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