Part Three:

"Ah, some time alone." Jessica said as she entered.

Aries reached for her gun but found Jessica had one pointed at her already and decided that now wasn't the time to do anything foolish.

"What are you doing here?" Aries asked flatly.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Jessica said sarcastically.

"I really don't know. Why don't you tell me?" Aries said trying to buy some time but it seemed as if it wasn't working.

"If you must play stupid, I'll tell you. I'm here to kill you." Jessica said tipping her head to the side and letting her long red hair flow over her shoulder and smiled brightly.

"Why do you want to kill me?" Aries asked trying to sound confused.

"You know why! Stop playing stupid!" Jessica screamed losing her cool. She closed her eyes for a split second while screaming and Aries grabbed her gun and fired a shot catching Jessica in the shoulder. Jessica's reaction sent a bullet flying towards Aries and caught her in the chest. Jessica fell to the ground in shock from being shot and Aries stayed conscious long enough to press the emergency alarm button under her desk.

Marco had made it to Comm when the emergency sounded there. Birkoff quickly turned to the computer, saw who needed the help and dispatched Jace with a medical team and Michael with a back up team to the scene. He tried to keep Marco there but it was no use once he'd found out who was in trouble.

Roarke, Avi and Andrea filed back in just as Marco took off towards Aries' office. Roarke went over to Birkoff's station.

"What's going on?" He asked Birkoff upon seeing Marco running out like a bat out of hell.

"Aries just sounded her emergency alarm. He was here when it sounded. I couldn't keep him here." Birkoff said worried.

"I'll go see if I can catch him and calm him down." Roarke said and took off. Avi and Andrea had already headed into munitions to check their gear back in.

Roarke caught up with Marco just outside of Aries' office. Marco couldn't get in because there were too many people blocking his way. From what he could see, it was bad.

"Hey Marco." Roarke called out.

"Not now man!" Marco called back still trying to get into the office.

"Calm down. They can handle it. If Aries is hurt, you're panicking about it won't help her any." Roarke said and put a hand on Marco's shoulder.

"I don't even know if she's hurt!" Marco said desperately. He wasn't ready to lose her and the images running through his mind weren't good at all.

"You'll find out soon." Roarke assured him. He knew from experience that being in love with a mom was hard and he was trying to make it as easy as possible on Marco who had very little experience with it.

"Not from the way they're going." Marco said highly angry and frustrated. Just as he'd finished that statement, he saw Michael escort Jessica out of the office. She was bleeding from the left shoulder. It was then that he remembered that Roarke was supposed to be on a mission to find Jessica and realised that Jessica wasn't where they thought she was at but was just biding time until she could get Aries alone.

Marco looked at Jessica who'd stopped walking right in front of him. She tried to reach up and touch him but her hands were shackled. Michael was taking no chances. Marco looked to Michael whose face wasn't it's usual blank stare but seriously worried.

"What's wrong Michael? Is she hurt?" Marco asked panic beginning to spread through him twice as bad upon seeing the expression on Michael's face.

"It doesn't look good." Michael said and then escorted Jessica away. He was taking her to the white room to be interrogated.

Marco watched Michael go as well as the rest of the back up team that had accompanied him and then turned back towards the office. He had a much better view than he'd had when the cold ops were in there and what he saw chilled him to the bone. Aries was bleeding profusely and Jace was working furiously to keep her breathing and get her onto a stretcher at the same time. He started to rush into the office when Roarke grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"Don't." He warned softly.

"Why? She needs me." He said softly, tears were building in his eyes.

"You won't do her any good right now. Right now she needs the med team to help her and for you to gain your composure. She needs you to be strong right now to help her through this." Roarke said and pulled him back farther when the med team rushed Aries out of the office and down towards medical. Just then Nahla walked up.

"Hey Roarke! Hey Marco! What's going on?" She said not having a view of the office.

"Hey Nahla. I'll talk to you later. I have to go." Marco said and rushed off after the med team that had taken off so quickly.

Nahla turned to Roarke with confusion written all over her face.

"It seems that Jessica pulled an unexpected and shot Aries in her own office. It's not looking good but Aries managed to get a shot in too. Jessica only caught on in the shoulder, I don't know where the bullet hit Aries." He told her watching Nahla's expression go from confused to shocked and then to worried. The two headed quickly to the MedLab after Marco. When they got there, they found Marco trying to bully his way in. Roarke pulled him back and sat him down roughly just as Michael walked up.

"What's going on?" Michael asked having watched Roarke forcefully remove Marco from the door of the operating room.

"Let me go damn it!" Marco was shouting and fighting Roarke's grip violently.

"Do I need to explain?" Roarke asked.

"No." Michael said and sat down next to Marco. Roarke was still holding onto Marco tightly to keep him from going back to trying to forcefully gain entry into Medlab and ultimately doing more harm than good. Nahla moved forward and nudged Roarke out of the way and crouched down in front of Marco. She put a light hand on his chest and nodded for Roarke to let go. Seeing Nahla's gesture turned Marco's fury and panic into curiosity and he calmed down considerably. Roarke sat down next to Marco ready to catch him if he decided to pull another attack.

"Marco, you need to calm down. Jace is in there and he knows what he's doing. If there's anyone who can save her, it's him. Right now you need to regain your composure and strength because she's going to need every bit of that that she can get from you and the rest of us to pull through this." Nahla said softly. "You're panicking and anger are only going to make this situation worse and you don't want that for her do you?"

Marco sat there and thought about her words for a moment then answered, "No."

"Then calm down and pray for her. Will her your strength, courage, love and support. That's what she needs the most from all of us." Nahla said and upon seeing the tears building in his eyes, pulled him in for a comforting hug. After hugging him for about five minutes, they both pulled back. Nahla's shoulder was wet from Marco's tears but she didn't mind. Michael placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be ok. She's a fighter." He said confidently. "You have to believe in her."

Marco nodded his head at Michael and then stood up slowly and calmly to go over to the window and watch them work on her. Nahla and Michael joined her. They stood there for what seemed like forever when North walked up to the two of them. She glanced over and saw Roarke sitting in one of the chairs.

"What's going on?" She asked. "I heard something about Jessica and Aries being shot and Aries being here."

"I'm sorry North, I totally forgot. Yeah, Jessica shot Aries pretty badly and Aries managed to catch Jessica in the shoulder with a bullet." Marco told her softly emotion flooding his words.

"How bad is she? Where is Jessica?" North asked looking in the window.

"We don't know how bad she is. Jessica's in the white room with Madeline now." Michael informed North without even turning from the window. Just then DeLeah and Genie came running up.

"Is she ok?" DeLeah asked frantically.

"Calm down. We don't know what her condition is right now, they're still operating." Nahla said, moving back a bit from the window to let the two girls see in.

DeLeah and Genie looked in the window and couldn't believe they saw Aries lying there with a bunch of MedLab people around her and Jace working on her.

"It looks like they're almost finished." Michael said calmly.

"It's about time!" Marco exclaimed a bit relieved as well as a bit worried.

They all watched as Jace finished up what he was doing and then stitched her up. He removed his surgical gloves and walked out of the room.

Part 4

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.


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