WHO: Jack and Agnes Donovan, Mark Sheffield and Alpha WHAT: Jack's sister The Attic Tech rescues Jack from the Attic. They wake up Mark, Agnes feels awkward about The Gay, and then they go wake up Alpha.
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They were all damn lucky that Jack Donovan was in the attic.
He was the only reason she would break the rules. The only reason she would take such a risk. Family was family, and the only thing worth anything. She didn't have much left, and even though they hadn't seen each other for ten years, she would recognize him anywhere. Her job required a certain level of detachment---and if not that, a certain level of fear and blackmail.
Thankfully, in the Attic, people were set up in the tanks and just left there until they expired. They were kept alive with IVs and tubes and unless something malfunctioned, there was no reason to. So she waited for a good, quiet night. There was no going back once they were out, and she knew it. She was one of two Attic techs working that night; it was a dismal sort of job. There was no security because nobody ever woke up. There were rarely more than two techs there, unless multiple people were being put into the Attic at once, and even then, six was the absolute maximum. The only reason there were two and not one was in case someone flatlined while someone was out grabbing dinner or in the bathroom. It wasn't exactly a lively working environment.
Tonight, the other tech had a bad case of the runs, along with a few ... other issues. Bad Chinese food, you know. So she had half the night all to herself. A little minor fiddling with the security cameras, and the video was playing on a ten second loop of the same thing it had been recording for days, weeks, months already.
Jack was the first. The computer was switched off, all power cut off, removed from the system and isolated. Then the feeding tube came out, then the plastic was rolled away. Needles were gently removed. Hands, long-fingered and pale, came to rest on the sides of his face, her fingertips against his jaw.
"Come on, Jackie." She gently smacked his cheek, over and over. "Wake up. I know you're alive. Wake up for me."
It took a while. Long, painful seconds ticked away with no response before Jack gasped, arching up off of the gurney and collapsing down again. His eyes opened and darted around, trying to take stock of his surroundings as he choked on his breath.
"Shhh shh shh." Her hands went back to his face. She didn't seem to care if they got wet. "You're safe. Calm down."
Jack flinched away from her touch, or tried to. He was still confined to the gurney, kept down in liquid. "Wh----I----" He was panicked, groggy, wildly confused. He was waking up from his worst nightmare; of course he was.
"Jackie---you need to calm down so I can unstrap you." She leaned over so she was in his vision. Her face was pale, her hair naturally a little curly and as red as Jack's. "Hang on."
Jack squinted at her. "Look at you... you look like my sister, I must be dead," he mumbled.
"You're not dead," she promised, smiling gently. "I like that you still remember me, though."
"Annie...? No, see, you're not real," Jack mumbled. "None of this is real. None of this, any of this..."
She shook her head, circling the gurney and unstrapping him. "This is the only part that is real." She sounded calm, but there was a little shake in her voice. Nerves. Well-hidden, but they were there, closing up her throat, turning her stomach.
Jack sat up, his hair dripping. He ran a hand over his face, over the start of a beard that came from not shaving in a long, long time. "Mark. I have to----I have to find Mark, have to find the others----have to find Dad----" His experiences in the Attic were all jumbled together. He didn't know what was real anymore.
"Towel first, and clothes." They had half the night left. After they got a few people out, they could start waking each other up instead, seeing a friendly face as they woke up. "I have a place for everyone to go."
"Annie... fuck, I'm going nuts. I'm going nuts." There was no reason for his sister to be here. He was hallucinating. He was still trapped. "I have to find Mark." He climbed off the gurney----and immediately collapsed, legs buckling underneath him.
"Hey! Hey, hey, you can't do that." She grabbed for him, barely managing to catch him. "You have to give yourself a few minutes, okay?" Shakily, she lowered them both to the ground, grabbing for the towel. "Who's Mark?"
"He's mine," said Jack in a low rumble, a hand over his face. "My Active, my partner, he's mine." He struggled to get up again but he just couldn't do it.
"Okay. You call him by his first name?" She was drying him off as best she could. They would all be too noticeable in those white suits; he needed to get dressed before he went anywhere.
"He's mine," Jack insisted. "I have to find him, we were on a... we were on the roof, it was flooded, I went into the water, I was drowning."
"Sheffield?" He was the only Mark that had been put in the Attic when Jack was.
"Shef----Sheffield, Mark Sheffield, that's right." Jack was slowly gaining his composure back, slowly starting to breathe normally. His hand tore at the collar of the suit he wore.
"We can get him next." Agnes helped Jack out of the suit, looking away when he was naked and offering him a pair of pants.
Jack tugged on pants, his body and the floor still damp, but it was better than that damn suit. "Annie, what the fuck are you doing here---? It's been ten years, how did you even know where I was, let alone..."
"I'm not here because of you," she assured him. "Here, shirt---I work here." She said it with obvious shame. "I didn't really have a choice."
"You..." Jack stared at her, pausing in putting his shirt on. "Motherfuck." He took several steps back, stumbling, and tugged his shirt on like he had to get dressed as fast as possible. His mother, his sister, now him. The only family he knew, all caught up in the Dollhouse. It was like fate brought him here. Like this was predetermined. It freaked him the fuck out.
Annie watched him, her heart beating in her throat. This was risky, it wasn't smart, and if the Dollhouse caught them? They would die. They would be killed, and it would hurt. As soon as he was dressed, she practically rushed him, hugging Jack hard.
Jack wrapped his arms around her and whimpered softly. "Damn it, Annie. Thank God. Thank God." What else could he say? "We have to----What if Rossum finds out? What're they going to do? They're going to know."
"They'll kill us," she said quietly. "That's why we have to go, now, as fast as we can. I figure maybe we have until morning. It's a huge ... huge group of people to move."
"Kill----Annie, we're trapped in the Dollhouse. We can't escape. Maybe it's just... maybe we should stay here."
"This might be your only chance." Her voice cracked. God, they hadn't seen each other in ten years and had no time to make up for that. "If you go back inside, they'll know we were messing around in the Attic. They'll keep us from ever getting out again, and between probably dying and definitely dying... Jack, just you and me, and Mark, we'll get him out and we'll just go. I can hide two people easier than all them."
"I----but these people, we can't let everyone rot here." Jack didn't know what to do or where to turn. The Dollhouse would know and they were completely at their mercy. Maybe they were all supposed to escape the Attic. Maybe it was a test, or another game, or... or something. He didn't know who was up here. What if it was Beth? Or Dee? Or his mother? He couldn't abandon them.
They were going to die here. That feeling was sinking in, turning her stomach, making her eyes burn. She hadn't thought this through enough. She wasn't a stupid woman, so why, God why, had she done this? They were going to die. Rossum was going to kill them because Agnes stuck her nose in. "Then tell me what to do."
Jack was at a loss. "No matter what we do, we're playing Rossum's game. They can choose to kill us whenever they'd like, whether we're in the Attic or not. Being trapped here is worse than being dead." His jaw set and he looked toward the door. "We get out. Every one we can find. We get out all together or we don't get out at all. If Rossum kills us, they kill us. If they decide something else, then... then they decide something else." He'd been trapped in the Dollhouse long enough to almost accept death as an alternative. "We can either do what's right and die, or do what's wrong and die. Might as well be right."
Annie nodded. "We'll get Mark, then." She still wasn't sure how this was going to work. There was a place to go, but they couldn't walk there, and they couldn't stay for long. They would have to think on their feet. "And then Alpha."
Jack stopped short. "What? Alpha's here? No. No, we're not taking Alpha."
"They put him in here, which means he'll be mad as hell," Annie pointed out. She knew all about Alpha; she'd read his file when he was put in the Attic and she had access to it. "So he'll either be our best friend and help us get away from Rossum, or..." Reaching into her jacket, she pulled out a pistol, offering it to Jack. "You'll kill him."
Jack's eyes flickered from the gun and up to her. "You were always the smarter sibling," he said gruffly. He tucked the gun into the back of his pants. "Take me to Mark."
Picking up the bag she'd brought in with her, she motioned for Jack to follow, explaining along the way: "There's nothing down here. This place is so dead quiet that I'm the only person working here right now. It's not even a job, it's a prison. All the plastic bags of clothes in here I took from the downstairs warehouse. That's still unlocked from the outside in, but you can't get there from the House itself. That door is padlocked. ---Here, this should be Mark." Annie pushed open a door, and there was Mark in the tank, covered in plastic and dressed in white.
Jack was about to ask her how the hell she got here in the first place----too much like fate, to have everyone in his life wind up here----but then he saw Mark. Mark still and vulnerable and alone. A hand covered his mouth and he couldn't stop staring. "Out," he said hoarsely once he found his voice. "How do I get him out."
"Watch me." Annie motioned with her fingers. She went over to a monitor with Mark's name hovering over a heart rate monitor. "So you can do this on your own for the others. Flip this switch---" She did, and the monitor went black. "---and this one." The remaining humming machines died. Returning to Mark, she eased out the feeding tube and continued: "Then feeding tube and the needles. He can breathe through the hole left by the tube. Then you can peel away the plastic."
"Fuck... what the fuck is all this," Jack breathed, staring down at Mark in quiet horror. Once the tube was removed, he tore at the plastic. Clumsy, desperate. "Jesus Christ----Mark... Mark, wake up."
At some point Jack must have caught Mark in the head and woken him. He coughed, struggling against the plastic, his vision blurry and his blows weak.
"Mark----shhh, shh, you're okay, you're----" Jack tugged the plastic back halfway and cradled Mark's face. "Shh. Wake up, it's me. It's me..."
Mark's eyes were wide, pupils dilated like a panicking animal. "Jack?! Oh, God, Jackie---"
"It's me... it's me. You're safe. You're awake, you're in the Attic, and this really is real." At least, Jack thought so. Nothing had shifted or changed. It all felt real. He leaned down and kissed Mark soundly. "I love you. I love you, we're getting out of here."
Annie winced, shifting uncomfortably and looking away. Well, she hadn't expected that, but she knew better than the vocalize it right now.
Mark scrambled to sit up, slipping more than once. "Get this off me." He tore at his collar, making frustrated, helpless noises.
"Shhh... shh, okay, you're going to be a little shaky at first, let me..." Jack pulled Mark up, wrapping arms around him and pulling him from the gurney. He held Mark close against him and kissed his ear, eyes darting toward Annie. "Clothes, I need to get him in some clothes."
"Right." Agnes, grateful for the distraction, dug through her bag, pulling out a packet of clothes and ripping it open. She'd obviously been planning this for a couple of weeks and had all the little things in order. "Here."
Jack settled Mark on the floor and helped him out of the suit before he got him into regular clothes. "We're getting everyone out of the attic. Enough is enough. And Mark----" He stopped, realizing that an introduction was in order. "Meet my sister."
By then, Mark could stand on his own, still damp but hey, not stuck in his own mind, right? Keep a hold on Jack, Mark looked Agnes over, panting gently while he caught his breath. "Hi." He offered his hand. "Detective Sheffield, nice to meet you."
Agnes hesitated, though it looked more like she was reluctant to get her hands wet. ...Mostly. But she took his hand and shook it, nodding. "You, too."
"I thought this place would be ... scarier, I guess," Mark remarked, looking around---ugh, and then he saw the gurney. "Though that is right out of a horror film. Jesus. Let's go. Where are we headed?"
"Follow Annie, all right? And don't... freak out. We're going after Alpha."
"Excuse me, we're what? Oh, fuck no. Hell no---!"
"We'll kill him if we have to," Annie interjected, a little too harshly. "He could be our ticket out of here if we don't."
"Think about it, Mark. He put us in. If he's pissed enough, he can get us out." Jack's hand was comforting against Mark's back, rubbing in gentle circles. He hadn't the slightest idea that Annie was uncomfortable. He'd never told her he was gay. He'd been so closeted, and now wasn't the time to get nervous.
Mark shifted uneasily, making a frustrated noise. "Fine. I fucking hate this plan, but fine."
"I've got a gun," Jack whispered, nudging him gently with his nose. "And he'll be strapped down and unarmed."
"Hn." Mark made a face like that wasn't good enough. Maybe Alpha's spit was venomous, who knew. "All right. Let's go wake up the beast, then."
Jack looked to Annie. "Lead on." He was still baffled by the fact that she was even here and while they walked, he just had to ask: "How long have you been working here? How long----I mean, do you have any idea how many people in our circle of friends and family have wound up at the Dollhouse? Mark's sister, his detective partner, my ex-girlfriend, my mother----"
"Your mother?" Annie looked back. "Small, small world. I went to the Rossum Institute for college. I ended up getting my first job with the Rossum Corporation and working on a project for the Dollhouse. I wanted to get out when I realized what was going on, but ... no one ever leaves Rossum."
"No kidding," Jack muttered. "But thank God you're here anyway or we'd be trapped up here forever."
"I guess everything happens for a reason. ---Here." Agnes paused before opening the door.
Alpha looked peaceful for once. As peaceful as you can get covered in plastic and hooked up to machines. His heartbeat was quick, the heart rate monitor showing the beats underneath his name: Karl William Kraft. They'd gotten to used to Alpha that it was difficult to imagine that he'd have a life and a name before all this.
Annie shifted. "Jack. I'll get the monitors if you want to take care of the rest."
Jack nodded, keeping one hand on his gun while he worked to unhook Alpha from all of the wires and the feeding tube. "Mark, stand back." He didn't want Alpha anywhere near Mark. He was shaking a little when he pulled the plastic back. He could shoot him right now. It would be so easy.
Mark hung back, crossing his arms over his chest. This was such a bad idea, and Mark wished he had a gun just in case.
Alpha woke up quickly---and when he did, he struggled violently. "---Whiskey?!" He twisted, finally seeing Jack, and then Annie. Mark was too far behind. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Hi, Alpha." Jack kept his distance. "You're in the Attic."
"I know, dipshit." But he calmed. "Rossum. Harding's taken over. Whiskey and I were the first ones in here. Ungrateful son of a bitch."
"Sucks, doesn't it." Jack ran his fingers over the gun but didn't draw it.
"You're not going to shoot me," Alpha said bluntly. "I'm your best friend right now and you know it. Get me out of here."
"You're going to get us out. You're going to get all of us out. One wrong move and I'm not the only one who'll shoot you."
"Shut up and upstrap me, Jackie."
Jack hesitated, clearly afraid, but he moved to unbuckle the harnesses keeping Alpha down. "Can't fucking believe this."
As soon as Alpha was free, he punched Jack in the face. "Don't threaten people with guns. It's rude." He hauled himself off the gurney, leaning against it on one hand, stripping off the suit with the other.
Jack took the hit, staggering back a step and holding his jaw. Thankfully, he was smart enough not to try anything stupid. "Son of a bitch," he hissed, spitting blood.
Agnes offered Alpha his clothes, backing away as soon as he grabbed them. "Stop looking at me like that." Alpha scowled. "I'm not going to kill you. Tch. Jack, do you and Bravo know how to get people out of the tanks?"
Jack nodded. "Yeah. I do."
"Good. You do that. Be careful with Whiskey. And you." Alpha grabbed Agnes by the arm. "You're helping me."
"Don't touch her," Jack snapped, clearly edgy from the last time Alpha decided to mess with him.
"Jack." Agnes was clearly terrified out of her mind, but she didn't want Alpha changing his mind about killing people. "Don't."
Alpha looked back down at her, looking her over. "Another relative? Jesus, Jack. Your sister...?" He cocked his head. "She's hotter than I expected."
Jack groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. "Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Just... Leave her alone, all right? Leave her alone. She knows her way through the Attic; she knows what she's doing. We'll have everyone out in ... half an hour, maybe. Depends on how many of us are here, I don't know----we don't have a lot of time."
This woman obviously worked here. She wasn't covered in Attic gurney goop. "Then get them to the street. I'll take care of the rest."