever cross the line and not apologize but this was his partner who just so happened to be held up in the hospital because of this Agency.

"Sir."

"Hobbes, I know how you must feel but we need you to concern yourself with an assignment and not Fawkes' condition. But, we are taking the liberty of having him transported into lab four, where he can recover and the Keeper can watch him."

"How? He has not been discharged. Yet." Hobbes wondered how the Official had gotten any authority to move Fawkes from the hospital they surely would not let anyone just waltz in and say they could handle it and then leave with a critical patient.

"Eberts."

"Ah, Yes." Eberts clasped his hand in front of him. "The Agency has some pull with the medical department and we were able to discretely remove and replace to get Agent Fawkes back to the Agency."

"It is your job at the prior moment, Hobbes, to make sure that Fawkes gets back here at once. We do not know if the hospital staff has seen anything or if Fawkes could unconsciously secrete the quicksilver. We best take high precautions in this case." He closed a manila folder and looked up at Hobbes who was intently listening. "When you return I will have a new assignment ready for your care."

"Understood. That all?"

"That is all, dismissed."

Hobbes was met by two suits outside the Officials office along with Claire to go and retrieve Darien.

***

Moments later out side San Diego Memorial hospital

"Yes, we are here to transport a one Darien Fawkes. I think these are the documents you will be needing." The Keeper handed a young women at the front desk the manila folder she had been carrying with her. The young women thumbed through her folders and then over to her keyboard to search.

"I am sorry madam, but I do not have anyone listed by that name." Hobbes peered over the counter trying to see her screen. She leaned back in her seat while moving the monitor away from his line of vision. Claire found it less than amusing.

"I am sure if you look again. Maybe they misspelled his name? Or even have him stated differently." Claire pushed the folder back at the girl.

The young women typed again and shook her head. "I am truly sorry, but I have no files on a Darien Fawkes, or Dahran, or even just on Fox."

Hobbes leaned back away from the desk. "What are you trying to say? I know he's here I waited a whole freakin' day by his bed. he's got tubes and wires and machines and all that other crap hanging off him right now. Agh. Forget this." Hobbes passed the front desk and made his way to the room Fawkes had been in just a few hours ago. Claire and the suits followed without so much a hint of restraint from the young women who was more than content they had left her. Hobbes swung open the door to room 57, Fawkes' room. He was talking to Claire, "Not like he could just check himself out, heck he could not even peel his butt out of b..." He stopped mid sentence when the open room revealed a clean bed and no Fawkes.