Under My Skin

Under My Skin - Part 26

Beni arrived in Surveillance with a list of camera locations and assigned numbers around Kore's depot to retrieve video from. The Surveillance Room was shaped like the inside of a domed beehive, screens everywhere, and half the Surveillance Techs, like lazy worker bees, huddled around the middle of the dimly lit room with a pack of cards. Most screens had been converted to projector feeds, but occasionally there was an old fashioned screen. The Surveillance Techs on duty were glad for the distraction since there was little else to do on lockdown but look at people walk down the same halls every five seconds as the video feeds rotated.

Beni was on a roll. She already had a few lines of paperwork sorted out concerning Kore's transactions and dealers, but none of the recent reports concerned Doctor Palmer. Hopefully the video surveillance would shed some light.

A Tech, Olivia, set down a 100 gig flash drive and then pushed her thick glasses back up on her nose. Apparently a lot of data had been received from the cameras they had set out before they were taken offline for the lockdown.

"This all of it?" Beni asked.

"All ten hours on fifteen different feeds, in HD. Have fun going through them." Olivia handed back the list, each location checked off, except two.

"What about the cameras on Will and Louis?" asked Beni.

"They were outfitted before they left, but we haven't gotten either of their cameras back for the info dump."

"Louis isn't back yet, so you won't get his." Beni frowned. "But you'd think Will would return his by now."

Olivia shrugged. "We saw Will on the screens earlier, following Rachel to the BT lab. Then he was wheeled to Med Tech. It could be in the lab still."

"I'll go check." Beni grabbed the flash drive and began walking towards the light framed door. "Thanks guys. Don't work too hard."

"By the way," called Olivia. "What were you and Reese doing in the storage closet? Anything YouTube worthy?" The crew behind Olivia hooted and whistled, eager for a little dirt.

Beni grinned and then looked over her shoulder with a playful pout. "Don't you wish you knew you peeping Toms."

The crew gave a disappointed groan and she left shaking her head. Like she'd do anything with Pancake Butt. Next stop, the BT lab.

***

Louis crossed his arms and tried to get comfortable again in the damp heat inside Will's stomach. The scratch on his side was acting up again and he was still tired. But most of all, he wished he was his normal size so he could punch Martin Zachs in the face.

"He wants assurance that I'll come back," he snipped to the rippled walls. "Yeah, I'll be back to kick him out of Watch Two."

It was one thing to hear people talk about how grouchy he was behind his back, he had lived with that for a long time; but to hear someone accuse him of desertion was infuriating. Zachs' questions to Will hadn't been much of a confidence booster either. Louis could tell they had been directed to sow doubt. Will was too much of a bleeding heart-puppy-eyed-fanboy to doubt him right away, but people changed. He doubted Will would like him forever.

Of course Will had been right about one thing. "He's not that sociable."

"Life isn't a meet and greet. So I don't talk with a lot of people. So I don't got a lot of friends. Who cares? I get the job done."

That was how he'd been living his life ever since he graduated high school. That was the mentality he kept with him through boot came and the Middle East.

And it was the relaxing of that credo that eventually caused him to leave the army.

I can't go through this again. I don't like... I shouldn't like Will like that. Okay, so I can be his partner. That's it.

And yet, it was a contradicting thought. Once, sleepless and weary, he had crept into Will's room in Med Bay while he lay recovering from food poisoning, and lay his head over his partner's heart, soothed by it's beat and finally sleeping.

Will groaned around him, trying to find a comfortable position, and then settling for lying on his side. Louis looked up to the opening in the stomach that nearly forced him down to the small intestine. The pyloric sphincter was still swollen, red, and raw, but the trickle of blood had stopped and dissipated. Who knew how long it would take for it to heal.

What he's endured for me, all without complaint, thought Louis. He's an idiot.

Louis laid into the rippled curve of the stomach lining, his arm for a pillow. Once he had rest he could sort his thoughts out, make sense of all the vapid confusion and frustration. The thumping, vibrating heartbeat washed through his body, lulling him to sleep.

God he was so tired. He couldn't remember the last time he had a solid eight hours sleep.

Reese's voice boomed through the still working SkySprecht. "Will? You awake?"

Louis' eyes snapped open. "I am going to kill him."