Chapter One: Juliet Arrives
Something was going on, and it looked to be exciting.
Groups of people moved quickly from house to house, and excited murmur about them. The pair of barefooted teenagers melded slowly into their midst, looking equally unaware of the situation. The boy leaned into the girl to speak in lowered tones, even though they were both sure they wouldn't be heard anyway.
"Your father tell you anything?"
"No," she answered. After a moment, she changed her answer to: "I don't remember."
She took his hand assuredly, both sets of fingers dirty intertwining. They quickened their steps and weaved past Danny and Colleen without a word. Danny turned quickly after the teenagers and raised his voice.
"Alex!"
The girl stopped in her tracks and turned, the boy's fingers still clutched in hers. Once he had her attention, Danny continued with the words she knew were coming:
"Ben's looking for you."
Alex nodded, and the teens turned together for the house they knew too well.
Karl never was fond of visiting Alex when Ben was in, and he didn't seem too keen on entering now that the man was looking specifically for his daughter. It was only two months ago, at Alex's thirteenth birthday party, that Karl had pecked a kiss to the girl's cheek. He'd never seen Ben's eyes go as wide and dark as they had then, and half the knuckles of his fingers had cracked as he pulled them into quick fists.
As luck would have it, Ben was waiting for them on the porch, sitting in one of the dual wicker chairs with a sheaf of loose papers in his hand. A breeze caught the papers as Alex and Karl arrived together on the porch, causing Ben's eyes to rise. He lowered his round glasses slowly and swept his eyes over the state of his muddied daughter and who was attached to her hand.
"You look like you've risen from the dead, Alex," Ben said with the tweak of a smirk. Alex found herself thoughtlessly mirroring. Karl looked pale. Ben's smile faded as his eyes fell to rest on the boy, lids narrowing. "Karl."
"Mister Linus," Karl muttered, lowering his eyes to his bare feet.
"I'm afraid I'd like to speak to Alex alone, if you don't mind, Karl," Ben said, sitting up straight and adjusting his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I believe Ryan needs some help down at the Ferry."
Karl nodded, wordless. Alex and Karl spoke through their eyes--worry and assurance hand-in-hand. His fingers slipped from hers.
"See you later," he said in a low tone before he turned and hopped down the porch steps and into the grass. She watched him go until he disappeared behind a yellow house and was gone. With a twirl of her dark curls, she turned to her father.
"What's going on, Daddy?" she asked as she sank into the secondary wicker chair beside him. "Looks like the whole camp is going crazy."
Ben placed a hand at Alex's chin to turn her face and observe the mud splotches that trailed up into her hairline. He sighed, an immovable smirk having returned to his mouth.
"My daughter," he muttered, shaking his head. Alex rolled her eyes playfully and brushed his hand aside to fix him with a probing stare. "All right," he caved nearly immediately. "We've got a visitor coming in."
Alex looked around, as if expecting someone to spring from the jungle. "From where?" she asked at last.
Ben held up the papers he had been leafing through on her arrival. "A long ways away. The mythical land of Miami."
She laughed, though she wasn't sure why.
"She's a doctor, Alex," Ben said, his face moving into seriousness. "A fertility doctor--that is, a baby doctor."
"I know what fertility means, Daddy."
"Right." His eyes dropped for a moment. "Her name is Doctor Burke. Now, Doctor Burke is going to be arriving at the Ferry in a few hours, and I'm going to be there to greet her. I'd like you to come with me."
Alex nearly laughed, then asked simply: "Why?"
Ben offered only a single chuckle, an odd sound by itself. "Because you're my daughter."
It was Ben and Alex alone that walked down the path to the Pala Ferry two hours later, the latter with her hands in her pockets and her bare feet kicking at stray pebbles. On occasion, she would lean down to scoop up a good-sized rock and stick it in her pocket for later.
"Why d'we need a baby doctor?" Alex asked at once. She was looking at the leafy greenness around them at the same time she stared her father down.
Ben's brow drew down in concentration and he didn't meet her inquisitive eyes. Alex removed her stare to the sky above them, peeking in through the heavy foliage.
Alex hoped that Doctor Burke was ugly. She hoped that she was a rude woman, shrewish and not at all entertaining. But most of all, she hoped that Doctor Burke was ugly. She couldn't immediately explain why, if someone asked her. Ben had explained several things to her on their journey down, on the porch, and in-between. She liked that he didn't talk down to her. He talked down to Karl (which she didn't particularly like) and he might talk down to Danny, but never to her.
Alex liked the way things were. She didn't think a change was going to help anything. Except maybe the babies.
"You know why we need a baby doctor, Alex," he replied at last. The look he fixed her with was stuck somewhere between sadness and uneasiness.
Alex's lower lip poked out, which raised Ben's eyebrows.
"Watch that lip," he advised. "You might catch it on something."
"Yeah, yeah," she said, unable to keep her pout as the niggling smile crept up. "Or you'll fling me around the room."
Ben nodded as seriously as he could manage. "Exactly."
The sun reflected perfectly on the water when the two of them arrived at the edge of the jungle, with the beach and the Ferry spreading out before them. The submarine was already docked at the far end, stationary and cold. Ben leaned slightly to Alex's height to mutter: "Should take her a few minutes to get her land legs. Don't make fun."
"Promise," Alex returned, hoping that Doctor Burke walked like a duck.
Karl appeared beside them, followed by Ryan, both looking even dirtier than before. Karl smiled wide at Alex's minute wave that her father didn't catch.
"Has Ethan reported in?" Ben asked Ryan, stepping away from the teenagers.
"Said that Burke is stirring. Should be out in another minute or so."
"Good," Ben replied, eyes locked on the sub jutting from the ocean.
As if on cue, the hatch to the sub opened with a squeal, and a frazzled blonde head appeared from inside. Alex frowned. She was blonde.
When Ben took his first step forward, Alex made as if to follow. Ben steadied her shoulder with one hand, telling her, "I'll bring her down the dock. You wait here, I won't be long."
The briefest pause ensued when Alex's eyes flicked from her father's to the woman crawling down from the submarine. "Okay," she murmured, hardly above her breath.
Ben tweaked her ear fondly before stepping past her and walking briskly down the dock to meet Doctor Burke, who didn't walk like a duck. She couldn't see his face or hear what they said from her distance, but she saw Doctor Burke's pretty smile pull back at whatever Ben had to say. She nodded, said something back and shook his hand rather enthusiastically. Alex's lower lip slipped out again.
Before she realized that she had been staring rather heatedly at the pair of them, they stood nearly directly in front of her. Ben's hand rested calmly on the girl's shoulder, and he squeezed gently as he turned to face Doctor Burke.
"And this is my daughter, Alex."
Doctor Burke smiled, bright white teeth set in a pretty face and surrounded by pretty blonde curls. She held out her hand, a hand that looked like it hadn't chopped firewood or shot a slingshot or rolled in the mud with her best friend.
"Please, just Juliet," she said, her voice sugary sweet.
She wasn't ugly and she didn't walk like a duck. Alex flicked her eyes from Juliet to Ben, whose eager smile had faded at Alex's glare. At the tilt of his eyebrows, Alex pulled out her own sappy smile and took Juliet's hand.
"Nice to meetcha, Doctor Juliet."
As they broke their uneasy handshake, Ben and Juliet moved away together, the former glancing over his shoulder to gesture for Alex to follow as he continued to speak with Doctor Burke about their facilities.
She ignored Karl's silent inquiry by taking his hand and trudging after her father and the fertility doctor. This was going to be a very long six months.
AN: Hello folks! It's meee. Since Ben is living in my head (and someone requested it!) I'm writing a Ben-Alex multichap! It looks like it's gonna focus mostly on Ben and Alex, mostly from over Alex's shoulder, but there'll be plenty o' Juliet (and some other Others! GEDDIT??) and some stuff Ben's POV. I'm not sure exactly where I'm taking this, or how much time it'll cover, but I'm looking forward to it. Lemme know what you think so far, if Alex is okay (she's older, but not yet spiteful!Alex... I believe this will chronicle her turning point at some time...) and all that jazz. Leave us some love, and STAY AWESOME!