Double Date

Note: This ficlet has been made redundant by "Sync", "Safe", and "Cake" to accommodate multiple POV changes. 
Double Date
8 January 2019
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Caitlin tweaks the last settings on the Pons. "Fifteen points difference in your COROs, well within the normal safe range. And you're both high HSP people, so there shouldn't be any problems. Everything cool?"
Pietr nods.
Sergio yawns.
"Chuck?"
Two voices. "Yea?"
"Hansen. Can you count down from ten for Pietr?"
"Yea."
"When'd ya learn that, Ducky?"
"Don't call me that," Chuck growls. "This mornin'. In case you gave up 'fore you finished th' job."
Chuck squeezes her drop bear and a stubby pencil bounces off her shoulder.
She spins, glaring at the missile's origin.
Pietr smiles and waves.
Chuck slams down the plushie.
Caitlin clears her throat. "Lab Monkey, be a Lab Monkey."
"You're standin' in front of the monitor."
"Whoops." Caitlin steps aside. "Pull the plug if the alignment goes squirrelly. Which it won't. Other Chuck, gets your ducks down. No, wait, that's not right."
"Th' hell's that supposed t' mean?"
"Get your ducks in a row?" Chuck suggests.
Caitlin frowns. "What was I trying to say?"
"Count your ducks before they hatch?"
"That's not it either. Whatever. Just do that counting thing. On my mark, then."
::Ten.::
::Five.::
::One.::
Chuck in tears, fingers caught in her braid, screaming at Caitlin.
Dafne in tears, clutching her sides as Griet tries untangling your hands from her hair (and fails).
Kaidanovskaya and you side-by-side; Caitlin's perfect right braid, the disaster on the left.
Griet sits down in class with school-yellow ribbons in her hair.
~and the science gets done and we built a neat gun~
Striker's yours before without a copilot still ours now.
Caitlin giggling as you try eating a timbit without lifting your arms (because you can't).
Red eye to Lima Vladivostok crystal blue sky home.
Caitlin wants cake.
Three mice with sunglasses and canes tripping around a microphone.
"Ninety-eight percent and holding," Chuck reports.
"Gimme some basic combat forms. Let's see how synced up you are."
Sergio and Pietr do, occasionally yawning simultaneously.
"I'd send 'em out in a Jaeger together. Whatta you say, Chucks?"
"They seem to check all the boxes, ay?"
Chuck scowls and shrugs.
A Category One falls in short order.
"Right, then." Caitlin keys in a few commands. "That's all we have time to get from the two of you today. Disconnect 'em."
The two men remove their squid caps and slouch into nearby chairs.
Caitlin points to her assistant. "You're up, Chuck."
Chuck snickers.
"Shut it, Ducky. And it's still 'no.' I'm not Drifting. Not even if he's—" she waves at Pietr "—supposedly my 'Drift
soulmate,' whatever that's supposed to mean."
"There's chocolate cake in it for you."
"No. N. O."
"Your brain's mine for another year."
"Lemme talk to Monkey a minute," Sergio says, pushing himself out of his seat. "C'mon."
Chuck lets him tow her from the room.
Puts an arm around her shoulders.
They sag.
Drops his arm to his side.
"I don't know what's goin' on scientifically, but you'll be safe with him."
"That's real comforting."
"But I get it. If I was in your position, I would be saying the exact same thing, and I figured 'maybe an 'all clear' might help,'" he pauses. "And because Caitlin's ..."
"The Unstoppable Science Machine?"
"You said it, not me." He takes a breath. "I don't ... I can't ... something about not knowing your experience but grasping the emotions ... to that effect, anyway ... What were we talking about?"
"'m not sayin' anything."
"Drifting. Right. I get it, and I was getting it when Cait pulled the switch so Pietr gets it. He's ... Cait's done this to me before and sometimes ... sometimes I can see, feel, what you—or she—would call a 'pond' but this time ... there's no pond. It's like ... lying down to sleep."
"You really are tired."
Sergio pushes open the door. "I'm resigned to never sleeping again holy Jesus motherfucker it's hot."
"It's twenty-one degrees."
"That's co—Celsius."
"Makes more sense than your crazy American system."
"Doesn't change the fact it's way too hot out."
"It's summer."
"Crazy backwards seasons."
"Sane frontwards seasons."
Sergio ushers her back inside.
"You Aussies and your upside down things."
"They're totally right side up."
The door bangs shut.
"I was saying something important."
"And you still think I'll tell ye."
"About Pietr. And the Drift. It's like lying down to sleep."
"On what, exactly?"
"Uh, what?"
"Your metaphor. 'It's like lying down to sleep.' On what? Mattress, floor ...?"
"There're no springs, if that's what you're asking. It's ... fluffy."
"That clarifies things not at all."
Sergio makes a face which says 'I am annoyed with my own shortcomings at being clear.' "I know it doesn't sound like much, but I just know it'll be okay. It's safe. It's comfortable. It's home. Trust me."
"Ye know what, fine, I'm already broken; let's see if we can finish the job." She yanks her jacket more tightly closed and storms away, only to find Pietr rocking on his toes outside the lab door.
"Ye heard that, din't ye."
He cringes and nods.
"Whatever." She brushes by but he taps her shoulder.
She stops. Turns on her heel. "What."
His hands flutter anxiously.
"Ye might as well be tossing leaves 'round for all the sense that makes t' me."
He huffs. Hugs her.
Chuck clenches her teeth.
Pietr holds her gently, cradles her head; lets her go after a moment, presses his forehead against hers.
She watches his arm.
He watches her eyes. Presses a quick kiss to her forehead.
She shoves Pietr away, scowls, scrubs at her hairline, flings open the lab door. "Let's get this over with already." Mumbles, "Coffee t' wash th' stupid fairy floss outta my mouth."
Caitlin rolls her eyes. "You'll be perfectly fine, Chuck."
"'Drift soulmates,' I know, I know." She jams on the squid cap.
Pietr gives her a quick smile and straps himself in.
"You two ready?"
Chuck shrugs.
Pietr nods.
::Ten.::
::Five.::
::One.::
Too dark too hot too loud you can barely breathe Wirriri's card group chatting holding you, her hand against your head tucked against her neck don't watch can't not watch fairies bright leap want to drag you into the black
Too dark too hot lonely you can barely breathe dig your way from the fort into moonlight pouring through the window and cool
Drafts everywhere too cold hell's usually frozen over have your desk behind the servers you can pretend the lab's empty when busybody Rangers
Have excellent technique as a rule and correcting Nova Hyperion's dropped shoulder led to a Kaiju kill
Tang Min dashed her to pieces and a nurse has you keep up the pressure but no matter how hard you press her blood's pumping out between your fingers soaking your shirt so much dripping through your
Underpants on your head making faces Pappa's laughing while the medic sews his foot cuts off his
Shoes and lab gear every morning for spiders just to pretend there's something like familiar in this
Ridiculously huge building and you've got work and your map says up
Three stairs in three hours. Caitlin says you should be proud, says at this rate, you'll be up four by next week. You want to
Burst apart from the happiness when Griet starts using words you don't know (yet)
"Ninety-nine percent and holding." Caitlin smirks. "Told you so."
Pietr turns to Chuck and grins.
She grins back, eyes wide and shining. "How in hell did y' do that?"
Pietr shrugs.
"You're fuckin' amazin'."
Pietr blushes and studies his boots.
"Time's a-wasting! Make with the combat forms!"
Chuck and Pietr nod to each other and, perfectly synced, raise their arms.
"She hasn't moved this well since the Academy."
"And definitely not when she was Drifting with the triplets."
"Plural? They switched?"
"Unless Cadet 'Wei Cheung' had three distinct neural architectures, you're telling me they didn't?" Caitlin drops her head back. "I really wanna put them in a Conn-pod."
Chuck's teeth grind audibly.
"Calm down, Hansen. She's not gonna steal your copilot. Did you miss the part about it killing her?"
"I heard just fine."
"Would you relax if we got you some cake?"
"No."
"Okay, that's enough, you two. Unhook yourselves."
Off come the squid caps.
Connection broken, Pietr leans on a console; Chuck oozes toward the floor.
Scratch that, Pietr tucks himself under her arm and then leans on a console.
Sergio drags over a chair with a piece of cake, pauses, takes the plate off the chair, pauses again, and slides over the chair.
Chuck sags and Pietr lets her slump down.
"Cake," says Sergio, depositing the plate in her lap. "Raise your blood sugar, Monkey."
She goes for the fork.
The fork goes clattering to the ground.
"Burlda daajarrba."
Everyone looks to the red-haired Chuck, who bristles "I don't speak—," except the dark-haired Chuck who's leaning down after her fork and Pietr who's saving the cake from an unfortunate end smeared across her front.
A monitor chimes.
Pietr snags the fork and saves Chuck from toppling over with a well-placed hip-nudge.
"Huh," says Caitlin.
"Hey, Chuck?"
"Yea?" he answers, inching over to Pietr.
"Monkey Chuck."
Stab.
"I'm here ...."
Chew.
"Do you smell—or taste—anything weird? Burnt toast, lilacs?"
Stab.
Pietr nudges her back upright.
"Fairy floss?"
Chew.
"This is so cool! Your brain's gone completely haywire!"
Stab.
"That's nice."
Chew.
Pietr shoos Chuck away.
He scowls.
"In a good way! All the new connections you made during recovery've tied bits to pieces that normally aren't!"
Stab.
"I like fairy floss."
Chew.
'Stop looming!'
"D'you remember when?"
Chuck sulks his way back to his crossword.
Stab.
"Some point." Chuck flops her hand.
Cake plops to the floor.
Chuck looks like she's going to cry.
"This is awesome! Think we have time for an MRI?"
Stab.
Starts listing again.
Accepts a course correction from Pietr.
"One project at a time, Cait. Go unlock Universal Compatibility."
"Time?"
Chew.
"Thirteen hours."
"Plenty of time to put Pietr in an MRI!"
"I don't think we have one here."
Stab.
"Monkey!"
"I like cake."
"Find me a hospital with an available MRI!"
Chew.
Pietr eases the plate away.
Chuck fumbles for a tablet.
Caitlin whirls.
"You're not claustrophobic, are you Pietr?"
He shakes his head.
"Perfect. Go Team Science!"
"Go eat, this is a good idea."
"But the MRI ..."
"Monkey, text me when you find one," says Sergio.
"Monkey when I text one."
"Pietr, Ducky Chuck—"
"Seriously?"
"You're off the hook 'til then."
Pietr flashes a grin, nudges Chuck back upright.
"But I can run—"
"To the cafeteria. Bye guys. C'mon, Cait."
"Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Hospital, five hours from now," Chuck mumbles.
"That was kinda fast," challenges Chuck.
"Internet. Shatterdome. 'Sure we'll take your Mark-V Ranger.' Easy." She makes grabby hands at cake.
Pietr gives it back.
"I learned th' from Tang Min."
Chew.
"Who?"
-HK 'dome-
"She taught me, 'you say 'Shatterdome,' people'll do all sorts of things for you.'"
Stab.
"Like send shoes home. Or bash yer skull in."
Chew.
"Oh. Hafta text—"
Pietr offers his phone.
"A phone!"
Chuck grins and takes it except Pietr holds it just out of reach and taps the screen.
'Only the number.' Swaps it for cake.
"Okay." She pokes it in.
The phone becomes cake.
Stab.
Listing again.
Pietr offers a course correction.
Nothing.
He leans away—just a bit—and pokes Chuck; tilts his head toward his other side.
Chuck glances across Pietr.
Dark-haired Chuck's fast asleep against Pietr's thigh.
-Drugged cake?-
Chuck giggles and nods. "Lightcap had some, too."
-Do now?-
Chuck's face falls, realizing they're kinda stuck.
-Pokemon?-
He rolls his eyes, stands up anyway. "Nerd."
-Copilot-
Tags: Pages in need of tags
Category:Ficlets made redundant
Category:Ficlets (incorporated)