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Oliver had a small notepad on his lap when Jack entered, the page that lay open was slowly being covered with quite decent drawings of various dinosaur skeletons. At the sound of the older man's voice, he quickly closed the book and looked up.

"Jack, hi!" He said, looking a bit too casual for being stuck in the infirmary. Never mind he was a nervous wreak on a good day, whatever had left that long, healing cut across his face should have had him cowering under his covers. Close inspection would reveal the nervous tug his fingers gave the blankets, yet no signs of anxiety made it into his voice. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to get your coffee for you..."

He trailed off as he realized quite the reverse was happening. Oliver accepted the mug, but any concern that Jack had brought coffee disappeared once he smelled the hot chocolate. It made his mouth water.

"Ah, thanks," He said, glancing at Jack with pale, awestruck eyes.

"O-okay, thanks," Oliver replied with a smile. Without needing to check the temperature of the drink, he raised the mug to his lips and took a long sip. It was delicious, so much nicer than the juice they gave the invalids here. Had Jack really only cared about coffee, Oliver might have understood as the drink warmed him comfortably from the inside out.

Setting the mug down in his lap, Oliver frowned. Only a little though, even a thoughtful face was enough to cause his wound pain. It passed quickly, and despite having lost some of his colour, Oliver was back to smiles. "I-it was a mission, to the Sahara. I-I got hurt."

That was that. Oliver took another sip from the mug, and showed no signs of continuing.

"S-sorry..." Jack's words were enough to bring back some seriousness, yet the only real sign of anxiety was another tug at the bed covers. It looked like Oliver wasn't even aware he was doing it.

"Um, it was... mostly a rescue mission, I think. Some hunters had gone missing, we were there to find out what happened, rescue if possible... I was sent with vials for sampling too." He looked down at the hot chocolate, looked past it, and then he rubbed his head.

"We, um... brought two back..." The teen paused again, looking a little more pale than before. He didn't seem willing to continue.

Oliver was not looking back up at Jack, not even for a second. He continued to rub his head. "Bugs... sand... A-anything that might have been contaminated. I had coordinates too, for geographical study..."

He shook his head, paused, and nodded. "Maybe, I d-don't know."

Details were still hard for Oliver at that point, his thoughts kept skirting around the edges, willfully avoiding memories of the event itself. But bugs, they were safe. On the surface at least. It was safe to remember lots of bugs, crawling through the walls, and bugs from failed experiment he had yet to report.

The boy cracked a smile, but it didn't seem whole. "You can't lure Famine bugs, n-not exactly... But there were two different types of beetles there. I-I think I got them both, to study properly."

Oliver nodded, "They are in the labs, I don't know where they got put, but probably with the older samples..."

The teen tried to take another sip of the hot chocolate, but he stopped half way to his mouth, and lowered the mug again. His hands trembled slightly. "Y-yeah, when we entered the walls were pitted with tunnels, and there were bugs everywhere. Lots, all different kinds, but they didn't bother us. But only the black beetles were..." At this point Oliver trailed off, leaving his description unfinished.

Oliver rubbed his head again with a shaking hand, and then smiled hollowly for no reason at all. A single tear ran down his cheek but he appeared not to notice as he switched back to the question of samples. "Um... I think... maybe they were put in the fridge with the flies..."

Coming from Jack, suggestions and orders were one and the same as far as Oliver was concerned, but this time it was a good thing. It kept him talking.

"There were five of us, Finn and I, plus three others, one each from the other divisions. We split up to look... but the bugs started to swarm and when we got back out, the other two weren't there..." The weak smile disappeared, and Oliver stared past the foot of his bed for a second.

He didn't want to think about it. But the more Jack asked, the closer he got to thinking about the situation that scared him. He had done what he needed to do, and he had done it very well from what he had been told, but trying to process what he had seen and experienced had been what broke him down.

Oliver swallowed heavily, and nodded. "Two were still alive." Still alive, living, breathing, vivisected with their organs on display and black beetles crawling through the cavities and under the skin and muscle...

The lone tear dripped from his chin onto his hand, and Oliver seemed startled, confused, even a little disoriented. "Um... I-I carried one out during the swarm... She was... She..." No, he didn't want to think about her state. It was a wonder she survived, with her skin peeled back, and the beetles... The memories in his mind were intrusive and terrifying, the teen that had been there at the time seemed like a distant and different person entirely.

Oliver shook his head, maybe trying to shake out the painful thoughts. "Finn and Daisy, the mist hunter, they went back in to look for the other two in our party. I stayed... I stayed outside."