Disclaimer: All the characters belong to the web comic, EmergencyExit by NJ Huff. The writing and story idea is mine.

Note: My first EE fan-fic. A oneshot.

~*~

"You sure you don't want to come?" Sal asked from the doorway to Saya's room. Saya looked up over the top of her book and arched a brow.

"I'm finally getting the apartment all to myself and you're asking me to take a ride on the crazy train with you guys?" Sal winced at her friends words.

"Crazy train's a bit harsh…" Saya's 2nd eyebrow joined the first.

"You're taking Eddie, regardless of the fact that you guys are only, going to the mall. You're going on the crazy train, besides I'm already behind on my homework from all these trips to find the artifacts." Sal gave her friend a measuring look but every line in Saya's 5'3 frame was set stubborn will. There were often times Sal could manipulate her purple eyed friend into doing something but sometimes it just wasn't worth it. Now was one of those times.

"Ok then, we'll leave you to hold down the fort while we're gone." With a toss of her head to fling one of her blonde pigtails over her shoulders Sal spun on her heel and left. Steeling herself for the mall outing. It wasn't until the sound of the apartment door clicked shut behind her footsteps however that Saya dropped her head back onto her pillow with a sigh of relief. She gently set the book she'd been reading off to the side than rolled to her feet to shut the bedroom door that Sal had left open behind her. Carefully enclosed in her room Saya chuckled.

"Taking Eddie to the mall, there's gonna be some great stories when they get back." Letting the smile linger on her face she walked back to her bed, glancing around at the piles of books and notes scattered over her bedroom floor. "One of these days I should get around to buying book-shelves," then she eyed the already consumed floor space of her room, "probably have to re-arrange the furniture first." Shaking her head she settled down on the futon again but instead of reaching for the book she'd just discarded she reached under her desk and pulled out the rough leather bound journal that she had tucked away under there.

"An entry while they're guaranteed to be away won't hurt." She flipped open the book and quickly paged through looking for where she'd last stopped.

"…Sal invaded my room today and finally spilled the details of what went on last week after Karl and I had left to take care of Jason. Apparently Vladic and Eddie had gotten into some sort of argument over Eddie having gone to see Fall. Vladic said something, Sal couldn't remember what, but it seemed to have been a sore spot and Eddie freaked. Bob mentioned the same thing seemed to have happened when he asked Eddie about his scars as well. There's so much about Eddie that we don't know, so much that Vladic won't say…"

Re-reading the last entry, Saya rubbed her temple, writing things down usually helped her to work things out, when it came to her room-mates though that sometimes wasn't the case. She rolled over onto her stomach and tapped her fingers on the cushion trying to find a starting point in her whirling thoughts. Eddie.

"Everyone is out at the Mall now, and I'm finally given some space to think. I've lived here in this loony apartment for months and am beginning to understand how rare this quiet is. It's a big building, and there aren't that many people here but it seems like those of us who do live here take up more than our fair share of space. Ego's, issues, larger than life personalities, and more weird then I ever thought to find, doesn't make for compact living. Speaking of weird I have to say Eddie probably takes up more space than anybody else.

"Eddie. Eddie is probably one of the most open, easy to read people in the apartment and he's probably the least understood as well. None of us, I don't think even Bob, really know Eddie. Living with him is like having an ADD five-year old on a sugar high running around. Than just when you are convinced he's a mallet waving idiot, you find out that he's got a secret mad-scientist style lab, can build almost anything in it, but then doesn't remember how he did it. Sometimes living with him makes me wish I was a psych. major rather than creative writing. However I sometimes think that over the last couple of months I've gotten to know him a bit.

"He's loyal, caring, innocent, I think, in a lot of ways. He lives in a simple world, and he's happiest when you leave him to that. It's not that he doesn't understand things that are more complex, it's more like he doesn't want to acknowledge them. After all, a child's mind just isn't capable of some of the things he does. I mean the shrink ray, a child's idea but, more than a child's understanding. Then you see him in a fight, and not just some easy cheesy battle, but something serious, and while most of the gang doesn't notice it, and he tries to hide it. The child disappears. Someone different comes to the front and wears the child's mask, but it's only a mask. He says the right words, usually does the right things, but it's just a step off, a nudge out of sync.

"I wonder how many Eddies there are? There's the child Eddie, the one who runs around raving about the chickens. Then there's the brilliant Eddie, the one who seems to take over in the lab leaving child Eddie with only the idea and then the finished project. There's warrior Eddie, we don't seem to see him much, and if he is about he prefers to act as child Eddie would. The reaction that Eddie had to Bob's question about his scars seems to have been much more severe than his response to Vladic's questioning. I'd guess that both of those seem to have something to do with his past. Perhaps there's another Eddie, one that's only purpose is to keep the memories away. Or perhaps he's an Eddie made of those memories, if that's the case I think I might be happy that we deal with child Eddie.

"But how did there get to be so many? It must have had to do with however he ended up with a portal fragment in his head. Oh so many air-head/space head comments to make from that knowledge, and not to mention the wood head ones, since that's apparently where he keeps his ridicules mallets. At the same time though, all these thoughts start to make me wonder, who's the real Eddie? Is it one of the Eddies I mentioned above, a combination of them? Or is there another Eddie that we haven't seen yet?..."

A crash echoes through the apartment building and a familiar running foot-step.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Saya looks up at the clock on the wall dazed, "Dammit I fell asleep!" Quickly she shuts the journal and shoves it back into its hiding spot then looks around. On two of the three walls in her room starting at waist height built-in book shelves now climb towards the ceiling, and on the short wall two matching built in book-shelves flanked the door going from waist height down. She blinks in surprise for a few moments than looks up at the ceiling. Then she shakes her head, "Smart-ass."

More foot-steps now and voices in the hallway, the crew was back it seemed. Quickly Saya wipes the smile from her face, a few more minutes than she'd go and see what sort of chaos Eddie had caused. That was sure to be entertaining but she'd wait a few moments more, wouldn't want to seem like she'd missed them. Finally judging the noise level outside the door to be sufficient enough to justify her entrance she left her room.

In the secret journal tucked under her desk the ink slowly dried on the final lines that she'd scrawled as she'd drifted off to sleep. "Or is it the Eddie, who'd looked at me in shock in the lab after I tackled him to save him from the bowling ball?..."

~*~

~December, 11th 2009

2:55 pm~

Well what did you guys think? How OC was it?