"Over soup, not dinner" (Nikki/OC)(1/1)
Title: Over Soup, Not Dinner.
Author: Keenir.
pairing: Nikki Betancourt/Maxwell's Demon.
Crossover: Numb3rs, Supernatural.
Set post-series for N3, but early in the final season of SPN.
Characters: Nikki Betancourt; mention of Rufus and Bobby and Jo and Amita.
(possible - implied and unauthorized - crossover with Sororcula’s fine Jo/Amita fics)
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Nikki and Maxwell’s Demon, at lunch, in space, and discussing his creators.
Sequel to everything you need to know about the prequel.
guest appearance by the Boomerang Nebula.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that she had seen Jo's plane safely rise and soar on its route to England where Amita was waiting, Nikki sat back and waited.
This place was bigger than a cafe, and smaller than a restaurant. But one thing they did, and did expertly, was make a fine bowl of phở. Still glad it's not a dog, Nikki thought to herself as her dinner arrived at the same time that Jim Clerk walked into the room - Colby'd call him my boyfriend. Bobby'd call him proof I'm being a damned fool.
Jim sat down opposite Nikki, his eyes contemplating the aromatic heat between them. Looking at all the steam rising off the just-arrived bowl of phở, Nikki joked, “Am I not hot enough for you?”
He placed one hand over the bowl, and his other hand brought one of Nikki’s hands to lie atop the still hand.
Nikki could feel a little dampness in her palm, which anyone else might have dismissed as sweat. “What are you doing?” she asked as her hand warmed; she knew what he was doing, but it could still feel weird. As her hand warmed, “Nice. Now cut it out.” Showoff. Granted, he had saved her life with a trick like that - undoing sunstroke; the handcuffs hadn't survived, though.
He reluctantly pulled his hand away, revealing the room temperature bowl of phở. “Now you don’t need to blow on each spoonful.”
“Sure, take out all the fun,” she joked to an entity which had on introduction claimed to be second cousin to Maxwell’s Demon - and turned out to not be a second cousin at all.
"I could never take all the fun out of you," he told Nikki. "Arranging the heat death of the universe would be easier."
"So, you couldn't do it?" Nikki asked.
He looked at her, hollow eyes reminding her that he was far from human. "Under no circumstances would or could we ever be Laplace's demon."
No, but you don‘t always distinguish yourself singular from yourself plural with consistency. The cost of a really great communication network, I suppose. "The hypothetical guy who could predict everything once it knew all the positions?"
"That's the one. But we do know positions."
Nikki was sure she didn't blush at that, no matter how true it was. "You hungry?"
"I just ate," Jim said, and it was hard to know if he was being polite or he actually ate the heat. "Please, go ahead and let me watch," pushing spoon and chopsticks towards Nikki.
"You going to talk while I eat?" Nikki asked.
"I said I would explain some more, where I could, so yes."
Nikki picked up her chopsticks and nabbed some noodles. And Bobby kept saying Rufus was right that you were just stringing me along in that regard.
"My creator has always followed a policy which runs counter to what your organization does."
"Yeah?" Nikki asked.
"'There are no such things as monsters.' That's why I couldn't help you with that case."
"Everyone should be left alone to feed on people?"
"Our orders are more Dalek: exterminate. And you wanted the creature able to answer your questions."
Unlike the mythical horror Nikki and Jo had rounded up and interrogated, but very much like that theoretical construct of Laplace, Nikki's guy - and supernatural contact - was not documented in the religions or fables of the world...but in the works of post-Georgian science. Amita had been the one to help her ID what Jim was: Maxwell's Demon, a controller of the flow of hot and cold all the way down to the atoms, a disregarder of the Laws of Thermodynamics. Jo had been the one to learn that Jim wasn't a demon in the sense of a corrupted soul or a fallen angel - or a fallen anything else.
To what he said next, Nikki teased Jim with, “You don’t like math?”
“Mathematicians and I suffer a comfortable estrangement,” Jim said.
“I was always told that ‘everything is numbers.’”
“And what is under that turtle? For numbers are an abstract concept.”
Nikki grinned. “I’d have loved to see you and Charlie in a debate.”
He was silent the rest of the meal, no matter what Nikki said to elicit a reply from him.
Check paid, they were leaving, and almost at the door when Jim stopped, and, holding her sleeve, stopped her as well, kindly.
“Scuse me?” Nikki asked.
“A peek behind the curtain,” Jim said, placing his hand upon hers and drew her against him.
Nikki thought Jim was about to do another of his thermal feats, which always affected so much more than just her nipples. But she was proven wrong when he passed into her -- Hell, Bobby was right, Nikki thought.
--We Are Not Designed For Possession-- Jim thought into her mind. --Look--
She did, and she could see everything in the room with her eyes, and could feel the temperatures of all that was visible and invisible in the room.
Then, with her body remaining in place, her field of vision found itself in space, looking at… --The Moon--
Another visual shift, and there was a vast emptiness, a patch of space so cold there was nothing left to freeze. All the stars were far, far, far away.
Spooky action at a distance, Nikki thought.
--Very-- with a chuckle.
Where are we?
--Here Has An English Name. Now Look Closely--
Nikki did, and could make out the molecules holding steady, their atoms unmoving; not even doing that famous ring-around-the-rosie fire dance. She looked closer, and could see the atoms’ innards, and how formulae lined up within that. And what lay within what her mind read as numbers, lay uncertainty held in place by some unseen eye.
And then Nikki could see only the room, as Jim withdrew from her. “Not bad,” she said.
“De nada.”
“Exactly.”
Then Jim’s face scrunched up, which she’d never seen him do before.
His brothers just now sent him a message, or did it come in while I was being shown the cosmos? Charlie or Jo would probably have a name for how that was accomplished. “Now that’s a weird look,” Nikki said. “Trouble?”
“Only for dinner,” he said. “The creators have returned.”
“God?”
“Her leviathans,” he said.
“So you’re leaving?” Nikki asked.
“No need to do so: one of their august selves is coming here.”
"Cool. I finally get to meet your makers." She knew that he knew that she was a Hunter.
"No."
"'Scuse me?"
“They would love to have a person such as yourself for dinner - which is why you will not be in attendance.”
Nikki raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You don’t want your - parents, basically. To meet me?”
“Correct.”
“Is it because I’m black?”
“No,” he said.
“Because I’m a woman?”
“No.”
“Thinking of Alan, Nikki asked, “It’s because I’m a Fed, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“Then why don’t you want me to meet them? What am I?”
“Edible.”
“Edible?” she repeated.
“Yes,” he said. “Don’t take it personally; nearly everything is.”
“Personal?”
“Edible.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The end.
Author: Keenir.
pairing: Nikki Betancourt/Maxwell's Demon.
Crossover: Numb3rs, Supernatural.
Set post-series for N3, but early in the final season of SPN.
Characters: Nikki Betancourt; mention of Rufus and Bobby and Jo and Amita.
(possible - implied and unauthorized - crossover with Sororcula’s fine Jo/Amita fics)
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Nikki and Maxwell’s Demon, at lunch, in space, and discussing his creators.
Sequel to everything you need to know about the prequel.
guest appearance by the Boomerang Nebula.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that she had seen Jo's plane safely rise and soar on its route to England where Amita was waiting, Nikki sat back and waited.
This place was bigger than a cafe, and smaller than a restaurant. But one thing they did, and did expertly, was make a fine bowl of phở. Still glad it's not a dog, Nikki thought to herself as her dinner arrived at the same time that Jim Clerk walked into the room - Colby'd call him my boyfriend. Bobby'd call him proof I'm being a damned fool.
Jim sat down opposite Nikki, his eyes contemplating the aromatic heat between them. Looking at all the steam rising off the just-arrived bowl of phở, Nikki joked, “Am I not hot enough for you?”
He placed one hand over the bowl, and his other hand brought one of Nikki’s hands to lie atop the still hand.
Nikki could feel a little dampness in her palm, which anyone else might have dismissed as sweat. “What are you doing?” she asked as her hand warmed; she knew what he was doing, but it could still feel weird. As her hand warmed, “Nice. Now cut it out.” Showoff. Granted, he had saved her life with a trick like that - undoing sunstroke; the handcuffs hadn't survived, though.
He reluctantly pulled his hand away, revealing the room temperature bowl of phở. “Now you don’t need to blow on each spoonful.”
“Sure, take out all the fun,” she joked to an entity which had on introduction claimed to be second cousin to Maxwell’s Demon - and turned out to not be a second cousin at all.
"I could never take all the fun out of you," he told Nikki. "Arranging the heat death of the universe would be easier."
"So, you couldn't do it?" Nikki asked.
He looked at her, hollow eyes reminding her that he was far from human. "Under no circumstances would or could we ever be Laplace's demon."
No, but you don‘t always distinguish yourself singular from yourself plural with consistency. The cost of a really great communication network, I suppose. "The hypothetical guy who could predict everything once it knew all the positions?"
"That's the one. But we do know positions."
Nikki was sure she didn't blush at that, no matter how true it was. "You hungry?"
"I just ate," Jim said, and it was hard to know if he was being polite or he actually ate the heat. "Please, go ahead and let me watch," pushing spoon and chopsticks towards Nikki.
"You going to talk while I eat?" Nikki asked.
"I said I would explain some more, where I could, so yes."
Nikki picked up her chopsticks and nabbed some noodles. And Bobby kept saying Rufus was right that you were just stringing me along in that regard.
"My creator has always followed a policy which runs counter to what your organization does."
"Yeah?" Nikki asked.
"'There are no such things as monsters.' That's why I couldn't help you with that case."
"Everyone should be left alone to feed on people?"
"Our orders are more Dalek: exterminate. And you wanted the creature able to answer your questions."
Unlike the mythical horror Nikki and Jo had rounded up and interrogated, but very much like that theoretical construct of Laplace, Nikki's guy - and supernatural contact - was not documented in the religions or fables of the world...but in the works of post-Georgian science. Amita had been the one to help her ID what Jim was: Maxwell's Demon, a controller of the flow of hot and cold all the way down to the atoms, a disregarder of the Laws of Thermodynamics. Jo had been the one to learn that Jim wasn't a demon in the sense of a corrupted soul or a fallen angel - or a fallen anything else.
To what he said next, Nikki teased Jim with, “You don’t like math?”
“Mathematicians and I suffer a comfortable estrangement,” Jim said.
“I was always told that ‘everything is numbers.’”
“And what is under that turtle? For numbers are an abstract concept.”
Nikki grinned. “I’d have loved to see you and Charlie in a debate.”
He was silent the rest of the meal, no matter what Nikki said to elicit a reply from him.
Check paid, they were leaving, and almost at the door when Jim stopped, and, holding her sleeve, stopped her as well, kindly.
“Scuse me?” Nikki asked.
“A peek behind the curtain,” Jim said, placing his hand upon hers and drew her against him.
Nikki thought Jim was about to do another of his thermal feats, which always affected so much more than just her nipples. But she was proven wrong when he passed into her -- Hell, Bobby was right, Nikki thought.
--We Are Not Designed For Possession-- Jim thought into her mind. --Look--
She did, and she could see everything in the room with her eyes, and could feel the temperatures of all that was visible and invisible in the room.
Then, with her body remaining in place, her field of vision found itself in space, looking at… --The Moon--
Another visual shift, and there was a vast emptiness, a patch of space so cold there was nothing left to freeze. All the stars were far, far, far away.
Spooky action at a distance, Nikki thought.
--Very-- with a chuckle.
Where are we?
--Here Has An English Name. Now Look Closely--
Nikki did, and could make out the molecules holding steady, their atoms unmoving; not even doing that famous ring-around-the-rosie fire dance. She looked closer, and could see the atoms’ innards, and how formulae lined up within that. And what lay within what her mind read as numbers, lay uncertainty held in place by some unseen eye.
And then Nikki could see only the room, as Jim withdrew from her. “Not bad,” she said.
“De nada.”
“Exactly.”
Then Jim’s face scrunched up, which she’d never seen him do before.
His brothers just now sent him a message, or did it come in while I was being shown the cosmos? Charlie or Jo would probably have a name for how that was accomplished. “Now that’s a weird look,” Nikki said. “Trouble?”
“Only for dinner,” he said. “The creators have returned.”
“God?”
“Her leviathans,” he said.
“So you’re leaving?” Nikki asked.
“No need to do so: one of their august selves is coming here.”
"Cool. I finally get to meet your makers." She knew that he knew that she was a Hunter.
"No."
"'Scuse me?"
“They would love to have a person such as yourself for dinner - which is why you will not be in attendance.”
Nikki raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You don’t want your - parents, basically. To meet me?”
“Correct.”
“Is it because I’m black?”
“No,” he said.
“Because I’m a woman?”
“No.”
“Thinking of Alan, Nikki asked, “It’s because I’m a Fed, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“Then why don’t you want me to meet them? What am I?”
“Edible.”
“Edible?” she repeated.
“Yes,” he said. “Don’t take it personally; nearly everything is.”
“Personal?”
“Edible.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The end.