Season 1, Episode 8:
FANthrax
Part 2 of 10
They
arrived in
“Nick,”
Brian said formally, giving him a slight nod.
“Hey,”
Nick muttered.
Brian
smirked before looking back at Red, growing serious. “I’ve been briefed on the situation, though I
don’t know very much.”
“Neither
do we. Basically, the victim is fine one
minute and, the next, coughing up blood.
It’s very strange.”
“Do
we have any idea how fast it’s spreading?”
Red
shook her head. “Not sure. There’s been a few cases reported, but the
bouts don’t seem to last too long.”
“From
what I’ve been told, we have no idea where it started from.”
“True,
it just kinda sprung from nowhere. The
really bad thing is, it seems possible that it’s airborne. Apparently, the staff treating the infected
are becoming ill themselves. That said,
the possible death toll could spike pretty fast if that‘s the case. I imagine that it’s going to be hard to
quarantine if they have to be treated and the other doctors are becoming
infected,” Red sighed.
“What
about surgical masks?” Brian asked.
“They’re
wearing them, and they’re still getting it.
Maybe it’s just passed by contact, not necessarily through the air. That may make it a bit easier to contain,
but…”
“Couldn’t
they wear those cool spacesuit-looking things?
Ya know, like what the astronauts wear?” Nick questioned, feeling
decidedly left out of the conversation.
Brian
smirked. “Sure, Nick.”
“No,
no, he’s got a point; they do have those airtight Hazmat suits. Not quite astronaut suits, Nick, but I do
know what you mean,” Red chuckled.
Nick
smiled smugly at Brian, sticking his tongue out at him when Red turned away
from him. Brian glared at him before
looking at Red.
“So,
what’s our next step here, then?”
“Well,
we have to find out where this thing came from and how it’s spreading, aside
from a possible airborne illness, although, to me, that’s bad enough. If it’s spread through actual physical
contact, which I’m hoping for...”
Nick
blanched; the whole thing just sucked.
Looking around suddenly, Nick felt like he could get sick any
second. Who knew; he felt fine now, but
the next, he could be hurling like the morning after a good party. He sighed sadly. What he wouldn’t give to be at a party right
now, the drinks sliding smoothly down his throat, the ladies all lining up for
a chance with him, and…
“Uhh,
Nick, your phone is ringing,” Red announced.
“Huh? Oh, damn,” Nick mumbled, reaching into his
pocket to pull his phone out. He looked
at the ID, and his face lit up. “Di!”
“Hey,
Nick! How’s it going?”
“Great,
now that I’m talking to you.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“So
what’s up?”
“Nothing,
I just wanted to touch base with you, see how things were going.”
“We’re
just looking into a few things here. How
are things with you?”
“Great! I’m really excited to be working with
Vitruvian.”
Nick
frowned. “Ya know, I’m really upset
about this.”
“About
what?”
“The
fact that we never get to be on a mission together.”
“Nick,
we’ve been on missions together; don’t say that.”
“But
not enough, Di. Nowhere near
enough. Don’t you know I need copious
amounts of Diamonds to make me a happy boy?”
“Copious? Are you serious, Nick?”
“What? It’s true, I do. I’m miserable. Diamonds aren’t just a girl’s best friend, ya
know,” he said softly. “Oh wow, I have to
get off this phone right now. This is
just sad.”
“It
is not. If you need Diamonds to make you happy, Nick,
there’s something seriously wrong with you. Besides, leave that to us ladies, okay?”
“Yeah,
yeah,” Nick sighed.
“Aww,
don’t sound so sad. I’m sure we’ll be on
a mission together soon.”
“It
would be nice if I believed that you honestly wanted it, if you sounded
sincerely upset.”
Diamond
chuckled. “I’m hurting on the inside,
Nick, trust me.”
Before
Nick could respond, he heard a male voice in the background call out, “Oh,
Di-Di!” He recognized it immediately as
Leo’s, and he scowled at his phone.
“I
gotta go, Nick,” Diamond said, causing Nick to refocus his thoughts away from
Leo Di-Crapio and how much he detested the new 00-Agent. “Leo’s here to take me out to dinner,” she
giggled, and Nick rolled his eyes. “He’s
so sweet! You know I can’t resist a
luxurious night out.”
“I
know something else you can’t resist…” Nick replied, hoping to bring her
attention back to him before his anger towards Leo could get the best of him.
“Me
too.” Diamond giggled again. “Coming, Leo!”
Nick
pulled the phone away from his ear as he heard a click, and the flashing
numbers on the screen confirmed that she had ended their conversation. He walked back over towards Red and Brian, who
eyed him curiously, and only stopped long enough to pick up his duffel bag. “Let’s go! Now!” he called over his shoulder to them, as
he angrily shoved the door open, letting it slam shut as he walked outside. Brian and Red looked at each other for a
moment, before hastily catching up to Nick.
He was leaned up against the driver’s side door of his car, sunglasses
reflecting the sunlight as he looked up and watched Red and Brian walk over to
him.
“Are
you alright, Nick?” Red asked as she tossed her bag into the trunk. It didn’t take a lot of perception to notice
that his conversation with Diamond had ruffled his feathers.
“I’m
fine,” he muttered, flashing her a smile in the hope that it would keep her
from asking him any more questions about his bad mood. Once they had all stashed away their suitcases
and gotten into the car, Nick silently turned the key in the ignition and felt
his heart pump faster as he pressed his foot down on the gas pedal and the car
shot off towards the highway.
An
hour or so later, they finally crossed over into
Nick
knew he should have been paying more attention to what Red was telling them,
but his mind kept drifting off to thoughts of Diamond.
“Nick…”
Red trailed off, worry in her voice.
Nick
ignored her as his thoughts continued, and at that moment, he happened to
glance at a sign that said “SPEED LIMIT: 100 KPH.” Figuring the “K” in “KPH” probably stood for
some Canadian word for “miles,” Nick contentedly continued pressing down on the
gas pedal, and the car sped up immensely as it weaved through the traffic. Images kept running through his mind. Diamond and Leo. Diamond sipping champagne while Leo fed her
strawberries. “Damnit!” he exclaimed,
unaware that he was now vocalizing his frustrations. “I fucking hate that Leo dude.”
“Um,
Nick…?” Red again tried to catch Nick’s attention before he spoke again. She could tell that he was only getting
started on his tirade.
“Who
does he think he is?” Nick continued, still ignoring Red. She and Brian exchanged a concerned glance
before both turning their attention back to the driver of the car. “’Oh Di-Di!’” Nick said in a mocking tone,
scrunching his face into an exaggerated sneer. “What a dumbass girly nickname! Di-Di. Even
Lancy would think that’s too frilly.”
“Nick!”
Brian exclaimed.
“And
his nickname, what the hell is up with that? Vitruvian.” Nick’s face twisted with disdain. “It’s fucking retarded, that’s what it is.
‘Work of art,’ my ass. He’s a piece of
work, alright!” Nick growled. “I bet
she’s wearing that low-cut pink dress she wore the first time I took her out.”
“Damnit,
Nick!” Brian again tried to snap Nick
out of his angry stupor. He was really
starting to get annoyed with Nick now, especially since he had hardly any idea
who Nick was even talking about. Red
frowned as she watched Nick closely; his knuckles were white from gripping the
steering wheel so tightly, and his muscles were all tense with rage. What concerned her most was that he didn’t
seem to be paying any attention at all to the road in front of him.
“And
I know all the tricks she’s probably using on him, too. And that little creep’s gotta have moves of
his own, too-”
“NICK!”
Red and Brian finally shouted in unison.
“WHAT?!”
Nick hollered back at them. Did they
have to yell at him? It was bad enough
they were interrupting his train of thought. As he looked back at the road, he realized why
Red and Brian had been so eager to get his attention that they were screaming –
the cars on the road were coming straight at them, horns honking at him as the
drivers angrily cursed him as they passed by. “Oh shit!”
“Nick,
look out!” Brian exclaimed, as an eighteen-wheeler semi came barreling towards
them. They all screamed as Nick tried to
steer past it, but was unable to get far enough out of the way. Suddenly, the wheel began to turn frantically
in Nick’s hands, causing the car to swerve off the road and, ultimately, crash
into a tree.
Nick
peered over at Red in the passenger’s seat and at Brian in the backseat,
grateful that they were all unharmed. Nick
suspected that
Everyone
slowly got out of the car and brushed themselves off, and once they had all
caught their breath, Brian swiftly smacked Nick in the back of the head.
“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
“You
idiot, you almost got us KILLED!” Brian shouted.
“But…
I was on the opposite side of the road like I should have been!”
“That’s
Nick
stared blankly, processing this new information for a few moments. All he could do was blink before he calmly let
his thoughts slip out once more. “Brian…
just called me a dildo…”
Red
shook her head and pressed it into her palm as the three of them heard a police
siren approach, and the police car it belonged came to a stop a few feet away
from them. The police officer slowly got
out of his car, and Nick was actually surprised that he was dressed like an
American police officer; he always thought that Canadian police all dressed up
like Dudley Do-Right.
“Hey
there,” the officer said with a slight tip of his hat. “Which one of you was the driver of this
vehicle?”
Nick
stepped forward and raised his hand slightly. “That would be me, sir.”
The
officer looked him over and nodded. “Can
I see your license, please, eh?” Nick
nodded and pulled his driver’s license out, handing it to the officer. He stood there nervously as the officer looked
his license over closely. “American,
eh?” Nick nodded again, and the officer
laughed. “Well, Mr. Carter, seeing as
you just crossed over the border here, I’ll let you off with a couple of
tickets.”
“Yes,
officer, and – wait, a couple of tickets?” Nick asked, as the officer handed
him his license and he put it away. He
silently prayed that he’d misheard the officer, and his accent made whatever he
actually said sound like “a couple of tickets.”
“Yep,”
the officer confirmed as he took out a large pad of paper and began to write on
it. “One for reckless driving…” He pulled out the white paper and handed it
to Nick. “… and one for speeding.” He finished his sentence as he pulled out the
second piece of white paper he’d just written on. “Now, I better not catch you makin’ trouble
around here again.”
“Oh,
we’ll be careful, officer,” Brian spoke up.
“Good.”
The officer smiled. “Have a wonderful day now, and welcome to
“Yeah,
wonderful day,” Nick muttered. First, he
got stuck with a new shadow – who thankfully wasn’t there to see this disaster
– and then he got a call from Diamond, who only wanted to talk about Leo
Di-Jerkface, then he crashed his car because the Canadians didn’t drive on the
right side of the road, and, to top it all off, now he had two tickets to pay
off that HimTak would certainly not cover.
Looking
down at the tickets, his eyes immediately were drawn to the dollar amounts at
the bottom of the forms. “Hey, wait! Is this in American dollars or Canadian… um…
money?” He sighed as the police car
drove off, the officer obviously not hearing his question well enough to answer
it as he waved goodbye, while merging back onto the highway.
Red
tried her hardest not to laugh, but ended up laughing anyway. She looked at Nick apologetically as she tried
to regain her composure, her laughter slowly dying down to a quiet giggle.
Brian
rolled his eyes and plopped down in the backseat of the car, leaving the door
open as he sat facing Nick, who was pacing back and forth to keep himself calm.
“I knew I should’ve driven this time…”
he muttered to himself.
“Ha!”
Nick replied, having heard Brian’s comment when pacing past him. “But you can’t drive this car because it only
answers to me!”
“Yeah,
but even the car itself did a better job of driving than you did. And it crashed into a tree.”
Red
stifled her laughter this time, and Nick picked up a large stick laying nearby
and chucked it into the forest in front of him, before turning to look at the
damage to the car, wondering how they were going to get to the hospital now.
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On
the 200 block of
In
the backseat, Brian massaged his temples, as if he had a headache. He leaned forward, sticking his head between
the two front seats, and asked, “Tell me why again you felt the need to rent a Hummer?”
“I
already told you,” said Nick from behind the wheel, not bothering to turn
around. “That’s all the rental place
had.”
“Liar.”
“I’m
serious!”
“Red?”
In
the passenger seat, Red Jewel turned down the stereo, which was blaring
Disturbed, glanced at Nick, and turned around to meet Brian face to face. “He’s lying,” she confirmed, smiling in a
satisfied way.
“Am
not!” Nick protested.
“Are
too,” Red replied coolly. “You have a
terrible poker face. You always smile…
or blush.” She reached out and pinched
his cheek, which had, indeed, been turning pink.
Nick
twisted away from her, scrunching up his face.
“Alright, alright, you got me. I
just thought a Hummer would look cool.
‘Specially if we get to drive it wearing those spacesuit things.”
“Hazmat
suits,” Red corrected for a second time.
“Yeah,
those. C’mon Littrell, don’t you think?”
“You
know what I think?” Brian chimed in. “I
think my green-lovin’ cousin is gonna flip when he finds out you wrecked your
car, the custom car he allowed you to have, and then used company money to rent
the king of all gas-guzzlers as a replacement.
Can you imagine the reaction, Red?
I think I’m gonna have to be there.”
Red
giggled. “K is gonna be pissed,” she
admitted, with a sidelong glance at Nick.
“Which
is why we stick with the story: this is
all the rental place had,” insisted Nick stubbornly.
“And
not only a Hummer, but a bright yellow
one?” Brian ranted on. “I mean, really,
Carter? I thought you HimTak guys liked
to stay inconspicuous. There’s nothing
inconspicuous about buzzing through downtown
“Like
I said… that’s all the rental place had.
And if that’s not good enough…”
Nick paused to turn down the stereo further. “Down With the Sickness” descended to a faint
hum. “… then you know what we say?”
Brian
rolled his eyes. “What do we say?”
“We
say… ‘BLAME
Red
giggled. Brian groaned.
Nick
grinned, and promptly launched into… “Blame
“Nick.”
“Blame
“Nick?”
“We need to form a full
assault; it’s
“NICK!”
“What?!”
Nick shouted, slamming his hands on the steering wheel. The horn honked. “Can’t you at least let me finish the fucking
chorus?”
“Not
when you’re about to drive right past the hospital!” Red exclaimed. “We’re here!”
“What? Oh – shitballs!” Looking up to see the blue letters spelling
out
Neither
Red, nor Brian responded. They both
seemed eager to get out and away from the bright yellow Hummer. Not Nick, though. He turned up the stereo for one more chorus
of “Down With the Sickness,” drumming his fingers on the steering wheel and
head-banging a little, before he finally opened his door and jumped down.
When
he looked up, Red and Brian were staring at him, and with them was another
woman, also staring. She looked more
bewildered than amused, like Red, or exasperated, like Brian. Nick strode up to the three of them,
grinning. “Just needed one last dose of
this mission’s theme music,” he explained.
Red
stepped forward, touching the other woman’s arm. “Nick, this is my good friend from med
school, Dr. Jeanie Boulet. Jeanie, meet
my, uh… colleague… Agent Nick Carter.”
Nick
gave Jeanie an appreciative smile, drinking in her beauty. She had skin the color of caramel and eyes
like drops of coffee deep enough, he could drown in them. Her return smile was warm and kind, though he
could detect the stress behind it and in the lines around her dark eyes.
“So,
Dr. Boulet, you’re one of those infectious disease specialists, right?” Nick
inquired. “Maybe you can answer this
question for me: When do we get to put
on the cool spacesuit things?”
Red
groaned. “For the last time, Nick,
they’re called Hazmat suits.”
Brian
gave her a look, as if to say, Don’t
bother getting annoyed; he’s clearly suffered some kind of traumatic brain
injury. Red smirked back, as if to
say, I know.
Oblivious
to this exchange, Nick nodded eagerly.
“Yeah, those! When do we get to
put on those?”
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