Government Bribes, Chapter 1 (original, g)
Title: Government Bribes - Chapter 1
Author: siriusly_sex
Rating: pg13 (language)
Word Count: 2287
Fandom: Original (Government Bribes)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Lily, Carys, Agent Sanders, Leo
Summary: Thirteen years ago, Leo and Lily meet. Now, Lily and Charlie fight.
Warnings: reference to the Doctor Who episode School Reunion
Disclaimer: fic-tion n. something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story
A/N: While the series won't incorporate the Doctor anymore (because once he leaves a void, he can't go back, duh!), it will incorporate some of the monsters and aliens from the fandom.
Thirteen years ago, in a city between San Francisco and Monterey, a six year old Lily made friends with a boy named Leo Cunningham. Leo was a transfer student and Lily felt bad for him, as he got his lunch but didn't know where to sit.
"Hey," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. He was right in front of her in line and he was in her class. "I'm Lily, I'm in your class. You can sit with me, if you don't have anyone else to sit with."
Leo smiled a grateful smile, and said, "That would be great, thanks." They paid for their food, and Leo followed Lily outside. Lily always ate outside by the pine trees and today would be no different. There were other people out there: a group of older kids played around with a football on the grass, there were kids playing hopscotch, and a bunch of girls were jumping rope.
Lily asked how Leo liked the school so far, and he said, in a sad voice, that she was the first person to talk to him.
"I transferred too!" she said, biting into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Last year, I transferred from the East Coast and came here!"
"I came from the East Coast too! It's so warm here!" Leo exclaimed, getting a sip of orange juice. "You know, it's snowing right now where I'm from, and here there's only clouds!"
Lily laughed, leaned back, and told Leo to do the same. "I like to eat out here, because when I'm done, I like to look at the sky and pretend the skies are spaceships."
"Me too!"
Leo looked at Lily who looked at Leo, and at that moment, they knew they were best friends. They spent the rest of lunch together comparing favourites and making drawings in Lily's notebook.
Nowadays, Leo and Lily are still best friends, but, now nineteen, they spend their time doing different things than they did when they were six. Right now, they were in an abandoned building and separated.
"Leo!" Lily screamed, frantically looking around for her absent best friend. "Leo, where are you?!" She only heard echoes of her own voice, and ran down the dark hallway to where she saw Leo last. "Leo? Are you down here?"
Then a soft "Lily?" came from right in front of her, but it wasn't Leo's voice.
"Charlie!" Lily exclaimed. Tears streaming down her grimy face, she grabbed onto Charlie and hugged him as hard as she could. "Charlie, Leo's lost! You gotta help me find him."
"I'm right here," Leo grumbled. Charlie was holding onto the back of his collar.
"Leo here came to me out of breath and told me you guys had gotten separated in this building looking for aliens?" Charlie was frowning. "Come on," he added, grabbing her wrist. and started walking the way he came in. "Let's get out of here."
"No!" she exclaimed, not caring that they were in the basement of the oldest, creepiest building in their city. She pulled her arm back and Charlie stopped. "You can't just keep dismissing me like that! And just because you're dating my mom, doesn't mean you can tell me what to do!"
Charlie looked like he was going to have smoke come out his nostrils, he was so angry. He brought his face very close to Lily's and said, in a quiet, angry voice, "I am not dismissing you or telling you what to do. I'm trying to save your life!"
Lily wiped away her tears, which wouldn't stop coming down. "I didn't need saving. I knew where the exit was. The only reason I was still down here, was because I thought Leo was still down here, and I didn't want to leave him by himself!"
They stared at each other for a good minute, listening only to Lily's sniffs. "Charlie? Lily? I don't mean to interrupt whatever this is, but I want to take a shower and get this grit off me. Plus, Lily, we have class in an hour."
Lily gave one final glare to Charlie and stomped off past him towards the exit.
Charlie apologized as he let go of Leo's shirt and stomped off after Lily.
Leo let out a small laugh and ran off after the both of them.
Charlie flopped down a dining chair and let out a long sigh. Carys looked up from making dinner. "Oh, Charlie, you're back! What's wrong?"
"Your daughter is still running around looking for aliens, and this time it lead her to that old abandoned factory that no one in their right mind would go." Despite himself, he smiled and told Carys, "And she definitely thinks we're dating."
"Who, me and you?" Carys let out a short laugh. "Well, you are always kissing me on the head and hugging me and you bought me groceries yesterday."
"Well, I'm just saying, I'm glad our cover is working. It's better to be Charlie, the man dating your mom, than Uncle Charlie, because there's always that chance that your sister will contact you and tell her that you have no brother."
Carys chuckled and tasted some of the soup she was making. "That's true. I'm just glad she hasn't noticed we aren't doing anything more than that."
"Oh, don't be so sure," Charlie said, getting up from the kitchen table and going over to Carys to taste the soup too. "You say that, the next thing you know, she'll be asking questions about our love life. Needs more pepper," he added, pointing to the soup. He kissed her cheek and told her he was going to take a shower.
Carys smiled, and added some pepper.
Lily and Leo, who were both in their first year of college, had their own apartment to themselves. Lily's family was never short on money, a reason that Lily did not know the reason for. Still, when she asked her mother if it would be alright to share an apartment with Leo, Carys only asked that it was an equal distance from the school and her house.
"Charlie texted me. Says my mom's asking if we're coming over for dinner tonight," Lily said. "You want to go?"
"Meh, not really," Leo said, toweling his hair dry. "I think my girlfriend wants me to take her out, and I know you don't want to see Charlie again."
Lily blushed. "Yeah, that jerk," she mumbled. Lily had confided in Leo almost everything since childhood, but there was one thing she kept secret: she had a crush on Charlie, her mom's boyfriend. It was one of the reasons she wanted her own place, to get away from seeing Charlie all the time. But, for some reason, he always seemed to be where she went anyway. The city they lived in wasn't that small, so there was no reason for Charlie to go to the same grocery store she did, and there was no reason to see him drive past her university when he worked at the other end of the city.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" he asked. "I was scared, I had to go for someone, and Charlie just happened to be passing by. It's not like I called him, okay?"
Lily frowned again, but said, "Oh, no, I'm not mad at you, Leo. Go see your girlfriend. I'm gonna try and write my paper."
"Good luck," Leo said, picking up his keys and his wallet. "Are you gonna look up that thing we saw again?"
Lily shrugged, "I dunno. I might just ditch both and watch TV."
"Well, if you do, I wrote down what I remember. It's in my room." He kissed Lily on the cheek. "I'll see you when I get back, okay? Want me to bring back Chinese or pizza or something?"
She smiled up at him. "Thanks, but it's okay, I'll just have whatever's the fridge."
After Leo left, Lily didn't turn on the TV, her computer or get Leo's notes from his room. She went into her bedroom, took a box out from under her bed, and opened it. This is where she kept things that were precious to her; a picture of her and her first pet (a dog named Yanto that passed away in her first year of high school), a Valentine Charlie had given her (her boyfriend had broken up with her the day before and Charlie felt bad for her), Leo's senior picture from last year, some other trinkets, and finally, at the bottom of the box, deliberately hidden away, was a crayon picture she saved from when she was four.
Her mother swore it was just like all her other drawings, but Lily had a feeling that this one was different. There was a blue box behind a swing set, and two strange people next to it. There was also a giant red bear thing (wolf thing?) and Lily was sure, totally convinced, that she had seen, gone through and experienced this page: the blue box, the two strange people, the giant bear-wolf.
She took the page out and traced her finger over red creature, a creature she knew to be an alien, and sighed. "I know you're real, I know it. I just have to prove it."
And she was determined to prove it. Ever since she had met Leo, they had been off trying to find proof of alien existence. Ten years ago, when they discovered the internet, they were either researching alien sites or joining alien forums to talk to other alien researchers. By the time they had learned how to drive, they had wanted to check out all the alien hotspots for themselves. So, that's what they did for the last two years of high school, but only in between homework and studying since they both wanted to attend the local university after high school: Leo wanted to become an music engineer, and Lily wanted to become an astrophysicist. Today had been their last hotspot; the abandoned factory was her last hope to find a glimpse of alien life.
And it failed.
Charlie finished dressing in his room and was going down to have dinner with Carys when he passed Lily's old room. He peeked in and smiled sadly. He missed her. He knew it was weird, even in the 51st century it was weird, for a man to grow up with a young child and grow to love her in the way that he loved Lily.
He knew how not to show it; after all, when he was still with the Time Agency, a government sect from the 51st century, they had trained him how to control his features to hide his true feelings, which was supposed to come in handy when you were being tortured. Luckily, Charlie had never had the pleasure of getting tortured. But he didn't have training on how to handle loss, even if it was just the girl you loved moving out.
He descended the stairs and found Carys sitting at the table, food packed up in Tupperware. Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to Lily's? She wants us to come over, right?" He sighed, smiled, and shook his head. He started heading back to get a jacket when Carys called out to him.
"Charlie, come, sit down. I want to have a chat with you."
"Alright," Charlie said, sitting down at the table.
"I have a request."
"Alriiight," Charlie repeated.
"I know we decided it would be best if Lily was in the dark about all this alien business, but the longer she goes without knowing, the more trouble she gets into. It's just, I'm tired of her wandering around and getting in trouble. I don't want to worry about her getting lost in abandoned factories anymore." Carys looked down at her fingers. "I want you to go and tell Lily the truth. About everything."
There was a long pregnant pause. Charlie only spoke after he got up noiselessly from his chair. "Okay, I'll go tell her the truth about the aliens."
Carys reached out for his arm and squeezed it gently. "And what about the truth about you?"
He just looked down at her and smiled before leaving with the dinner.
Lily was still looking at the picture when there was a knock at the door. She hastily put the box away, and went to look through the peephole. Confused, she opened the door. "Charlie?"
It wasn't. But whoever it was, it was a good impostor. "Hey, Lily," it smiled at her. "Can I come in?"
It took a step forward, and Lily tried to close the door, but its foot was holding the door open. She grabbed her keys, which were nearby, just in case it tried to attack her. "Actually, Charlie, I'm kinda busy. Can I talk to you later?" She kept pressing against the door, trying to close it, but its foot wouldn't budge.
"No," it snarled, and pushed back against the door, sending Lily falling to the floor. Then, what normal people would call "the strangest thing" happened: it turned into a gigantic bat like creature and lunged for Lily's throat before Lily could scream.
But, Lily expected that to happen. The strangest thing that Lily did not expect happened next: Charlie, the real Charlie this time, burst in and hits the creature with a weird lavender light beam from a gun that didn't really look like a real gun. In two seconds, the bat creature turned into a fine purple dust that sprinkled onto Lily.
She coughed, and Charlie helped her up. He looked at the keys in her hand, and smirked. "A Krillitane attacks you, and you fight if off with keys?" he asks mockingly.
"As if I knew what it really was!" she shot back, angry that the ashes of the krill-i-tane were all over her. "What the fuck is going on here?!"
The smirk on Charlie's face grew and he raised a bag full of Tupperware that was tied to his hand. "Let's have dinner, and I'll explain it."
Author: siriusly_sex
Rating: pg13 (language)
Word Count: 2287
Fandom: Original (Government Bribes)
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Lily, Carys, Agent Sanders, Leo
Summary: Thirteen years ago, Leo and Lily meet. Now, Lily and Charlie fight.
Warnings: reference to the Doctor Who episode School Reunion
Disclaimer: fic-tion n. something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story
A/N: While the series won't incorporate the Doctor anymore (because once he leaves a void, he can't go back, duh!), it will incorporate some of the monsters and aliens from the fandom.
Thirteen years ago, in a city between San Francisco and Monterey, a six year old Lily made friends with a boy named Leo Cunningham. Leo was a transfer student and Lily felt bad for him, as he got his lunch but didn't know where to sit.
"Hey," she said, tapping him on the shoulder. He was right in front of her in line and he was in her class. "I'm Lily, I'm in your class. You can sit with me, if you don't have anyone else to sit with."
Leo smiled a grateful smile, and said, "That would be great, thanks." They paid for their food, and Leo followed Lily outside. Lily always ate outside by the pine trees and today would be no different. There were other people out there: a group of older kids played around with a football on the grass, there were kids playing hopscotch, and a bunch of girls were jumping rope.
Lily asked how Leo liked the school so far, and he said, in a sad voice, that she was the first person to talk to him.
"I transferred too!" she said, biting into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Last year, I transferred from the East Coast and came here!"
"I came from the East Coast too! It's so warm here!" Leo exclaimed, getting a sip of orange juice. "You know, it's snowing right now where I'm from, and here there's only clouds!"
Lily laughed, leaned back, and told Leo to do the same. "I like to eat out here, because when I'm done, I like to look at the sky and pretend the skies are spaceships."
"Me too!"
Leo looked at Lily who looked at Leo, and at that moment, they knew they were best friends. They spent the rest of lunch together comparing favourites and making drawings in Lily's notebook.
Nowadays, Leo and Lily are still best friends, but, now nineteen, they spend their time doing different things than they did when they were six. Right now, they were in an abandoned building and separated.
"Leo!" Lily screamed, frantically looking around for her absent best friend. "Leo, where are you?!" She only heard echoes of her own voice, and ran down the dark hallway to where she saw Leo last. "Leo? Are you down here?"
Then a soft "Lily?" came from right in front of her, but it wasn't Leo's voice.
"Charlie!" Lily exclaimed. Tears streaming down her grimy face, she grabbed onto Charlie and hugged him as hard as she could. "Charlie, Leo's lost! You gotta help me find him."
"I'm right here," Leo grumbled. Charlie was holding onto the back of his collar.
"Leo here came to me out of breath and told me you guys had gotten separated in this building looking for aliens?" Charlie was frowning. "Come on," he added, grabbing her wrist. and started walking the way he came in. "Let's get out of here."
"No!" she exclaimed, not caring that they were in the basement of the oldest, creepiest building in their city. She pulled her arm back and Charlie stopped. "You can't just keep dismissing me like that! And just because you're dating my mom, doesn't mean you can tell me what to do!"
Charlie looked like he was going to have smoke come out his nostrils, he was so angry. He brought his face very close to Lily's and said, in a quiet, angry voice, "I am not dismissing you or telling you what to do. I'm trying to save your life!"
Lily wiped away her tears, which wouldn't stop coming down. "I didn't need saving. I knew where the exit was. The only reason I was still down here, was because I thought Leo was still down here, and I didn't want to leave him by himself!"
They stared at each other for a good minute, listening only to Lily's sniffs. "Charlie? Lily? I don't mean to interrupt whatever this is, but I want to take a shower and get this grit off me. Plus, Lily, we have class in an hour."
Lily gave one final glare to Charlie and stomped off past him towards the exit.
Charlie apologized as he let go of Leo's shirt and stomped off after Lily.
Leo let out a small laugh and ran off after the both of them.
Charlie flopped down a dining chair and let out a long sigh. Carys looked up from making dinner. "Oh, Charlie, you're back! What's wrong?"
"Your daughter is still running around looking for aliens, and this time it lead her to that old abandoned factory that no one in their right mind would go." Despite himself, he smiled and told Carys, "And she definitely thinks we're dating."
"Who, me and you?" Carys let out a short laugh. "Well, you are always kissing me on the head and hugging me and you bought me groceries yesterday."
"Well, I'm just saying, I'm glad our cover is working. It's better to be Charlie, the man dating your mom, than Uncle Charlie, because there's always that chance that your sister will contact you and tell her that you have no brother."
Carys chuckled and tasted some of the soup she was making. "That's true. I'm just glad she hasn't noticed we aren't doing anything more than that."
"Oh, don't be so sure," Charlie said, getting up from the kitchen table and going over to Carys to taste the soup too. "You say that, the next thing you know, she'll be asking questions about our love life. Needs more pepper," he added, pointing to the soup. He kissed her cheek and told her he was going to take a shower.
Carys smiled, and added some pepper.
Lily and Leo, who were both in their first year of college, had their own apartment to themselves. Lily's family was never short on money, a reason that Lily did not know the reason for. Still, when she asked her mother if it would be alright to share an apartment with Leo, Carys only asked that it was an equal distance from the school and her house.
"Charlie texted me. Says my mom's asking if we're coming over for dinner tonight," Lily said. "You want to go?"
"Meh, not really," Leo said, toweling his hair dry. "I think my girlfriend wants me to take her out, and I know you don't want to see Charlie again."
Lily blushed. "Yeah, that jerk," she mumbled. Lily had confided in Leo almost everything since childhood, but there was one thing she kept secret: she had a crush on Charlie, her mom's boyfriend. It was one of the reasons she wanted her own place, to get away from seeing Charlie all the time. But, for some reason, he always seemed to be where she went anyway. The city they lived in wasn't that small, so there was no reason for Charlie to go to the same grocery store she did, and there was no reason to see him drive past her university when he worked at the other end of the city.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" he asked. "I was scared, I had to go for someone, and Charlie just happened to be passing by. It's not like I called him, okay?"
Lily frowned again, but said, "Oh, no, I'm not mad at you, Leo. Go see your girlfriend. I'm gonna try and write my paper."
"Good luck," Leo said, picking up his keys and his wallet. "Are you gonna look up that thing we saw again?"
Lily shrugged, "I dunno. I might just ditch both and watch TV."
"Well, if you do, I wrote down what I remember. It's in my room." He kissed Lily on the cheek. "I'll see you when I get back, okay? Want me to bring back Chinese or pizza or something?"
She smiled up at him. "Thanks, but it's okay, I'll just have whatever's the fridge."
After Leo left, Lily didn't turn on the TV, her computer or get Leo's notes from his room. She went into her bedroom, took a box out from under her bed, and opened it. This is where she kept things that were precious to her; a picture of her and her first pet (a dog named Yanto that passed away in her first year of high school), a Valentine Charlie had given her (her boyfriend had broken up with her the day before and Charlie felt bad for her), Leo's senior picture from last year, some other trinkets, and finally, at the bottom of the box, deliberately hidden away, was a crayon picture she saved from when she was four.
Her mother swore it was just like all her other drawings, but Lily had a feeling that this one was different. There was a blue box behind a swing set, and two strange people next to it. There was also a giant red bear thing (wolf thing?) and Lily was sure, totally convinced, that she had seen, gone through and experienced this page: the blue box, the two strange people, the giant bear-wolf.
She took the page out and traced her finger over red creature, a creature she knew to be an alien, and sighed. "I know you're real, I know it. I just have to prove it."
And she was determined to prove it. Ever since she had met Leo, they had been off trying to find proof of alien existence. Ten years ago, when they discovered the internet, they were either researching alien sites or joining alien forums to talk to other alien researchers. By the time they had learned how to drive, they had wanted to check out all the alien hotspots for themselves. So, that's what they did for the last two years of high school, but only in between homework and studying since they both wanted to attend the local university after high school: Leo wanted to become an music engineer, and Lily wanted to become an astrophysicist. Today had been their last hotspot; the abandoned factory was her last hope to find a glimpse of alien life.
And it failed.
Charlie finished dressing in his room and was going down to have dinner with Carys when he passed Lily's old room. He peeked in and smiled sadly. He missed her. He knew it was weird, even in the 51st century it was weird, for a man to grow up with a young child and grow to love her in the way that he loved Lily.
He knew how not to show it; after all, when he was still with the Time Agency, a government sect from the 51st century, they had trained him how to control his features to hide his true feelings, which was supposed to come in handy when you were being tortured. Luckily, Charlie had never had the pleasure of getting tortured. But he didn't have training on how to handle loss, even if it was just the girl you loved moving out.
He descended the stairs and found Carys sitting at the table, food packed up in Tupperware. Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to Lily's? She wants us to come over, right?" He sighed, smiled, and shook his head. He started heading back to get a jacket when Carys called out to him.
"Charlie, come, sit down. I want to have a chat with you."
"Alright," Charlie said, sitting down at the table.
"I have a request."
"Alriiight," Charlie repeated.
"I know we decided it would be best if Lily was in the dark about all this alien business, but the longer she goes without knowing, the more trouble she gets into. It's just, I'm tired of her wandering around and getting in trouble. I don't want to worry about her getting lost in abandoned factories anymore." Carys looked down at her fingers. "I want you to go and tell Lily the truth. About everything."
There was a long pregnant pause. Charlie only spoke after he got up noiselessly from his chair. "Okay, I'll go tell her the truth about the aliens."
Carys reached out for his arm and squeezed it gently. "And what about the truth about you?"
He just looked down at her and smiled before leaving with the dinner.
Lily was still looking at the picture when there was a knock at the door. She hastily put the box away, and went to look through the peephole. Confused, she opened the door. "Charlie?"
It wasn't. But whoever it was, it was a good impostor. "Hey, Lily," it smiled at her. "Can I come in?"
It took a step forward, and Lily tried to close the door, but its foot was holding the door open. She grabbed her keys, which were nearby, just in case it tried to attack her. "Actually, Charlie, I'm kinda busy. Can I talk to you later?" She kept pressing against the door, trying to close it, but its foot wouldn't budge.
"No," it snarled, and pushed back against the door, sending Lily falling to the floor. Then, what normal people would call "the strangest thing" happened: it turned into a gigantic bat like creature and lunged for Lily's throat before Lily could scream.
But, Lily expected that to happen. The strangest thing that Lily did not expect happened next: Charlie, the real Charlie this time, burst in and hits the creature with a weird lavender light beam from a gun that didn't really look like a real gun. In two seconds, the bat creature turned into a fine purple dust that sprinkled onto Lily.
She coughed, and Charlie helped her up. He looked at the keys in her hand, and smirked. "A Krillitane attacks you, and you fight if off with keys?" he asks mockingly.
"As if I knew what it really was!" she shot back, angry that the ashes of the krill-i-tane were all over her. "What the fuck is going on here?!"
The smirk on Charlie's face grew and he raised a bag full of Tupperware that was tied to his hand. "Let's have dinner, and I'll explain it."