Chapter Text
The experimental gene therapy had worked; Griff knew delusion from reality once again. Unfortunately for Dana, that meant that he remembered who he was and what he could do. It was child’s play to steal a nurse’s key card and let himself out of his room the Friday evening of a long weekend. He’d exchanged his hospital gown for a set of scrubs he’d filched, and now blended in as he walked down the hallway.
He’d considered killing Dana for what she’d done to him, but ultimately decided against it. Instead, by escaping, he’d remove all proof of her life’s work: proof that she’d undoubtedly need in order to be allowed to legally try gene therapy on patients with the Evil Gene like her daughter. That would, he hoped, be a worse fate than killing her.
It was the middle of the night, so most of the lights were off and the other patients were sleeping. He paused, however, when he heard absolutely heart-wrenching sobs coming from one of the rooms. Was this another of Dana’s experiments? He hesitated, then grabbed the file on the door and looked it over. It had nothing to do with the Evil Gene; apparently, an Omega who worked for the CIA had suffered a work-related mental breakdown.
Griff scanned the file. The Omega, codename ‘Lex,’ real name unknown, believed that he’d participated in a mission that had killed two of his teammates. However, it appeared that that was a lie he’d been told as a cover story for some operatives who were heading deep undercover. Griff growled; this was the same sort of shit that had ended his military career. The left hand didn’t know what the right was doing, and suffered for it.
Well, he could fix this. Screw the government; they’d screwed him. He opened up the door to the room with his keycard to find an Omega staring at him with wide eyes. “They’re not dead, they’re undercover,” he said, after clearing his throat. “The assholes lied to you.” He tossed the file onto the bed next to the Omega.
“What--why--who are you?” the Omega asked, hiccuping as he hesitantly reached for the file.
“Someone else they lied to,” Griff replied with a shrug. After a moment, he stepped inside the room and closed the door, not wanting to draw any extra attention. Since he didn’t really have a need to keep his identity a secret, he added, “Name’s Griff.”
“Oh my god.” The Omega was engrossed in the file. “They’re alive! They’re not--why would Jackson and Gage do this to me?”
“Because the government sucks.” Griff’s nose twisted in distaste; the room was full of the smell of mildewed tea left way too long in a mug. “Anyway, thought you should know.” He turned to leave.
“Wait!” The Omega climbed out of bed on slightly unsteady feet. “Where are you going?”
“Away,” Griff replied with a shrug. “Somewhere I never have to look at these walls ever again,” he added, gesturing to the institutionalized decor.
“Take me with you,” the Omega pleaded.
Griff felt his eyebrows raise. “Why would you want to go with me?” He hesitated, but then added, “I had the Evil Gene. I think it’s gone now; they did gene therapy on me, but I could be wrong.”
Lex shook his head. “That’s a bunch of bullshit. No one believes in the ‘evil gene’ anymore. I mean, yes, it predicts a tendency toward psychosis, but only a tendency.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Griff pointed out.
Lex ducked his head, clearly thinking. “Look, they’re...my entire life’s gone. My friends, my job; they’d never let me go back after all of this. They might let me out of here if I get better, but they might not. I know a lot of things, especially now that I’ve read this file. Maybe they’d send an agent to kill me. You--maybe you’re some kind of test or something, but I don’t think so. I think I can trust you. And you’re leaving. You might be my only opportunity to ever get out of this place alive.” He looked back up at Griff, pleadingly. “Please--just help me get out of here, wherever this is, and then I’ll leave and you’ll never hear from me again. I swear.”
Griff barely hesitated; he wasn’t about to leave someone else in this hellhole. “All right,” he said. “Give me back the file so no one notices it’s missing, and then I’ll go find a wheelchair.” Since he didn’t have a second set of scrubs, he figured that that would be the easiest way to move Lex around, at least within the building.
Lex fixed Griff with piercing golden eyes. “Promise me you’ll come back?” he asked hesitantly, before holding the folder out.
“I promise. Unless I get caught myself,” Griff noted, taking the folder.
“Don’t get caught,” Lex pleaded.
“I’ll try.” Griff gave the Omega a brief smile, feeling his cheeks resist a movement he’d made all too little lately, and then left the room, carefully replacing the file. He moved as confidently as he could down the hallway until he found a wheelchair outside of another room. He briefly wondered if everyone in this facility deserved to be freed, but after glancing at the file on the patient inside the room the wheelchair was outside of, he winced. Apparently not everyone in here was like he and Lex.
He wheeled the chair back to Lex’s room, nodding nonchalantly at a woman in scrubs who was walking down the corridor. “Evening,” she said, otherwise ignoring him.
“Evening,” he replied. Clearly, no one had noticed his absence yet, though he didn’t expect anyone to until the morning.
He used his keycard to open the door to Lex’s room, only to find the Omega ready to go. “Can we--can we take the file?” Lex whispered as he settled himself in the chair. The tea was smelling better, and Griff realized that it was Lex’s natural scent.
Griff hesitated. “No, but,” he reached up to the file, pulled out the pages stating that Terri, Stiles, and Joshua were all still alive, and handed them to Lex before replacing the file. Lex smiled at him, then folded up the papers and tucked them away in his hospital gown.
“Don’t suppose you have any idea where the locker rooms are?” he asked as he wheeled Lex out into the hallway.
“Actually, I do. Second floor is where they have all the stuff for the workers,” Lex said. When Griff looked down at him, surprised, he shrugged. “They occasionally make me walk around for exercise. And it’s not as if they’ve had to worry about me escaping before this.”
Griff couldn’t help but smile at him. “I guess we make a good team.”
Lex’s face fell a little at the mention of a team. “Yeah,” he agreed, though he didn’t sound as if he meant it.
Griff chose not to respond. Instead, he wheeled Lex over to the elevator and, when it arrived and he’d gotten them both in, pushed the button that would take them to the second floor.
There were only a couple of people on the second floor, and neither of them questioned Griff or Lex’s presence. The two men made their way into the locker room, where they quickly searched for clothes that would at least sort of fit them. Without speaking to one another, they also grabbed wallets, cash, and any food they found. Lex discovered an over-the-shoulder bag in one locker and put their ill-gotten gains into it.
Griff was shocked at how easy it was after that to just walk out of the building. They’d stolen a set of keys with a fob, and walked down the parking lot, hitting the button every so often and listening for the car to beep at them. When one finally did, they hurried into it, Griff taking the driver’s seat.
There was no security, so they simply drove out of the parking lot. Griff turned right onto the road, and drove. “Uh. Any idea where we are?” he asked.
Lex was busy with a phone he’d stolen. “Hold on...we’re...on the outskirts of Hagerstown, Maryland. Turn left up ahead. I assume you want to lose the car in a parking lot?”
“Yeah,” Griff nodded.
“Got a regional airport coming up in a few miles. We can leave the car there, go...well, wherever we want.” Griff noticed Lex looking over at him; now that he was confined in the car, and feeling better, he actually smelled like freshly brewed, spicy chai tea. It was making Griff crave coffee, if he was honest. “Um. D’you...want to split up? When we get there?”
Griff considered the question. An hour ago, he’d have said yes without compunction. Now, though… “If I were looking for the two of us… I think I’d expect us to split up. Maybe it’s best if we stay together. An Alpha and an Omega together will probably get fewer weird looks than either one alone.”
Lex nodded, doing something with the back of the phone that Griff couldn’t quite understand, and looked relieved. “I don’t have any family,” he admitted. “Or, well, friends that aren’t deep undercover. So I don’t really care where we go.”
Griff knew the feeling, all too well, and frowned at the tone of loss in the Omega’s voice. “I don’t have any family, either. So let’s lose ourselves in Hagerstown for a while, then maybe head for West Virginia. Plenty of places no one asks questions out there.”
“Okay,” Lex agreed, and smiled briefly at Griff. “Sounds like a plan.”
.oOOo.
After Lex did something at the airport with the phone and an ATM that resulted in them significantly improving their cash situation, they took a shuttle to a random hotel where they booked a room. Griff frowned when he walked in the room; there was only one bed. It meant they would be less noticeable, as the clerk obviously assumed they were together, but also that, well, there was only one bed.
“I’ll take the floor,” he offered after Lex followed him into the room. Neither of them really had anything to put away; they’d have to go shopping before they had that problem.
“Nah,” Lex replied, looking over at it and setting his bag down on a chair. He’d left the phone at the airport, even though he’d assured Griff that he’d made it impossible to trace. “We’re both adults; we can share. Dibs on the first shower, though.”
Griff groaned at the mention of a shower, but gestured to the bathroom. “Go ahead.” It was a hotel; there was no way there would be less hot water when it was his turn. Lex disappeared into the bathroom, so Griff set what little he did have on the nightstand, claiming the right side of the bed. He laid down on top of the covers in an attempt to prevent himself from going straight to sleep--it had been a long night.
There were ways they could be traced, he knew, but unless someone was really interested in following them, what he and Lex had done would keep them from picking up the trail any time soon. Staying close to the institution would actually throw anyone trying to follow them further off than taking off in a random direction immediately, which was what everyone would expect them to do. So, it made sense to stay in town for a few days, as long as they didn’t draw too much attention to themselves and weren’t spotted by anyone who had worked at the facility who would recognize them.
Griff nodded to himself. They’d stay here for a few days--they’d already booked the hotel room for a week, just in case--and then steal another car and head west. Assuming, of course, that Lex still wanted to stay with him at that point.
.oOOo.
When Lex finally got out of the shower, wearing boxers he’d stolen from the hospital locker rooms, he found Griff sleeping on top of the covers on the right side of the large bed. Shrugging, he pulled back the covers on the left side and climbed in. This close, he could smell the Alpha’s shaving cream and coffee scent. It reminded him of mornings, but oddly enough settled him down rather than ramping him up, as one might expect.
He fell asleep within minutes.
Both were apparently too exhausted to dream, or, if they did, their nightmares didn’t wake the other.
Lex woke up first, early the next afternoon. He took a few minutes to remember where he was and why he was there. The sight of Griff, sprawled out on the other side of the bed on top of the covers, helped to remind him. Reaching into the bag and pulling out the papers that said that Terri, in particular, was alive...that grounded him further.
He kept quiet as he used the facilities, though Griff’s natural coffee smell had him starting up the in-room coffee maker immediately afterwards, and it made noise.
The Alpha woke up, staring over at him in confusion for a moment or two. “Oh,” he grunted. “Right.” With that, he climbed out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom.
Lex didn’t even consider leaving, although this would be an opportune moment. He liked Griff; at least, what he’d seen of him so far. He hadn’t lied, either; he had no place to go and no one he wanted to be with any more. He’d miss Terri, Stiles, and Joshua, but he wasn’t certain he could ever forgive them for lying to him--not about something as important as this. Plus, Griff was a natural leader, and Lex was a natural follower.
He looked around the room until he found the folder describing room service, and he dialed the number. Although he didn’t know what Griff liked, he ordered a whole bunch of breakfast food for the two of them. He was starving, and figured that Griff was probably in the same condition. Besides, who said no to bacon and eggs?
“Hey,” he said, when Griff wandered out of the bathroom a while later, fully dressed. Lex was still in his boxers. “I ordered food, hope you don’t mind.”
Griff grunted. “Are you kidding? Anything they bring has to be better than that crap they gave us in the hospital.”
Lex blinked, and then smiled. “True! Hey, uh, so...what’s the plan? Or is there one?”
Griff turned serious eyes on him for a few moments. “We stay here a few days, then we steal a car and head west. We should go shopping first, though, get some clothes that fit and things. A couple of burner phones.” He ticked the list off on his fingers. “Just need to make sure no one from the facility spots us.”
Lex nodded slowly; it was a good plan. “If we can get a halfway decent laptop somehow, I can probably create some cover IDs for us in the hotel business center. Nothing that would stand up to CIA scrutiny, but enough to pass muster if we get pulled over by the cops.”
Griff nodded. “That would help a lot,” he agreed. “Then...I suppose we’ll have to find jobs somewhere where they don’t ask many questions.”
“As long as they have decent wi-fi wherever it is,” Lex insisted, but he smiled. While he hated the feeling that he was replacing his old team, he had to admit something. “You’re right, we do make a good team. You remind me a lot of some agents I used to know.”
“Used to be FBI,” Griff admitted. “Probably went through some of the same training as they did.”
Lex looked more closely at the Alpha, and could see it, even though his hair was much longer than regulation and he’d developed a bit of a paunch from the aforementioned hospital food. He realized that, while Griff knew a lot about him after studying his folder, he knew almost nothing about Griff. That should probably worry him, but for whatever reason, it didn’t. The man had told him the truth when no one else had. “Yeah, that’s probably it,” he agreed.
Griff kept watching him. “You should probably know...when I had the Evil Gene, I was psychotic. I...did some things.”
“Did you do them before?” Lex asked in a neutral tone.
“What? No, of course not. I mean...I did shoot someone during a raid. But I swear to God I thought they were a drug trafficker when I took the shot.”
“Okay. So you didn’t purposefully hurt innocent people before you were psychotic. And you’re not psychotic any more.” Lex shrugged. “Honestly, I’m probably better off with you than I was with my old team.”
Griff blew out a breath. “Well, now you know,” he said. There was a knock on the door, and he got up to answer it, checking the peephole first. He let in a couple of people from room service carrying delicious-smelling food. “Put it on the table,” he instructed them.
“That smells amazing!” Lex enthused, completely missing the smirk one of the room service people gave Griff, likely directed at the fact that the Alpha was dressed but the Omega wasn’t.
“Don’t bother waiting for me,” Griff said, as he presumably added a tip and signed the bill.
Lex immediately pounced on the food as if he hadn’t eaten in days, drawing yet another smirk from the guy from room service. Lex spotted this one, but didn’t care. He was hungry, and the food smelled delicious. He started uncovering the dishes one by one and pulling things onto his personal plate.
Soon, room service had left and Griff joined him. Lex pushed over a plate of ham and eggs he’d gotten specifically for Griff. The Alpha immediately tucked in, clearly as ravenous as Lex. “Thanks,” he said. “For ordering this.”
“No problem,” Lex smiled at him. “I figured you were probably as hungry as I was.”
“Yeah,” Griff replied, before shoving more ham into his mouth. They ate the rest in silence.