So...I have done it. This is part 1 of a two-shot. It was going to be a one-shot, but then I realized that it was going to be a lot longer than I had previously expected. Part 2 is on the way, almost completed - I think this is the longest writing project outside of a novel that I have done, ever.
I'm having a ton of fun writing this, though I've found that I'm feeling extremely self-concious about this. I haven't published anything in a while (not since August)...so yeah.
But I'm such a big fan of Nick Loopin' Lopez, even though he only got a few moments of screen time interspursed with mentions. I didn't want him to die...
Please bear with me, there are two OCs in this story to help move it along. I really hope you guys like this story, even though there are OCs in it (I know there are many who don't like OCs mixed in with canon characters. But I like to use OCs...I just don't go crazy with them.) Anywho, I'll stop talking now lol.
For the third time that week, Audra found herself being torn awake as she experienced an involuntary, and violent, coughing fit. It lasted for several minutes until she was out of breath and forced to lay on her side, panting.
It was the same every time now. She'd lay on her side for at least ten minutes as she tried to catch her breath, sweaty with her black hair stuck to her face because of it. And like the last two times, once she had regained some of her strength back, she wiped the bangs from her face as she pushed herself into a sitting position.
Cool fall air blew in through her open window, helping to cool her down and sooth her dying lungs. She stared out the window and at the tall mountain peaks that rose up in the background of the view her bedroom possessed. It brought a few tears to her eyes as it caused her to think of all the things she was going to leave behind. She wasn't much of materialistic individual—she was the kind of person who could leave everything behind if anything happened to the house. But when she was going to die…she was going to leave behind her little brother.
Damion was her 12 year old little brother. Ever since their parents had died two years ago, she had been taking care of him to the best of her ability. Her mother was homeschooling him before she died when a car drove through the front of the little shop she had been shopping in, but Audra was sad to say she had failed in continuing the homeschooling. She knew she didn't have the patience or willpower to make her brother sit down and do his school, especially after the death of their father, who's semi-truck had slid off the edge of an icy bridge in the middle of nowhere. He managed to escape, but then he froze to death because no one drove down the road and spotted him in time.
She ended up enrolling her baby brother into the private school ten minutes away, in the closest town. Every morning, from Monday to Friday, she drove him to town in time for him to get to school. There were a couple of perks that came with the fact that he was being taught at a school. It allowed her to do her school (when she was still in high school—she had long-since graduated), and go to work. She needed to work in order to earn the money to raise her brother.
She was eternally grateful that her parents had managed to pay off their debt and the mortgage they had on their farm. Those were two less things she had to worry about, and it allowed her to only have to focus on things such as groceries, and phone, power, and gas bills. After all the things were paid off, though, it was still a tight squeeze. There were no jobs she could ever possibly dream of getting that would be able to pay for everything with a comfortable enough amount to spare without some sort of college degree.
Feeling better now, she stood up and walked out of her room, shuffling her sock-feet across the carpeted floor as she did so. As she stepped into her little brother's bedroom, she thought about how she didn't have very many days left. She had quit her job the day before because it was getting harder for her to do things now that the cancer was bringing her to her end. She had gone to the hospital after she had quit her job for one final check-up, and her doctor told her she had about until the end of this month before she was going to pass away.
It hurt. Who was going to take care of Damion when she was gone? Their only living relative was their grandmother, but she wasn't doing too well with her health either and she was on the other side of the country. As she stood over her brother's resting form, she couldn't help but wonder: what would it be like for him to wake up one day and find her still lying in her bed? It wrenched her heart to think about how he might come into her room and try to stir her from sleep, only to find that she wouldn't respond. He would become more and more desperate, before he would finally collapse into tears.
Would anyone even come looking for him? Would he be left alone to starve? Or would a friend have the mind to come looking for them?
As she gently shook the young boy's shoulder, she tried to comfort herself with the fact that she had told quite a few people about her condition and how she was going to die very soon. If her boss didn't come check up on the boy, at least her doctor would, or her brother's teacher at school would, or… or… the youth Pastor at the Pentecostal church in town would…
There were enough people. A whole list.
Damion's hazel eyes slowly blinked open and focused on her. Audra put on a brave face and smiled, even though she knew it didn't reach her eyes. I have to be strong, she told herself. Strong for Damion.
"Mornin', Ra Ra," the boy greeted sleepily, before yawning. Audra couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the use of the nickname Damion had used when he was little, since all he could pronounce until he was about five was the 'Ra' at the end of her name. He was 12 now, and a little old to be using such a childish nickname, but she let it slide. After all…he wasn't going to have her for very much longer.
Audra blinked her green-hazel eyes as she said, "Morning, sleepyhead. I thought you'd be up earlier—since you try to make the most of Saturday."
Damion slowly climbed out of bed and waddled out into the family room. He sat down in one of the recliners, the one that used to be their mother's, and curled up under the blanket that she draped over him.
"I was tired. 'S all." Audra hummed at his tired mumblings. Maybe it was a bad idea to let him stay up so late the night before in order to watch that old Batman episode…
The 19 year old young woman crouched down next to the recliner and looked up at Damion. "What would you like for breakfast, hon?" she asked.
Damion blinked owlishly at her before asking hopefully, "Waffles?"
"With syrup, chocolate hazelnut spread, and strawberries?" Audra added.
Damion was suddenly wide awake and nodding profusely. The girl couldn't help but laugh outright at his enthusiasm. "Okay, then," she told him. "Let me just go get it on. What would you like to watch while I make it all?"
"Sahara! Sahara!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"Alright then," she said. She turned and walked over to the Blu-Ray player, where she popped the disk into the machine. Damion had already gotten the remote in his hand by the time she had turned to face him. "Okay. Be good. It shouldn't take too long before I'm done, so don't move!" she teased.
Audra then walked into the kitchen and began to make the breakfast. By the time the batter she was infamous for whipping up was finished, Damion was at the part of the movie where the main character was running from the bad guys in Egypt. A tune managed to filter into the room, and she heard bits of it as she worked.
As soon as the first waffle made it into the waffle-cooker, she began to work on the strawberries. She picked out ones from the carton that weren't beginning to rot and washed them up to the best of her ability. She then took them to a cutting board where she chopped the leafy parts off. She had prepared enough by the time the second waffle went in.
When the second waffle was done, she covered the bowl the leftover batter was in with plastic wrap before she put it in the fridge. The leafy green bits from the strawberries went into the full compost pail, before she went to work on dressing her brother's waffle.
Half of the waffle was covered in syrup and the other half was covered in Nutella. Decoratively, she placed the strawberries around the waffle before she went and sat the plate it was on down on the kitchen table. Her waffle was done soon after and she set it down on her place on the table as well. Two glasses of water later and the appropriate cutlery set down by the plates, she called her brother to the table. She heard him pause the movie before he jogged into the room.
They sat down at the table, and after a quick blessing, they began to eat.
Audra looked down at her waffle and wondered how much of it she would be able to eat this time before her deteriorating health took away her meager appetite. She then looked up at her brother as he mowed down on his waffle, and wondered if she'd ever have the strength to tell him about the lung cancer she had.
After breakfast, she sent him back to the family room where she heard him resume the movie. She quickly cleaned up the kitchen and the dishes before she decided to take the compost out to the compost bin outside.
She took out her work jacket from the coat closet in the hall and slipped it on. As she put on a pair of work gloves and shoved her feet into her winter Muck Boots, she called, "I'm just going to run out to the compost bin, Damion. Don't move from that spot. I'll be right back."
"Okay, Audra!" her brother called back.
A small smile graced her lips as she turned and stepped out the door. It was a beautiful day out, one that brought a wide smile to her face as she lugged the pail with her to the compost bin that sat far from the house.
She reached the bin and dumped the pail of compost in, glad that was one less chore she had to do. A song she had listened to the night before when she was getting ready to go to bed was stuck in her head, and she couldn't help but start to hum it as she made sure the pail was empty and the bin was closed.
A sigh of relief escaped her at the thought of being able to go back inside and be with her little brother. Her illness took a lot out of her, even this simple chore made her feel bone-weary, and told her how the end was near. Even the pail in her hand felt like it weighed a ton.
She really wished it didn't have to end like this…
Suddenly, an extremely loud thunderclap ripped through the air, causing Audra to cower in shock and crouch down a little. Her heart raced as she thought, That sounded almost like the sky was tearing itself apart.
She looked up and squinted against the sunlight filling the sky. Wind whipped against her as the sound of helicopter blades filled the air. Anxiety made her chest tight, making it harder to breathe, as she spotted a helicopter spiralling out of control. She forgot to breathe altogether as she watched it race to the ground. It's impact point looked like it wasn't too far away from where she was, but she couldn't make herself move.
As it got closer, she could hear yelling come from it. It made her thought processes pause long enough for her to wonder, How can I hear people yelling over the helicopter blades? before she went back to panicking for the pilots who had lost control.
She held her breath, not caring about how her lungs screamed, as the helicopter got closer and closer to the ground. C'mon, c'mon! Pull up! she screamed in her head. The last thing she needed to tell her brother was that a pilot or pilots of a helicopter crashed on their farm and died—right before she died herself.
At the last moment, the wind abruptly died down and the helicopter was able to level out before it crashed. It fought against gravity as it slowed its momentum. By the time it landed, the downdraft caused by its propellers was whipping all around her, sucking the air from her starved lungs. It landed only mere feet away from her before its propellers began to slow. Audra fell down onto her bottom before she was able to gain some breath. She was really dizzy all of a sudden…
Am I okay? Audra asked herself. She felt really weird, like the waffle she just ate wasn't agreeing with her suddenly…and was someone talking to her? Her heart pounded in her ears, blocking out most of what he was saying and making the rest of it sound like it was coming from far away. She focused on taking deep breaths, and it wasn't long before her mind cleared and she could hear normally again. She didn't open her eyes just yet—she was afraid it would cause her to experience another dizzy spell.
Something thumped heavily against the ground a couple of times before something hard and metallic nudged her lightly.
Audra was pushed back a foot or so with a gasp. She blinked open her eyes and stared up at her offender, but then her eyes widened even more. The helicopter was suddenly right there, in her face. Her whole field of vision was engulfed with the white nose of the aircraft. She suddenly had energy and used it to backpedal away from the vehicle in an awkward crab-walk. She ignored the way the dew on ground soaked into her pants as she tried to get as far away from it as she could. But she had already used too much energy today, too much too fast. She was forced to come to a halt as her arms shook and burned with the effort.
The girl began to wonder if her eyes were going to get stuck in the wide-eyed, surprised, and shocked look on her face. She took in the white helicopter with black accents, how it had something that looked like a mouth just under its nose, and what appeared to be eyes on its windshield. Freaky! Audra thought, wishing she could just get up and run away. But she was tired now because of her stupid cancer. It made her want to cry.
The helicopter was staring at her with a wide-eyed and almost identical expression she was wearing. Audra couldn't believe what she was seeing. Helicopters didn't possess faces, they didn't have eyes or mouths, and they definitely didn't wear layers of tinted glass over their windshields like a pair of sunglasses. But this one did, and it looked just like the one that nearly crashed in the farm. Was she dreaming? Had she passed out after she dumped the compost in the compost bin? Or was she dying, and this was some sort of hallucination?
A concerned look appeared on the helicopter's 'face'. "Are you alright, miss?" it asked, sounding male and carried a Latino accent.
Audra's brain still refused to work, and all she could think was, It speaks?!
When she failed to respond to his question, the helicopter lowered itself on its skids in order to get a closer look at her. He tried nudging her again. She didn't move in response, but her hand did. In her near catatonic state, her hand whipped out and plastered itself to his nose, as if in a silent command of Don't do that again.
"Miss?" it—he asked again. Audra only blinked once in response, but still didn't respond in any other way.
The helicopter was extremely confused, barely able to comprehend the situation, as he tried not to look like he was extremely out of his element. Nick Loopin' Lopez was an actor who starred in a hit television drama called CHoPs, where he played as a police helicopter partnered with his best friend, Blazin' Blade Ranger. They had done several different 'cases' for the show, but he had yet to come across something like this.
As far as he knew, such small and delicate creatures didn't exist on Earth. The only creatures he had learned about and had seen with his own eyes were all made of metal and were some sort of vehicle. The only living things not made of metal were vegetation—plants, trees, grass.
After that freak crosswind slammed into him in the middle of his trademark Loop that he was doing for a police-chase during the 139th episode of CHoPs, he thought he was going to die. One minute the stunt was going just fine, and then it just changed. The wind hit him like he had just been t-boned by a train, and he was unable to compensate. He could hear Blade yelling at him, asking if what he was doing was voluntary or not. When it became apparent to everyone that Nick wasn't doing it on purpose, Blade urged him to pull up in a panicky tone. That knocked it into him that this was extremely serious and it sent a surge of panic through him.
As he neared the concrete of the road below him, the world seemed to explode. He squinted against the intense light as he felt a rush of energy pass over him. His altimeter swirled around and around out of control, going out of control until he couldn't tell what was up or down. Controlled panic had raced around his systems as he fought to get himself to level out.
He suddenly found himself high in a bright blue sky, one foreign to the one he was used to flying in while in Los Angeles. It felt open and fresh, but he was unable to dwell on it since he was plummeting towards the ground once more. The wind was still there, and it still threw him about as if he was merely a kite. But after a few moments where all he could hear was his propellers and his fuel pump pumping rapidly, the wind abruptly died down and he was able to save himself before he slammed into the ground.
Now he was faced with the fact that he had come into contact with a strange creature who lay upon the ground, staring up at him unchangingly, as if it was broken. He had tried to talk to her twice, but the second time it seemed it just broke her a little bit more.
Thankfully, a distraction was presented when a door in the nearby building slammed open, and a smaller version of the creature he had accidentally broken came racing out. A worried look was on its face as it came charging across the yard towards them. "Audra! Audra!" it cried in clear English.
The littler one's voice seemed to cause the broken one to blink. It turned and looked at the littler one, dropping its hand from Nick's nose. The littler one rushed into the original's…what were they—forks? They looked like the forks forklifts had and they worked just like them. The littler one wrapped his forks around the original one and sighed when it saw it was okay. "I'm…I'm okay Damion," the original one said, sounding female.
"I was getting worried," the little one—Damion—said. "The movie finished and you still hadn't come back in. You told me you were just going to get rid of the compost, silly." He chuckled.
The female—Audra was it?—chuckled in return. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I just…" she rubbed a spot just above her eyes. She blinked twice. "Um…there was a helicopter…and it was going to crash…" she then noticed his shadow and looked up at him again. Her eyes widened and the same look of alarm returned. He wondered if she was going to 'break' again.
Nick decided that maybe she needed a little space, so he hopped back a bit.
Damion had the opposite reaction Audra had. The little one's eyes opened wide with excitement and thrill, and he bounced away from the female creature and towards him. Nick was unsure what to think as the boy stood next to him, grinning like all his best dreams had come true. Nick was used to having fans and living in the spotlight, even though the show he starred in could be a bit corny at times. But to have such an unusual creature, albeit a sentient one, looking at him as if he was his role-model, took him off guard.
"Cool! A helicopter!" the boy exclaimed.
The Audra seemed to calm down a bit before she assumed a similar position the Damion was in. She blinked, and then rubbed her forks over her eyes. And then she pressed the tip of one fork into the side of the other until she winced. Nick didn't know what she was doing, but it was something he didn't see very often. "It's not like you haven't seen a helicopter before, Dame," she stated after a shaky sigh. She pressed the tips of her forks together before she added, "Though…it's not every day a talking helicopter with eyes and a mouth nearly crashes on our property."
"That's what makes it so cool! It's a talking helicopter with a face!" Damion insisted. "This has to be about the coolest thing that's happened since Mom and Dad died."
Damion's expression didn't change, but Audra's did. Nick noticed it, but Damion didn't. Audra winced as tears came to her eyes, tears that she quickly wiped away, almost in hopes that nobody saw them. So, a tough-girl, eh? the small helicopter mused. He figured it wouldn't hurt to ask about it later, if he didn't scare them off first, that is.
"Don't be silly," Audra croaked before she hastily cleared her throat.
"So, what's your name?" Damion asked with the excitement she didn't expect to come from a boy this age.
Audra had watched her little brother as he grew up, and she knew she had entered the 'I'm a cool guy, so deal with it' stage, and had been in it for a while. But she also knew that any type of vehicle, be it cars, boats, planes, trains, trucks, or helicopters, was his weakness. She wasn't really all that surprised of her brother's reaction to one that seemed just as aware and alive as they were. But she was still extremely apprehensive about this individual. He had nearly crashed on their farm, and then barged into her personal space while she was still recovering from the fear of watching him nearly crash and burn. Was he here to hurt them, or was he just lost? Where did he come from? How could he speak? Was he an alien?
Audra stopped the questions right there. She had too much on her plate at the moment to be worrying about their mysterious visitor. She wasn't all too pleased that she was going to have to deal with him during her last days. And she didn't like the prospect of him taking her brother's attention away from her, since he wasn't going to have her for very much longer.
"Be polite, Dame," she gently chastised the boy.
The helicopter seemed a little uncomfortable with the situation, but he still smiled for her brother. "I'm Nick Lopez, Nick Loopin' Lopez! Nice to meet you, little guy!" he said.
Audra focused on taking deep breaths and not freaking out. She could feel herself calming, but she also still felt like she was on high-alert because of how unnatural this situation was. Half of her wanted her to grab her brother and drag him away from the helicopter and to a safe distance, while the other half of her decided that asking questions would be more wise.
So she crossed her arms. "I guess you overheard what our names are then," she said. She didn't want to look like a wimp, that kind of first impression was the last thing she needed. "I'm Audra Wellington, and this is my little brother, Damion. So you're Nick? I saw you fall from the sky—where did you come from before you nearly died in the pasture?" She ended up peppering the helicopter with questions like they were being fired from a gun. Inside, she'd rather of asked the questions slower, and less aggressively, but it was too late now.
The helicopter turned his attention to her, focusing on her with his distinctly-green eyes. "That's a heavy question, little lady, but I'll gladly answer it if I can ask my own," he said.
Audra nodded, biting her bottom lip as she did so. "'Kay."
She watched as Nick gazed about, a thoughtful hum escaping him as he seemed to think about how he would formulate what he was going to say. "Well," he said finally. "I live in a city called Los Angeles. I'm kinda confused as to where I am at the moment. Before I came here, I was on set, acting for the 139th episode of the show I star in with a friend of mine. I was in the middle of a stunt where I had to do a loop, but then I was caught off guard by a crosswind. I thought I was going to crash into the street below—but then I was suddenly up there," he looked up into the expansive blue sky, drawing her to look up as well.
"So you're an actor?! How cool is that?" Damion exclaimed, being his usual loud self.
The helicopter chuckled. "Cool, but it kept me from having very much 'me time'."
Audra braved a step closer. "How was what you described possible? Falling out of the sky, but then falling out of the sky again, I mean? It's not possible to teleport yet," she stated, allowing her brain to work on the many possibilities that the vehicle's explanation presented. Before she had become solely focused on taking care of her own flesh and blood, Audra had been a science-fiction geek who spent most of her time thinking up fantasies taking place in science-fiction-filled universes. But then their parents had died and a ton of responsibilities were suddenly thrust into her arms. She didn't get to watch the sci-fi things she liked as much anymore, and the only time she really got to was with her brother, because once nighttime rolled around, she was too tired to do anything else other than sleep. She was just glad she had been old enough to become her brother's guardian so they didn't have to be separated. And now, she was too focused on her condition in order to get a thought in edgewise.
Teleportation was the most viable answer, but teleportation had yet to be invented. A rift in time and space, then? Nick could be from the far future where humans had managed to create a living machine… Or was he from a different dimension?
Everything she could think of just didn't sound realistic though. No one had ever proved that any of those things could ever happen outside of God's own power. How did Nick get here? Was this some sort of message? A message that said she didn't have to worry about what happened to Damion anymore?
She instantly clamped down on that thought, discarding it immediately. She didn't want to get her hopes up on anything. Nick wouldn't take care of Damion, they had just met. All Audra could see happening to her brother was that county or government officials would pop up on their front doorstep as soon as they learned about her demise, and they were going to haul him off to some foster home.
But there was still Nick. What was she supposed to do with Nick?
Audra forced herself to stop thinking. She had a problem with over-thinking, where she would start thinking so far into the future that she'd mess with her emotions and eventually break down. She had to stop thinking, and just deal with things one at a time.
"Any more, non-stated, questions?" she finally asked, looking up and locking gazes with the alien being. She was beginning to shiver, and she could feel the toll of the cancer in her muscles and bones. But she was willing to stand out there and listen to him until he was done.
A grim look appeared on the machine's face; as if he could see that she was hiding something. Audra was beginning to wonder if she wasn't hiding her sickly status from those she didn't want to know as good as she thought anymore.
"First question," he began. "What are you guys?"
Audra smiled slightly. "Damion and I are what are called humans. We're the dominant species on this planet, and there are about seven billion of us here, give or take a few hundred thousand."
A thoughtful look flickered in his eyes before he asked another one. "Okay, now I know I'm not in Kansas anymore. What part of the country are we standing in, right now?"
The young woman couldn't help but giggle at the obvious reference to The Wizard of Oz, a book and movie she had grown up with. Damion seemed to ignore the statement and focus on the question since he hadn't grown up with The Wizard of Oz. "You're in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada!" the black-haired boy announced proudly.
Audra never thought Nick's eyes could get so wide. "Uh…this is…that is…a long way away from California," he said with a weak, almost wheezy, laugh of disbelief.
Both humans nodded once. "The way you say you're from Los Angeles and California…are you the result of some experiment? Or…dare I say it? Are you from an alternate dimension where vehicles are the dominant species?" Audra asked, starting to feel a spark of excitement begin to flare within her chest.
Nick's propellers spun a little from shock, and he bounced high into the air, slowly drifting backwards as he did so. A look of shock mixed with slight horror popped up on his face. "What?! I'm no experiment! I was born and raised like any normal helicopter!"
"So…alternate dimension, then?" Audra assumed. The look on his face stayed, though a hint of offence was added after a few seconds. She held her hands up in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to know where you came from. We've never encountered an actual living helicopter before."
This is going to be extremely interesting. A living helicopter—how am I going to house him? If vehicles are the dominant species in his world…I wouldn't doubt they would have some sort of TV, especially since he said he is an actor… Audra mused. So…let's see how I can keep him entertained.
An hour later, after several more necessary questions, Audra and her brother showed Nick their father's old workshop. In that hour, they learned quite a few things about Nick, and Nick learned quite a bit about them.
Damion was big enough to help her lug an old square TV out to the hanger while she dragged a long extension cord out from the shed behind the house. Damion set the TV down on one of the old, empty workbenches off to the side, and Audra plugged it into the extension cord. She managed to find her parents' old DVD player in a box on one of the workbenches, which was a bonus, since it would provide Nick with something to watch once a disk was put into the player.
Several pieces of miscellaneous furniture had been left in the workshop. There was an old couch that had been half eaten by the dog they had a few years ago—the only reason why she could see why her father had put it in here was because he wanted somewhere soft to sit when he was taking a break. Audra hadn't stepped into the workshop since their father had died, so she had kind of forgotten that this was in there.
Thirty minutes after she and Damion had introduced Nick to the workshop-slash-hanger, Audra was hard at work tidying up and getting rid of the thick layers of dust covering everything, not wanting her "guest" to have to wallow in dirt. Damion and the helicopter were out somewhere—her little brother was probably still drowning the stranger with questions. She took the time that Nick was distracted in order to contemplate him, and how he had become the proverbial monkey-wrench in her plans.
She was dying. Simple chores were so hard to do without long rests in between—her ability to do this cleaning was a miracle to her, since she felt like she was about to collapse. The doctor said with the way she had been able to last so long was a miracle, and because of it, her last month was going to show how fast one person could go downhill before they died. Everyone was different—how a cancer affected someone depended on them.
She was a fighter, that's why she was able to keep doing so much even when she was practically knocking on death's door.
What was she supposed to do with Nick? He was a stranger in a strange land, and she didn't have the time to figure out how to get him back. She wasn't even sure how he had gotten here in the first place. Her best guess was that a rift in time and space had opened up between their worlds and he had just been lucky enough to fall through it.
Audra didn't want to tell the helicopter about how she was dying of cancer. He was still a stranger to her, and the only reason why she was allowing him to stay was because he was different and the government would eat him up like he was a hunk of meat, if they found out about him. He could stay until she died for all she cared, but then he would be left to fend for himself.
Curse her big heart. She barely knew him and already she was worrying for his future.
When she was done cleaning, she was exhausted once more. She flopped down on the couch with a tired sigh. It wasn't long before she heard some heavy thumping, and Nick appeared in the wide doorway of the workshop.
Slowly, she looked up and took in the sight of the small helicopter, without raising her head. She just didn't have the energy to do so. Unwillingly, a soft sob escaped her and she had to fight herself hard in order to keep the tears at bay. She didn't like crying in front of strangers because her face would get all blotchy and it was embarrassing. She wanted to cry so bad though. It made her heart ache and it threatened to give her a headache. All she wanted to do was tell her little brother about what was happening, but she was too terrified to do so. She was stuck in a vicious, never-ending cycle, and she wanted it all to stop.
Nick managed to waddle into hanger until he was sitting around the middle. And then he just sat there and stared at her. It quickly made her extremely uncomfortable, and soon she was squirming.
Finally, she met his gaze and snapped, "What?" She stood up from the couch as if she was stuck on slow-motion, trying not to groan. She paced over to one of the workbenches on the far side of the room.
"You're hiding something," Nick stated. "I can see it in your eyes."
"So?" she snapped. Audra was usually very polite, and calm, but this helicopter had thrown her for a loop. And now he was going to try and pry into her business—that wasn't something she was going to allow.
She quickly changed the subject as to keep the helicopter from continuing on with it. It wold only annoy her more and would probably make her say something she'd regret later. "So…do you like it?" she asked, gesturing to the workshop. "It isn't much, but it's the biggest place we got."
Nick hopped deeper into the workshop, and she watched as he looked back and forth, taking in the part of the shop she was standing in. "Cozy," he said, allowing a small grin.
Audra smiled in relief. "That's good," she said before she strode around the helicopter and towards the wide open door. As she reached the doorway, which, for the years since her and Damion's father had passed had been filled with shut sliding doors, she inhaled deeply. But instead of feeling cool, soothing air pour into her lungs, the air caught in her throat and she was suddenly coughing ferociously.
She leaned up against the doorframe in order to support herself as she focused on clearing her airways. She quickly turned red in the face as she struggled for air. Wheezing sounds came from her lungs as no air came in. She fell to her knees, the edges of her vision growing dark as her lungs grew starved of oxygen.
"A…air…" she managed to choke out.
She was so focused on trying to breathe that she didn't hear the loud thumping that came from behind her, or how Nick tried to get her attention. It wasn't until something hit her square in the back, shocking her, and knocking something loose in her airways, that she did.
She fell forward and braced her hands against the concrete floor, gasping for the air she so desperately needed. That…was close… she thought, relief washing over her. It wasn't long before tears came to her eyes and she sniffed, trying to keep them from spilling onto her cheeks. It's getting so bad, so fast. The littlest things trigger me now. Automatically, she pulled her emergency inhaler out of her pocket and took a puff from it, holding her breath as the instructions on it stated until her lungs had completely calmed down.
Almost ten minutes later, Audra dared to stand to her feet. She was paler than she was when she had been heading outside, and her legs felt dangerously weak. I guess this is just another way to remind me that I don't have much time left. Still holding back tears, she looked outside and wondered if she should try to cross to the house. Would the strain of climbing the stairs to the front porch be too much for her?
"Sounds like you're experiencing air-intake problems, girl," Nick said suddenly from behind her.
She jumped with a squeak of surprise, and she whirled around faster than she thought she should. "W-what?" she managed to breathe, her chest feeling tight.
Nick's eyes were narrowed. Audra was positive they were narrowed from suspicion, but she could see there was some other kind of emotion in them as well, but she couldn't tell what. She was annoyed that he seemed to care about what was wrong with her. She was so used to seeing movie stars and actors being just another face on the television screen—and to have one, though he wasn't human, in her face like that, worried about her health, sent her mixed feelings. He was a stranger and an actor—she always got the feeling that when a celebrity did something nice, it was for a publicity stunt.
So she asked, "Why do you care?" she tried to keep the sharp edge from her voice but still a little bit of it sounded in her words. She didn't want him here—she wanted it to be just her and her brother during her last days. She knew that, soon, the simplest of movements would send her into coughing fits. She should be in the hospital, hooked up to monitors and having an oxygen mask over her mouth. But she couldn't find medical care that would cover a hospital stay, so that's why she wasn't there.
"I care because I don't like to see people suffering—in any shape or form," Nick said, jarring her from her thoughts. "I may be an actor, but I'm not most of them. That's why I am on CHoPs. I like to help people, but I only get to pretend to help them at the moment."
Audra studied him critically, taking in his sincere expression and the fact he could be giving her a slight puppy-dog look from behind his tinted visor. After a bit, after she had contemplated his words, she decided to not be so harsh and give him a chance. After all, she wasn't going to be around for much longer, and she didn't want to leave this world with the memory of Audra Wellington being a harsh, grumpy, and pessimistic individual. So she laughed, and she was happy that it didn't send her into another coughing fit when she stopped. "Okay, okay, I'll give you a chance," she told him. "You're stuck here with us anyway, so I guess I should lighten up a little. Just don't squash me or my brother, and…well…don't turn out to be some kind of bad guy who claims to be who you say you are. Then we'll be good." She gave him the biggest smile she had smiled that day. "By the way," she added, "what hit me that got me to stop coughing?"
The helicopter smiled uneasily. "I hit you with one of my skids… my mama taught me when I was little that, sometimes, you need to help a friend when they can't stop coughing by firmly hitting them on the side."
Audra was amazed. "Wow," she said. "That sounds like something my mom told me about when I was a kid. Except, a person is to firmly pat their friend on the back when it comes to humans." She took a deep breath in order to put more oxygen in her system. "That's pretty coo—" she was interrupted when Damion came rushing into the workshop, shutting down that conversation.
The excited 12 year old was waving something around as he came to a stop before them. "Watcha got, Dame?" Audra asked calmly.
"Well, when Nick said he stars on a show called CHoPs, it reminded me of the old show Mom and Dad were showing us before they…you know…" the boy explained. Audra nodded, silently urging him to continue on. "So, I went digging, and I found our copy of all six seasons of CHiPs in Mom and Dad's closet! We can watch it with Nick!" He handed the DVD case to her and she smiled softly as she took in the stretched image on the cover of the case. Their mother had gotten the series for their father one Christmas, and they had enjoyed it up until their parents had died. Then it got lost when she packed up a lot of their parents' things. She packed their things up because she couldn't take seeing so much of their stuff around after they were gone.
"CHiPs?" Nick echoed. "Is that anything like CHoPs? The names sound similar."
Damion shrugged. "I dunno—what's CHoPs about?"
That evening, Audra made sure that the TV and DVD player were plugged in and hooked up right before she put the first disk of the first season of CHiPs into the DVD player.
The first episode was picked and began to play. The two humans had maneuvered the old couch so that they could sit on it next to Nick as they watched. As the CHiPs title sequence played, Audra and Damion hummed the theme tune to the best of their abilities, giggling when they finished and the show resumed.
When the episode ended, Audra looked up at Nick, craning her neck as she did so. "So…how did you like it?" she asked slowly. CHiPs was an old show, having aired during the late 70's-early 80's, but she liked it. She liked the older shows sometimes because you could get great stories without having to worry about having to cover your eyes—for the most part.
The helicopter looked sullen for the most part, his eyes thoughtful. "Nick?" Audra said, trying to gently grab his attention. "Are you okay?"
She watched as he slowly met her gaze. "I'm fine…" he told her. "The show just reminded me of something… It's been hours since I landed here—how much time has passed in my own world? Does time here run at the same pace as it does there? Do they think I'm…dead?" he finished quietly.
Audra's gaze softened. She quickly glanced over at her brother. "Hey, Dame?" she said. "Why don't you browse through and pick another episode to watch?" Damion looked up at her and grinned.
"Okay!" he chirped before jumping to his feet. Audra slowly got to her feet and stepped between the couch and the living machine, stopping once she was about halfway down his side. Tentatively, she reached out and pressed a hand against his side-plating.
"Hey," she said quietly. "Do you want to step out for a moment?"
Nick tensed under her hand, not used to such a sensation. "Um…sure?" was his reply.
The young woman glanced over her shoulder at her little brother, watching for a moment as he browsed through the many disks contained in the CHiPs case. She then walked out of the workshop, and she didn't stop until she was several feet from the workshop and well out of her brother's hearing range.
She turned and watched as the helicopter hopped up to her, since he didn't have wheels to move on when he wasn't flying. Once he stopped moving and was resting on his skids, Audra began to speak. "You miss your friend, don't you? Your world?"
He looked down, and as he seemed to think on her question, Audra took a moment to marvel at how expressive Nick was. If all the people of his world were this expressive, then they must be just like humans. Just larger and more machine-like.
"Yeah… I miss my world. I mean, it's only been a day… but I feel like I've been gone an eternity too. The show reminded me of my best friend, the two humans—Ponch and Jon—they were just like me and Blade." The young woman watched as the helicopter turned his gaze up to the stars. When she followed his gaze up, she noted the large white scar that carved a short path across the sky like an unending aurora.
There was an audible hiss that made the ground tremble, and right before their eyes, the scar vanished. Nick sighed sadly from beside her after his obvious entry-point into this world disappeared.
Audra pulled her gaze down and looked at her 'guest'. He continued to look up at the sky, and it wasn't until she spoke again that he turned his sight away from the starry sky and he focused on her once more. "Do you think Blade knows where you are?" she asked.
Nick shook his 'head'. It was kind of interesting how he could do that, since he was a vehicle and he didn't necessarily have a head. Audra tried to quell her awe of the individual before her and focus solely on his concerns. It was kind of amazing how fast her view of him changed after she decided to 'let him in', so to speak.
"There was this huge explosion right before I appeared in your sky. He probably thinks I'm dead," he replied solemnly.
Audra wasn't sure of what she should do. She was standing out here, in the dark, with a fellow who she had just met that morning. She didn't know if he liked to be touched or not—he had jumped in surprise when she touched his side—but she had this strange urge to hug him. She was a hugger when she wasn't distrusting of someone. She was trying to make a 180 of the first impression he must have received from her.
"We'll find a way to get you home," she finally said. "I may not be a scientist or an expert on inter-dimensional travel, but my brother and I will do anything to get you home." She paused for a second. "Can I…can I hug you?" she added hesitantly.
Nick blinked and looked at her, mildly shocked. But then a sly smirk appeared on his lips and he hooded his eyes halfway. "You can hug me, but only if you tell me about the secret you're hiding."
Audra deadpanned, knowing that he knew he had her there. She let out a sigh. "Fine!" she grumbled before stretching her arms out and hugging the aircraft.
If you liked, please leave a review. :3 There'll be more Nick in the next chapter. And if any one who knows more about cancer than I do sees any errors or inconsistencies with how I've described Audra's cancer, please let me know so I can fix it! Thanks!