Part Three:
Marco was the first to approach Jace. "How is she?"
"We'll have to see. Her condition is pretty bad right now and we'll have to keep a close eye on her until she wakes up." He replied seeing Nahla there and feeling a little relief at the sight of her.
"When will she wake up?" Marco knew he was asking an impossible question but he had to ask it anyway. If he didn't, he'd only wonder what Jace's answer would be.
"That's hard to say. She was already unconscious when I got to her. The anesthetic I gave her will wear off in a few hours, after that, it's up to her." Jace replied somberly. He looked at Nahla for support and she gave him the best smile could muster. She was worried as well.
"Where did the bullet hit?" Michael asked.
"It hit her chest and lodged in just above her heart. It hit a major artery, which caused most of the bleeding. We gave her a transfusion and stopped the bleeding. Like I said before, I'll be keeping a close eye on her and see how she fairs. There's hope considering she's lasted this long." Jace said and Nahla walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. She could see in his eyes how much this was hurting him. She knew that he'd begun to truly care about Aries as much as the rest of them had.
DeLeah and Genie hugged each other worried and crying softly. This was not good but from what Jace had said so far, there was hope and they were clinging desperately to that.
"Can I go see her?" Marco asked softly looking through the window at her.
"Not yet. She needs some rest before she has any visitors. I'll let you know as soon as you can go in and see her ok?" Jace said and put a hand on Marco's shoulder. Marco nodded in response and Jace removed his hand and headed towards his office with Nahla accompanying him. The crowd that was gathered outside of the MedLab room gathered around the window once again each willing Aries to live. They knew just from what Jace had said that this was serious.
Marco was the closest to the window and reached up and put his hand up and pressed it against the glass. "You have to make it. You can't die on me. Not yet." He whispered hoping that she heard him. North saw his gesture and heard his soft words and pulled him back from the window. He looked at her questioningly but followed as she walked out of hearing range from the others.
"What are we going to do about this? Madeline's been brought in and if we don't have a solution to give to her, she will take matters into her own hands." North said seriously. She was worried both for Aries life and for all of their sakes. Madeline did not look kindly on a situation that should have been handled internally becoming a Section problem.
"Let me take care of it." He said and headed off towards the white room where Madeline was standing outside after completing her interrogation of Jessica.
"What is your solution?" Madeline asked without greeting him. She wanted this handled and she wanted it done now. One of her best operatives was lying in MedLab because of this situation and it infuriated her. There were some people who were going to answer for this.
"I will handle it now." Marco said trying to step past Madeline and into the white room.
"How?" Madeline asked not budging.
"I will cancel her." Marco said. He was furious with Jessica for what she'd done and was personally going to make her pay for her crime.
"Good. I'll be watching." Madeline said and entered the observation area.
"Great!" Marco muttered under his breath and entered the white room. Jessica looked up and flashed him a brilliant smile.
"Marco! I knew you'd choose me over her! I know that they wouldn't let you in here until Madeline was done, I'm glad she just finished so that you could come visit me! You know what I did was for the best don't you? Aries isn't right for you!" Jessica gushed happily. When she noticed the look on his face she stopped. "What's wrong darling?"
"You are what's wrong Jessica. I tried to explain it to you so that we could avoid this but now you've left me no choice in the matter. An innocent woman is lying in MedLab right now because of you. Don't you feel any remorse for that?" Marco asked her trying to put his anger in check.
"Why should I? She was only coming between us and clouding your judgment. She was brainwashing you, can't you see that?" Jessica asked confused as to why he was so angry with her.
"You have changed so much since we parted Jessica. You used to just be selfish and inconsiderate but it's become something far worse than that. I disliked you when we divorced and parted ways, now I hate you." Marco said letting a bit more of his fury into his voice.
"What are you talking about Marco? You love me!" Jessica said getting a bit worried at the turn this was taking.
"I don't love you Jessica! I realize now that I never did! I'm sorry that I ever had the delusion that I thought that I was in love with you!" He replied bitterly. "I will never forgive you for what you've done. Never."
Jessica was at a loss for words. This certainly was not coming out the way that she'd planned on. She was trying to figure out a way to set things back on the path that she wanted them to go when she noticed that Marco had pulled out his gun and aimed it directly for her chest.
"What are you doing?!" She screeched in a panic.
"What you did to Aries. Only you won't get the luxury of having MedLab save you like she does." He remarked making sure that it was at the approximate place that Jessica's bullet hit Aries and fired his gun. He watched as the look of shock ran over her face and then pain and then nothing as she died. He put his gun away and walked out of the white room to be greeted by Madeline.
"Very good." She said with praise.
"I have to get back down to MedLab. Is there anything else that you need?" He responded rather bitterly, which did not catch Madeline by surprise at all.
"No. When you are done there, I want to see you in my office for a full debrief." She responded. He nodded and then returned to where North was sitting waiting for some word on Aries' condition.
"What happened?" North asked standing up as soon as she saw Marco approaching.
"I cancelled her." Marco said simply and turned towards the window. "Any word?"
"Not yet." North responded and watched as he walked up to the window. The others parted to let him get the closest and again he put his hand against the window trying to will her back to him.
Just then Jace walked up.