“Are you going to stop blubbering so I can do my job?” the doctor asked, cutting harshly through Emmet’s speech.
“I have a schedule to follow and I have another appointment to get to in less than half an hour. Rest assured that therapy will be prescribed to both of you and you will both make full recoveries. We have technology that exceeds both of your futures. And besides, Jasper here is barely conscious any more. The next time he wakes up, feed him something and make sure to never exceed the quantities that I have given to Lila. All liquid foods for now as well, so you better eat those sandwiches,” he continued, flipping to a new page in his notepad and scribbling down some more notes.
Emmet sniffled, before laying Jasper down to lie comfortably on the sofa again, smoothing his hair and clothes down. He picked up the discarded cotton piece from where it had fallen and put it to the side, rebuttoning up Jasper’s shirt after and fixing his collar.
He reached
Emmet watched the doctor attach a small, pen looking device onto the area where the gel had been spread out. The machine beeped, the light on the end, that Emmet hadn’t noticed until then, turned red as well. The doctor then picked up another tool, while still keeping the pen looking thing on the cast, and attached them together, the beeping light obscured by the new addition onto it. It was only then that Emmet’s cast was left alone. The newly formed, combination machine was flipped around, and the doctor moved the cast, and Emmet’s leg. It was arranged so the heel of Emmet’s socked foot touched the floor, the weight of his leg resting on it and all the muscles relaxing. Held still, the machine touched the top of it, pressing down slightly, until the pressure was released and the doctor moved down the whole cast in one straight line, moving the device off as soon as he was finished. The process was repeated twice more on his leg, on the two sides nex
By the time that the doctor had left the office, Lila had been too tired of standing up and had sunken down to the floor, head on the ground and listening in on the entire doctor’s appointment for the two men that she was housing. She already had looked up a chart on starvation victims and how to get their stomachs back to be able to eat regular solid foods, all verified and checked over by the doctor, but she had no idea of the injuries of the other men, other than the obvious physical ones. She clutched at her pendant, dangling over her neck, and curled her body up into a tiny ball, the cold wood under her causing the occasional shiver through her body. It was always summer when she found herself unable to get warm, frequently bending over radios and wearing thick jumpers, only really sweating when she would accidently fall asleep in the day under her thick blankets. The arc of light from the opening door barely missed the edges of her wavey hair, f
It was easy enough to feed Jasper soup. Emmet took it one spoon at a time and Jasper opened his mouth up and closed it whenever it was needed. It felt like it was becoming a little insulting to Jasper, who was clearly capable of feeding himself, or it would be if he didn’t frequently close his eyes and leave the world every now and again, not responding to any verbal prompting or by touch. Emmet spent these moments taking a bite out of a sandwich and feeding himself some of Jasper’s soup, the warm liquid helping him to swallow down some of the toughened bread. Tomato and tuna weren’t good flavours to match with margarine and cucumber, but Emmet ate what he had made and what he had been given, swallowing everything down quickly to avoid the taste. It wasn’t too bad, but it left a lot to be desired. There were shadows moving along the wall, the shapes looking like two people elongating before shrinking once more height as they trailed ac
Jasper was happy to let Emmet feed him soup. It was warm. It tasted nice. And he was too tired to do it himself. The air was approaching being almost hot, slightly suffocating almost like a heavy blanket had been laid over him. There were no need for any additional layers over him, and it was easy enough to make Emmet sleep with him. As soon as he closed his eyes, he imagined that Emmet would want to leave him alone, sleep somewhere else and make a place to sleep away from Jasper, but the only thing that he did was reshuffle where he was lying, before settling down with an arm over him. Emmet’s fingers were long, and they settled lightly over his hipbone, before becoming still. Jasper fully expected Emmet to move around in his sleep and curl up closer to Jasper, holding him tight just like the night of the storm. There was no more little scale on Emmet’s neck and he smelled like wild berries that Jasper couldn’t put his name on.
Emmet woke up the next morning to a warm weight all along his front and a sunken spot in the sofa just behind his knees. He could hear a mumbled conversation happening over his head, and he instantly grew curious. Lying on the cusp of consciousness and a dream, it was difficult to hear, but, as he slightly shifted leg outwards to over the sofa, he hit something hard and confirmed that this was real. “Just try to get along with him, please, for my sake,” one of the voices pleaded, one that he instantly recognised as Jasper. It emanated from just above his head, and it was also then that he realised that a light touch was carding through his hair and stroking his face. “He told me that he doesn’t like me, and that he hated the person that I became in the future. I think it would be best for me to stay away,” another voice answered him, the voice being higher and giving the other person, and the weight by his leg, as Lila. “Was it his statement t
“Sucks to be you then. I want to be hit by a car. I’d push you out of the way and end up in the hospital first,” Lila began, her voice angry and shaking. “Lila!” Jasper gasped out in response, clearly not expecting her to say such a thing. Emmet had to agree with him, and now, looking back, it made too much sense. She had gone out of her way to make him hurt her and she was directly getting herself involved in this time travel affair. “I would. I really, really would. I really would Jasper. I would. You did so much for me. If it wasn’t for you, I would probably be dead in some ditch, or buried in my own basement years ago,” Lila went on to say, almost crying as she spoke. “Lila, you don’t mean that,” Jasper tried to reason, a note of desperation now in his voice. “Don’t fucking downplay it! We’ve both come from the same place and we’ve both been injured beyond our fucking boundaries. My right arm will never be OK again. My right hand physicall
Emmet waited and listened as Jasper and Lila continued talking. The conversation shifted away from Lila and her grievances to speculation of what could have happened to Emmet. Lila immediately began to establish a timeline, figuring out that the transfusion had to have happened before Emmet had rescued Jasper and brought him to her. Moreover, it had to have been before Jasper had first come to her, guessing that both Jasper and Emmet had gotten both of their injuries at similar times. “I’m going to assume that Emmet got the transfusion some time in my future, when he was on his own and after he rescued you. Emmet must have gotten the injury some time in that future, needing the transfusion, or, he got the injuries back in his own timeline, after you left him and jumped off the cliff. So he’s gotten the injury. The time that it took for you to be able to get up, without the nanobots, compared to your recovery from an even worse state now, looking at your stick
“Lila, did you really spend fifteen years waiting for me and doing what I said?” Jasper asked Lila. She had slung one of his arms over her shoulders, and supported him as the chief burden of walking was placed on him. He was the one to take the first step, and she followed after, making sure that he didn’t fall down after. All of the steps were small, and it felt like Lila took a small shuffle every two steps that Jasper made. She stood behind him, pushing his back upwards as they climbed up the stairs, both hands on the banister keeping him up and his back arching forwards, his eyes looking only upwards and never back. “I just kept the pendant safe from my parents for the most part. Sometimes, when I thought that you were a dream and there was no hope left in the world, I took out the pendant from underneath my mattress and just looked at it. I remembered what you said and I kept up with those breathing techniques whenever I was overwhelmed and reall
“Why’re you sleeping on the floor like that? Come on, get up. You’ll hurt your back doing that,” Doctor Marigold chided, dragging all her bits of heavy machinery around the office space to prepare for her demonstration.Behind her, Lila remained still.“I know that you’re not dead. Come, get up already,” she called out, stepping over a few sheets of paper that she had laid out to grab Lila by the shoulder and heave her up into sitting.The stubborn girl just flopped down again, not opening her eyes.“If you get the fuck up, we can move the flight a week forward so you can stop worrying about it,” Lucy Marigold shouted across the room.Like a rubber band, Lila snapped back up and finally opened her eyes.It had been harder to see the bags below them when they had been closed and Doctor Marigold wondered if she should buy the girl some sleep tablets.“I’m awake,” Li
Yolanda seemed to understand that she needed to back off and stop teasing Gretel, when the other woman's eyes suddenly misted over, and it was if she was no longer a part of this world.She kept the bubbling annoyance within her away from her face, putting on instead a mask of concern as she reached out and poked Gretel's arms, trying to maybe prod her out of her stupor and bring her back from the recesses of her mind.Yolanda had never actually seen somebody collapse inwards to a catatonic state over her own actions.It was interesting to see it all happen and fold out in front of her.She poked Gretel again, touching her in the face lightly to see if that would possibly work to pull the other woman out of her mind and back into the world where she was needed proper.It wouldn't reflect well on her if Gretel didn't wake up within the hour.It didn't feel as
When she awoke, she was sat ready to eat and was dressed just like her mother, in a pastel blouse and a lungi down to the floor.Lila looked down at herself and jumped when she heard rattling, noticing the ten, or so, bangles on each arm and the lines of mehndi that ran down all the way to the hems of her sleeves, resting halfway between her shoulders and elbows. A pin held her blouse shut at the top and a quick once over of her hair, with one of her hands, revealed that it had been styled in a simple bun and adorned with flowers.“This is weirdly romantic,” Lila commented, staring at the lit candles nestled in the variously sized candelabrums set around the circular room.There was no door, but a giant window which led to a balcony outside. There was no ceiling but the walls reaching upwards, all the way up, until they formed a dome in the same shade of dull brown that coated the floor and the giant, round table in the centre.The only dishes
“So, is she finally asleep?” Emmet asked the boy stood behind the counter. He was exceedingly slim for someone surrounded by sugar all day and Emmet could make out the outlines of his spindly elbows through his shirt. His face held a no nonsense, blunt, and almost bored expression. “Yeah, she is. She’s been knocked out on the sofa since I sent her back there,” Kai answered the long haired man in front of him, his hair pulled back by a ribbon matching his eyes before being pulled over his shoulder once more. He looked vain. “Oh good. Don’t tell her that I was involved,” the man asked, putting both his palms up to face Kai. “I’m telling her that you’re a fucking weirdo for that,” was the scowled answer. “No. Seriously, don’t tell her. She doesn’t like me and I don’t like her. She’s known my partner for longer that I’ve known him. She doesn’t trust me with him. Why’re you making that face?” Emmet tried to justify himself before giving up
“Are you sure that you’re getting enough sleep?” Kai asked Lila, watching her sway on her feet and clutching the front counter.“Yes,” she gasped, dropping her head into her hands, elbows on the table.“Go and lie down on the sofa. Go to sleep for a bit. I’ll wake you up when I have to leave for college,” Kai instructed her, tapping her on the shoulders and shepherding her towards the office.“… fine,” she conceded, letting Kai move her along towards the back.“You know that this just proves my point,” Kai pointed out, pushing her through the boundary of the door and closing it behind her.“Fine,” she whispered back to him, talking into the silence of the office.She let herself fall over the sofa, draping her upper body over the arm rest and letting her head be cushioned by the pillows. Shuffling a bit over to put her body entirely on the sofa, Lila f
“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now again!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!Now keep on going!”Lila landed each punch, timing her breaths to the count as she moved her fists, dodging underneath the swing that came towards her head, before blocking the second hit that came to her and moving along with the force of the fist that hit her arm.The swinging punching bag forced distance between Lila and Tweedle Dum, and she stepped back to where she was stood before, within the path of the moving bad, to put more distance between him and her.“One! Two! Three! Four! Five!One! Two! Three! Four! Five!”Lila punched the bag once more, landing all of her hits.“Okay, time for a break,” Tweedle Dum announced, grabbing the punching bag and pulling it back to him as Lila moved away from the centre of the room, sitting down on one of the rickety plastic chairs at the side of the room.She took of
“Bitch! Why’d you run off and abandon me like that!?” Lila shouted from behind the counter when Kai finally walked back into the store.She was waving her hands about and wore an apron covered in flour as the single customer in the store, an old man precariously balancing on his cane, slept whilst leaning on the radiator.“I thought that you wanted some bonding time with your family so I left you to do that it private!” Kai answered her, tiptoeing past their unconscious patron, in a combination of whispering and shouting.“They’re hardly my family and you left us in the middle of a public café!” Lila cried, not modulating her voice at all.In the background, the old man began to snore.“But you still talk to them a lot like you do to me, so I let you, and besides, I got about fifty more pages of Good Omens done in Waterstones,” Kai appealed, finally at the counter and opening up the
Gretel and Silver had their fun as he continued to teach her how the interface worked and how he had managed to figure out that the system was an older model from the lack of integration between the screen and the touch pad, and explaining how easily it would potentially be to do so once the technology, as displayed in this device, had been demonstrated and established to work in a functional product."We were working on something like this as well, back in the workshops back home for the company that I was in the research and development department for. We were trying to get our motion sensors to be as small as possible for more commercial and personal use of technology that we could sell to the public and those who couldn't afford the contact computers.We had no idea on how their tech worked, because of trade and company secrets and all, but we managed to piece together a few things by looking at the patents and when we bought a few and m
“Alright, the shop’s free. Why are you actually here?” Lila questioned, crossing her arms and staring down at the tablecloth of Jasper and Emmet’s table.“I’ve got lesson now. I’ll be back in a few hours,” the teenage boy behind Lila announced, picking up a bag that had been hidden behind the counter the entire time and rushing outside.Lila continued to stand there, waiting for a reply.Jasper couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t meeting either his or Emmet’s eyes.“Are you planning to leave us?” he asked her back.Lila’s fingers dug into the creases of her shirt,” I’m going to be leaving for a trip soon, and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Kai’ll be running the shop and will be looking after things, broadly. He lives here now and I scheduled my leave for when his school term ends so he can take care of things.”“On thi