PART FOUR – JEOPARDY
A month and a half later, Loomis was at his desk reviewing the Jan Masters file
closely, noting the results from the visit the previous day. The habit of checking the
Masters file every morning had started as a simple cautionary measure to ensure that
nothing was missed, and had grown into a compulsive need that had to be fulfilled each
morning to put his mind at ease, even if Ian wasn't due to see Annie for another two
weeks. All had been well lately… Annie's fear had subsided, and all the tests were
coming back normal, just as they should have been. The pregnancy could not have been
going more smoothly at all…
Ian sipped his coffee and turned to yesterday's urine test results. Suddenly, a
number caught his eye and he choked on his coffee. "What the hell…" he began as he
stared at the number. "Oh, damn it. Oh, crap… " Immediately, he reached for his
intercom. "Julia? Cancel my first appointment right away. I have an emergency."
Loomis didn't even wait for Julia's reply as he grabbed the phone on his desk and dialed
the number Annie had give them.
In Annie's apartment, the phone rang loudly, waking Annie from a dream of
holding a beautiful baby girl… Groggily, she grabbed the phone. "Yeah?" she asked
sleepily.
"Jan? It's Ian Loomis."
"Annie sat up sleepily. "Oh, hi, Ian, what do you need?" she asked, her tired
mind not imagining why Loomis would call her like this.
"I can't go into it over the phone, but I need you to come in right away." Ian said
quickly.
"Why?" Annie asked, rubbing her eyes with one hand and holding her upset
stomach with the other as she cradled the phone on her shoulder.
"Look, I don't want to alarm you, but-" Ian hesitated here- "there's a problem
with the baby."
Annie bolted out of bed and began to throw on clothes as fast as her nausea-
wracked body would allow. "I'll be there in ten minutes." Annie said curtly as she
slammed the phone down. All her morning sickness was pushed aside as Annie grabbed
an outfit from her closet, her eyes briefly focusing on the red Team Rocket dress hanging
in the corner. She scoffed at the dress as she thought about what she had considered to be
so important for so much of her life.
Three minutes later, she was in her car, pushing the engine to its limits as she
tore away to Loomis' office.
"Diabetes?" Annie said incredulously. "But- I've never had diabetes, and
neither has anyone in my family-" Annie stopped and silently thought to herself,
Family? Hah. The only family I knew was Auntie Raven and Mama- and I never even
knew them as well as I should have.
"Gestational diabetes." Loomis corrected her. "Actually, it's not all that
uncommon, particularly in older pregnancies, nor is it really a big danger, but we have
to get it under control right away, or it can become a problem."
"So the baby will be diabetic?" Annie asked with a tear in her eye.
"Not likely." Ian replied. "You are now, but most likely neither of you will be
after the baby is born." Ian paused and looked at how badly Annie was shaken. "I'm
sorry, Jan. I didn't mean to scare you this bad. It's just that we need to get this under
control as fast as we can."
"I understand." Annie said quietly. "So how do we control it?"
"Medicine and diet." Ian replied, scribbling notes on a prescription pad. "Now,
go get this filled right away, and follow the directions the pharmacist will give you."
Annie looked at Ian with sad eyes. "Ian…" she began.
"Yes?" Ian replied.
"I don't think I can do this. I don't think I can finish this pregnancy out." Annie
said softly.
Ian's stomach churned in a fit of fear. "I mean- it's just so hard…" Annie said
with a sniffle. God, this was so unlike her! What had happened to the Agent who had
once stood defiantly in the face of all opposition and spat at it? What happened to that
strong, terrifying person? It had taken a child to break her- a mere child. Annie looked
at herself with her mind's eye and suddenly realized that this unborn child had
incapacitated her more than James Morgan ever had… and yet there was absolutely no
resentment this time.
Loomis' trained mind searched for the answer. The baby could not be lost. "I
know. I know." He said softly, rubbing her back through her sweater. "Jan, I can't tell
you it'll get easier… All I can say is that it'll be worth it. I promise." It was all Loomis
could do to tell Annie that lie. Every day he had more and more misgivings about this
whole project, but Ian also knew the choices he had, and they were severely limited.
Silently, he wondered why he had ever signed on for the Green Branch. It was a much
harder life than he had ever anticipated…
As Loomis reviewed his own dilemmas, Annie's mind reviewed her situation.
This was what she had always wanted without knowing… the chance to become a
mother, the chance to redeem herself in the eyes of her own mother, to set right for
another soul the mistakes she had made with her life, to save somebody from the life she
had experienced… and yet it was all so hard. The pain, the sickness, now the diabetes.
Could it all ever be worth it?
Ian watched Annie hang her head down silently as he continued to rub her back.
It was out of his hands now, it seemed… There was probably little to be done to stop her
if she did decide to abort.
Annie squeezed her eyes shut tightly. At that moment, she was thinking harder
than she ever had before… harder than she had in all of her years in the Team. Slowly,
warmth began to pass through her, beginning at her back where Ian was rubbing. She
hardly noticed it at first, but when the warmth passed through her stomach and into her
arms, she could not deny it. The warm feeling spread through out her completely, and
when Annie opened her eyes, She did not see Ian's office. Instead, she only saw a
bright light, as if she was staring at the sun. The light, while undeniably blessedly
bright, did not hurt her eyes in the slightest, and Annie watched it with fascination as
Loomis watched her stare ahead somewhat blankly with confusion.
Seemingly from the light itself, Annie heard the quiet whisper of Carrie Kaldron-
Masterson… Annie… Annette… I love you and I'm watching. You want this baby. I
know you do. And I know you'll be a wonderful mother. But you must be careful… so
careful… With that, the light slowly faded away, and the warmth flowed out of Annie's
body as she smiled. Her mother had been there when she had needed her the most yet
again, but what had her last words meant? Be careful? Be careful of what?
Slowly, Annie stood up from the stool she had been sitting on.
Ian looked at her as she stepped forward without saying a word, as if she was in a
trance. "Jan?" he asked after a moment's hesitation.
Annie turned to face him, her face seeming to say that she had just now
remembered Ian was even present. "Hmm? What?" she asked in a light tone.
"Are you all right?" Ian asked her cautiously.
Annie looked at Ian with half-closed eyes. "Yes… Yes, I think I am." She said
softly. "I- I just need to be careful…" Annie took a few more steps toward the door, and
then turned to look at Ian again, stopping to stare at him strangely.
Inside, Ian panicked, certain that Masterson had some in way, somehow learned
the truth. It was a panic that only half subsided when Annie held up the prescription
slowly. "I'll get this filled right away, of course. See you in 2 weeks." She said
distractedly. With that, Annie turned and left slowly and numbly, still dazed from her
contact with her mother.
As soon as the woman was gone, Loomis made a fast beeline for is office,
sweating horribly. He double-locked the door and threw his desk drawer open so hard he
pulled it right off its track. He didn't care in the least as the contents spilled all over the
floor. With trembling hands, Loomis snatched up the amber vial holding his
tranquilizers, popped the cap off, and immediately had two in his mouth and down his
throat. Ian reached to one of the few items left in the drawer, a silver flask, and chased
the tranquilizers with a shot of whiskey. As a doctor, Ian knew the dangers of mixing
alcohol with a drug, but he couldn't have cared less at this point. He needed it. He
needed it now more badly than he had in years, more badly than he ever had since the
days of… that place.
Shuddering, Loomis marched to the wall and dutifully opened the hidden door
once again to report to Giovanni.
Giovanni scowled at Ian. He had listened to the report with concern, which had
turned to disgust. "So, Annie's getting unstable and moody, and you're sitting there
popping pills?" Giovanni snarled.
"Sir, please-" Ian stammered. "I- I was afraid she might have recognized me. I
think she's all right for the rest of the pregnancy."
Giovanni' eyes narrowed to slits as he stared at Ian through the monitor. "You
think?" he snapped. "I want you to know!"
Ian bowed his head. "Yes, Sir." He said quietly.
"You realize, Loomis, that your training surpasses that of Masterson's."
Giovanni said.
"Yes, Sir."
"Therefore, you are technically superior to her."
"Yes, Sir." Ian repeated.
"And yet a crazy former Red who was actually committed is rattling you!"
Giovanni roared.
"Sir, please…" Ian began.
"Silence! I expect perfection from you, Loomis, and you will deliver- or you'll
find yourself back at the Resort!"
"I'd be an orderly again?" Ian asked softly.
"No." Giovanni said darkly. "You'll be an inmate."
Ian trembled. "I understand, sir." He said shakily.
"You had damned well better." Giovanni snarled. "Masterson is becoming more
and more unstable. She's becoming unreliable. How soon could the baby be born and
live?"
Loomis mopped his brow and looked at Giovanni. "Er… well, after half way
through the seventh month, the odds of a baby surviving are excellent."
"And she is five and a half months along now." Giovanni stated.
"Yes, sir." Loomis replied.
Giovanni looked at him. "Loomis, I want that baby out as soon as possible and
in my hands. I don't care how you do it, just do it! Understand?"
"Yes, Sir." Loomis cowered. "And… what about Masterson after that?"
Giovanni smiled darkly. "Leave her to me. I will see to it that she is well taken
care of." He said menacingly.
Loomis bowed his head again. "I understand." He said quietly. The screen
flickered, and the Green Branch emblem appeared once again. Loomis shuffled back to
his desk and sat down as he opened Annie's file once again. This project was monstrous.
He was helping to steal a baby- an innocent child- and all the time he was deceiving the
mother like it was nothing.
Ian's conscience- an aspect almost obliterated from him during his Green Branch
indoctrination - was eating away at him slowly, although Loomis knew he was worlds
away from having a choice about any of this. When it all came down to the wire, he had
a choice between his life or Masterson's- and to that question there could be but one
answer for Ian Loomis. Silently, he scribbled down notes of tests to give Annie at their
next meeting- tests that were not standard, but that might provide the excuse for getting
that baby out as soon as possible.
Suddenly, the pencil fell, and Ian looked at his two hands with a strange
fascination. These were the hands that had been trained to help people- and they were
now being used to harm. Of course, this was nothing new to Loomis, but the feelings
accompanying the action certainly were. Slowly, his palms came down to rest on the
desk. He took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he saw before him a
hallway lined with steel doors. Each door had a small barred window, and Loomis could
hear sounds from behind each one- screams of pain, sobbing, pleas for mercy, and the
insistent cackle of the persons torturing the occupants of each room. Loomis' stomach
churned as he peeked through one window and saw a former Black Rocket strapped to a
table as another man in a white coat zapped him repeatedly with a taser, unaffected by
the Rocket's pleading. Sickened to the point of nausea, Loomis spun around and saw
through another window a former White Rocket sobbing as she was stripped of her
uniform and thrown onto her cot by a doctor who chuckled as he undid his belt and
walked toward her. Loomis felt the bile rise in his throat as he turned away from the
window and ran as fast as he could. Hitting a dead end at the end of the hallway, he
looked up to the steel door that he had crashed into and saw the nameplate: "Inmate
number 761852c-Green Branch Rocket Ian Loomis". Ian snapped his eyes open before
his mind could hear the sound of his own screams from behind the door.
He was panting horribly, and his eyes were wide open with fear. The Resort. He
remembered it from his nightmares. He could not go back. He would not go back.
Masterson, conscience, fair play- damn them all. The baby would be Giovanni's, and
Ian would stay free. It was the only way. Shakily, Ian gulped down another shot of the
amber liquor from his flask, and choked as he swallowed it down. The Green Branch
Rocket sat there in his chair, trembling and rocking back and forth in chair as he
whispered to himself repeatedly, "It's the only way, the only way, the only way…"
CHAPTER FIVE: IN DISTRESS