#but I think the idea of Tim testing an getting the result and going ‘ah fuck it’s an over 50% match. must be a clone again’

[bonebrokebuddy]

I would like to add smth fun that could potentially added to:

Clones technically already exist naturally. That’s what identical twins are.

My twin @stealingyourbones (say hi you’re on camera!) and I grew up in a extremely similar environment as kids. We ate the same food, went to the same stuff together (mainly because it was more convenient for the parents), liked the same things (because we shared our interests with each other so we could talk about it together) ,etc. Yet we are distinctly different people with different personalities.

Hell, we even speak very differently despite growing up doing all the same shit together despite being genetically identical… at least we were when the cell originally split.

As you age, your dna slowly mutates and epigenetics causes certain genes to “turn on or off” causing even more genetic differences (a huge oversimplification but, it works to help people understand the basic gist of it), there’s also stuff like transposons but that gets complicated quick.

So they are NOT genetically identical despite this, they’re essentially just identical twins but one is a test tube baby. And as you age, you look less and less like your twin, you slowly deviate in looking identical.

So the later they meet, the more they’re just going to look like uncanny versions of each other as they’re just slightly different visually.

But a DNA test would show that they’re the equivalence of identical twins, especially since they grew up at the same rate.

My point is, despite us growing up in the same environment, we’re vastly different people. The jarring difference between Danny and Tim in other people’s eyes because they expect Danny and Tim to be similar, would be very funny.

i am Thinking about danny being the Original and one of the batboys being a clone.

imagine. someone wanted to clone the Drakes' soon to be born son to use as ransom later on- only to accidentally switch the newborn baby with the baby clone. Danny was supposed to be Tim Drake. Tim was supposed to be a money-making scam. The drakes always wondered why Timmy grew up so fast...

and imagine, if you will: Danny is rescued unwittingly by the fentons, who raise him as their own. when Danny is 10, the Fentons explain what happened- according to the people the Fentons beat to get him, Danny is really a Drake by birth, and his clone is living the life he would've had. Danny, for his part, doesn't really care.

Danny visits Gotham sometime for a science fair and lo and behold, Tim Drake is there.

Tim pulls Danny aside to accuse him of being a clone. Danny bursts out laughing. Tim is confused.

Shenanigans ensue.

I will write more if it's requested. i think this is hilarious

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

Weekend Getaway

Duke: No school tomorrow. Want to do anything?

Damian: We should go somewhere warm and sunny.

Duke: I was thinking more along the lines of getting pizza or going to the movies but honestly that sounds way better.

Damian: Mm-hmm. We should invite Drake.

Duke:

Duke: Are you sure you’re feeling okay?

Damian, scowling: I’m fine.

Duke: Okay, if you’re sure…

The next day

Duke: This was the best idea.

Damian: I know.

Tim: I still don’t see why you insisted I come.

Duke: It’s the beach, man. We’re in the Caribbean! Why WOULDN’T you want to be here?

Tim: I don’t know, it’s kind of bright…

Damian: So my hypothesis was at least partially correct.

Tim:

Duke: Damian, did you bring Tim as per of a science experiment?

Damian: Tt. I was merely testing his reactions to the sun. The results were rather disappointing, unfortunately. He didn’t even hiss when first exposed to its light.

Duke: And you had to travel a thousand miles to do that?

Tim: Also, I’m not a cat, Damian, what the hell?

Damian: There is not enough sunlight in Gotham to produce proper results. And also, why on earth would I think you were a cat, Drake? You’d make a terrible cat.

Jason: ‘Sup, kiddos. Time for another round of sunscreen. Especially you, Timbo.

Tim, grumbling: Just because the rest of you can be outside for more than ten minutes without turning into a lobster…

Damian: I still don’t see why you had to come with us.

Duke: Because we needed adult supervision and Tim doesn’t count? No offense, Tim.

Tim: None taken. I really shouldn’t.

Everyone: *lost in their memories of why Tim does not count as adult supervision in any way despite being over the legal age of majority*

Jason: You should all be very thankful I’m here.

Damian, scowling: Richard would have been better.

Jason: Ah, but would Dickface let you smuggle swords into a foreign country and help bust a drug ring tomorrow?

Damian:

Damian: Fine, so maybe you were an acceptable choice.

Fifteen minutes later

Tim: This is enough rest and relaxation, right?

Damian: I have enough evidence I suppose.

Duke: Where’d you say that drug ring bust was going to happen again?

Jason: Some docks a few miles east of here. But you listen to me, alright? I mean it.

Damian: *rolls his eyes*

Duke: *laughs*

Tim: Come on, we do this sort of thing every other night.

Jason: You listen to me or when we get back I’m telling Dick you all told me you really want to go to Disney World for an entire week and meet all the characters.

Tim & Damian: *slightly horrified looks*

Duke, squinting: Did you just use Disney World as a threat?

[muddyhippy]

Night Terrors, Chapter 5: Check-ins and Check-ups

A Lily Of-Many-Names Mechanisms Story

(Re-posting again because Tumblr refuses to have this pop up in the mechanisms tag and I am determined to try all the things I can think of before I give up!)

Summary

Lily has another nightmare filled with darkness and bad ones later than her usual night terrors torment her and when her usual source of comfort is nowhere to be found she decides to try her luck with the one person she’s pretty sure will still be up…

Featuring;  Some science officer observations, discussions of nightmares, lots of comfort, medical practice, some past Jonny whump, and some soft mechs at the end!

Check-ins and Check-ups

 There was a tentative knocking at the lab door.

 Raphaella frowned, she checked the ship’s time, 4:54 am. That was unusual. The only one who bothered to knock like that was Lily and Lily would be in bed by now and—

 Ah.

 Raphaella moved in a fluid motion, rising from her workbench and opened the door to be greeted by a slightly soggy Lily, the tear tracks and snotty nose was evidence of what had happened, clutching a fuzzy lump of something.

 “Jonny not in his room?”

 Lily shook her head, “M’sorry.”

 Raph sighed. It wasn’t a great inconvenience, she was hardly interrupting a breakthrough, she’d just lost track of time documenting one of her less hazardous bio-concoctions. Without a word she scooped Lily and her fuzzy thing up and carried her back to the bench. Lily immediately cuddled in close to her, Gemini tucked against her chest, breathing in the science officer’s familiar scent of chemicals, leather and a hint of flowers from her long golden hair. Lily loved Raphaella’s hair, it was so beautiful and silky. She loved being allowed to play with it, threading her little fingers through the fine strands and trying to plait them carefully.

 “You want to tell me what it was about?” prompted Raph.

 “It was silly.” Lily thought the science officer was so clever and busy with all he experiments she felt shy and small and silly admitting what was wrong, she was a big girl and she should be able to handle one little nightmare. Even if it had really scared her. Lily hadn’t wanted to bother her, Raphaella was always kind when she did her checks on her but that was always at the same time, they were planned. So were all her fun science lessons. This was definitely interrupting and interrupting was rude.

 Raphaella sighed, disappointed at Lily’s conclusion, “If it upset you then by definition it is not silly. Just because dreams are caused by synapse transfer and your brain’s interpretation of events does not mean that the outcome can be deemed ridiculous if it has an impact on you.”

 “Oh.” Lily wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but it sounded like she didn’t think Lily was silly after all.

 “Quite.”

 “I dreamt the Aurora was all dark and cold and I could hear banging like a big, angry someone was trying to get in.” Lily explained quietly.

 “I see.” Raphaella frowned.

 Lily quailed a little, misinterpreting her expression and began to hide her face, “I said it was silly.”

 The science officer sighed, realising what Lily thought she’d meant, “And what did I say?”

 “Sorry.” The child cast her eyes down as she mumbled.

 Very gently Raphaella caught Lily’s chin and pulled her face up to meet her, “No, don’t be sorry. This is a perfectly rational thing to dream Lily. You’ve been very brave and you continue to be brave. My research indicates that nightmares are a way of processing something very frightening and unpleasant that as happened to you. What happened to you was not silly so your way of processing it is also not silly.”

 It had actually be a good excuse to research nightmares in general since she knew full well the whole crew got them, regardless of age. Her own ones were manageable if unpleasant, determined to remind her of things she’d much rather forget.

 Lily’s lower lip wobbled dangerously.

 Raphaella sighed and for once decided to take a leaf out of Jonny’s book.

 Logical rational explanations could wait until she was little older. And she knew Lily responded extremely well physical comfort, she’d seen evidence of that be beyond that farthest doubt.

 “Come here little proton, it’s alright.” Raphaella wrapped both her arms and wings about the upset child and began rocking her like she’d seen Jonny do. It seemed to work after all and if observed action had been proved to yield positive results then who was she to argue with empirical evidence?  

 “It’s alright. You’re safe. Aurora is never truly dark, Nastya, Jonny, Tim and Brian don’t really like the dark either so she makes sure it’s always bright enough. And no one can get into Aurora without our say so. Aurora wouldn’t let them in anyway.”

 “An’ you’d shoot them if they did.” Came a convinced voice.

 “We certainly would. Or do something more interesting but we’d make sure they never got to you.”

 “Promise?”

 Raphaella was not in the habit of keeping promises, they were ephemeral and inconsequential unless you could use them to get what you wanted but this one felt important.

 “On my honour as a scientist.”

 Lily’s eyes widened at the words, that was very important. Raphaella was the best scientist there was and science was very, very precious to her. So she very much meant it.

 “Thank you.” Lily snuggled closer

Raphaella sighed once more, not really put out, she began to card her fingers gently through Lily’s silvery hair. It had been more pleasant than she’d been expecting to show Lily an exact comparison for her hair colour in the natural world, sunshine reflected off the surface of the lake. She rather thought the explanation of how light travelled and refracted might have gone a bit over her head but Lily had been an enthusiastic listener all the same which was better than her crewmates most of the time. She had been thrilled at being compared to sunshine too.

 Lily tentatively inched her fingers towards Raphaella’s cascading tresses, seeking the comfort they represented, Raphaella was kind and she was safe, she looked after her using her science. Lily loved sitting on the science officers’ lap, it made her feel important and special when Raphaella spoke science to her, (like when the others told her about things they loved too) even if she didn’t always understand it, she especially loved it when she let her play with her hair. Lily wanted to grow hers just as long.

 The science officer gave Lily her warmest smile, the one she had cultivated especially for the child. “Go on little proton, I don’t mind.”

 Lily gave her a smile filled with wonder that quickly turned into one of happy, soothed exhaustion. Two hands, one large, one small, each carefully combing fingers through soft hair, both knowing a singular form of peace.

 It took precisely two minutes and thirty seven seconds for Lily to fall asleep under the science officer’s ministrations. Lily had never fallen asleep on Raphaella before, she wasn’t normally the lulling type, leaving it to the others when the occasion arose but this was immensely satisfying, she could now see why Jonny never really complained about holding her till she slept.

 She was glad this interaction was being recorded too, it would be useful to refer back to when comparing different calming methods they all used to see which was the most effective. She had a suspicion that despite all their research, Jonny’s instinctive cuddle and rocking combination from the first night was probably the more sure-fire way to settle Lily. Not that she’s tell him of course. He didn’t need to know just what a comparably good job he was doing. The thing Lily had been clutching was likely to be a Jonny concoction too, the man was deceptively good at needlecraft, he’d mended enough of the crew’s clothes over the years when sufficiently bribed with whiskey, he’d even fixed the Toy Solider’s uniform when it got torn badly enough, complaining that he’d done so only because he couldn’t stand it moping around lamenting the damage.

 He’d even carefully embroidered eyes on the thing Lily held which seemed to be some sort of geological shape. She could admit whilst in her own company only that the craftsmanship on it was rather remarkable. He’d obviously gone to some effort to make her something with crystalline accuracy in some sort of fuzzy fabric and given how tightly Lily had been holding it but she’d never seen it in the mess at meal times nor had it accompanied the child to her check-up sessions, it was her comfort-at-night object. That, that was surprisingly thoughtful of him. She smiled quietly to herself.

 He definitely didn’t need to know what a good job he was doing.

 Maybe a hint.

 He also didn’t need to know the general positives these interactions were having on the pair of them and by extension, the rest of the crew. They would all work it out eventually and if she said anything too soon the idea would be dismissed out of hand, no, it was much better to be able to make unobtrusive observations and predictions unhindered.

 Lily was beginning to grow at a healthy rate, she wasn’t back up to where she should be yet but after three months she was now making steady progress. At her last weekly check-up Lily was now projected to be back on track to reach where she should be for a healthy eight year old in the next three months. They’d successfully reversed the physical damage done to her by the three weeks of acute malnutrition but the longer effects of a lifetime of not having quite enough would take longer to mend.

 Still, it felt, well, nice to see her improving.

 The first time she’d insisted on a proper check had been only few days after Lily had joined them. She’d asked Jonny to bring her to lab so she could get a real idea of what they were working with for Lily, exact height and weight, not to mention resting heart rate, lung capacity, bone density and a blood test to make sure everything was functioning as it should be. Lily was human so there were some basics that could be taken for granted but Raphaella wanted a solid starting point for knowing how best to reverse the damage of long term malnutrition.

 She’d argued with Jonny about it for 47 minutes before he finally saw sense and agreed to bring her along. His hang ups over poor medical practice were one thing and even understandable but not to the point that it impeded Lily’s recovery.

 He’d grudgingly agreed, especially when the others added their voices in assent and Raphaella assured him that she’d keep to the bare minimum of procedures to assess Lily.

 Marius had argued that it was so they could help her not hurt her. Given how delicate the matter was nobody teased Marius that surely it should be him leading the investigation if he was, in fact, a doctor. As it was, they all recognised that Raphaella’s dedication to the scientific approach would probably yield better results long term.  Marius and Brian advised on what she should be looking for specifically all the same.

 It was Nastya who’d finally swung him into accepting the proposal. She pointed out that if they didn’t check her properly when they could have and it turned out that they’d ensured the damage done by her ship management was permanent then that made them no better than the idiots that had led her mission. A grim accolade no one wanted to earn, the more Lily talked about life on her ship the more everyone was convinced it was mission led by utter idiots doomed to failure.

 She added quietly that they weren’t like their creator, that Carmilla would only be interested in tests to see how she could exploit Lily. They needed to conduct tests to work out exactly how to help Lily properly and make sure she stayed healthy and happy.

 Jonny couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could. But he wouldn’t, Lily being safe and well and as healthy as she could be was too important. Kid was a bag of bones, a mortal bag of bones at that and he should know, she still spent half her time attached to him and he was honestly worried by how light she was. He had very vague memories of being young except for a few key things but if he really thought about it he was sure at eight he’d been taller and broader. That wasn’t a bullshit boy vs girl nonsense thing either, he was sure he’d been taller and heavier at her age and that was with his family set up. Something was wrong. Raphaella was right, they did need to check.

 He didn’t have to like it though.

 Raphaella wasn’t sure which of the two were the more nervous coming in to the Lab.

 She made it more into a game in an attempt to settle them both, it wouldn’t do for their nerves to set up a negative feedback loop.  She got them both to play catch with one of her more robust recorders so she could check hand to eye coordination and reflexes. She challenged Lily to scrunch up as small as she could then stand on her tip toes and then stand as straight and flat-footed as she could on her weighing scales.

 Raphaella had Jonny pick her up and hold her as though they were posing for photo whilst she deployed the scanner for Lily’s bone density, explaining that she wanted close ups of her smiling face. It covered her dental development too.

 Checking her ears and throat had been relatively easy, getting silly to pull as ridiculous faces as she could whilst trying to sing ‘Old King Cole’ worked on her throat and the otoscope was hardly invasive.

 Jonny had managed to keep things light enough asking if Raphaella had found some of Ashes’ missing gold down there. Lily had been indignant and Raphaella had played along, pleased he was trying to make things easier.

 The blood test was unsurprisingly a little harder of a sell.

 Lily went rigid with fear when she saw the needle.

 Hmm. Understandable but not helpful, it was one of her smallest ones as well.

 Jonny cleared his throat, his own spine stiffening and also not taking his eyes off the syringe. “Why don’t we have a go with the stethoscope first?”

 That was a surprising suggestion coming from him. Raphaella had been planning to brace herself and try to use that as a wind down but maybe there needed to be buffer. She decided to put it to Lily to decide.

 “Lily, I’m not going to hurt you. I need to take a little bit of your blood to check everything is working as it should be inside you. Your blood can tell me all sorts of important things that you yourself won’t be able to tell me.”

 Lily still looked scared. Raphaella found it wasn’t an expression she liked to see on so young a face. Raphaella had no problem being seen as intimidating or even down right terrifying by those who crossed her path or got in her way. That was half the fun, but on Lily? No, she didn’t like being the cause of that fear one bit. The test was still needed though.

 “But you’ve got a choice,” she continued in the tone she’d already modulated especially for the child, no-nonsense but gentle, firm but soft enough to put her at ease most of the time. “I can take this sample now then use the stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs or I can listen first and then take the blood sample but either way I need to take it.”

 The child had tried to melt into Jonny, clinging to him, fingers burying in fabric and belts.

 Raphaella tried not to notice that the comforting hand that was running up and down her back was trembling.

 Lily turned to face Jonny. “What do you think?”

 Jonny tore his gaze from the poised syringe and did his best to look relaxed and nonchalant despite the fact his heartrate had audibly trebled, “I think it’s always better to get the thing that scares you done first. Raph’s right though, she’s only doing it because she wants to make sure you’re okay inside and out. It won’t hurt, it’s more like getting a sharp pinch on your skin for a second and then it’s done.”

 He didn’t mention that it was fine when blood was being taken from you rather than a bunch of different poisons being injected into you over and over again to see how quickly each one affected you and how quickly you came back. How each one burned and cramped and ripped through every single system until he was desperate for death. He was the first after all. Carmilla had to make sure her new creation was full-proof and indestructible. That he could come back from anything.

 “How do you know?”

 Jonny smiled ruefully, “I’ve had a lot of injections over the years, given lots of samples too. It doesn’t hurt.” ‘It’s what comes after’ remained unsaid.

 “Oh.” Lily clearly thought about it, weighing up the pros and cons. She eyed the stethoscope on the science officer’s workbench. She knew how that worked at least. There was something right next to her that might make her feel braver. “If Raphaella takes a sample can, can I listen to your heart while she does it?”

 Jonny was halfway to opening his mouth to say ‘no’ on sheer reflex when Lily added in a small voice, “I don’t want to watch. I don’t like blood. It goes bad and gloopy and changes colour too quickly. And it smells horrible.”

 Well fuck. He could hardly say no to that.

 “You won’t be able to smell it Lily, it’ll be in the syringe.” Raphaella tried to distract, she was well aware of Jonny’s dislike of anything to do with exam practice. She was actually impressed he’d not just dumped Lily on her and run, that he’d taken part so far. He had more courage than she gave him credit for, that or a greater sense of guardianship than she’d expected. Either way, he was making her job much easier and she appreciated it.  

 Raphaella had tried to get a better understanding of his Mechanism not long after she’d joined the crew, intrigued by the ticking of his chest. She’d come at him with a stethoscope and woken up in the wreckage of her workbench recovering from 6 gunshot wounds.

 She hadn’t pursued that line of research further.

 “Still don’t like it.” Lily half spoke into Jonny’s chest and half to the science officer.

 “That’s fair enough.” Conceded Raphaella

 Lily’s eyes were doing the thing again. The thing where they took up half her face, she gazed imploringly up at him. “Please?”

 Fuck. He really had to immunise himself against that. Later. Now though?

 He swallowed. “Sure.”

 Raphaella raised an eyebrow, fully prepared to snatch Lily out of his arms and rocket skywards if he looked like he was going to detonate like he did last time.

 Jonny gave her tiniest nod.

 This was Lily. He shook himself internally. It was Lily. Lily couldn’t hurt him if she tried. Okay, well she could but she wasn’t armed right now and she liked his ticking. He forced himself to watch her, to brace for the touch of the disc. He’d be ready, he’d know. If he closed his eyes there was no guarantee he’d be able to hold it together for her. This was Lily reaching to him for comfort, he reminded himself firmly. She needed him to distract her from something frightening but necessary. Lily wasn’t going to sigh and tut and then open him up.

 He wasn’t strapped to a table.

 He forced himself to breathe as calmly as he could, the way Ivy had shown him from one of her books when he’d taken refuge once in the earliest incarnation of the library.

 He was fine, he was holding Lily. He was free to move. He was holding Lily and being reassuring because needles were frightening. He was proving it was fine. It was fine.

 The disc made contact.

 It took everything in him not to bolt.

 “Jonny, your ticking is very fast.” A little voice piped up matter-of-factly.

 Before he got a chance to answer Lily had already drawn her own conclusions.

 “I know I’m not a proper doctor like Raphaella but I won’t hurt you. See?” She took the disc off then pressed it even more gently against him, then rested her head on him too, trying to be reassuring.

 Fucking Hell. That she thought she could hurt him? Like this? At all? But the pressure helped. Carmilla had never been gentle with his chest. She’d never been gentle full stop.

 Lily was.

 This was Lily and it was fine. He held her a little tighter. “I like this,” she spoke quietly, as if she was speaking directly to his heart but then again, when wasn’t she? “I can hear your ticking all around. It’s going slower now.”

 It took two tries to speak.

 “T-That’s because you’re doing a good job.” Raphaella was watching him like a hawk, despite the fact he’d drained of colour and there was a noticeable (to her experienced eye at least) tremor running through him he was still sat still and solid for Lily, making no sign that he was about to flip her workbench.

 “I am?”

 “Of course.” He managed the ghost of his usual grin, “I don’t let just anyone listen to me.” If only she knew how true that was.

 Lily beamed at him, utterly delighted. Just as Raphaella took her moment.

 Jonny was aware enough of the situation to catch Lily’s face as she turned to see the source of the sudden pinch, directing her back to look at him, the surprised ‘Eeep!’ already escaping her lips. “Keep looking this way Lemondrop, it’s alright. Keep listening to the ticking.”

 Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

 “It’s alright,” he ran his fingers through her hair, hating that she was upset, hating that they were doing this. He’d always sworn he’d have nothing to do with anything like this but here he was. A necessary evil. “It’s alright, she’ll be done soon. You’re being very brave.” He didn’t dare rock her and risk jostling the needle so he hummed instead.

 She clung to him with her other hand, with a muffled whimper but did as he asked. It didn’t hurt, not really but the idea of something being stuck in her was an idea she didn’t like. Still, Jonny had her and she could hear his ticking loud and clear and he said she was being brave so that was good. She could hear him humming Rose Red as well and she couldn’t help but relax, Jonny had her, she could hear his ticks and the humming and she could smell his spicesmokewhiskey.

 It was okay.

 She was safe.

 They were looking after her because she was part of the crew, they cared about her. It was alright.

 All at once there was the feel of something going away and something pressing on her arm.

 “There we go, all done, good girl, you’ve been very brave.” Raphaella finished taping the small cotton gauze to her arm covering the tiny pinprick of blood.

 Lily took a moment to take in the sight of her arm and then the science officer, Raphaella had been right, it hadn’t hurt. It had been scary because she wasn’t sure what it would be like and she was scared it would hurt because they were bigger and stronger and braver than her and that they said it wouldn’t hurt because it wouldn’t hurt them when they had to have needles in them but actually, it had been a bit of a shock but it hadn’t hurt at all and Jonny had made her feel safe all the way through and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or let anything else hurt her anyway.

 She gave a sunny smile to Raphaella.

 “It didn’t hurt!”

 Despite herself, Raphaella was rather pleased, she allowed a knowing grin to bloom across her face, rather than the haughty scoff that she saved for the others, “I did say.”

 “You did!” Lily beamed wider.

 “Well I’m glad I was proved correct. Are you ready for me to take a turn listening to you?”

 “Yes.”

 “Good, I just need a listen to your chest and then we’re all done. Can I have the stethoscope back?”

 Lily carefully removed the buds from her ears and hand the piece of equipment back, she missed hearing Jonny’s ticking quite so loudly. She leaned against him instead.

 Raphaella decided not to comment on the sudden drop in tension from Jonny the second the disc was taken away from his chest.

 With gentle efficiency she had the device in her own ears.

 “Can you sit up straight for a moment please?” Lily did so, “then take some nice deep breaths for me.”

 Lily did the best she could.

 After a few minutes Raphaella sat back, satisfied.

 Her initial suspicions were well founded, Lily was almost chronically underweight and under-height but that could be fixed with care. Her lungs and heart seemed strong through and her reflexes as well as hand to eye coordination were sharp and focused, ears and throat were clear of infection too and that was the most common source of ailments for human children according to her research. Lily was a fighter and, pending the results of the blood tests had no reason not to make a full recovery. That was pleasing and definitely worth the few uncomfortable moments.

 She gave Jonny a short nod over Lily’s head.

 The relief in his face was something Raphaella was going to remember for long time to come. She might find him deeply irritating most of the time but he’d certainly proved himself when it counted. He was many things but could not be accused of being a selfish bastard. At least, not right now.

 “Alright then, all done here. I think you’ve earned something nice.”

 “Really?” Lily perked up even more.

 “Oh yes.”

 “What?”

 “I happen to know Brian’s been busy in the kitchen with Marius.” She happened to know exactly because they’d planned it earlier, it was only fair for Lily to get some sort of recompense for having to go through something unpleasant. It was something they all wished they had had when they were young (not to mention everything that had happened since they were young).

 The excited squeal that erupted was something that warmed both of the adults in the room and would certainly not get passed on to the chocolate cake bakers. It wouldn’t do to give them ideas after all.

 Not for the first time they found themselves hand in hand with Lily, swinging the excited child all the way to the mess.

 Raphaella came back to the present and smiled as she held the currently comforted and sleeping Lily, the child had got far more used to the weekly check-ups following the first one, it helped that her blood came back fine and healthy, no underlying issues to be concerned about so no more blood tests were needed.

 She still liked to listen to Jonny’s heart with the stethoscope during the check-ups.

 Jonny still endured it for her sake.

 Raphaella thought that over the weeks he’d looked a little more relaxed each time.

 The check-ups proved what they were seeing in real time. Lily was mending. She was putting on healthy weight and starting to grow, her skin was starting to have a glow to it again. It felt nice to have used her research and scientific approach for unquestionable good for once. She’d shared her findings with them all. The rest were pleased too. They’d made a comprehensive list of supplies with Ivy and Raph’s information that Ashes organised and sourced. Marius and Brian eagerly added more recipes to the collection and the others made a point of each eating vaguely healthy snacks every so often so as to not make Lily feel like she was the odd one out. Regular mealtimes helped too.

 It was satisfying to see that improvement over time, Lily was proving to be a fascinating research study that Raphaella was very much invested in. It was also immensely satisfying that the rest of the crew was just as invested her topic of study for once. Seeing Lily grow and heal and improve was something that was having a positive effect on the rest of the crew, she’d noticed (and made notes of course) that the crew interacted more frequently and more positively usually when Lily was present but sometimes even without her there. These developments were, pleasing, to put it into layman terms. Though Raphaella wasn’t entirely sure why. It would take further investigation of course but she did have eyes, the positive interactions were slowly improving the general well-being in the crew, communal mealtimes and friendlier banter seemed to be improving moods across the board.

 Most notably of course was Jonny.

 His general comportment had softened a little, his violent outbursts reduced and he definitely looked like he was sleeping more regularly. Raphaella estimated his alcohol consumption had dropped by a least a bottle a night which was rather impressive, it wasn’t like the alcohol did anything long term since all their mechanisms prevented permanent internal damage, especially when one was killed far too frequently to even consider organ failure due to extensive alcohol poisoning. But still, it was nice to see him looking more, centred, for lack of a better word.

 Heavy boots made their appearance on the peripheries of her hearing.

 Think of the devil…

 Raphaella took a moment to soak up the situation, Lily had fallen asleep against her peacefully and easily as if she were her mother. It was a completely new experience but not an unpleasant one it turned out. Raphaella had enjoyed introducing the scientific process to Lily over the past three months, teaching her the basic principles of chemistry and physics and now botany since she’d set up the hydroponics lab with Nastya and Ivy. That had been a fun collaboration and all three enjoyed Lily’s delight at each seed sprouted and new leaf grown.

 She’d added a whole new strand of research to her study too, the poisons and toxins of plants were fascinating and she was eager to put those to good use when the next opportunity arrived. There was always opportunity for hybridisation too. Excellent.

 The heavy boots stopped right outside the lab door followed by an uncharacteristically gentle knock.

 “Come in Jonny.”

 The first mate entered looking annoyed at the presumption that quickly melted into relief when he saw a sleeping Lily in her arms.

 The science officer gave him an appraising look. Despite the obvious panic at not knowing where Lily was Jonny still looked calmer and better rested than he had for centuries. Raphaella found she liked that look on him, he seemed far more settled, music rehearsals with everyone had become a lot more productive too, always a bonus.

 She still found it funny he refused to use his ship communicator to ask the group chat where Lily was on an evening she had a late nightmare-startled wander, clearly too proud to admit he’d lost her. It wasn’t as if she could get into any real danger any more. Both the Octokittens and Stowaways knew not to touch her and Aurora wouldn’t let her get lost anywhere too dangerous. Then again, the day he did they knew it would be a serious one.

 As it was the first mate was only looking marginally stressed and panicked, a whole lot better than she’d seen him look.

 Jonny took in the sight of Raphaella as he entered the lab. From the lights behind her and a sleeping Lily in her arms the science officer resembled an angel that he’d seen statues of on multiple worlds, beautiful and terrible, just as he remembered the preacher talking about on Sundays when he was small. He’d seen what Raph could do to somewhere or someone that irked her and he’d come to believe all those stories.

 Still, the look she was giving Lily as he walked in was something else, it was a face he knew she saved just for Lily, that slight softness, a pride in her eyes and smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

 Jonny knew Raphaella was incredibly pleased by the progress Lily had made both physically and with all the science lessons she’d been teaching, Lily had talked his ear off about all the things she’d made by experimenting. The physical checks were good too, in their way. Much as he hated them. If he really had to admit it, the checks were worth it, it was good to know Lily was on the right track at least, that they weren’t making a mess of her, at least not physically.

 “Thought she might be here.” Came his way of explanation,

 “Well congratulations.”

 “She been here long?”

 “Only half an hour or so.”

 “Good.” He stayed curt, not wanting to give her room to rinse him more than he was expecting, Raphaella had a way with words that could cut like one of her scalpels if he wasn’t careful, most of the time it didn’t bother him but if it was about Lily and how he handled her, it tended to cut to the core of him, much to his annoyance.

 “How did you lose her this time?”

 “I didn’t lose her!” he snapped, “She just got up when I wasn’t around. I do check the times on things you know, she’s usually up at 11, 1 and 3 so much that you can set a metronome by her. It’s not my fault she just got up out of sequence!”

 “And you weren’t in your room because?” pressed Raphaella, not giving an inch.

 “Because I wasn’t!”

 “Jonny,” Began the science officer in a deceptively gentle voice, “I could wake her up and make Lily ask you with her big blue accusing eyes.”

 The first mate looked furious he was about to say ‘you wouldn’t dare’ but Raph absolutely would to prove a point and he really didn’t want to risk having to admit the truth to Lily, he found it incredibly hard to lie to her properly after all.

 “Fine, Lily mentioned a birthday coming up some months from now and I am making something for that. Away from my room. Lost track of time. That’s it.” He ground out.

 “A secret something I take it?” Raphaella teased, amused to have caught him in such an obvious lie, Jonny on the whole was usually quite good at lying. He managed it effortlessly on stage after all. And he was damned good poker player.

 “You won’t find it.”

 “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the bits of clothing several of us have missed over the last few weeks would it?”

 Jonny’s ears began to turn red.

 “No.”

 ‘Aha.’ Thought Raphaella. But she was intrigued enough to let it stand, it was honestly rather refreshing to have Jonny do something vaguely productive outside of his musical and lyrical talents, repair work not-withstanding. There were only so many theoretical studies of chronic alcohol abuse and sleep deprivation she could observe before it got tiresome. This proved to be far more interesting.

 “Alright then, well I await to see the results with bated breath.”

 “Fuck off Raph.”

 “I could just wake her.”

 “I could just shoot you.”

 “You know you won’t.”

 The impotent rage on Jonny’s face was amusing to witness.

 “Fine, but I fill find a way to make you suffer.”

 “I look forward to it.”

 He matched her feral grin, feeling like he’d at least gained somewhat of an upper hand he moved on to the more important issue, Lily hadn’t been out of her bed unexpectedly for the last month, not since she found Brian during the poker game.  

 “What was it about this time?”

 “Doors being rattled and banged on by enemies in the dark.”

 “Oh, standard then. Good.”

 “Standard? I thought they were all like this one?” This was interesting, there were others? Raphaella got halfway through that thought and froze.

 Uh, Jonny realised he’d not actually shared a lot of detail of Lily’s nightmares, he passed on the basics to everyone at Tim’s insistence after she’d climbed in with him, demanding to know at least what they might have to deal with if the crew was now fair game to ask comfort from. The others had backed him up, the bastards, and he’d been forced to share a bit. He didn’t really want to, nightmares were private things after all and it wasn’t fair for him to share stuff that bothered someone else but as it had been pointed out, Lily was a child whom they all cared about, whom they were all guardians for and thus they all needed to know likely sources of upset and triggers to avoid when they spent time together, either during the day or if they happened to be the ones to comfort her at night.

 He’d relented, wanting to make sure she always had some solid options for comfort. He knew in excruciating detail how unpleasant it could be to suffer that sort of fear and misery on your own. Until you learned to ignore and bury it that is.

 So the others knew the basics at least, it was always the threat of attack, rattling and banging and bellowing in the dark unsurprisingly. He tended to keep the extra details to himself though, he knew how desperately Lily wanted to be seen as a ‘big girl’ by the crew. Even though there was nothing she could say or do that would actually make them think she was somehow less. Kid had endured enough and was still pretty functional, that was one hell of an achievement already. And she was stil mortal.

 Sometimes her nightmares was flavoured with gunfire (though not Tim’s apparently, that sounded different according to Lily, Jonny had no idea how the hell gunfire could sound ‘friendly’ but supposedly Tim’s did-children clearly had a higher nuance of sound perception-it made music lessons all the more interesting that was for sure), sometimes it was visions of what was left of her crew, her parents dying and on one particularly horrendous night images of her parents demanding to know why she hadn’t saved them. He had mentioned that one to Marius and then the rest of the crew since it had taken the singing of the entirety of ‘Alice’ to lull her back to sleep bookended with ‘Rose Red.’

 The one about her being left behind that she told to Brian was concerning, that one he had talked to the others about straight away, worried that taking her to a planet had, in fact, been a bad move. Given that that was as near as an admission to the idea he’d been wrong about wanting to take her planetside actually had them all discussing it properly with only minimal jeering. It ended up being pointed out that since it was such a new experience, even though it had been very positive, Lily’s subconscious was so traumatised it wasn’t surprising it had sparked off a different set of nightmares.

 It had assuaged the guilt a little at least. He was glad she clearly had really enjoyed the visit.

 “Jonny?”

 He realised he’d been staring into the middle distance and not actually talking. Shit.

 He refocused on her. A look crossed Raphaella’s face that he’d seen maybe once or twice before in all the years he’d known her. A hint of worry.

 “Does, does she have nightmares about what we, what I,” she corrected, “do here?”

 That question knocked him sideways, his initial instinctive bastard response died on his lips. This was Raphaella actually asking him, Jonny, for reassurance, reassurance that what she was doing wasn’t physcologically damaging their charge. He’d never seen the science officer look unsure before. Jonny realised he had a choice, he could lie and tell her that yes, the check-ups upset Lily and he’d had to calm her down from a lot of nightmares inspired by Raph’s actions or, or he could be honest.

 He thought about how genuinely devastated he’d be if one of the others told him that the reason Lily had come to them wasn’t because she couldn’t find him but that she was scared of him, that she’d had a nightmare about him because of something he’d done. He felt his guts twist. No, he couldn’t do that to Raphaella, he could murder her happily along with the rest of the crew whenever Lily wasn’t about and he’d been suitably bored or antagonised but lying about this?

 He couldn’t do it.

 If he stopped to think about it, there were quite a few things he couldn’t do now. All involved Lily, he couldn’t lie to the others about her, they were all in this together, more so than anything they’d been bound by previously. Jonny knew he was the primary source of Lily information but he actually respected that fact and that he should share as much as was reasonable to make sure it was as easy for the others to comfort and look after her as possible. This communal guardianship parenting thing they’d fallen into was working but it needed proper communication much as it felt like pulling teeth sometimes. It was needed so he did it. So they all did it.

 He fixed Raphaella with as sincere look as he could manage.

 “No Raph, she’s never had a nightmare about you or the check-ups, I think she’d settled into them, always asks me stuff about what you do in the lab so I reckon you’re fine.”

 Raphaella tried and failed not to look relieved.

 “Oh, well, thank you that’s, that’s preferable.”

 Yeah, it is. Her ship’s done enough of a number on her, she’s been here long enough now to know, I think, that we’re not trying to fuck her up.

 That seems like a reasonable conclusion. She’s not been put off by what she sees on a daily basis, between Tim’s shooting practice, TS’s stories and my science if that’s not affected her negatively then, for the moment we may remain in grace period.

 “What do we do when that ends?”

 “We’ll have to slowly introduce more regular elements of life on board to get her more used to things, little by little, it seems to be working so far.”

 Jonny considered, Raph did have a point, last week something had exploded and whilst Lily had gone stock-still and the colour drained out of her face she hadn’t cried or outwardly panicked, instead asked Jonny very quietly if they could find out what happened, because ‘it was probably Tim trying his new canon that he had been showing her through the building process but could they go and check please just to make sure?’

 So they had and it was. Jonny was feeling pretty fucking murderous but Tim had ignored him and got there first, explaining when they arrived exactly what he’d been upto, that he was sorry it went off without her there to see but the trigger had been too sensitive. He’d shown Lily the system and rig so that she understood the weapon and where the sound had come from, feeling much happier that she knew this was something to protect them and not a sign that they were under attack.

 Jonny had planned an elaborate murder for Tim and braced himself for an onslaught of nightmares that never came. Well they did but it was just the usual, banging on the doors in the dark one nothing to do with Tim or his explosions. He’d been waiting a full eight days and nothing. He was beginning to suspect Tim’s approach of including Lily in the construct of the weapon really had been a big help. Clever bastard.

 “Yeah, that’s, that’s probably as good a plan as we’ve got.”

 Raphaella considered, Jonny didn’t have to have been kind a moment ago. But he was. She’d almost entirely forgotten what it was like to be concerned about the long-term effects of her science and she hadn’t liked the feeling whatsoever. He could have made it worse and didn’t. That certainly counted for something and definitely towards her working theory about him and his own developmental track.

 “It’s probably better than what she would have in any other circumstance or with anyone else who might have rescued her. We’re all doing well with her, physically and mentally, we’re all in this together and it’s working, I can see it in my results and charts as clearly as I see it on her, against more odds than I think even Ivy would be comfortable calculating we’re improving her, as a crew, she’s healing and mending, and,” she considered her words, “you’re both the catalyst and accelerator in this compound of all of us, with all the variables.”

 Jonny began to open his mouth.

 “You’re good for her, my research indicates it.” Elaborated Raphaella stiffly. Being kind and gentle with Lily was far easier than she expected it to be, transversely being articulately kind to her crewmates was decidedly harder, she’d had very little practice and took refuge in her scientific terms, they always flowed more easily.

 Jonny’s eyes widened at the implication of what she was saying. That it was her saying it.

 Still, with him, sometimes actions spoke louder than words.

 Very carefully she handed over Lily to him, fuzzy rock thing and all, taking care to catch Jonny’s hand in the process and squeeze it for the briefest of moments.

 She was deeply surprised to receive a returning squeeze, equally as brief.

 She tried to read his face, a myriad of expressions flitted over him, shock, confusion, wariness, pride and elation before settling back to his default of ‘cocky bastard smirk’

 He held Lily close a moment then allowed a softer, sincere expression to linger in his eyes, “Thanks Raph, s’what the crew’s for, everyone’s got a job with this one.”

 He sobered and shifted, face returning to its usual look, his regular swagger sliding into his stance, “See you at breakfast.” He threw out his familiar feral grin without the need or will to add a snarky comment and sauntered out with a Lily tucked up against his chest who was at least half an inch taller and several pounds heavier than when she arrived.

 They were working as a crew and it was mending Lily.

 Not for the first time Raphaella considered the pair as they left her lab, a fond smile spreading across her face. The unlikeliness of this scenario had already cost Ivy one full notebook but the science officer could honestly conclude that she was deeply satisfied by this anomaly and looked forward to the further variables it generated.

 Otherwise, what even was the point?

 Smile still on her face she settled down to update her research log on the day’s nocturnal events. Her file was getting decidedly long.

 Raphaella found that only pleased her more.

[herocentral]

Possible Hero 6

Authors notes: Chapter 9 is done folks, worked on it all day yesterday and finished it this morning, I think thats a new personal writing record. Anyway enjoy

Kim Possible & Big Hero 6 (c) Disney

Chapter 9: Countdown to Catastrophe  PT2

On the campus of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology at the Ito Ishioka Raobotics lab the young genius Hiro Hamada was hard at work on his secret project. 

In his lab lay the recently completed energy amplifier that was sitting inside a scanner as it flowed with purple energy. Hiro looked over the device with anticipation as he continued the test. He wasn’t alone however the Tweebs Jim and Tim Possible were also present, as from their sister they learned what Hiro was up to and decided they wanted in on it fortunately Ann already asked Hiro if he could look after the boys since Kim was busy with the others. Which Hiro was more than happy to encourage younger geniuses such as himself. 

“Whoa that looks awesome!” Tim said looking at the device. 

“Because it is awesome.” Hiro said as he rolled his chair over to his computer opposite the scanner and typed on the keyboard.

 Baymax was walking over Hiro then moved his chair back to the scanner then back to the computer again and so on and so fourth whilst the computer screen was measuring the energy output of the amplifier. Hiro and the tweebs looked at the diagram to see the results. 

“Okay if my math is right the results from this energy amplifier should be off the charts.” Hiro said looking over the chart on his computer seeing the levels were optimal. 

“Looking good so far.” Tim said. “The results appear to be on the chart.” Baymax said as the three geniuses looked at the inflatable robot confused.

“Uh dude you know thats an expression  right?” Jim pointed out to which Baymax just blinked. 

“Yeah and I meant incredibly amazing.” Hiro said as he went over to the amplifier followed by the tweebs and Baymax. 

“Oh.” Baymax said as he waddled over. Hiro took out the amplifier ready for its next test. 

“Now I just need to test it before showing it off at Open House.” Hiro explained as he activated it. 

“Man we should have brought our rocket packs!” Tim said 

“Yeah that would be awesome to amplify their power!” Jim agreed. 

“Uh no guys whilst a good idea we’re going to start small.” Hiro said as he pulled out his phone which was extremely low on power. 

“Only one percent if my modifications work no overload this time.” He hopped as he placed the phone on the amplifier and it began to glow and as it did the energy began rising. 

“Hey it’s working!” Tim exclaimed. “Good good,” Hiro said liking the progress of the charging battery. and thankfully no overload occurred. 

“Huh.” Hiro breathed amazed. “Look it’s working.” 

“Sweet!” Jim agreed. However Baymax saw differently as the humming noise from the phone got louder and louder.

“Yes it is also about to combust.” He said as the phone began smoking overcharging the battery Hiro and the Tweebs stepped back with caution. 

“ammonium phosphate is required.” Baymax explained as he used the fire extinguisher in his finger to put out the nearly destroyed phone. 

“We’re those results off the charts?” Baymax asked. 

“Slightly.” Hiro said a little disappointed he hadn’t cracked the overload part yet.

“Slightly it was way off the charts!” Tim exclaimed “HUSHA!” The twins agreed as they high fives. 

“We are so building an amplifier of our own when we get home!” Tim said. 

“Yeah imagine the supercharged rockets we could build even boots our other stuff too!” Jim agreed. 

“Whoa whoa hold up guys whilst it’s good to be enthusiastic I think an energy amplifier maybe too advanced for you guys.” Hiro advised. 

“Huh don’t know where that came from?” He then wondered. 

“I detect Professor Granville approaching.” Baymax said getting Hiros attention as he quickly hid his energy amplifier as he didn’t want Granville to know about his secret project.

“I estimate she will be here in two…” “Mr Hamada.” Granville said opening the lab doors just as Hiro hid it behind his back.

“…Seconds or less” Baymax finished and Granville noticed the two Possible brothers in the lab with Hiro and Baymax. 

“May I ask what they are doing here in this lab?” Granville asked. 

“Uh well Professor Granville you see uh…” Hiro tried to explain. 

“Our mom asked Hiro to watch us because Kim was busy this afternoon.” Tim explained. “Yeah and we heard about his final project and thought we’d learn a lot from a robotics wiz.” Jim added. 

“Yeah yeah thought Jim and Tim could learn a lot from seeing things in the robotics trenches if they wanted to enrol here someday heh.” Hiro finished with an innocent smile. 

“This seems like an inconvenient time to be taking on young protege’s Mr.Hamada.” Granville noted and then noticed her students burnt out phone. 

“What happened to your phone?” She asked. “Krei tech heh you know.” Hiro said innocently. 

“I do, they’re trash.” Granville then said as Tim hid the amplifier in Hiro’ hood. 

“However, I’m here to discuss your final project.” Granville said with some serious tone. 

“I’m just um, still, kicking around a few ideas,” Hiro said trying to hide his secret project. 

“This is no time for idea fooseball!” Granville explained. “The open house is tomorrow.” She then reminded but noticed that her student was in fact hiding something.

“Are you hiding something Mr Hamada?” She tried to look behind his back but Hiro kept moving to avoid her seeing what was in his hoodie.

“Professor Granville I am shocked.” Hiro breathed in shock. “After all we’ve been through?” 

“Yeah what would he have to hide?” Tim asked helping him.Baymax managed to come between them and Granville before anything else happened. 

“Professor.” Baymax said. “The sound of your grinding teeth indicates stress.” He then diagnosed. 

“Our boy genius is on the verge of failing.” Granville said with her hand on her hips, “and he is clearly hiding something from me so yes I am a little stressed.” She was trying to get past but Baymax kept blocking her path.

“Would you like a hug?” Baymax asked with open arms quite literally. 

“I would not.” Granville said as she was backing out of the room. 

“Next time we talk Mr. Hamada I expect results!” She then called out as she left the room leaving the four in the lab. 

“Man she is relentless!” Jim said, “You have no idea.” Hiro agreed as he pulled out the amplifier from his hood. 

“Well, she wants results.” Hiro activated his amplifier and it glowed with energy. “Lets give her some results.” He said confidently as he turned to the twins. 

“You in?” Hiro asked. “Hica bica boo.” Tim said “Husha” Jim added. “We’re in!” They then said together.

Gogo’s Apartment

Late that very night on the far side of town, the shadiest part of the city Gogo, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Kim were gathered in Gogo’s apartment. 

Gogo sat at the table and looked over the wax cylinder that Wasabi, Honey and Ron recovered in Shimamoto’s lab. 

“So you just took this?” Gogo asked holding the cylinder. Honey Lemon meanwhile was placing the gramophone they ‘borrowed’ from Baron Von Steamers lair onto the kitchen table, as Wasabi moved a plant pot out of the way.

“We left a lot of notes.” Honey said “And wiped everything down.” Wasabi added. 

“To erase your finger prints?” Gogo questioned in a knowing tone. 

“No just to tidy up.” Wasabi said wiping the table with a cloth whilst Honey Lemon was smiling. 

Gogo just shrugged at this point. “So are we going to play it or what?” She asked. 

“EEE This is soo exciting!” Honey squeaked with joy. “Say where’s Ron thought he’d be here to see this since he did help us find it?” Honey asked. 

“Oh yeah he said he had plans with Fred.” Kim pointed out whilst looking over the Kimmunicator. 

Honey just shrugged and moved to insert the wax cylinder into the gramophone. 

“For the first time ever, Linore Shimamoto in her own words.” She said as she turned the gramophone handle turning it on. Kim decided to listen in just for general interest. 

However when it played the words couldn’t be made out it was just a scrambled message. This was confusing to everyone. 

“Are we sure those are words?” Gogo wondered. “Maybe it’s some kind of code?” Kim guessed.

“Hm somethings not right.” Honey took a closer look at the gramophone. 

Wasabi then closely examined the wax cylinder and instantly gagged as he clearly saw what the problem was. 

“ ‘Blech’ This is nasty!” He whispered as Gogo looked at the cylinder and determined the cause as well. 

“Yeah a hundred years of dirt and dust will do that.” She said. 

“Good thing I bought my detergency kit.” Wasabi began unlocking a grey briefcase that had password locks and biometric scanners which were unlocked by his hand print. Inside was a vast collection of cleaning materials all organised and maintained. 

“The key is to have the proper tool for the job.” Wasabi said looking among his tools whilst Kim was all but perplexed.

“You really need all that security for this stuff?” She questioned whilst looking over her Kimmunicator. 

“Hey can’t be too safe Kim.” Wasabi pointed out. 

“Ah” He then pulled out a small motorised brush from one of the compartments. 

“I knew the humming bird would come in handy one day.” He said. 

“Oh we have to have it ready for the open house tomorrow.” Honey said with some concern. 

“The Humming bird Honey Lemon, tiny but mighty.” Wasabi explained as he turned on the humming bird brush and applied it to the cylinder and just like that huge clouds of dust began pouring off it. 

“Impressive.” Gogo admitted, and everyone looked rather surprised, was Gogo actually giving a compliment. 

“What I’m being sincere.” Gogo said. 

“Really?” Wasabi said. “Don’t think I’ve seen you sincere before?” Kim agreed.

“Well not completely, like eighty percent.” Gogo said and everyone just gave questioning looks. 

“Thats really not bad Wasabi.” Honey Lemon admitted putting a hand on Wasabi’s shoulder. “Right Kim?”

However Kim was too occupied looking something over on her Kimmunicator which she had been doing all evening. 

“Kim?” Wasabi asked but no response and so Gogo proceeded to slam her hand on the table which immediately got the red headed teens attention. 

“Huh what what?” Kim said rather startled.

“You okay?” Gogo asked. “Yeah you seem kinda distracted.” Wasabi noticed. “Plus you’ve been looking over that thing of yours all evening since you got here.” 

“Is this because of our failed plan at Krei tech?” Honey asked. “Cause if it is don’t worry I’m sure we’ll catch Shego and figure out what she and Obake are up to.” 

“No no it’s not that.” Kim explained and took a deep sigh as it was time to share what she was thinking but she was afraid to. 

“What do you guys think about Professor Granville?” She asked openly which was more than a surprise to everyone else. 

“What do you mean?” Honey asked. “I mean do you think she’s capable of hiding something, something she doesn’t want anyone else to know about.” Kim explained. 

“Oh boy.” Gogo said pinching the bridge of her nose. “Look Kim, Hiro was suspicious of Granville too especially when he found out she taught at SFIT before he enrolled.” She explained. “and when he was looking into her turns out she was working on security drones for the school.” 

“No it’s more than that,” Kim explained as she stood up and paced the room. “Hiro proposed creating an energy amplifier for his final project but Granville said no.” 

“So whats so suspicious about that?” Wasabi asked. 

“Its the way she said it, the tone in her voice indicated that she had been through this once before and not in a good way.” Kim then explained. 

“Well maybe if you ask her about…”  “I did Honey Lemon but she shut the door on that conversation, and when I asked her if any of her other students approached energy amplification she said no.” Kim interrupted Honey. “But I could tell she was lying.” 

This had gotten the groups attention why would Granville their trusted dean lie about something, especially if it concerned a certain project.

“Thats not all, take a look at this.” Kim placed her Kimmunicator on the table and pressed a button to show a hologram of the screen she was looking at it was the SFIT student database. 

“Whoa since when did Wade go holo-screens?” Wasabi asked. 

“I asked Wade to do some checking in the SFIT database and it turns out one of her students did approach an energy amplifier before.” Kim said as she brought up the file. “A student named Bob Aken, but when Wade tried accessing the file it was sealed and required administrative access.” 

“And the only person who would have that kind of access…” Gogo theorised “Would be a university Dean, namely Professor Granville” Kim confirmed. She then moved the holo screen to an article about an accident at SFIT. 

“Wade also found a newspaper article relating to an accident at the robotics lab claiming that an accident with one of the professors experiments sent a student to the hospital” Kim explained  “which coincided with Aken’s leave of absence from SFIT sometime after.” 

“Kim what are you saying?” Gogo asked. 

“I know a cover up when I see one, Granville’s hiding something.” Kim then started to wonder. “and I have a bad feeling it’s somehow connected to Obake.” 

“But how?” Honey asked. “Yeah it doesn’t make any sense?” Wasabi agreed, Kim then came to a decision about what to do next.

“Thats what I intend to find out.” She deactivated the Kimmunicator holo screen, picked it up and left the apartment. 

“Where are you going?” Gogo asked. “To make an office call.” Kim replied and she left. 

Back at SFIT: ITO ISHIOKA ROBOTICS LAB

Meanwhile Hiro, Baymax and the Tweebs were in the hallway standing in front of a vending machine full of snacks and treats. 

“These snacks are un healthy.” Baymax analysed as Hiro prepared his energy amplifier for the next test. 

He placed the amplifier onto the vending machine and as it began supercharging it Hiro and the twins took cover behind Baymax as they pulled him away in case anything went wrong. All of a sudden a packet of chips came flying out of the machine and smashed open above Hiro’s head who screamed as the chips exploded onto his hair. 

“Whoa!” Tim said amazed “And dangerous.” Baymax added. They looked to the machine and it started firing out snacks at them like a machine gun gone wild. 

“TAKE COVER!” Jim exclaimed as they all hid behind Baymax and they used him as a shield to get closer to the machine as it fired more and more snacks at them Hiro reached for the amplifier and removed it shutting it down. 

“Whew.” He breathed in relief. 

“Man I’ve heard of snack attacks but this really takes the cake!” Tim said pulling a chip out of his hair. 

“Its still over loading things with the charge.” Hiro said rather disappointed. 

“Well Hiro maybe the problem is we’re still thinking too small, small devices have a small charge.” Jim suggested. 

“Yeah hence why they keep overcharging things and causing the overloads.” Tim agreed. 

“So we need to test it on something big enough to handle the power surge.” Hiro guessed. 

“Yep pretty much.” Jim and Tim said in unison. “Wow you guys sure pick up quickly.” said and impressed Hiro.

However they first needed to find something big enough for the test where would they find that? Then as if on cue. 

“Hiro!” everyone turned to see Fred, Ron and Rufus at the end of the hallway open doors. 

‘I’ve gotta show you something and it cannot wa…” Fred then noticed how Hiro’s hair was coated photo chips. 

“Whoa! who over snacked the place?” Ron asked. “I mean if you guys were planning to raid the snack machines why didn’t you invite us Rufus is great at that?” 

Fred meanwhile started picking off the chips from Hiro’s hair and ate them. 

“Hm garlic fresh seriously my fav.” Fred said and Rufus hoped from Rons shoulder onto Freds then onto Hiro’s head and ate a chip from it. 

“Hmm yummy.” Rufus agreed. 

San Fransokyo Bay area harbour  

Soon they found themselves at the harbour where a lone seagull flew off from its perch. Heathcliff Freds butler had driven them down to the harbour to show them something. Fred had covered Hiro and Rons eyes whilst the tweebs and Baymax covered their own eyes. 

“Okay you can open your eyes” Fred said removing his hand as Hiro and crew opened their eyes and they saw something amazing standing before them. It was a large three eyed green coloured Kaju monster with darker green horns and a long spiked tail. 

“Whoa!, wait is that!” Ron said amazed. “Yep behold my friends Kantuki Kaju 2.0!” Fred confirmed in excitement. 

“WHOOOOA!” the Tweebs said amazed.

“AWSOME I’ve seen that movie but the actual monster thats a level ten BOOYAH!” Ron gasped in excitement.

“YEAH!” Rufus agreed. “But wait didn’t you say you had one of these before and…” 

“I know I know the last one almost destroyed the city” Fred interrupted Ron. “But this one..” 

“Is perfect for my test.” Hiro said pulling out his energy amplifier from his hoodie and activated it. 

“Oh yeah!” Tim breathed amazed. 

“Hey whats that?” Ron asked. “Oh it’s my energy amplifier for my final project.” Hiro explained. 

“The one Granville told you not to work on?” Ron asked. 

“Yep, why?” Hiro asked. “Oh nothing besides nothing says amazing grade like a little rebellious student along the way, trust me dude I’ve been there.” Ron said. 

“I… don’t know what your talking about,” Fred said but last one into the dangerous monsters a rotten egg!” He then said in a child like tone.

“Oh yeah this rocks!” Tim said as he and his brother raced Fred over to the Kaju mech. 

“Rotten eggs can cause gastrula intestinal distress, it is also common that..” Baymax explained as they went over to the kaju. 

Soon everyone was on board in the cockpit wearing crash helmets just in case anything should happen. 

“Probably should warn you this might be a bad idea.” Hiro said activating the amplifier.

“Bad idea, you never said this was a bad idea!” Ron suddenly panicked. 

“Ron relax what could possibly happen.” Tim said assuringly. 

“Besides this is a bad Idea is my middle name!” Fred added. 

With that Hiro plugged in the amplifier and the control console lit up in purple lights engulfing the whole cockpit in a purple glow. The monster raised itself high and the cockpit doors which were also the eyes closed down and turned from yellow to purple. 

“Whoa!” The Tweebs said in amazement. However Hiro was looking a little worried as was Ron but Fred on the other hand was all but excited. He was about to reach for the lever until Hiro stopped him. 

“Lets just start slow.” Hiro insisted. “Right baby steps.” Fred agreed. 

“Oh come on Hiro, sometimes you gotta run before you can walk.” Jim disagreed. 

“I’m good with baby steps.” Ron pointed out. “Uh huh uh huh me too.” Rufus agreed. 

With that Hiro carefully pushed the lever up to level one but.

“EsA…..YYYYY!” Suddenly the Kaju mech just took off into the sky with one massive jump taking off like a rocket into the sky. 

It hovered above the cloud bank and inside everyone was floating in the air Rufus quickly grabbed onto Rons shirt before. 

“Oh no.” Baymax and Ron said as the Kaju began crashing down to the ground and inside everyone was now flattened on the roof of the cockpit. 

“YAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Ron screamed as they toppled down from the sky. 

“Hiro! your amplifier thingy rocks!” Fred exclaimed. 

“YEAH THIS IS AW…SOME!” Jim agreed

“I’m more concerned about our landing right now!” Hiro pointed out rather scared.

“That makes two of us!” Ron yelled terrified.

The kaju crashed into the bay with a very large splash and the water wave was heading for Heathcliff who prepared an umbrella for such an eventuality. The water splashed all over him and when it receded he had a squid on his face along with some seaweed and some sea creatures were scattered everywhere. 

In the cockpit of the Kaju mech Hiro deactivated the amplifier and unplugged it as he stood up. 

“Everyone okay?” Hiro asked. “There were no major injuries.” Baymax reports. 

“We’re good.” Tim called out. “Yeah let’s do that again!” Jim chuckled.

“Lets do it again!” Fred exclaimed before he fell to the floor rather dizzy not surprising after all the G-Force he took.

“Uhhh guys I don’t feel so..” Rons cheeks puffed up and he instantly vomited all over the place whilst Rufus just waddled around rather dizzy himself. 

SFIT The Robotics lab

Back at the robotics Lab Hiro looked at his amplifier with admiration he had done the impossible it was tested and ready to show.

“An and they said it was impossible.” Hiro said deactivating the energy amplifier and put it away in a cabinet draw. 

“It was off the charts.” Baymax agreed. 

“Yeah so off the charts!” Tim agreed also. “Yeah it’s already given me some ideas for our next project.” Jim added.

“Yeah guys totally off the charts, I can’t wait to see the look on Granville’s face.” Hiro said rather confident. 

“Hiro, it is approximately two minutes past Jim and Tims bed time.” Baymax reminded looking at his monitor clock with pictures of Jim and Tims faces next to it. 

“Oh yeah come on I’d best get you guys back to the hotel.” Hiro realised and so the three and Baymax walked out of the lab not before they turned out the lights in the lab. 

Elsewhere on campus:

Professor Granville was heading out of her office for the night picking up her purse and then exited her office switching off the lights and locking the door behind her. She then took her leave of the campus. 

Unknown to her however someone was waiting in the hallway dropping in from the roof was Kim Possible clad in her stealth suit and wore the visor from her armour. She knelt down to the door handle and used a pick to pick the lock on the door. It was unlocked and Kim entered the office but snuck in carefully to avoid the security cameras. 

“Okay Wade where would the student files be kept?” Kim tapped her visor activating the Kimmunicator. 

“They should be located in a cabinet at your 11 o’clock.” Wade relayed. 

Kim looked and saw a cabinet on the left hand side of Granville’s desk, she smiled and made her way over too it. Luckily thanks to the stealth suit she was able to blend in. She arrived at the cabinet and saw it needed an electronic key to unlock it. 

“Think you can hack this lock Wade?” Kim asked. “Ask and you shall receive.” Wade replied and using the visor link he was able to hack into the lock and deactivate it.

Kim opened the cabinet draw and looked in the file sections that were labeled alphabetically. She looked in the row marked B. 

“Okay Bob Aken, Bob Aken.” Kim said to herself and eventually she found the file she was looking for.

“Bingo.” She said as she pulled it out and looked at the contents she saw a photo attached with a paper clip of Professor Granville standing with said student with brown full out hair that looked rather puffy and wore a light coloured cardigan with an orange dress. 

“Whoa looks like Granville had a thing for crazy hair styles.” Kim commented. “And a cardigan a little retro?” 

She then looked under the photo and at Bob Aken’s enrolment record she saw a photo of him he had black grey hair and one side covered his left eye and had a trace of red in it, with pale skin and violet coloured eyes. He was listed as a gifted student who was passionate about his work. She then looked at his project records and what she found all but confirmed her suspicions. 

“So Aken was given access to the campus after hours in order to work on his projects, with Granville’s permission?” Kim analysed. Then her visor beeped the kimmunicator tone.

“Go Wade.” She answered. 

“Kim I’ve looked into the hospital records of the accident at Granville’s lab and it says some weeks after her leave of absence, her student fully recovered but hasn’t been heard from since.” Wade explained as he looked on his computer.

“So he’s a ghost story?” Kim guessed. “Bang on the nose.” Wade replied. 

Kim then began to think about what Hiro had told her about Obake and how he’s been acting from the shadows like a ghost and only showed himself during the incident involving a certain journal. She wondered could the two be connected somehow?

“But it looks like this ghost may not want to remain hidden any more.” Kim said out loud. 

“What?” Wade asked. 

“I don’t know yet, but we better keep our eyes open at the open house tomorrow, I’ve got a feeling whatever Obake’s plan is the Open house maybe the key.” Kim deduced as she put away the file and locked up the cabinet as if she was never there.

However there was a camera in the room and someone was watching on the other side it was a certain glowing faced man who watched with interest.

“Hm, seems I’ve underestimated her deductive skills.” Obake mused. 

The Lucky Cat Cafe: The Following Morning:

The day of the SFIT Open House had arrived and in the Lucky Cat Hiro’ aunt was treating him to a pancake breakfast with a smily face made from berries oranges and cream.

“You know it feel like yesterday when Tadashi was going to his first open house.” Cass said rather happy. “And now here you are, I’m so proud of you.” she gave her nephew a hug.

“Thanks Aunt Cass.” Hiro thanked. “I think your going to be impressed.” 

“I hope so, oh and the Possibles and Ron will be there as well the best way to spend their last few days of their trip before going home.” Cass explained. 

“Well let’s hope it’ll be one we won’t forget.” Hiro said as he began eating his pancakes. 

As Aunt Cass walks away Baymax’s scanner then sounds off an alert. 

“My scanner has detected.. Obake.” The mention of the word caused Hiro to choke on his pancakes in surprise as he spat it out.

“Whats an Obake?” Cass asked overhearing the conversation. 

“Uh Obake Hunt.” Hiro explained as he stood up from his seat and moved towards the exit. 

“Its a, it’s a game heh,” He pulled out his phone for empathise. “I gotta go catch me some Obake’s, Baymax let’s go.” Hiro said pushing Baymax to the door. 

However Cass looked at her nephew with a suspicious look she had never heard of this game called Obake’s not to mention Hiro was behaving strangely. Said nephew kept pushing Baymax through the door but got stuck and when he was free it caused Hiro to fall onto his back. 

“Good luck catching your Obake’s.” Cass just said waving goodbye. 

The Hotel:

Meanwhile the Possibles were up and about getting ready to leave for the SFIT Open House. James was tying his tie and Ann was putting her shoes on whilst the boys were just waiting in the living area. 

“Kimmie come on we’re going to be late for the open house!” Ann called. 

“Be right there!” Kim called back. 

“Boy I can’t wait to see what the next generation of scientists and robotisist’s will show today at this open house.” James said rather eagerly. 

“Yeah dad we’re gonna explore it too.” Jim said. “Yeah and maybe even try a few free samples.” Tim agreed. “Husha!” 

“Nice try boys you’ll be staying with us the whole time besides we’re also going to support Hiro and his friends.” Ann explained. 

In her room Kim had finished brushing her hair and wore a turquoise green shirt with black pants and indigo blue shoes, just as Ron came in wearing a green and white jersey and his normal brown pants. 

“KP lets go I don’t want to miss the open house.” Ron said.

“Ron its so not the drama we’ll..” Just then she heard the Kimmunicator sound off. 

“You know Wade has the worst timing.” Ron said. “Its not Wade.” Kim pointed out. 

“Hey Hiro whats the sitch?” Kim asked. 

“Kim its him! We’ve found Obake!” Hiro relayed and the two teens looked wide eyed in shock and Rufus just popped up out of Rons pocket. 

“What where is he?” Kim asked. 

“Baymax was running scans for Obake since we first met him and he just detected him in Night Market Square.” Hiro explained. 

“Thats a pretty far off side of town?” Kim wondered as she remembered that area from her tour of the city with Cass some time ago. 

“Yeah its the perfect place for a villain to hold up.” Ron pointed out. 

“But how was Baymax able to find him I thought he couldn’t scan for Obake?” Kim then asked. 

“I know thats what I thought too, but his scanning jammer maybe malfunctioning.” Hiro explained.

“And biometrics and vocal analysis match the readings from when we met, Obake.” Baymax added as he and Hiro were in an alley way not to far from the Lucky Cat Cafe.

“I don’t know Hiro, doesn’t seem a little weird that he shows himself now this smells like a trap.” Kim wondered. 

“Unless it’s a trap inside a trap.” Ron added. “Please don’t start that again.” Kim cut Ron off after hearing a reminder of the whole trap trap thing that resulted in being pulled into cable TV.

“Whatever it is this could be our one chance to catch Obake once and for all.” Hiro pointed out. 

“Yeah but dude what about the open house?” Ron reminded. “what about your final grade?”

“I know I know if I don’t show Professor Granville will fail me.” Hiro said. “But Tadashi always taught me to help even if it means putting me or my grade at risk, and theres no way I’m letting Obake escape again.” 

Kim took a moment to think about what was just said on the one hand this could indeed be the only chance they have to capture the mysterious Obake and find out his plans, but on the other hand this could be a trap luring them in. However she knew whatever it was they couldn’t let this villain run loose forever. 

“Okay find Obake.” Kim said “but I’m coming with you I’ll meet you in Night Market.” She decided. 

“Okay see you there.” Hiro said hanging up the call.

“Lets suit up KP.” Ron said. “Booyah!” Rufus agreed. 

“No Ron I need you at the open house just in case.” Kim said. “In case of what?” Ron asked. 

“In case this is a trap and if anything else should happen.” Kim said to which Ron nodded.

“Now all we have to do is explain the sitch to my parents.” Kim said as she pressed a button on the Kimmunicator calling the Sky-max unit. 

SFIT Open House:

The SFIT Open House was now in full swing the booths were up and the banners were hanging from the ceiling, and Professor Granville was looking everything over making sure everything was in place. 

She was walking over to the other booths when someone dressed in pink and purple with an orange coloured lab coat, green hair in pig tails and purple goggles jumped in front of her playing a song on a ukulele. 

“I love science fairs don’t you too Professor Granville? oooo.” Wendy Wower sung and was about to hug Granville but she avoided it. 

“So glad you could join us Doctor Wower.” Granville greeted. To which Doctor Wower shook her hand. 

“You know professor, you were the inspiration behind my TV character.” Wendy explained Professor Granville just looked at the good doctor and wondered how she could have been the inspiration for her former student.

“Hmm is that right?” She said simply. “Thats very flattering.” she then moved to inspect the other students booths.

Meanwhile Karmi was in her booth showing off one of her latest projects to Liv Amara one of the leading bio geneticists in San Fransokyo. She had blonde hair fair skin brown eyes and wore a red dress. 

“So you created an electric circuit inside the rose?” Liv asked just as Alister Krei was walking by. 

“I fill lysilum” Karmi explained. “with a conductive polymer” Liv said.  “wow Karmi this could give a whole new meaning to.” 

“Power plants.” The two then said and shared a laugh to which Krei also joined in but when they turned to see him he stopped laughing. Just then he recognised a familiar face. 

“Dr. James Possible this is a surprise.” He greeted as James only just noticed the Krei Tech CEO.

“Why Alister it’s been too long.” He said sharing a handshake. “I haven’t seen you since that space conference in Geneva last year.” 

“Was it last year I lose track of time, you know if only you considered my offer for Krei Techs space tech program we could have done great things.” Krei recalled. 

“Yes but if I recall you couldn’t find the trained pilots for said program.” James recalled. 

“Oh oh yes I remember, well enjoy the Open House.” Krei said as he left to look at the other booths.

James then saw the booth he and his family were looking for and saw a rather concerned looking Aunt Cass with a box of cakes waiting at her nephews booth labeled Hiro Hamada. Just out of stress she starts eating a cake. Just then she notices Gogo and Honey Lemon setting up their booths for their projects Gogo was hanging a picture up of Linore Shimamoto whilst Honey Lemon cleaned the presentation table. 

“Hey guys have you seen Hiro?” Cass asked as she came over and Fred was in his mascot costume sitting on a chair. 

“Oh he’s not here yet?” Honey asked. “He said he was going to meet us.” 

“I’m sure he’ll be here any minute.” Fred added as he came over. 

“I think their right Cass.” as Ann came over to comfort her. 

“This is a big day for him he’s probably a little nervous.” She said covering up the real reason as her daughter explained.

“Yeah and you know he could be planning to make an entrance on his big day.” James also added. 

“Yeah like I saw in a film once.” Ron added. 

“Okay.” Cass decided. “Well anyone want a cupcake?” She then asked offering a box of cat shaped cupcakes.

“I do.” Jim and Tim said as they took one. “Awesome.”Gogo said 

“Thanks Aunt Cass” Honey lemon said as she Ron, Gogo, Fred, James, and Ann took one too and with one bite Ron all but enjoyed the taste of it.

“Man these are delicious reminds me of some I made back home.” Ron explained. “You cook Ron?” Gogo wondered. 

“Yeah I was even in charge of my home mech class back in Middleton, thats is until the Health inspector saw Rufus.” Ron explained.

“Oh sorry.” Rufus squeaked. 

Fred meanwhile was still trying to choose which cake to have. 

“Hm it’s not going to work.” So he basically took the whole box and poured the contents into his mouth all at once. 

“Dude thats awesome!” Tim said admiring Freds ingenuity. 

However everyone couldn’t help but notice Cass still looking a little worried about the absence of her nephew. And rightly so. 

“If Hiro keeps flaking he’s going to flunk out.” Gogo whispered to Honey Lemon and Ron. Then Honey noticed something someone else was absent too.

“Hey where’s Kim, shouldn’t she be here too?” She wondered. 

“Uh well she’s uh well probably setting up something for Hiro when he gets here.” Ron said. “Which he will, any second.” 

However Gogo wasn’t convinced she knew Ron was hiding something and decided to find out what.

“Okay Ron spill it where is Hiro really?” Gogo asked and Ron just smiled innocently. 

Meanwhile in Night Market Square:

A truck had just pulled up in front of what looked like a condemned shop and out of it was Kim armoured up in her mission gear/armour.

“Thanks for the ride Mac.” Kim thanked the driver. 

“Ah no problem Kim it’s the least I can do after you saved my shipment in San Diego last month.” The driver thanked.

“Ah no big one of the reasons I wear laced boots.” Kim thanked remembering that one mission. 

Just then Hiro and Baymax arrived armoured up too. Hiro climbed down off of Baymax and they greeted the teen hero.

“About time you guys got here.” Kim said. “Hey weren’t you only just arriving?” Hiro cracked as they turned their attention to the condemned shop.

“Nice hideout.” Hiro said rather curiously as he expected more.

“And here I thought this Obake guy would be another one of those based on an island in the middle of nowhere types.” Kim wondered. “Baymax are you sure he’s here?” 

“Scanning” Baymax begins a scan of the building then suddenly detects something. 

“Obake is inside.” Baymax relayed. 

“We better call the others.” Hiro suggested. 

“Hold on Hiro, we should probably hold off on that until we know for sure he’s inside.” Kim pointed out. “Besides I think they’re where they need to be.” 

“Whys that?” Hiro asked. “Just got a feeling thats all.” Kim simply said. 

“Obake is approaching the rear exit.” Baymax then relayed. 

“Your right we better go in now.” Hiro said as he approached the door. Kim however was a little uneasy not just about this sitch but about Baymax, as he’s usually on the side of caution. 

Hiro reaches the door and is about to open it.He turns to his comrades. “Its Hero Time!” Hiro said.

This left Kim with a blank look and a raised eyebrow whilst Baymax just blinked.

“Hiro, you do know that lines been taken right?” Kim pointed out. Which left Hiro with a defeated pout on his lip and a little ticked they didn’t like the catchphrase.

“Never mind, c come on.” Hiro said as they entered the building. 

Back at the Open House:

“WOW!” Fred exclaimed as he looked to see loads of people gathered including the Possibles were at Honey Lemons project booth. Ron had just informed them about what Hiro and Kim were doing so they decided to try and buy them some time. 

“Honey Lemon, look at all the big dogs who showed up for your final project.” Fred observed.

“Big dogs no don’t say that.” Gogo protested. “Why whats wrong with big dogs?” Ron questioned. 

“Yeah I like big dogs.” Fred protested. “Gogo who doesn’t like Big dogs?” 

“Yeah?” Rufus agreed but Honey Lemon was feeling a little worried as there was one piece of her project missing one that another absent someone was working on. 

“Wheres Wasabi with the Wax Cylinder?” She said rather worried.

“Don’t worry I’m sure he’s on his way.” Ann comforted. 

“Yeah I still want to know if it was worth me nearly getting..” Gogo elbowed Ron in the gut before he could say anything else. 

Just then Wasabi arrived working his way through the crowd carrying said wax cylinder. 

“Excuse me.” He said coming between Liv Amara and Professor Granville. 

Honey Lemon was all but glad to see Wasabi had made it in time with a freshly cleaned wax cylinder as he handed it to her. 

“Sorry it took so long.” Wasabi panted as he handed the shining cylinder to her. “I pushed the humming bird to its limit!” He whispered as the cylinder glistened in the light. 

“Ah thank you Wasabi.” Honey Lemon said giving her friend a hug before turning to the crowd. 

“You need better hobbies.” Gogo said after popping a bubble of gum. 

“She’s got you there dude.” Ron agreed. “Like you need a new hobby besides kick boxing.” He then groaned. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, for my final project I am unraveling the mystery of Linore Shimamoto’s secret work as a scientist.” Honey Lemon explained whilst Granville and Live looked at each other about the viability of the project. 

“I believe I have found the key.” Honey held up the wax cylinder. “A recording made by Lenore Shimamoto herself 

“Are you sure this is authentic?” Granville questioned just to be sure. 

“Uh huh it was hidden in her lab, I believe she wanted a future generation to find it and now we have.” Honey explained as she loaded it into the gramophone. 

“We will be the first people to hear her speak in over a century.” Honey said excited as she wound up the gramophone and moved the horn in place as it began to play. 

“April 4th 1907.” Said the voice of Shimamoto and Granvile and Liv were more than surprised by this.

“If you are listening to this, then you have proven yourself clever enough to follow the clues I left.” Shimamoto said.

“Nerd power, for the win.” Wasabi said. “Booyah!” Rufus squeaked as everyone else looked excited however their optimism was short lived. 

“Undoubtedly, you have uncovered the diagram under my painting city rising.” 

A flashback showing Shimamoto hiding a strange looking diagram behind an old painting of San Fransokyo from that time period. 

“I preserved it for study only, do not let yourself be tempted by blind ambition.” Shimamoto then said. 

As the recording played everyone at the open house were listening closely at the mention of those words and some even looked with concern even Rufus hid in Rons pocket as he didn’t like the next bits. Nor did Liv or Granville.

“To recreate my work will lead you down a pitch dark path.” 

A flashback of Shimamoto building something in her lab that was made of cogs and gears she was using a welding torch to bring it all together. She then flicked the on switch on the wall next to her and watched with hopeful eyes to see if her creation was a success. 

“I built a machine, which I thought would create a source of unlimited power.” Shimamoto described. “However thats not what happened my experiment was responsible for…” 

The room then shook and everything was consumed in a bright light and the light faded to reveal San Fransokyo of old had been destroyed rendered to a baron wasteland. 

“…I am responsible for, the Great Catastrophe.” 

The very mention of that made people gasp in horror even more for James and Ann as the recording continued on its final message. 

“The destruction, the devastation.” Said an upset Shimamoto who was recording her final message. “I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry.” She broke down in tears as Honey Lemon stopped the gramophone from playing. 

However the damage was done everyone looked in shock and horror at what they just learned the scientist the very founder of the city was responsible for its destruction  so many years ago. Honey Lemon was completely frozen in shock and horror knowing her idol was responsible for the city’s destruction. 

“Hm you might want to put on a happier wax cylinder next time, oh maybe one with ray gay.” Fred suggested but no one said a word. 

“No way.” Ron breathed in shock. “Man am I glad KP wasn’t around to hear that.”  “I can’t believe it.” Ann said in horror. 

Back at Night Market:

The door of the condemned building opened and Hiro, Kim and Baymax stepped cautiously inside, they knew that Obake was here, but where was unclear as there are many shadows for scorpions to hide in. 

“Hiro I should take point just in case.” Kim suggested and Hiro nodded in agreement. So Kim took the lead. 

Suddenly they saw a light flicker at the end of the room and sitting at a table in the corner of the room was the very person they were looking for. 

“Obake!” Kim called. “Give it up Obake, theres nowhere to run.” Hiro called as Baymax stood behind them. 

“My dear Hiro why would I run.” Obake turned round to reveal he was part machine with exposed metal components. Something that would put even Metallo from Superman to shame.

“When I have you and Miss Possible exactly where I want you” 

“He’s a robot?” Kim exclaimed. “No it’s not the real Obake!” Hiro exclaimed realising this was a trap. 

Suddenly the imposter extended his arm and pushed Baymax into the support pillars one by one and he crashed to the ground. 

“Oh no!” Baymax looked up and saw the roof where he was crash down on him Kim covered Hiro to protect him from the debris, the smoke cleared to reveal him buried. 

“Baymax!” Hiro called. 

The imposter then extended his other arm and tried to grab Hiro but Kim pushed him out of the way just in time. Kim quickly got up and ran towards the robot, and it attacked with its arms and she performed a tipple flip to avoid them. 

Hiro was moving fast too to avoid the robots attacks from below and above moving him to the left side of the room. He managed to duck underneath the robots hand. 

This distracted the robot long enough for Kim to get in close and perform a flying swing kick on the robots head knocking him down . 

“Hiro Now!” Kim called. Hiro used his magnetic glove to grab hold of the robots arm and tried to hold him still. Kim then joined him in holding the robot in place. 

“Baymax Rocket fist!” Hiro called. “let go!” Kim said as they released the arm and it flung right back into robot Obake’s face. 

Baymax freed his left arm and fired his rocket fist at the robot and hit him dead in the head knocking out the robots power. 

“Baymax are you okay?” Kim asked “My damage is minimal.” Baymax replied as his hand returned to him. 

“Thank you for playing.”  said the robot and it dropped to the ground and caught fire. 

“I should have known it was a fake, we’ve been had.” Kim deduced. 

“But I don’t get it?” Hiro wondered. “Baymax why’d the bot confuse your scanners?” He then asked Baymax.

“I am uncertain.” Baymax replied. 

“This was all a trick he must have known if he showed himself we’d come after him best guess he mimicked the robot to match a human life sign.” Kim deduced.

“Very observant of you.” The robot turned its head all the way around to face the three heroes. 

“Well done Hiro, unfortunately for you I kept you and Miss Possible busy just long enough…” The robot lost power and shut down. 

“Kept us busy from what?” Hiro wondered Kim thought for a moment and wondered why would Obake go to this much trouble unless…

“From him getting something from the one place he doesn’t want us at right now!” Kim realised in horror. 

Then Hiro realised what Kim was talking about as his eyes widened in horror. 

“Oh no.” He breathed, “We need to get to SFIT NOW!” Kim said as they hurried out of the building. 

Back at SFIT Open House:

At the Open House, Professor Granville was looking at the portrait of Lenore Shimamoto herself. However knowing what she knows now from the recording she heard she was still completely frozen in shock over the revelation. And more surprising shocks were about to come. 

“Hello professor.” Said a voice and Granville turns around to see Obake (the real one) standing behind seeing a face and voice she recognised all too well. 

“Bob?” Granville said in surprise. “Bob Aken!?”

“In the flesh.” Obake/Bob Aken said. 

“I.. I haven’t seen you since…” “Since my little accident?” Obake said finishing the sentence of the still in shock professor. 

“What… what happened back then, I’m sorry.” Granville apologised. 

“Ah ah ah ah.” Obake interrupted. “Sorry for what you did exactly what was best for me what was it you used to say, you can’t hold back genius.” He said with a sadistic looking smile. 

“A philosophy I’ve come to regret.” Granville admitted. 

“Ahh a pity.” Obake said admiring the gramophone. 

“your current protege deserves the same creative freedom.” Granville knew he was referring to Hiro Hamada. “After all, you made me the man I am today.” 

The left side of Obake’s face glowed neon purple showing a horrified Professor Granville what had happened to him on that night. 

“Wonderful to see you again.” He said as he was leaving and Granville could only bear a look of horror at what had become of her former student. 

He was then walking by Gogo’s booth where he recognised the five people there as the other members of Big Hero 6. 

“Fascinating presentation Honey Lemon.” Obake whispered and everyone was in shock and horror to see the very villain they’d been facing appear here of all places. 

“Are you guys seeing what I’m seeing?” Wasabi questioned.

Totally that kid stole my sparklers idea!” Fred pointed to a booth where they saw a kid standing at a booth named Never-ending sparkler and he stood with a sparkler next to a timer

“Guys who was that?” Ron asked referring to the man they saw. “Ron that was Obake!” Wasabi said in horror.

“Wait what!” Ron exclaimed and Rufus squeaked with fright. 

“Obake’s here!” Fred said in surprise. “OBAKES HERE!”

“But Ron I thought you said Kim and Hiro tracked Obake somewhere else?” Honey questioned. 

“Yeah they did but that means.” Ron suddenly realised something. “Oh no it was a trap!” 

Fred and the others chased after the villain with Ron close behind. They saw him leaving through one of the doors however before they could reach it a familiar looking glob of pink goop landed in the way. 

“And he’s not alone.” Honey Lemon said and she was right the glob formed into Globby himself. “Uh oh.” Rufus squeaked on Honey Lemons shoulder.

One overweight girl gasped in horror at the sight of Globby whilst everyone else looked frozen in shock. 

“Geez lady didn’t your parents ever teach you its rude to scream at strangers.” Globby said as he proceeded to gag the girl with some of his goop and everyone fled in a panic. 

Then out from another door came Noodle Burger Boy and Momakase wielding her graphene katana. 

“Hello can we take your order.” Noodle said taking a fighting pose whilst Momakase swung her Katana. 

“Now it’s a party.” She said.

Then landing in front of them was Shego who energised her hands and drew her plasma blades from her gauntlets. 

“Greetings geeks mind if we crash the party.” Shego announced with a sadistic smile.  

“Wow good entrance.” Momakase said which did perk Shego’s mood. “For a noob.” She then said which just caused her to frown. 

“Oh great the gangs all here!” Ron gasped. As he and Ron reached for their phones and called their Skymax pods. Ron then sent a text to Kim saying. 

“VILLAINS AT SFIT HELP NOW!”

“Yep all the bad dogs showed up.” Fred said in concern. 

People were fleeing for their lives whilst the guy at the sparklers booth was completely unaware of what was going on around him given he was wearing dark glasses. He suddenly got the message as debris was sent flying into the air crashing into his stall and the loud roar which came from T-Rex Globby grabbed a table in its mouth and flung it at the exit whilst Noodle Burger boy was firing lasers all over the place. 

Everyone evacuated out of the building and at the exit Professor Granville was evacuating everyone along with Dr. James Possible.

“Please evacuate in an orderly fa..” “LOOK OUT!” James tackled the professor to the ground before she was hit by a blast of green energy they both looked to see Shego blasting everything with her energy blasts, Noodle Burger boy was shooting his eye lasers all over the place whilst T-Rex Globby crushed another booth under his foot. 

“Professor we need to get out of here.” James advised as he helped Granville up. 

“You go Dr. Possible I’m activating the security robots.” She said as she moved to a panel on the wall which required finger print recognition. She placed her palm on the scanner and it recognised her palm print and immediately activated the campus security systems. 

A security spider drone which was an orbed robot with four spider looking legs took to the ceiling and crawled along whilst the others rolled into the room in ball form. One stopped under a table and then transformed catapulting the table which was then sliced in half by Momakase. 

The four villains then found themselves surrounded by more of these spider bot security drones who readied their defensive capabilities. 

“Really this is the best they have?” Shego questioned then suddenly a security drone fell from the ceiling only for Shego to blast it with her plasma blasts destroying it. 

Another one then fell to the ground and unfolded its legs and T-Rex Globby chose to face it. 

“Bring it on!” He said as he grabbed the bot in its mouth and swallowed it. But that was a mistake the bot unfolded itself again and used its legs like a razor saw blade to slice T-Rex Globby in half.

“Ow.” He cried. 

 The bot was free only for Momakase to slice it in half with her graphene katana. She then looked to Globby who reformed himself on the ground. 

“You’re terrible at this aren’t you.” She said. “Terrible please he’s a rank amateur.” Shego agreed. 

Then out of nowhere four of Big Hero 6, Ron and Rufus arrived on the scene armoured up and ready to fight. 

“Ah yeah heroes on the scene!” Ron exclaimed as Wasabi formed his plasma blades. 

“Granville’s security bots.” Fredzilla noticed. “Sweet give them some room to do their thing!” 

In a flash Momakase sliced apart every single security drone in sight in what felt like two seconds flat. The heroes were more than surprised but not completely. 

“Thang really?” Gogo said. The villains then turned their attention to the heroes in front of them.

“Oh goody if it isn’t Big Loser 6, well come on kiddies pain schools in session.” Shego taunted energising her plasma blasts. 

Gogo blew a bubble gum bubble and when it popped she lowered her helmet visor. “Lets dance!” Gogo said as the heroes stood in a battle pose and Ron readied his gauntlet energy shield. 

“Aw yeah AVENGERS ASSEMBLE TIME!” Ron yelled. 

“You got it Mister!” Noodle said and strangely the robot mascot began singing and dancing much to Shego’s humiliation.

“Come on everybody do the noodle, do the noodle a do the noodle.” The mascot sung much to everyones shock and confusion. 

“Okay is this guy for real?” Shego asked the heroes. 

“Yeah he does that sometimes.” Fredzilla answered. 

“Noodle this!” Gogo said throwing her mag lev disk knocking the robot unconscious. Shego and Momakase leaped into battle. 

Wasabi dodged the sushi ninjas strike as he fought back with his plasma blades and Momakase blocked the strikes with her katana.

Honey Lemon throws a chem ball at Globby who catches it in a glob wall then throws a punch at Honey who rolls out of the way to avoid it. Fredzilla then jumps in and unleashes a fire blast on the villain. 

Meanwhile:

Not to far away Hiro and Kim rode on Baymax’s back flying across the city at top speed in an effort to get to SFIT before it was too late. 

“Hurry Baymax we’ve got to get to my lab!” Hiro said. 

“And fast I have a feeling I know what he’s after!” Kim agreed. “Yeah me too, I just hope we’re not too late.” Hiro agreed. 

They arrive at the campus and head for the robotics lab. 

Back in the open house:

Wasabi and Momakase clash blades but the ninja can see some fear in her opponents eyes. 

“Scared of me?” She taunted. “No it’s not you.” Wasabi answered. “Its everything NOW!” 

Just then Rufus flies in with his suit and delivers a kick to Momakase’s face knocking her off balance and Wasabi delivers an upper cut knocking her onto her back which she’s able to recover from. Then charges for them with her katana blade Wasabi dodges her strikes and tries to land a few of his own but Momakase kicks Wasabi in the gut sending him flying. Rufus tries to hit the ninja but she just grabs him in her hand.

“Nice try rodent.” She said as she tossed Rufus over to Wasabi. 

Meanwhile Gogo and Ron are fighting Noodle Burger boy as Gogo tosses her mag lev disk at the mascot. Suddenly a looming shadow is over her and she sees its Shego, Gogo quickly dodges her attack and blocker her plasma blasts with her disks. The two then lock hands in a heated stand off. 

“You know your new boss has some nerve showing his face here!”Gogo said “Why are you here what does Obake want?!” 

“Yeah yeah details details if you ask me speedy you have a more immediate concern.” Shego said as she formed her plasma blade. “Like keeping your head on!” 

Shego tried to strike Gogo but she manages to skate away then using the rubble as a ramp she throws her mag lev disks at Shego which she just incinerates with her plasma blasts. 

“Oh boy!” Gogo said. 

Ron meanwhile had his hands full with Noodle Burger Boy  who was firing lasers all over the place and Ron blocked them with his shield as he ran and took cover behind the rubble.

“Ooo I love hide and seek.” Noodle said with his eyes glowing bright red. 

“I’m fighting a fast food mascot!” Ron breathed. “Well at least it ain’t monkeys gah.” He shivered. 

Ron tried to look but he just saw incoming laser fire. “Ready or not here I come.” Noodle said.

However Ron noticed one thing that he could use to his advantage and he remembered what Kim would do in this situation, improvise. 

Making a run for it he dodged all off Noodle burger boy’s attacks then quickly dived for the tarp banner under Noodles feet and pulled it from underneath him tripping him up. 

“Boom that’s how the Mad Dog does it!” Ron exclaimed. 

However Noodle burger boy just got up and looked at Ron and Gogo still fighting Shego. 

“Now serving breakfast all day!” He said as he fired a gold liquid from his left hand which coated the floor and as Gogo skated towards Shego she ran into the goop, lost her grip and crashed into Ron and they were stuck. 

“Syrup, seriously?” Gogo said in surprise. “Eh I’ve seen weirder villain attacks.” Ron shrugged. 

Globby was flying in the skies gliding on a path of his own glob whilst avoiding fiery attacks from Fredzilla. Globby rises in the air and fires metal shards from his arms at Honey Lemon who thanks to her training with Kim was able to flip and avoid the shards and took cover in some rubble. Fredzilla was taking cover nearby.

“Honey Lemon toss one up surprise me!” Fredzilla said as Honey Lemon dialled in a chem ball formula and received the ball out of her purse. 

The two then emerged from their hiding place to face their enemy. 

“Batter up!” Honey said as she tosses the ball into the air and Fredzilla swings his tail and hits the ball like a base ball bat at Globby. However he then turns his right hand into a tennis racket shape and hits the ball back encasing Fredzilla and Honey Lemon in pink goop as he stands victorious. 

“Advantage Globby!” Globby said in victory.

Elsewhere:

At the doors to the lab belonging to Hiro Hamada Obake approached and held up an old SFIT ID card with his former identity on it. The scanner recognises the student ID and unlocks the door. 

“Mm still works.” Obake said smiling as he entered the lab and breathed in the air. 

“Feels like home.” He said as he walked into what was once his lab. He looked around like he was looking for something.

He picked up the cap that belonged to Hiro’s brother Tadashi and tossed it to one side. 

“Now where oh where…” He looked at a certain cabinet draw and when he pulled it out he found what he was looking for. 

“Ah the final piece.” He breathed as he held up the energy amplifier but was unaware that three certain heroes stood behind him.

“So the real Obake I presume.” Kim asked with a knowing look. 

“Ah the great Kim Possible.” Obake greeted as he turned to face them. “We meet at last face to face, I must admit, your not at all how I pictured you to be.” 

“Yeah well your everything I’ve been told you are not coming out of hiding and letting your lackeys do the work for you.” Kim described. “Just like every other supervillain that me and my new friends have had the pleasure of stopping this week. 

“Hardly my dear I am nothing like that amateur Drakken, if anything I am more superior.” Obake scoffed. 

“Put it down Obake, it’s over!” Hiro warned. 

“Quite the opposite things are just getting started.” Obake said with a sinister look. 

“So not your not going anywhere!” Kim said. 

“Oh have you not learned anything, I’m always one step ahead.” Obake chuckled.

“Blast him Baymax!” Hiro ordered and Baymax raised his rocket fist and fired it but he missed his target and instead broke the circular window in the lab.

“What!” Kim breathed as she clearly saw that Baymax missed but she also saw he did it intentionally, she figured it was part of his programming not to injure human life or was it something else.

Obake turned and saw he had an exit. “Oh why thanks.” He pulled out a remote and uncloaked a pack of Buddy guards which he jumped on as they carried him away. He gave a two fingered solute as he bid his enemies farewell.

Kim, Hiro and Baymax watched as Obake was getting away. 

“Guys come on he’s getting away!” Hiro exclaimed but suddenly a green blast of plasma energy nearly hit him Kim and Baymax.

“Going somewhere Kimmy!” Shego smirked and Kim just glared at Shego and used her own armour jet pack and rocketed at trying to punch her only for Shego to catch her fist in mid air. 

“Hiro get Obake I’ll deal with her GO!” Kim exclaimed with that Hiro and Baymax took to the sky however Globby arrived and threw some goo at the red robots jet boots rendering them powerless and as a result the two heroes were sent crashing to the ground. 

“NO!” Kim exclaimed as Shego then blasted Kim out of the window with a huge focused plasma blast however the cheerleader was quick to protect herself with her gauntlet shield. She crashed to the ground and saw the downed heroes. 

“Hiro Baymax!” She exclaimed as she took off her visor and ran over to them. 

Hiro groaned as he regained consciousness and could hear the sound of Noodle burger boy singing as they saw the villains escape holding onto Globby as they swung away. 

“Please stop!” Momakase groaned. 

“Until the next time Big Loser 6!” Shego exclaimed. 

Hiro just growled in defeat. “Hiro!” Kim came running over. 

“Are you okay?” She asked. “Gah’ yeah a little battered but alive.” Hiro said holding his side. “We didn’t exactly save the day this time did we?”

“Nope bad guys two good guys zero.” Kim said counting a scoreboard. 

Just then the rest of Big Hero 6 arrived to help their comrades. “Are you guys okay?” Honey asked as Gogo and Kim helped Hiro up whilst Wasabi and Ron helped Baymax up onto his feet. 

“We are without injury.” Baymax diagnosed. “But Obake got away.” Hiro breathed as he limped over. 

“Yeah that seems to be happening a lot lately.” Ron pointed out. 

Soon everyone regrouped back at Hiro lab Honey helped support Hiro as he limped into his lab and Ron helped Kim as well whilst Rufus sat on Baymax’s shoulder. They looked to find Professor Granville in the lab looking over the damage. 

“Students, is everyone alright?” She asked in concern. 

“We’re fine professor.” Fredzilla said until Gogo elbowed him in the monster mouth realising who they were speaking to. 

“Uh I mean ah complete stranger, who we’ve never met..” “Enough with the charade Mr. Frederickson” Granville then interrupted with a knowing look.

“Yeah she’s right guys, she knows.” Kim then admitted. 

“Hah, w, wha, y, you know we’re.” “Big Hero 6, I see all.” Granville said confirming Hiro’s worries.

The six heroes looked at each other very worried now their university dean knew their secret what was to happen next. 

“Calm down, your secret is safe with me.” The professor then assured.

With that each of the six heroes unmasked one by one revealing their identities to professor Granville and Hiro was the last. Ron felt no need to wear his visor anymore so he took it off and Rufus removed his own helmet. 

“My primary concern is why the school was attacked for a third time this semester?” Granville then questioned.

“Hiro.” Kim said openly and Hiro looked to find his cabinet draw empty. 

“This was all my fault.” Hiro admitted getting everyones attention. “I disobeyed you, I created an energy amplifier.” Hiro said to his teacher. “Good news is it worked.” 

“Let me guess the bad news.” Gogo asked already knowing the answer. “Obake has it.” Hiro confirmed. “Mmhm.” Gogo hummed knowingly.

“Obake?” Granville asked not understanding the situation. “Yeah you know the creepy guy with the nightlight in his face.” Fred explained. Immediately Granville knew who they were talking about. 

“But you already know something about him, don’t you professor.” Kim asked knowing her theory was right. 

Granville took a breath before she answered. “Follow me all of you.” with that everyone left the lab and arrived in Granville’s office where she brought out a file that Kim recognised all too well.

“Obake, once my star student, I knew him as Bob Aken.” Granville explained and Hiro looked at the name label on the file and blanked out the words B and N leaving the name Obake it was an anagram. 

“He had so many ideas to make the world a better place.” She then explained 

Flashback some years ago:

A young Bob Aken working on something in the late hours of the night in his lab. 

“I encouraged him to explore fearlessly.” Granville continued. “Unfortunately the path he chose lead to the energy amplifier.” 

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say it didn’t end well?” Ron guessed. 

“No Mr. Stoppable it did not.” Granville said 

Young Bob Aken smiled with pride only to be consumed by a glowing green light. The flash ends and a younger Professor Granville is looking through the remains of his former lab. 

“He, wasn’t as successful as Mr. Hamada.” She explained 

 Young Granville found in the wreck a strange looking rock that was spiked looking which would later be the very ornament that once lay on Granville’s desk prior to Hiro enrolment but was no longer there after the incident with Yama’s evil Baymax army.

Present day:

“The boy needed limits, I did not provide them.” Granville said with some form of guilt in her voice. “It was a mistake I never wanted to make again, however it seems I have.” 

Hiro just looked away with his own feeling of guilt not listening to his teacher and now receiving the full story of her former student.Kim placed a consoling hand on his shoulder as everyone stood in silence. 

“His real names Bob?” Fred openly said as everyone just glared at him.

“Really thats the one thing on your mind!” Gogo scolded. 

“What I can’t be the only one thinking it.” Fred said Ron was thinking the same thing but for the risk of injury from Gogo he kept quiet. 

“So thats why you didn’t want Hiro to pursue the energy amplifier as a project.” Kim realised. “You were trying to keep history from repeating itself.” 

“Yes, but it seems I underestimated Mr. Hamada’s over eager ambitious mind to prove the impossible.” Granville confirmed. “And it seems the past has a way of coming back to haunt the present as it did today.”

“Professor, I’m sorry if, if I had known I…” “It wouldn’t have made much difference.” Granville interrupted Hiro. “But I apologise for not being straight with you about this.”

“This isn’t anyones fault but Obake’s professor.” Kim said. “This was all part of his plan, he must have known Krei tech was nowhere close to making an energy amplifier so he needed someone else, someone who couldn’t resist the challenge.” She explained.

“And I fell for it.” Hiro guiltily said. “Hiro, theres no way you could have known.” Honey consoled. 

“Yeah but that still doesn’t tell us what his endgame is!” Gogo said. 

“Whatever it is, it started the day of his accident, he’s been patient scary patient.” Kim explained. “Which means he’s going to make his move soon everything will have been carefully planned.” 

Later on:

Soon everyone was out of SFIT and out of their armour, well everyone except Kim they needed to discuss their next move. 

“Guys we need to figure out what Obake’s up to?” Gogo insisted. 

“Lets check the conspiracy board.” Fred suggested.”Freds right, wow never thought I’d hear myself say that, maybe theres a pattern we missed.” Wasabi agreed. 

“Right let’s meet up at the garage and compare notes, I gotta go check on Aunt Cass.” Hiro said still feeling a little guilty. “Come on Baymax let’s go.” 

Hiro and Baymax took their leave of the others and as Baymax retracted into his charging port on the back of Hiro’s scooter Hiro mounts it and then starts the engine and rides home. Kim couldn’t help but notice the change in Hiro’s mood and she knew why. 

“He’s blaming himself for whats happened.” Kim saw. 

“Yeah it’s like what happened to Tadashi all over again.” Honey said. 

“Lets head to the garage.” Gogo said. “You guys go I’ll catch up later.” Kim said. 

“Wait what why?” Ron asked. 

“I want to go back to Night Market Square and have another look at where Robo Obake ambushed me and Hiro.” Kim explained. “There could be a clue there.”

“Okay lets go.” Ron said until Kim put her hand out and stopped him. 

“No Ron I have to do this one solo.” Kim explained. “What by yourself?” Ron said in surprise. “But we’re a team you and me right?” “Hey!” Rufus called as he popped on his shoulder. 

“Oh yeah and Rufus.” Ron corrected. 

“Yeah we are, which is why I need you with the others to figure out what Obake’s next move is if what I find doesn’t pan out.” Kim explained. “Look if I run into trouble I promise I’ll call.” 

Ron took a moment to think and he was never one to question his friends judgement, in a way she was right but he still felt like he was being benched. 

“Okay, it’s just I don’t like the idea of you going in alone.” Ron said. “And it’s sweet of you to worry.” Kim admitted. 

“Yeah support it’s what the sidekick does what a best friend does.” Ron smiled and Kim smiled back. 

With that Kim activated her armour jet pack placed her visor back on and flew away towards the city. Ron just looked as he saw his childhood friend fly away but he couldn’t help but worry. He turned to see the others give him a knowing look.

“What?” Ron asked and Rufus just shrugged. 

“Oh nothing.” Gogo said “No love the shrubbery.” Honey Lemon said as Wasabi and Fred were whistling to themselves. 

Ron just shrugged as he and Rufus left the campus and were soon followed by Gogo and the others who were having a quiet chat among themselves. 

“Okay I’m not the only one who sees it right?” Gogo questioned with a knowing look. 

“Oh absolutely.” Wasabi agreed. “Defiantly I see it too.” Honey agreed in a cheery tone. 

“See what?” Fred wondered not knowing what they were talking about. 

“We’ll tell you later.” Gogo whispered and they all left the campus. 

Lucky Cat Cafe: 

Meanwhile as night fell lights were still on at the Lucky Cat Cafe, and with good reason. In the living quarters Cass was stirring a bowl like crazy, she was greatly worried about Hiro and Baymax so she started stress baking, she had already baked a cake along with other desserts and was now making another one. She then grabbed a donut and put it in her mouth. 

James and Ann who were waiting with her just to calm her nerves just watched in complete amazement. 

“Uh honey did she always do this back when you knew her in high school?” James whispered to his wife. 

“Only when she gets stressed or tense.” Ann whispered back nodding. She then went over to Cass. 

“Uh Cassie look I know your a little worried about the boys but I’m sure they’re on their way back right now, so just calm down.” Ann tried in a calming tone. 

“Calm I’m calm why would you say I’m not.” She said in mouthfuls. “I’M COMPLETELY CALM!” Cass exclaimed spitting crumbs all over the place. 

Ann just looked with shrunk pupils in surprise. “I guess somethings never change.” Ann said knowingly.

Just then they heard the sound of foot steps coming up the stairs and Cass dropped the donut in her mouth. Then Hiro and Baymax appeared in the room and Cass was more than relieved to see her nephew alive and well after the chaos at the open house. She dropped the mixing bowl and ran over to him.

“Hiro! Where have you been?” Cass asked as she instantly pulled him into a hug. 

“Agh uh careful.” Hiro winced as he felt some pain from the hug as he was still a little banged up. 

“Oh are you hurt?” Cass asked as she looked him over. “Ann is he hurt anywhere?” 

Ann looked Hiro over and saw he was fine but had a few minor injuries. “Don’t worry Cass he’s fine just a few bruises here and there.” Ann diagnosed. 

“Yeah I just got a little banged up with all the chaos at school” Hiro explained. 

“I got so anxious when I couldn’t find you at the open house.” Cass said putting her hands on his shoulders. 

“Yeah I’m sorry, for showing up late that must’ve been really scary.” Hiro apologised. 

“I’m just glad you two are back in one piece.” Cass said relieved. “Well two pieces because there are two of you, probably didn’t need to explain that.” She said gesturing to Baymax. Hiro just smiled knowing that his aunt was safe and well.

“Okay then Cass we’ll be going we have to check on the boys and we have some packing to do before we head home soon.” James said. 

“Okay thanks for staying with my aunt Dr. and Mrs Possible.” Hiro thanked.

“Not a problem Hiro we’re all practically family, we’ll see you all soon.” Ann said as she and her husband took their leave of the Hamada house hold. 

Meanwhile:

Back at Night Market square Kim had just arrived and was looking over the burnt remains of the Obake decoy. She knelt down so that Wade could take a look. Through the visor she was having Wade scan it for clues. 

“Anything Wade?” Kim asked. “Well this thing was made with advanced components some even similar to those Destructo Yamas that Drakken used.” Wade explained. 

“Makes sense he’s stolen Krei tech before.” Kim recalled from Hiro’s stories.

“Hold up I think I may have something.” Wade said as he looked over the scan and detected a certain component inside the robot.

“What have you got?” Kim said standing up. “As far as I can tell from the scan, theres a small transponder inside probably controlling it.” Wade relayed as he zoomed in on the component. 

“And get this it’s still transmitting a signal.” Wade said. “Can you track it?” Kim asked. 

“Way ahead of you.” Wade began typing on his keyboard and used the Kimmunicator satellite to triangulate the signals source and where it was, was surprising. 

“Wait this can’t be right?” Wade said surprised.

“What is it?” Kim asked. “The signal source is right where you are.” Wade answered and Kim looked around the room but couldn’t see anything. 

“Where exactly?” she asked. “Directly below you.” Wade answered and Kim looked down to the ground and instantly knew what could be below her feet. 

“Let me guess this building has a basement?” She said knowingly. 

“Your smart and psychic.” Wade answered “The basements through those doors ahead.” 

With that Kim proceeded to the doors at the rear of the room she managed to open them but only part way as there was a collapsed part of ceiling blocking it. She slipped through the gap and found a set of stairs leading down. She moved slowly, if there were any traps this would be the ideal place to set them. Thankfully she reached the bottom of the stairs with no trouble. She moved down the hallway and saw a door at the opposite end. Kim cautiously opened the door slowly in case someone was waiting for them. She fully opened the door and found there was no-one there just a set of computer screens and a table with a small button on it. She approached it and saw there was a small note attached. 

“Okay thats weird?” Kim wondered. “Why..what ..is it.” Wade said faintly. 

“Wade your breaking up, the signal must be weak down here.” Kim deduced. “But theres a note next to a button.” She said and read the note. “It says ‘Press me and all your questions shall be answered.’” she read. 

“Okay if that doesn’t scream obvious trap.” Kim guessed. 

“Kim I.. don’t like this.. maybe … call the others.” Wade suggested despite the poor signal. 

“No, if this is a trap, I don’t want to drag the others into it.” Kim declined. “plus if this is a trap theres only one way to see who’s set it.”

So a rather cautious Kim proceeded to press the button on the desk, then suddenly the computer screens blared into life and revealed something alarming. It was surveillance footage specifically it was of Hiro, Honey Lemon, Wasabi, Fred, Gogo, Baymax and even of Kim and Ron when they first arrived in the city a week ago. Kim looked and saw the time stamps and it was from the past few months. There was footage from their respective homes, the Lucky Cat and Hiro’s Lab at SFIT whilst he worked on the amplifier and in his garage when he was creating an enhancement suit. 

“He, he’s been watching them?” Kim said in horror then noticed a small screen which had their faces and their Big Hero 6 personas this told her only one thing. 

“He knows who they are, thats how he’s been one step ahead!” Kim breathed. “But why?” 

She then noticed a surveillance camera at SFIT that showed Granville and Gogo working on what looked like a large electro magnet  and then some news footage from when Baron Von Steamer attacked the city with his statue bot. 

The pieces began forming in the teen heroes mind, she began to realise what the components Obake stole could be used for and that with Hiro’s energy amplifier. She covered her mouth with horror realising what he was trying to do.

“Oh my god, he’s actually going to do it!” 

Then suddenly a certain devil avatar appeared on the centre screen. “I told you and Hiro this before, I’m always one step ahead Miss Possible.” Obake’s voice echoed on the speaker in the room. 

“Obake! Or should I just call you Bob Aken!” Kim called out. 

“Don’t call me that name!” Obake growled. “Bob Aken failed but Obake won’t I will change the face of this city forever.” 

“I know what your trying to do, your going to use the components you’ve stolen and the energy amplifier to create a machine to generate an unstable energy star.” Kim said. “The very same kind of star that Shimamoto created, your trying to recreate the Great Catastrophe.” 

“Hm you truly are bright, though Id expect nothing less from the daughter of the great James Possible.” Obake said from the confines of his lair as he watched the surveillance camera. 

“You’re insane Aken that catastrophe killed thousands of innocent people and destroyed the entire city!” Kim exclaimed. “And you think it’s a good idea to do a sequel!”  

“I am merely pushing the limits of what Shimamoto created succeeding where she did all those years ago.” Obake merely voiced. “They revered her work for years aI now wish to be remembered from the ashes of San Fransokyo I will create a new civilisation guided by technology and science, my work.” 

“No! the only thing you’ll be remembered for is a mass murder, your no scientist your a villain!” Kim exclaimed. 

“Villian, no a visionary I see a world that only I can create, and I shall not guide it alone.” Obake then said getting the teens attention. 

“What are you talking about?” Kim then demanded. 

“Think of it like a game of chess, I have captured the armoured knight and now he shall claim my prize.” Obake said and then footage appeared and it was of a certain younger genius in his room at the lucky cat. 

“Ow.” Hiro said as he sat down on his bed. He turned to face what looked like the camera, and Kim could see this was footage  and looked in horror as she knew from where or rather who. 

“I said ow?” Hiro said but he had no response. “Uh alerted to my need for medical attention?” 

“Oh no.” Kim gasped as she realised what had happened to Baymax during the fight at Krei tech.

“Nothing?” Hiro said as he approached Baymax and opened his access port. “There must be something wrong with…” Hiro discovered a purple data chip with a certain devil avatar stamped on it. 

“What?” Hiro gasped. He reached for the chip but Baymax’s hand grabbed his wrist. “Baymax?” Hiro breathed 

Baymax looked down on Hiro but his eyes were glowing bright red with evil the feed then cut out. 

“Hiro!” Kim breathed in horror and hurried to the exit only for a metal panel to cut her off from the exit. 

“I’m truly sorry, but I can’t allow you to stand in the way of progress.” Obake’s voice echoed. 

Suddenly Kim heard another noise in the room it was beeping and thats when she saw in the far corner of the room an arrangement of explosives with a timer set for ten seconds. 

“Progress requires sacrifice Miss Possible, and in my new city I’ll be sure to put up a statue of you labeled relics of the past.” Obake’s voice echoed. 

Kim tried to pry the door open to no effect, she then pulled out her laser lip stick and tried to cut through the door but the metal wasn’t burning quick enough.

“Kim.. Kim whats.. going!” Wade tried calling in on the Kimmunicator but it was being jammed. 

The timer was now counting down. 6…5

“Admit it it’s better this way.” Obake said as Kim scanned the room trying to find a way out. 

4…3…

“We were both” Obake said as Kim looked in horror that there was no means of escape. 

2…1

“Out of time.” …0

Outside the condemned building everything seemed normal. Then a huge explosion blew out the windows shocking everyone around it and a massive blast completely destroyed the front of the building as it crumbled to the ground. 

From his room Wade could hear a blast and knew what it was and looked in horror. “KIM!” Wade shouted at his computer screen. 

The smoke cleared to reveal a burning pile of rubble where the Night Market was fires were still burning in the night illuminating the scale of the destruction, as it seemed the teen hero had stepped inside had perished along with it Obake had dealt a great hand tonight. 

Authors Notes: DUN DUN DUN Now how's that for a cliffhanger folks, I was feeling inspired after playing a bit on Avengers PS4 and I always thought Obake was an amalgamation of Ultron from the Avengers (MCU) Devoe from CW’s The Flash and recently MODOK from Avengers PS4  when I saw his character. But whats to come next Obake’s entering his endgame will our heroes prevail find out in the next chapter.

[gotboredwrote]

Starting Early // TM!JFM

Pairing: Tim Murphy x Fem!Reader Word Count: 8.2K Style: One-Shot Warnings: Fluff, some pregnancy discussions, swearing, some angst Summary: You and Tim had been trying for a baby for a while, and one day you popped into the museum with a small box in hand ready to make what you could only imagine was a very stressful day better. Once it’s official, Tim cannot wait to show the baby around his place of work. Permanent Author’s Note: To clarify, I write because I get bored. Nothing is meant to be professional in any way, nor is meant to offend, cause anxiety, cause anger, cause sadness, or promote disagreement among readers in any sort of (semi)permanent way. A/N: This could have been written for literally anyone I write for but I had a strong urge for Tim, so that’s that.

Masterlist

~

To say that it had been a stressful time in Tim’s life was an understatement. One of the biggest stresses of his life had recently come to a head, though, and that was yours and his wedding. But he would never admit to you that the planning had stressed him out. You, on the other hand, made that apparent. That was something he loved about you. You were not shy, so you two balanced each other out. The wedding ended up being absolutely amazing, and the honeymoon was a great way to relieve all the pent-up stress.

Once the honeymoon was over and the two of you were back to your daily grinds, the other stresses in his life returned, including the museum, dealing with his kooky family, and a new pressure entered, as well. One that he was not quite sure he was ready for, but knew he wanted the minute you suggested the idea. You two were going to try for a baby.

But things were not working out the way you wanted. You were positive you were doing things right, but it had been months and no test came back positive. After almost half a year of trying, you were both getting extremely discouraged, and Tim’s workload had increased tenfold, so he was even more tense than usual. To say that you both were wrecked over the situation was an understatement, and after the day you saw Tim go to work with tears in his eyes, you were determined to pick up his spirits. But you were not sure how you were going to do that.

Until you took the most recent test.

~

You had woken up sick to your stomach the morning after Tim left with tears in his eyes, and could not hold it back. Tim was about to walk out the door when he heard you in the bathroom and rushed over to the door to check on you.

“Babe?”

All he was met with were some sputtering coughs.

“Y/N?”

“W-what?”

“You need me to stay home today?”

You trudged your way over and opened the door to face him instead of talking through it.

“I’m okay. The chicken last night must not be agreeing with me. I’ll be okay, go get your work done. I’ll just see you when you come home, okay?”

“But you’re sick, I can’t—”

“Yes you can. I’ve been sick when you’re away on a dig and been fine.”

“You’ve been sick when I’m away and not told me?!”

“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you, honey. Now go off to work because I think round two is coming.”

“Babe—”

And the door was shut in his face. ‘Great,’ he thought. ‘Now I have to worry about her, my job, and the fact that my body is so screwed up it can’t even give her a damn baby.’ He walked out to his car feeling even more defeated than usual and a little bit depressed. He could not help but wonder if he was worth being with you, as dramatic as that was.

As Tim was walking out, and you were finishing up the round two that came rather violently, something dawned on you. And it both terrified you and made you thrilled.

Once you felt like you could stand up without feeling dizzy, something else that had been happening the last few days, you got changed and grabbed your own car keys. You raced down to your local drug store, the same pharmacist seeing where in the store you were heading. He was glad you did not see him, but he gave you a pitiful look. He stopped counting after you had bought 40 tests. He had never seen someone more determined to have a baby, and he just did not have the courage to breach such a sensitive subject with you. But he did not have to worry for much longer, because the next time you came in the store, you bought beef jerky, something you or Tim never ate. And he knew.

When you got home, you practically shot gunned a bottle of water in an effort to get ready for the little stick that was more daunting than it should have been. Then, as soon as you felt the sensation, you went in the bathroom, and the waiting game commenced.

5 minutes.

4.

3.

2.

1.

…

It was not even two little lines you got to see. You had splurged in the hopes that maybe this would be the one on one of those tests that quite literally spells out ‘not pregnant’ or ‘pregnant.’ You read the result.

And you could not wait to drive to the museum.

~

The drive usually only takes about 20 minutes, and even though that was all it took this time, the nerves and nausea radiating through your stomach made it feel like 20 years. On the way there, you had stopped at a local craft store and bought a small, white box and some blue and pink tissue paper to place the test in. It was astounding to you how a small piece of plastic was about to change yours and Tim’s life for the better.

You parked your car and made your way into the museum, Lilah the normal receptionist sitting in her chair having her daily coffee and pastry. She saw you walk in, smiled at you, and waved you through. Normally, the people who come to see someone on staff are required to have a visitor pass, and when you and Tim first started dating, you were no exception to the rule. Now, the entire staff of the museum knew who you were, and thought it was just plain silly for a staff member’s wife to wear a badge, especially when you visited so much you practically worked there yourself.

Once through the opening exhibit, you made your way back to the hallway of offices and walked up the flight of steps to the second floor where Tim’s office was. As you were walking up the steps, though, one of Tim’s bosses happened to be walking down and started talking to you.

“Y/N! I’m not really surprised to see you here, but it’s always nice to see you, nonetheless. What does Tim owe the pleasure?”

“I actually have a surprise for him, Jerry.” Jerry was Tim’s oldest boss, and he was genuinely the sweetest man you had ever gotten the pleasure of meeting. “Is he in his office?”

“Well, I’m not quite sure, actually. Here, I’ll follow you up and if his door is locked, I can let you in and you can wait for him.”

“That’d would be great, Jerry, thank you very much.”

You walked up, and sure enough Tim’s office was locked. Having Jerry there was a blessing, and he was about to leave you and lock the door behind him, when he turned around.

“Sweetheart?”

You looked up at him with wide eyes and a hum.

“If I may… what is that little gift you have? Today isn’t Tim’s birthday, is it?” “Oh! No, no it isn’t. This is actually just a bit of a surprise for him, is all. Surprised me, too, if I’m being transparent.”

“Is it what I think it is?”

You nodded enthusiastically, tears already threatening to spill from your eyes.

“Well. Knowing Tim, you’re about to make him the happiest man on Earth. And you already did the day you married him. Congratulations, deary.”

You could not even bring yourself to say thank you because you had started crying happy tears. Jerry shut the door behind you and you heard the lock click. You had calmed your crying down after about 5 minutes, and then another 5 minutes later, you heard the door unlock again. Tim walked in with an enormous stack of paperwork that completely dropped to the floor when he saw you seated at his desk. Thankfully, it was all in sealed file folders, so nothing cascaded across the floor.

“Jesus! Ah… oh my god. Y-Y/N… what are you… doing here?” Tim had to speak between breaths because you had scared him so badly.

“Sorry, honey! I just wanted to come see you and your door was locked, so Jerry let me in so I could sit down.”

“It’s…it’s fine. Just let me… catch my breath for a sec.” Tim sat down at the chairs that were opposite his chair, not wanting to make you get up, roles reversed momentarily. “So. What do I owe the pleasure of my wife’s presence on this… overwhelming day?”

“Well, I actually have something to give you.” “… I didn’t forget about my birthday again, did I?”

“No, Tim.” You were laughing in an attempt to cover up the emotions that were starting to resurface, since you knew what was about to happen. Your lives were about to change. Well, Tim’s was. Yours already had, alone in the bathroom earlier this morning.

You slowly slid the white box over to your husband, and he looked at it with confusion at first. Then he slowly reached for it and lifted the lid. He saw the pink and blue bundle of tissue paper and looked back up at you with even more confusion. You were doing everything in your power to not give anything away, but much to your chagrin, a tear slipped from your eyes the moment Tim made eye contact with you. The confusion lifted from his face, and a new emotion took over – concern. He ripped into the tissue paper like a small child on Christmas morning, but with the intensity of a grown man. The tissue paper had been scattered all around his legs and the floor and the top of his desk until he got to what was hidden underneath it.

‘Pregnant.’

The room was silent for a moment. Then came the sniffles from both sides of the desk. Then the eye contact of eyes that were flooded with tears and burning red with overwhelming feelings of love. Tim was by your side in an instant, latching on to you with everything he had. You were sobbing and he was laughing. It was a moment you would never forget.

“I… I knew we were doing it right.”

“Obviously, Timmy.”

“You’re going to be a mom… oh my God, you’re going to be a mom and-and I’m…”

“You’re going to be a dad.”

Tim looked at you and his eyes sparkled the way water looks when the sun shines down on it.

“An amazing dad.”

~

[2.5 Weeks]

“Isn’t that a good idea? We can start he/she early!”

“You know I don’t like pictures, Tim.”

“But this is different! This is something we are both going to want to look back on, and what better way to do it?”

Tim had come home from work a few days after he found out you were pregnant with a bag from a local electronics shop and was enthusiastically telling you about a plan he had. The plan involved something you had hated even before you were pregnant, but knowing that you were going to just be getting bigger and bigger as time went on made you hate the idea even more. Tim had wanted to document your pregnancy through pictures at the museum at milestone dates.

“… fine. You spent all that money on the camera, so I guess I can deal with it.”

“Astounding! And it starts today, you’re coming to work with me!”

“Tim! I have to go to work myself, I can’t just not show—”

“I already called your boss, he said it’s fine. Probably because he wanted me to just shut up, but it worked!”

You just looked at Tim lovingly while he laughed to himself. Then you ran over to the bathroom. Tim never thought he would get used to hearing you get sick. He almost felt bad that he was the cause of it, but knowing what would come out of it after nine months made it completely worthwhile to him. You were not so sure in the moment, but Tim’s enthusiasm convinced you otherwise.

You had made your way to the museum carefully, because the motions of cars did upset your stomach more. But the ride was quick and pretty painless this time. The two of you had decided not to tell anyone right away in case the worst happened, so when the museum staff saw you and Tim walk in together, no one thought anything different. Except for Jerry, but Tim had talked to him in advance and he knew not to say anything. When you two passed him walking to Tim’s office, he just gave you both a small smile, which you both returned.

Once all of Tim’s belongings were in his office, the two of you started walking hand in hand through the museum. Tim seemed to be taking you to a specific exhibit that he had in mind, but you were not sure why. Then it dawned on you. It was the exhibit that had the skull he found a long time ago on a dig when the two of you were still dating. (You do not have to read this for this story to make sense, just know that it could be read as a prequel of sorts.)

“Why are we stopping here?”

“You didn’t think I bought an expensive camera without a plan on when to use it, did you?”

“Of course not, but why this exhibit?”

“Don’t you remember? This is where the skull I found it is. I thought this could be where we take the growth pictures. Do you… hate the idea?”

You were feeling emotional to begin with, what with all the new hormones raging through your body, but you were just so happy in that moment that you just hugged Tim tightly. When you pulled away, through more happy tears, you told him how happy you were and how much you loved the idea.

Tim had you stand sideways in front of the display, lit with gold-tinted lights that illuminated your silhouette in a way that almost made Tim cry.

“There’s not much of a bump yet, Tim.” “But we know he/she’s there.”

[One Month]

The morning sickness had increased. Quite a bit. You felt sick around the clock, and practically everything you ate came up later in the day. Tim had gotten better at handling it. At first, he would have trouble being in the bathroom or even near it. Now he can hold your hair back for you as long as he does not look at you. You took what you could get.

One particular morning, Tim had woken up more excitable than he had been recently. You just felt sick so you ignored him. Then you felt a flop on top of you, signaling Tim had thrown something on top of you.

“What the hell are you doing? I don’t work today, why are you waking me up? And throwing my clothes on me?”

“Because you’re coming to the museum today. It’s been one month!”

“What…are you talking—”

“One month since you got pregnant, baby!”

The days dragged so much for you with how awful you felt, both physically from the sickness, and emotionally from not being able to tell anyone yet, that you completely stopped keeping track of dates. You had trouble believing that it had already been so long.

“Oh… that means it’s picture day, huh?”

“You bet! Plus, I’m giving a tour today to a group of 6 year-olds, so maybe you could tag along and see what we have coming!”

You offered Tim a weak smile. You were both so sure of having a kid together, but the reality of at it all had not really set in, at least for you. Your brain still continually told you that it was simply severe food poisoning from that chicken. But to Tim, it was his child. He was so proud that he could do something like that, and he wanted to prepare in every possible way he could, just so he could be the kid’s best friend. But you knew he did not have to prepare for that – it would happen by default. Almost made you jealous.

After a smaller than usual bout of morning sickness, you got dressed in the outfit Tim had picked out for you. The same one you wore the first time he took a picture. You understood why. The pants were a simple pair of grey sweats that were baggier around your lower abdomen and butt but were fitted toward the bottom, and a simple, oversized by about 3 sizes, pastel yellow tee shirt. An outfit that would be very easy to utilize for showing off a growing bump. Just what Tim wanted to do with his camera.

You went into your kitchen and smelled one of the few breakfast foods that did not make you sick, a chocolate croissant, something that Tim liked to bake for you even before you got pregnant. It was a specialty of his. One of the few things he could cook or bake, in general. He was standing at your kitchen table, with a somewhat bashful expression on his face. He held a croissant out in front of him, work bag and car keys in the other.

“I didn’t have time to bake them this weekend, so these are store-bought, but I warmed this one for you.”

You just walked over, took the croissant gently from his hands, and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, honey.”

“You’re very welcome. Hope they’re not better than mine.”

“Close. But yours are better.”

“Fantastic.” He seemed really giddy about that fact. It made you smile. “You ready to head in?”

“I think so, I just need to grab my wallet.”

With that, the two of you made your way over to the museum and barely had any time to lock your belongings in his office when the exhibit manager of the day came over and told Tim the group was already there, and they were getting impatient. He needed to make his way down quickly or there would be a bunch of rambunctious 6-year-olds making a mess for the janitors.

Tim told them he would be down as soon as he could, but he would only walk at the speed you felt comfortable with. You were his priority. You were doing good on the sickness today, and he was not about to be the reason that changed. You two made your way down and instantly Tim went into tour guide-mode. It honestly was one of the funniest Tim personalities you knew, but you loved it all the same. Tim was introducing himself to the kids and the teachers and chaperones while you watched from the back of the group. A small group of Tim’s coworkers walked by the group and saw you standing there, and waved enthusiastically. Nothing out of sorts. You two still had your secret in place.

You followed the group around from the back, sometimes talking to one of the chaperones about this or that, and even mentioned to one that you were in the very early stages of your pregnancy, to which she became giddy but kept it contained. The only reason you mentioned it to her was because you had pointed out that one girl seemed to be very sad the whole tour and the lady mentioned that it was her daughter.

“If you’d like, when they have a break, you could go talk to her.”

“What? Why? Why me?”

“You’re gonna need practice, sweetheart, boy or girl.”

You gave her a nervous look, because this was making reality really set in for you. But you heeded her words, knowing she was right, and made your way over to the little girl while she ate her lunch alone.

“Hi there.”

She looked up at you with big, beautiful blue eyes.

“May I sit with you? I don’t have anyone to eat lunch with.”

She just nodded her head and kept slowly munching, her mother watching from behind so the girl did not see her.

“What’s your name, sweetie?”

“Josephine.”

“That’s a beautiful name! Mine’s nowhere near as pretty, it’s just Y/N.”

“That’s pretty too!”

“Well, thank you. Josephine is prettier though. Your lunch looks good, what’re you having?”

“PB&J!”

You gasped in shock. “That’s my absolute favorite! In fact,” you reached down into your bag, “I brought one myself!”

Josephine laughed loudly, the sound attracting the attention of both her mother and Tim, but you two were too wrapped up in each other to notice.

“Josephine, can I ask you a question?”

Another nod.

“You looked really sad all morning, and that made me sad. Could you tell me why?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Honey. I promise there is no stupid reason to feel however you’re feeling. Emotions are natural reactions to whatever happens to you. What you feel is okay to feel. If you tell me what it is, I might be able to make you feel better.”

“…Tyler called me unpretty.”

“Tyler called you unpretty?”

“Yeah.”

“Well listen. Tyler is the one here who is unpretty. You, my dear, are beautiful. Just like a Disney princess. You have a name fit for one, too. And I want you to know that that kind of behavior is not tolerated in the adult world, so I will make sure it stops for you, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“You think you can enjoy the rest of Dr. Tim’s tour?”

“Are you going to be there?”

“Of course I will, sweetie. Dr. Tim and I have a very special relationship. I’m his biggest fan.”

“Do you love him?”

Her question caught you slightly off guard. “More than anything in this world, sweetheart.”

“Okay.”

“But I’ll be right behind the group the whole—”

“Would you hold my hand while he gives the show?”

You stopped in your tracks. That felt too much like something her own mother should do. You glanced over to her, knowing she was watching the interaction now, and she gave you the thumbs up.

“I would love to sweetie.”

For the rest of the tour, you stuck by Josephine’s side, hand not leaving hers once. Every once in a while, you were certain you saw Tim sneak a lingering glance at the two of you, and one time it lasted so long, he had to break himself out of his thoughts and his eyes had gotten a little glossy.

At the end of the tour, you all said your goodbyes, and you gave Josephine a quick hug, and gave one to her mother, as well. As you and Tim watched the bus drive away, Tim turned to you with a small smirk on his face.

“What do you want, Dr. Tim?”

“Oh, nothing… mom.”

He grabbed your hand and immediately took you to the display so he could take your picture. Still not much of a bump, you noticed, but you sure as hell felt different after the interaction you had today.

“My money’s on girl.” “Really? You’re already making bets? On what grounds?”

“You were too damn good with that little girl for it to be coincidental.”

[Two Months]

Morning sickness was still a bitch, frankly. Your doctor, one of only 5 people who know about your pregnancy at this point, including you and Tim, put your mind at ease explaining that it should subside around month 4. Halfway to the cravings period, she explained. Nothing particular important happened in the last month, both at Tim’s work and with your pregnancy. Things were going smoothly, other than the incessant sickness, but that more than likely meant you and baby were healthy. At least according to your doctor.

You felt Tim throw your clothes on top of you again, signaling that you would be spending another day at the museum. Another picture day. This time you were less upset about him waking you up. But once you stood up, you were sprinting to the bathroom.

Damn morning sickness.

One chocolate croissant and a twenty-minute drive later, you were seated in Tim’s office reading a book from his shelf, one of the few novels relating to dinosaurs he had amongst hundreds of textbooks. He had mainly a paperwork day that day, so the two of you just enjoyed each other’s presence. Something you hardly got to do even before you were pregnant. Your work lives made it so hard to see each other for any extended period of time, but you found ways to make it work.

Before either of you knew it, you had spent the entire day in his office, with you reading and him doing paperwork. It was practically time to go home, but you still had not taken your picture yet. You and Tim gathered all your belongings, locking up on your way out and made your way down to the exhibit. When you got down there, you placed all your stuff out of frame and stood profile to him and head gazing down at your stomach, just like any other shoot.

But you never heard the shutter.

You looked over at Tim who had tears streaking down his face, the camera shaking from how his hands were violently doing the same. You rushed over to him and grabbed his face, completely overwhelmed with confusion because you had no idea what triggered this. It was not raining or anything, so you had no idea what had set him off.

“Tim, baby, what’s wrong?” The panic was apparent in your frantic tone of voice.

“You’re showing.”

“What?”

“You’re showing.”

“What are you talk—”

“Let me take the picture.”

You slowly pulled away from him, resuming your position from a second before, and you heard the shutter go off this time. You walked back to him to see what he was referring to, and it hit you as hard as a wave of nausea in the morning.

You were showing.

The baby was showing.

You had already started to show after only two months.

You looked up at Tim with eyes that were just as watery as his, and hugged him tightly, but his grip was lighter. Knowing what was in between the two of you.

It became real.

[Three Months]

You had your doctor’s appointment, and she told you that it was officially safe to begin telling people about the pregnancy. Everything was looking fine, and the fact that you already had a small bump this early meant the baby was big and healthy. Absolutely nothing to worry about.

You told your families, and they all were extremely supportive, and Lex even cried, knowing that her kids would have a new family member to play with. Everything was going great, and you and Tim constantly felt like you were on cloud 9.

When you went into the museum to take the photo that day, you decided enough was enough and stopped hiding the bump, letting Tim’s coworkers ask about it. Some clapped him on the back, some broke down in tears at how amazing of parents they knew you two were going to be. It was all very overwhelming, but the two of you kept it pretty well together. Until it was time to take the photo. For some reason, seeing how much you had grown in a month set both of you off to the point where you were leaned up against the exhibit window, crying silently with each other.

Until you decided to speak.

“Am I going to be a good mom?”

“Wh-what?”

“Am I—”

“You’re going to be a perfect mom. I don’t know what brought this sudden fear up, but know that you are going to be a natural.”

“It’s all becoming so real, Tim. Like, I don’t need to stand sideways anymore to see the bump. He/she is really growing. They’re real. I just… don’t want to mess up.”

“Do you really think you and I aren’t going to make any mistakes? I mean, yes, we are near perfect human beings,” Tim’s sarcasm and sass always made you laugh, because it was never something people expected to come from such a shy human, “but all parents make mistakes. That’s how kids develop personalities. Otherwise, baby-making could basically be named cloning and we’d have invented that without even knowing it.”

Tim saw that you were not looking at him and tears were still running down your face. So, he grabbed it and pulled it to look at him.

“I didn’t have to see you with that girl to know you are going to be as perfect as you can be. Because I can see how much the idea of being a bad mom is eating away at you. You couldn’t handle the prospect of someone thinking you’re a bad mother, so you’re going to do everything in your power to make sure that doesn’t happen. Plus, I just know you. You were practically a mom even when we were dating. How much you doted on me. Took care of me on my bad days. Still do.”

You believed Tim. You believed every word that came from his mouth.

“And I know I’m going to be a great dad by the same logic as you. I don’t want to be a bad dad more than anything in this world, so I’m not going to let it happen. Plus, Lex can always give us pointers.”

“…thank you.” “Anytime, mother of my child.”

“…that’s weird, don’t say that.”

“You married this weirdo, you should expect this after all these years, Y/N.”

[Four Months]

Your morning sickness subsided – just like the doctor told you it would. It was a relief to not be throwing up every 2 hours. But the cravings were not much better. Beef jerky? ‘Really, baby?’ you always thought as you would gaze at your ever-growing stomach, now practically impossible to hide.

Walking in the museum with outside food or drink was against the rules, but Tim’s coworkers and bosses made an exception for you, knowing how hard you two tried to get to this moment in your lives. Especially when they saw you walk in going to town on a bag of beef jerky. They could tell by your expression that you hated it but it was what the baby wanted, and they always laughed out of pity and bemusement.

Nothing particularly exciting happened this day, either, just like last month. With the exception of a recent find being dropped off the museum for display. Tim told you he would finish up his paperwork and you could go watch them set it up. Then he would come find you when he was done and you could take your picture and go.

Once Tim had taken the picture, Tim had started crying again, so you ushered him to join you by the display and sit down.

“What’s going on, Timmy?”

“What… if they’re scared of me?”

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Scars, Y/N.”

You just looked at him in shock.

“I don’t look like you. Or anyone else. I’m marked. I know eventually I’ll have to explain what these are from, but what if when they’re a baby they don’t want me to hold them? Or feed them? Or change them? Or lay them in the crib? What if they just think I’m a monster? And not…dad?”

“… I wish I could say it won’t scare he/she. But I definitely think they’ll be interested… to a degree. But that won’t matter to a baby. All they’re going to see is your big beautiful eyes and your smile. All they’re going to hear is how cute they are and your gorgeous singing voice when you sing them to sleep. You’ll appear as the farthest thing from a monster, and you just have a really cool bedtime story to tell them when they’re younger. You can save the real stuff for later.”

“…”

“I love your scars. You know that. Very much so. I think the baby will, too.”

[Five Months]

You had officially gone one month without morning sickness, and you were very thankful for that fact. Tim would never say it to your face, but he was too. He did not want to make you feel bad for making him feel sick all the time, too, seeing as that the cause of yours was him. Your cravings were still in a pretty full swing, though, but they were never terrible combinations like movies and television made them out to be. Most of the time they were just foods you were not particularly fond of, but you could move past that, since they did not make you sick.

You had another doctor’s appointment, as per usual, but this was one you did not tell Tim about. Not because there was anything involved he had not seen before, but because this was the official appointment where the gender could be found out. You had a plan; you were going to have the doctor tell you the gender, and then you were going to work with the museum to have a small, private gender reveal for Tim. When you found out the gender, you cried and wanted to immediately share the news with Tim, but patience is truly a virtue, and you knew it would be worth the wait.

When you got home that day, you called the museum and told them what day you would be coming into the museum to take the newest photo, and they were more than willing to help you out. You wanted the surprise to be simple, so you explained what you had in mind, and they were all for it. Eventually the day came where you and Tim went to the museum together, and you spent the day like any other, moseying around sometimes with him and sometimes not. On one occasion when you were by yourself, you walked over to the exhibit where you took your photos to make sure the reveal had not been set up yet, and thankfully it was not. Meaning, Tim had no clue what he was in for.

Later in the day, the museum had closed up for the public, so you made a quick call to the manager who was going to set up your surprise to signal it was go time. You stalled Tim in his office as long as you could, but eventually, you ran out of stuff to say. So, you two made your way downstairs, and all you could do was hope that the manager got out of there in time.

Once in front of the exhibit, you decided not to say anything at first. See if Tim would notice. You set yourself up in front of the viewing window and assumed the position, and you heard the shutter go off. You were almost hurt that Tim did not notice the glaringly obvious breach of protocol in the exhibit, because you were the one who wanted to do this surprise for him. So, you decided to egg him on a bit.

“Tim, did I tell you I had an OBGYN appointment today?”

Tim’s head slowly looked up at you from the camera and his eyes were glossy, and you were certain you could see his lips trembling, holding back a smile.

“I didn’t think not telling you would make you this upset, honey, I’m really—”

“Pink.”

That explained the tears. And the attempt not to smile. He saw your surprise in the photo looking closer. You had instructed the museum to find a small beanie that would fit onto the skull in the exhibit that Tim had found on the dig. A pink one. To let him know that he would be having a daughter with you.

“It’s pink… you’re having… having a girl?”

“We’re having a girl, yes. A girl, Tim!”

“That’s the greatest news anyone could have ever told me. A girl… oh my God, a girl!”

You could see that he was ecstatic to hear that it was a girl. Both of you would have been happy with whatever it ended up being, but the happiness that radiated off of your husband indicated to you that he might have been leaning toward a preference.

“Oh no.” “What, Tim? You were just so happy.”

“I’m going to have to fight a lot of men soon.” “What? Why?” You were practically laughing just at the thought of Tim trying to win a fight. He was headstrong, sure, but body strong? Not so much.

“She’s going to be just as beautiful as her mother, which means a lot of potential suitors.”

“I’ll help her. She needs a man just like her father.”

 [Six Months]

After finding out that the two of you were going to have a girl, it was time to tell your families and friends, and they had nothing but sweet and wise words of advice. Everyone kept saying to you privately that they could see you being a great mom to a boy or a girl, but that Tim would be especially good with a girl. For some reason, it just made sense, and you could not help but agree with them. He was always just so tender and sweet with everyone he meets, and he treated you like a fragile piece of glass when he interacted with you, giving you the utmost care. You would not be surprised if that happened with your baby, but ten-fold.

This day at the museum was nothing out of the ordinary – paperwork, some smaller tours, things of that nature. You did not mind though. With how far along you were getting, nearing the third trimester already, you were starting to constantly feeling tired. So, being able to lounge on Tim’s office couch and just doze off or read a little bit was always a nice feeling.

At one point though, someone had knocked on the door while Tim was out, and you honestly were not sure if you should answer. That situation, despite how long the two of you had been together, had not come up since the first time. The first time it was just a package for him, so it was not a big deal, but you could never be sure who it was, since his door did not have a peephole.

You carefully stood up on your own, not used to not having Tim right by your side to help you, and answered the door. Standing behind it was a very cheery Jerry, Tim’s boss.

“Y/N? I didn’t expect you to answer.”

“Timmy is off with an intern explaining something he did wrong.” You both laughed at the idea of Tim being all nervous and jittery about something being wrong. “Would I be able to help you with what you needed?”

“Actually, the whole reason I came was for you, but I was just going to have him give you this.” Jerry handed you an envelope that felt extremely thin, but you did not question it one bit. Jerry had his ways of explaining himself sooner or later. “Just read that whenever you get a chance, dear. I think you’ll like what’s inside.”

“Alright. Should I—”

And he shut the door behind him, leaving you with your mouth agape.

So, you decided now was a good a time as any, since Tim was not there still to keep you company. You sat back down, carefully, onto his couch and opened the letter. It was a single sheet of paper, with hardly 15 sentences on it. You read it slowly and quietly to yourself, and when you had finished, Tim walked back through the door. He was met with the site of you crying silently and red-rimmed eyes. Immediately he was by your side asking you if you were okay and if the baby was hurt. You just looked up at him wearily but forcing a smile on your face while sliding the letter in his direction. Tim read aloud.

 “Dearest Murphy’s,

I hope this letter finds you at a happy time, or maybe, it would be better when you’re slightly sad and could be a pick-me-up of sorts. I would like to make this short and sweet, so as not to take much up of your time. First and foremost, I would like to offer you a piece of advice – frankly, it is what I would call the best piece of parenting advice one could receive, especially as first-time parents. ‘Protect the child at all costs, but do not prevent them from exploring potential.’ Pretty self-explanatory, but in case it isn’t clear – please keep the child safe at whatever cost, but if they express sincere interest in something and there is no inherent danger involved, even if it makes you anxious at first, don’t squander it. Children are so precious, and their minds take in everything, despite what you may think, and preventing the child from expressing themselves is only going to make them despise you and want to do everything in the opposite way you told them to. Secondly, I would like to offer Tim paid paternal-leave for as long as you are earning yours from your employer – we will match the length of time. Plus, as a bonus from the entire museum staff for all you two have done over the years for us, a small token of our gratitude is enclosed here that I sincerely hope will help you throughout the beginning of this journey.

I sincerely treasure you both as human beings, and I wish you all the luck with your little family.

Sincerely yours,

Jerry Turner, CFO Cretaceous and Jurassic Periods at American Museum of Natural History”

 Tim was still at a loss for what had made you cry, and then he saw the ‘small token of their gratitude.’

A check.

For $10,000.

Both you and Tim were sobbing. Loudly.

You could not believe it, because that would cover so much more than you could have ever imagined, and neither of you were quite sure what you did to earn such a thoughtful and extremely generous gift. You wanted to thank Jerry, but you had no idea where he ran off to, and you two were so overwhelmed by the gift that neither of you had the strength to move.

Little did you know that Jerry had watched Tim walk back in his office and was outside the door hearing how happy you were, and his heart swelled up.

You took the monthly picture, tears still streaking down your cheeks. You looked ethereal, despite the tears.

[Seven Months]

Officially within your third and final trimester, things were getting down to the wire. You had stopped all the various side-effects of pregnancy, and all that was left was the constant sluggishness. Tim did not want you drinking too much caffeine, so he cut back as well. You were constantly having the energy sucked out of you, but Tim kept going a mile a minute, somehow, considering the boy lived off of tea and the occasional coffee if he really needed it. You assumed it was nervous jitters knowing how close you two were getting to meeting the little one.

You had arrived at the museum early, and Tim had gotten all of his paperwork done the day before so he could spend the day walking around the museum with you, seemingly with a plan in mind.

Every time you would arrive at a new exhibit, Tim would drop down to his knees, and he would gently lay his head down onto your belly. Then he would start talking. Anything he could say about the exhibit – reading the signs, spewing random bits of knowledge here and there, whatever he could think of. After he did this about four times, you stopped him and asked him just what it was he was doing.

“I’m talking to her.”

You just looked at him sweetly, almost tearing up at the sentiment.

“Gotta start her early, don’t I? Can’t have her being into mathematics like her mother.”

And then came the eye roll. You almost did not let him take the picture that night because of that little gripe at your job.

[Eight Months]

It was hard for the two of you to believe you were down to the last potential thirty days, but you were already there. The two of you were both planners, so every single thing that could be accounted for was already accounted for – she had a room, clothes, diapers, everything. The two of you went and took your monthly picture, wondering if you would get to take another one, when it hit Tim that the two of you missed something crucial in your planning.

“Oh shit.” “What?”

“We don’t have a name yet.”

“Oh shit.”

Sitting down on the bench looking into the exhibit, you both thought about it for a while, throwing out ideas neither of you liked. Just to put something out there and maybe draw inspiration. Then Tim suggested another two names, and instantly you knew they were the ones. Both of you were old fashioned, and you knew you were going to get some comments about it, but it did not matter.

This was your daughter, and you could name her whatever you damn well pleased.

[Eight Months and Twenty-Two Days, June 11]

It was so much pain.

So much more pain than you expected.

But dammit, you were going to meet your daughter today, and that was that.

You honestly could not even remember the drive to the hospital, but the next thing you knew, you were in a hospital gown with a doctor telling you that you were nine centimeters dilated and that the pushing would start soon. Despite everything you told him was going to happen, Tim was right by your side gripping your hand like a vice, with an expression on his face that made the doctors think he was in as much pain as you were.

But it went quicker than you thought it would. That final centimeter happened quick, and everyone in the room was on you in an instant to coach you through the pushing. You only had to push for about 15 minutes and then you heard it.

Small but powerful cries, indicating that the baby was here and healthy.

Immediately she was on your chest and they were starting to clean her up, and then they took her over to the crib to wrap her. You were still catching your breath when you saw Tim walk over to you, bundle in his hands, him sobbing with joy.

“She’s—”

“Gorgeous.”

The nurse came over to the both of you with a clipboard after a few minutes, now that both of you had calmed down lightly.

“Alrighty. So, we have a healthy baby girl, born June 11 at 4:49am, weighing 6.1 ounces and measuring 20 inches in length. We have all the other stuff taken care of, we just need to know if she has a name yet.”

“She does.” Tim looked so proud that he was the one who got to say it for the official birth certificate.

“Agnes Eloise Murphy.”

The nurse smiled, double checked the spelling, and walked off to file it. You were just gazing at him with almost a hint of fear in your tired expression, because something the nurse had said threw you off a bit.

“Timmy…”

“Hm?” He was still gazing down at Agnes, not really mentally with you at that moment.

“Do you realize what today is? What her birthday is?”

“I do.”

“And you’re okay?”

“Of course I am. I will never have to remember the horror of Jurassic Park on this day any longer, she is a distraction from that nightmare, she is a living, breathing dream come true.”

 [One Month Birthday]

Agnes turned one month old, and neither of you could believe it. Other than doctor’s appointments, she had not left your apartment. You both decided that she could make one exception, and Tim was more than eager to take her to the place where he found out she would be coming into this world.

The two of you took her around the entire place, and ended at the exhibit where all the pregnancy photos were taken.

“You don’t know it yet, but this place has a lot of special meaning to mommy and daddy, and you too. We’ll tell you all about it when you’re older, lovebug.” Tim spoke to his daughter the same way he did when she was still in your belly and it made you melt. You knew it from the moment you laid eyes on her that she was going to be a daddy’s girl.

As he spoke to her, she smiled and placed a hand right atop the scar adorning Tim’s cheek. She laughed for the very first time.

“I told you she’d love them.”

When you look back down, you can see her enthusiastically swinging around the small dinosaur plush toy you had given her as a first stuffed animal. You smiled and looked back up at Tim, not believing how precious she was.

“And a dinosaur lover just like her dad, too.”

“Told you we had to start her early, keep her away from the numbers.”

Permanent Taglist: @bensrhapsody @chlobo6 @gardnerlangway @xtrashmammalstefx @bohemiandeakyy

Tim Murphy Taglist: @drtimmurphy

Specific Fic Taglist: @70sdeakys

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[floweringthewords]

Blind: Nineteen.

This literally took a lifetime and a day to upload but it’s been done for months and I just never got to it. SORRY but it’s here yaaaay surprise

Matty’s POV

It was fifteen minutes later that I heard him rush in, calling out to see if I was okay. He ran into the room the same way he had before at the clinic when he was almost too late. I had heard the boy’s instrument’s in the background over the phone, so I knew they had to have been having practice at Tim’s. It took well over fifteen minutes to drive from there to my house on any other day. I could only imagine how many red lights he ran and potential tickets he’d be receiving. John found me kneeling in the bathtub trying to hold myself up as I reached for a bathrobe. He helped me stand to get into it, before quickly grabbing me some clothes and shoes before getting me down the stairs and out to his car. The pain had only dulled an eighth from earlier, and it was still hard to move or sit or stand upright. The pressure in my waist still made it hard to breathe. As much as it hurt, it’s not what worried me. This hadn’t happened before and I had no idea what this meant for the baby. There was only a month left. What if something was wrong? What if I was going into early labor? We arrive at the emergency room and they attend to us quickly and John follows them into my room, arguing and insisting that he wasn’t going to leave. “Do you see the condition she’s in?! I need to be with her!” “Sir, we need you to leave-“ “Bullshit! That’s my baby!” My heart pangs aside the pain as I ponder over whether he meant me or the baby. I call out shakily. “John, it’s fine-” He gives me a sad, frightful look. “Matt.” Before he could struggle any further, they wheel me away and I watch as he gets smaller in the distance, until the doors swing back closed, leaving him on the other side. It spoke volumes for how distant we’ve been the last few months. After multiple tests and a double dozen of questions, they deem the pain has dulled and in no need for morphine, consulting me that it’s not a completely safe narcotic when pregnant. I nod and accept their decision. I finish filling out some paperwork and the nurse with a sweet scent brings me a boxed juice, telling me the doctor would be in with the diagnosis soon. “Would you like your husband to come in and see you?” I blush as I struggle to sit up, causing her instantly to adjust my bed and fluff my pillow. She was very attentive and her hair smelled like citrus and honey. “Oh, h-he’s n…um.” I stop myself short, realizing how pointless it is to try and explain myself to a stranger. It doesn’t matter anyway, right?” “Please,” I mumble. I can hear her soft hum, the sheets shifting as she moves away from the bed. “I’ll be right back.” Thanking her, I focus on the sound of her footsteps fade, finding it thankfully distracting from the situation. I fiddle with my hands, still able to feel the slight dips and wrinkles on my fingers from my bath. Everything felt like it had moved in slow motion, when really it couldn’t have been more than an hour since John had raced me here. My lips unexpectedly begins to quiver as I rest my hands protectively over my stomach. Rushed sounds pull me from my thoughts, and I’m graced by the feel of calloused, long fingers over mine, cupping them firmly. “Matilda, a-are you okay?” I give the best smile I could manage. “John.” He sighs and moves closer, feeling him cup my head and pull it into his chest. “How are you? Does it still hurt?” I shrug as he takes a seat on the edge of the bed. “It’s not crippling,” I mutter. Sarcastically, I add, “When it first hit me, for a second I thought I could see again-“ “Matilda, that’s not fucking funny.” I frown at his harshness. “I’m just trying to make myself feel better.” He sighs again and pulls away briefly – I assume to rub his eyes or neck – before taking my hands again in both of his. “I-I know. I’m sorry. I was just so scared. I was at practice with the guys and – God, you have no idea everything running through my head when I picked up the phone. You’ve no idea what you sounded like…” His voice cracks and I feel his thumb over my knuckles, causing my eyelids to close shamelessly. It was the exact reassurance and comfort I needed right now. John takes note of this and continues to caress my hands softly, staying close but not saying a word. The silence feels…normal. It reminded me of the mornings in bed when we were both still waking up and I could feel his skin against mine, when I could trace the lines and bumps on his nose and follow the curve of his jaw and brush his eyelashes and know they were looking at me right through them. The memory hits me hard and I realize just how much I miss him. Out of all the things that could have brought us together, it’s something grave and dire. My eyes water as I clutch his wrist. “This is our child. John, what if he’s not okay? What if-wh-what if-“ “Matt, baby, I’m begging you please don’t.” His voice is so definitive and stern that there was no room to argue – there would be no speculating if the baby was going to be fine. It would be fine and that was it. But the plea still made his fear obvious. He was as scared as I was. I blink back the tears, waiting impatiently. I needed some kind of answers. I just wanted to know that I-we’d be okay. The nurse returns a moment later, joined by another pair of footsteps. The doctor introduces himself and reads off results from the tests. “Your vitals are all well, and the x-rays we took of your spine don’t show anything abnormal. Now, we’re thinking the pain that you felt was just a combination of change in posture and stress. It’s very common for women to have symptoms of back pain during their pregnancy, but that’s just a result of your body preparing itself.” He makes his way over to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. “I do, however, want to take an ultrasound to be absolutely sure this wasn’t a result of any kind of internal problem. I’m sure you’d feel better knowing that it didn’t affect the baby in any way, too.” I nod gratefully and the nurse instructs me to lay back and raise my nightgown. I bring the sheets up to my hips shyly before doing as she says, feeling John’s hand guiding me gently. It’s a feeling I didn’t think I’d needed or missed at all the other appointments I’ve had. The doctor wheels over a machine and John stands to my left as he keeps holding my hand. It’s almost as if he refused to let go now that he had a hold of it. “Alright, Matilda,” the doctor soothes, “I’m going to apply the jelly and you’re going to feel some pressure on your abdomen; nothing unusual for you, I’m sure,” he adds with a chuckle. I take a deep breath as I feel the cold wand on my belly. I could hear the beeps of the monitor and the rhythmic clicking, along with the familiar wet static. He hums and fiddles around for a moment in his chair, clicking some keys and moving again. I hear John suck in a breath and I turn my head, my heart dropping to my stomach. “What is it?” “There we are,” the doctor says, almost with a smile in his voice. “Now if I could just get a good catch of this heartbeat…ah ha!” I listen closely to the steady thump. It was louder than before, making me feel like I could almost feel it resonating through my bones. I grip John’s hands tighter as I sniff. “That’s…that’s ours.” “She…it’s so big.” He starts to laugh softly, resting his chin atop our hands. I feel his lips pressing into my knuckles. “I can definitely say everything is going just fine. It’s not abnormal for back pains to worsen the closer you are to labor, as well. Heating pads usually work with lower back. I recommend lots of rest, but try to stay active in the day. If you experience pains as intense as tonight though, I would definitely say to keep your physician on speed dial.” I nod as he speaks, but I couldn’t focus on any of it. “What does…what do you see?” I whisper to John, eager as I could only imagine the picture on the screen. “It’s beautiful, darlin’. Our baby’s safe and…is that his foot right there? He’s all curled up.” “That’s right. This right here…” I feel the doctor roll away slightly. “…Is the umbilical cord.” He chuckles, speaking in a gentle voice. “Oh, look at that. It looks just like a peanut.” I laugh before suddenly feeling the jut in my belly. It was nothing I hadn’t felt before, but it felt like a very defined, and determined signal. I press my hand against my side with wide eyes. “H..The baby just kicked.” “Oh, he’s feeling lively,” the doctor muses, the nurse giving a soft chuckle. “See? He or she’s not even affected.” I take John’s hands without a second thought and hold it to where I felt it. We wait for a moment. “I’m not feeling anything-” he mumbles, though just a second after the last word escapes his mouth, the silent kick bounces against his palm. I squeeze his hand as I wish with every bit of my being that I could see the look on his face. “He heard you,” I tell him, grinning helplessly. John exhales and rests both his hand over my stomach. “Well, we’ll let you two be alone – would you like a print out of this?” “Yes,” John responds without another moment. “Alright. Ms. Avery here will be back with the release paperwork and to take out your IV.” I raise my head. “I can go home tonight?” “Yes, ma’am. And keep a close watch on that labor countdown calendar. You’re closer than you think.” Nodding, I thank the doctor and the nurse before waiting for John to speak. But he’s completely trained on my stomach. I can’t help but laugh at his stillness, but also out of pure relief. “I can’t believe it…they’re okay.” “I told you,” he mutters and I could hear that familiar smirk. I reach out to trace it out of habit, and one of his hands quickly moves to cup it gently, resting his cheek in my palm. He breathes in deeply and I could feel a light wetness on my wrist. “I won’t let you out of my sight now,” he whispers. “I’m sorry, but I won’t.” I don’t argue with him. A few minutes later, the nurse brings me back my clothes and she removes my IV before letting me get dressed. John doesn’t insist on helping me, which I’m both surprised and appreciative of. When I step back into the room, John clears his throat. “I, uh, I kinda texted Nina earlier that I was here with you at the hospital and now she wont stop yelling at me. I told her I would keep her updated but I haven’t messaged her back.” “What did you tell her?” “That I had to rush you here because of something with the baby.” He hands me my phone as Siri reads out her string of texts to me in her robotic voice. “Ok please let me know” “John? What’s going on?” “Is she okay? Be sure to call me back” “What hospital is it?” “Why aren’t you answering” “JOHN WHAT THE HELL” “DAMMIT JOHN I SWEAR TO GOD YOU’RE THE NEXT ONE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL” I can’t help but burst out into laughter, my face surely turning red at the humor of it. I could feel her rage but through the form of my pocket mobile assistant. It even read out ‘angry face’ emoji. John chuckles. “Yeah, I think you’re gonna need to call her so she knows you’re alive.” I shake my head giggling, involuntarily leaning against him. He stays frozen for a moment, before leaning down and pressing his lips to my hair. “Let’s take you home.” ~ After a longer ride back, I felt the exhaustion of the night sink in. John had to jostle me awake, and even still he opened my door and carried me up the steps. I didn’t argue it because for one, I couldn’t bring my muscles to move, but I also couldn’t bring myself to move my face out of his chest. He places me on my feet in the living room but I stay hanging onto him. His arms were by my hips, the baby bump keeping a comfortable distance between us. “I never thought I’d be here again,” he murmurs. “In my house? Yeah, me either.” I feel his shaking his head in disagreement. “Not the place. Here.” His fingers lightly graze my arms, tracing upwards and making me shiver. “I’m going to sleep,” I whisper. I didn’t think John could bring himself to leave and I couldn’t bring myself to ask him to, so I decide that should be his open invitation to stay. “I’ll stay close,” he tells me. “To monitor and stuff.” I’m about to open my mouth when my stomach growls profoundly. I can almost feel his lips twitching under my fingertips. “Hungry?” I pat my stomach and chuckle. “Maybe I’ll just grab a snack.” “I got it,” he assures me. “You go lay down and relax.” I nod, not arguing with him this time that he tried to help me. I forgot how used to having him around I was. I think I slightly missed getting mad at him for being overly protective or running in front of me to remove a piece of clothing on the floor so I wouldn’t trip. I missed the sound of him closing all the cabinets to be sure I wouldn’t hit my head. More than that, I missed the voice message he’d send me through text when I was home just to tell me something dumb. I missed him repeatedly trying to sneak up on me to drop a blanket on me and constantly failing. Maybe we could have all that again. Maybe this was our chance to start over. With a small flutter in my stomach, I decide it’s better to have a new start than an indefinite end.

[sarahburness]

Neglecting Self Care: The Biggest Mistake I Made (And How You Can Avoid It)

Whether it’s lack of capital, economy or just a bad idea, each business has its own reasons for failing. And even though I’d agree that those reasons are common, there is another insidious reason that can cause a business to fail.

It’s neglecting self-care.

Here’s why I believe in this and how you can avoid it in your own journey.

You are your business

“You are not patient enough. Your lack of patience is killing you and your need of things is killing you.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

Whether you realize it or not, your business is an extension of you. You are your own business.

From culture to product development, your personality and decision-making have a direct impact on every aspect of your business. And that’s why my big “ah-ha” moment came when I heard that phrase.

It’s a simple phrase. But, when you really think about it, it makes a lot of sense.

How?

Well, when I first started, I was working crazy hours and always on the go. I threw all other priorities to the side and only cared about one thing – getting my business up and running.

I figured this had to be done and it’d be worth it in the long run which, to some degree, I would agree. But, in hindsight, I’ve realized how damaging this mentality was.

I was overworking myself and operating at 20%, which subsequently meant my entire business was, too.

I didn’t notice it at the time but the quality of my work was quickly declining. Slowly, I started to lose clients because of it.

So, I tried to replace those clients by marketing with blog posts.

It wasn’t a terrible idea, but here’s the problem – those blog posts didn’t make sense.

And on top of that, when I did get a potential client on the phone, I could never close the deal. To this day, I’m still not sure why but, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because I was strung out and they could tell.

But, as crazy as it sounds, I continued to operate like this for 8 months and somehow survived.

Part of me thinks it was because my original base of clients -the ones I got when I was still sane- stuck with me out of pity.

The other part of me thinks they stuck with me because they couldn’t find a better rate. I’d offered them a good discount to get up and running. In retrospect, that wasn’t the best idea.

But, fragile things can only hang on for so long and one day, it all came crashing down.

I finally snapped and after losing my cool over the dumbest thing (still embarrassed to talk about it), I finally realized that something had to change.

Immediately, I reached out to all my remaining clients and told them I’d be shutting down the business. I notified them of a referral source that was a good friend of mine and one that agreed to honor their current pricing for the next 3 months.

Now, to be completely honest, I was expecting and hoping for some condolences and expected the typical “No, Sean. It’s sad to see you go.” However, as I’m sure you can guess, that didn’t happen.

Instead, all of them replied with some form of “I think that’s a good idea. You could use some time off.”.

Yeah, that was embarrassing.

I continued on anyway. I tried to make the transition as seamless as possible and after I got the last client moved over, I began my “comeback period”.

To start, I immediately sold everything I could, moved back in with my parents and started digging into self-development books.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking for. I just knew I had to work my way out of this funk.

So, that’s what I started to do and even though this “comeback period” was only supposed to take a few weeks, it ended up taking 6 months.

And as weird as it sounds, it was the best 6 months of my life.

Not only was I able to come back fresh, but I was able to come back with a wealth of knowledge that I wish I had the first time.

I’ll explain that knowledge throughout the rest of this article. But, long story short, business is a marathon, not a sprint.

With that said, hard work is inevitable

“There is no substitute for hard work” – Thomas Edison

Okay, so now I’m going to throw you a curveball.

I know I just spent the first 5 minutes telling you how I overworked myself and ruined my first business. At the same time, however, I’m still realistic. I realized that all good things take hard work.

That’s why I’m not here to tell you that you can’t or shouldn’t work hard. I’m here to tell you that there are ways to blend the two together.

And when you do, that’s when good things start to happen.

There’s plenty of different ways to do this, but out of all the reading and things I’ve tried, I’ve learned that the best way is systems.

Now, I’m not talking about computer systems or anything like that. I’m talking about systems that allow you to absolutely bring it day in and day out.

And to give you a good idea of how you can apply this to your life, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of the exact systems I’ve used to significantly better my life.

Starting with:

Plan your day out the night before

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”- Benjamin Franklin

When I first heard this advice, I honestly thought it was crazy.

I didn’t think it’d make a world of difference if I planned my day out the night before and even if it did, I didn’t think it’d work for my business.

I was a client-facing business and new fires happened every day. There’s no way I could have my schedule set in stone the night before.

But then, I read a story about Charles Schwab.

It explained how he was frustrated at the lack of productivity of his staff and after dealing with this for a short time, he finally decided to ask for help.

He made an announcement and promised to reward the person who could increase productivity for Bethlehem Steel.

After a short search, he came across a man known as Ivy Lee. According to Schwab, Mr. Lee gave him a singular life-changing piece of advice.

That advice?

Every evening before finishing work:

Write down 3–5 things you plan to get done the next day

Rank them from highest to lowest priority

In the morning, start working on the task of highest priority

Only move on to task #2 when you’ve completed #1

Repeat

And that was it. That was the singular piece of advice that changed Charles Schwab’s life.

It was so valuable to him that he sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 (the equivalent of $297,256.23 in 2015) 3 weeks later.

So, after reading this story I decided to give it a shot and let’s just say, I’ve used it ever since.

I don’t know if I’d consider it an advice worth $297,256.23 but that’s the best part. I received it from the Productivity Planner, an investment that only cost me $25.

This planner does a lot more and really helps me keep track of all the important tasks at hand. It’s something I highly advise for any entrepreneur.

Sleep

Have you ever met somebody that likes to brag about how he never sleeps?

The type that’s usually sending Snapchats at 4 a.m. or has “you can sleep when you’re dead” tattooed on his back?

Yeah, that used to be me. Well, with the exception of a tattoo on my back.

I was always the type that bragged about how I only slept 5 hours a night. I figured that I was outworking my competition and if I just slept fewer hours, I’d get more work done.

It made sense in theory, but here’s the thing: When I was working, I wasn’t productive.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought I was at the time. But, when I compare the amount of work that I accomplished then to the amount I get now (after getting a full 8 hours), the results aren’t even close.

In other words, I finally realized that my lack of sleep and “constant hustle” was just a glorified way of torturing myself and getting nothing done.

Sounds crazy now that I think about it, but the point is sleep is the foundation of productivity.

Without it, you’ll be dragging the next day. Even though you think you’re productive, you’re not going to be as productive as somebody who’s had a good night’s sleep.

So, what’s the ideal amount of sleep then? Whatever makes you feel rested.

For me, it’s 8 hours. For others, it’s 6 and half hours.

Everybody’s wired differently and if you have the flexibility to test it, I think the easiest way to figure it out is by sleeping in without an alarm clock.

See Also: Do You Have Sleep Debt?

Always have a morning routine

“Win the morning, win the day” – Tim Ferriss

Have you ever woke up frantically and just started running around?

I’m not talking about the Saturday morning after a fun Friday either. I’m talking about a typical Tuesday.

One where you spring out of bed, run straight for the shower, scramble around to find your keys, leap out the window, run to your car and start your day.

Okay, hopefully, you’re not leaping out the window. But if you’re anything like me, then you can certainly relate.

I used to start every morning like this after hitting my snooze for 30 minutes and, surprisingly, my days were always frantic.

I was always running around trying to multitask and always felt like there wasn’t enough time in the day. Something I guess most people refer to as a “rat race”.

And then I heard about the concept of a morning routine- an organized morning routine. One that didn’t involve a frantic wake-up or me jumping out the window to start my day.

The logic of this was that if you could find a routine that turned into a productive day, then replicate that routine and make every day a productive day.

It made sense and I couldn’t find any reason not to give it a try. So, I finally mustered up the courage to ditch my current routine and find another one that’d help me start each day off right.

Now, this took a lot of testing and tweaking. But, after months of trial and error, I finally found my sweet spot. The one that’s allowed me to start every day how I want and all jokes aside, that’s actually allowed me to replicate my increased productivity every single day.

Again, everybody’s different and everybody should make tweaks to fit their own needs. But to get you started, here’s the exact routine that I use every day.

My morning routine:

Wake up without an alarm clock.

Make my bed. (We’re completionists, this gets the momentum going.)

Take the dog for a walk. (Try for an hour, but sometimes more. Usually, it depends on the podcast I’m listening to.)

Take a shower, last 30 seconds are cold. It wakes me up and has some health benefits.

Drink 2-3 cups of coffee that’s usually spiked with Laird Hamilton’s Superfood creamer.

Read for 20 minutes while drinking coffee. This can be anything, but it’s usually the Tao of Seneca.

Meditate using Headspace. It helps remove all anxiety and gets me ready to tackle the day.

Open my productivity planner and start getting things done.

And that’s it. That’s the routine that’s skyrocketed my productivity and indirectly made me thousands of dollars.

To be honest, I probably should send Tim Ferriss a $297,256.23 check as he’s the one that got me on this routine. However, I don’t quite have that much change lying around (yet), so please don’t tell him.

Use the Pomodoro technique + productivity music

Alright, so before we get into this one, I want you to imagine a coder sitting in some dark room, music blaring and just absolutely going to town on his keyboard.

He’s likely got a coffee or large soda in front of him, taking a quick sip every 30 seconds before he goes back to typing a million words a minute.

Okay, now take away the “coder” aspect of this and you get me when I’m in one of my “Pomodoros”.

So what exactly is a “Pomodoro”?

Well long story short, Pomodoro means tomato in Italian and the guy who created this technique (Francesco Cirillo) used a tomato shaped timer when he first created it. So, he named it the Pomodoro technique.

Interesting, I know…but it works.

It works because it forces you to remain 100% focused on a task for 25 straight minutes. That means no Facebook, no email, no phone, no coffee refills and no bathroom – unless absolutely needed.

It’s a concept that sounds overly simple and it really is. But, it’s also one that’s helped me get more things done in 2 hours than I used to in an entire day.

I guess I don’t have the exact scientific reasons for this, but from personal experience, it just helps me keep my eye on the prize and not stopping until it’s complete.

It’s much more effective than my traditional technique of working on something for 3 minutes, checking Instagram, seeing if I have a new email, making sure I didn’t miss James Altucher’s latest blog, and then going back to the task for another 3 minutes.

Now, this worked great and didn’t really need any improvements but then, one day, I was reading Tools of Titans (huge Tim Ferriss fan if you couldn’t tell) and I started trying out the productivity music that he listed.

I tried a few of them but the one that really got me going and one I’ve stuck with to this day is “I Choose Noise By Hybrid”.

Again, not necessary, but it amplifies the experience.

Set boundaries – Parkinson’s Law

“Busy is not productive” – Tim Ferriss

In college, it seemed like I had 2 types of teachers.

One that would give me 3 months to type a paper and one that gave me 3 days to type a paper.

I’d always praise the former and cuss the latter (behind their back, of course) but looking back now, deep down, I think I actually liked the latter more.

Not as a person of course. I’m pretty sure they gave tight deadlines to torture us, but I noticed that when I had 3 days to type a paper, I’d instantly go to town and quickly create a work of art.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t a work of art. But, hey, C’s get degrees.

Then on the flip side, when I had a teacher that’d give me 3 months to type a paper, I’d spend the first 89 days thinking about the paper and making myself a mental wreck. Then, I’d spend the last day cramming all the worthless information I could think of onto a piece of paper and pull away with a D.

Not ideal, but oh well. The occasional D still gets a degree.

This is something I chalked up to a life of procrastination. Then one day, I was reading The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (surprising, I know) and I came across the concept of Parkinson’s Law.

Tim gave a similar example of how he applied this concept to college papers and after I heard that, it really started to make sense.

If you’ve never heard of Parkinson’s Law before, it’s an old adage that “work expands as to fill the time available for its completion”. In other words, no matter what, you’ll always be rushing to hit the deadline.

Now, this might sound depressing and if you don’t do anything about it, it can be.

But. here’s the good news.

You can actually use this to your advantage. Instead of allowing yourself long deadlines that cause you to be a mental wreck, take a different approach and tighten up your deadlines.

Always work until 11 p.m.? Force yourself to stop working at 6 p.m.

Always work 7 days a week? Go crazy and start taking Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off.

The way you do it isn’t the important part. The important part is that you work less and force yourself to get more done. Kinda like the teacher that gave me 3 days to write a paper.

Ketogenic Diet

“I find I have much better drive and focus when in a state of ketosis. I have a lot more mental clarity and productivity.” – Bryan Barksdale

Have you ever had one of those mornings where everything is going great and you’re extremely productive, but then you go to lunch and want to sleep the afternoon away?

Yeah, me too. And like many others, I just thought this was normal, something I’d have to live with.

But then, I was talking to a friend and he was telling me about this new lifestyle he was trying out.

Now I’ve never heard somebody say they were trying out a lifestyle so he had my attention already. Then, he cranked it up one notch and told me it was actually a diet.

Ohhh boy, another one of these speeches. No, I will not buy your Nutrisystem.

But, we were out to lunch and I didn’t have anywhere to hide, so I continued to listen to his spiel and that’s when he started to tell me that it wasn’t really a weight loss diet. Instead, it was a diet that helped him maintain energy.

I asked him to continue and that’s when he got real excited and started babbling a bunch of fancy words.

From what I gathered, he was able to keep a steady source of energy because his body was running off ketones (energy that’s created when fat is burned) as opposed to glucose (energy that’s created when carbs are burned).

And even though he sounded slightly crazy, at the same time, he kinda made sense.

I was always a sandwich guy, which meant I was getting my fair share of carbs in over lunch. So, even though I’d never heard this logic before, I couldn’t really discount it.

Not until I tried it, at least.

So, over the next 2 weeks, I decided to look into this a little more and see exactly what I had to do. Then, a few days later, I decided to give it a shot.

I told myself that I’d give it 4 weeks and if I didn’t notice a difference after that, I was going back to my Jimmy Johns.

And to be completely honest, I was really hoping it wasn’t going to work. I really didn’t want to have to decide between my Ultimate Porker and increased energy.

Then, I finally hit ketosis (fat burning mode) and holy hell, it was worth it.

My productivity soared. I no longer had afternoon crashes. My memory improved and I was always focused.

Now that I think about it, I kinda feel like Bradley Cooper in Limitless.

(Even though I still miss my Jimmy Johns.)

That’s a wrap

Without you, your business won’t survive.

I know how easy it is to fall into the trap of constant hustle and thinking more work means better business.

But, remember, busy does not mean productive.

You’re better off taking care of yourself and focusing on the long game, not the quick win and neglecting self-care.

The post Neglecting Self Care: The Biggest Mistake I Made (And How You Can Avoid It) appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

from Dumb Little Man https://www.dumblittleman.com/neglecting-self-care/

[muddyhippy]

Night Terrors, Chapter 5: Check-ins and Check-ups

A Lily Of-Many-Names Mechanisms Story

Okay, this is my last attempt to get this posted and picked up by the mechanisms tag before I just accept defeat and scream into the void! Apologies for the multiple times I have posted this now, I’m just trying to make Tumblr do it’s job for once! This will probably get self-reblogged once as a last ditch attempt because that sometimes works to make a post of mine appear on my own dashboard! 

Summary

Lily has another nightmare filled with darkness and bad ones later than her usual night terrors torment her and when her usual source of comfort is nowhere to be found she decides to try her luck with the one person she’s pretty sure will still be up…

Featuring;  Some science officer observations, discussions of nightmares, lots of comfort, medical practice, some past Jonny whump, and some soft mechs at the end!

CW-Medical examination, blood test (very minor), needles (very brief), discussion of nightmares (ALL of these are tagged on AO3 too)

(This is also posted on AO3 but I am not including links on this post to see if tumblr will actually allow it to appear outside of my own damn blog! If you want the link there’s lots of versions on muddyhippy!)

 Check-ins and Check-ups

 There was a tentative knocking at the lab door.

 Raphaella frowned, she checked the ship’s time, 4:54 am. That was unusual. The only one who bothered to knock like that was Lily and Lily would be in bed by now and—

 Ah.

 Raphaella moved in a fluid motion, rising from her workbench and opened the door to be greeted by a slightly soggy Lily, the tear tracks and snotty nose was evidence of what had happened, clutching a fuzzy lump of something.

 “Jonny not in his room?”

 Lily shook her head, “M’sorry.”

 Raph sighed. It wasn’t a great inconvenience, she was hardly interrupting a breakthrough, she’d just lost track of time documenting one of her less hazardous bio-concoctions. Without a word she scooped Lily and her fuzzy thing up and carried her back to the bench. Lily immediately cuddled in close to her, Gemini tucked against her chest, breathing in the science officer’s familiar scent of chemicals, leather and a hint of flowers from her long golden hair. Lily loved Raphaella’s hair, it was so beautiful and silky. She loved being allowed to play with it, threading her little fingers through the fine strands and trying to plait them carefully.

 “You want to tell me what it was about?” prompted Raph.

“It was silly.” Lily thought the science officer was so clever and busy with all he experiments she felt shy and small and silly admitting what was wrong, she was a big girl and she should be able to handle one little nightmare. Even if it had really scared her. Lily hadn’t wanted to bother her, Raphaella was always kind when she did her checks on her but that was always at the same time, they were planned. So were all her fun science lessons. This was definitely interrupting and interrupting was rude.

 Raphaella sighed, disappointed at Lily’s conclusion, “If it upset you then by definition it is not silly. Just because dreams are caused by synapse transfer and your brain’s interpretation of events does not mean that the outcome can be deemed ridiculous if it has an impact on you.”

 “Oh.” Lily wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but it sounded like she didn’t think Lily was silly after all.

 “Quite.”

 “I dreamt the Aurora was all dark and cold and I could hear banging like a big, angry someone was trying to get in.” Lily explained quietly.

 “I see.” Raphaella frowned.

 Lily quailed a little, misinterpreting her expression and began to hide her face, “I said it was silly.”

 The science officer sighed, realising what Lily thought she’d meant, “And what did I say?”

 “Sorry.” The child cast her eyes down as she mumbled.

 Very gently Raphaella caught Lily’s chin and pulled her face up to meet her, “No, don’t be sorry. This is a perfectly rational thing to dream Lily. You’ve been very brave and you continue to be brave. My research indicates that nightmares are a way of processing something very frightening and unpleasant that as happened to you. What happened to you was not silly so your way of processing it is also not silly.”

 It had actually be a good excuse to research nightmares in general since she knew full well the whole crew got them, regardless of age. Her own ones were manageable if unpleasant, determined to remind her of things she’d much rather forget.

 Lily’s lower lip wobbled dangerously.

 Raphaella sighed and for once decided to take a leaf out of Jonny’s book.

 Logical rational explanations could wait until she was little older. And she knew Lily responded extremely well physical comfort, she’d seen evidence of that be beyond that farthest doubt.

 “Come here little proton, it’s alright.” Raphaella wrapped both her arms and wings about the upset child and began rocking her like she’d seen Jonny do. It seemed to work after all and if observed action had been proved to yield positive results then who was she to argue with empirical evidence?  

 “It’s alright. You’re safe. Aurora is never truly dark, Nastya, Jonny, Tim and Brian don’t really like the dark either so she makes sure it’s always bright enough. And no one can get into Aurora without our say so. Aurora wouldn’t let them in anyway.”

 “An’ you’d shoot them if they did.” Came a convinced voice.

 “We certainly would. Or do something more interesting but we’d make sure they never got to you.”

 “Promise?”

 Raphaella was not in the habit of keeping promises, they were ephemeral and inconsequential unless you could use them to get what you wanted but this one felt important.

 “On my honour as a scientist.”

 Lily’s eyes widened at the words, that was very important. Raphaella was the best scientist there was and science was very, very precious to her. So she very much meant it.

 “Thank you.” Lily snuggled closer

Raphaella sighed once more, not really put out, she began to card her fingers gently through Lily’s silvery hair. It had been more pleasant than she’d been expecting to show Lily an exact comparison for her hair colour in the natural world, sunshine reflected off the surface of the lake. She rather thought the explanation of how light travelled and refracted might have gone a bit over her head but Lily had been an enthusiastic listener all the same which was better than her crewmates most of the time. She had been thrilled at being compared to sunshine too.

 Lily tentatively inched her fingers towards Raphaella’s cascading tresses, seeking the comfort they represented, Raphaella was kind and she was safe, she looked after her using her science. Lily loved sitting on the science officers’ lap, it made her feel important and special when Raphaella spoke science to her, (like when the others told her about things they loved too) even if she didn’t always understand it, she especially loved it when she let her play with her hair. Lily wanted to grow hers just as long.

 The science officer gave Lily her warmest smile, the one she had cultivated especially for the child. “Go on little proton, I don’t mind.”

 Lily gave her a smile filled with wonder that quickly turned into one of happy, soothed exhaustion. Two hands, one large, one small, each carefully combing fingers through soft hair, both knowing a singular form of peace.

 It took precisely two minutes and thirty seven seconds for Lily to fall asleep under the science officer’s ministrations. Lily had never fallen asleep on Raphaella before, she wasn’t normally the lulling type, leaving it to the others when the occasion arose but this was immensely satisfying, she could now see why Jonny never really complained about holding her till she slept.

 She was glad this interaction was being recorded too, it would be useful to refer back to when comparing different calming methods they all used to see which was the most effective. She had a suspicion that despite all their research, Jonny’s instinctive cuddle and rocking combination from the first night was probably the more sure-fire way to settle Lily. Not that she’s tell him of course. He didn’t need to know just what a comparably good job he was doing. The thing Lily had been clutching was likely to be a Jonny concoction too, the man was deceptively good at needlecraft, he’d mended enough of the crew’s clothes over the years when sufficiently bribed with whiskey, he’d even fixed the Toy Solider’s uniform when it got torn badly enough, complaining that he’d done so only because he couldn’t stand it moping around lamenting the damage.

 He’d even carefully embroidered eyes on the thing Lily held which seemed to be some sort of geological shape. She could admit whilst in her own company only that the craftsmanship on it was rather remarkable. He’d obviously gone to some effort to make her something with crystalline accuracy in some sort of fuzzy fabric and given how tightly Lily had been holding it but she’d never seen it in the mess at meal times nor had it accompanied the child to her check-up sessions, it was her comfort-at-night object. That, that was surprisingly thoughtful of him. She smiled quietly to herself.

 He definitely didn’t need to know what a good job he was doing.

 Maybe a hint.

 He also didn’t need to know the general positives these interactions were having on the pair of them and by extension, the rest of the crew. They would all work it out eventually and if she said anything too soon the idea would be dismissed out of hand, no, it was much better to be able to make unobtrusive observations and predictions unhindered.

 Lily was beginning to grow at a healthy rate, she wasn’t back up to where she should be yet but after three months she was now making steady progress. At her last weekly check-up Lily was now projected to be back on track to reach where she should be for a healthy eight year old in the next three months. They’d successfully reversed the physical damage done to her by the three weeks of acute malnutrition but the longer effects of a lifetime of not having quite enough would take longer to mend.

 Still, it felt, well, nice to see her improving.

 The first time she’d insisted on a proper check had been only few days after Lily had joined them. She’d asked Jonny to bring her to lab so she could get a real idea of what they were working with for Lily, exact height and weight, not to mention resting heart rate, lung capacity, bone density and a blood test to make sure everything was functioning as it should be. Lily was human so there were some basics that could be taken for granted but Raphaella wanted a solid starting point for knowing how best to reverse the damage of long term malnutrition.

 She’d argued with Jonny about it for 47 minutes before he finally saw sense and agreed to bring her along. His hang ups over poor medical practice were one thing and even understandable but not to the point that it impeded Lily’s recovery.

 He’d grudgingly agreed, especially when the others added their voices in assent and Raphaella assured him that she’d keep to the bare minimum of procedures to assess Lily.

 Marius had argued that it was so they could help her not hurt her. Given how delicate the matter was nobody teased Marius that surely it should be him leading the investigation if he was, in fact, a doctor. As it was, they all recognised that Raphaella’s dedication to the scientific approach would probably yield better results long term.  Marius and Brian advised on what she should be looking for specifically all the same.

 It was Nastya who’d finally swung him into accepting the proposal. She pointed out that if they didn’t check her properly when they could have and it turned out that they’d ensured the damage done by her ship management was permanent then that made them no better than the idiots that had led her mission. A grim accolade no one wanted to earn, the more Lily talked about life on her ship the more everyone was convinced it was mission led by utter idiots doomed to failure.

 She added quietly that they weren’t like their creator, that Carmilla would only be interested in tests to see how she could exploit Lily. They needed to conduct tests to work out exactly how to help Lily properly and make sure she stayed healthy and happy.

 Jonny couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could. But he wouldn’t, Lily being safe and well and as healthy as she could be was too important. Kid was a bag of bones, a mortal bag of bones at that and he should know, she still spent half her time attached to him and he was honestly worried by how light she was. He had very vague memories of being young except for a few key things but if he really thought about it he was sure at eight he’d been taller and broader. That wasn’t a bullshit boy vs girl nonsense thing either, he was sure he’d been taller and heavier at her age and that was with his family set up. Something was wrong. Raphaella was right, they did need to check.

 He didn’t have to like it though.

 Raphaella wasn’t sure which of the two were the more nervous coming in to the Lab.

 She made it more into a game in an attempt to settle them both, it wouldn’t do for their nerves to set up a negative feedback loop.  She got them both to play catch with one of her more robust recorders so she could check hand to eye coordination and reflexes. She challenged Lily to scrunch up as small as she could then stand on her tip toes and then stand as straight and flat-footed as she could on her weighing scales.

 Raphaella had Jonny pick her up and hold her as though they were posing for photo whilst she deployed the scanner for Lily’s bone density, explaining that she wanted close ups of her smiling face. It covered her dental development too.

 Checking her ears and throat had been relatively easy, getting silly to pull as ridiculous faces as she could whilst trying to sing ‘Old King Cole’ worked on her throat and the otoscope was hardly invasive.

 Jonny had managed to keep things light enough asking if Raphaella had found some of Ashes’ missing gold down there. Lily had been indignant and Raphaella had played along, pleased he was trying to make things easier.

 The blood test was unsurprisingly a little harder of a sell.

 Lily went rigid with fear when she saw the needle.

 Hmm. Understandable but not helpful, it was one of her smallest ones as well.

 Jonny cleared his throat, his own spine stiffening and also not taking his eyes off the syringe. “Why don’t we have a go with the stethoscope first?”

 That was a surprising suggestion coming from him. Raphaella had been planning to brace herself and try to use that as a wind down but maybe there needed to be buffer. She decided to put it to Lily to decide.

 “Lily, I’m not going to hurt you. I need to take a little bit of your blood to check everything is working as it should be inside you. Your blood can tell me all sorts of important things that you yourself won’t be able to tell me.”

 Lily still looked scared. Raphaella found it wasn’t an expression she liked to see on so young a face. Raphaella had no problem being seen as intimidating or even down right terrifying by those who crossed her path or got in her way. That was half the fun, but on Lily? No, she didn’t like being the cause of that fear one bit. The test was still needed though.

 “But you’ve got a choice,” she continued in the tone she’d already modulated especially for the child, no-nonsense but gentle, firm but soft enough to put her at ease most of the time. “I can take this sample now then use the stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs or I can listen first and then take the blood sample but either way I need to take it.”

 The child had tried to melt into Jonny, clinging to him, fingers burying in fabric and belts.

 Raphaella tried not to notice that the comforting hand that was running up and down her back was trembling.

 Lily turned to face Jonny. “What do you think?”

 Jonny tore his gaze from the poised syringe and did his best to look relaxed and nonchalant despite the fact his heartrate had audibly trebled, “I think it’s always better to get the thing that scares you done first. Raph’s right though, she’s only doing it because she wants to make sure you’re okay inside and out. It won’t hurt, it’s more like getting a sharp pinch on your skin for a second and then it’s done.”

 He didn’t mention that it was fine when blood was being taken from you rather than a bunch of different poisons being injected into you over and over again to see how quickly each one affected you and how quickly you came back. How each one burned and cramped and ripped through every single system until he was desperate for death. He was the first after all. Carmilla had to make sure her new creation was full-proof and indestructible. That he could come back from anything.

 “How do you know?”

 Jonny smiled ruefully, “I’ve had a lot of injections over the years, given lots of samples too. It doesn’t hurt.” ‘It’s what comes after’ remained unsaid.

 “Oh.” Lily clearly thought about it, weighing up the pros and cons. She eyed the stethoscope on the science officer’s workbench. She knew how that worked at least. There was something right next to her that might make her feel braver. “If Raphaella takes a sample can, can I listen to your heart while she does it?”

 Jonny was halfway to opening his mouth to say ‘no’ on sheer reflex when Lily added in a small voice, “I don’t want to watch. I don’t like blood. It goes bad and gloopy and changes colour too quickly. And it smells horrible.”

 Well fuck. He could hardly say no to that.

 “You won’t be able to smell it Lily, it’ll be in the syringe.” Raphaella tried to distract, she was well aware of Jonny’s dislike of anything to do with exam practice. She was actually impressed he’d not just dumped Lily on her and run, that he’d taken part so far. He had more courage than she gave him credit for, that or a greater sense of guardianship than she’d expected. Either way, he was making her job much easier and she appreciated it.  

 Raphaella had tried to get a better understanding of his Mechanism not long after she’d joined the crew, intrigued by the ticking of his chest. She’d come at him with a stethoscope and woken up in the wreckage of her workbench recovering from 6 gunshot wounds.

 She hadn’t pursued that line of research further.

 “Still don’t like it.” Lily half spoke into Jonny’s chest and half to the science officer.

 “That’s fair enough.” Conceded Raphaella

 Lily’s eyes were doing the thing again. The thing where they took up half her face, she gazed imploringly up at him. “Please?”

 Fuck. He really had to immunise himself against that. Later. Now though?

 He swallowed. “Sure.”

 Raphaella raised an eyebrow, fully prepared to snatch Lily out of his arms and rocket skywards if he looked like he was going to detonate like he did last time.

 Jonny gave her tiniest nod.

 This was Lily. He shook himself internally. It was Lily. Lily couldn’t hurt him if she tried. Okay, well she could but she wasn’t armed right now and she liked his ticking. He forced himself to watch her, to brace for the touch of the disc. He’d be ready, he’d know. If he closed his eyes there was no guarantee he’d be able to hold it together for her. This was Lily reaching to him for comfort, he reminded himself firmly. She needed him to distract her from something frightening but necessary. Lily wasn’t going to sigh and tut and then open him up.

 He wasn’t strapped to a table.

 He forced himself to breathe as calmly as he could, the way Ivy had shown him from one of her books when he’d taken refuge once in the earliest incarnation of the library.

 He was fine, he was holding Lily. He was free to move. He was holding Lily and being reassuring because needles were frightening. He was proving it was fine. It was fine.

 The disc made contact.

 It took everything in him not to bolt.

 “Jonny, your ticking is very fast.” A little voice piped up matter-of-factly.

 Before he got a chance to answer Lily had already drawn her own conclusions.

 “I know I’m not a proper doctor like Raphaella but I won’t hurt you. See?” She took the disc off then pressed it even more gently against him, then rested her head on him too, trying to be reassuring.

 Fucking Hell. That she thought she could hurt him? Like this? At all? But the pressure helped. Carmilla had never been gentle with his chest. She’d never been gentle full stop.

 Lily was.

 This was Lily and it was fine. He held her a little tighter. “I like this,” she spoke quietly, as if she was speaking directly to his heart but then again, when wasn’t she? “I can hear your ticking all around. It’s going slower now.”

 It took two tries to speak.

 “T-That’s because you’re doing a good job.” Raphaella was watching him like a hawk, despite the fact he’d drained of colour and there was a noticeable (to her experienced eye at least) tremor running through him he was still sat still and solid for Lily, making no sign that he was about to flip her workbench.

 “I am?”

 “Of course.” He managed the ghost of his usual grin, “I don’t let just anyone listen to me.” If only she knew how true that was.

 Lily beamed at him, utterly delighted. Just as Raphaella took her moment.

 Jonny was aware enough of the situation to catch Lily’s face as she turned to see the source of the sudden pinch, directing her back to look at him, the surprised ‘Eeep!’ already escaping her lips. “Keep looking this way Lemondrop, it’s alright. Keep listening to the ticking.”

 Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

 “It’s alright,” he ran his fingers through her hair, hating that she was upset, hating that they were doing this. He’d always sworn he’d have nothing to do with anything like this but here he was. A necessary evil. “It’s alright, she’ll be done soon. You’re being very brave.” He didn’t dare rock her and risk jostling the needle so he hummed instead.

 She clung to him with her other hand, with a muffled whimper but did as he asked. It didn’t hurt, not really but the idea of something being stuck in her was an idea she didn’t like. Still, Jonny had her and she could hear his ticking loud and clear and he said she was being brave so that was good. She could hear him humming Rose Red as well and she couldn’t help but relax, Jonny had her, she could hear his ticks and the humming and she could smell his spicesmokewhiskey.

 It was okay.

 She was safe.

 They were looking after her because she was part of the crew, they cared about her. It was alright.

 All at once there was the feel of something going away and something pressing on her arm.

 “There we go, all done, good girl, you’ve been very brave.” Raphaella finished taping the small cotton gauze to her arm covering the tiny pinprick of blood.

 Lily took a moment to take in the sight of her arm and then the science officer, Raphaella had been right, it hadn’t hurt. It had been scary because she wasn’t sure what it would be like and she was scared it would hurt because they were bigger and stronger and braver than her and that they said it wouldn’t hurt because it wouldn’t hurt them when they had to have needles in them but actually, it had been a bit of a shock but it hadn’t hurt at all and Jonny had made her feel safe all the way through and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or let anything else hurt her anyway.

 She gave a sunny smile to Raphaella.

 “It didn’t hurt!”

 Despite herself, Raphaella was rather pleased, she allowed a knowing grin to bloom across her face, rather than the haughty scoff that she saved for the others, “I did say.”

 “You did!” Lily beamed wider.

 “Well I’m glad I was proved correct. Are you ready for me to take a turn listening to you?”

 “Yes.”

 “Good, I just need a listen to your chest and then we’re all done. Can I have the stethoscope back?”

 Lily carefully removed the buds from her ears and hand the piece of equipment back, she missed hearing Jonny’s ticking quite so loudly. She leaned against him instead.

 Raphaella decided not to comment on the sudden drop in tension from Jonny the second the disc was taken away from his chest.

 With gentle efficiency she had the device in her own ears.

 “Can you sit up straight for a moment please?” Lily did so, “then take some nice deep breaths for me.”

 Lily did the best she could.

 After a few minutes Raphaella sat back, satisfied.

 Her initial suspicions were well founded, Lily was almost chronically underweight and under-height but that could be fixed with care. Her lungs and heart seemed strong through and her reflexes as well as hand to eye coordination were sharp and focused, ears and throat were clear of infection too and that was the most common source of ailments for human children according to her research. Lily was a fighter and, pending the results of the blood tests had no reason not to make a full recovery. That was pleasing and definitely worth the few uncomfortable moments.

 She gave Jonny a short nod over Lily’s head.

 The relief in his face was something Raphaella was going to remember for long time to come. She might find him deeply irritating most of the time but he’d certainly proved himself when it counted. He was many things but could not be accused of being a selfish bastard. At least, not right now.

 “Alright then, all done here. I think you’ve earned something nice.”

 “Really?” Lily perked up even more.

 “Oh yes.”

 “What?”

 “I happen to know Brian’s been busy in the kitchen with Marius.” She happened to know exactly because they’d planned it earlier, it was only fair for Lily to get some sort of recompense for having to go through something unpleasant. It was something they all wished they had had when they were young (not to mention everything that had happened since they were young).

 The excited squeal that erupted was something that warmed both of the adults in the room and would certainly not get passed on to the chocolate cake bakers. It wouldn’t do to give them ideas after all.

 Not for the first time they found themselves hand in hand with Lily, swinging the excited child all the way to the mess.

 Raphaella came back to the present and smiled as she held the currently comforted and sleeping Lily, the child had got far more used to the weekly check-ups following the first one, it helped that her blood came back fine and healthy, no underlying issues to be concerned about so no more blood tests were needed.

 She still liked to listen to Jonny’s heart with the stethoscope during the check-ups.

 Jonny still endured it for her sake.

 Raphaella thought that over the weeks he’d looked a little more relaxed each time.

 The check-ups proved what they were seeing in real time. Lily was mending. She was putting on healthy weight and starting to grow, her skin was starting to have a glow to it again. It felt nice to have used her research and scientific approach for unquestionable good for once. She’d shared her findings with them all. The rest were pleased too. They’d made a comprehensive list of supplies with Ivy and Raph’s information that Ashes organised and sourced. Marius and Brian eagerly added more recipes to the collection and the others made a point of each eating vaguely healthy snacks every so often so as to not make Lily feel like she was the odd one out. Regular mealtimes helped too.

 It was satisfying to see that improvement over time, Lily was proving to be a fascinating research study that Raphaella was very much invested in. It was also immensely satisfying that the rest of the crew was just as invested her topic of study for once. Seeing Lily grow and heal and improve was something that was having a positive effect on the rest of the crew, she’d noticed (and made notes of course) that the crew interacted more frequently and more positively usually when Lily was present but sometimes even without her there. These developments were, pleasing, to put it into layman terms. Though Raphaella wasn’t entirely sure why. It would take further investigation of course but she did have eyes, the positive interactions were slowly improving the general well-being in the crew, communal mealtimes and friendlier banter seemed to be improving moods across the board.

 Most notably of course was Jonny.

 His general comportment had softened a little, his violent outbursts reduced and he definitely looked like he was sleeping more regularly. Raphaella estimated his alcohol consumption had dropped by a least a bottle a night which was rather impressive, it wasn’t like the alcohol did anything long term since all their mechanisms prevented permanent internal damage, especially when one was killed far too frequently to even consider organ failure due to extensive alcohol poisoning. But still, it was nice to see him looking more, centred, for lack of a better word.

 Heavy boots made their appearance on the peripheries of her hearing.

 Think of the devil…

 Raphaella took a moment to soak up the situation, Lily had fallen asleep against her peacefully and easily as if she were her mother. It was a completely new experience but not an unpleasant one it turned out. Raphaella had enjoyed introducing the scientific process to Lily over the past three months, teaching her the basic principles of chemistry and physics and now botany since she’d set up the hydroponics lab with Nastya and Ivy. That had been a fun collaboration and all three enjoyed Lily’s delight at each seed sprouted and new leaf grown.

 She’d added a whole new strand of research to her study too, the poisons and toxins of plants were fascinating and she was eager to put those to good use when the next opportunity arrived. There was always opportunity for hybridisation too. Excellent.

 The heavy boots stopped right outside the lab door followed by an uncharacteristically gentle knock.

 “Come in Jonny.”

 The first mate entered looking annoyed at the presumption that quickly melted into relief when he saw a sleeping Lily in her arms.

 The science officer gave him an appraising look. Despite the obvious panic at not knowing where Lily was Jonny still looked calmer and better rested than he had for centuries. Raphaella found she liked that look on him, he seemed far more settled, music rehearsals with everyone had become a lot more productive too, always a bonus.

 She still found it funny he refused to use his ship communicator to ask the group chat where Lily was on an evening she had a late nightmare-startled wander, clearly too proud to admit he’d lost her. It wasn’t as if she could get into any real danger any more. Both the Octokittens and Stowaways knew not to touch her and Aurora wouldn’t let her get lost anywhere too dangerous. Then again, the day he did they knew it would be a serious one.

 As it was the first mate was only looking marginally stressed and panicked, a whole lot better than she’d seen him look.

 Jonny took in the sight of Raphaella as he entered the lab. From the lights behind her and a sleeping Lily in her arms the science officer resembled an angel that he’d seen statues of on multiple worlds, beautiful and terrible, just as he remembered the preacher talking about on Sundays when he was small. He’d seen what Raph could do to somewhere or someone that irked her and he’d come to believe all those stories.

 Still, the look she was giving Lily as he walked in was something else, it was a face he knew she saved just for Lily, that slight softness, a pride in her eyes and smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

 Jonny knew Raphaella was incredibly pleased by the progress Lily had made both physically and with all the science lessons she’d been teaching, Lily had talked his ear off about all the things she’d made by experimenting. The physical checks were good too, in their way. Much as he hated them. If he really had to admit it, the checks were worth it, it was good to know Lily was on the right track at least, that they weren’t making a mess of her, at least not physically.

 “Thought she might be here.” Came his way of explanation,

 “Well congratulations.”

 “She been here long?”

 “Only half an hour or so.”

 “Good.” He stayed curt, not wanting to give her room to rinse him more than he was expecting, Raphaella had a way with words that could cut like one of her scalpels if he wasn’t careful, most of the time it didn’t bother him but if it was about Lily and how he handled her, it tended to cut to the core of him, much to his annoyance.

 “How did you lose her this time?”

 “I didn’t lose her!” he snapped, “She just got up when I wasn’t around. I do check the times on things you know, she’s usually up at 11, 1 and 3 so much that you can set a metronome by her. It’s not my fault she just got up out of sequence!”

 “And you weren’t in your room because?” pressed Raphaella, not giving an inch.

 “Because I wasn’t!”

 “Jonny,” Began the science officer in a deceptively gentle voice, “I could wake her up and make Lily ask you with her big blue accusing eyes.”

 The first mate looked furious he was about to say ‘you wouldn’t dare’ but Raph absolutely would to prove a point and he really didn’t want to risk having to admit the truth to Lily, he found it incredibly hard to lie to her properly after all.

 “Fine, Lily mentioned a birthday coming up some months from now and I am making something for that. Away from my room. Lost track of time. That’s it.” He ground out.

 “A secret something I take it?” Raphaella teased, amused to have caught him in such an obvious lie, Jonny on the whole was usually quite good at lying. He managed it effortlessly on stage after all. And he was damned good poker player.

 “You won’t find it.”

 “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the bits of clothing several of us have missed over the last few weeks would it?”

 Jonny’s ears began to turn red.

 “No.”

 ‘Aha.’ Thought Raphaella. But she was intrigued enough to let it stand, it was honestly rather refreshing to have Jonny do something vaguely productive outside of his musical and lyrical talents, repair work not-withstanding. There were only so many theoretical studies of chronic alcohol abuse and sleep deprivation she could observe before it got tiresome. This proved to be far more interesting.

 “Alright then, well I await to see the results with bated breath.”

 “Fuck off Raph.”

 “I could just wake her.”

 “I could just shoot you.”

 “You know you won’t.”

 The impotent rage on Jonny’s face was amusing to witness.

 “Fine, but I fill find a way to make you suffer.”

 “I look forward to it.”

 He matched her feral grin, feeling like he’d at least gained somewhat of an upper hand he moved on to the more important issue, Lily hadn’t been out of her bed unexpectedly for the last month, not since she found Brian during the poker game.  

 “What was it about this time?”

 “Doors being rattled and banged on by enemies in the dark.”

 “Oh, standard then. Good.”

 “Standard? I thought they were all like this one?” This was interesting, there were others? Raphaella got halfway through that thought and froze.

 Uh, Jonny realised he’d not actually shared a lot of detail of Lily’s nightmares, he passed on the basics to everyone at Tim’s insistence after she’d climbed in with him, demanding to know at least what they might have to deal with if the crew was now fair game to ask comfort from. The others had backed him up, the bastards, and he’d been forced to share a bit. He didn’t really want to, nightmares were private things after all and it wasn’t fair for him to share stuff that bothered someone else but as it had been pointed out, Lily was a child whom they all cared about, whom they were all guardians for and thus they all needed to know likely sources of upset and triggers to avoid when they spent time together, either during the day or if they happened to be the ones to comfort her at night.

 He’d relented, wanting to make sure she always had some solid options for comfort. He knew in excruciating detail how unpleasant it could be to suffer that sort of fear and misery on your own. Until you learned to ignore and bury it that is.

 So the others knew the basics at least, it was always the threat of attack, rattling and banging and bellowing in the dark unsurprisingly. He tended to keep the extra details to himself though, he knew how desperately Lily wanted to be seen as a ‘big girl’ by the crew. Even though there was nothing she could say or do that would actually make them think she was somehow less. Kid had endured enough and was still pretty functional, that was one hell of an achievement already. And she was stil mortal.

 Sometimes her nightmares was flavoured with gunfire (though not Tim’s apparently, that sounded different according to Lily, Jonny had no idea how the hell gunfire could sound ‘friendly’ but supposedly Tim’s did-children clearly had a higher nuance of sound perception-it made music lessons all the more interesting that was for sure), sometimes it was visions of what was left of her crew, her parents dying and on one particularly horrendous night images of her parents demanding to know why she hadn’t saved them. He had mentioned that one to Marius and then the rest of the crew since it had taken the singing of the entirety of ‘Alice’ to lull her back to sleep bookended with ‘Rose Red.’

 The one about her being left behind that she told to Brian was concerning, that one he had talked to the others about straight away, worried that taking her to a planet had, in fact, been a bad move. Given that that was as near as an admission to the idea he’d been wrong about wanting to take her planetside actually had them all discussing it properly with only minimal jeering. It ended up being pointed out that since it was such a new experience, even though it had been very positive, Lily’s subconscious was so traumatised it wasn’t surprising it had sparked off a different set of nightmares.

 It had assuaged the guilt a little at least. He was glad she clearly had really enjoyed the visit.

 “Jonny?”

 He realised he’d been staring into the middle distance and not actually talking. Shit.

 He refocused on her. A look crossed Raphaella’s face that he’d seen maybe once or twice before in all the years he’d known her. A hint of worry.

 “Does, does she have nightmares about what we, what I,” she corrected, “do here?”

 That question knocked him sideways, his initial instinctive bastard response died on his lips. This was Raphaella actually asking him, Jonny, for reassurance, reassurance that what she was doing wasn’t physcologically damaging their charge. He’d never seen the science officer look unsure before. Jonny realised he had a choice, he could lie and tell her that yes, the check-ups upset Lily and he’d had to calm her down from a lot of nightmares inspired by Raph’s actions or, or he could be honest.

 He thought about how genuinely devastated he’d be if one of the others told him that the reason Lily had come to them wasn’t because she couldn’t find him but that she was scared of him, that she’d had a nightmare about him because of something he’d done. He felt his guts twist. No, he couldn’t do that to Raphaella, he could murder her happily along with the rest of the crew whenever Lily wasn’t about and he’d been suitably bored or antagonised but lying about this?

 He couldn’t do it.

 If he stopped to think about it, there were quite a few things he couldn’t do now. All involved Lily, he couldn’t lie to the others about her, they were all in this together, more so than anything they’d been bound by previously. Jonny knew he was the primary source of Lily information but he actually respected that fact and that he should share as much as was reasonable to make sure it was as easy for the others to comfort and look after her as possible. This communal guardianship parenting thing they’d fallen into was working but it needed proper communication much as it felt like pulling teeth sometimes. It was needed so he did it. So they all did it.

 He fixed Raphaella with as sincere look as he could manage.

 “No Raph, she’s never had a nightmare about you or the check-ups, I think she’d settled into them, always asks me stuff about what you do in the lab so I reckon you’re fine.”

 Raphaella tried and failed not to look relieved.

 “Oh, well, thank you that’s, that’s preferable.”

 Yeah, it is. Her ship’s done enough of a number on her, she’s been here long enough now to know, I think, that we’re not trying to fuck her up.

 That seems like a reasonable conclusion. She’s not been put off by what she sees on a daily basis, between Tim’s shooting practice, TS’s stories and my science if that’s not affected her negatively then, for the moment we may remain in grace period.

 “What do we do when that ends?”

 “We’ll have to slowly introduce more regular elements of life on board to get her more used to things, little by little, it seems to be working so far.”

 Jonny considered, Raph did have a point, last week something had exploded and whilst Lily had gone stock-still and the colour drained out of her face she hadn’t cried or outwardly panicked, instead asked Jonny very quietly if they could find out what happened, because ‘it was probably Tim trying his new canon that he had been showing her through the building process but could they go and check please just to make sure?’

 So they had and it was. Jonny was feeling pretty fucking murderous but Tim had ignored him and got there first, explaining when they arrived exactly what he’d been upto, that he was sorry it went off without her there to see but the trigger had been too sensitive. He’d shown Lily the system and rig so that she understood the weapon and where the sound had come from, feeling much happier that she knew this was something to protect them and not a sign that they were under attack.

 Jonny had planned an elaborate murder for Tim and braced himself for an onslaught of nightmares that never came. Well they did but it was just the usual, banging on the doors in the dark one nothing to do with Tim or his explosions. He’d been waiting a full eight days and nothing. He was beginning to suspect Tim’s approach of including Lily in the construct of the weapon really had been a big help. Clever bastard.

 “Yeah, that’s, that’s probably as good a plan as we’ve got.”

 Raphaella considered, Jonny didn’t have to have been kind a moment ago. But he was. She’d almost entirely forgotten what it was like to be concerned about the long-term effects of her science and she hadn’t liked the feeling whatsoever. He could have made it worse and didn’t. That certainly counted for something and definitely towards her working theory about him and his own developmental track.

 “It’s probably better than what she would have in any other circumstance or with anyone else who might have rescued her. We’re all doing well with her, physically and mentally, we’re all in this together and it’s working, I can see it in my results and charts as clearly as I see it on her, against more odds than I think even Ivy would be comfortable calculating we’re improving her, as a crew, she’s healing and mending, and,” she considered her words, “you’re both the catalyst and accelerator in this compound of all of us, with all the variables.”

 Jonny began to open his mouth.

 “You’re good for her, my research indicates it.” Elaborated Raphaella stiffly. Being kind and gentle with Lily was far easier than she expected it to be, transversely being articulately kind to her crewmates was decidedly harder, she’d had very little practice and took refuge in her scientific terms, they always flowed more easily.

 Jonny’s eyes widened at the implication of what she was saying. That it was her saying it.

 Still, with him, sometimes actions spoke louder than words.

 Very carefully she handed over Lily to him, fuzzy rock thing and all, taking care to catch Jonny’s hand in the process and squeeze it for the briefest of moments.

 She was deeply surprised to receive a returning squeeze, equally as brief.

 She tried to read his face, a myriad of expressions flitted over him, shock, confusion, wariness, pride and elation before settling back to his default of ‘cocky bastard smirk’

 He held Lily close a moment then allowed a softer, sincere expression to linger in his eyes, “Thanks Raph, s’what the crew’s for, everyone’s got a job with this one.”

 He sobered and shifted, face returning to its usual look, his regular swagger sliding into his stance, “See you at breakfast.” He threw out his familiar feral grin without the need or will to add a snarky comment and sauntered out with a Lily tucked up against his chest who was at least half an inch taller and several pounds heavier than when she arrived.

 They were working as a crew and it was mending Lily.

 Not for the first time Raphaella considered the pair as they left her lab, a fond smile spreading across her face. The unlikeliness of this scenario had already cost Ivy one full notebook but the science officer could honestly conclude that she was deeply satisfied by this anomaly and looked forward to the further variables it generated.

 Otherwise, what even was the point?

 Smile still on her face she settled down to update her research log on the day’s nocturnal events. Her file was getting decidedly long.

 Raphaella found that only pleased her more.

[muddyhippy]

Night Terrors, Chapter 5: Check-ins and Check-ups

A Lily Of-Many-Names Mechanisms Story

(reposting because Tumblr refused to have this pop up in the mechanisms tag before!)

Summary

Lily has another nightmare filled with darkness and bad ones later than her usual night terrors torment her and when her usual source of comfort is nowhere to be found she decides to try her luck with the one person she’s pretty sure will still be up…

Featuring;  Some science officer observations, discussions of nightmares, lots of comfort, medical practice, some past Jonny whump, and some soft mechs at the end!

On AO3 here

Check-ins and Check-ups

 There was a tentative knocking at the lab door.

Raphaella frowned, she checked the ship’s time, 4:54 am. That was unusual. The only one who bothered to knock like that was Lily and Lily would be in bed by now and—

Ah.

Raphaella moved in a fluid motion, rising from her workbench and opened the door to be greeted by a slightly soggy Lily, the tear tracks and snotty nose was evidence of what had happened, clutching a fuzzy lump of something.

“Jonny not in his room?”

Lily shook her head, “M’sorry.”

Raph sighed. It wasn’t a great inconvenience, she was hardly interrupting a breakthrough, she’d just lost track of time documenting one of her less hazardous bio-concoctions. Without a word she scooped Lily and her fuzzy thing up and carried her back to the bench. Lily immediately cuddled in close to her, Gemini tucked against her chest, breathing in the science officer’s familiar scent of chemicals, leather and a hint of flowers from her long golden hair. Lily loved Raphaella’s hair, it was so beautiful and silky. She loved being allowed to play with it, threading her little fingers through the fine strands and trying to plait them carefully.

“You want to tell me what it was about?” prompted Raphaella.

“It was silly.” Lily thought the science officer was so clever and busy with all he experiments she felt shy and small and silly admitting what was wrong, she was a big girl and she should be able to handle one little nightmare. Even if it had really scared her. Lily hadn’t wanted to bother her, Raphaella was always kind when she did her checks on her but that was always at the same time, they were planned. So were all her fun science lessons. This was definitely interrupting and interrupting was rude.

Raphaella sighed, disappointed at Lily’s conclusion, “If it upset you then by definition it is not silly. Just because dreams are caused by synapse transfer and your brain’s interpretation of events does not mean that the outcome can be deemed ridiculous if it has an impact on you.”

“Oh.” Lily wasn’t entirely sure what that meant but it sounded like she didn’t think Lily was silly after all.

“Quite.”

“I dreamt the Aurora was all dark and cold and I could hear banging like a big, angry someone was trying to get in.” Lily explained quietly.

“I see.” Raphaella frowned.

Lily quailed a little, misinterpreting her expression and began to hide her face, “I said it was silly.”

The science officer sighed, realising what Lily thought she’d meant, “And what did I say?”

“Sorry.” The child cast her eyes down as she mumbled.

Very gently Raphaella caught Lily’s chin and pulled her face up to meet her, “No, don’t be sorry. This is a perfectly rational thing to dream Lily. You’ve been very brave and you continue to be brave. My research indicates that nightmares are a way of processing something very frightening and unpleasant that as happened to you. What happened to you was not silly so your way of processing it is also not silly.”

It had actually be a good excuse to research nightmares in general since she knew full well the whole crew got them, regardless of age. Her own ones were manageable if unpleasant, determined to remind her of things she’d much rather forget.

Lily’s lower lip wobbled dangerously.

Raphaella sighed and for once decided to take a leaf out of Jonny’s book.

Logical rational explanations could wait until she was little older. And she knew Lily responded extremely well physical comfort, she’d seen evidence of that be beyond that farthest doubt.

“Come here little proton, it’s alright.” Raphaella wrapped both her arms and wings about the upset child and began rocking her like she’d seen Jonny do. It seemed to work after all and if observed action had been proved to yield positive results then who was she to argue with empirical evidence?  

“It’s alright. You’re safe. Aurora is never truly dark, Nastya, Jonny, Tim and Brian don’t really like the dark either so she makes sure it’s always bright enough. And no one can get into Aurora without our say so. Aurora wouldn’t let them in anyway.”

“An’ you’d shoot them if they did.” Came a convinced voice.

“We certainly would. Or do something more interesting but we’d make sure they never got to you.”

“Promise?”

Raphaella was not in the habit of keeping promises, they were ephemeral and inconsequential unless you could use them to get what you wanted but this one felt important.

“On my honour as a scientist.”

Lily’s eyes widened at the words, that was very important. Raphaella was the best scientist there was and science was very, very precious to her. So she very much meant it.

“Thank you.” Lily snuggled closer

Raphaella sighed once more, not really put out, she began to card her fingers gently through Lily’s silvery hair. It had been more pleasant than she’d been expecting to show Lily an exact comparison for her hair colour in the natural world, sunshine reflected off the surface of the lake. She rather thought the explanation of how light travelled and refracted might have gone a bit over her head but Lily had been an enthusiastic listener all the same which was better than her crewmates most of the time. She had been thrilled at being compared to sunshine too.

Lily tentatively inched her fingers towards Raphaella’s cascading tresses, seeking the comfort they represented, Raphaella was kind and she was safe, she looked after her using her science. Lily loved sitting on the science officers’ lap, it made her feel important and special when Raphaella spoke science to her, (like when the others told her about things they loved too) even if she didn’t always understand it, she especially loved it when she let her play with her hair. Lily wanted to grow hers just as long.

The science officer gave Lily her warmest smile, the one she had cultivated especially for the child. “Go on little proton, I don’t mind.”

Lily gave her a smile filled with wonder that quickly turned into one of happy, soothed exhaustion. Two hands, one large, one small, each carefully combing fingers through soft hair, both knowing a singular form of peace.

It took precisely two minutes and thirty seven seconds for Lily to fall asleep under the science officer’s ministrations. Lily had never fallen asleep on Raphaella before, she wasn’t normally the lulling type, leaving it to the others when the occasion arose but this was immensely satisfying, she could now see why Jonny never really complained about holding her till she slept.

She was glad this interaction was being recorded too, it would be useful to refer back to when comparing different calming methods they all used to see which was the most effective. She had a suspicion that despite all their research, Jonny’s instinctive cuddle and rocking combination from the first night was probably the more sure-fire way to settle Lily. Not that she’s tell him of course. He didn’t need to know just what a comparably good job he was doing. The thing Lily had been clutching was likely to be a Jonny concoction too, the man was deceptively good at needlecraft, he’d mended enough of the crew’s clothes over the years when sufficiently bribed with whiskey, he’d even fixed the Toy Solider’s uniform when it got torn badly enough, complaining that he’d done so only because he couldn’t stand it moping around lamenting the damage.

He’d even carefully embroidered eyes on the thing Lily held which seemed to be some sort of geological shape. She could admit whilst in her own company only that the craftsmanship on it was rather remarkable. He’d obviously gone to some effort to make her something with crystalline accuracy in some sort of fuzzy fabric and given how tightly Lily had been holding it but she’d never seen it in the mess at meal times nor had it accompanied the child to her check-up sessions, it was her comfort-at-night object. That, that was surprisingly thoughtful of him. She smiled quietly to herself.

He definitely didn’t need to know what a good job he was doing.

Maybe a hint.

He also didn’t need to know the general positives these interactions were having on the pair of them and by extension, the rest of the crew. They would all work it out eventually and if she said anything too soon the idea would be dismissed out of hand, no, it was much better to be able to make unobtrusive observations and predictions unhindered.

 Lily was beginning to grow at a healthy rate, she wasn’t back up to where she should be yet but after three months she was now making steady progress. At her last weekly check-up Lily was now projected to be back on track to reach where she should be for a healthy eight year old in the next three months. They’d successfully reversed the physical damage done to her by the three weeks of acute malnutrition but the longer effects of a lifetime of not having quite enough would take longer to mend.

Still, it felt, well, nice to see her improving.

The first time she’d insisted on a proper check had been only few days after Lily had joined them. She’d asked Jonny to bring her to lab so she could get a real idea of what they were working with for Lily, exact height and weight, not to mention resting heart rate, lung capacity, bone density and a blood test to make sure everything was functioning as it should be. Lily was human so there were some basics that could be taken for granted but Raphaella wanted a solid starting point for knowing how best to reverse the damage of long term malnutrition.

 She’d argued with Jonny about it for 47 minutes before he finally saw sense and agreed to bring her along. His hang ups over poor medical practice were one thing and even understandable but not to the point that it impeded Lily’s recovery.

 He’d grudgingly agreed, especially when the others added their voices in assent and Raphaella assured him that she’d keep to the bare minimum of procedures to assess Lily.

 Marius had argued that it was so they could help her not hurt her. Given how delicate the matter was nobody teased Marius that surely it should be him leading the investigation if he was, in fact, a doctor. As it was, they all recognised that Raphaella’s dedication to the scientific approach would probably yield better results long term.  Marius and Brian advised on what she should be looking for specifically all the same.

 It was Nastya who’d finally swung him into accepting the proposal. She pointed out that if they didn’t check her properly when they could have and it turned out that they’d ensured the damage done by her ship management was permanent then that made them no better than the idiots that had led her mission. A grim accolade no one wanted to earn, the more Lily talked about life on her ship the more everyone was convinced it was mission led by utter idiots doomed to failure.

 She added quietly that they weren’t like their creator, that Carmilla would only be interested in tests to see how she could exploit Lily. They needed to conduct tests to work out exactly how to help Lily properly and make sure she stayed healthy and happy.

 Jonny couldn’t argue with that. Well, he could. But he wouldn’t, Lily being safe and well and as healthy as she could be was too important. Kid was a bag of bones, a mortal bag of bones at that and he should know, she still spent half her time attached to him and he was honestly worried by how light she was. He had very vague memories of being young except for a few key things but if he really thought about it he was sure at eight he’d been taller and broader. That wasn’t a bullshit boy vs girl nonsense thing either, he was sure he’d been taller and heavier at her age and that was with his family set up. Something was wrong. Raphaella was right, they did need to check.

He didn’t have to like it though.

Raphaella wasn’t sure which of the two were the more nervous coming in to the Lab.

She made it more into a game in an attempt to settle them both, it wouldn’t do for their nerves to set up a negative feedback loop.  She got them both to play catch with one of her more robust recorders so she could check hand to eye coordination and reflexes. She challenged Lily to scrunch up as small as she could then stand on her tip toes and then stand as straight and flat-footed as she could on her weighing scales.

 Raphaella had Jonny pick her up and hold her as though they were posing for photo whilst she deployed the scanner for Lily’s bone density, explaining that she wanted close ups of her smiling face. It covered her dental development too.

Checking her ears and throat had been relatively easy, getting silly to pull as ridiculous faces as she could whilst trying to sing ‘Old King Cole’ worked on her throat and the otoscope was hardly invasive.

Jonny had managed to keep things light enough asking if Raphaella had found some of Ashes’ missing gold down there. Lily had been indignant and Raphaella had played along, pleased he was trying to make things easier.

The blood test was unsurprisingly a little harder of a sell.

Lily went rigid with fear when she saw the needle.

Hmm. Understandable but not helpful, it was one of her smallest ones as well.

Jonny cleared his throat, his own spine stiffening and also not taking his eyes off the syringe. “Why don’t we have a go with the stethoscope first?”

That was a surprising suggestion coming from him. Raphaella had been planning to brace herself and try to use that as a wind down but maybe there needed to be buffer. She decided to put it to Lily to decide.

 “Lily, I’m not going to hurt you. I need to take a little bit of your blood to check everything is working as it should be inside you. Your blood can tell me all sorts of important things that you yourself won’t be able to tell me.”

 Lily still looked scared. Raphaella found it wasn’t an expression she liked to see on so young a face. Raphaella had no problem being seen as intimidating or even down right terrifying by those who crossed her path or got in her way. That was half the fun, but on Lily? No, she didn’t like being the cause of that fear one bit. The test was still needed though.

 “But you’ve got a choice,” she continued in the tone she’d already modulated especially for the child, no-nonsense but gentle, firm but soft enough to put her at ease most of the time. “I can take this sample now then use the stethoscope to listen to your heart and lungs or I can listen first and then take the blood sample but either way I need to take it.”

 The child had tried to melt into Jonny, clinging to him, fingers burying in fabric and belts.

Raphaella tried not to notice that the comforting hand that was running up and down her back was trembling.

Lily turned to face Jonny. “What do you think?”

Jonny tore his gaze from the poised syringe and did his best to look relaxed and nonchalant despite the fact his heartrate had audibly trebled, “I think it’s always better to get the thing that scares you done first. Raph’s right though, she’s only doing it because she wants to make sure you’re okay inside and out. It won’t hurt, it’s more like getting a sharp pinch on your skin for a second and then it’s done.”

 He didn’t mention that it was fine when blood was being taken from you rather than a bunch of different poisons being injected into you over and over again to see how quickly each one affected you and how quickly you came back. How each one burned and cramped and ripped through every single system until he was desperate for death. He was the first after all. Carmilla had to make sure her new creation was full-proof and indestructible. That he could come back from anything.

“How do you know?”

Jonny smiled ruefully, “I’ve had a lot of injections over the years, given lots of samples too. It doesn’t hurt.” ‘It’s what comes after’ remained unsaid.

“Oh.” Lily clearly thought about it, weighing up the pros and cons. She eyed the stethoscope on the science officer’s workbench. She knew how that worked at least. There was something right next to her that might make her feel braver. “If Raphaella takes a sample can, can I listen to your heart while she does it?”

Jonny was halfway to opening his mouth to say ‘no’ on sheer reflex when Lily added in a small voice, “I don’t want to watch. I don’t like blood. It goes bad and gloopy and changes colour too quickly. And it smells horrible.”

Well fuck. He could hardly say no to that.

“You won’t be able to smell it Lily, it’ll be in the syringe.” Raphaella tried to distract, she was well aware of Jonny’s dislike of anything to do with exam practice. She was actually impressed he’d not just dumped Lily on her and run, that he’d taken part so far. He had more courage than she gave him credit for, that or a greater sense of guardianship than she’d expected. Either way, he was making her job much easier and she appreciated it.  

Raphaella had tried to get a better understanding of his Mechanism not long after she’d joined the crew, intrigued by the ticking of his chest. She’d come at him with a stethoscope and woken up in the wreckage of her workbench recovering from 6 gunshot wounds.

She hadn’t pursued that line of research further.

“Still don’t like it.” Lily half spoke into Jonny’s chest and half to the science officer.

“That’s fair enough.” Conceded Raphaella

Lily’s eyes were doing the thing again. The thing where they took up half her face, she gazed imploringly up at him. “Please?”

Fuck. He really had to immunise himself against that. Later. Now though?

He swallowed. “Sure.”

Raphaella raised an eyebrow, fully prepared to snatch Lily out of his arms and rocket skywards if he looked like he was going to detonate like he did last time.

Jonny gave her the tiniest nod.

This was Lily. He shook himself internally. It was Lily. Lily couldn’t hurt him if she tried. Okay, well she could but she wasn’t armed right now and she liked his ticking. He forced himself to watch her, to brace for the touch of the disc. He’d be ready, he’d know. If he closed his eyes there was no guarantee he’d be able to hold it together for her. This was Lily reaching to him for comfort, he reminded himself firmly. She needed him to distract her from something frightening but necessary. Lily wasn’t going to sigh and tut and then open him up.

 He wasn’t strapped to a table.

 He forced himself to breathe as calmly as he could, the way Ivy had shown him from one of her books when he’d taken refuge once in the earliest incarnation of the library.

 He was fine, he was holding Lily. He was free to move. He was holding Lily and being reassuring because needles were frightening. He was proving it was fine. It was fine.

 The disc made contact.

 It took everything in him not to bolt.

 “Jonny, your ticking is very fast.” A little voice piped up matter-of-factly.

 Before he got a chance to answer Lily had already drawn her own conclusions.

 “I know I’m not a proper doctor like Raphaella but I won’t hurt you. See?” She took the disc off then pressed it even more gently against him, then rested her head on him too, trying to be reassuring.

 Fucking Hell. That she thought she could hurt him? Like this? At all? But the pressure helped. Carmilla had never been gentle with his chest. She’d never been gentle full stop.

 Lily was.

 This was Lily and it was fine. He held her a little tighter. “I like this,” she spoke quietly, as if she was speaking directly to his heart but then again, when wasn’t she? “I can hear your ticking all around. It’s going slower now.”

 It took two tries to speak.

 “T-That’s because you’re doing a good job.” Raphaella was watching him like a hawk, despite the fact he’d drained of colour and there was a noticeable (to her experienced eye at least) tremor running through him he was still sat still and solid for Lily, making no sign that he was about to flip her workbench.

 “I am?”

 “Of course.” He managed the ghost of his usual grin, “I don’t let just anyone listen to me.” If only she knew how true that was.

 Lily beamed at him, utterly delighted. Just as Raphaella took her moment.

 Jonny was aware enough of the situation to catch Lily’s face as she turned to see the source of the sudden pinch, directing her back to look at him, the surprised ‘Eeep!’ already escaping her lips. “Keep looking this way Lemondrop, it’s alright. Keep listening to the ticking.”

 Tears pricked the corners of her eyes.

 “It’s alright,” he ran his fingers through her hair, hating that she was upset, hating that they were doing this. He’d always sworn he’d have nothing to do with anything like this but here he was. A necessary evil. “It’s alright, she’ll be done soon. You’re being very brave.” He didn’t dare rock her and risk jostling the needle so he hummed instead.

 She clung to him with her other hand, with a muffled whimper but did as he asked. It didn’t hurt, not really but the idea of something being stuck in her was an idea she didn’t like. Still, Jonny had her and she could hear his ticking loud and clear and he said she was being brave so that was good. She could hear him humming Rose Red as well and she couldn’t help but relax, Jonny had her, she could hear his ticks and the humming and she could smell his spicesmokewhiskey.

 It was okay.

 She was safe.

 They were looking after her because she was part of the crew, they cared about her. It was alright.

 All at once there was the feel of something going away and something pressing on her arm.

 “There we go, all done, good girl, you’ve been very brave.” Raphaella finished taping the small cotton gauze to her arm covering the tiny pinprick of blood.

 Lily took a moment to take in the sight of her arm and then the science officer, Raphaella had been right, it hadn’t hurt. It had been scary because she wasn’t sure what it would be like and she was scared it would hurt because they were bigger and stronger and braver than her and that they said it wouldn’t hurt because it wouldn’t hurt them when they had to have needles in them but actually, it had been a bit of a shock but it hadn’t hurt at all and Jonny had made her feel safe all the way through and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or let anything else hurt her anyway.

 She gave a sunny smile to Raphaella.

 “It didn’t hurt!”

 Despite herself, Raphaella was rather pleased, she allowed a knowing grin to bloom across her face, rather than the haughty scoff that she saved for the others, “I did say.”

 “You did!” Lily beamed wider.

 “Well I’m glad I was proved correct. Are you ready for me to take a turn listening to you?”

 “Yes.”

 “Good, I just need a listen to your chest and then we’re all done. Can I have the stethoscope back?”

 Lily carefully removed the buds from her ears and hand the piece of equipment back, she missed hearing Jonny’s ticking quite so loudly. She leaned against him instead.

 Raphaella decided not to comment on the sudden drop in tension from Jonny the second the disc was taken away from his chest.

 With gentle efficiency she had the device in her own ears.

 “Can you sit up straight for a moment please?” Lily did so, “then take some nice deep breaths for me.”

 Lily did the best she could.

 After a few minutes Raphaella sat back, satisfied.

 Her initial suspicions were well founded, Lily was almost chronically underweight and under-height but that could be fixed with care. Her lungs and heart seemed strong through and her reflexes as well as hand to eye coordination were sharp and focused, ears and throat were clear of infection too and that was the most common source of ailments for human children according to her research. Lily was a fighter and, pending the results of the blood tests had no reason not to make a full recovery. That was pleasing and definitely worth the few uncomfortable moments.

 She gave Jonny a short nod over Lily’s head.

 The relief in his face was something Raphaella was going to remember for long time to come. She might find him deeply irritating most of the time but he’d certainly proved himself when it counted. He was many things but could not be accused of being a selfish bastard. At least, not right now.

 “Alright then, all done here. I think you’ve earned something nice.”

 “Really?” Lily perked up even more.

 “Oh yes.”

 “What?”

 “I happen to know Brian’s been busy in the kitchen with Marius.” She happened to know exactly because they’d planned it earlier, it was only fair for Lily to get some sort of recompense for having to go through something unpleasant. It was something they all wished they had had when they were young (not to mention everything that had happened since they were young).

 The excited squeal that erupted was something that warmed both of the adults in the room and would certainly not get passed on to the chocolate cake bakers. It wouldn’t do to give them ideas after all.

 Not for the first time they found themselves hand in hand with Lily, swinging the excited child all the way to the mess.

 Raphaella came back to the present and smiled as she held the currently comforted and sleeping Lily, the child had got far more used to the weekly check-ups following the first one, it helped that her blood came back fine and healthy, no underlying issues to be concerned about so no more blood tests were needed.

 She still liked to listen to Jonny’s heart with the stethoscope during the check-ups.

 Jonny still endured it for her sake.

 Raphaella thought that over the weeks he’d looked a little more relaxed each time.

 The check-ups proved what they were seeing in real time. Lily was mending. She was putting on healthy weight and starting to grow, her skin was starting to have a glow to it again. It felt nice to have used her research and scientific approach for unquestionable good for once. She’d shared her findings with them all. The rest were pleased too. They’d made a comprehensive list of supplies with Ivy and Raph’s information that Ashes organised and sourced. Marius and Brian eagerly added more recipes to the collection and the others made a point of each eating vaguely healthy snacks every so often so as to not make Lily feel like she was the odd one out. Regular mealtimes helped too.

 It was satisfying to see that improvement over time, Lily was proving to be a fascinating research study that Raphaella was very much invested in. It was also immensely satisfying that the rest of the crew was just as invested her topic of study for once. Seeing Lily grow and heal and improve was something that was having a positive effect on the rest of the crew, she’d noticed (and made notes of course) that the crew interacted more frequently and more positively usually when Lily was present but sometimes even without her there. These developments were, pleasing, to put it into layman terms. Though Raphaella wasn’t entirely sure why. It would take further investigation of course but she did have eyes, the positive interactions were slowly improving the general well-being in the crew, communal mealtimes and friendlier banter seemed to be improving moods across the board.

 Most notably of course was Jonny.

 His general comportment had softened a little, his violent outbursts reduced and he definitely looked like he was sleeping more regularly. Raphaella estimated his alcohol consumption had dropped by a least a bottle a night which was rather impressive, it wasn’t like the alcohol did anything long term since all their mechanisms prevented permanent internal damage, especially when one was killed far too frequently to even consider organ failure due to extensive alcohol poisoning. But still, it was nice to see him looking more, centred, for lack of a better word.

 Heavy boots made their appearance on the peripheries of her hearing.

 Think of the devil…

 Raphaella took a moment to soak up the situation, Lily had fallen asleep against her peacefully and easily as if she were her mother. It was a completely new experience but not an unpleasant one it turned out. Raphaella had enjoyed introducing the scientific process to Lily over the past three months, teaching her the basic principles of chemistry and physics and now botany since she’d set up the hydroponics lab with Nastya and Ivy. That had been a fun collaboration and all three enjoyed Lily’s delight at each seed sprouted and new leaf grown.

 She’d added a whole new strand of research to her study too, the poisons and toxins of plants were fascinating and she was eager to put those to good use when the next opportunity arrived. There was always opportunity for hybridisation too. Excellent.

 The heavy boots stopped right outside the lab door followed by an uncharacteristically gentle knock.

 “Come in Jonny.”

 The first mate entered looking annoyed at the presumption that quickly melted into relief when he saw a sleeping Lily in her arms.

 The science officer gave him an appraising look. Despite the obvious panic at not knowing where Lily was Jonny still looked calmer and better rested than he had for centuries. Raphaella found she liked that look on him, he seemed far more settled, music rehearsals with everyone had become a lot more productive too, always a bonus.

 She still found it funny he refused to use his ship communicator to ask the group chat where Lily was on an evening she had a late nightmare-startled wander, clearly too proud to admit he’d lost her. It wasn’t as if she could get into any real danger any more. Both the Octokittens and Stowaways knew not to touch her and Aurora wouldn’t let her get lost anywhere too dangerous. Then again, the day he did they knew it would be a serious one.

 As it was the first mate was only looking marginally stressed and panicked, a whole lot better than she’d seen him look.

 Jonny took in the sight of Raphaella as he entered the lab. From the lights behind her and a sleeping Lily in her arms the science officer resembled an angel that he’d seen statues of on multiple worlds, beautiful and terrible, just as he remembered the preacher talking about on Sundays when he was small. He’d seen what Raph could do to somewhere or someone that irked her and he’d come to believe all those stories.

 Still, the look she was giving Lily as he walked in was something else, it was a face he knew she saved just for Lily, that slight softness, a pride in her eyes and smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

 Jonny knew Raphaella was incredibly pleased by the progress Lily had made both physically and with all the science lessons she’d been teaching, Lily had talked his ear off about all the things she’d made by experimenting. The physical checks were good too, in their way. Much as he hated them. If he really had to admit it, the checks were worth it, it was good to know Lily was on the right track at least, that they weren’t making a mess of her, at least not physically.

 “Thought she might be here.” Came his way of explanation,

 “Well congratulations.”

 “She been here long?”

 “Only half an hour or so.”

 “Good.” He stayed curt, not wanting to give her room to rinse him more than he was expecting, Raphaella had a way with words that could cut like one of her scalpels if he wasn’t careful, most of the time it didn’t bother him but if it was about Lily and how he handled her, it tended to cut to the core of him, much to his annoyance.

 “How did you lose her this time?”

 “I didn’t lose her!” he snapped, “She just got up when I wasn’t around. I do check the times on things you know, she’s usually up at 11, 1 and 3 so much that you can set a metronome by her. It’s not my fault she just got up out of sequence!”

 “And you weren’t in your room because?” pressed Raphaella, not giving an inch.

 “Because I wasn’t!”

 “Jonny,” Began the science officer in a deceptively gentle voice, “I could wake her up and make Lily ask you with her big blue accusing eyes.”

 The first mate looked furious he was about to say ‘you wouldn’t dare’ but Raph absolutely would to prove a point and he really didn’t want to risk having to admit the truth to Lily, he found it incredibly hard to lie to her properly after all.

 “Fine, Lily mentioned a birthday coming up some months from now and I am making something for that. Away from my room. Lost track of time. That’s it.” He ground out.

 “A secret something I take it?” Raphaella teased, amused to have caught him in such an obvious lie, Jonny on the whole was usually quite good at lying. He managed it effortlessly on stage after all. And he was damned good poker player.

 “You won’t find it.”

 “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the bits of clothing several of us have missed over the last few weeks would it?”

 Jonny’s ears began to turn red.

 “No.”

 ‘Aha.’ Thought Raphaella. But she was intrigued enough to let it stand, it was honestly rather refreshing to have Jonny do something vaguely productive outside of his musical and lyrical talents, repair work not-withstanding. There were only so many theoretical studies of chronic alcohol abuse and sleep deprivation she could observe before it got tiresome. This proved to be far more interesting.

 “Alright then, well I await to see the results with bated breath.”

 “Fuck off Raph.”

 “I could just wake her.”

 “I could just shoot you.”

 “You know you won’t.”

 The impotent rage on Jonny’s face was amusing to witness.

 “Fine, but I fill find a way to make you suffer.”

 “I look forward to it.”

 He matched her feral grin, feeling like he’d at least gained somewhat of an upper hand he moved on to the more important issue, Lily hadn’t been out of her bed unexpectedly for the last month, not since she found Brian during the poker game.  

 “What was it about this time?”

 “Doors being rattled and banged on by enemies in the dark.”

 “Oh, standard then. Good.”

 “Standard? I thought they were all like this one?” This was interesting, there were others? Raphaella got halfway through that thought and froze.

 Uh, Jonny realised he’d not actually shared a lot of detail of Lily’s nightmares, he passed on the basics to everyone at Tim’s insistence after she’d climbed in with him, demanding to know at least what they might have to deal with if the crew was now fair game to ask comfort from. The others had backed him up, the bastards, and he’d been forced to share a bit. He didn’t really want to, nightmares were private things after all and it wasn’t fair for him to share stuff that bothered someone else but as it had been pointed out, Lily was a child whom they all cared about, whom they were all guardians for and thus they all needed to know likely sources of upset and triggers to avoid when they spent time together, either during the day or if they happened to be the ones to comfort her at night.

 He’d relented, wanting to make sure she always had some solid options for comfort. He knew in excruciating detail how unpleasant it could be to suffer that sort of fear and misery on your own. Until you learned to ignore and bury it that is.

 So the others knew the basics at least, it was always the threat of attack, rattling and banging and bellowing in the dark unsurprisingly. He tended to keep the extra details to himself though, he knew how desperately Lily wanted to be seen as a ‘big girl’ by the crew. Even though there was nothing she could say or do that would actually make them think she was somehow less. Kid had endured enough and was still pretty functional, that was one hell of an achievement already. And she was stil mortal.

 Sometimes her nightmares was flavoured with gunfire (though not Tim’s apparently, that sounded different according to Lily, Jonny had no idea how the hell gunfire could sound ‘friendly’ but supposedly Tim’s did-children clearly had a higher nuance of sound perception-it made music lessons all the more interesting that was for sure), sometimes it was visions of what was left of her crew, her parents dying and on one particularly horrendous night images of her parents demanding to know why she hadn’t saved them. He had mentioned that one to Marius and then the rest of the crew since it had taken the singing of the entirety of ‘Alice’ to lull her back to sleep bookended with ‘Rose Red.’

 The one about her being left behind that she told to Brian was concerning, that one he had talked to the others about straight away, worried that taking her to a planet had, in fact, been a bad move. Given that that was as near as an admission to the idea he’d been wrong about wanting to take her planetside actually had them all discussing it properly with only minimal jeering. It ended up being pointed out that since it was such a new experience, even though it had been very positive, Lily’s subconscious was so traumatised it wasn’t surprising it had sparked off a different set of nightmares.

 It had assuaged the guilt a little at least. He was glad she clearly had really enjoyed the visit.

 “Jonny?”

 He realised he’d been staring into the middle distance and not actually talking. Shit.

 He refocused on her. A look crossed Raphaella’s face that he’d seen maybe once or twice before in all the years he’d known her. A hint of worry.

 “Does, does she have nightmares about what we, what I,” she corrected, “do here?”

 That question knocked him sideways, his initial instinctive bastard response died on his lips. This was Raphaella actually asking him, Jonny, for reassurance, reassurance that what she was doing wasn’t physcologically damaging their charge. He’d never seen the science officer look unsure before. Jonny realised he had a choice, he could lie and tell her that yes, the check-ups upset Lily and he’d had to calm her down from a lot of nightmares inspired by Raph’s actions or, or he could be honest.

 He thought about how genuinely devastated he’d be if one of the others told him that the reason Lily had come to them wasn’t because she couldn’t find him but that she was scared of him, that she’d had a nightmare about him because of something he’d done. He felt his guts twist. No, he couldn’t do that to Raphaella, he could murder her happily along with the rest of the crew whenever Lily wasn’t about and he’d been suitably bored or antagonised but lying about this?

 He couldn’t do it.

 If he stopped to think about it, there were quite a few things he couldn’t do now. All involved Lily, he couldn’t lie to the others about her, they were all in this together, more so than anything they’d been bound by previously. Jonny knew he was the primary source of Lily information but he actually respected that fact and that he should share as much as was reasonable to make sure it was as easy for the others to comfort and look after her as possible. This communal guardianship parenting thing they’d fallen into was working but it needed proper communication much as it felt like pulling teeth sometimes. It was needed so he did it. So they all did it.

 He fixed Raphaella with as sincere look as he could manage.

 “No Raph, she’s never had a nightmare about you or the check-ups, I think she’d settled into them, always asks me stuff about what you do in the lab so I reckon you’re fine.”

 Raphaella tried and failed not to look relieved.

 “Oh, well, thank you that’s, that’s preferable.”

 Yeah, it is. Her ship’s done enough of a number on her, she’s been here long enough now to know, I think, that we’re not trying to fuck her up.

 That seems like a reasonable conclusion. She’s not been put off by what she sees on a daily basis, between Tim’s shooting practice, TS’s stories and my science if that’s not affected her negatively then, for the moment we may remain in grace period.

 “What do we do when that ends?”

 “We’ll have to slowly introduce more regular elements of life on board to get her more used to things, little by little, it seems to be working so far.”

 Jonny considered, Raph did have a point, last week something had exploded and whilst Lily had gone stock-still and the colour drained out of her face she hadn’t cried or outwardly panicked, instead asked Jonny very quietly if they could find out what happened, because ‘it was probably Tim trying his new canon that he had been showing her through the building process but could they go and check please just to make sure?’

 So they had and it was. Jonny was feeling pretty fucking murderous but Tim had ignored him and got there first, explaining when they arrived exactly what he’d been upto, that he was sorry it went off without her there to see but the trigger had been too sensitive. He’d shown Lily the system and rig so that she understood the weapon and where the sound had come from, feeling much happier that she knew this was something to protect them and not a sign that they were under attack.

 Jonny had planned an elaborate murder for Tim and braced himself for an onslaught of nightmares that never came. Well they did but it was just the usual, banging on the doors in the dark one nothing to do with Tim or his explosions. He’d been waiting a full eight days and nothing. He was beginning to suspect Tim’s approach of including Lily in the construct of the weapon really had been a big help. Clever bastard.

 “Yeah, that’s, that’s probably as good a plan as we’ve got.”

 Raphaella considered, Jonny didn’t have to have been kind a moment ago. But he was. She’d almost entirely forgotten what it was like to be concerned about the long-term effects of her science and she hadn’t liked the feeling whatsoever. He could have made it worse and didn’t. That certainly counted for something and definitely towards her working theory about him and his own developmental track.

 “It’s probably better than what she would have in any other circumstance or with anyone else who might have rescued her. We’re all doing well with her, physically and mentally, we’re all in this together and it’s working, I can see it in my results and charts as clearly as I see it on her, against more odds than I think even Ivy would be comfortable calculating we’re improving her, as a crew, she’s healing and mending, and,” she considered her words, “you’re both the catalyst and accelerator in this compound of all of us, with all the variables.”

 Jonny began to open his mouth.

 “You’re good for her, my research indicates it.” Elaborated Raphaella stiffly. Being kind and gentle with Lily was far easier than she expected it to be, transversely being articulately kind to her crewmates was decidedly harder, she’d had very little practice and took refuge in her scientific terms, they always flowed more easily.

 Jonny’s eyes widened at the implication of what she was saying. That it was her saying it.

 Still, with him, sometimes actions spoke louder than words.

 Very carefully she handed over Lily to him, fuzzy rock thing and all, taking care to catch Jonny’s hand in the process and squeeze it for the briefest of moments.

 She was deeply surprised to receive a returning squeeze, equally as brief.

 She tried to read his face, a myriad of expressions flitted over him, shock, confusion, wariness, pride and elation before settling back to his default of ‘cocky bastard smirk’

 He held Lily close a moment then allowed a softer, sincere expression to linger in his eyes, “Thanks Raph, s’what the crew’s for, everyone’s got a job with this one.”

 He sobered and shifted, face returning to its usual look, his regular swagger sliding into his stance, “See you at breakfast.” He threw out his familiar feral grin without the need or will to add a snarky comment and sauntered out with a Lily tucked up against his chest who was at least half an inch taller and several pounds heavier than when she arrived.

 They were working as a crew and it was mending Lily.

 Not for the first time Raphaella considered the pair as they left her lab, a fond smile spreading across her face. The unlikeliness of this scenario had already cost Ivy one full notebook but the science officer could honestly conclude that she was deeply satisfied by this anomaly and looked forward to the further variables it generated.

 Otherwise, what even was the point?

 Smile still on her face she settled down to update her research log on the day’s nocturnal events. Her file was getting decidedly long.

 Raphaella found that only pleased her more.