Whedonland 20in20
So I stood up to the just_drifting_6 challenge and made 20 drabbles in one night. So, here I am and my ultimate cramming skills. Unbeta-ed. I hope you enjoy and I apologize for any (horrid) mistakes
Family
He finds himself getting restless, not used to being in the same place for more than a week or two. The facility is large as he remembers, but it’s not the same as being outside, under the sun and the stars, fighting for his life. Nothing can compare to that.
He walks silently across the halls and into one of the sleeping chambers, catching the tail-end of a bedtime story.
“And that, my darling, is why there are stars up in the sky.”
“The diamonds became the stars?” T asks, in wonder.
“Yes, they did.”
He hovers by the doorway, watching as Priya tucks in their son and kisses him good night. T had taken a liking to sleeping in the pods-he says it’s like being in a spaceship.
He waits for a few minutes before he approaches her. He sits beside her at the edge of the pod and gazes at T, who has fallen asleep.
“You can also tell him stories before he sleeps, you know.” Priya softly says.
He looks at her, “Do you think he’ll like it?”
She reaches out and covers her hand with his, “He’ll love it.”
He pulls her towards him and she leans on his shoulder. He holds her close as they watch their son sleep.
Nothing can compare to the rush of fighting for his life. But nothing can also compare to this. And maybe, he can get used to it.
Competitive
There’s only one word that can describe Topher Brink and that is genius-with a capital G.
He’s the best, he’s the smartest, and if he may say so himself, the awesomest. Nothing compares to Topher Brink. He re-hauled the entire system, and (dare he even say), shook the entire corporation (in a good way). He has created… stuff that people haven’t even dreamed of. Him, Topher Brink!
And then, a year-and-a-half later, his record’s been broken and there’s a new up-and-comer about town. His name is Bennett Halverson, and he… is also a genius. An artist, too, He had seen Halverson’s work, and man oh man… if Bennett Halverson was a girl, he would have proposed to her on the spot. But he isn’t, so… yeah.
Now, he’s been given a project-and not just any kind of project. It’s the kind of thing that can show Mr. Bennett Halverson that he, Topher Brink, can out-awesome him.
Oh, yes, siree. He’s going to out-awesome Bennett Halverson, the genius from the Washington House. And he’s not going to try. He will.
(And then maybe, they can go and have a bromance… just saying.)
Beginnings
“So, what happens if I get compromised?”
Hamilton looks at him and shrugs, “For this operation, I think we can both agree that you will be better off dead than compromised.”
He doesn’t say anything and glances at the files they gave him. They’re shipping him off to LA in a few weeks. There’s going to be an opening in the Rossum Corporation, a once-in-a-lifetime chance that the NSA has been waiting for, for a long time.
“What else do you want me to do?” he asks, idly flipping through the pages. He’s read this about a million times already, and at this moment, the only thing vaguely enjoyable about the entire prep work is looking at the pictures.
“Nothing. Just do the job. Don’t let the tech get out, don’t let the tech be found out. No sleeping around and don’t get compromised. Is that understood?”
Laurence Dominic looks at his handler and nods his head, “Understood.”
Danger
The butchers have found their way inside.
The little girl gives her one final look before leading the two, who sought safe haven, away. She watches as they leave and she watches as they fought their way out, shooting the people who aren’t really people anymore.
She watches and she turns around. She knows what to do. She needs to protect her home… everybody’s home.
She turns on the switch. She needs to keep this home safe.
She lifts her eyes and goes out of the lab. She walks, follows the path of the little girl.
Her eyes start to feel heavy and she sits down at the edge of walkway. She rests her head on the metal bar.
She needs to keep this home safe.
Humor
“Topher, what are you doing?”
He ignores Ivy and proceeds to put the bucket of green goo on top of the little space between the barely-opened door. It’s a very, very juvenile trick, but he’s been dying to figure out if it works in real life. And this is the first time that he can actually try this experiment out.
“Topher.” His assistant sighs.
He jumps down the tiny step ladder and hides it from view, “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy.” He says, “It’s just a little experiment. I’m a scientist, you know. I need experiments.” He says.
Ivy gives him a disapproving glare, “If Dominic comes through that door, you’re-”
True enough the door opens and the bucket of green goo falls on Laurence Dominic, Chief Security Extraordinaire.
Topher freezes at the sight of the green, angry man in front of him.
“TOPHER!”
Eyes
He wakes up in a haze of pain and he blindly reaches to his side, groaning. He hears a slight thud on the floor and he tries to sit up.
“Don’t move too much, or you’ll rip out your stitches.”
He forces himself to open his eyes and he sees a concerned face hovering above him. He touches her face, to make sure he’s not seeing things, and smiles, “Hi.” He says, weakly.
An expression of relief appears in her features, “Hi.” She greets back. She takes his hand and squeezes it reassuringly.
He tries to stay awake as long as possible. He liked drowning in the greenness of her eyes. It always makes him feel he’s home.
Finale
Paul embraces her and she takes in his solidness and his strength. Tears sting her eyes. They never had enough of this when he was alive. She always tried to ignore what she wanted to avoid hurting the only person she can truly hurt-him. And now that he’s gone…
“I really hope this relationship would work.” Paul says.
She pulls away slightly and lifts her chin up, “And if it doesn’t?” she asks.
“Well, it will be the worst break-up ever.” He replies, “Because you won’t be able to get me out of your mind.” He continues, smiling cheekily.
A laugh escapes her and she reaches out to touch his face.
“We’re gonna be fine, Paul.” She says and kisses him.
Temptation
Mr. Dominic is a strangely attractive man, who is very controlled with his actions and very precise with his words. There were times when she’ll wonder what it would be like to kiss him, or what kind of lover he makes- severely inappropriate thoughts that she would immediately clear from her mind.
It would be dangerous to even entertain what she’s thinking. He’s a colleague with whom she has excellent rapport with, someone who’s on the same wavelength as she is, someone whom she can communicate with wordlessly. It’s somewhat of a rare find in a professional relationship and she doesn’t want to jeopardize that or even the vestige of friendship she has with him with a silly romp in the haystack.
But whenever he comes close, she would wonder. What if?
Ship
Dirk grabs her and pulls her closer to him, his lips capturing hers. He hears her moan and he feels her body surrendering against his.
He pulls away, breathless. Desire is fogging her emerald-green eyes and it makes the blood pump in his veins.
“Now can we talk about security, Ma’am?”
Judith hears the door of Ms. DeWitt’s office creak open suddenly, which makes her squeak in her seat a little. She quickly saves her work and closes the program before sitting primly on her chair.
Ms. DeWitt and Mr. Dominic passes by her desk, dressed to the nines.
“Please don’t forget to call Mr. Harding’s secretary about our lunch meeting, Judith.” Ms. DeWitt says, giving her a bit of a smile. Mr. Dominic is in his usual grumpy intense self.
“Of course, Ms. DeWitt.” She replies. She watches them walk away from her, all regal and in sync, before doing what was asked of her to do.
And then she goes back to what she was doing. She opens the document she was working on a few minutes ago and starts typing once again.
Delilah pushes Dirk against the wall. She leans against him, and she grazes her lips against his cheek before whispering into his ear, “Maybe later.”
Crossover
Adelle pours a glass of whiskey for their new client-a man in his late fifties, with silver hair and a very piercing stare. He’s exquisitely dressed, though he must say that the green frames of his eyeglasses are off-putting.
“And what can Rossum do for you, Mr. Sloane?”
The man smiles at her and she feels the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. He doesn’t seem malevolent, but he doesn’t seem kind either.
“I… would like to spend a day with my daughter.” He says, “A young woman in her mid-twenties, with dark hair and dark brown eyes.”
He doesn’t look like a father in mourning, but who is she to judge?
“That can be easily arranged.”
One Character - Laurence Dominic
One
The Attic is where you face your worst fears.
You get stuck in a loop of horror. Sometimes it starts almost immediately. Other times it seems like forever, with no discernable beginning or end. And then there are times when it starts out as something wonderful only for you to discover that your most unspeakable fear is waiting for you at the very end.
His fear manages to start innocently enough.
~*~*~
Her kiss is wet, deep and brutal and his reaction to her is quick and very overwhelming. She’s making his head spin and he pushes her against the wall, struggling to maintain a little bit of control. He feels her fingers curling against his shirt, pulling him even closer. He groans.
He’s always had wickedly inappropriate thoughts about his boss.
He drags his lips across her cheek and along the column of her neck. His tongue darts out to taste her skin as his hands start to trail downwards, fingers brushing against her arms to the side of her breasts and settling around her waist. Excitement pulsates in his veins as she arches her body against him
Suddenly, he feels something wet and warm trickling down his palm. He pulls away and looks at his hands. It’s dark and red.
Blood.
He brings his gaze to her face and he finds a pair of green eyes looking at him intently, “You’re bleeding.” He says. Why is she bleeding?
“Don’t you remember?” she asks, tilting her head to the side as she starts to toy with the ends of his hair.
Unease spreads in him, “Remember what?” he asks and takes hold of her hand.
“You shot me.”
He draws his brows together and shakes his head as he takes a few steps backwards. “I won’t…” he trails off, becoming aware of the sounds of sirens, of screaming people and of chaos in the distance.
Something flashes in his mind. It was so quick he thought he might have imagined it, but he remembers the weight of the gun in his hand, squeezing the trigger. He can’t remember why, “Why would I do that?”
“You’re a spy, you got caught.” She says. He can see the blood stain on her yellow blouse growing larger. He didn’t shoot her, did he? He stares as the blood begins to cover the lower part of her torso, “And you fought your way out.”
He stares at her in disbelief. “You’re not…” he trails off, “I’ll never hurt you.”
“But you did.” She says, bluntly, “And you gave the NSA what they wanted.”
He finally remembers what was going on. He whirls around and hurries towards the windows to look outside. He’s several floors above ground, but he can clearly see the dark smoke rising from the burning cars, the mob of people killing each other. There is total anarchy outside.
The NSA. The technology. Everything had gotten out of hand.
A twisted smile appears on her face. He feels his stomach churn.
“How does it feel to end the world, Mr. Dominic?”
Two
He leans on his chair and stares at his computer monitor, a smirk forming in his face. He just discovered that Topher had managed to network all the computers in the building for his little chess game. Boy Wonder isn’t content with displaying the chess set in his lab; he actually wants to play with someone.
So he decides to indulge the little spaz. He isn’t worried that Topher will figure out who he’s playing against-all the computers in the network have numbers for names. He wants to see if Topher is as good in chess as he says.
He’s got to say, Topher isn’t very good at it. Not against him, anyway.
The smirk stays on his face. He’s not going to gloat. He’ll just keep the game in the network and kick Topher’s ass in chess every chance he gets.
Three
“How are you Mr. Dominic?”
He looks at his boss and shrugs slightly, “I’m okay, Ma’am.” He answers.
Adelle DeWitt smiles at him as she sinks on her chair, “For a moment there, I got worried about you.” She says.
“It wasn’t at all dangerous.” He replies, almost reassuringly.
She wasn’t what he had expected. It would have been easier if she had met all his expectations. In that way, he wouldn’t have these mixed feelings about her. He wouldn’t be worried about her clouding his judgment.
A contemplative expression passes by her face, “I’m still glad you’re all right.”
In that way, he wouldn’t be worrying about an exit strategy for her in case things blow up on their faces.
Four
He doesn’t mind labels. In fact, he uses them to his advantage. He had projected a certain kind of image - an image that his own mother might think is a bit nasty - to make sure that people would know that he’s not the kind of person they should cross. It worked well for him as an NSA agent and as the head of security of a highly dangerous organization that dealt with human trafficking and prostitution.
When he came back from the Attic, bitterness was added to that image. But for some people - Echo, Tony and Priya - it’s not all that there is to Laurence Dominic. He doesn’t contradict them, but he also doesn’t do anything that will substantiate their claim.
He’s the angry, mean, bitter jerk who can be pretty heroic at times. He doesn’t really mind if they called him that.
Five
Intense pain rings in his head for a split second before a flash of bright white light appeared in the sky. He turns his jeep to the opposite direction immediately; he knows that this sort of thing can only have come from Los Angeles.
The world has woken up-he can tell as much from all the people he had encountered. Most were confused, frightened and it took him a few days longer to reach LA because of the confusion.
When he arrives in the city, she is the first recognizable face he sees. And he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her rallying a crowd to rebuild Los Angeles.
“Need help, Ma’am?” he asks, when she’s finally alone.
The shock on her face upon seeing him is palpable, but it gets replaced by a relieved smile.
“I’ll need all the help I can get, Mr. Dominic.”
Author's Choice
One
He twirls his pen around his fingers, a new trick he had learned a few days back. He hasn’t perfected it, but it’s keeping the boredom at bay.
Clyde’s droning on and on about the LA Dollhouse, about Adelle DeWitt. He understands Clyde’s concern, but since he basically took out free will from him, Clyde won’t be able to do anything about his concerns.
“I’ll take care of it.” He says.
“You aren’t even listening.” Clyde replies, almost in a whine.
“I was listening.” He twirls his pen, “Don’t worry about it.”
Clyde shakes his head and shifts the topic to the progress they’ve made in Dubai.
Two
“I’ve told you before, ma’am, and I’m telling you again, I don’t like this plan. It’s too risky.”
She glances at her Head of Security, who’s standing a step away from the platform.
She swivels her chair to face him, “And I’ve told you before, repeating it over and over won’t make me change my mind.” She says, crossing her legs, “You're not supposed to like the plan, Mr. Dominic. That’s what you're paid to do.”
His jaws clench and he puts his hands behind his back, “This is different. You’re not an Active, you’re not going on a ridiculously dangerous engagement. This is a threat to your life.” He says, his barely-concealed anger reverberating in the room, “And you're putting yourself out in the open.”
She lets out a deep breath and sets down her fountain pen on the desk, “I understand your concern, but remember the last time I skipped a corporate function of this magnitude, it had serious repercussions for the House.”
“I still don’t think you should go.” He grumbles.
“Mr. Dominic.” She says sternly but looking at him with amusement, “I know how you feel about our esteemed colleagues, but you're expected to be there as much as I am.”
Before he can reply, the phone on her desk starts ringing. She reaches to it and takes the call.
“Yes?” she greets and then glances back at him, who hasn’t moved from his position, “Thank you.” She puts the phone back to its cradle and stands up, “Topher’s ready for us.” she tells him.
He shakes his head in annoyance before going ahead towards her private elevator. He swipes his ID on the sensors and lets her get inside first.
She waits for him to step inside the elevator before pressing the floor for the Dollhouse facility.
“You're-we’re going to go to Monaco on a plane. What if that psycho decides to blow it up?”
She flicks a brow, “I’m quite confident you won’t let it get to that point.”
Dominic’s exasperation is something that she’s gotten used to. After all, he doesn’t really get his way all the time throughout all the three years he’s worked by her side.
The elevator ride to the facility takes a few minutes and it’s filled with silence. The moment the elevator doors open, they step out and stride towards Topher’s lab, perfectly in sync.
They find Topher arguing with an imprinted Victor, with an unimprinted Sierra sitting patiently on the chair.
“Leave me alone, leave me alone. I’m working here.” Topher says, trying to ignore Victor, who’s still in his Active wear.
“This,” Victor motions to his body, in frustration “this is too risky. If you’re telling the truth, Topher- hey, are you even listening?!”
Topher turns to him and gives him a smile that comes across as a grimace, “As much as I want to humor you and all, Victor Dom, I have to get the DeWitt imprint up and running before she and real you arrive.”
“Problems, gentlemen?” she asks as she stands by the doorway.
Both men turn towards where she’s standing. Topher puts his hands up, “Ask him.” He says then presses enter on his computer. He looks at Victor and then to her before getting the wedge, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, you and real Dom will have to go to my office so that I have Active-you you.” He says and ushers her and Dominic out of the imprinting room and into his lab.
“Sierra DeWitt will be out in a few minutes.” He says, holding the wedge and disappearing from sight, “Just chillax.”
Victor, who’s been imprinted with Laurence Dominic’s back-up wedge, frowns at them (at her, mostly) with his arms crossed in front of his chest. She glances at Dominic and finds him standing the same way, with the same frown on his face.
She’s suddenly at loss for the moment, as she looks at both men. It was standard procedure to use an Active with their personality to run the House, in case the head and chief of security are both gone. This isn’t the first time they had the need for both (these kinds of Rossum affairs are bi-annual), but she never had the need to meet them (so to speak).
She never anticipated the situation to be this surreal.
It’s Victor-Dominic who breaks the silence.
“Ma’am, if I may, going to Monaco all while there’s a psycho running around, trying to kill you? It’s suicide.” He says, gruffly and emphatically.
She’s heard that speech before, the first time she made up her mind to attend this corporate function.
“Thank you for your concern, Mr. Dominic. But we’ve had this conversation before.” She says.
“And you lose.” The real Dominic adds.
Victor-Dominic lets out a huff, “Obviously.”
She flashes a warning look at both men. They both look away from her, with the frowns on their faces deepening.
“Oh, what do we have here?”
It’s Sierra’s voice, but at the same time it was hers. She turns towards the imprinting room and sees Sierra sliding out of the chair.
Sierra looks at her from head to toe and then to the two men beside her, “This is new.” she says slowly and walks towards them, with Topher behind her, “What did I miss?”
“Someone’s sending you threatening letters, tried to blow up your car. We haven’t caught him and you’re still insisting that you’re attending the meeting in Monaco.” Victor-Dominic looks at her and then to Sierra, as if to prove a point “This isn’t a high-risk engagement. This is your life we’re talking about.”
“Hmm.” Sierra leans on her left leg (does she really do that?) and puts a hand on her left hip. She observes everybody’s faces.
“Well, of course I’ll insist on attending the meeting in Monaco. Do you remember the last time I skipped a corporate function?” she asks after a few minutes.
“That’s not the point-” Dominic interjects, but Sierra cuts him off,
“I’m quite certain you’ll find the man responsible.” She tells him and then to Victor, “You always do.”
“What if we don’t?” the man and his copy ask at the same time.
Topher just stands in one corner, watching them with utter fascination.
She takes a deep breath and gives a smile for everybody, “Mr. Dominic, please brief… yourself with the things needed to be done while I brief my… self.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dominic nods, almost reluctantly.
“Mr. Dominic.” She says to Victor-Dominic and the man also gives her a brief nod.
Sierra turns to Victor-Dominic, “Mr. Dominic.” She says, and then turns to the other Dominic, “Mr. Dominic.”
Both women walk away.
Three
“Ambassador Dominic, how is New York this time of the year?”
Laurence sits quietly in one corner of the room, watching the adults go about mingling while holding a glass full of gold liquid in their hands. He lets out a sigh. This is boring. There aren’t any kids his age that he can play with, or at least talk to. He frowns. What do nine-year-olds do in these kinds of parties, anyway?
He swings his legs. His tie is making his neck itch, but he doesn’t dare tug it off. His mother had warned him of consequences that will occur if he even as much touches his tie.
Someone laughs heartily. He looks towards the direction of the sound. The man with a mustache (the Important British Man) is laughing with his father. He looks around. His mother is talking to the French lady and the other woman. No one is paying any attention to him.
He slips off the chair and quietly goes out of the room and into a hallway. He looks back and waits for someone to call out his name. When he doesn’t hear anything, he hurriedly walks away, grinning.
There’s a staircase at the end of the hallway. Laurence walks to it and looks up. The afternoon sun is spilling in from the windows and it doesn’t look too scary up there. He then thinks about whether he should go up or not.
And then, he hears a purr coming from upstairs.
Curious, Laurence creeps up the steps. When he reaches the landing, he finds a white cat staring at him from the top of the stairs.
“Hi, kitty.” He whispers loudly.
The cat just stares at him. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t want to scare the cat away.
After what seems like an eternity, the cat stands up and walks off, his tail swishing behind him. Laurence follows the cat, careful not to be too noisy or too energetic with his actions.
When he reaches the top of the stairs, the cat is already at the end of the hallway. It’s actually a bit dark. He’s a bit uncertain on whether he should continue following the cat. This isn’t his house. It’s the Important British Man’s house. If he gets caught… he doesn’t really know what his father’s going to do to him.
The cat looks back at him and then goes inside a room.
Laurence smiles and goes after it. He can always say the cat made him do it.
He takes a peek through the doorway. There’s a large sofa in the middle of the room and lots of bookshelves.
He steps inside.
“BOO!”
A scream gets stuck in his throat as he jumps at the voice. Boys aren’t supposed to scream. Laurence whirls around and sees a girl in a green dress behind him, laughing.
“I scared you.” She says, doubling over in laughter when she sees his face. The girl talks the same way as the people downstairs. He wrinkles his eyebrows. Daughter of the Important British Man?
“You did not.” He replies, annoyed. He crosses his arms across his chest while she puts her hands on her waist. They stare at each other.
“Your tie is pretty.” She says after a while, tilting her head to the side. “Green’s my favorite color.”
He feels himself blushing furiously. His tie isn’t pretty. “Thanks.” He mumbles. “Why aren’t you downstairs?”
She shakes her head, “I don’t like parties.” She answers.
He frowns. Why can she do that - hide in her room when there’s a party - while he can’t?
“What’s your name?” she asks
“I’m Laurence.” He says, looking at her curiously. “What’s yours?”
“I’m Addie.”
He holds out his hand, just the way he saw his father do countless of times. Addie giggles and takes his hand, shaking it gently.
“Would you like some ice cream, Laurence?” she asks, straightening her back. She gives him a friendly smile.
Ice cream. A big grin appears on his face. “Sure.”
She begins tugging him towards the door.
“Come on, the ice cream’s in the kitchen.”
Four
“Whiskey, please.”
He stares off into space as he waits for the bartender to give him his drink. It was a mistake, he thinks, that he allowed himself to agree to a blind date set up by Paul freakin’ Ballard of all people. He’s known the man since college and he knows that Paul can be dense sometimes-why didn’t it occur to him that Paul had probably misread the woman?
Well, maybe he should blame himself too. He thought that it was Madeleine who set it up, and not Paul. Topher was also trying to set him up- he had described his woman friend as “perfect, most perfect for you” and he wasn’t really convinced about that at all, especially since it’s coming from Topher. It was aggravating - they were aggravating - and he had to give in because he would never hear the end of it. And he chose Paul over Topher (because, he really, really thought Paul was just following orders from Madeleine).
The moment his date started the conversation, he immediately (immediately) knew that it was his lunkhead friend who set it up.
Horrible. It was just horrible. His worst date wasn’t as horrible as this. Nothing comes close.
The bartender puts his drink in front of him. He picks it up.
He lifts the glass up to his lips and suddenly, he thinks about Topher and his idea of the “perfect woman for Laurence Dominic”. She’s probably tiny, speaks in made-up words just like Topher and probably has the energy of a seven-year-old on a sugar rush. But there will be no doubt that she’s going to be smart-too smart though, that he won’t be able to interact to her.
He finishes the drink and sighs. He signals the bartender for another.
This is the first time he went out on a blind date. And this will probably be the last time. Maybe he should swear off dating forever. That would probably be the best decision.
“You're the most impeccably-dressed man I’ve seen inside this pub, so far.”
Laurence glances to his side and sees a beautiful brunette sitting one seat away from him. She smiles at him, her very green eyes twinkling, and it takes all his self-control to not stare.
Okay. Maybe he shouldn’t swear off dating forever.
Five
A mist settles above her and she eyes them in wonder. A dash of blue, a sprinkle of yellow, a drop of pink, and a splash of green surround her. She doesn’t know what they are, but it makes her feel happy. She looks up and sees the clouds above her head. She reaches for them and she suddenly feels herself flying.
The wind caresses her face and she breathes deeply. It feels so wonderful here. She doesn’t want to leave.
“Echo?”
She tries to ignore the lovely voice. She likes it here. She wants to stay.
But suddenly, the mist clears and the colors fade away. She feels herself falling, but she isn’t afraid. She can come back. She can always come back.
“Good morning, Echo. How did you sleep?”
Family
He finds himself getting restless, not used to being in the same place for more than a week or two. The facility is large as he remembers, but it’s not the same as being outside, under the sun and the stars, fighting for his life. Nothing can compare to that.
He walks silently across the halls and into one of the sleeping chambers, catching the tail-end of a bedtime story.
“And that, my darling, is why there are stars up in the sky.”
“The diamonds became the stars?” T asks, in wonder.
“Yes, they did.”
He hovers by the doorway, watching as Priya tucks in their son and kisses him good night. T had taken a liking to sleeping in the pods-he says it’s like being in a spaceship.
He waits for a few minutes before he approaches her. He sits beside her at the edge of the pod and gazes at T, who has fallen asleep.
“You can also tell him stories before he sleeps, you know.” Priya softly says.
He looks at her, “Do you think he’ll like it?”
She reaches out and covers her hand with his, “He’ll love it.”
He pulls her towards him and she leans on his shoulder. He holds her close as they watch their son sleep.
Nothing can compare to the rush of fighting for his life. But nothing can also compare to this. And maybe, he can get used to it.
Competitive
There’s only one word that can describe Topher Brink and that is genius-with a capital G.
He’s the best, he’s the smartest, and if he may say so himself, the awesomest. Nothing compares to Topher Brink. He re-hauled the entire system, and (dare he even say), shook the entire corporation (in a good way). He has created… stuff that people haven’t even dreamed of. Him, Topher Brink!
And then, a year-and-a-half later, his record’s been broken and there’s a new up-and-comer about town. His name is Bennett Halverson, and he… is also a genius. An artist, too, He had seen Halverson’s work, and man oh man… if Bennett Halverson was a girl, he would have proposed to her on the spot. But he isn’t, so… yeah.
Now, he’s been given a project-and not just any kind of project. It’s the kind of thing that can show Mr. Bennett Halverson that he, Topher Brink, can out-awesome him.
Oh, yes, siree. He’s going to out-awesome Bennett Halverson, the genius from the Washington House. And he’s not going to try. He will.
(And then maybe, they can go and have a bromance… just saying.)
Beginnings
“So, what happens if I get compromised?”
Hamilton looks at him and shrugs, “For this operation, I think we can both agree that you will be better off dead than compromised.”
He doesn’t say anything and glances at the files they gave him. They’re shipping him off to LA in a few weeks. There’s going to be an opening in the Rossum Corporation, a once-in-a-lifetime chance that the NSA has been waiting for, for a long time.
“What else do you want me to do?” he asks, idly flipping through the pages. He’s read this about a million times already, and at this moment, the only thing vaguely enjoyable about the entire prep work is looking at the pictures.
“Nothing. Just do the job. Don’t let the tech get out, don’t let the tech be found out. No sleeping around and don’t get compromised. Is that understood?”
Laurence Dominic looks at his handler and nods his head, “Understood.”
Danger
The butchers have found their way inside.
The little girl gives her one final look before leading the two, who sought safe haven, away. She watches as they leave and she watches as they fought their way out, shooting the people who aren’t really people anymore.
She watches and she turns around. She knows what to do. She needs to protect her home… everybody’s home.
She turns on the switch. She needs to keep this home safe.
She lifts her eyes and goes out of the lab. She walks, follows the path of the little girl.
Her eyes start to feel heavy and she sits down at the edge of walkway. She rests her head on the metal bar.
She needs to keep this home safe.
Humor
“Topher, what are you doing?”
He ignores Ivy and proceeds to put the bucket of green goo on top of the little space between the barely-opened door. It’s a very, very juvenile trick, but he’s been dying to figure out if it works in real life. And this is the first time that he can actually try this experiment out.
“Topher.” His assistant sighs.
He jumps down the tiny step ladder and hides it from view, “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy.” He says, “It’s just a little experiment. I’m a scientist, you know. I need experiments.” He says.
Ivy gives him a disapproving glare, “If Dominic comes through that door, you’re-”
True enough the door opens and the bucket of green goo falls on Laurence Dominic, Chief Security Extraordinaire.
Topher freezes at the sight of the green, angry man in front of him.
“TOPHER!”
Eyes
He wakes up in a haze of pain and he blindly reaches to his side, groaning. He hears a slight thud on the floor and he tries to sit up.
“Don’t move too much, or you’ll rip out your stitches.”
He forces himself to open his eyes and he sees a concerned face hovering above him. He touches her face, to make sure he’s not seeing things, and smiles, “Hi.” He says, weakly.
An expression of relief appears in her features, “Hi.” She greets back. She takes his hand and squeezes it reassuringly.
He tries to stay awake as long as possible. He liked drowning in the greenness of her eyes. It always makes him feel he’s home.
Finale
Paul embraces her and she takes in his solidness and his strength. Tears sting her eyes. They never had enough of this when he was alive. She always tried to ignore what she wanted to avoid hurting the only person she can truly hurt-him. And now that he’s gone…
“I really hope this relationship would work.” Paul says.
She pulls away slightly and lifts her chin up, “And if it doesn’t?” she asks.
“Well, it will be the worst break-up ever.” He replies, “Because you won’t be able to get me out of your mind.” He continues, smiling cheekily.
A laugh escapes her and she reaches out to touch his face.
“We’re gonna be fine, Paul.” She says and kisses him.
Temptation
Mr. Dominic is a strangely attractive man, who is very controlled with his actions and very precise with his words. There were times when she’ll wonder what it would be like to kiss him, or what kind of lover he makes- severely inappropriate thoughts that she would immediately clear from her mind.
It would be dangerous to even entertain what she’s thinking. He’s a colleague with whom she has excellent rapport with, someone who’s on the same wavelength as she is, someone whom she can communicate with wordlessly. It’s somewhat of a rare find in a professional relationship and she doesn’t want to jeopardize that or even the vestige of friendship she has with him with a silly romp in the haystack.
But whenever he comes close, she would wonder. What if?
Ship
Dirk grabs her and pulls her closer to him, his lips capturing hers. He hears her moan and he feels her body surrendering against his.
He pulls away, breathless. Desire is fogging her emerald-green eyes and it makes the blood pump in his veins.
“Now can we talk about security, Ma’am?”
Judith hears the door of Ms. DeWitt’s office creak open suddenly, which makes her squeak in her seat a little. She quickly saves her work and closes the program before sitting primly on her chair.
Ms. DeWitt and Mr. Dominic passes by her desk, dressed to the nines.
“Please don’t forget to call Mr. Harding’s secretary about our lunch meeting, Judith.” Ms. DeWitt says, giving her a bit of a smile. Mr. Dominic is in his usual grumpy intense self.
“Of course, Ms. DeWitt.” She replies. She watches them walk away from her, all regal and in sync, before doing what was asked of her to do.
And then she goes back to what she was doing. She opens the document she was working on a few minutes ago and starts typing once again.
Delilah pushes Dirk against the wall. She leans against him, and she grazes her lips against his cheek before whispering into his ear, “Maybe later.”
Crossover
Adelle pours a glass of whiskey for their new client-a man in his late fifties, with silver hair and a very piercing stare. He’s exquisitely dressed, though he must say that the green frames of his eyeglasses are off-putting.
“And what can Rossum do for you, Mr. Sloane?”
The man smiles at her and she feels the hairs at the back of her neck stand up. He doesn’t seem malevolent, but he doesn’t seem kind either.
“I… would like to spend a day with my daughter.” He says, “A young woman in her mid-twenties, with dark hair and dark brown eyes.”
He doesn’t look like a father in mourning, but who is she to judge?
“That can be easily arranged.”
One Character - Laurence Dominic
One
The Attic is where you face your worst fears.
You get stuck in a loop of horror. Sometimes it starts almost immediately. Other times it seems like forever, with no discernable beginning or end. And then there are times when it starts out as something wonderful only for you to discover that your most unspeakable fear is waiting for you at the very end.
His fear manages to start innocently enough.
~*~*~
Her kiss is wet, deep and brutal and his reaction to her is quick and very overwhelming. She’s making his head spin and he pushes her against the wall, struggling to maintain a little bit of control. He feels her fingers curling against his shirt, pulling him even closer. He groans.
He’s always had wickedly inappropriate thoughts about his boss.
He drags his lips across her cheek and along the column of her neck. His tongue darts out to taste her skin as his hands start to trail downwards, fingers brushing against her arms to the side of her breasts and settling around her waist. Excitement pulsates in his veins as she arches her body against him
Suddenly, he feels something wet and warm trickling down his palm. He pulls away and looks at his hands. It’s dark and red.
Blood.
He brings his gaze to her face and he finds a pair of green eyes looking at him intently, “You’re bleeding.” He says. Why is she bleeding?
“Don’t you remember?” she asks, tilting her head to the side as she starts to toy with the ends of his hair.
Unease spreads in him, “Remember what?” he asks and takes hold of her hand.
“You shot me.”
He draws his brows together and shakes his head as he takes a few steps backwards. “I won’t…” he trails off, becoming aware of the sounds of sirens, of screaming people and of chaos in the distance.
Something flashes in his mind. It was so quick he thought he might have imagined it, but he remembers the weight of the gun in his hand, squeezing the trigger. He can’t remember why, “Why would I do that?”
“You’re a spy, you got caught.” She says. He can see the blood stain on her yellow blouse growing larger. He didn’t shoot her, did he? He stares as the blood begins to cover the lower part of her torso, “And you fought your way out.”
He stares at her in disbelief. “You’re not…” he trails off, “I’ll never hurt you.”
“But you did.” She says, bluntly, “And you gave the NSA what they wanted.”
He finally remembers what was going on. He whirls around and hurries towards the windows to look outside. He’s several floors above ground, but he can clearly see the dark smoke rising from the burning cars, the mob of people killing each other. There is total anarchy outside.
The NSA. The technology. Everything had gotten out of hand.
A twisted smile appears on her face. He feels his stomach churn.
“How does it feel to end the world, Mr. Dominic?”
Two
He leans on his chair and stares at his computer monitor, a smirk forming in his face. He just discovered that Topher had managed to network all the computers in the building for his little chess game. Boy Wonder isn’t content with displaying the chess set in his lab; he actually wants to play with someone.
So he decides to indulge the little spaz. He isn’t worried that Topher will figure out who he’s playing against-all the computers in the network have numbers for names. He wants to see if Topher is as good in chess as he says.
He’s got to say, Topher isn’t very good at it. Not against him, anyway.
The smirk stays on his face. He’s not going to gloat. He’ll just keep the game in the network and kick Topher’s ass in chess every chance he gets.
Three
“How are you Mr. Dominic?”
He looks at his boss and shrugs slightly, “I’m okay, Ma’am.” He answers.
Adelle DeWitt smiles at him as she sinks on her chair, “For a moment there, I got worried about you.” She says.
“It wasn’t at all dangerous.” He replies, almost reassuringly.
She wasn’t what he had expected. It would have been easier if she had met all his expectations. In that way, he wouldn’t have these mixed feelings about her. He wouldn’t be worried about her clouding his judgment.
A contemplative expression passes by her face, “I’m still glad you’re all right.”
In that way, he wouldn’t be worrying about an exit strategy for her in case things blow up on their faces.
Four
He doesn’t mind labels. In fact, he uses them to his advantage. He had projected a certain kind of image - an image that his own mother might think is a bit nasty - to make sure that people would know that he’s not the kind of person they should cross. It worked well for him as an NSA agent and as the head of security of a highly dangerous organization that dealt with human trafficking and prostitution.
When he came back from the Attic, bitterness was added to that image. But for some people - Echo, Tony and Priya - it’s not all that there is to Laurence Dominic. He doesn’t contradict them, but he also doesn’t do anything that will substantiate their claim.
He’s the angry, mean, bitter jerk who can be pretty heroic at times. He doesn’t really mind if they called him that.
Five
Intense pain rings in his head for a split second before a flash of bright white light appeared in the sky. He turns his jeep to the opposite direction immediately; he knows that this sort of thing can only have come from Los Angeles.
The world has woken up-he can tell as much from all the people he had encountered. Most were confused, frightened and it took him a few days longer to reach LA because of the confusion.
When he arrives in the city, she is the first recognizable face he sees. And he couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her rallying a crowd to rebuild Los Angeles.
“Need help, Ma’am?” he asks, when she’s finally alone.
The shock on her face upon seeing him is palpable, but it gets replaced by a relieved smile.
“I’ll need all the help I can get, Mr. Dominic.”
Author's Choice
One
He twirls his pen around his fingers, a new trick he had learned a few days back. He hasn’t perfected it, but it’s keeping the boredom at bay.
Clyde’s droning on and on about the LA Dollhouse, about Adelle DeWitt. He understands Clyde’s concern, but since he basically took out free will from him, Clyde won’t be able to do anything about his concerns.
“I’ll take care of it.” He says.
“You aren’t even listening.” Clyde replies, almost in a whine.
“I was listening.” He twirls his pen, “Don’t worry about it.”
Clyde shakes his head and shifts the topic to the progress they’ve made in Dubai.
Two
“I’ve told you before, ma’am, and I’m telling you again, I don’t like this plan. It’s too risky.”
She glances at her Head of Security, who’s standing a step away from the platform.
She swivels her chair to face him, “And I’ve told you before, repeating it over and over won’t make me change my mind.” She says, crossing her legs, “You're not supposed to like the plan, Mr. Dominic. That’s what you're paid to do.”
His jaws clench and he puts his hands behind his back, “This is different. You’re not an Active, you’re not going on a ridiculously dangerous engagement. This is a threat to your life.” He says, his barely-concealed anger reverberating in the room, “And you're putting yourself out in the open.”
She lets out a deep breath and sets down her fountain pen on the desk, “I understand your concern, but remember the last time I skipped a corporate function of this magnitude, it had serious repercussions for the House.”
“I still don’t think you should go.” He grumbles.
“Mr. Dominic.” She says sternly but looking at him with amusement, “I know how you feel about our esteemed colleagues, but you're expected to be there as much as I am.”
Before he can reply, the phone on her desk starts ringing. She reaches to it and takes the call.
“Yes?” she greets and then glances back at him, who hasn’t moved from his position, “Thank you.” She puts the phone back to its cradle and stands up, “Topher’s ready for us.” she tells him.
He shakes his head in annoyance before going ahead towards her private elevator. He swipes his ID on the sensors and lets her get inside first.
She waits for him to step inside the elevator before pressing the floor for the Dollhouse facility.
“You're-we’re going to go to Monaco on a plane. What if that psycho decides to blow it up?”
She flicks a brow, “I’m quite confident you won’t let it get to that point.”
Dominic’s exasperation is something that she’s gotten used to. After all, he doesn’t really get his way all the time throughout all the three years he’s worked by her side.
The elevator ride to the facility takes a few minutes and it’s filled with silence. The moment the elevator doors open, they step out and stride towards Topher’s lab, perfectly in sync.
They find Topher arguing with an imprinted Victor, with an unimprinted Sierra sitting patiently on the chair.
“Leave me alone, leave me alone. I’m working here.” Topher says, trying to ignore Victor, who’s still in his Active wear.
“This,” Victor motions to his body, in frustration “this is too risky. If you’re telling the truth, Topher- hey, are you even listening?!”
Topher turns to him and gives him a smile that comes across as a grimace, “As much as I want to humor you and all, Victor Dom, I have to get the DeWitt imprint up and running before she and real you arrive.”
“Problems, gentlemen?” she asks as she stands by the doorway.
Both men turn towards where she’s standing. Topher puts his hands up, “Ask him.” He says then presses enter on his computer. He looks at Victor and then to her before getting the wedge, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, you and real Dom will have to go to my office so that I have Active-you you.” He says and ushers her and Dominic out of the imprinting room and into his lab.
“Sierra DeWitt will be out in a few minutes.” He says, holding the wedge and disappearing from sight, “Just chillax.”
Victor, who’s been imprinted with Laurence Dominic’s back-up wedge, frowns at them (at her, mostly) with his arms crossed in front of his chest. She glances at Dominic and finds him standing the same way, with the same frown on his face.
She’s suddenly at loss for the moment, as she looks at both men. It was standard procedure to use an Active with their personality to run the House, in case the head and chief of security are both gone. This isn’t the first time they had the need for both (these kinds of Rossum affairs are bi-annual), but she never had the need to meet them (so to speak).
She never anticipated the situation to be this surreal.
It’s Victor-Dominic who breaks the silence.
“Ma’am, if I may, going to Monaco all while there’s a psycho running around, trying to kill you? It’s suicide.” He says, gruffly and emphatically.
She’s heard that speech before, the first time she made up her mind to attend this corporate function.
“Thank you for your concern, Mr. Dominic. But we’ve had this conversation before.” She says.
“And you lose.” The real Dominic adds.
Victor-Dominic lets out a huff, “Obviously.”
She flashes a warning look at both men. They both look away from her, with the frowns on their faces deepening.
“Oh, what do we have here?”
It’s Sierra’s voice, but at the same time it was hers. She turns towards the imprinting room and sees Sierra sliding out of the chair.
Sierra looks at her from head to toe and then to the two men beside her, “This is new.” she says slowly and walks towards them, with Topher behind her, “What did I miss?”
“Someone’s sending you threatening letters, tried to blow up your car. We haven’t caught him and you’re still insisting that you’re attending the meeting in Monaco.” Victor-Dominic looks at her and then to Sierra, as if to prove a point “This isn’t a high-risk engagement. This is your life we’re talking about.”
“Hmm.” Sierra leans on her left leg (does she really do that?) and puts a hand on her left hip. She observes everybody’s faces.
“Well, of course I’ll insist on attending the meeting in Monaco. Do you remember the last time I skipped a corporate function?” she asks after a few minutes.
“That’s not the point-” Dominic interjects, but Sierra cuts him off,
“I’m quite certain you’ll find the man responsible.” She tells him and then to Victor, “You always do.”
“What if we don’t?” the man and his copy ask at the same time.
Topher just stands in one corner, watching them with utter fascination.
She takes a deep breath and gives a smile for everybody, “Mr. Dominic, please brief… yourself with the things needed to be done while I brief my… self.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dominic nods, almost reluctantly.
“Mr. Dominic.” She says to Victor-Dominic and the man also gives her a brief nod.
Sierra turns to Victor-Dominic, “Mr. Dominic.” She says, and then turns to the other Dominic, “Mr. Dominic.”
Both women walk away.
Three
“Ambassador Dominic, how is New York this time of the year?”
Laurence sits quietly in one corner of the room, watching the adults go about mingling while holding a glass full of gold liquid in their hands. He lets out a sigh. This is boring. There aren’t any kids his age that he can play with, or at least talk to. He frowns. What do nine-year-olds do in these kinds of parties, anyway?
He swings his legs. His tie is making his neck itch, but he doesn’t dare tug it off. His mother had warned him of consequences that will occur if he even as much touches his tie.
Someone laughs heartily. He looks towards the direction of the sound. The man with a mustache (the Important British Man) is laughing with his father. He looks around. His mother is talking to the French lady and the other woman. No one is paying any attention to him.
He slips off the chair and quietly goes out of the room and into a hallway. He looks back and waits for someone to call out his name. When he doesn’t hear anything, he hurriedly walks away, grinning.
There’s a staircase at the end of the hallway. Laurence walks to it and looks up. The afternoon sun is spilling in from the windows and it doesn’t look too scary up there. He then thinks about whether he should go up or not.
And then, he hears a purr coming from upstairs.
Curious, Laurence creeps up the steps. When he reaches the landing, he finds a white cat staring at him from the top of the stairs.
“Hi, kitty.” He whispers loudly.
The cat just stares at him. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t want to scare the cat away.
After what seems like an eternity, the cat stands up and walks off, his tail swishing behind him. Laurence follows the cat, careful not to be too noisy or too energetic with his actions.
When he reaches the top of the stairs, the cat is already at the end of the hallway. It’s actually a bit dark. He’s a bit uncertain on whether he should continue following the cat. This isn’t his house. It’s the Important British Man’s house. If he gets caught… he doesn’t really know what his father’s going to do to him.
The cat looks back at him and then goes inside a room.
Laurence smiles and goes after it. He can always say the cat made him do it.
He takes a peek through the doorway. There’s a large sofa in the middle of the room and lots of bookshelves.
He steps inside.
“BOO!”
A scream gets stuck in his throat as he jumps at the voice. Boys aren’t supposed to scream. Laurence whirls around and sees a girl in a green dress behind him, laughing.
“I scared you.” She says, doubling over in laughter when she sees his face. The girl talks the same way as the people downstairs. He wrinkles his eyebrows. Daughter of the Important British Man?
“You did not.” He replies, annoyed. He crosses his arms across his chest while she puts her hands on her waist. They stare at each other.
“Your tie is pretty.” She says after a while, tilting her head to the side. “Green’s my favorite color.”
He feels himself blushing furiously. His tie isn’t pretty. “Thanks.” He mumbles. “Why aren’t you downstairs?”
She shakes her head, “I don’t like parties.” She answers.
He frowns. Why can she do that - hide in her room when there’s a party - while he can’t?
“What’s your name?” she asks
“I’m Laurence.” He says, looking at her curiously. “What’s yours?”
“I’m Addie.”
He holds out his hand, just the way he saw his father do countless of times. Addie giggles and takes his hand, shaking it gently.
“Would you like some ice cream, Laurence?” she asks, straightening her back. She gives him a friendly smile.
Ice cream. A big grin appears on his face. “Sure.”
She begins tugging him towards the door.
“Come on, the ice cream’s in the kitchen.”
Four
“Whiskey, please.”
He stares off into space as he waits for the bartender to give him his drink. It was a mistake, he thinks, that he allowed himself to agree to a blind date set up by Paul freakin’ Ballard of all people. He’s known the man since college and he knows that Paul can be dense sometimes-why didn’t it occur to him that Paul had probably misread the woman?
Well, maybe he should blame himself too. He thought that it was Madeleine who set it up, and not Paul. Topher was also trying to set him up- he had described his woman friend as “perfect, most perfect for you” and he wasn’t really convinced about that at all, especially since it’s coming from Topher. It was aggravating - they were aggravating - and he had to give in because he would never hear the end of it. And he chose Paul over Topher (because, he really, really thought Paul was just following orders from Madeleine).
The moment his date started the conversation, he immediately (immediately) knew that it was his lunkhead friend who set it up.
Horrible. It was just horrible. His worst date wasn’t as horrible as this. Nothing comes close.
The bartender puts his drink in front of him. He picks it up.
He lifts the glass up to his lips and suddenly, he thinks about Topher and his idea of the “perfect woman for Laurence Dominic”. She’s probably tiny, speaks in made-up words just like Topher and probably has the energy of a seven-year-old on a sugar rush. But there will be no doubt that she’s going to be smart-too smart though, that he won’t be able to interact to her.
He finishes the drink and sighs. He signals the bartender for another.
This is the first time he went out on a blind date. And this will probably be the last time. Maybe he should swear off dating forever. That would probably be the best decision.
“You're the most impeccably-dressed man I’ve seen inside this pub, so far.”
Laurence glances to his side and sees a beautiful brunette sitting one seat away from him. She smiles at him, her very green eyes twinkling, and it takes all his self-control to not stare.
Okay. Maybe he shouldn’t swear off dating forever.
Five
A mist settles above her and she eyes them in wonder. A dash of blue, a sprinkle of yellow, a drop of pink, and a splash of green surround her. She doesn’t know what they are, but it makes her feel happy. She looks up and sees the clouds above her head. She reaches for them and she suddenly feels herself flying.
The wind caresses her face and she breathes deeply. It feels so wonderful here. She doesn’t want to leave.
“Echo?”
She tries to ignore the lovely voice. She likes it here. She wants to stay.
But suddenly, the mist clears and the colors fade away. She feels herself falling, but she isn’t afraid. She can come back. She can always come back.
“Good morning, Echo. How did you sleep?”