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Agent Jayden was missing.
Well- not missing, per se. There was still a very reasonable chance that he was somewhere in the police department; Connor simply didn’t know where. Neither did Captain Fowler, or anyone else he’d encountered thus far.
And that was strange, because Jayden was a very punctual, very professional agent: If he had to step out of the department for some reason, he would have told someone first. This wasn’t meant to be a very large affair, just an update with Connor, Hank, and Captain Fowler about the allegations Christopher had made about androids being destroyed by Cyberlife after the president had ordered them to stand down.
“We’re thinking we might be able to get them on destruction of evidence,” Jayden had said over the phone. “Since the Connor series is evidence of androids being engineered to fight deviancy long before Cyberlife acknowledged deviancy to be a thing. We’ll talk more later.”
Well, it was later, and now Connor couldn’t find him.
Out of increasing confusion, he began to check the various conference rooms on the ground floor. Aside from the bathrooms, these were the only places he hadn’t checked yet, mostly because he couldn’t see a reason why Jayden would be in one of them.
He’d been missing long enough that Connor couldn’t dismiss it as an officer misguiding him, telling him to wait in a room where he wasn’t expected to be. Jayden would have guessed by now that no one knew where he was and gone looking for Connor on his own.
When Connor pushed open a particular door on the edge of the bullpen, he almost didn’t see Jayden inside- the room was dim, the blinds were drawn, and Jayden was seated in such a way that he was only completely visible if one stuck their whole head into the room.
Connor’s first thought as he stepped into the room was was, Guess I was wrong, he was waiting in an office.
His second thought was, Wait, is that blood?
Jayden was sitting in a chair pushed back from the conference table, upright but his posture slumped and blood running from his nose.
“Agent Jayden, are you alright?”
Jayden didn’t respond.
Connor snapped his fingers sharply in front of the agent’s face- Jayden did not flinch, or give any reaction at all. He reached out and gently pinched the skin on the back of Jayden’s hand- again, no response.
Though Connor was not designed to treat medical conditions, he did have the ability to calculate the most likely medical diagnoses in emergency situations. Right now, he had enough information to suggest that Agent Jayden was most likely having an absence seizure.
This was the best in-the-moment explanation for the symptoms Connor was seeing, but not a neat fit. Absence seizures, generally speaking, didn’t last this long- usually less than a quarter of a minute. They also didn’t typically cause nosebleeds. But then, Connor knew nothing about Jayden’s medical history or any extenuating factors that could be exacerbating the situation.
He reached out to one of the receptionists at the front desk, describing the symptoms and asking for an ambulance. The response was speedy:
[Calling now. Do you need further immediate assistance?]
Jayden shifted slightly, the first movement Connor had clocked since entering the room.
[No. I think he’s coming out of it. Thank you, Marisol.]
“Agent Jayden?”
The older man blinked rapidly for a second, and then squeezed his eyes shut.
“Oh.” Jayden blinked sluggishly. “Hi.”
Connor stopped the clock; by his measure Jayden had been seizing for at least a minute and a half, but Connor couldn’t be sure how long it had been going on for before he’d found him. “Agent, are you alright?”
“Christo- no… Connor. You’re Connor.”
“I am.” A little troubling, but then, Connor and Christopher were identical (more or less) and Jayden was only somewhat acquainted with them both; briefly mistaking one for the other was not as troubling as it would have been if it were, for instance, Hank that had made such an error.
Connor stepped back for a moment, stooped down to peek in a cabinet along the corner of the room. As he’d hoped, there was a box of tissues inside, and he offered one to Jayden. “For your nose.” When he received a blank stare in response, Connor elaborated. “Your nose is bleeding.”
“Oh.” Jayden took the tissue, slowly balling it up a little and pressing it under his nose. He was a little clumsy, but his motor skills and coordination were in tact, which was good. “Did I…?” He waved a hand vaguely next to his head.
Connor pulled a chair around the edge of the table so he could sit directly in front of Jayden. “I believe you had a seizure. You were conscious, but non-responsive for well over a minute.”
“Haven’t, uh… Haven’t had one in a, a… A long while,” Jayden mumbled.
“How long, do you think?”
“Mm…” Jayden’s eyes fluttered shut, almost appearing to fall asleep. Connor was on the verge of prodding him when he finally said, “Couple of years. Haven’t had a, uh… A big one in over a decade.”
“Are they usually atypical?”
“Huh?”
“Absence seizures don’t usually last this long, and you’re clearly struggling to stay clear-headed and focused, which isn’t usually a problem in the aftermath of a typical absence seizure.”
Jayden was quiet for a moment. He blinked slowly, frowning and clumsily dragging the tissue under his nose to wipe away the blood. “Yeah,” he said finally. “My, uh… I don’t have epilepsy, so my situation’s kinda weird. They don’t always fit the typical layout for a seizure.”
“Do you have a brain injury?”
Jayden’s expression was a little less confused now than it was thoughtful. “…Something like that, I guess you could say. Long story.”
A brief transmission came in from Marisol:
[Ambulance ETA 3 minutes.]
They were behind schedule; must have hit traffic.
“I called an ambulance. They should be here soon. Whether this is normal for you or not, I strongly believe you should see a doctor.”
“Yeah,” Jayden sighed, rubbing his eyes. Progressively he seemed to be growing more alert, and his motor-skills were improving inch by inch as well. “I probably should. Best to make sure I’m not on the verge of a TIA again.”
“You’ve had one before?” Connor’s previous concerns sky-rocketed: Brain injuries were tricky territory and could have long-lasting complications that could not necessarily be predicted ahead of time, but a history of mini-strokes heightened a person’s likelihood of experiencing a major stroke considerably.
“Twelve years ago.” Jayden shook his head. “I get migraines every now and then, but on rare occasions they’re the, uh…” He frowned, snapped his fingers. “…the kind that can mimic the symptoms of a stroke.”
“Hemiplegic.”
“Yeah, that one.” Jayden chuckled weakly. “The TIA, it was, uh… It was not long after I met Perkins, if you can believe it. One week dealing with the fucker and my brain just gave up the ghost.”
Connor smiled. “Understandable, I think.”
“Oh, definitely.” Jayden looked down and frowned when he saw the blood streaked across his shirt. “Ah, hell. It’s been a while since I ruined a shirt like this.”
“You might be able to get it out with bleach.”
“Eh, bleach can only go so far sometimes.”
Connor cocked his head. “You’ve been an FBI agent for over thirty years. How do you manage it? These symptoms have to be disruptive to your career.”
Jayden bobbed his head slowly. “Christ, you have no idea. I mean, like I said, in recent years things have kinda calmed down a bit: I might get a little seizure here and there, but nothing that has me banging my head on the ground or anything. I can usually feel them coming, too- I did this time. That’s why I’m in here and not standing in the middle of the bullpen out there like a zombie.”
“Don’t they interfere with your investigations?”
“Nah. Mostly it’s the migraines that screw me up work-wise. Even with the seizures, I mostly just have to make sure I’m not on the verge of one before I’m about to do something important. Thanks to self-driving cars, I don’t have to worry about ending up wrapped around a tree either.”
“And your superiors are okay with it?”
“Now? Sure. Like I said, my symptoms have calmed down a lot. Perkins isn’t my superior- not that he seems to know it, from the way he runs his mouth at me- but he thinks I should’ve been out of the agency years ago,” Jayden snorted as he scrubbed the tissue under his nose, trying to clean off the blood still stuck there. “Like look, if it were anyone else I would be touched by their concern for my health. But it’s not anyone else, it’s fucking Perkins and I know the vengeful little shit just wants to knock me out of a job so he has one less person around with the balls to stand up to him. I am not proud of how few of my fellow agents are willing to tell him to walk off a cliff when he starts getting nasty.”
[Ambulance is here.]
[Thank you.]
“They’re here,” Connor relayed, rising to his feet. “I’ll show them in.”
But Jayden shook his head, also standing. “Nah, I’ll go to them. Not interested in getting carted out of here in front of all your coworkers.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Connor said warily. “I don’t like the idea of you walking around right now.”
“I’ll be fine,” Jayden drawled, tugging his jacket to cover the worst of the blood stains on his shirt. “It’s not that long a walk, and you’ll be with me the whole time. If it makes you feel any better, I usually stay upright during the little seizures. How’s my face, blood gone?”
“Barely,” Connor sighed as he pushed the door open. “But I don’t think anyone will notice if you don’t draw attention to it.”
“Then everything’s fine!” Jayden said brightly. “Let’s go find the paramedics before they go a-hunting.”
Connor shook his head and ushered Jayden out of the room.
Stubborn to a fault, just like Hank.
At least Connor didn’t have to wrestle Jayden into an ambulance.
-End