Sci-Fi Big Bang - Children Through Time - David's Book
Title: Children Through Time - The Book of David
Chapter: 1
Rating: R
Characters: Team Torchwood, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 1
David clutched at his stomach. The pain was intense. It was like a stinging rip running through him. If he could hunt down the troll that was jabbing at his insides with the javelin, he would sorely make him suffer. A shudder traipsed through his body and he sunk into the stiff sheets of the emergency room, wanting to fall through the floor into a hell dimension knowing that would be better than what he was going through.
Outside in the hall he could hear people moving back and forth, just shadows passing through his mind. He looked up, squinting his eyes as one group stopped just outside his hospital room door. They didn’t look like they were related, probably were just friends. He watched as a twenty-something girl came hobbling up to them on crutches, smiling weakly. One of the guys hurried in and held her up under her shoulders, teasing her. The girl with crutches laughed and then leaned back against the guy, smiling at him despite the full leg cast she was in.
“Where to?” a redhead asked as the girl started fumbling with her purse. The redhead took the purse and pulled out the girl’s wallet, handing it to her.
“My parents are probably worried sick,” Crutch Girl said. “I should go home.”
“How about some Lou Malnati’s first? They can’t argue with the fact that you probably need nourishment with those horse pills they gave you.” The guy holding her grinned devilishly.
“I’m so exhausted,” Crutch Girl stated, grabbing the crutches back. She then smiled at her friends. “How about we order some and pick it up on the way home? You can help me watch movies and moan in pain?”
“All right! Sounds like a plan,” the second guy crowed.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, can’t a man die in peace?” David grumbled and turned his head, staring at the creamy yellow wall. “Who the fuck needs friends anyway.” His body convulsed in pain as he gritted his teeth and then forced open his mouth, attempting to breathe through it.
“Oh hello there,” a male orderly said as he wheeled in a gurney with an older man on it. The man looked so old his skin sagged around his bones, but his cheeks were ruddy and red. “Okay Mr. Jankowski,” the orderly said to the older man, “we got you a roommate for now.” He turned to David. “I hope you don’t mind having a roomie for an hour or two, sir. We have a run on the ER, there was a multi-car crash on Lake Shore Drive. Thank you so much,” he said as he put down the brakes on Jankowksi’s stretcher.
The orderly hurriedly exited before David could say anything. A petite brunette sidled past him at the doorway. She headed straight for Mr. Jankowksi. Stopping next to him, she tenderly put her hand over his bony one and meekly smiled.
“All right Dad, you’re going to be okay. The doctors just want to run a couple of more tests, make sure it’s not a stroke.” She grasped his hand so tightly, David swore it was going to crumble under the pressure. “I’m going to go grab a bite and see if I can’t sneak you in something. I’ll be right back. I won’t be gone more than half an hour.”
She let go of her dad’s hand and shouldered her big red purse. She brushed back her hair and gave him one last enthusiastic smile and plodded out the door. A nurse in pink scrubs then came in and hung an IV bag above David. She took his hand and plugged it into the central line already there from them trying to rehydrate him.
“How are you doing Mr. Ortiz?” the nurse asked him as she picked up his chart and began looking at it.
“Fucking wonderful. I want to thank the shit-face who threw this spiked softball into my intestines and is running it back and forth through my insides.” David dropped his head to the pillow and grimaced as his stomach convulsed.
“Well, the doctor will be in to see you shortly, but he did give us approval to start a morphine drip for the pain.”
“Anything, if it helps,” David said as he clenched his hands into fists. He fought back the urge to punch the super-saccharine nurse. Why did it seem like all the nurses he got today were dropped into his room from Candy Mountain or were the biggest imbeciles on the planet?
“Okay, now, you just sit back and relax,” the nurse stated as she unclipped the IV and David watched the fluid star to drip down the tube and into his arm. “You must be exhausted. Your chart says you haven’t slept the last couple of days.”
“You think so? I fucking think so.” David tried to scoot his butt further onto the hospital bed and find some way to get comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. “It’s not like I’ve really slept in the last ten years anyway,” he grumbled.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” the nurse replied. “Did you let the doctor know?”
“No,” David groaned out. He really wanted to punch these nurses. “It doesn’t matter anyways, nothing anyone here can do to fucking help.”
The nurse checked over the IV drip while David grimaced, trying to keep the moaning to a minimum. She made a notation on his chart, and then picked up his cup for water, noticing it was empty.
“This is good,” she said. “I’ll get you some more, perhaps just some ice, but I’ll be right back.” The nurse left, her brunette ponytail bobbing along as she left his room.
“Fucking A--!” David curled his hand into a fist over his stomach, wanting to just plunge his hand into his body and rip out anything and everything that could give him pain. With his bare hands, yes, definitely with his own hands.
He saw the old man turn his head and look at him. David opened his mouth to tell him off, but gave up. He was so tired and this thing had kicked the shit out of him. Instead, he just shifted his body, turning on his side. David found himself staring at the little pain chart they had tacked to the wall, and found himself wondering if on a scale of 1-10, 28 would be a bit much. Outside his room the ER seemed to roar as the crash victims were wheeled in.
“Samantha! Oh God Samantha, where are you?” a woman’s voice carried down the hall and past his door.
David propped himself up on his elbow, the pain momentarily forgotten. Could it be? Was it possible? He pushed himself up and swung his legs over the bed. He had to find out. Holding on to the IV stand for dear life, David stumbled towards the door as he heard the voice again.
“Samantha! Oh dear God! Oh God! There you are!”
His voice caught in his throat as he saw a shock of blonde hair go sprinting past his door. He wanted to scream to them, to run to them, but his feet stayed planted.
“I thought I lost you forever!” The blonde stumbled back in front of his door, holding on to a woman with shocking red hair. The redhead had a bruise on her cheek and a gash on her arm. The blonde then kissed the redhead on the mouth. “Never scare me like that again.”
“I’m sorry, so sorry,” the redhead said and then kissed the blonde back. “I have to go check on Bethany.”
“I’ll go with you. You’re not leaving my side, ever again,” the blonde said as they hurried off past his room.
David felt as if his insides had dropped out of his body and through the hospital floor. Snatching his glasses off his face, he leaned his forehead against the IV pole, fighting back the little pinpricks at the back of his eyes. The universe had fucked with him again.
“Mr. Ortiz! What are you doing out of bed?” the nurse said as she came back in with the ice chips. She hurriedly put the cup down on the table by his bed and came over to him, putting her hands over his. “Here, let’s get you back to bed.”
The nurse started to lead him to the bed, and he hazarded a glance at the mirror above the small sink. He was 45 years old, and he looked it. Grey hair at his temples and wrinkles etched around the corners of his eyes. He would have thought they were laugh lines, but all the last ten years had given him were worry lines. Ten years he had been looking for his girls, and nothing. If he could have found them, the accusations, the hatred he felt from their families - why was he the only one to come back? - would have been worth it. He gripped the IV stand as if he were choking it.
This was fucking unfair! The universe fucked with him again and again, well, he hated it right back. What had he done to deserve this? What the hell had happened in Wales? How had they disappeared without a trace? Why had he woken up five years later, having lost that time, and his friends? Elizabeth, Samantha, Lynnae and Jillian were more than friends: they were his family, his co-conspirators. They meant more to him then he had ever told them.
He had lost every woman that had ever mattered to him: Allison, his grandmother, his “Angels.” Now he found himself in a crummy ER in Chicago, with the fucking universe kicking him in the gut with soccer spikes on! David sank down onto the bed, tossing his glasses onto the table, wanting to just give up on all of it. Was this what it was like when someone lost their mind?
“Please, just try and rest,” the nurse said as she laid the sheet over him. “The doctor will be in to check on you as soon as he can.” She patted his shoulder and hurried out of the room to the chaos beyond.
“Right, whatever, what the fuck,” David muttered as he put his head down on the pillow. He felt odd, like he was not quite in his body. He figured the morphine must be kicking in. David shut his eyes and let it drift him away to where there was no pain of any kind.
He sat in his Mum’s chair. He liked sitting here, he felt like one of the adults. Mum never used it anyway, always standing, except when she had a belly. Then she sat. He looked at his Mum’s desk. There was always something new on it.
Spying a long blue stick on the desk, he picked it up and twirled it in his fingers. It suddenly smelled like… CANDY! It smelled exactly like the candy floss Uncle Ianto sometimes got him. He licked his lips and looked around. None of the adults were in the Hub, and neither was anyone else. He looked at the stick and grinned.
Popping it into his mouth, he began to suck on it. It did! It did taste like candy floss! Oh it was so yummy. Why did Mum and Dad always get to play with the cool stuff? It wasn’t fair, them keeping a candy stick for only themselves.
“MUMMY!”
He jumped as he heard a screech from the steps leading to the room they practiced learning in, except when the adults had to have meetings in it. He still continued to suck on the stick, but glared at one of his “sisters.”
“MUMMY! AKIRA IS SUCKING ON AN ALIEN THING!”
Pulling the candy stick out just enough to stick out his tongue, Akira wrinkled his nose and said, “Shut it Caron! If you don’t tell, I might share.”
“No!” She put her hands on her hips and pouted at him. “That’s not good. MUMMY!” Caron marched over to him, her blonde pigtails swaying with each step. She jabbed a finger into his knee. “We’re not supposed to play with those things! They could be dangerous.”
“Ow!” He hated it when she poked him. She was always hitting him and none of the adults ever saw that happen. He reached down and smacked Caron on the back of the head.
“Akira! Don’t hit Caron,” Auntie Gwen said as she stepped between them. “Now what is going on?”
Caron pouted, her lower lip jutted out, rubbing the back of her head. “Akira is sucking on an alien thingy. We’re not supposed to do that!”
“Oh God! Oh God, Akira. No, no, no sweetheart,” Auntie Gwen said, snatching the stick from his hand. Suddenly it smelled like a half-dead Weevil.
“Ewwwwwwww…” Caron stepped back, covering up her nose and mouth with both hands. “Mummy, make it stop!”
“Darling, Mummy’s trying to,” Auntie Gwen replied as she held the stick away from her body and dropped it in the trash can.
“Ew! Ew! EW! EW!” Caron ran away, towards Uncle Jack’s door, and pushed it open, running in. “DA! Make it stop!”
“Come here sweetheart,” Auntie Gwen said as she held his chin in her hand. “Show me your mouth.”
Akira felt sorry for making Auntie Gwen look so worried. He opened his mouth, sticking out his tongue. His eyes grew wide as he saw a blue light on Auntie Gwen’s face. He quickly shut his mouth, afraid to swallow.
“Did you only suck on it?” she asked.
He nodded his head yes, holding his mouth closed.
“What’s going on here?” Uncle Jack asked, buttoning up his shirt.
Caron dragged a red-looking Uncle Ianto out of the office by the hand, her other hand covering her mouth and nose. Uncle Ianto disentangled himself from Caron and stood in front of her.
“I don’t know, Jack,” Auntie Gwen chided. “But I think we need to get Owen, and I feel like throwing up.” She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “That smell is SO NOT HELPING the morning sickness!” Auntie Gwen took off up the spiral staircase.
Uncle Ianto looked after Auntie Gwen and then looked at Akira who just shrugged at him. He really hoped it wouldn’t turn him into goo, but being invisible would be cool! He could sneak up on Caron all the time then and pull her pigtails. Or dump alien tentacles in her cereal. Uncle Ianto rolled his eyes and ran upstairs, too.
“All right, buddy,” Uncle Jack said as he came over and crouched in front of Akira. Uncle Jack made a face as the smell suddenly changed to something that smelled like a ruptured, rotting large intestine. “Tell me what happened?” he choked out.
“He was sucking on the alien thing! You don’t want us touching the alien things!” Caron waved her arms as she shouted from across the room.
“I didn’t know it was an alien thing! It was like candy! Stupid!” Akira shot Caron a nasty look.
“Okay, okay, okay now,” Uncle Jack said, putting his hands on Akira’s shoulders. “Caron, hush, while I talk to Akira.”
“But he-“
“Hush,” Uncle Jack said softly. “Tell me what happened, Akira?”
“I saw the thing on Mum’s desk, and it just looked like a blue stick that glowed a little. It made me think of the light sticks at the fairs. I picked it up and it smelled like the candy floss Uncle Ianto sometimes buys. It seemed okay. And it tasted just like candy floss! It really did!”
“Now his mouth is glowing! Uncle Jack, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Caron,” Uncle Jack replied. Uncle Jack stood up, his hand on Akira’s head. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “Don’t worry, sport. Your Dad will look at it, it’ll be okay.”
“You promise?” Akira gave him a worried look.
Uncle Jack chuckled. “I promise. And maybe, if you’re good, I can talk Uncle Ianto into getting some real candy floss? And no more sucking on strange objects, you got that, buddy?”
Akira nodded his head yes and was about to say something when the alarm went off. He could only recall hearing it about three other times in his life. Uncle Jack quickly moved next to him, using Mum’s computer. Red letters flashed across the screen. Uncle Jack quickly turned to him, picked Akira up under the shoulders and stood him down on the ground.
“Okay, buddy, remember what Dad and I taught you?” Uncle Jack asked, stooped over, looking him in the eyes.
Akira nodded his head yes. The adults were very serious when it came to that sound. They had even had him practice what to do. He started heading for Uncle Jack’s office, and stopped when Caron didn’t follow. Akira ran back and grabbed her by the wrist.
He looked back at Uncle Jack. “What about Kaida and Gayle?”
“They’re with your Mum, they’ll be fine. You need to go,” Uncle Jack replied, as he typed away on Mum’s computer.
“Come on Caron, let’s go,” Akira said as he dragged her into Uncle Jack’s office.
He left the door open like Dad told them to and crawled under the desk, pulling Caron down with him. He hit the small button on the bottom of the desk and huddled in the corner. Caron crawled over and hugged Akira, biting her lower lip. He hugged her back.
“I don’t like it when the alarm goes off,” Caron said.
“I don’t either,” Akira replied.
“It scares me sometimes,” she said.
“I know. I just want to play with Mum and Dad and learn about the computers, but they always have to go away,” he stated, watching the blue glow in the small space as he spoke.
“I don’t like the Rift,” Caron hissed. “It always takes Mummy and Da away.”
“I’ll be here,” Akira said as they listened to the alarm around them.
David woke up to the sound of an alarm going off and people running into his room. He tried to focus his eyes and looked over to the activity next to his bed. It took him a moment to remember the old man had been his roomie.
“Dad? I need you to stay here. I don’t want you to go away,” the daughter said as one of the orderlies moved her to the side.
“He’s going into defib,” a doctor in a labcoat stated. “We need to get him upstairs, I think he’s thrown the clot.”
One of the nurses wheeled a crash cart in and charged it up as the doctor grabbed the paddles. The other doctor doing compressions stopped as the AED beeped that it was ready.
“Clear,” the doctor called out, and then shocked the older man.
The man’s body jumped in the bed, but he did not start breathing. The daughter bumped against the David’s bed, but she did not notice him, as she held a fist up to her mouth, biting her knuckles.
“Come on Dad, don’t leave me. Don’t go away,” she mumbled.
David watched as they tried injecting him with a couple of different things and then tried the paddles again. He wasn’t aware of how long they tried, but eventually the doctor called the time of death and wheeled the body out of the room, and away from David. The daughter’s shoulders drooped as she grabbed onto the doctor, crying.
David leaned back in his bed, his head throbbing, trying to figure out the odd dream he had. He rarely dreamed, but that little boy and girl seemed so familiar. Must have been the morphine. David closed his eyes, adding to the scorecard in his mind.
Universe: 127, Anyone remotely near him: Zip.
Chapter 2 - The Book of David
Chapter: 1
Rating: R
Characters: Team Torchwood, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 1
David clutched at his stomach. The pain was intense. It was like a stinging rip running through him. If he could hunt down the troll that was jabbing at his insides with the javelin, he would sorely make him suffer. A shudder traipsed through his body and he sunk into the stiff sheets of the emergency room, wanting to fall through the floor into a hell dimension knowing that would be better than what he was going through.
Outside in the hall he could hear people moving back and forth, just shadows passing through his mind. He looked up, squinting his eyes as one group stopped just outside his hospital room door. They didn’t look like they were related, probably were just friends. He watched as a twenty-something girl came hobbling up to them on crutches, smiling weakly. One of the guys hurried in and held her up under her shoulders, teasing her. The girl with crutches laughed and then leaned back against the guy, smiling at him despite the full leg cast she was in.
“Where to?” a redhead asked as the girl started fumbling with her purse. The redhead took the purse and pulled out the girl’s wallet, handing it to her.
“My parents are probably worried sick,” Crutch Girl said. “I should go home.”
“How about some Lou Malnati’s first? They can’t argue with the fact that you probably need nourishment with those horse pills they gave you.” The guy holding her grinned devilishly.
“I’m so exhausted,” Crutch Girl stated, grabbing the crutches back. She then smiled at her friends. “How about we order some and pick it up on the way home? You can help me watch movies and moan in pain?”
“All right! Sounds like a plan,” the second guy crowed.
“Oh for fuck’s sake, can’t a man die in peace?” David grumbled and turned his head, staring at the creamy yellow wall. “Who the fuck needs friends anyway.” His body convulsed in pain as he gritted his teeth and then forced open his mouth, attempting to breathe through it.
“Oh hello there,” a male orderly said as he wheeled in a gurney with an older man on it. The man looked so old his skin sagged around his bones, but his cheeks were ruddy and red. “Okay Mr. Jankowski,” the orderly said to the older man, “we got you a roommate for now.” He turned to David. “I hope you don’t mind having a roomie for an hour or two, sir. We have a run on the ER, there was a multi-car crash on Lake Shore Drive. Thank you so much,” he said as he put down the brakes on Jankowksi’s stretcher.
The orderly hurriedly exited before David could say anything. A petite brunette sidled past him at the doorway. She headed straight for Mr. Jankowksi. Stopping next to him, she tenderly put her hand over his bony one and meekly smiled.
“All right Dad, you’re going to be okay. The doctors just want to run a couple of more tests, make sure it’s not a stroke.” She grasped his hand so tightly, David swore it was going to crumble under the pressure. “I’m going to go grab a bite and see if I can’t sneak you in something. I’ll be right back. I won’t be gone more than half an hour.”
She let go of her dad’s hand and shouldered her big red purse. She brushed back her hair and gave him one last enthusiastic smile and plodded out the door. A nurse in pink scrubs then came in and hung an IV bag above David. She took his hand and plugged it into the central line already there from them trying to rehydrate him.
“How are you doing Mr. Ortiz?” the nurse asked him as she picked up his chart and began looking at it.
“Fucking wonderful. I want to thank the shit-face who threw this spiked softball into my intestines and is running it back and forth through my insides.” David dropped his head to the pillow and grimaced as his stomach convulsed.
“Well, the doctor will be in to see you shortly, but he did give us approval to start a morphine drip for the pain.”
“Anything, if it helps,” David said as he clenched his hands into fists. He fought back the urge to punch the super-saccharine nurse. Why did it seem like all the nurses he got today were dropped into his room from Candy Mountain or were the biggest imbeciles on the planet?
“Okay, now, you just sit back and relax,” the nurse stated as she unclipped the IV and David watched the fluid star to drip down the tube and into his arm. “You must be exhausted. Your chart says you haven’t slept the last couple of days.”
“You think so? I fucking think so.” David tried to scoot his butt further onto the hospital bed and find some way to get comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. “It’s not like I’ve really slept in the last ten years anyway,” he grumbled.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” the nurse replied. “Did you let the doctor know?”
“No,” David groaned out. He really wanted to punch these nurses. “It doesn’t matter anyways, nothing anyone here can do to fucking help.”
The nurse checked over the IV drip while David grimaced, trying to keep the moaning to a minimum. She made a notation on his chart, and then picked up his cup for water, noticing it was empty.
“This is good,” she said. “I’ll get you some more, perhaps just some ice, but I’ll be right back.” The nurse left, her brunette ponytail bobbing along as she left his room.
“Fucking A--!” David curled his hand into a fist over his stomach, wanting to just plunge his hand into his body and rip out anything and everything that could give him pain. With his bare hands, yes, definitely with his own hands.
He saw the old man turn his head and look at him. David opened his mouth to tell him off, but gave up. He was so tired and this thing had kicked the shit out of him. Instead, he just shifted his body, turning on his side. David found himself staring at the little pain chart they had tacked to the wall, and found himself wondering if on a scale of 1-10, 28 would be a bit much. Outside his room the ER seemed to roar as the crash victims were wheeled in.
“Samantha! Oh God Samantha, where are you?” a woman’s voice carried down the hall and past his door.
David propped himself up on his elbow, the pain momentarily forgotten. Could it be? Was it possible? He pushed himself up and swung his legs over the bed. He had to find out. Holding on to the IV stand for dear life, David stumbled towards the door as he heard the voice again.
“Samantha! Oh dear God! Oh God! There you are!”
His voice caught in his throat as he saw a shock of blonde hair go sprinting past his door. He wanted to scream to them, to run to them, but his feet stayed planted.
“I thought I lost you forever!” The blonde stumbled back in front of his door, holding on to a woman with shocking red hair. The redhead had a bruise on her cheek and a gash on her arm. The blonde then kissed the redhead on the mouth. “Never scare me like that again.”
“I’m sorry, so sorry,” the redhead said and then kissed the blonde back. “I have to go check on Bethany.”
“I’ll go with you. You’re not leaving my side, ever again,” the blonde said as they hurried off past his room.
David felt as if his insides had dropped out of his body and through the hospital floor. Snatching his glasses off his face, he leaned his forehead against the IV pole, fighting back the little pinpricks at the back of his eyes. The universe had fucked with him again.
“Mr. Ortiz! What are you doing out of bed?” the nurse said as she came back in with the ice chips. She hurriedly put the cup down on the table by his bed and came over to him, putting her hands over his. “Here, let’s get you back to bed.”
The nurse started to lead him to the bed, and he hazarded a glance at the mirror above the small sink. He was 45 years old, and he looked it. Grey hair at his temples and wrinkles etched around the corners of his eyes. He would have thought they were laugh lines, but all the last ten years had given him were worry lines. Ten years he had been looking for his girls, and nothing. If he could have found them, the accusations, the hatred he felt from their families - why was he the only one to come back? - would have been worth it. He gripped the IV stand as if he were choking it.
This was fucking unfair! The universe fucked with him again and again, well, he hated it right back. What had he done to deserve this? What the hell had happened in Wales? How had they disappeared without a trace? Why had he woken up five years later, having lost that time, and his friends? Elizabeth, Samantha, Lynnae and Jillian were more than friends: they were his family, his co-conspirators. They meant more to him then he had ever told them.
He had lost every woman that had ever mattered to him: Allison, his grandmother, his “Angels.” Now he found himself in a crummy ER in Chicago, with the fucking universe kicking him in the gut with soccer spikes on! David sank down onto the bed, tossing his glasses onto the table, wanting to just give up on all of it. Was this what it was like when someone lost their mind?
“Please, just try and rest,” the nurse said as she laid the sheet over him. “The doctor will be in to check on you as soon as he can.” She patted his shoulder and hurried out of the room to the chaos beyond.
“Right, whatever, what the fuck,” David muttered as he put his head down on the pillow. He felt odd, like he was not quite in his body. He figured the morphine must be kicking in. David shut his eyes and let it drift him away to where there was no pain of any kind.
He sat in his Mum’s chair. He liked sitting here, he felt like one of the adults. Mum never used it anyway, always standing, except when she had a belly. Then she sat. He looked at his Mum’s desk. There was always something new on it.
Spying a long blue stick on the desk, he picked it up and twirled it in his fingers. It suddenly smelled like… CANDY! It smelled exactly like the candy floss Uncle Ianto sometimes got him. He licked his lips and looked around. None of the adults were in the Hub, and neither was anyone else. He looked at the stick and grinned.
Popping it into his mouth, he began to suck on it. It did! It did taste like candy floss! Oh it was so yummy. Why did Mum and Dad always get to play with the cool stuff? It wasn’t fair, them keeping a candy stick for only themselves.
“MUMMY!”
He jumped as he heard a screech from the steps leading to the room they practiced learning in, except when the adults had to have meetings in it. He still continued to suck on the stick, but glared at one of his “sisters.”
“MUMMY! AKIRA IS SUCKING ON AN ALIEN THING!”
Pulling the candy stick out just enough to stick out his tongue, Akira wrinkled his nose and said, “Shut it Caron! If you don’t tell, I might share.”
“No!” She put her hands on her hips and pouted at him. “That’s not good. MUMMY!” Caron marched over to him, her blonde pigtails swaying with each step. She jabbed a finger into his knee. “We’re not supposed to play with those things! They could be dangerous.”
“Ow!” He hated it when she poked him. She was always hitting him and none of the adults ever saw that happen. He reached down and smacked Caron on the back of the head.
“Akira! Don’t hit Caron,” Auntie Gwen said as she stepped between them. “Now what is going on?”
Caron pouted, her lower lip jutted out, rubbing the back of her head. “Akira is sucking on an alien thingy. We’re not supposed to do that!”
“Oh God! Oh God, Akira. No, no, no sweetheart,” Auntie Gwen said, snatching the stick from his hand. Suddenly it smelled like a half-dead Weevil.
“Ewwwwwwww…” Caron stepped back, covering up her nose and mouth with both hands. “Mummy, make it stop!”
“Darling, Mummy’s trying to,” Auntie Gwen replied as she held the stick away from her body and dropped it in the trash can.
“Ew! Ew! EW! EW!” Caron ran away, towards Uncle Jack’s door, and pushed it open, running in. “DA! Make it stop!”
“Come here sweetheart,” Auntie Gwen said as she held his chin in her hand. “Show me your mouth.”
Akira felt sorry for making Auntie Gwen look so worried. He opened his mouth, sticking out his tongue. His eyes grew wide as he saw a blue light on Auntie Gwen’s face. He quickly shut his mouth, afraid to swallow.
“Did you only suck on it?” she asked.
He nodded his head yes, holding his mouth closed.
“What’s going on here?” Uncle Jack asked, buttoning up his shirt.
Caron dragged a red-looking Uncle Ianto out of the office by the hand, her other hand covering her mouth and nose. Uncle Ianto disentangled himself from Caron and stood in front of her.
“I don’t know, Jack,” Auntie Gwen chided. “But I think we need to get Owen, and I feel like throwing up.” She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “That smell is SO NOT HELPING the morning sickness!” Auntie Gwen took off up the spiral staircase.
Uncle Ianto looked after Auntie Gwen and then looked at Akira who just shrugged at him. He really hoped it wouldn’t turn him into goo, but being invisible would be cool! He could sneak up on Caron all the time then and pull her pigtails. Or dump alien tentacles in her cereal. Uncle Ianto rolled his eyes and ran upstairs, too.
“All right, buddy,” Uncle Jack said as he came over and crouched in front of Akira. Uncle Jack made a face as the smell suddenly changed to something that smelled like a ruptured, rotting large intestine. “Tell me what happened?” he choked out.
“He was sucking on the alien thing! You don’t want us touching the alien things!” Caron waved her arms as she shouted from across the room.
“I didn’t know it was an alien thing! It was like candy! Stupid!” Akira shot Caron a nasty look.
“Okay, okay, okay now,” Uncle Jack said, putting his hands on Akira’s shoulders. “Caron, hush, while I talk to Akira.”
“But he-“
“Hush,” Uncle Jack said softly. “Tell me what happened, Akira?”
“I saw the thing on Mum’s desk, and it just looked like a blue stick that glowed a little. It made me think of the light sticks at the fairs. I picked it up and it smelled like the candy floss Uncle Ianto sometimes buys. It seemed okay. And it tasted just like candy floss! It really did!”
“Now his mouth is glowing! Uncle Jack, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Caron,” Uncle Jack replied. Uncle Jack stood up, his hand on Akira’s head. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “Don’t worry, sport. Your Dad will look at it, it’ll be okay.”
“You promise?” Akira gave him a worried look.
Uncle Jack chuckled. “I promise. And maybe, if you’re good, I can talk Uncle Ianto into getting some real candy floss? And no more sucking on strange objects, you got that, buddy?”
Akira nodded his head yes and was about to say something when the alarm went off. He could only recall hearing it about three other times in his life. Uncle Jack quickly moved next to him, using Mum’s computer. Red letters flashed across the screen. Uncle Jack quickly turned to him, picked Akira up under the shoulders and stood him down on the ground.
“Okay, buddy, remember what Dad and I taught you?” Uncle Jack asked, stooped over, looking him in the eyes.
Akira nodded his head yes. The adults were very serious when it came to that sound. They had even had him practice what to do. He started heading for Uncle Jack’s office, and stopped when Caron didn’t follow. Akira ran back and grabbed her by the wrist.
He looked back at Uncle Jack. “What about Kaida and Gayle?”
“They’re with your Mum, they’ll be fine. You need to go,” Uncle Jack replied, as he typed away on Mum’s computer.
“Come on Caron, let’s go,” Akira said as he dragged her into Uncle Jack’s office.
He left the door open like Dad told them to and crawled under the desk, pulling Caron down with him. He hit the small button on the bottom of the desk and huddled in the corner. Caron crawled over and hugged Akira, biting her lower lip. He hugged her back.
“I don’t like it when the alarm goes off,” Caron said.
“I don’t either,” Akira replied.
“It scares me sometimes,” she said.
“I know. I just want to play with Mum and Dad and learn about the computers, but they always have to go away,” he stated, watching the blue glow in the small space as he spoke.
“I don’t like the Rift,” Caron hissed. “It always takes Mummy and Da away.”
“I’ll be here,” Akira said as they listened to the alarm around them.
David woke up to the sound of an alarm going off and people running into his room. He tried to focus his eyes and looked over to the activity next to his bed. It took him a moment to remember the old man had been his roomie.
“Dad? I need you to stay here. I don’t want you to go away,” the daughter said as one of the orderlies moved her to the side.
“He’s going into defib,” a doctor in a labcoat stated. “We need to get him upstairs, I think he’s thrown the clot.”
One of the nurses wheeled a crash cart in and charged it up as the doctor grabbed the paddles. The other doctor doing compressions stopped as the AED beeped that it was ready.
“Clear,” the doctor called out, and then shocked the older man.
The man’s body jumped in the bed, but he did not start breathing. The daughter bumped against the David’s bed, but she did not notice him, as she held a fist up to her mouth, biting her knuckles.
“Come on Dad, don’t leave me. Don’t go away,” she mumbled.
David watched as they tried injecting him with a couple of different things and then tried the paddles again. He wasn’t aware of how long they tried, but eventually the doctor called the time of death and wheeled the body out of the room, and away from David. The daughter’s shoulders drooped as she grabbed onto the doctor, crying.
David leaned back in his bed, his head throbbing, trying to figure out the odd dream he had. He rarely dreamed, but that little boy and girl seemed so familiar. Must have been the morphine. David closed his eyes, adding to the scorecard in his mind.
Universe: 127, Anyone remotely near him: Zip.
Chapter 2 - The Book of David