A promise for everything you never found...

"Whoa," Butcher stared blankly at the syringe then flicked his eyes up to Mike's face to check his reaction.

"You son of a bitch, what the heck?" he yelled angrily. He closed his eyes, not liking the sight of syringes at all.

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Scared of needles, Carden?" He asked jeeringly, pulling it out. He squirted the blood he collected into a tray and put it under another machine. "Nick was interested in computers." He explained to Andrew. "I'm working on guess work here."

"Ah," Butcher nodded then patted Mike's uninjured hand. "It's okay, Mike. You'll heal." He surpressed a nervous giggle.

"Butcher, I still consider you a friend." Mike glared at him. "Don't make me change my mind." He looked back at Mikey. "Yeah, about Nick, I wanted to tell you..."

Mikey fixed him with a bitter glare. He turned his back pointedly, checking on the machine.

Butcher stuffed his hands into his pockets and watched what was going on between the two other men. He had a feeling he should stay out of this part of their conversation.

"Look, Mikey..." He swallowed. "I almost lost William a good number of times in the past few days. I know how you feel about me and about what happened, and...I wish I hadn't done it - I know it solves nothing but I needed to tell you. I did it out of anger, I didn't think before acting. I know you'll always hate me for it, and you have very right to, but... I don't feel proud or happy or satisfied. And if there was anything I could do to bring them back I'd do it." He looked away.

Mikey was pale. "You know nothing." He hissed. He stuck a fresh syringe into his own hand.

Butcher stayed quiet, looking around the room. He thought back over the day before and wondered what he had been thinking.

"Okay then. I don't know," Mike admitted. "Doesn't change the fact that I'm sorry and that I wish I could undo everything."

Mikey ignored him and placed his sample in a petri dish. "Yup." He frowned. "It's the serum."

"What are you supposed to do about it?" Butcher was glad he'd put his hands in his pockets so he wasn't tempted to touch anything.

Mike sighed loudly, but refrained from speaking. He watched the man, strangely fascinated.

Mikey swung himself off the table and tapped a few of the buttons. "There's got to be some sort of antidote." He frowned. "Too much of an antidote is a poison, too little of a poison is an antidote. Something like that."

"Sure," Butcher scratched his head and looked at Mike to see if he had followed that.

"Like a vaccine? You have to inject the virus in a small quantity and let the body build a protection against it. But that only works before the actual virus gets in..." Why the heck am I helping him? He tried to kill me.

Mikey 'hmmed' to himself quietly. Nick, what would you do? He staggered to a book shelf. "Carden, you can go." He said calmly. "Andrew." He threw Butcher a book. "Nick's got bad handwr... oh." He blinked. "Nick had bad handwriting." I haven't done that in ages...

"Bye Mike," Butcher said casually and squinted down at the writing in the book. "Nice."

"Uhm...bye? And I'm supposed to walk all the way back to..." Noticing no one was listening to him, he gave up. "Fuck it, I'm leaving. Bye." Before going through the door, he looked at Mikey. "Nick was an amazing guy." He left.

"Sorry, Mike I forgot. Do you want me to fly you back?" Butcher smiled sheepishly.

Mike peeked his head through the door frame. "Yes? Please?"

"I'll be back, Mikey," Butcher stepped out the door and started outside. "Okay wish me luck. So far I haven't crashed you into anything."

Mike rolled his eyes. "Well don't I feel special."

"Hey soon you'll be able to do this yourself, right? Don't you like a little excitement in your life?" Butcher switched to a vaguely Spanish accent for the last sentence. He wrapped his arms around Mike and took off from the ground, accidently getting himself caught in a draft of wind that took him off balance for a bit. "Whoa. Well I'll have you back to your Billy boy in no time."

» Making good on a promise
» Found the cure