have a little fic.
So, I started a fic, based on the premise that Magnus Zimmerman, Kate and Will's son from Pavorverse, shows up one day at the new Sanctuary. And I think it's going to be huge.
Have a little bit. This part is about 1500 words.
*****
When they get to Helen's office, she's on the phone, and it takes her a minute to look up from what she's doing. "Oh, hello," she says, when she can finally give them her attention. "I see we have a guest."
"Yeah," says Henry. "He, um... well, we don't really know where he came from. There was a power fluctuation in the upper levels and we went to check it out and he was just... there."
Will shifts Magnus a little in his arms so that Helen can see him better. "Dr. Magnus, this is... Magnus."
There's a look of surprise that crosses Helen's face and then disappears so quickly that Will almost misses it, but because he's him, he catches it just before it fades. "Hello, Magnus," she says calmly, in the voice she uses for scared patients or small children. "It's very nice to meet you. Magnus is your first name, yes?" Magnus nods. "Can you tell me your last name?"
"Thimmerman."
There's a little lisp when he speaks but Will can make it out perfectly. "Did he just say--"
"Magnus Zimmerman," Helen interrupts him, still perfectly pleasant and calm, but Will can see that her hands aren't just folded in her lap, she's twisting her fingers together, and then she's opening a desk drawer for a pair of latex gloves. "You're a very brave young man. Very brave." She stands and comes around her desk, reaching out to touch Magnus's hair gently. It's a very maternal gesture, and Will can't help but wonder if it was how she used to comfort Ashley, years ago. But it's also, Will realizes, a very subtle medical examination, meant to be as unobtrusive as possible so Magnus wouldn't get more scared than he already is. "Do you remember where you were before you came here?"
Magnus scrunches up his face a little, not because Helen is touching him, but because he's thinking. Or at least, that's how it seems to Will. "Colony," he says. "The white place. It was cold."
Helen nods and smooths his hair down again, and the dark, loose curls spring up beneath her fingers as soon as she presses them down. She peeks in the neck of his sweater, pushes up his sleeves, gets him to yawn so she can take a look inside his mouth, and checks his pulse, all the while making it seem like a fun little game between the two of them. Magnus complies with all her requests and doesn't object at all. "I see," she says, finally, and straightens his clothes. Whatever she was looking for, she doesn't seem to have found it, and she slips off her gloves and drops them in the trash. "Well, Magnus, you must be very hungry. I believe there's some cake in the kitchen--do you like cake?"
The little boy shakes his head, frowning slightly. "Cake?" Will guesses he's never heard of cake before.
"Then you really must try it," Helen says. "Henry can take you down to the kitchen for a piece of cake and a glass of milk." She leans a little closer to Magnus and winks at him, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Normally we aren't allowed cake before dinner, but I think just this once you can have all the cake you like."
Magnus looks a little skeptical, but definitely interested. "Can Daddy have cake?" he asks, looking at Will.
"I need to talk to Helen for a minute," Will says, "but I'll come down as soon as I'm done and have some with you. If you don't eat it all first," he teases, and it comes out lightly despite the fact that he's still freaking out about why this kid is calling him Daddy and why Helen seems not to be surprised about any of this. If she's keeping another secret from him, he's really going to lose it.
He's afraid that Magnus won't let go of him and won't want to go with Henry, but he's managed to make the boy laugh and it's enough to convince him that cake with Henry is a good idea. Magnus doesn't want Henry to carry him, but he does hold his hand as they leave Helen's office.
Will waits until Magnus and Henry are well down the hall and out of sight before he turns to Helen. "Why do I get the feeling you know exactly why this kid thinks I'm his dad?" he asks. There is no way this kid belongs to him. Will's always been extremely careful to make sure his partners are protected.
"Come and sit down, Will," she says, moving to the couch near the fireplace.
Will hesitates, then sits. He knows she's hiding something and he's a little angry about it, but mostly weary. The one thing he's ever asked from her is truth, complete truth, and he doesn't think he's ever really going to get it. He gets truth when she sees fit to give it to him and not before, and all he can do is wonder what else she's hiding from him. "So?" he asks. "What's going on?"
Helen folds her hands in her lap and looks at him. "Do you remember, two years ago, my mission to Honduras?"
"Yeah," he says. "You came back empty-handed. You didn't find anything and you were totally pissed about it."
"Yes, that one," she says. "I came back empty-handed, but that doesn't mean I didn't find anything." Helen takes a deep breath and goes on. "I found a hidden vault in a tomb that contained a vial that was rumored to contain an elixir that I believed would give me a normal, human lifespan. I picked up the vial and was about to open it when I was... Will, I don't quite know how to explain it. I don't know whether I was transported to another reality or simply presented with a realistic hallucination, but in either case, it was meant to show me exactly what would go wrong if I opened the vial and released the elixir it contained. It was horrific. There was something about the contents of that vial that interacted with my physiology to create a virus or mutation that created these... these monsters. Cannibalistic, mindless, murderous creatures called palefaces that seemed to be much like zombies. They had taken over the world, turning some and murdering many more. The only person I found there in that world was you, Will. You were the only survivor left. Everyone else was gone. Henry, John, Kate, even my old friend, they all died fighting these palefaces. I myself had died fighting them, three years before." She shifts closer to Will on the couch and places her hand over his, squeezing gently. "It wasn't until I realized that I caused it all by taking this elixir that I was brought back to this reality, but just before I did, you--the you in that reality--told me that you and Kate had a son, that you'd named him Magnus, and that he had been living in a colony in the Arctic ever since Kate died. You told me to find him, if I ever got out of there."
Will doesn't interrupt her while she says this, because he just doesn't know what to say. Helen's seen this whole other life where the world is overrun by zombies and she's never mentioned it? He's about to rip into her again for keeping more secrets from him, but then she gets to the end of her story and Will freezes.
He and Kate.
Have a son.
In some zombie-ridden apocalyptic universe.
"So... you're telling me, that this... in this... this zombie apocalpyse world, Kate and I have a son. Kate. And I. And this little guy..."
"I strongly suspect that this child is your and Kate's son from this other reality." Magnus speaks carefully, but with such certainty that Will can't argue with her.
"Oh, God." Will leans over and put his head in his hands. He feels dizzy and a little sick and more than a little overwhelmed. "He thinks I'm his dad."
"I've no idea what brought him here," Helen says, almost apologetically, and he feels her hand rest on his shoulder. "I'll have Henry do a detailed scan of the area soon, to see if we can gather any more information. But Will, even if we do determine what brought him here... we cannot send him back to that world."
Will sits up and looks at her, shaking his head. "I wasn't going to let you send him back," he says. "He lost both his parents and he's living in some damn colony somewhere in the snow. He's staying here."
This entry also posted at http://ceilidh.dreamwidth.org/1151248.html, where it has
comments. Please comment there. LJ comments have been disabled due to the new site scheme.
Have a little bit. This part is about 1500 words.
*****
When they get to Helen's office, she's on the phone, and it takes her a minute to look up from what she's doing. "Oh, hello," she says, when she can finally give them her attention. "I see we have a guest."
"Yeah," says Henry. "He, um... well, we don't really know where he came from. There was a power fluctuation in the upper levels and we went to check it out and he was just... there."
Will shifts Magnus a little in his arms so that Helen can see him better. "Dr. Magnus, this is... Magnus."
There's a look of surprise that crosses Helen's face and then disappears so quickly that Will almost misses it, but because he's him, he catches it just before it fades. "Hello, Magnus," she says calmly, in the voice she uses for scared patients or small children. "It's very nice to meet you. Magnus is your first name, yes?" Magnus nods. "Can you tell me your last name?"
"Thimmerman."
There's a little lisp when he speaks but Will can make it out perfectly. "Did he just say--"
"Magnus Zimmerman," Helen interrupts him, still perfectly pleasant and calm, but Will can see that her hands aren't just folded in her lap, she's twisting her fingers together, and then she's opening a desk drawer for a pair of latex gloves. "You're a very brave young man. Very brave." She stands and comes around her desk, reaching out to touch Magnus's hair gently. It's a very maternal gesture, and Will can't help but wonder if it was how she used to comfort Ashley, years ago. But it's also, Will realizes, a very subtle medical examination, meant to be as unobtrusive as possible so Magnus wouldn't get more scared than he already is. "Do you remember where you were before you came here?"
Magnus scrunches up his face a little, not because Helen is touching him, but because he's thinking. Or at least, that's how it seems to Will. "Colony," he says. "The white place. It was cold."
Helen nods and smooths his hair down again, and the dark, loose curls spring up beneath her fingers as soon as she presses them down. She peeks in the neck of his sweater, pushes up his sleeves, gets him to yawn so she can take a look inside his mouth, and checks his pulse, all the while making it seem like a fun little game between the two of them. Magnus complies with all her requests and doesn't object at all. "I see," she says, finally, and straightens his clothes. Whatever she was looking for, she doesn't seem to have found it, and she slips off her gloves and drops them in the trash. "Well, Magnus, you must be very hungry. I believe there's some cake in the kitchen--do you like cake?"
The little boy shakes his head, frowning slightly. "Cake?" Will guesses he's never heard of cake before.
"Then you really must try it," Helen says. "Henry can take you down to the kitchen for a piece of cake and a glass of milk." She leans a little closer to Magnus and winks at him, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Normally we aren't allowed cake before dinner, but I think just this once you can have all the cake you like."
Magnus looks a little skeptical, but definitely interested. "Can Daddy have cake?" he asks, looking at Will.
"I need to talk to Helen for a minute," Will says, "but I'll come down as soon as I'm done and have some with you. If you don't eat it all first," he teases, and it comes out lightly despite the fact that he's still freaking out about why this kid is calling him Daddy and why Helen seems not to be surprised about any of this. If she's keeping another secret from him, he's really going to lose it.
He's afraid that Magnus won't let go of him and won't want to go with Henry, but he's managed to make the boy laugh and it's enough to convince him that cake with Henry is a good idea. Magnus doesn't want Henry to carry him, but he does hold his hand as they leave Helen's office.
Will waits until Magnus and Henry are well down the hall and out of sight before he turns to Helen. "Why do I get the feeling you know exactly why this kid thinks I'm his dad?" he asks. There is no way this kid belongs to him. Will's always been extremely careful to make sure his partners are protected.
"Come and sit down, Will," she says, moving to the couch near the fireplace.
Will hesitates, then sits. He knows she's hiding something and he's a little angry about it, but mostly weary. The one thing he's ever asked from her is truth, complete truth, and he doesn't think he's ever really going to get it. He gets truth when she sees fit to give it to him and not before, and all he can do is wonder what else she's hiding from him. "So?" he asks. "What's going on?"
Helen folds her hands in her lap and looks at him. "Do you remember, two years ago, my mission to Honduras?"
"Yeah," he says. "You came back empty-handed. You didn't find anything and you were totally pissed about it."
"Yes, that one," she says. "I came back empty-handed, but that doesn't mean I didn't find anything." Helen takes a deep breath and goes on. "I found a hidden vault in a tomb that contained a vial that was rumored to contain an elixir that I believed would give me a normal, human lifespan. I picked up the vial and was about to open it when I was... Will, I don't quite know how to explain it. I don't know whether I was transported to another reality or simply presented with a realistic hallucination, but in either case, it was meant to show me exactly what would go wrong if I opened the vial and released the elixir it contained. It was horrific. There was something about the contents of that vial that interacted with my physiology to create a virus or mutation that created these... these monsters. Cannibalistic, mindless, murderous creatures called palefaces that seemed to be much like zombies. They had taken over the world, turning some and murdering many more. The only person I found there in that world was you, Will. You were the only survivor left. Everyone else was gone. Henry, John, Kate, even my old friend, they all died fighting these palefaces. I myself had died fighting them, three years before." She shifts closer to Will on the couch and places her hand over his, squeezing gently. "It wasn't until I realized that I caused it all by taking this elixir that I was brought back to this reality, but just before I did, you--the you in that reality--told me that you and Kate had a son, that you'd named him Magnus, and that he had been living in a colony in the Arctic ever since Kate died. You told me to find him, if I ever got out of there."
Will doesn't interrupt her while she says this, because he just doesn't know what to say. Helen's seen this whole other life where the world is overrun by zombies and she's never mentioned it? He's about to rip into her again for keeping more secrets from him, but then she gets to the end of her story and Will freezes.
He and Kate.
Have a son.
In some zombie-ridden apocalyptic universe.
"So... you're telling me, that this... in this... this zombie apocalpyse world, Kate and I have a son. Kate. And I. And this little guy..."
"I strongly suspect that this child is your and Kate's son from this other reality." Magnus speaks carefully, but with such certainty that Will can't argue with her.
"Oh, God." Will leans over and put his head in his hands. He feels dizzy and a little sick and more than a little overwhelmed. "He thinks I'm his dad."
"I've no idea what brought him here," Helen says, almost apologetically, and he feels her hand rest on his shoulder. "I'll have Henry do a detailed scan of the area soon, to see if we can gather any more information. But Will, even if we do determine what brought him here... we cannot send him back to that world."
Will sits up and looks at her, shaking his head. "I wasn't going to let you send him back," he says. "He lost both his parents and he's living in some damn colony somewhere in the snow. He's staying here."
This entry also posted at http://ceilidh.dreamwidth.org/1151248.html, where it has
comments. Please comment there. LJ comments have been disabled due to the new site scheme.