Entry: Fic - A Reese By Any Other Name
Title: A Reese By Any Other Name
Author: dhark_charlotte
Pairing: None
Rating: Gen
Crossover: Dark Angel
Challenge Prompt: # 2. A jar of jam, three oranges, and an unwanted phone call
Disclaimer: This story is intended for entertainment purposes only and provides absolutely no financial compensation. Recognizable characters belong to their prospective owners/writers.
Story notes/Author Notes:
1994 - John Connor is born
1995 - Derek Reese is born
1995 - Alice Lydecker (Commander Lydecker’s wife) is murdered
1999 - X5-493 (Ben) & 494 (Alec) are born.
Post the ‘09ers’ escape.
Follows Ava’s fic: The End
**
2009
Looking back at the chaos caused by The Pulse, Derek repeatedly told himself it had been worth it. That the devastation John had managed to live through after losing Cameron and the hole that Sarah’s death left in them both was a price he’d willingly pay again. It was a hard sell. He wondered if future John had truly known how living in the past would change the soldiers he’d sent back. In the end, it had been the correct choice. Due to their actions, the Singularity wouldn’t happen and the machines wouldn’t win. Now, instead of the entire world in chaos and the human race on the verge of extinction, the destruction would be limited to just the US and the deaths would be limited to a mere fraction.
There’d been no other option.
Cameron had survived Sarkissian’s car-bomb, but the explosion had triggered some kind of homing signal that drew every T-series to them. The upside had been that they were fairly sure all of the sleepers had been activated and were within range of the blast. And since the country was in such chaos, the chance that the downed Terminators would be discovered was low. Most bodies with no one to claim them had been and continued to be buried in mass graves.
The main question Derek couldn’t answer was why he was still here? And John? His nephew was confused by it as well. After thinking on it for a while, John came up with the idea of a Paradox loop. Maybe watching and reading all of that Sci-Fi stuff had some value after all.
The loop caused by Kyle’s travelling back in time to protect and subsequently impregnate Sarah should have caused their mission to fail. The kid jokingly wondered if, when the EMP destroyed Cyberdine, an alternate reality was created at that point in time and they’d branched off from the future Derek had grown up in.
He certainly wouldn’t complain about his continued existence and it was as good an explanation as any.
**
Fresh on the heels of Sarah’s death in the Denver riot, Derek found himself driving for their lives. The two of them managed to get out of the city ahead of the mass exodus, just after Marshall Law had been declared, but before everything was locked down. They hadn’t even been able to bury Sarah before fleeing. Thank goodness Cameron had shown them how to protect their truck from the Pulse before they’d set it off. Otherwise he and John would’ve been walking. And that would’ve made it difficult to avoid the large cities.
John snuffled in the passenger seat and Derek was relieved to see that the kid was finally sleeping. The hollow feeling his nephew seemed to emanate was unnerving and was truly damaging his calm. He snorted at that thought. John had sat him and Sarah and Cameron down one night and forced them to sit through a Firefly/Serenity marathon and Derek had instantly identified with the Merc., Jayne. Derek needed all the calm he could muster to get them through this cluster-fuck of a new world.
If someone asked him later why he’d taken that particular route out of Colorado, Derek wouldn’t have been able to explain it. He’d poured over the maps and the route just looked the most logical and as safe as they could expect.
It was just a few miles past the Kansas state line when a flash of movement caught his tired eyes. Despite that, he certainly didn’t expect the feel of something clipping the front fender of the truck. Slamming on his brakes, Derek sent a small prayer up that what he’d hit had been a deer that they could get processed in the next town. Besides the one time they’d managed to score three oranges, eating granola every day for a week sucked bad.
John flailed awake but Derek ignored his panicked questions in favor of jumping out of the cab of the truck. His stomach dropped to his knees at the sight of the young kid sprawled on the rough shoulder. He heard John come up behind and waved him quiet. Crouching, Derek did a quick assessment of the boy, breathing a sigh of relief when he found no obvious broken bones and a steady pulse. He felt a slightly raised spot on the back of his neck and checked, hissing in anger at the sight of a barcode tattooed into the soft skin.
Denver was the closest internment camp and Derek couldn’t imagine a child this young being able to travel this far without an adult. Regardless, it was obvious that the kid was on the run. The kid was dressed in a combination of oversized shoes and hospital scrubs under a flannel shirt. Where the hell had the kid come from and what was he doing running around out in the middle of nowhere? The machines hadn’t started barcoding people until 2012 and since Judgment Day had been prevented, this situation presented a worrisome question. Even if the camps were tatting people, why the hell had someone marked the kid on his neck vs. his arm?
They were about twenty miles outside Atwood and as he carefully lifted the kid, he hoped the town had a medical clinic. Hell, nowadays even a veterinarian would be acceptable. For the first time since Sarah’s death, Derek was grateful for John’s silence. He laid the boy’s head in John’s lap and climbed in the cab behind, draping the kid’s legs across his before pulling back onto the road.
“What are we going to do? If we roll into town with this kid that we ran over, you’re going to jail for sure, maybe me.” John hissed. The hand he gestured at the kid with was visibly shaking.
Derek looked into the boy’s face; he was young, maybe ten or so and Derek figured they could pass him of as a family member if nothing else. “John, meet your cousin. What do you think of the name James?” The kid stiffened slightly, letting Derek know he’d revived and was listening. He patted a bony knee. “That sound like a good name, or would you prefer something else?”
The kid peeked at him from under long lashes and Derek drifted to a stop and returned his scrutiny with a bland expression.
“Ben. You can call me Ben.” There was obvious pain in his voice and his breathing was shallow, indicating possible rib injury. How the kid hadn’t been completely broken, Derek didn’t understand.
“Well Ben, here’s how things need to work. You need medical attention. I’m assuming you don’t want to draw any more interest than we do?” Derek quirked his brow in question and Ben shook his head no. “Good. This is my nephew John. I think you being part of the family would be the best cover, what do you think?” The kid opened his eyes fully and looked between John and himself. Ben’s eyes were the same vivid green that both he and John sported, so there’d be a minimal family resemblance. The buzz-cut hair helped as well. Ben seemed to relax a second and Derek held out his hand. “Name’s Derek and I’ll be your father this evening.”
A small hand took his in a firm grip and Derek allowed a smile to peek through. The smile morphed into a grimace as the kid’s grip became startlingly painful. Harsh panting breaths erupted from Ben and Derek shot John a questioning glance.
John was just as mystified as he tried to hold onto the suddenly struggling boy. Derek followed Ben’s eye-line and realized that the kid was staring at his exposed barcode tattoo with a horrified expression. He shared a look with John and then wrenched his hand from Ben’s grip, rolling his sleeve down to cover the hated mark. His voice was flat as he explained, “Internment camp. Managed to get out before they could do more than mark my skin.” While the presence of such camps in Colorado and California were a widely known ‘secret’, neither he nor John had been anywhere near them. But the kid didn’t need to know that.
“You were in an internment camp?”
There was a strange note of relief in the kid’s voice and Derek wondered about it for a second before filing it away for later examination. “A riot broke out in Denver as we were trying to leave the city. We got separated and John’s mom was killed.” He sent John an apologetic grimace, but his nephew was staring out the windshield, a clenched jaw the only indication he was listening. “We got picked up and I got processed, but another riot broke out before they got to John and we escaped.”
Ben relaxed more and shuddered, groaning as the movement jarred his injury.
“Are we good here? We can get you looked at to make sure there’s no serious damage, rest up and then go our separate ways. No harm, no foul.” ‘As long as you stop running out in front of moving vehicles.’ Derek added silently. He had a twinge of guilt that he didn’t insist on something more… responsible, for a lack of a better term. This was a young boy and these days, that was a bad thing without family or protection. But he had his nephew to think of and… Aww, hell. He knew he was going to ask the kid to join them. If for no other reason than he looked just like Grampa Daniel’s picture. Derek couldn’t remember what his father looked like anymore, but the image of that picture hanging in the front hall of their house stayed with him.
A stop at the one pump gas station and they were directed to a house at the other end of town. He pulled into the side drive as directed and it was like driving into an episode of Little House on the Prairie. The clinic was in a white two story clapboard with a side entrance and a sign screwed into the side that read: Dr E. Bruebaker, D.O. Derek carried Ben in despite the kid’s assurances that he could walk and he grimaced at the older woman manning the desk. She seemed to be having a heated argument with someone on the phone and he watched her with pointed impatience. Ben was heavy and there was no way he was going to give the kid a chance to chicken out and bolt.
“I’m not letting some glorified jackass with clearance bully me.” She caught Derek’s eye and waved him into a curtained room as she continued speaking into the phone. “I haven’t had a stranger in my office in a year. Atwood isn’t exactly a teeming metropolis…” ___ “Whatever. You know, when the phone rang, I was afraid someone was hurt. Now I’m kind of wishing that had been the case. Isn’t that sad? Doesn’t it bother you that whenever you call, it’s my only unwelcomed phone call?” ___ “I’m the only doctor in a fifty mile radius asshole and you know it. And if you think my sister would have been proud of whatever you’re doing, you better think again! Don’t call me again, Deck. I’ll call you.” She slammed the phone down, breathed deeply and then rolled her head.
Derek had been holding onto Ben with increasing pressure as the boy’s tension grew with every passing second. He leaned down and whispered in Ben’s ear, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Whatever you’re running from, John and I will protect you. Just stick to the story okay?” He looked into Ben’s eyes and saw the exhaustion and fear. Ben stared at him for an eternity and then nodded, relaxing into his chest as the doctor approached.
“Sorry about that, fellas. Ex-brother-in-law thinks he has some kind of right to boss me around. So what seems to be the problem?” Her dark eyes were warm and curious as they made a visual scan of Ben.
“We were havin’ a pit-stop about twenty miles out when someone came barreling down the road and clipped my boy. He wasn’t paying attention and I was on the other side of the road.”
She pulled out a penlight and leaned in, quickly checking Ben’s pupils and took his pulse. “He lose consciousness?”
Ben pulled away from her quickly, jostling Derek in the process and he staggered a step to regain his balance. “For about five minutes. Nothing broken that I could tell. Look, can I talk to you in private?”
The doctor nodded and Derek called out, “John, come in here and sit with your cousin.” Derek set Ben on the examination bed and bent down to look in his eyes. “I’m going to be right outside the curtain. You don’t have to say anything, but she needs to know about the camp, what happened there. You sit here with John and I promise I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Ben nodded and reached out to take John’s hand. Derek clapped John on the back and followed the doctor a few steps out into the main room.
He scrubbed his face, letting the exhaustion from the drive show. “Look, I’m not sure what you’ve heard about what’s going on in the big cities…”
Dr. Bruebaker raised her hand and Derek stopped. “I know there’s a lot of bad things going on out there. I moved out to the middle of nowhere Kansas for a reason and that was before this country went to hell. Why don’t you fill me in on what your son wouldn’t want to talk about.”
Derek rolled up the sleeve covering his right arm and flashed it at her. He was already recovering it as she hissed in sympathy. “We were trying to get out of Denver. We’d only been passing through when Martial Law was declared. We were from out of town and had nowhere to stay so we got picked up. There was a panic just outside the camp and we got separated from my sister-in-law and she was killed.” He scrubbed at his tired eyes and continued. “The internment camp in Denver was horrible. Some freak in charge of processing thought it would be funny to mark my son on the back of his neck instead of his arm like everyone else. Another riot broke out in the center before my nephew was processed and we managed to escape and find our truck. It was a miracle that it was still where we left it and in one piece.” Derek felt a flare of emotion try to rise and he trampled it mercilessly. He’d been trying to tell himself that losing Sarah didn’t affect him that much, but he knew that was a lie. The only other person in this world that knew his little brother was gone.
His eyes burned and the doctor’s eyes softened in sympathy. “Okay then. We won’t ask him about that.”
“You don’t understand. He won’t let anyone touch him but me and sometimes John and forget about taking off his shirt.”
She patted his arm and clucked. “Don’t you worry about your boy. We’ll get it worked out.” She stuck out her hand and Derek took it on reflex. “I’m Doctor Bruebaker, but everyone calls me Doc Em, short for Emmaline.” She winked at him and he felt the adrenaline start to ebb. She leaned in conspiratorially, a slightly serious tone bringing Derek back to alertness, “Just don’t call me Emma, my sister was the only person to get away with that.” She looked at him expectantly.
“Um, Derek, ma’am, Derek Reese.” She led him back to the exam room and he introduced the boy, “This is my son Ben.”
**
Thankful for his enhanced hearing, Ben had listened to Derek and the doctor’s conversation. Doc Em asked Ben several questions; age, what grade he was in, did he miss school, etc… questions meant to relax him, he knew. They were questions he’d been asked whenever he’d stumbled upon other adults. He knew the questions were meant to reassure him, make him trust them enough to tell his secrets. As before, he didn’t answer. Zack had ordered silence just before they split up. Tell no one, escape and evade. Survive. Ben had managed to stow away on several semis, all headed east. Food had been difficult, which was why he was so weak. Derek’s truck would have never hit him if he’d been at full strength. Also, he would have been thinking clearly enough to hide until the truck passed before he tried to cross the road.
His stomach growled loudly and the doctor smiled widely, her white teeth gleaming against coco colored skin. Ben knew who she’d been talking to on the phone. The brief flash of the picture sitting on the desk combined with what he’d heard via his enhanced hearing of her telephone conversation left no doubt as to the identity of the voice on the other end. The frustration that echoed through Lydecker’s voice assured Ben enough of the doctor’s refusal to comply with the commander’s demands. Ben felt a brief flash of surprise that Lydecker had been married at some point.
The sense of protectiveness he got from Derek was the only thing keeping him from bolting. John sat near the door, trying to keep watch as Derek excused himself to use the bathroom and the doctor swabbed the inside of Ben’s cheek just before placing a thermometer under his tongue. John leaned tiredly against the wall, half dozing and when Derek returned, the doctor bullied him into sitting and letting her check him over. His temporary father was visibly exhausted and although the man held himself like a warrior, he was only human and his senses were dulled due to fatigue and so therefore didn’t pay attention when she swabbed the inside of his cheek just before thrusting the thermometer under his tongue.
Ben watched from underneath his lashes, his body still and slumped against the wall to mimic sleep. She sent him a furtive glance and then moved to the table along the far wall. He watched her as she worked at the lab table, snipping the ends of the swabs and placing them into a machine. He had a brief thought to take off then, but his ribs still ached and his curiosity won out. It wasn’t like she could keep him here if he really wanted to leave. And even if she pulled out a weapon, he’d rather die than go back. So he watched her work and her quiet movements lulled him to sleep.
A scuffing sound brought Ben back to consciousness immediately and he sat up with barely a twinge. He looked around wildly and caught Derek’s gaze. The man was rubbing his eyes and the knot in Ben’s stomach turned to ice. He’d been asleep too long. She could have figured it out and called Manticore already. “Where’d she go?”
Derek shrugged. “Probably taking out the trash, saw her carrying out a bag a minute ago.”
Ben hopped off of the table and ran for the door, Derek and John following close behind. He knew he was probably too late, but he needed to know how long he had before the black vans arrived to try and take him away. The three of them skidded to a halt as they rounded the corner. Doc Em was standing over a bar-b-que grill, feeding things into a roaring fire. She turned toward them as she fed the last piece in and Ben’s breath hitched at the sight of tears running down her cheeks.
Ben forced himself to stand still as she approached, her hand reaching out for him. She stroked his cheek with surprising gentleness, certainly more than he was used to from medical personnel, and he looked up into her sad face.
“I’m so sorry child.”
Derek stepped between them and he loomed over her. “What the hell is going on?” Derek’s voice ground out. Ben peeked around the big man’s elbow and the doctor’s smile trembled.
“That you two found each other is a miracle.”
“Doc, you’re kinda freaking me out here. What’s going on? And what are you burning?”
“Evidence of your presence here dear.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because legally, young Ben here doesn’t exist. I don’t know how you came across him, but you need to get your son as far away from here as possible.”
Derek scratched the back of his head, discomfort blooming pink across his cheeks. “Um, if you know all of that then you know he’s not my son. Hey! You swabbed my mouth! Did you run a test to check if we were really related?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then you know he’s not mine.”
“It’s what I suspected, but the test is ninety nine point nine percent accurate and it proved your paternity. Ben is biologically yours.”
Ben felt himself go still. It was that unnatural stillness that always preceded some sort of action, whether fight of flight. Thoughts whirled though his mind as he processed the new data with the precision that had been orchestrated within his DNA. Derek was his biological father, John his actual cousin and Ben Knew that it was True.
Derek snorted in disbelief. “That’s not possible. I can’t have kids. My parents said I had some kind of problem when I was little and the doctor had to go in and… um… well remove something important to the having kids thing.”
John coughed and Doc Em winced in sympathy. “I don’t know all of the details. What I can tell you is that there is an organization out West that has been performing highly illegal experiments, trying to make human animal hybrids. To create the ultimate soldier. They take what they need from unknowing donors; either by paying off parents, which seems to be your case, or by conscription. My sister was married to one of their men; it’s how I know the little that I do. And if his bosses knew about me, I wouldn’t be here.” She patted his arm. “DNA doesn’t lie, Derek, Ben is your son.”
Ben remained silent, secure in his belief that The Lady would continue to guide and protect him.
**
So, that was his introduction to his son. Derek didn’t question the truthfulness of the doctor’s claim. She’d excused herself to her second-floor apartment, asking them to leave her enough food in the pantry to get her through the week and to please lock up before they left.
He never asked Ben if he wanted to stay with them. The three of them packed several bags of non-perishable food, including a loaf of homemade bread and a jar of jam that had been sitting on the kitchen counter. Medical supplies had been hard to come by and they took what they could fit into the box the doctor had stashed under her desk. Ben showed John and Derek the picture of Lydecker and what was most likely the doctor’s sister and told them he was the one man they should shoot on sight. Otherwise, they would be killed and Ben would be taken back to Manticore.
Ben promised Derek a full debriefing once they were clear. It took a long time before Derek worked up the courage to ask Ben about his life before they found each other.
**
How they managed to find a place to live was a miracle that Derek didn’t try to understand. It was one in a string of them that the three Reese men chose to appreciate silently. John made a living restoring electrical equipment including nearly useless computers (but never a system that might have had the potential to offer a platform for the Singularity to grow and evolve). Derek had discovered by accident that he had a green thumb and was able to feed their little family with his efforts as well as sell enough to the community that they were well regarded. The weapons repair and manufacturing he did on the side helped as well.
And Ben?
He got to be a kid. A regular ten year old, superiorly augmented, combat trained, kid.
And The Lady smiled.
End