[Fic]: All That We See, Two of Two
Title: All That We See, 2 of 2
Rating: PG-13. R for the end paragraph?
Warnings: None, I think. Implied things, maybe?
Notes: Part of the Dream a Little Dream of Me Series.
I've finally managed to get my hands on a PC with Internet access. It's been three days, and I miss my faithful PC. Visiting mom and sisters and nephews is tiring but fun. Except for the no Internet thing. The good thing to come out of it is this next part. I hope you don't hate me too much by the end of it!
Enjoy? ;D
---
Illusion, Shadow, Fiction | A Falta Así de Confesor | All That We See, Part One, Part Two | Into One Hour, Part One, Part Two, Part Three |
---
Kevin arrives just in time. Relieved and pleased to see Ben’s grandpa had managed to establish a video conference with Pierce’s team. With more eyes on the ready out there, now that they know how big the situation really is, Kevin feels a little bit more at ease.
Gwen and Cooper are already there and she looks at him with relief written all over her face. She blinks in confusion when he chooses to sit not beside her.
Ben arrives fifteen minutes late. Gwen is scowling at him by this point, and Cooper has been trying to get her attention for the last ten minutes. Ben lets himself drop on a chair by Kevin’s immediate left, and apologizes through a huge, jaw-cracking yawn.
Manny tries to crowd Pierce away from the screen to properly scream at Ben about punctuality and making them wait, Helen’s voice off-screen scolding Manny about his own lack of punctuality; Ben is about to open his mouth for his very own comeback, but his grandfather raises his voice over the ruckus and shuts them up.
“If everyone’s quite done now,” he says, “Or do we have to wait for something bigger and messier to happen?”
Ben sobers up immediately, Kevin notices. It’s always something kind of impressive to see. Sometimes he wishes he could be looked up like that by Ben again, like he’s someone amazing; someone admirable. He knows he lost the chance, the right, of it a long time ago.
“Now that I have your attention,” Ben’s grandfather continues, “I’d like to ask you both, Ben, Gwen, to tell us everything that really happened a month ago in your mission involving the Dromedite smuggling ring.”
The following reactions take Kevin a little by surprise: Gwen colors a bit, and she guiltily stares down, biting her lip. Ben, on the other hand, pales so swiftly he looks like he might faint, the dark rings under his eyes in stark contrast with his sudden lack of color.
Their grandfather’s face hardens, and he nods, as if confirming something, “So I was right after all. What did you leave out? This is a serious matter, Ben, Gwen; I thought I had taught you better…”
“Grandpa!” Gwen protests, weakly.
“I asked her not to say anything,” Ben says, loud enough for everyone to hear, a flush of embarrassment and guilt beginning to redden his face under his grandfather’s disapproving stare. The old man nods for him to continue and Ben shifts in his seat, uncomfortable, “We got separated while we fought, and when we realized it was a diversion most of them had already escaped. We couldn’t find Kevin after that. We assumed he had managed to slip into one of their transports and Gwen was able to trace him.”
“We followed his trace to the second of the creatures’ storages listed in the report, but as we got closer Kevin’s mana felt weird,” Gwen interjected, “As if he were unconscious or asleep, and we found him inside that machine we sent to Cooper.”
“We,” Ben begins again, voice a little faint, “We couldn’t wake Kevin up, and trying to shut down the machine was a very, very bad idea.”
Kevin is the one to pale, this time.
“We didn’t know what to do!” Gwen exclaims, still guiltily staring down at her clasped hands.
“So I suggested she try projecting a thought into Kevin’s mind, to make him wake up by himself,” Ben continues. “When she couldn’t figure out how to do both simultaneously I suggested she send a thought of mine,” he shrugs, “And it worked. That’s all.”
There’s a heavy silence. Ben and Gwen are looking down still, refusing any kind of eye contact. Grandpa Max shatters the quiet with a rueful sigh, “You two,” he says, “Are so much worse than I ever was; even in my worst days.”
The Tennyson cousins both look up at the same time, faces hopeful.
“Leaving your punishment, for leaving things out of the report, for later,” the old man continues, “The machine arrived yesterday and Kevin himself was able to identify it,” he nods at Kevin, “If you please.”
“Yes, sir,” he acquiesces, not really wanting to go into details but having no choice, “It’s a Virtual Reality chamber. An outdated model and custom altered. Me and Coop, we spent the night taking it apart and things don’t look pretty.”
He looks around, despite knowing he has their attention. “The chamber has no reality interface, no user override controls and an annexed, crude life-signs monitoring system, plus a medical scanner altered to administer precise doses of any kind of sedative known in the closest five galaxies, including ours.
“The thing is obviously altered to trap and transport sentient beings without them putting up a struggle.”
There’s heavy, heavy silence.
“Fuck!” They hear Manny curse off-screen.
Kevin couldn’t have summed it up better.
The meeting lasts more than Kevin hoped it would last. He feels suffocated most of the time he’s in the room. Everyone is uncomfortable, and when the old man finally decides it’s time to wrap up and go, he’s almost the first one out the door: Ben beats him to it.
He’s almost to his car when he hears Gwen call, “Kevin, wait up!”
He sighs, tiredly, and stops, “What’s up?” he asks, trying not to show his weariness in his voice.
“Um, you have anything to do on Saturday?” she asks, a nervous little chuckle escaping her lips.
“Why?” he asks, a little suspicious.
“Well, is just that, well, since I have nothing to do and you have nothing to do, either…”
Kevin frowns perplexedly at her, “Why this all of a sudden?”
She’s about to say something when, behind her, he sees Cooper exiting the building; he looks around, nervously, and when he sees them Kevin sees his shoulders sag, and a small resigned smile shakily crooks his lips up. Kevin watches him turn around and go back inside.
“Gwen,” he says, slowly, “Did Coop ask you out?” She grins that relieved smile up at him, as if she doesn’t need to explain anything now that Kevin has figured it all out, on his own. “You’re using me to shoot Coop down?”
He stares down at her, gaping, and she blushes, guilty.
“I’m sorry!” She says, “It’s just…”
Kevin sighs. Why can’t this day be over already? “I told him it was okay to ask you,” he tells her, “Because,” he continues before she has any time to say anything, and possibly angering him more on Cooper’s behalf, “I thought you would at least give him a chance and let him try.”
“Kevin, I’m not going out with him just because you pity him!” She sounds scandalized.
“Pity?” Kevin blinks at her, “I don’t have time for this,” he says, suddenly wanting to be far, far away, “Call me when you stop talking like a shallow princess and start thinking straight again.”
He gets into his car and slams the door shut. The tires screeching and the engine roaring are not loud enough to drown Gwen’s own irate screech.
Kevin has never been this tired before in his life, he thinks. Not even-- he stops the thought right on its tracks. Just what I need, he thinks, to think about the past and all mistakes and misery that comes with it.
He knows it’s tempting fate, but he cannot stop himself from thinking it: Could this possibly get any worse?
It’s pass supper time when Kevin finally remembers about the storage unit. He’s been working on his Baby since he returned, ignoring Gwen’s calls, all six of them, and having to take seven breaks because he kept absorbing the metal of his tools and creeper. He’d had to stop because it made him want to hit something.
He considers calling Coop, but he’s not really sure what to say to him. It’s not as if-
He sighs, pressing the backs of his hands against his eyes, careful not to smear grease on them. He should get on with it, he decides. He looks at the unit, harmlessly sitting on top of his work table, near the back of it and almost all the way to the left.
It doesn’t take long to craft an acceptable interface; enough to replay the stored data, transmitting into his mind as dreams. He takes everything to his room, and he spends a whole hour awake, trying to calm himself down, fighting his trepidation and irrational fear.
He sticks the electrodes to his temples and dons the circlet-like interface. He lays down to sleep and closes his eyes.
He dreams.
Kevin wakes with a gasp, on the brink of an earth-shattering orgasm and with Ben’s name on his lips.
This time, he remembers.
Sequel -> Into One Hour
Previous <
Rating: PG-13. R for the end paragraph?
Warnings: None, I think. Implied things, maybe?
Notes: Part of the Dream a Little Dream of Me Series.
I've finally managed to get my hands on a PC with Internet access. It's been three days, and I miss my faithful PC. Visiting mom and sisters and nephews is tiring but fun. Except for the no Internet thing. The good thing to come out of it is this next part. I hope you don't hate me too much by the end of it!
Enjoy? ;D
---
Illusion, Shadow, Fiction | A Falta Así de Confesor | All That We See, Part One, Part Two | Into One Hour, Part One, Part Two, Part Three |
---
Kevin arrives just in time. Relieved and pleased to see Ben’s grandpa had managed to establish a video conference with Pierce’s team. With more eyes on the ready out there, now that they know how big the situation really is, Kevin feels a little bit more at ease.
Gwen and Cooper are already there and she looks at him with relief written all over her face. She blinks in confusion when he chooses to sit not beside her.
Ben arrives fifteen minutes late. Gwen is scowling at him by this point, and Cooper has been trying to get her attention for the last ten minutes. Ben lets himself drop on a chair by Kevin’s immediate left, and apologizes through a huge, jaw-cracking yawn.
Manny tries to crowd Pierce away from the screen to properly scream at Ben about punctuality and making them wait, Helen’s voice off-screen scolding Manny about his own lack of punctuality; Ben is about to open his mouth for his very own comeback, but his grandfather raises his voice over the ruckus and shuts them up.
“If everyone’s quite done now,” he says, “Or do we have to wait for something bigger and messier to happen?”
Ben sobers up immediately, Kevin notices. It’s always something kind of impressive to see. Sometimes he wishes he could be looked up like that by Ben again, like he’s someone amazing; someone admirable. He knows he lost the chance, the right, of it a long time ago.
“Now that I have your attention,” Ben’s grandfather continues, “I’d like to ask you both, Ben, Gwen, to tell us everything that really happened a month ago in your mission involving the Dromedite smuggling ring.”
The following reactions take Kevin a little by surprise: Gwen colors a bit, and she guiltily stares down, biting her lip. Ben, on the other hand, pales so swiftly he looks like he might faint, the dark rings under his eyes in stark contrast with his sudden lack of color.
Their grandfather’s face hardens, and he nods, as if confirming something, “So I was right after all. What did you leave out? This is a serious matter, Ben, Gwen; I thought I had taught you better…”
“Grandpa!” Gwen protests, weakly.
“I asked her not to say anything,” Ben says, loud enough for everyone to hear, a flush of embarrassment and guilt beginning to redden his face under his grandfather’s disapproving stare. The old man nods for him to continue and Ben shifts in his seat, uncomfortable, “We got separated while we fought, and when we realized it was a diversion most of them had already escaped. We couldn’t find Kevin after that. We assumed he had managed to slip into one of their transports and Gwen was able to trace him.”
“We followed his trace to the second of the creatures’ storages listed in the report, but as we got closer Kevin’s mana felt weird,” Gwen interjected, “As if he were unconscious or asleep, and we found him inside that machine we sent to Cooper.”
“We,” Ben begins again, voice a little faint, “We couldn’t wake Kevin up, and trying to shut down the machine was a very, very bad idea.”
Kevin is the one to pale, this time.
“We didn’t know what to do!” Gwen exclaims, still guiltily staring down at her clasped hands.
“So I suggested she try projecting a thought into Kevin’s mind, to make him wake up by himself,” Ben continues. “When she couldn’t figure out how to do both simultaneously I suggested she send a thought of mine,” he shrugs, “And it worked. That’s all.”
There’s a heavy silence. Ben and Gwen are looking down still, refusing any kind of eye contact. Grandpa Max shatters the quiet with a rueful sigh, “You two,” he says, “Are so much worse than I ever was; even in my worst days.”
The Tennyson cousins both look up at the same time, faces hopeful.
“Leaving your punishment, for leaving things out of the report, for later,” the old man continues, “The machine arrived yesterday and Kevin himself was able to identify it,” he nods at Kevin, “If you please.”
“Yes, sir,” he acquiesces, not really wanting to go into details but having no choice, “It’s a Virtual Reality chamber. An outdated model and custom altered. Me and Coop, we spent the night taking it apart and things don’t look pretty.”
He looks around, despite knowing he has their attention. “The chamber has no reality interface, no user override controls and an annexed, crude life-signs monitoring system, plus a medical scanner altered to administer precise doses of any kind of sedative known in the closest five galaxies, including ours.
“The thing is obviously altered to trap and transport sentient beings without them putting up a struggle.”
There’s heavy, heavy silence.
“Fuck!” They hear Manny curse off-screen.
Kevin couldn’t have summed it up better.
The meeting lasts more than Kevin hoped it would last. He feels suffocated most of the time he’s in the room. Everyone is uncomfortable, and when the old man finally decides it’s time to wrap up and go, he’s almost the first one out the door: Ben beats him to it.
He’s almost to his car when he hears Gwen call, “Kevin, wait up!”
He sighs, tiredly, and stops, “What’s up?” he asks, trying not to show his weariness in his voice.
“Um, you have anything to do on Saturday?” she asks, a nervous little chuckle escaping her lips.
“Why?” he asks, a little suspicious.
“Well, is just that, well, since I have nothing to do and you have nothing to do, either…”
Kevin frowns perplexedly at her, “Why this all of a sudden?”
She’s about to say something when, behind her, he sees Cooper exiting the building; he looks around, nervously, and when he sees them Kevin sees his shoulders sag, and a small resigned smile shakily crooks his lips up. Kevin watches him turn around and go back inside.
“Gwen,” he says, slowly, “Did Coop ask you out?” She grins that relieved smile up at him, as if she doesn’t need to explain anything now that Kevin has figured it all out, on his own. “You’re using me to shoot Coop down?”
He stares down at her, gaping, and she blushes, guilty.
“I’m sorry!” She says, “It’s just…”
Kevin sighs. Why can’t this day be over already? “I told him it was okay to ask you,” he tells her, “Because,” he continues before she has any time to say anything, and possibly angering him more on Cooper’s behalf, “I thought you would at least give him a chance and let him try.”
“Kevin, I’m not going out with him just because you pity him!” She sounds scandalized.
“Pity?” Kevin blinks at her, “I don’t have time for this,” he says, suddenly wanting to be far, far away, “Call me when you stop talking like a shallow princess and start thinking straight again.”
He gets into his car and slams the door shut. The tires screeching and the engine roaring are not loud enough to drown Gwen’s own irate screech.
Kevin has never been this tired before in his life, he thinks. Not even-- he stops the thought right on its tracks. Just what I need, he thinks, to think about the past and all mistakes and misery that comes with it.
He knows it’s tempting fate, but he cannot stop himself from thinking it: Could this possibly get any worse?
It’s pass supper time when Kevin finally remembers about the storage unit. He’s been working on his Baby since he returned, ignoring Gwen’s calls, all six of them, and having to take seven breaks because he kept absorbing the metal of his tools and creeper. He’d had to stop because it made him want to hit something.
He considers calling Coop, but he’s not really sure what to say to him. It’s not as if-
He sighs, pressing the backs of his hands against his eyes, careful not to smear grease on them. He should get on with it, he decides. He looks at the unit, harmlessly sitting on top of his work table, near the back of it and almost all the way to the left.
It doesn’t take long to craft an acceptable interface; enough to replay the stored data, transmitting into his mind as dreams. He takes everything to his room, and he spends a whole hour awake, trying to calm himself down, fighting his trepidation and irrational fear.
He sticks the electrodes to his temples and dons the circlet-like interface. He lays down to sleep and closes his eyes.
He dreams.
Kevin wakes with a gasp, on the brink of an earth-shattering orgasm and with Ben’s name on his lips.
This time, he remembers.
Sequel -> Into One Hour
Previous <