Compassion

A crooked grin emerges at Scarlet's observation and Eli keeps writing before looking up at her. "You caught me," he admits. "I only give that question to hot chicks with motorcycles."

Cocking his head a little, a sly look is in his eye as he winks at her. Handing her a shop business card, he's written down the day next week and the time to bring her bike in. "I'll have to get that paint you want but it should be in by then. If there's any delay, I'll call and let you know."

He leans his hands down on the desk, coming a little closer to the counter. "As for the bar and grill... how about tonight at eight?"


Though lucid again, Scott's mind had been stretched to its limit so his understanding of what had just happened would not come until tomorrow after he had had a chance to recover. For now, he was too tired and weak to try and figure it out.

It takes him a while to gain enough energy to move again, and when he does, it's only enough to get him to his bed where he curls up again. He wouldn't move again that night, too exhausted for anything. His eyes open and close, then open again as he tries to stay awake, knowing Hope was still there.


Out in the hall, Reese and Alec had finally quit pacing and had settled down on the floor to wait, either for Hope to emerge or for her to call one of them.

Reese rubs his shoulder where he'd hit it on the dresser, knowing he'd have a bruise soon. Alec looks at him and lifts an eyebrow. "Hurt?"

"Nah... just a little." Reese looks back at him inquisitively. Up until this point, they hadn't spoken. "Alec... how did you know what to do? To help Scott, I mean."

"Well I told you I knew about the assimilation program."

"Yeah but... I didn't know you were trained in it that much. I mean, it looked like you had he methods there down pat. Do they teach that to everyone?"

"No..." Alec shakes his head, his eyes starting to roam. "It's just... well it's just logic, ya know? I mean... made sense what needed to happen, right?"

"I guess so. How many times have you had to do this before?"

Alec purses his lips, an answer failing him.

Reese waits, getting a funny feeling. "You had... done this before, right?"

Alec gives him a sidelong glance, then looks away again. "Well, it's... kinda common sense to-"

"You never have, have you?" It was more of a statement than a questions. Reese saw it written all over Alec's face.

Alec shrugs lamely. "No."

"How did you know it would work then?"

Alec bites his lip.

Reese's eyes widen. "You didn't, did you? You had no idea if that was going to work or not, did you?"

Eventually, Alec shakes his head slowly. "I... knew the theory of it... but..."

"Then why on earth did you do this? If you had no idea if this would work, let alone know how to do it, why on earth did you come?"

Alec finally turns his head, resting it against the wall. "I don't know. I guess... It was the only chance Scott had and..." In reality, it was because he had felt something deep down that he hadn't in years. It was another sensation that had been awakened and he hadn't been able to ignore it this time. Not after the things he'd learned from spending time with Ryan. "I guess... it didn't feel fair to see Hope without any hope of her own. So..."

"You gave her some."

Alec looks down at the floor again and shrugs once more.

For the first time, Reese felt a different kind of compassion towards Alec. He'd never wanted to send the young man to prison or see him get the death penalty. He'd never wanted to torture him or even be as strict as he had, though Alec had forced his hand in much of that. Reese had always felt some amount of compassion - he just did for people who had been taken in by the Agency. But this... this was something different. All of a sudden, for the first time, he saw that Alec had a heart. It had been the soul Reese had wanted to save, but now he was catching glimpse of a heart... a heart that had been so cold and so hard... but now was finally beginning to beat again. "Thank you, Alec."

Alec glances up quickly, not having expected a thanks from Reese. "Um. Sure." He thinks a moment, then looks a little more grim. "I don't know if this is permanent or not. I do know that you need to help Scott recover more urgently now so this doesn't happen again." He pauses. "Scott's the only one I know of that has actually pulled through at all. Every case I know about, once the host was out of control, that was it. There was no coming back and they just got set aside and forgotten about or killed because they were useless after that."

"Why do you think Scott was able to come out of it then?"

"I'd say he's got the strongest mind I've ever seen. I've seen guys who can control the data eventually, but that's under strict training with methods of control and exercises. For someone like Scott to first have made it this far without that training, then to have come back from a data overload like that..." He stops again, seriousness in his voice. "If Medridge ever found out, Scott would be a prime target for a lab rat."

Reese nods, knowing this was nothing to play with. "I'll keep that in mind."