One in a Trillion

Jade's smile widened, and she lowered herself to all fours and crawled over to Chase who giggled at her. "Hey, big boy," she crooned. "How about you and me going over to the main house so Mama can have a break, huh?" She scooped him up in her arms and gave him a raspberry on the cheek, making him giggle even more, which in turn made her giggle too. "I'll take that as a yes." 

It only took a couple minutes to gather a few things for him and for Dara, and soon, she was headed across the yard with Chase on her hip and Dara in a carrier. 

"Hey, looks like you got an armful," Mick teased as he stepped down off the porch, work gloves in hand. 

Jade smirked at him. "Just getting in some practice."

Mick stopped as his eyes went a little wide.

Jade gave him a mischievous grin. "Don't worry. You got a while yet, Grandpa."

"Oooh." Mick cringed. "I'm too young for that title." 

Jade laughed and shook her head. "I agree. I'm just helping Wendy out for a while, since..." She bit her lip.

Mick cocked his head. "Since what?"

"Well, since Clint's not here again today."

"Oh yeah." He fiddled with his gloves. "I heard he just walked away from the garage completely. I haven't talked to Wes much, but he seems pretty hurt by whatever Clint said to him. Any clue what's going on?"

Jade shook her head again. "No. He just texted me a little bit ago and asked if I'd check in on Wendy. I don't know where he is or what he's doing though. He's been super distant lately though. Almost worse than Dylan, if you can believe that." 

It was rare anyone was more offish than Dylan, let alone someone as outgoing as Clint. Something was obviously wrong though, and Mick just wished he knew how he could help his nephew. "Alright, well, you have fun. I've got a date with a filly."

Jade chuckled as she headed inside. "I won't tell Rosetta," she teased. 


It was noon before Clint's pickup returned to the ranch. He parked as usual, and avoided seeing anyone, simply heading to the house. Once inside, he looked around for Wendy, but found all the rooms empty. He went out the back, and saw her in the nearby garden. After just watching her for a few minutes, he finally stepped off the porch and wandered out to her. 

He knelt in the dirt next to her and sighed wearily. "Hi."


Jason laughed and slipped his arm around Katie's shoulder. "At least you still have your sense of humor." He slid his hand up behind her head and turned to rest his forehead against hers. 
Let's try something more pleasant...

It still hurt at this point since he hadn't yet gained control like he used to have, but he did his best to separate his good emotions. The laughter. The happiness of being with her even in the midst of all this. It was anything but an exact science, but he tried to push only those in her direction, if only to ease some of her own pain temporarily.

It wasn't much later that Rick disappeared for a few minutes, then reappeared with Garret. After all that had happened with Scott, Rick was less than trusting of this man, but it was all they had right now. Another long shot. But it was more than they'd had. 

"So what's going on?" Garret questioned, glancing over at Jason and Katie. "I thought you destroyed the element."

"We thought so too." Rick folded his arms. "But Jason's started coming back a while ago, and it's been getting worse. Then a couple days ago, Katie started showing symptoms too. The problem is, it seems to be more aggressive, and Katie's behind, so Jason's having a rough time." 

Garret thought for several long moments. "What kind of symptoms have showed up this time?" 

"Jason's sick, as usual. That's nothing new, unfortunately. His emotional build-up is painful, and a while ago, the lid blew. Hurt him and Katie and..." Rick hesitated. "We have a new problem... their eyes... are, um... well... they glow when they reach a high emotional point."

Garret blinked. Had he heard correctly? He looked over at Jason and Katie again. "And you expect me to help...how?"

Rick shrugged lamely. "We thought maybe you'd have some insights."

Garret sighed deeply. "I wish I did. Thing is... that whole thing started as an experiment that was later abandoned. Or at least as far as I know. On top of that you intervened with your own concoctions. It seemed to solve the whole issue, but it very well could have added to the evolution of it."

"That's a scary word."

"Evolution?" Garret nodded. "That's what the drug was designed for though. Even down to it not affecting the user, but affecting the offspring. From what I learned, the element can't be stopped. You've done a lot of research, but if you had the right know-how and equipment, you'd discover the element has attached itself to their genetic code, basically. Whatever 'cure' you came up with probably just masked it, or put it into a dormant state. Then something triggered it again and it reemerged - and full-force by the looks of it."

Rick swallowed hard. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I really wish I knew. The only thing I can suggest is to treat the symptoms. It could evolve to the point where their bodies accept the changes. Or it could kill them. It's not a virus - it's their bodies not accepting what's happening. So if you can get their natural reactions to chill out, that might help. As far as their eyes go..." Garret's eyebrows rose as he thought about that one. "None of the lab rats ever did that so... you got me there. My guess is that nobody - human or animal - ever got this far in the process. Like I said, the project fizzled out. Medridge though it didn't work. So from this point forward, it's all new territory."

Jason had been listening, and sighed deeply. "So as far as you know... we're the only two like this."

"It would be a one in a trillion chance that anybody else out there ever experienced any symptoms, yes. The original drug wasn't even distributed to that many people, then they had to have had kids, then those kids would have had to meet up - basically you two are the product of sheer chance." 

Chance, or a bigger plan?
Jason's pulled Katie in a little tighter.


"Oh yeah." Hal chuckled and rifled through some papers he was trying to sort. Or at least looking like he was trying to. "Everything's fine." He shook his head. "You know those days where nothing goes right?" His eyes rolled. "Rick may be back temporarily, but I feel bad he's had a day starting out like that." 

He cleared his throat, then looked up at one of the other monitors. "Looks like you and Aaron have made progress on the Death Star. I'm kind of surprised at how quiet he's been the last few days though. Is he still depressed?"