Davenport, Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo and Amber were all in the lab, Davenport going back to the console where Chase was already typing on the console, and Leo was standing to the side, still fiddling with the desk, the others just waiting to hear why they were down there. There did seem to be a sense of anticipation in Davenport though, so Amber wondered what this was about.
“Well, Bree, you smashed your chip so badly, its useless, but-” he started with before turning to her to explain. “-I was able to replicate my brother’s original chip, and -like my face- its flawless.” He was so full of it.
“Forget the chip. We need to get this dude a mirror,” Leo chimed in, still unable to believe Davenports ego at times. Chase just gave an acknowledging but resigned glance.
Amber just gave Leo her own disbelieving stare. “Dude, if after he goes into a roomful of mirrors isn’t going to do it, why would just one?” She’d seen it, and while it did help if you were trying to make sure your outfit was good to go for a dance or something (not that she’d been asked to one, but she could dream) it sure hadn’t shown Davenport he wasn’t the sculpted image he thought he was, what would? Chase actually let out a small huff of laughter as Leo
acknowledged that truth before going back to work on the console.
The actual message of what Davenport was trying to say seemed to be starting to sink in for Bree though. “Wait, so I’m actually gonna be bionic again?” she asked slowly, as if she was still trying not to get her hopes up too early.
Her dad looked her in the eye with a confident smile as he said “Yep.”
“Yes!” She hugged him and thanked him multiple times, pinning his arms to his sides, but he didn’t try to get out of that until a chirp from the console told them the chip was almost ready. When he mentioned this she finally released him. Amber didn’t see many father daughter moments between the two of them, but that seemed to be a nice one, she noted.
“Oh! Snacks are done!” Adam finally spoke as Davenports shoulders actually sagged slightly in annoyance on his way to the ….. Glass box? At the other end of the other console.
“For the last time, this is not a microwave. Its a chip fabricator.” So that’s what it is, Amber noted.
Not surprisingly, Adam still argued. “Hey, call it whatever you want. I’m still making my mini pizzas in here.” Amber just smirked. That is so Adam.
After retrieving the chip from the fabricator, Davenport turned to Bree. “Okay, Bree, hop in your capsule and get ready for your new chip.” She took it after and excited smile and went straight to her capsule as Davenport headed for the original console where Leo waited for him, sitting on the stool Chase had been sitting on before.
“You know, Big D, if this works, maybe you can… make a chip for me,” he suggested hopefully.
Davenport gave a small huff of laughter in disbelief. “Please. Your body can’t handle high fiber cereal,” he pointed out. Leo just stared off for a minute after being shot down.
Everyone turned their attention back to Bree as her capsule opened and she stepped out, rubbing the back of her neck and stretching it a bit. “So? How does it feel?” Davenport asked.
“Like a piece of metal just got jammed into my neck and fused to my nervous system.” From the tone of voice used, Amber got the impression she hadn’t been as fond of that part as she was of the possibility of having bionics again. Her face was bland as she looked at Davenport, who was still excited.
“Whoo! Success! All right.” At this point he gave a nudge to push her to the middle of the room where she’d have room to try it out. “Now give it a try, see how it works.” She took a deep breath to steady herself for a moment as the others gathered around the console parallel to the capsules, waiting to see the results. A blur went all over the room, on the roof, knocking down a light fixture and several parts of the ceiling before Bree crashed onto the floor. Davenport looked frustrated, and Chase was giving Davenport a questioning glance as Amber and Leo exchanged disappointed glances.
“Well, she’s still more useful than chase,” Adam said as everyone shot him a shocked and annoyed glance. After which, Adam moved on to picking Bree up off the floor and carrying her to a stool they’d placed in front of the console they’d been standing behind a minute ago.
“You know,” Davenport started. “Technically speaking your bionics are working,” he tried to point out.
A deep distorted voice came out of Bree’s mouth. “You call this working?” She shook her head as the others were taken aback and frustrated, tried talking again, but this time her voice was much more high pitched. “I can’t control my vocal manipulation. I can’t control anything!”
Davenport was practically hopping in frustration as he applied some sort of collar to Bree’s neck to work on her chip again. “I’m so close. It just needs a few tweaks.”
As Davenport worked on Bree’s chip, Chase pulled at his brother’s arm to talk to him in a low voice away from the others, but Amber didn’t catch what he was saying. She was somewhat crossing her arms in front of her, but also kindof chewing on a fingernail. She still didn’t know how to help with this. She and Leo just watched Davenport and worried, although it looked more like Leo was trying to brainstorm a bit.
“No offense Big D, but ...if your brother’s the one who created her original chip…” Amber could already see where that was going, and how Davenport would react, but as much as she hated to admit it, Leo may be right about this. “Then maybe we should just call--”
“NO! Forget about it.” Davenport actually looked at him to make sure he was getting his point across. “I never wanna see that waste of space again.”
Chase, done talking to Adam about… whatever it was and his attention back to them, seemed to agree with Leo. “But he’s our only hope, and he’s not all bad. He did save us from Crane.” Amber wasn’t sure she liked this reminder, but he was right. He at least seemed like the lesser evil. Although, if he hadn’t warned them about Crane, her friends might’ve been under his control right now. And that could’ve made things a LOT worse. And Douglas did seem to care about them.
“Yeah, you know what else he did?” Davenport asked angrily. “He blew up the lab, kidnapped you, and stole all my money.”
Chase got the point, still not looking completely convinced, but not willing to argue further at the moment. Adam however… “All I’m hearing is adventure and excitement.”
Davenport looked even more frustrated, unable to speak for a moment. “Look, I do not need any help from Douglas. I will fix this. Okay?” He took the collar off of Bree as he finished talking. “Give me a little credit. I happen to be a tech genius,” he pointed out as Bree stepped away from the chair and back to her previous starting point. “Okay.” Davenport said, rubbing his hands together. “Lets give it another go.”
Bree took another deep breath before rocketing backwards toward the elevator and crashing after a sharp turn down the hallway to the right. Amber winced and pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to Davenport, who looked shocked, Leo and Adam had an “ouch” expression on their faces, and Chase looked as shocked as Davenport. He’s still got a lot of work to do…
After a moment, Adam finally said something. “Oh Mr Davenport, you are not good at your job.” Well that’s reassuring, Amber mused while giving him a disbelieving stare and Davenport ran after Bree. Adam and Chase went upstairs as Davenport kept working, getting more and more frustrated with each attempt, although, he did have Bree go in the capsule and extracted her chip so he could work on it that way.
Unlike Amber, Leo at least seemed to have a few ideas about what to try. But as Davenport got more and more frustrated, making suggestions seemed to be more and more dangerous as Davenport got more and more snappish in his replies. Until a shock from one of his attempts seemed to burn his hand and he looked at the chip for half a second before deciding he needed a break, and announced it rather loudly. With the way he was saying that, Amber didn’t doubt it. He sounded maniacal and forcedly cheerful. Bree just looked on, dismayed.
“Wow!” She said quietly, folding her arms in defeat. “I have never seen him like this.” She walked towards the tunnel, seeming to need the motion.
“I have.” Leo answered. “Remember last Christmas when he gained two pounds?” Amber rolled her eyes, pretty sure that didn’t actually compare. “Those fluffy sweaters weren’t fooling anybody.
“I’m scared Leo,” Bree replied with some urgency. “What if he can’t fix my chip? I had a gift and then, I just threw it away,” she continued with more dismay. By destroying that chip, I destroyed our team.” No one seemed to know what to say after that. Amber put a hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her, before Bree gave a reluctant smile of thanks and leaving through the tunnel. Leo seemed to be thinking for a bit before telling Amber he’d be back later. And Amber, not knowing where else to go, just sat on the the seats she sometimes slept on in the lab, lost in her thoughts.
At the park....
Douglas stood tidying up his food stand after his latest customer, and happened to look up to see Leo heading directly for him. He wouldn’t recognise him since he was wearing a cybermask, but it was still a little wierd to see him there.
“Excuse me, ma’am, I’m looking for a guy named Douglas? Have you seen him? Short, creepy, porcupine hair?” he asked, using his fingers to point up from his head as if to illustrate the “porcupine” hair. Seriously? My hair doesn’t look like that!
“I wouldn’t call it porcupine hair,” Douglas argued in his own voice. Leo just stared at him, not expecting that voice with the face he was wearing. Douglas looked around a bit before deactivating the cybermask, taking some pleasure in the surprise on Leo’s face. “It’s really more of a spikey lion’s mane.”
“Douglas?! You could be anybody with that cyber mask. Why would you go with… that?” he finished with distaste.
“Two reasons,” Douglas started replying matter of factly as he used one hand to brush crumbs off his cart into the other.. “Hides me from Crane, and … scares the pigeons away,” he finished as he watched for some of the birds that had been taking some of the food at times. He brushed the crumbs into a used paper hot dog plate and threw it in the nearby trash can. “How’d you find me?” He needed to be sure no one else could find him the same way.
“Well,” Douglas could feel the start of a long and likely unnecessary explanation. “I could make up an impressive story about a high tech satellite search that narrowed down your exact coordinates,” his hands were waving to emphasize what he was saying up until this point where he simply dropped his hands to his sides, “but the truth is… you butt-dialed me.” Oops. Good thing it was just Leo. And they may need to get a hold of me anyway. Douglas kept cleaning his hands as he acknowledged this. His gaze returned to Leo as he moved on to why he was here. “Look, we need your help. Bree wrecked her chip.”
“She what?! It took me years to perfect that thing.”
“Yeah, well, it took her three seconds to destroy it,” Leo countered. Douglas just crossed his arms as he fumed about this. He’d destroyed his share of things people had worked on for a long time too, but, this was Bree’s chip… and he couldn’t even work on that thing to repair it without a lab… And Donnie would probably just mess it up in the attempt to fix it. “The bigger problem is, Big D can’t fix it.” As frustrated as he was about Bree’s chip, he had to feel some triumph over his brother’s failure as he gave a huff of laughter.
“Of course he can’t.” He gave in to a laugh, pointing at Leo’s face. “I win again.” He turned his attention to right in front of him where he imagined his brother’s reaction to all that was unfolding with Bree. “Oh I can’t wait to shove his face in this one.” He continued cleaning his hands with a grin before Leo replied.
“It’s not about you beating your brother. He doesn’t even know I’m here.” That explained a few things. His brother would never let Leo or any of the others near him after all the things he’d done. But he had tried to save them the last time he’d seen them, and he’d still had a weapon pointed at his face. That still stung, and was part of why he was still reluctant to try to help. “But I had no other choice. You’re the only one who can help Bree.”
It seemed he had to explain something somewhat obvious to Leo. “I wish I could, Leo, but I don’t even have a lab anymore.” And without a lab, I can’t do squat for them. He continued walking toward his food cart to try to finish cleaning it.
“I’ll sneak you into ours while Big D’s out,” Leo countered promptly.
“I dunno…” Douglas replied. He could still see Donnie’s wrist weapon in his face from the last time he was down there. Trying to save their butts, might he add.
“Please?” Leo asked. “Dad?”
That threw Douglas off. What? “I’m not your dad!”
“Well you’re everybody else’s dad, I thought it might work.” Douglas just brushed him off and returned to his place behind his cart as Leo countered him around the front. “Look, now is not the time for hurt egos or grudges. Bree’s my sister, and I have to fix this.” Douglas put his hands on either side of the cart, studying Leo’s face. He looked very determined, and he believed Leo would’ve tried to talk to them about Crane if he hadn’t been kidnapped before he’d had the chance. “She needs your help.”
There was only so much of this he could take. Besides, he probably was the only one who could help her, and she was his daughter. “Okay.” He tossed his rag back on his cart, and reapplied his cybermask before saying his next thought. “I guess I’ll just have to be the bigger man.” Leo looked a bit disturbed at this. His voice coming out of an elderly female face would probably do that.
Back at the lab.....
Amber was still sitting on the chairs in the lab, not sure of what to do, when she heard Leo returning through the tunnel. She stood and turned to see him come in with … Douglas? And a food cart. Her eyes widened in surprise and anger. She knew he wasn’t the one responsible for her family, and he had tried to help them in the past, but part of her couldn’t get past what he’d already done. Douglas saw the look on her face and, while he did look sorry, he looked a bit resigned to that reaction. “Leo,” Amber said carefully, surprised she could speak calmly or clearly with her teeth clenched so tightly. “Explain.”
Leo set his jaw for a moment before saying, “He’s the only one who can fix her chip, and we all know it.”
Amber just clenched her teeth a bit tighter, but couldn’t deny it. Shaking her head slightly, trying to keep her anger in check, she looked back at Douglas and told Leo, “You’d better be right about this.” She moved to let them through, and couldn’t help but wonder about the food cart. “One thing though,” she couldn’t believe she was actually asking, but curiousity and all… “What’s with the cart?”
Douglas tilted his head slightly and gave a bit of a smirk. “A guy’s gotta eat somehow. And since I can cook…” he simply gestured to the cart as he pulled the apron and white shirt off, revealing his camo green shirt underneath, with his semi typical green cargo pants and….. What kind of boots were those?
She crossed her arms. With his past, she had to clarify something. “The food’s not poisoned, is it?”
“No, my best bet for customers is repeats and referrals so I can’t poison them.” He said someone disappointed. “Besides, that way they can talk up about how great my food is to other people.” That part sounded much more cheery, and reminded Amber again how weird conversations seemed with him.
Well, it had been a while since she’d eaten. So she tried a hot dog as Douglas got to work on Bree’s chip. It wasn’t bad as hot dogs go. After finishing the hot dog, her appetite hit in force.She had never had much of an appetite to begin with, but everything going on since being kidnapped by Crane had reduced it to next to nothing. And suddenly, perhaps out of nerves, she was extremely hungry. So she wound up eating another hot dog, several bowls of nachos, and handfuls of pita chips while Douglas sat working on the chip. Douglas and Leo seemed to ignore her, mostly. Leo gave her a few surprised glances here and there as he loaded up his own plates, frequently commenting on his surprise at Douglas’ cooking skills. Although, while he wasn’t loading his plate, Leo was typically keeping an eye on his watch, getting antsy about Douglas’ pace.
“Big D’s gonna be back any minute! DO SOMETHING!” Leo yelled the last part right in Douglas’ ear.
Douglas started off mildly. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear ya’. COULD YOU SAY IT A LITTLE LOUDER?!” he roared back. Turning back to the console and the chip fabricator, he pushed another button before announcing his results. “There. That’s as close to my original design as I can get.” He pushed up from his chair to retrieve the chip.
“If your microchips are as good as your pita chips, I think we’re in good shape,” Leo replied confidently. Amber just held her stomach. The food had been good, but she was really regretting how much she’d had. She didn’t have any time to make any comment however because that’s when Bree appeared at the door to the lab, stopping suddenly when she saw Douglas in their lab.
She walked around the cart to join Leo before asking “Leo, what is he doing here?”
“It’s okay, I brought him. He’s the only one who can help you.”
She clearly wasn’t sure about this. Join the club, Amber thought. But Leo had a point. “I don’t know about this,” Bree told him.
“We don’t have a choice. Do you wanna be bionic or not?” Amber, Leo and Bree looked at Douglas just as the chip fabricator bell rang, letting them know it was done.
He grinned as he retrieved the chip. “Chip’s ready if you are,” he said cheerfully as he strode over to join them before getting a whiff of the chip he was holding. “Why does it smell like pepperoni?” Amber let out a small huff of laughter. He would notice that wouldn’t he? Douglas eyed the chip fabricator again briefly.
Bree rolled her eyes, accepting the point. “Okay fine. But this better work.” She approached Douglas and almost accepted the chip before thinking of something else. “Wait! You’re not gonna, like, turn me evil, are you?” Fair question, Amber thought as she eyed Douglas skeptically.
At this he looked mildly disappointed in a failure as he told her “I already tried. Didn’t take,” and handed her the chip. Bree took it, and went into her capsule.
“Don’t worry, Bree,” Leo said in a food muffled voice. “I think we can trust him. What bad guy makes Baba Ghanoush this good?” Another of Leo’s comments about food went ignored as Douglas sat back behind the console to push the necessary buttons for the chip, grinning as he did.
“I’ve got a really good feeling about this,” he mused as he turned to Bree stepping out of the capsule. Amber stood, her stomach calming down finally, and still hopeful about Bree’s chip. “Okay, go ahead,” Douglas said as he motioned Bree back to the spot she had started from before. “Test it out.”
Amber noticed that despite all of their distrust towards Douglas, they all seemed excited about this attempt with her chip, her included. She bit her lip, not from fear or anything of what Douglas may be doing, but just hoping this worked. This time, when Bree took off, it seemed to be the way she always did. Amber let out a small laugh of relief as her heart did a bit of a leap for Bree.
“Yes!” Leo shouted. “You did it.” Douglas and Leo shared a high five and Douglas wrapped a triumphant arm around Leo’s shoulders, like family or friends would do, not out of trying anything sly. Amber just gave an acknowledging nod and smile to Douglas, before Bree shot through the room again.
“I can’t stoooooop!” her voice called as she whipped past them. Douglas watched after her looking frustrated.
“I thought you knew what you were doing!” Leo accused.
Douglas just held his arms out in a defensive stance. “I’m a little rusty, okay?” he retorted. Amber just sighed and looked back at where Bree had disappeared.
Uh oh... Donald comes in.....
“How did he get in here?” Amber heard Davenport’s irate voice from behind her. UH OH… He’s gonna be pissed. When she turned to look at him, he sure looked like it.
Leo was between him and Douglas, which may have been a good thing for the moment. He took a deep breath before explaining, still holding a paper bowl of food. “I let him in.” Davenport looked very surprised at this. “But…” Leo held up a hand, a plea to let him explain. “Before you get mad,” almost looking for any excuse to stall, he held up the bowl of food. “You’ve got to taste this.” That’s your argument dude? Seriously? Amber just hung her head and put her hand on her forehead. It was good food, but did he really think that was going to sway him?
Bree swept through again, bringing their attention back to what was going on. “Help meeeeeeee!”
Davenport stepped forward and pointed an accusing finger at Leo. “I specifically told you not to contact him. How could you betray me?” he demanded.
“Hey in my defense,” groping for an answer, he came up with another lame one. “I”m just a little boy,” he said hurriedly in a somewhat smaller voice. Neither Davenport brother seemed impressed with this.
Douglas finally stepped forward, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder and patting him with the other. “Oh lay off the kid. He was just trying to help.”
“Help her?!” Davenport yelled back. He started backing Douglas behind the console as he spoke. “She’s worse off than she was before! I was this close to fixing this!” he finished as he held up his fingers to illustrate.
At this Douglas stood some ground. “Oh I saw your chip, you were not close.” The brothers got in a mocking spatting exchange as Bree swept back through with the plea to “dooo somethiiiiiiiiiiiiing”.
“Bree do you mind? The adults are tryin’ to have a conversation.” He turned to Leo for a moment. “We’re never gonna be able to fix that chip unless we can get Bree to stay in one place.” Douglas wasn’t talking, just trying to work that out.
“How are we supposed to stop someone moving at the speed of sound?” Amber asked.
“Spike strip?” Douglas suggested. Davenport just scoffed for a moment before throwing in some sarcasm.
“Sure why not? It worked for Wile E. Coyote.” Douglas dropped his hands in defeat at that suggestion, but already trying to think of more. “Maybe we can construct some sort of giant air bag,” Davenport thought out loud.
“Oh yeah, cause that’s not cartoony at all,” Douglas retorted. Spawning another argument.
“Spike strip- where’d you get that idea, your hair?”
“Where’d you get air bag idea? Your belly?” They stooped to more almost unintelligible bickering.
Amber just wanted to rip out her hair at this point, They weren’t making any progress with a solution at this rate, but with a look at Leo’s face, she realised he just might have something.
“Ballistic gel!” Leo threw in with his finger raised as if in an epiphany.
Thankfully, this got both brother’s attention as they both asked “What?” Amber just gave a confused frown.
“You know the gel that forensics labs use to test firearms.”
The brothers considered this, both seemed to agree it might work. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“I thought it wasn’t a bad idea before you did,” Douglas threw in. Always a competition with those two, jeeze louise…
“Spike strip,” Davenport said under his breath.
“Air bag,” Douglas replied in kind.
Soon enough, Leo had a square about two feet wide and a foot tall right in Bree’s path of ballistic gel. “Okay, its set. Next time she runs through here, she’ll get stuck in there like a rat.” The brothers just nodded right as Bree shot through and suddenly stopping in her tracks right in the ballistic gel.
“Yes!” she gave a relieved smile as she wiggled around, her legs unable to stop trying to move, but not having the space for it right now.
“It worked!” Leo called to the brothers, who answered in unison.
“I know, I’m a genius!” Both of them gave a distasteful look at each other before turning back to Leo and whispering, also in unison “I’m a genius.” They exchanged looks again.
The Davenport brothers working.... together... more or less
They managed to rig up a harness of sorts so she could hang from the ceiling while her legs kept moving but staying in one place as they worked. But they still had a lot of work to do. Leo and Amber monitored her vitals as the brothers worked on her chip. Growing impatient after a while, Bree asked “Can someone please do something?”
“Her heart rate’s at two hundred and rising,” Amber relayed to the brothers, tightly. “I may not be a doctor but that doesn’t seem like a good thing,” she added somewhat pointedly. If they would stop arguing and work more on her chip, they might actually be able to solve this.
“This is all your fault. You overloaded her chip,” Davenport accused.
“My fault!” Douglas retorted. “It was your chip I was trying to fix,” he continued before adding another jab at his brother. “Which was flawed, much like your original nose.” Davenport just gasped in response to that.
“Get… this chip… out of meeee!” Bree wailed.
At this Davenport rushed over to Bree as he answered. “We can’t remove your chip while your bionics are in use, but we can reprogram it wirelessly with this.” He attached something to the back of her neck and rushed back to the console.
“Hurry, she’s red lining!” Leo called. “If we you don’t do something her heart could-”
Bree cut in. “Her heart could WHAT?”
Leo just looked at her for a moment before turning to the others. “What’s another word for explode?” Amber avoided looking at Bree’s reaction to how Leo had put that.
“I’ll enable a diagnostic app that will help us isolate problem areas in the code.”
“We don’t have time for that. I’ll fix the code,” Douglas replied as he shoved his brother aside. They both fought over the keyboard for the next minute.
“Will you two knock off the fighting? She doesn’t have time for this!” Amber yelled. “We’re RUNNING OUT OF TIME!”
“Wait!” Douglas finally broke in with an almost epiphany face. “This line of code hasn’t been debugged!” he pointed to a specific line on the console.
Davenport looked at Bree for a moment as he let that thought take root. “That’s why her neural array keeps reindexing!”
“What does that mean?!” Leo demanded as his arms pumped in the air, still frustrated. Amber just scrunched up her forehead and guessed.
“An early part of the code is wrong so it keeps trying to restart…” she said in a questioning voice.
The brothers, again in unison, said they solved the problem, then called the whole line of code in unison before trying to finalize it. “Well here it goes,” Davenport said as he did.
Mercifully, Bree’s feet stuttered to a stop and she drooped as much as she could hanging in the harness they’d rigged up. Amber looked at the vitals.
“Yes! Her heart rate’s going down. It’s headed for normal.” Amber breathed a sigh of relief as Bree let out a weak “Yay!” Leo and Amber went to Bree to give her a hug, as the brothers started some elaborate handshake….. Dance…. Thing as the kids watched in horror.
“I wish my heart exploded before I saw that.” Part of Amber couldn’t help agreeing, but at least they weren’t arguing or trying to kill each other at the moment.
Upstairs....
Not long after that, Leo and Amber sat on the couch upstairs as Adam and Chase came through the front door. “Hey guys,” Leo started as he stood up. “Guess what?”
Bree didn’t waste any time, she was in the middle of the room almost before they could even take another breath. “I’m back losers,” she said happily. Adam looked confused, as usual, but Chase smiled, surprised, but pleased for his sister.
“You got your speed back!” He gave his sister a hug.
“Well that’s too bad, ‘cause we kinda already moved on,” Adam said awkwardly. The others didn’t have much time to react to that because the Davenport brother’s strode in.
“Hey boys,” Douglas greeted them with.
Both Adam and Chase looked confused, but Chase seemed more friendly about it than Adam. “Douglas? What’s going on?”
“He fixed her chip,” Amber told them, somewhat resigned, but still trying to acknowledge that Douglas had done something good for them. Even that much was hard, but she was trying to see Douglas in a different light now that he had been trying to help them. Once glance from Chase seemed to tell her he’d understood what else that must have meant coming from her. It wasn’t for more than a second, but he seemed to understand that.
“Actually,” Douglas corrected, “we fixed her chip,” he finished motioning to include his brother. Then looked him in the eye for a minute before continuing, patting his brother’s shoulder for a moment before wrapping an arm around the other shoulder the way he’d done with Leo earlier. “That’s right, the Davenport boys, together again.”
Everyone seemed unsure about this, until Davenport spoke up. “Yeah, not quite.” Douglas just gave him a confused look and pulled away, giving Davenport some space. “Look I’m grateful for your help, and I couldn’t have done it without you… but I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done to this family.” Douglas’ face fell as he absorbed this statement, but not looking defensive this time. “You should go.”
“Oh,” was all Douglas seemed to manage.
Amber was torn. At first she had believed that this man had been responsible for her family’s demise, but they had since proved that wasn’t the case. And even with everything he had done, he had always proven some level of caring about them. And lately, with him warning them about Crane, helping with Bree’s chip, even after being threatened with a weapon after saving their lives…. Now he was…. Just being dismissed?
“You can’t throw your own brother out on the street,” Chase countered.
“Why not? I’d do it to you,” Adam chimed in, earning a punch in the arm from Amber. She didn’t even think about it, she just did it. His siblings just gave exasperated looks before Davenport continued.
“He’s tried to hurt us too many times.”
“But he’s also saved our lives,” Bree cut in. “Twice.”
“Plus,” Leo added. “Dude can cook.”
Douglas seemed to think of something else at that. “Speaking of, you’ve eaten sixty bucks worth of my food. Pay up.” One part of Amber was wondering how he could think of money at a time like this, but then she remembered, he didn’t seem to have a place to stay, so he had already probably been trying to figure that out.
“You heard the man. Out!” Leo decided. Amber just shot him a look of distaste. That boy was so fickle at times. Douglas just dropped his hand in defeat and headed for the door as the bionic trio started to try to argue more on his behalf. Amber just stepped back to let him through, not bothering to hide being torn.
“Guys,” Douglas cut in as he made it past them. “Its okay. He’s right.” Douglas motioned toward his brother. “I messed up.” Amber glanced at him, who didn’t look like he’d change his mind, but he didn’t look hostile or anything. She looked back to Douglas. “I’ll see ya around.” When?
As he walked to the door, she fought a short inner battle. “Douglas!” It came out sharper than she’d intended because she was trying to make sure she had his attention, but he turned back for a moment. She bit her lip slightly before saying more. “Thanks all your help… and for the tip on Crane….” Douglas looked a bit surprised, but just pursed his lips slightly as he watched her. “It could’ve been a lot worse if you hadn’t.” He gave an acknowledging nod.
“Leo will know where to find me if you need to know more,” he replied. He waited another moment just watching her for a moment before leaving.
Amber glanced at Chase after he left, who looked surprised, but maybe a bit impressed as well, and gave an acknowledging nod of his own. Then their attention joined the others as Bree thanked Leo for going to get him. She continued onto apologizing to Davenport, saying that she would never do anything that stupid ever again.
“It’s okay.” Davenport said, clearly trying to leave water under the bridge. “We all make mistakes. And everybody deserves a second chance,” he said reassuringly.
At that, Bree looked at the door Douglas had just used for a moment before returning her gaze to her dad. “Everybody?”
Davenport just raised his head slightly, understanding what she was trying to say, and trying to decide if he wanted to go there. But his face was much more accepting this time at least. Chase and Leo just seemed to consider this for a moment, Amber raising an eyebrow, but Adam…
“Oooh SNAP!” he burst out, with his brothers turning to give him strange looks, but Bree and Davenport still thinking.
Back at the park...
It didn’t take long for Leo to take them to where he had found Douglas. Amber recognised the food cart he’d brought into the lab in the park, but the person behind it did not look like Douglas. This didn’t deter Leo as he strode straight up to the elderly but tough looking woman behind the cart announcing “Hey Douglas.”
She looked up, realizing that Leo was clearly addressing her, but acting a bit confused.
“I don’t think that’s Douglas,” Chase noted aloud.
Adam chimed in at this point. “Yeah she has much bigger hands,” he agreed pointing to her hands.
The woman just checked something with the food on her cart as this conversation continued. Leo gave an indulgent smile. “Trust me guys. This is no lady,” he said as he pointed to her just as she looked at him.
When he turned his attention back to the woman, he probed the woman’s neck with his finger. What is he doin? Amber gave Leo a questioning and disapproving look. “Get off me!” The woman said as she swatted Leo’s forearm.
“Come on Douglas. Ditch the mask.” That’s what he was doing, looking for the button. Well you’d better hope that’s Douglas buddy, or she’ll grind you up to feed to her customers.”Where’s the button on this thing?”
He continued to pry for a button as the woman grabbed her tongs and then one of Leo’s arms. “I’m warnin’ you kid. Stop pokin’ me, or you’re gonna meet the wrong end …” she closed her tongs a couple times “of these tongs.” Leo just stared at her, obviously confused now.
Just then, Douglas stood up behind a stone fence that was right behind the woman and her cart. “It’s okay Greta. They’re with me.”
Leo shrieked in surprise, startling Greta, who just adopted a more annoyed expression, recovering quickly. Leo tried to recover his dignity a bit. His expression seemed to be failing mostly though. “So that’s Douglas,” he confirmed to Greta.
“Uh huh,” she replied, still looking annoyed.
“And you’re a real lady,” he continued.
“Uh HUH!” More annoyance showing now.
Leo just twisted at the neck to look at his family with a trapped expression. “HELP ME!” He yelped. Davenport and Chase just motioned for him to join them, while Amber shook her head, amused at his distress. Leo joined them as Douglas slowly approached from around the cart, and more cautiously.
“What are you guys doin’ here?” he asked.
Davenport approached his brother while still looking back at his family, as if asking if he really had to do this. “Uh we…” he faced his brother and continued. “We’re going on … a family jog.” He turned back to glance at his kids again. “You know, Leo gets winded on the last mile, so we all have to carry him. Can’t go alone. Bye.” He tried to walk away from his brother but Bree and Chase turned him around.
“Oh no you don’t,” Bree told him under her breath.
Defeated, Davenport held up his arms slightly to his brother in a somewhat placating gesture. “Okay, I may have been a little harsh yesterday.”
“A little?” Douglas asked.
“Don’t push it,” Leo cut in. “You’re sleeping in a bush,” he pointed out.
Douglas cocked his head slightly acknowledging this point. “Continue.”
Davenport glanced back at Bree as he started saying his next point. “I realize that… everybody deserves a second chance.” Douglas took a moment to acknowledge what his brother was saying. “Even you…….So as soon as you apologize, for all the things you’ve done to hurt our family…” Douglas seemed to consider this for a moment. “And … say that I’m better than you,” That just earned an annoyed sigh at the apparent need to one up him again. “Maybe you can come stay with us for a while.” More considering from Douglas. “But if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.” The last sentence came out in a rush as Davenport tried to turn around and leave.
“Oh no no no no no, its… clear that you need me. So… I”m sorry… and thank you.” Everyone seemed to relax now that that was done. “Now lets go home,” Douglas said hopefully.
“Okay, um, I only brought the motorcycle, so you’re gonna have to ride on back.” Davenport told him. This started an argument about who got to drive the motorcycle, but a friendly argument. Will this never end? She shook her head. Gonna be interesting with him living there too. Bree sped Leo and Amber home first, then went back for her brothers, and Douglas made them dinner. It wasn’t the dinner Amber was used to, but it was much tastier than Tasha’s cooking.
No comments:
Post a Comment