mind_the_muse "It's the only reward, bestowed upon me."
Five days Alec never had But wished he had.. And one he did.
John sat in the dark motel room, elbows propped on the rickety table and watching his boys sleep. They were still all small and young enough hat he could getting them to all pile into one bed together.
One of them shifted and blinked widely up at him with cat green eyes that flashed in the lack of light. Ben. Somehow, in the last few months he had learned to tell him and his twin apart at a glance. Sam and Dean had only needed a few hours after he had brought them home. Stolen them from the people that thought they could own two little boys. His and Mary's little boys.
Alec slept on. Sam and Dean bracketing them from either side protectively. Dean between all three of them and the door. Maybe this wasn't an idea life, and maybe they already knew how to handle weapons like professionals, but they were still young enough to want to be comforted in the middle of the night when they woke up with nightmares.
John stood and made his way over to the bed where he scooped one of his four year olds up into his arms. Alec's eyes popped open and looked up at John. "Go back to sleep, I've got him." Alec's eyes slid closed and he snuggled back in with his other brothers. John paced the room and rubbed the little boy's back until his tense, controlled breathing relaxed into a soft mellow purr.
*
Up through the wavy haze of chlorinated water he watched the Colonel watch them. He was so bored just staying down at the bottom of the pool. They had been chained down there, but it was no big deal. Seven minutes. Not a problem at all. It would have been nice if they weren't chained. Then he and his siblings could amuse themselves buy playing underwater tag or something. But this was about discipline as well as oxygen. He stayed still with his hands at his sides.
Eventually the Colonel clicked his stop watch and the shackles holding them down opened. He bent his knees and smoothly pushed himself to the surface when he took one deep but controlled breath before swimming to the edge of the pool. Less than a moment later they were all standing in a neat row by the edge of the pool and the Colonel was smiling at them. "Good job." And it was all worth it. Just for those two words.
*
It was the only time Alec had wanted to be in a hospital. He could barely even smell it. His senses were already captivated by the beautifully over whelming scent of matches, baby powder and X5. He actually thought about crying as he held her against him. She had already opened her eyes and taken a good look around before deciding it was time for a nap. What else could you expect from his perfect likely kitten. Her eyes were deep and black just like her momma's. And unlike her daddy she didn't have a barcode.
They had been lucky. So unbelievably lucky. His X5 genes had carried through. His baby girl was exceptional instead of the feared 'disappointingly below average' that usually happened when the other parent wasn't an X5. It was either the Winchester genes or Ruby's magic
Now if only he and Ruby could decide on a name. He had an idea or two.
*
Coherency had long since been lost to him. Though long was a relative term. Eternity in a heart beat or some shit like that. Why was it still beating? Stuttering away. Stopping and starting in flashes of light.
Masked faces mixed with
memory of deafening noise.
Bomb, or maybe that was his jittering pulse past the light in his head
that was actually dark,
Breathing sounded like the shattered glass of
the windows blown from the bomb
grinding in his joints and he twitched. And jerked and hurt. Hurt
hurt
Hurt to watch her die, over
and over.
To wash it out of him. Masked faces with chemicals to
push her out of his heart
Was still beating. Desperate.
To stop.
He wanted to stop.
Just
Stop.
They couldn't fix him. No matter what they took out.
Memory was final.
Put in
Made him seize, and break
He heard a noise, like a wounded cat.
Must have been him begging for it to stop
Like time or his heart
Stopped fighting.
Just
Stopped
Finally.
*
The little boy stood solidly in front of Colonel Lydecker and looked up at him with a combination of defiance, respect and fear. The Colonel raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight before him. 494 stood as close as he could manage to parade rest, face bloody, bruises strating to show, and there was something clearly wrong with the child's arm.
"Why are you not with your unit or having your injuries treated." He really was curious. 494 was not one to actively seek out adult attention. He was a clever and subtly thing when he wanted to be. Very bright, with a flexible mind. As a general rule Lydecker knew this X5 to prefer verbal problem solving techniques to physical force. He was actually a rather small child but his specs stated that this would eventually change.
"I needed to inform you of a change in Bravo Unit's command structure, Sir." The words were flat and formal. The young X5 even looking the Colonel in the eye as he said it. Lydecker huffed as the child's eyes shifted to the left and down. The next statement had none of the pervious confidence. "I would prefer that you treat my injuries, Sir. Or, uh, anyone but the people in Med. I'll settle for custodial staff. Sir." The last 'Sir' had clearly been tacked on to the end to keep the entire thing from being disrespectful. For a seven year old 494 had one hell of a mouth on him.
Sometimes it was hard to remember that the X5s were young, past their intelligence and adult grasp on a multitude of languages. And then they would remind you. He didn't like seeing his kids afraid. But he did like their trust in him.
He figured he would reward the child's honesty. He stood from his desk and circled around to 494. The boy's split lip had already stopped bleeding. He really was an amazing healer. However if he was developing and actual aversion to medical it might be wise to pull him from the research roster for a while. He motioned that the child should follow him and then led the way to the medical ward. "Tell me about this change and why you look like you've been in an unauthorized physical training exercise."
"I'm unit commander now, Sir."
"Are you really. I hadn't realized you had been promoted, soldier." Lydecker had to admit he was intrigued.
"I promoted myself, Sir. For the good of the unit. Lane, er 600," He corrected himself quickly. "Was lacking in the necessary emotional skills to be a proper unit commander. When I questioned him he said if I didn't like the way he was running the unit then I could try and take it from him. So I did, Sir."
"He is considerably larger and older than you."
"I'm meaner, Sir." 494 stated evenly.
"I see." The Colonel pondered this change of events quietly for a few moment. "If I let you retain command you will not be granted any slack for being younger or for having less training." If the child could manage this then he would be more than a force to be reckoned with as an adult. One of Manticore's fines. One of America's finest.
"Understood, Sir. I would also like to submit that I'll be having Biggs and CeCe," He swallowed a little when the Colonel shot him a look, and he corrected himself. "112 and 392 as my seconds in command."
Lydecker wasn't so sure that 392 was command material. The child was rather to easy going at times, but he only nodded his acceptance of both 392 and the unusual habit of have two seconds in command. He would let 494 make his own choices and either prove or hang himself on his own merit.
*
Dean knew that there was no way he could cover the distance to 494 or get cover in the time he had left. So he blurted out the only thing he really had to pass on if he died. “Tell Sammy I love him.” Winchesters never said love. Saying it meant you couldn’t show it, and that meant you were dead.
Somehow Dean was still standing when the sound of clicking heels stopped outside the door and 494 was suddenly giving him a look that could only be described as desperation. He had seen the look in Sam’s eyes. He had seen it in his father’s. He knew at some point he must have worn it himself. With the life that they led, the things they
had been forced to see and do.
He looked the kid square in the eyes, because he had always promised himself that he would face his death down and take it like the man his father had raised him to be. “Promise me you’ll tell him.” He needed that promise. Even if it was a lie.
“I can’t. I . . . I can’t.” At first, Dean thought the kid was refusing him, and then the gun lowered. Right then, those words became the most beautiful words Dean had ever heard. He prayed they would be followed up by, ‘You and your brother are free to go’, but God wasn’t in the habit of answering Dean.
The door behind them opened and a woman with bleached, short white hair stepped in. She was dressed like a business woman and was wearing sharp heels. Dean would have sworn on a stack of Bibles held out by Pastor Jim that he had seen eyes more human in some of the monsters he had shot. “You were given an order, soldier.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He brought the gun back up and sighted on Dean, but still didn’t squeeze the trigger.
“You know what happens if you don’t.” Her tone was casual, but the threat, whatever it was, was clear to Dean.
It must have been more than clear to 494, because Dean watched that look of desperation turn to one of terror and the gun shifted from pointing as Dean to pointing at his own temple. “I’m not going back there.”
The woman sneered. “Fine. You want to be spare parts, that’s fine with me, soldier.”
Dean officially hated this woman. “You’re fucking creepy, you know that, lady?” He could hear running footsteps and then someone else barged into his cell. “Hey, if you guys want me to leave . . . give you some privacy . . .” The new guy calmly aimed a gun at him. “Or not. I’m cool with that too.”
The new guy, an older, blonde man, gave the woman such a look of loathing that Dean was wondering why the gun was pointed at him and not her. Then the man’s attention went to the kid, whose eyes had opened as soon as the man had entered the room, even before he spoke.
“I can’t do it, sir. I can’t.” It sounded like an apology to Dean, and he wanted to know who this guy was to rate that. In the end it didn't matter to him anyway. He was leaving here and he was taking Sam and this kid with him.
*
Muse: Alec McDowell/X5-494
Fandom: Dark Angel
Word count: 1,928
Open to RP
John sat in the dark motel room, elbows propped on the rickety table and watching his boys sleep. They were still all small and young enough hat he could getting them to all pile into one bed together.
One of them shifted and blinked widely up at him with cat green eyes that flashed in the lack of light. Ben. Somehow, in the last few months he had learned to tell him and his twin apart at a glance. Sam and Dean had only needed a few hours after he had brought them home. Stolen them from the people that thought they could own two little boys. His and Mary's little boys.
Alec slept on. Sam and Dean bracketing them from either side protectively. Dean between all three of them and the door. Maybe this wasn't an idea life, and maybe they already knew how to handle weapons like professionals, but they were still young enough to want to be comforted in the middle of the night when they woke up with nightmares.
John stood and made his way over to the bed where he scooped one of his four year olds up into his arms. Alec's eyes popped open and looked up at John. "Go back to sleep, I've got him." Alec's eyes slid closed and he snuggled back in with his other brothers. John paced the room and rubbed the little boy's back until his tense, controlled breathing relaxed into a soft mellow purr.
*
Up through the wavy haze of chlorinated water he watched the Colonel watch them. He was so bored just staying down at the bottom of the pool. They had been chained down there, but it was no big deal. Seven minutes. Not a problem at all. It would have been nice if they weren't chained. Then he and his siblings could amuse themselves buy playing underwater tag or something. But this was about discipline as well as oxygen. He stayed still with his hands at his sides.
Eventually the Colonel clicked his stop watch and the shackles holding them down opened. He bent his knees and smoothly pushed himself to the surface when he took one deep but controlled breath before swimming to the edge of the pool. Less than a moment later they were all standing in a neat row by the edge of the pool and the Colonel was smiling at them. "Good job." And it was all worth it. Just for those two words.
*
It was the only time Alec had wanted to be in a hospital. He could barely even smell it. His senses were already captivated by the beautifully over whelming scent of matches, baby powder and X5. He actually thought about crying as he held her against him. She had already opened her eyes and taken a good look around before deciding it was time for a nap. What else could you expect from his perfect likely kitten. Her eyes were deep and black just like her momma's. And unlike her daddy she didn't have a barcode.
They had been lucky. So unbelievably lucky. His X5 genes had carried through. His baby girl was exceptional instead of the feared 'disappointingly below average' that usually happened when the other parent wasn't an X5. It was either the Winchester genes or Ruby's magic
Now if only he and Ruby could decide on a name. He had an idea or two.
*
Coherency had long since been lost to him. Though long was a relative term. Eternity in a heart beat or some shit like that. Why was it still beating? Stuttering away. Stopping and starting in flashes of light.
Masked faces mixed with
memory of deafening noise.
Bomb, or maybe that was his jittering pulse past the light in his head
that was actually dark,
Breathing sounded like the shattered glass of
the windows blown from the bomb
grinding in his joints and he twitched. And jerked and hurt. Hurt
hurt
Hurt to watch her die, over
and over.
To wash it out of him. Masked faces with chemicals to
push her out of his heart
Was still beating. Desperate.
To stop.
He wanted to stop.
Just
Stop.
They couldn't fix him. No matter what they took out.
Memory was final.
Put in
Made him seize, and break
He heard a noise, like a wounded cat.
Must have been him begging for it to stop
Like time or his heart
Stopped fighting.
Just
Stopped
Finally.
*
The little boy stood solidly in front of Colonel Lydecker and looked up at him with a combination of defiance, respect and fear. The Colonel raised an eyebrow as he took in the sight before him. 494 stood as close as he could manage to parade rest, face bloody, bruises strating to show, and there was something clearly wrong with the child's arm.
"Why are you not with your unit or having your injuries treated." He really was curious. 494 was not one to actively seek out adult attention. He was a clever and subtly thing when he wanted to be. Very bright, with a flexible mind. As a general rule Lydecker knew this X5 to prefer verbal problem solving techniques to physical force. He was actually a rather small child but his specs stated that this would eventually change.
"I needed to inform you of a change in Bravo Unit's command structure, Sir." The words were flat and formal. The young X5 even looking the Colonel in the eye as he said it. Lydecker huffed as the child's eyes shifted to the left and down. The next statement had none of the pervious confidence. "I would prefer that you treat my injuries, Sir. Or, uh, anyone but the people in Med. I'll settle for custodial staff. Sir." The last 'Sir' had clearly been tacked on to the end to keep the entire thing from being disrespectful. For a seven year old 494 had one hell of a mouth on him.
Sometimes it was hard to remember that the X5s were young, past their intelligence and adult grasp on a multitude of languages. And then they would remind you. He didn't like seeing his kids afraid. But he did like their trust in him.
He figured he would reward the child's honesty. He stood from his desk and circled around to 494. The boy's split lip had already stopped bleeding. He really was an amazing healer. However if he was developing and actual aversion to medical it might be wise to pull him from the research roster for a while. He motioned that the child should follow him and then led the way to the medical ward. "Tell me about this change and why you look like you've been in an unauthorized physical training exercise."
"I'm unit commander now, Sir."
"Are you really. I hadn't realized you had been promoted, soldier." Lydecker had to admit he was intrigued.
"I promoted myself, Sir. For the good of the unit. Lane, er 600," He corrected himself quickly. "Was lacking in the necessary emotional skills to be a proper unit commander. When I questioned him he said if I didn't like the way he was running the unit then I could try and take it from him. So I did, Sir."
"He is considerably larger and older than you."
"I'm meaner, Sir." 494 stated evenly.
"I see." The Colonel pondered this change of events quietly for a few moment. "If I let you retain command you will not be granted any slack for being younger or for having less training." If the child could manage this then he would be more than a force to be reckoned with as an adult. One of Manticore's fines. One of America's finest.
"Understood, Sir. I would also like to submit that I'll be having Biggs and CeCe," He swallowed a little when the Colonel shot him a look, and he corrected himself. "112 and 392 as my seconds in command."
Lydecker wasn't so sure that 392 was command material. The child was rather to easy going at times, but he only nodded his acceptance of both 392 and the unusual habit of have two seconds in command. He would let 494 make his own choices and either prove or hang himself on his own merit.
*
Dean knew that there was no way he could cover the distance to 494 or get cover in the time he had left. So he blurted out the only thing he really had to pass on if he died. “Tell Sammy I love him.” Winchesters never said love. Saying it meant you couldn’t show it, and that meant you were dead.
Somehow Dean was still standing when the sound of clicking heels stopped outside the door and 494 was suddenly giving him a look that could only be described as desperation. He had seen the look in Sam’s eyes. He had seen it in his father’s. He knew at some point he must have worn it himself. With the life that they led, the things they
had been forced to see and do.
He looked the kid square in the eyes, because he had always promised himself that he would face his death down and take it like the man his father had raised him to be. “Promise me you’ll tell him.” He needed that promise. Even if it was a lie.
“I can’t. I . . . I can’t.” At first, Dean thought the kid was refusing him, and then the gun lowered. Right then, those words became the most beautiful words Dean had ever heard. He prayed they would be followed up by, ‘You and your brother are free to go’, but God wasn’t in the habit of answering Dean.
The door behind them opened and a woman with bleached, short white hair stepped in. She was dressed like a business woman and was wearing sharp heels. Dean would have sworn on a stack of Bibles held out by Pastor Jim that he had seen eyes more human in some of the monsters he had shot. “You were given an order, soldier.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He brought the gun back up and sighted on Dean, but still didn’t squeeze the trigger.
“You know what happens if you don’t.” Her tone was casual, but the threat, whatever it was, was clear to Dean.
It must have been more than clear to 494, because Dean watched that look of desperation turn to one of terror and the gun shifted from pointing as Dean to pointing at his own temple. “I’m not going back there.”
The woman sneered. “Fine. You want to be spare parts, that’s fine with me, soldier.”
Dean officially hated this woman. “You’re fucking creepy, you know that, lady?” He could hear running footsteps and then someone else barged into his cell. “Hey, if you guys want me to leave . . . give you some privacy . . .” The new guy calmly aimed a gun at him. “Or not. I’m cool with that too.”
The new guy, an older, blonde man, gave the woman such a look of loathing that Dean was wondering why the gun was pointed at him and not her. Then the man’s attention went to the kid, whose eyes had opened as soon as the man had entered the room, even before he spoke.
“I can’t do it, sir. I can’t.” It sounded like an apology to Dean, and he wanted to know who this guy was to rate that. In the end it didn't matter to him anyway. He was leaving here and he was taking Sam and this kid with him.
*
Muse: Alec McDowell/X5-494
Fandom: Dark Angel
Word count: 1,928
Open to RP