Every Dok has a doctor...or at least a doctor's son
Who: Wesley and Dok
What: A rather curious, if worrying reunion
Where: Dok's house
When: Mid-Afternoon
Rating: PG
Status: Incomplete/Closed
( Reunited at Last )
What: A rather curious, if worrying reunion
Where: Dok's house
When: Mid-Afternoon
Rating: PG
Status: Incomplete/Closed
( Reunited at Last )
Wes had been watching the tri-corder display so long it took a moment for him to realize anything had changed, but the oscillating brain wave pattern spiked suddenly, shooting out of the theta of deep REM and attempting, desperately it seemed to approach consciousness.
"Dok, can you hear me? It's Wes, try to respond." One hand reached out, holding Dok's pale fingers in his. "If you can hear me, try to squeeze my hand, twitch a finger, anything." Dok's heart rate was spiking and Wes cursed the fact that he didn't have a stablizer with him, if just to make sure the man wouldn't go into cardiac arrest.
'No, not going to happen, not on my watch! But, should I risk moving him at this point?
The tri-corder continued to bleat it's warning and Wes licked his lower lip in nervous concern.
'Don't have a choice, he could die at this rate!
"Alright, I'm going to take you into the hospital...we'll be there in no time." Steeling himself, Wes thought back to how his mother taught him to carry and unconscious patient larger than himself. After a few awkward tries and self-conscious slips he finally managed to balance the larger man's weight in his arms.
'I wonder what clever little quip Dr. Pierce will have for me this time?' Wes wondered, praying, in the back of his mind that waiting as long as he had hadn't sealed the other man's fate.
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What the hell? Where was the disconnect? It was almost like he felt weighted; like he had no energy to fuel the movements that he wanted to make, despite how much he willed his body to make them.
He could hear a slight shift, and the next thing he felt was Wesley's fingers link with his. There was a tension in his back that he hadn't realized he'd been holding that melted away when that happened. It was relaxing and it felt...humanizing, in a way. Something that he felt he'd been devoid of for a long time now.
Because of that, he tried his best to move his fingers in response. After expending absolutely all the willpower that he had, he could feel them move just slightly, and hoped that Wes had noticed it too.
After a nervous moment of silence, he heard the word 'hospital' and his heart rate promptly went through the roof.
"What are you doing?! Don't you hate hospitals?! I can't put you through that! Just, I don't know, throw water on me or toss me out of a speeding train or something!" he thought frantically.
His brows furrowed in anxiety as he was situated in his friend's arms. This was all such trouble, wasn't it? Damn, maybe he should have stayed wherever he had been; at least then Wesley wouldn't have to deal with something that he disliked so much.
That thought caused a domino effect in a negative thought process that threatened to overwhelm him, which was odd since he hadn't been prone to those sorts of things for some time now. For a moment, it even caused the sounds of his surroundings to fade to a low rumble, but he was luckily able to push through it. Now, he was trying harder than ever to move (despite the fact that it resulted in little more than a flinch here or there), if only to spare someone he cared about from doing something that he'd rather not.
It was times like these that he sort of wished he had turned himself into a vampire when he was on the project, if only because telepathy would be massively helpful right about now.
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"Dr. Pierce!" He called, knowing that the man was probably in his office. "Doctor, it's Wesley, I need help!" Maybe it was a little dramatic to stumble into the emergency room yelling but the combination of adrenaline and fear pumping through Wesley's body could make him do nothing more. Gritting his teeth, Wes watched as Dok's fingers twitched again... the man was trying to tell him he was in there, somewhere, but couldn't reach him...
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Well, feeling like a burden to his friend didn't really help much either.
Still, he had to wonder exactly why he couldn't wake up. What had happened that caused him--
And there was the dizziness again. Even this time, it was so profound that he nearly blacked out again. Luckily, the fact that Wesley was there kept him in decent enough control that he just managed to get by with his consciousness, forcing himself to calm down at least a little.
Distantly, he couldn't help but think, with no spare amount of exasperated sarcasm, that today was shaping up to be just awesome.
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For some reason, something he read about trauma victims can to mind, that sometimes victims of a terrible shock would lapse into a coma, and the idea of waking would send their body into a panic...was that it, was that what had happened? Suddenly exhausted; arms quaking, Wes let both hands rest on the bed.
'Nothing to do but wait...again...' The young man thought uselessly, eyes roaming around the small, dim space--dark eyes caught on a television bolted to the ceiling and with a listless, heart-sick nudge, Wes clicked the remote by the bedside table until it rested on a science documentary.
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It didn't take long before he felt something being attached to him. He could have been curious for all of three seconds before the sound of a heart monitor picked up. It started out only a little elevated, but fluctuated rapidly with his surprise and anxiety.
Eventually, he began to attempt to calm himself. Worrying would get him nowhere; he had to think of a way out of this.
It hadn't been the first time he'd found himself in this situation, had it? The last time that he could recall feeling this terrified and trapped was while he was with Millennium, only on a larger scale.
That memory triggered another, then another. This time, there was nothing he could do to stave off the overwhelming reaction that his body underwent, and he finally did pass out.
---
"Inflation theory says that our universe sits on the skin of a giant bubble, created by the big bang..."
The words broke through his dreamless sleep and pulled him back to reality as he tried to wrap his mind around any sort of information to keep himself conscious, even if it was something so complex. It was a welcome complexity, though, that left little room for idle thought.
"...and that our bubble is not the only one."
Oh, well that was a comforting notion. With all that he'd dealt with in the past few days, the idea of parallel universes wouldn't exactly be his top choice of subjects to dwell on. This, of course, earned an exasperated groan.
Wait.
Wait, he heard that groan. Not just in the dream world in which he had found himself a prisoner, but in actuality, he could feel it reverberate in his body. He had actually managed to make that noise.
A short moment later, he attempted to move one of his hands, which seemed to work, albeit a little stiffly.
There was just one thing left, wasn't there?
Summoning all the courage that he had, he slowly began to open his eyes.
The fact that the room began to come into focus was nothing short of a miracle, as far as he was concerned.
He was, indeed, at the hospital. His groggy mind registered the privacy blinds, but not the memory of how they were situated as they were. It seemed like it was darker outside, and he had no idea how long he'd been here, or what time it was. Still, he focused on what was being said on the television as he tried to let his vision return to normal. This was horribly interesting stuff, he couldn't help but think. Much too interesting for normal hospital default channels. Someone had to have switched it to this. But who...? The only person he knew to enjoy things like this as much as he did was--
His heart skipped a beat -- evident on the beeping monitor -- as he remembered how he got here in the first place.
Cautiously, he moved his head and scanned the small room for Wesley.
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So Wesley had dozed, his head resting on his recovered arms, the steady narration of the documentary a comfort--as if he were back in the lecture halls of Starfleet Academy. It wasn't until something touched his hand that he stirred, bleary-eyed and blinking at the form on the bed.
"Uuuuhh?" Dok groaned, moving his head slowly until their eyes met and Wesley's heart jumped to his throat.
"Dok! Thank Cochrine, you're awake...Are you alright? How many fingers am I holding up?" Despite the fact that there was nothing to indicate head trauma, Wes wanted to make sure. "I've been so worried...you just vanished and I thought...well...I though you'd gone..." He couldn't help it, tears were gathering in his eyes, making them glisten in the low light. "Can you tell me where you've been, what happened?" It was too many questions for someone who had been unconscious for well over eighteen hours and Wes knew it, but the relief flooding through him was just too much to hold anything else back.
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His voice was still rugged from sleep, and he coughed a little before clearing his throat so he could sound more like himself. By the time he spoke again, he sounded much less gruff than before. "Vanished?" he asked, confused. That was when he recalled the number of messages at home, and the heart monitor picked up again. "How long have I--"
The words died there when he saw the tears brimming from the young boy's eyes. Had he been this worried over him..?
There was something about that idea that triggered a feeling; something deep-seeded that weighed his heart with a sense of being cheated out of something you deserved. When he saw how much Wesley genuinely cared about him, it brought back the faintest tinge of a memory of someone who hadn't, but should have. Someone he'd worked tirelessly to try to please, but who never failed to make him feel that he was less than nothing, no matter how many times he degraded himself for their sake.
But not here. Here, he had apparently been gone for long enough for the season to change, and there was still someone that felt this way for him, without him having to do anything at all. Someone that had taken the time to find him and bring him somewhere to get help. Someone to whom he genuinely seemed to matter, and someone that was shedding tears of relief that he had finally come around.
That idea made tears well up in his own eyes, and he was able to set aside the bitter feeling that the memory gave him. None of that seemed to matter, now. It really would have affected Wes if something had happened that caused him to leave indefinitely, wouldn't it? He wasn't exactly used to the idea that his presence was cause for that much of an impact, but knowing that it was...
To say that it was "humanizing" would have been a vast understatement.
Everything about him softened and he smiled through the tears that threatened him, too. "You know I would never leave you, especially without saying goodbye. I care too much for you to do that," he admitted quietly, the mixture of grogginess and intense emotions getting the better of whatever decorum he had.
"As for where I've been..." he started, his smile fading slowly as he averted his attention, "I wish I could say. Every time that I try to remember, I feel like I'm going to faint. In fact, I blacked out not too long after you brought me here because of it. Something tells me that I don't really want to know..."
He already had an awful feeling that it tied in to his former employers somehow.
That thought was cast aside when he returned his gaze to Wesley, that now-familiar softness returning. "But you...I don't know how to thank you for your help. Without you, I shudder to think what would have happened. Is there anything that I can do to repay your kindness?"
A moment passed before he laughed quietly. "Oh -- and hi, by the way."
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"The last time I saw you, you were moving in to the house around the corner from mine...after that, you just vanished." Wes explained, hoping that he could jog the older man's memory. "If it makes you feel sick to remember, don't try too hard, just relax for now...there's no rush." Although Wes didn't really believe that, his mind working a mile a minute rolling over idea after idea. Could this have been the town's doing? The ravine? If people vanished and came back without any memory...maybe this had been a near miss?
"You don't need to thank me at all, believe it or not you aren't the first person I've had to bring here like this...only last time I had to call the ambulance and then stop at a hardware store because I'd found a girl younger than me locked in manacles." Wes shudder a little at the memory, the sweet, more than a little mad Wendy Darling. "And all you need to do is get better, maybe try to remember where you've been when you don't think you'll faint. And...hello." Wes added at last, smiling through swallowed back tears.
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Whatever was used to erase his memory had been faulty, though, as he could still feel disjointed sensations or thoughts that fragmented the moment that they were touched upon. Though he was far from an expert on the matter, he knew enough about that sort of thing to know that that wasn't supposed to happen, especially so soon.
And again, he felt dizzy if he lingered on the thought.
As soon as Wesley suggested relaxing, he wiped the thought from his mind. There were more important things to think about, after all.
He listened to everything his friend was saying, and winced at the mention of the girl. "That's awful. At least Aternaville has someone as quick and helpful as you, or else we'd all be in trouble," he smiled.
"I'll do my best to remember as soon as I can, but for now, I'd much rather focus on something more pleasant -- like the fact that you're here."
Words would do little to describe the contentment that he felt to be here again. Not in Aternaville, not in a hospital, but with someone that cared for him, and that he cared for in return. He had made it through whatever darkness had consumed him and come back to where he was needed; where he was human. It was almost too good to be true.
...wait...
The thought caused his heart to skip, as evidenced in the sharp beep of the monitor behind Wesley. Could this be a dream? It would be the best one that he'd had so far, if it was.
Still, the line between what was reality and what had been a memory or a dream hadn't been entirely clear for the past few days, so he had good reason to doubt.
After a moment of hesitation, he moved a still-shaky hand up until it touched Wesley's cheek. The amount of relief that he felt when it connected was so profound that he could hardly contain his emotions.
"Thank God..."
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"I was just in the right place in the right time to help, that's all. The same with you...I wouldn't have noticed the door was open if I hadn't walked home from school the direction I did." It made Wes feel awkward, any time someone complimented him like that--they both seemed such small deeds compared to things he'd done in the past. "I'll stay here as long as Dr. Pierce lets me," he promised, inching the chair he sat in a little closer to the bed. Dok would be scared of being alone after all of this.
"This isn't something we want to rush..." he repeated, remembering back to the last time they'd seen enough other and Dok making him rest after the explosion in his garage laboratory. "Mom always warned me doctors can be either the worst or the best patients sometimes."
A contented silence settled over the two of them, until Dok reached up, one long handle cradling Wesley's cheek. A blush warmed both cheeks--only his mother was this affectionate with him, ever...but Wes leaned into the touch regardless, understanding that there was something Dok needed to express that went beyond language.
"What's the matter?" He asked, although Dok's expression told him that for the first time in a very long while, nothing was.
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A new light seemed to cross the doctor's eyes when he was asked what was wrong, before he laughed quietly, slightly embarrassed about his answer. "I-I'm sorry. I just...had to make sure you were real."
Hearing it out loud sounded so ludicrous that the quiet laugh continued, even as the flood of emotions got the better of him and the tears began to fall, which only caused him to laugh a little more.
"That's ridiculous, isn't it?" he said through chuckles as the tears just kept coming. The feeling of warmth beneath his had was enough to cause him to arrive at the slightly jarring conclusion that everything was going to be alright. Whatever he'd gone through was over and he was safe at home.
The only thing more shocking than that thought was that, for the first time, he realized that he had found a home. That was the last thing he thought he'd find when he booked that plane ticket to Canada all those months ago.
"It's just that...I don't know how to explain it. I have no idea where I've been...what I've done...what I've been made to do..." he trailed off for a moment, wholly terrified at the implications of that statement before he forced himself to let it go, "But being here, now...all I know is how much I've missed you," he admitted, the words catching in his throat before he found them again "...and how glad I am to see you again."
Because of his blurred vision, it took him a while to notice that Wes was blushing. He would have wondered why for all of a heartbeat before he realized the placement of his hand that still lingered. He would guess that not a lot of people touched him like that, and it might be embarrassing. "O-Oh, sorry about that," he apologized as he began to move his had away, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. By then, he was blushing too.
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"Not ridiculous at all..." Wes strained, his heart breaking a little at a time as the implications of Dok's confession were made clear. There didn't seem to be a day in the man's life that he once believed he had control over his own fate...at least until he arrived in town. "I...missed you too!" No longer caring who saw or what they might think, Wes all but pushed past Dok's hand, wrapped both arms around his chest and hugged him tightly. So much had happened since Dok had left--Dairine vanishing and not telling him, that horrible, horrible alternate timeline which he still remembered so vividly, mostly because it played off his worst fears...that one blip of hope where it seemed The Doctor had returned...everything Wes had kept bottled because there was simply no one to really talk to...all of it came rushing out.
"Never letting you out of my sight again." Wes said, the words muffled against Dok's shirt. "May as well let you know that now."
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Never had that been more apparent than when Wesley spoke again.
"I...missed you too!"
Those words, coupled with the emotion behind them, struck Dok almost entirely dumbfounded. So much so that it took him a moment to react to the hug itself when it happened. When he did, though, it was as though someone had opened a floodgate. His arms found their way -- cautiously, to make sure that nothing attached to him got displaced -- around Wesley. It was gentle at first, but soon became a little tighter, almost like he didn't want to let him go. He couldn't even be bothered to attempt remembering the last time anyone was this close to him -- physically and figuratively -- since he knew that he would find nothing if he did.
He found himself trembling as he lowered his head to rest against his friend's, so wholly moved that he couldn't even speak. All amusement dropped from him as the tears fell of their own volition.
Still, something was strange. Dok hadn't known Wesley to be so easily shaken, so there had to have been something else that had contributed to his current state. He couldn't quite place it, but it felt like there was something that the boy had been keeping bottled up, in addition to worrying about his whereabouts. Instantly, he felt guilty for being gone for so long, and he subconsciously gave a light, barely-there nuzzle, which he didn't really catch.
"I'm so sorry for being gone if you needed me..."
He did manage a chuckle through the tears as he was informed that Wesley wouldn't let him out of his sight.
"I'm more than just a little okay with that," he admitted quietly, "In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way."
It meant more than he could say to know that such a weighty promise had come on his behalf, and it only served to make him feel even more content. In fact, those words accompanied by everything else that had been spoken, made him feel...what was the word?
Oh, yeah.
Loved.
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"It's alright, we can talk about it later...the fact is I've just been trying to bury myself with work. I have a few new hypotheses about the ravine, what sort of energies it reacts to. My sensors have been working great and I found a way to place them by remote-- I, I think that I might be able to eventually pin-point the temporal frequency the ravine is giving off. And if I can do that, it'll be a huge step in figuring out how to get home." Although, the thought of home carried with it it's own melancholy. He would hate to leave Dok.
'But would I have to?'
Taking a shuddering breath, Wes pulled himself completely upright. "And I've been thinking about it...if you really don't have any ties to your original time, if I was able to make it home...to my time...would you come with me? I know it might be a lot to ask, I...I don't even know anything about where you're from but, the only other person I would think of asking, well she's needed back in her time." Admiting that aloud for the first time hurt more than Wes could say, but the thought that he could help someone by taking them back with him eased it a little.
"If I'm really never going to let you out of my sight, I don't see how I can't make the offer."
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Wesley definitely wasn't the only one worrying about either of them disappearing, at any point during their exchange. After all he'd gone through, it was a very acute, almost palpable fear. Because of this, even as Wesley pulled from him, Dok made sure to at least keep a small amount of contact by seeking out one of Wesley's hands with one of his own.
Quelled both by the contact and the bright, infectious smile that Wesley had given, the doctor wiped his eyes with his unoccupied hand and listened to everything Wesley said. When he mentioned that he could remotely place the sensors, Dok brightened considerably. One memory that had been undisturbed was the day that he met Wesley, and the conversation they had about remotely placing the sensors. Something about not only being brought back to that memory, but the fact that their theory had been realized, made him feel a lot better.
Then, of course, he mentioned going back home.
It had been a disheartening thought the day that they met, but now it was completely crushing. Somewhere, selfishly, Dok had thought that perhaps after a while, Wesley would forget about leaving Earth. It was something that he would never have admitted aloud, simply because of how selfish it was, but he couldn't deny a breathtaking pang of sadness that he couldn't stay. Even then, he knew he couldn't say much about it. Unlike him, the boy had a family to return to, and he knew how much he missed his mother. He really did envy that.
And before he could think much else, Wesley spoke again, and his words left the silver-haired man staring in disbelief.
"I-....I'm sorry, did I black out again?" he asked, completely bewildered, "You'll have to excuse my need for clarity, but I could have sworn I heard you ask if I wanted to go back with you."
Had Wesley ever asked, Dok would tell him anything he wanted to know, albeit hesitantly. He had actually had every intention of doing that very thing the day that he moved in, but something had happened that kept him from it. What it was, unlike their first meeting, fit into the realm of things that were hard to remember.
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