Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nolan would have preferred to sit this little excursion out, but a cosmic being floating through Earth's solar system produced a lot of nervous people. So here he was, part of the group in the upper atmosphere helping usher it along. That things of such self-reported cosmic infiniteness had a tendency to get lost really did not speak too highly of their evolutionary path.

"What boon could I grant you for your assistance?"

Omni-dimensional beings also all sounded like assholes, as far as Nolan was concerned. If they were using a reflection of a being's own psyche in order to communicate to begin with, why did they never sound like how anyone in your life actually spoke?

"No boon required, we're just happy to help," War Woman said.

The answer wasn't totally moralistic hero bravado. She and the Guardians had all filled Nolan in on the reality tearing likely to cause major disruptions across the planet if a being like this started moving matter around. Such 'gifts' were rarely worth the cost. Even just getting close to the planet had already disrupted multiple satellite transmissions, not to mention Nolan's evening plans.

The near fathomless collection of space dust, and likely some temporal nexus, turned its focus to The Immortal next.

It took him a moment to respond, probably because with all the flashing lights inside of it, it could be difficult to tell where it was looking. "Ah, I'm fine as well. No boon required."

Before it fully turned its focus to Nolan, he answered, "I'm good without one too, thanks."

Both Guardians shot him slightly exasperated looks, but quickly masked them. He knew they were getting a little irritated with this whole situation dragging itself out, too.

"You all have great care for this planet. Strong roots. Some quite deep."

Immortal's face struggled to stay polite. He got grumpy when his age was brought up. Nolan knew better than to mention that he was older than him, and that he should get over his melancholy on the subject. They were almost done here, he could go look for some actual problems to solve, and then go home for dinner.

"Connections bind us."

Was it going to mention that space was big next?

"The distances some of us go are not all measured in light."

Fuck. Was this thing reading his thoughts?

"A tether pulls both ways."

Immortal and War Woman shared a look from the corner of their eyes. Nolan's grip tightened on his arms across his chest. Steady. He would keep his head clear. No stray concerns. He was above the Earth. Nothing more. No intent. No strategizing. No forewarning. He was a body above the Earth and it would know nothing else of him.

"Do not be alone. I grant you this."

It collapsed in on itself, light and sound shutting away as it condensed. The little piece of itself that it had sent their way as an envoy to be perceived stopped pretending it was matter that touched their atmosphere. It was like being shoved from the density of a planet's core out into the vacuum of space. A single tether formed outside of itself before it vanished. The world stopped being compressed and the three of them were simply back above the clouds.

Just for a moment, all Nolan could think of was a drop of rain falling onto the surface of an ocean. Impossible to discern or distinguish as separate from its new place, gone and yet made vastly larger by being consumed. What measurable change did it hope to make? It was minute. It wasn't rain anymore. Just the ocean. Something scratched across the back of his throat, down through his chest and lodged itself behind his heart, making it skip a beat. A drop of rain falling into the ocean. Could you really call that drowning?

He turned and launched himself away, the sudden force of his departure sending War Woman and Immortal spinning through the air. One or both of them shouted something, but he had no time to try and hear it. He had said no. He had said no, and it had looked at him and made its own decision.

Fuck.

He came to a stop with the same concussive force as he had taken off, hearing the breaking of glass and the sudden cacophony of car alarms as windows shattered at his arrival. He ignored it all and moved through the frame of what had once been his sliding back door.

"Debbie? Deborah?"

He could hear Mark crying. Nolan floated farther into the house, coming into the living room with the back of the couch facing him. His son was standing on the cushions, pudgy little fingers holding the back in a death grip while he continued to wail. His cheeks were red and trailed with too many tears for this outburst to have been solely because of the shattering glass. He reached out and picked his son up, holding him close to his chest with one arm.

"Debbie?"

Aside from the property damage, his arrival had set off every alarm and all the neighborhood dogs were barking. She just couldn't hear him amidst the cacophony. She was here, not lost in that undertow, she had to be. Mark's arms smacked against him as he flailed, still bawling loudly. Nolan cradled the back of his head, trying to keep him close, trying to soothe him. He hummed awkwardly, and the rumbling in his chest finally seemed enough to bring Mark down from wails to choking little sniffles. His son got quieter, though the neighborhood was still noisy with human panic, and now shouting. Nolan moved around the couch into the living room proper.

A blanket was on the ground, scattered with Mark's toys and his current favorite picturebooks. The house was always in a state of disarray with such a young child roving around, but the current tableau of things was made more chaotic by Debbie convulsing in the middle of it, scattering objects with her twitching limbs.

Nolan shoved the couch and coffee table away from her so she wouldn't hurt herself against them. That pain he had felt when that little thing had drowned inside of him had been accurate then. She was going to find out, or more than likely, be brain dead from what was happening to her. Better to break her neck now and save her the heartache. Mark rubbed his snotty face against Nolan's neck while he continued to watch his wife convulse on the floor.

"I didn't realize you could move so fucking fast. What's going on- shit." Immortal had followed him.

He couldn't take his eyes off Debbie even to be mad at the man.

"Omni-Man? Om- fuck it, Nolan."

He finally looked at him.

"We need to get her to Guardians’ HQ."

They would try and help her. There wasn't anything they could do. She was human. Her brain wasn't built to house the scope of memories he possessed, let alone having them dumped on her all at once. It was a miracle she hadn't suffered an aneurysm and just died. It would have been simpler if she had.

Mark slammed his tiny hands into Nolan’s chest, snot filled nose blunting his words. "Bha -bha- bha-bha, ma-maaaa-"

Immortal looked away from them, almost guilty, and knelt down next to Debbie.

Nolan jolted forward, Mark's hands still slamming against him. "Don't-"

"-bha- bhaaaa-"

"Can you manage both of them?" Immortal asked gently.

Nolan grit his teeth, "I-" of course he could carry them, but what if- "fuck!" He squeezed his eyes shut. "Just..."

"-bhaaa -bhaaa-"

"I'll be careful," he promised.

"I need to get some things for Mark." He had to stop reacting to the situation. Start making plans.

"Of course. I'll see you both there."

"-bhaaa -bhaaa-"

She looked awkward in Immortal's arms with her limbs still twitching, but he didn't drop her. They left out the shattered back door.

"-maaaa-ma-"

Nolan closed his eyes for a moment, then lifted his cape to begin wiping off Mark's face. His son shook his head, hiccuping as his words were interrupted. His tiny hands grasped at the cape, twisting it between his fingers. You're going to be fine , Nolan almost said. Mark shoved the dirty corner of cape in his hands at Nolan's mouth. After watching Debbie do the dishes the other week, he had dropped several books and sippy cups into the toilet. She had begun to worry he might see Nolan flying and try to do the same. They had agreed to keep the Omni-Man suit and the powers out of his day-to-day life until he was older.

Perhaps he wouldn't remember any of this. Perhaps it was all for the best. Perhaps-

Mark let go of the cape to grip Nolan's mustache with both hands. "Bha-bha gis." Papa kiss.

He reached up, managing to convince his son to grab his hand instead of his facial hair. Debbie had told him 'that furry caterpillar on your lip' was what made a papa kiss so different from the ones mama gave. He kissed his son's brow, mustache brushing his forehead.

He needed to get out of here before emergency services swarmed the area and saw either of them. The GDA would be sniffing around too.

Chapter Text

Mark kept trying to pull his hat off. Nolan would have preferred to keep his son tucked at his chest, one hand cradling his head to keep him and the hat in place. Mark had flailed until he had been turned around, able to look out over where they were going. He screamed at the wind in his face and did not like the hat covering his ears. He disliked not being able to see with even greater screams. Nolan traveled slower than he wanted to, what with flying backwards to form a windbreak in order to try and protect his son. Not to mention if he moved too quickly, it was likely Mark could black out from lack of air, little lungs not capable of taking in enough oxygen at high altitudes with superspeed pushing at his chest. Fuck knew Nolan wanted a moment of quiet to think, but a blue lipped toddler in need of resuscitating wouldn't help the situation.

Debbie was alive. For now. Maybe there was a chance her mind would repress what was being done to it and he would get his wife back, none the worse for wear. Fragile as they were, humans made it through a lot by lying to themselves, intentionally or otherwise.

Nolan pushed Mark's hat back down over his ears as the snow covered peak of the Guardians base came into view. His son smacked his hand in extreme offense, but was distracted enough by the side of the mountain opening up that he stopped yelling. Nolan drifted down the tunnel, landing lightly on the platform at the bottom. Green Ghost, sans their typical green appearance, was the only one waiting for him.

"Oh, you- you're not- well, okay."

What? Did he think he could sling a bag of baby gear on his back over his cape? Well, he could have, but he wasn't about to. The world didn't need a glimpse of what was easily identifiable as Omni-Man heading into the mountains with a baby. Mark got his hat off and chucked it at Green Ghost. Nolan caught it before it could make contact.

"Where?"

Ghost led the way, though he kept shooting him looks from the corner of his eye, as if civilian attire had transformed him into a different person. That was the point of a secret identity in a way, though Nolan mostly felt like Nolan through it all. Omni-Man was an incredibly new Earth moniker. Debbie mostly used it to tease him.

Nolan hadn't spent a lot of time at Guardians headquarters. He typically assured them if they needed his help with anything, he would be able to find them at the site of the disaster. He wasn't sure what to make of their overtures to fold him into their group, and bringing up that he had a wife and child at home generally was enough excuse to get away from them. Being among them would be an easy way to keep an eye on them, but could raise more questions than he cared for.

He had never had any reason to enter their infirmary. It wasn't like he was going to get hurt on this mudball, and he wasn't a medic. The only reasons Debbie had ever been to a hospital since he had known her were for check ups related to her pregnancy with Mark. She had refused the ambulance ride the day they met because his intervention had prevented anything disastrous from happening. He had seen plenty of humans hurt and killed since he had arrived here, but he had never seen his wife injured before. He supposed that was enough of a reason for his freezing back at the house. If he had acted quicker, Immortal and the Guardians wouldn't need to be involved at all. Debbie would just be dead. Nolan’s bones almost seemed to ache for a moment.

Mark took his hat back and stuffed it into his mouth.

War Woman and Immortal were talking in the corner when he entered. It was Darkwing who was standing over the bed that held Debbie. Nolan walked over to her, Mark beginning to excitedly squirm in his hands. The room got quiet except for the machine beeping of the monitors she was hooked up to.

Darkwing's gaze lingered on Mark before turning to Nolan. "We gave her some muscle relaxants to try and keep her from tearing anything. The seizures still haven't stopped, I've never seen a brain light up like this before."

"You're a doctor too?" Nolan didn't bother to keep the skepticism out of his voice. Mark struggled to reach for his mother and keep his hat in his mouth at the same time.

Darkwing's expression didn't change. "I'm the one here with a vested interest in understanding how bodies work." The rest of the Guardians either weren't human, or were so altered by their abilities they very well could be defined as non-human. How they got and how they felt about those powers varied. The need for medical intervention on their bodies in case of injury also varied greatly, Darkwing simply insisted he preferred being prepared. "What I don't think I can handle, I get referrals on. Normally through the GDA."

He tried not to grimace too heavily at that, but what did he expect? These were the only people who even had a chance of helping. They knew that too. He couldn't take Debbie anywhere else without drawing suspicion. No standard hospital could even know what happened to her without risking his identity as Omni-Man getting out.

There was a whoosh of displaced air as Red Rush careened into the room, stopping at Nolan's side and handing something off to Darkwing. "Told you I could get it, no problem."

"That does not make me feel good about hospital security," Darkwing muttered.

Red Rush waved at Mark, who ignored him as he continued to try and reach for his mother. The hero didn't look offended, and turned a much more somber expression towards Nolan. "The others explained, but how did you know something had happened?"

"I felt it."

"Ah, lover's danger sense, very romantic-"

"Josef-" War Woman approached them.

"No," Nolan snapped. "Right when that thing left. I felt... her."

Darkwing frowned. "Can you be more descriptive than felt?"

Drowning. She was drowning. "No."

"You think it did something to both of you?"

He knew exactly what that fucking thing had done. "I have no idea."

"Aside from that... feeling, have you noticed any changes?"

"No." That was true enough. Perhaps a sense of shame that he had failed to respond as he should have.

"Mama!" Mark screamed, finally releasing his hat.

The Guardians crowding around them all took a step back at the outburst, suddenly appearing more busy within the room. Except for Red Rush, who caught the spit soaked hat before it could hit the floor. Nolan turned his son around so he wouldn't be directly facing his mother anymore. Mark squirmed in his hands, face turning red as a new screaming fit built up in his chest.

That heavy feeling like a broken piece of granite wormed its way back down his throat to behind his heart. It was accompanied by that new ache in his bones.

Mark started scream-crying.

chanceforsomethingchangebabypainholdhimwhereis-

“-get the kid.”

“You have any brilliant plans then?” Josef quipped. “A way to make that happen? You’ve seen what happens when he wants to hold on to something.”

“Don’t remind me,” Immortal grumbled.

Nolan blinked. Mark was crying in his outstretched hands. He pulled him close to his chest, trying to get him to be quiet like he had back at the house. The bouncing just made his cries oscillate.

War Woman, Darkwing, Immortal and Josef were all staring at him.

“What?” He snapped at them. Like they could get a damn baby to stop crying any better than him.

“What just happened?” Immortal looked at Darkwing.

“I’m not sure.”

“Nolan, what did you just experience?” War Woman asked.

Nolan. He might have introduced himself to them that way, but once he picked up Omni-Man they had all been a bit uptight about using it constantly. The switch now felt… cautious. Like they were trying to coax him towards something. They had given him a whole spiel about how when in the middle of a crisis, you asked someone their name so you could talk them through what they needed to do to survive. As if someone's name was somehow soothing.

It just put him on edge, the way they were watching him. Debbie and Mark were nearby, he couldn’t- “What the fuck are you talking about?” Mark’s screaming subsided as he grew too tired to keep pulling in full lungfuls of air. He mostly dripped snot and tears on Nolan’s shirt while attempting to wiggle his body back around.

He liked staring at doorknobs. Well, he had before he’d moved on to blocks. Were there any doorknobs in Guardians’ HQ? Most of their doors were automatic. Probably not.

“You sort of… froze, for a moment.” Josef held his hands up in a parody of how he had been holding Mark a moment ago.

Only Immortal had been at the house. No one else should have seen him hesitate. What was he talking about? “No, I didn’t.”

“You did though,” Darkwing said.

His first impulse was to deny it again. Nothing here even remotely had the ability to interfere with his perceptions. What that thing had done, well, the scant few decades of Debbie’s life were somewhere in his thoughts, but nowhere near loud enough to be noticeable. Remembering any of her life wouldn’t seize him up, anyway. She had no life experiences which could be disruptive to him. Not that it would be easy to pull at her thoughts, anyway. A drop of rain in the ocean. He was the one that drowned her. “I’m fine.”

“We can’t know that,” Immortal said. “Why don’t you give Mark to Red Rush and we can-”

“No.” Were they… trying to take his son away from him? He moved a hand up to support the back of Mark’s head in case he needed to start moving quickly.

There was less than a second of held tension in the air.

War Woman looked to Josef. “Go bring a chair so he can sit with his wife.”

“Ah, right.”

Immortal frowned at her and Nolan narrowed his eyes. They just expected him to sit around here and wait? He could- he should- well, fuck it, if they didn’t need help keeping an eye on Earth, why not take the break? He had just been planning on going home and having dinner. That clearly wasn’t happening. If Debbie did wake up he should be nearby in case…

If she was even capable of talking, what would she say? Could he claim she was delirious? That that thing had dumped some false memories in her? That she simply didn’t understand what was floating around in her head? If her eyes were open, if she was looking at him, could he…?

Why was he even thinking about this? Looking someone in the eye while you killed them was infinitely more respectful than crushing them in their sleep. But if she had his memories and didn’t go mad, wouldn’t she understand? Want to help? He wouldn’t need to convince her of his mission, it would simply be hers too.

Immortal waved a hand in his face.

“I’m thinking, not losing time,” Nolan snapped.

“Just checking.”

Josef finally zipped back into the room. “You know, I never really noticed how few chairs we have here. We should maybe change that.”

“This is a crisis center, not a lounge,” War Woman said.

“We should still be able to put our feet up between crises.”

“You hate putting your feet up,” Immortal reminded him.

“Well, for all of you maybe. Make you less cranky.”

Nolan dropped the bag of baby gear at the foot of the chair and sat down. The Guardians’ bickering was irrelevant where it didn’t concern members of his family. Mark grumbled and squirmed, but it felt less like an escape attempt and more like he was trying to settle. Nolan tried to clean up his blotchy face as best he could before resting him against his chest. Him sleeping now was probably disruptive to whatever sleep schedule Debbie was trying to keep him on, but he could deal with that later. Nolan would need to come up with his own system if she- if she could no longer continue caring for Mark.

The display above Debbie’s bed showed red warnings noting the unusual brain activity occurring.

Chapter Text

Nolan didn’t really need to sleep at the same rate humans did, but it was an indulgence he had come to enjoy. Waking up to the soft feeling of his wife’s breath against his skin. The reminder that she was comforted by being close to him. How charmed Debbie always seemed to be if Mark fell asleep on his chest and Nolan decided to close his eyes too. The very idea that sleep would not result in ambush, it was decadent compared to what he was used to. A few years here and he was already napping so much. It was a bit ridiculous.

“Nolan?”

He looked over to where Debbie was sitting up on the bed. It was rare that she woke up before him. He smiled for her. She looked strangely relieved. She didn’t have to say anything. He leaned down and kissed her, gently cupping the side of her face. She arched up into the gesture, tugging on the front of his shirt, and he slid his hand down and around her throat. He should snap her neck. It would save her so much trouble. She was so delicate. It wouldn’t be any effort at all.

“Nolan.”

Oh. It wasn’t his wife who had been calling out to him.

ShadowskystrangerNolanjackassboyfriendhusbandfamily-

She was still indulgently kissing him, hand a strange anchoring counterpoint where she held onto him.

“Nolan!”

He opened his eyes and the sound of his son’s wailing washed over him. Nolan had his arms crossed over his chest, forming something of a cradle for his son to rest in. Mark was currently kicking and screaming in an attempt to get out of it. Immortal had one hand on Nolan’s shoulder, the other on his forearm, as if he was trying to pry his grip open. Holly was on his other side, doing the same. Martian Man was standing in front of him, arms stretched out into thin bands, trying to help Mark get free.

“Nolan,” he said once more. “If you would be so kind as to let me hold your son?”

He let his arms fall open and Martian Man pulled Mark to his chest, arms turning into a sling for him to rest in. Holly’s hand dropped from Nolan’s shoulder, Immortal’s did not.

“He is fine,” Martian Man spoke over the still ongoing screaming. “Just upset, I believe.” He smiled. Nolan knew from talking to him it was not an expression martians typically gave in order to comfort someone. He hadn’t told him it was an odd look on Viltrumites as well.

He looked past him towards the medical bed. Debbie was no longer convulsing, but she did not look like she was awake either. Had he been having a dream? He hadn’t intended to fall asleep.

He looked away from his wife. “What happened?” It rankled that he had to ask at all.

“It looks like you froze, same as earlier,” Immortal said.

“When we heard Mark crying we came to see if there was anything you needed. There were not many supplies in your bag,” Holly said.

They had gone through the bag? It was just supplies for Mark, but it did still irritate Nolan that they had gone through his things. Mark had quieted his screaming and was staring back at him with an intense frown on his tear streaked face.

“Papa,” his son announced. “Jar. ”

“What?” Immortal raised an eyebrow.

“He’s hungry. What time is it?” He likely hadn’t eaten anything recently when Nolan had gotten him out of the house to come here. When he wasn’t nursing food came in jars as far as he was concerned. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were immaterial words when compared to being able to announce jar as loudly as he pleased until someone opened one for him.

“I can feed him,” Martian offered.

“I can take care of my son.” Nolan eyed the hand still on his shoulder until Immortal removed it. He stood up.

“We still don’t know what happened, and you keep freezing,” Holly said.

“We don’t have many things for children here,” Martian offered in compromise, “I can hold him while you feed him.”

Nolan did not want to be watched and managed, but he had not intended to truly sleep then either. If he did keep losing time, it would be good to have answers. What happened shouldn’t have been affecting him. He flexed his fingers, thinking of his hand around Debbie’s throat in his dream. It shouldn’t matter, her life now in his. “How is she?”

“The seizures have stopped. Darkwing says the EEG doesn't look unusual. He says that is unusual, but a good sign. We’re still not certain what caused it, or if it’ll happen again.” Immortal crossed his arms. “That being said it gave you something before it left. I don’t suppose you have had any more thoughts on what that was? How this could be what it meant?”

“No.”

“Jar!” Mark cried out.

Nolan grabbed the bag from the floor. “C’mon kiddo, let’s get you fed.”

“And changed,” Martian Man added helpfully.

Right. And changed.

Once his pants were off, Mark immediately decided he needed to make a break for it. His legs were short, he wasn’t very coordinated, and Martian could stretch. He did not escape very far. Nolan finished cleaning him up, got him a new diaper, and put him back in pants. Which Mark decided to protest by screaming as loudly as he could and crying jar between breaths. At least seeing a distinctly non-human appearing alien wasn’t upsetting him. A dog had apparently scared him on a walk the other week. Aliens his son could handle, but dogs? Apparently not.

Martian turned himself into the most accommodating highchair imaginable, and Nolan got some food out. Mark blew bubbles, bobbing up and down excitedly.

“Do you think the technology here is incapable of assessing what is happening to you?”

Nolan froze at Martian’s words. As the spoon wasn’t quite close enough, his son stared at him expectantly, mouth open. Mark did not wait very long before reaching for the food. He dodged around his fingers and brought the spoon to his mouth. Mark drooled as much as he ate. At least Martian seemed aware of what he was getting into when he offered to become furniture for a young child to be fed on. His calm stare remained fixed on Nolan even as food and spit dribbled on him.

“You don’t know what’s happening to Debbie,” he settled on.

“Perhaps you have the answers.”

He did his best not to break the jar or the spoon.

“There could be a clearer picture if you allow Darkwing to examine you.”

Right. That was what he meant. “I… I need to watch Mark.” These people did not seem to think he could do that. There were some days he had the niggling suspicion Debbie did not think he could do it either.

He was doing fine now. He would do fine if-

“He doesn’t have to go anywhere.”

Martian would just be holding him while Darkwing scanned his brain. It wasn’t as if his thoughts and memories would spring out as holoimages, full sound and smell for them to witness. Nolan simply disliked the idea of anyone having any kind of scan of his body. The people here couldn’t do anything to him, but the idea that they didn’t truly know that yet was useful. It wasn’t as if they would be able to interpret a scan of him anyway. If something had changed, they didn’t have any other data from other viltrumites to compare it to. Nolan honestly wouldn’t know what to look for with the kind of equipment that was available on Earth. So fucking primitive. Like holding up a cheap magnifying glass to try and get a good look at molecules.

Mark caught the spoon and shoved the food into his mouth. His enthusiasm nearly choked him and he spluttered most of it back out before grasping for the spoon again. Nolan gave him an appropriate spoonful of food before wiping off his face. Mark wiggled his head to get away from the cloth cleaning him up, eyes locked on the utensil in Nolan’s other hand. He was still a mess. He would probably need to change his clothes after this.

Martian was still staring at him, waiting for an answer.

“I….”

“Papa.” Mark complained about the slow food delivery.

“What happens when you don’t find anything?”

“If we don’t find anything, we will keep looking. The Guardians are not in the habit of giving up.”

Right. World saving heroes and all that.

“We will do all we can to help you with whatever is happening.”

“Putting the world on hold?” Nolan asked skeptically.

“Green Ghost, Aquarius and War Woman are on standby to step up first, should anything arise.”

Darkwing would be doing the bulk of the research into whatever was occurring. Josef would be his errand boy for supplies. What the hell were Martian and Immortal sticking around for? Nolan thought about the hand on his shoulder when he woke up. How readily the others had been willing to see Martian take care of Mark. They were around to manage them then, were they? As if Immortal could actually hold Nolan. As if someone else was qualified to take care of his son.

Mark wiggled up and down in his martian highchair, crying out as his meal was once more paused. Nolan got him another spoonful, and Mark smacked his spit soaked lips together as if to say, well done faithful servant.

“Besides,” Martian added. “I believe everyone would agree making sure you are well is the least friends could offer.”

Friends. Debbie called them friends. Your friends, specifically at that, though she did seem to have some kind of odd thrill at knowing the Guardians on her own. Like there were categories of importance outside of himself or Mark.

-goldfishgonepuppydogoldmuttgone-

“Nolan? Can you hear me?”

Of course he could hear them, the real question was where the fuck were they?

“This seems different than the other times. His eyes are still moving.”

Like poorly made glass, like murky water, they were distant, something permeable but twisted was between them.

“Somehow that makes it creepier.”

“Go get-”

-parentsgonefriendgone-

The muck was clawed apart. Nolan could push through it. Being thrown into it had just been disorienting. Again and again something trying to suffocate him. Drown him. He was alone. He shouldn’t be alone. He hadn’t been alone. The spoon and the jar dropped out of his hands as he dashed forward.

There were two empty hallways before he heard voices.

“I’ll leave the boy with Grace. It’ll be better to have more hands free for other things.”

“Is she-”

“She can manage it.”

Nolan slammed his hand into the wall, keeping himself stretched out in the doorway, blocking the exit. Spiderweb cracks spread out from his fingers. “Where’s my son? ”

-gonegonegonegonegone-