A/N: Written for the alphabet_soup challenge over at LJ. Prompted by Quarryquest, beta-read by Tania. Uhm, I'm not sure where this one came from, probably a huge sugar rush caused by the combination of energy drink and menthols.
G is for Glasses
Will hadn't always worn glasses. Up until puberty hit and his body started changing he'd had twenty/twenty vision, and he'd been happy about it. But then his hormones started raging, setting off a process in his body that caused his vision to deteriorate. It must have been genetic, but Will couldn't be sure. It didn't come from his father's parentage. Will knew that none of his father's relatives suffered from myopia. He couldn't be sure about his mom though. When his eyesight began to falter, she was already gone, and there was no one left from her side of the family, no one to ask. Will didn't fuss about it though. He'd always been weird, so getting glasses seemed like par for the course. The kids in the school didn't like him anyways.
Will wore his glasses throughout high school and college. During police training he tried out contacts, but as soon as the practicals were over, Will returned to glasses. He didn't like anything touching his eyes directly, and the contacts were much harder to maintain than glasses. When Helen Magnus brought him into the Sanctuary, Will had long ago decided to stick with his old fashioned glasses, underlining his more academic tendencies. He didn't think about the implications or complications that wearing glasses could cause in that environment, but he was soon shown the error of his ways.
1
It was the third week at the Sanctuary, several days after his first encounter with the Cabal and the Morrigans. Will was still getting used to the workings of the Sanctuary, trying to memorize every detail about every monster – or as the others wanted to call them – abnormal. Surprisingly, while his usual nightmares had seemed to take a step back, Will couldn't say he had that much time to sleep. That might've been the reason why he nodded off during one of the more boring meetings in Magnus' office. She had just started explaining the need for proper nourishment for several of the more exotic abnormals, especially after one of their usual suppliers went out of business, when Will decided shutting his eyes for a second wouldn't do any harm. Of course he hadn't planned on falling asleep.
When a soft snore sounded through the office, Magnus stopped her speech and looked towards the source of the sound. Disbelief quickly turned to slight irritation that she wasn't being taken seriously.
"Aw, isn't he sweet?" Ashley cooed and Henry threw her a I don't believe you! look. Ashley studied the sleeping psychiatrist for a second, and then turned to her mother with a glint in her eyes.
"Hey mom, do you have some superglue in your desk?"
Magnus raised her eyebrows, and let out a parental sigh, unable to hide the small grin.
"No glue, Ashley. I don't want a repeat of your last prank war with Henry." Ashley looked disappointed, until Magnus spoke again.
"But I won't stop you from using anything from the fridge... Or the bathroom cabinet. Just as long as there is no harm done. Oh, and you clean up any mess you make," she added as an afterthought, and with a slightly apologetic look towards Will, left the office. Really, it was his fault. Falling asleep in a meeting was just asking for trouble.
ooo
Will woke up to the feeling of being watched. It was disconcerting and just a little scary. He wasn't sure where he was, but it definitely wasn't his bed. He was half reclining on some chair. A rather uncomfortable chair, he thought as he felt a sudden crick in his neck. Moaning a little, he reached out to massage it but his hand never reached its target.
Three things happened in quick succession. Will remembered that he was supposed to be paying attention to Magnus' meeting. That notion caused him to snap his eyes open and look around wildly, trying to figure out why everything was so blurry all of a sudden. Until his eyes landed on a figure towering above him. He couldn't see what it was exactly, just that it was furry and huge. He saw a glint of white as the creature opened its mouth, and with a yelp Will lunged out from the chair. His depth perception was off, and really, he was just trying to get away from the monster, so he didn't notice the small table right behind him. Knocking into it, Will sent several items clattering to the floor, himself included. The blurry figure moved towards him and he would've cowered in fear and maybe even pleaded for his life, when a burst of laughter caught his attention.
Will blinked, recognizing the source of the laughter as Henry and Ashley. Two and two made four and he realized that the big furry thing was Big Guy.
"God, you're idiots," Will sighed out and his hand reached up to massage his forehead, when he felt the squishy stuff on his face and hands and registered the smell of shaving cream. The laughter doubled and Will groaned. When Biggie reached down, handing Will his glasses, he didn't even flinch. Brushing the cream off his face, not caring for the mess on the floor, Will put the glasses on and took a good look around. Like he thought, Ashley and Henry were busy laughing their asses off, while trying to record the thing on the camera.
"Ha ha, very funny," Will growled and shook his head at the childish behavior, for the first time in years wishing he didn't need glasses. He would've seen Big Guy for who he was right from the start and this wouldn't have happened.
"Did you... Need something?" Will asked Big Guy, because he was the only one who didn't seem to be taking part in the joke. The Sasquatch reclined his head, showing his teeth.
"Magnus doesn't like it when people don't listen," he growled, then pointed to Will's cheek. "Shaving cream."
Will brushed it off with a frown. "Thanks," he mumbled, and then shot a scowling look at the two pranksters. He opened his mouth to say something, to reprimand them, but nothing came to mind. Obviously this was a Magnus sanctioned action, and he had fallen asleep. He wouldn't be making the same mistake again. As far as pranks went, this one was pretty innocent. So Will closed his mouth and shook his head. The prank was one thing, but the recording another. He walked up to Henry and brazenly took his camera. When Henry tried to protest, Will straightened up, trying to look as threatening as possible, and then pointed a warning finger at Henry.
"No cameras," he growled, and then turned on his heels and left the office, hoping he didn't look like a sulking teenager. Ashley's laughter crushed that hope, but somehow, the following grumble from Big Guy made it all better.
"I'm not cleaning that up."
Will gripped the camera tighter and headed to his room, a small grin on his face.
2
While the first time Will wished he didn't need glasses had been because of a simple prank, the second time it was thanks to a matter of life and death. Which was ridiculous really, as Will was supposedly safe and sound inside Sanctuary. That was the plan, when Magnus and Ashley left for a retrieval mission, leaving Will, Henry and Big Guy to fend for themselves. It seemed simple enough at first. Biggie had the feeding duties, Henry had security and Will took care of anything else that came up. Which obviously translated into lots of paperwork and occasional call managing. Will had just decided to take a break and visit Henry in his array to maybe chat about something more interesting than the mating ritual of Lotus Elks, when a shrieking alarm cut through the silence. Will's heart skipped a beat as he wondered what was going on. Then he started running.
He found Henry leaning over the computers, frantically jabbing into the keyboard and muttering under his breath.
"What's going on?" Will asked, and then repeated the , because Henry couldn't hear him through the blaring alarm.
"Shut it down!" Will shouted but Henry just shook his head.
"I can't. Not until I stabilize the field." It took him three more minutes, and by the time the alarm had fallen silent, Will was rubbing his ears to stop them from ringing. Big Guy was coming towards them with a wild look on his face.
"What the hell's going on?" Will asked, happy that he could hear his own voice again. Henry was still working on the keyboard, looking only slightly calmer.
"One of our generators blew and there was a power fluctuation in the EM field. I don't know why. It's repaired, but for five minutes the containment shield in the SHU went down too. The inner scanners show three heat signatures outside the habitats prowling the sub-level, but there could be more. The SHU contains some species that are cold blooded or have other masking abilities."
"Crap," Will muttered, and the Big Guy gave a growl.
"We'll need to check all the habitats in the Shu and get the escaped ones back into their cells."
"Sounds great. What about the other abnormals?"
"The shields went down only in the shu, and everything else is up and working now."
"So there's no chance of the dangerous ones getting out of the Sanctuary?"
"Unless they get into our vent system, then no."
Which of course wasn't all that reassuring. Gearing up with pulse guns and tranqs, Will and Big Guy started the hunt for escaped abnormals, while Henry stayed behind to make sure the problem with the field was truly under control.
Working together at trapping them, Will and Big Guy caught two of the abnormals without much trouble. There was broken furniture and scorched walls as the fire salamander displayed his dislike at being shot at, but once the tranquilizers kicked in, it slept like a baby. The Lamia was a little trickier, but they had the perfect lure... Will. The serpent like woman was known for liking fresh blood from a young man. So Will stood at the end of a hall, where Henry told him to be. He was following the Lamia's progress through the Sanctuary corridors. Will waited like a good bait, hoping that Henry wasn't tracking something different, when he saw the Lamia heading towards him. He heard a soft hissing and knew he should have been afraid and ran from the woman that had a snake's body for legs, but he was in a trance, hypnotized by the sound. He couldn't move even if he wanted to, and as the Lamia approached, he didn't want to.
She was only inches from him when there was a flash from the pulse gun, and the Lamia paused, eyes going wide before collapsing to the ground. Big Guy stepped in from behind the corner and Will blinked, the trance suddenly gone and his ability to move back.
"Wow. That was intense," he said, even as Biggie picked up the unconscious woman and headed for the Shu.
"Okay, two done, one left. Do you know who else we're missing Henry?" There was a momentary pause on the other end and Will frowned. "Henry?"
"Uhm, I think you won't like the answer, Will."
Something churned in Will's stomach, guessing at the answer, but he still had to ask. "Don't tell me it's the Nubbins," he tried to lighten up the mood and Henry chuckled, and then grew serious.
"No man. I wish it was. You know... Scorpy? Well it's missing."
Will closed his eyes, taking a breath. The Scorpy Henry spoke of was a huge abnormal that most of all reminded Will of a scorpion, though its anatomy was a little different. While its venom was deadly, most people who encountered it didn't have to worry about that. Being stung by the scorpion was akin to being impaled by sword. Its stinger was huge. Most people bled out before the venom had a chance to kill them.
"Can you tell me where it is?"
"Sorry, the sensors are all over the place. I can tell you where it isn't, though."
"Which is?"
"The Shu. And I wouldn't be looking at the upper levels either, that's all clear. Also based on Scorpy's physical requirements, I would say it's headed down to the basement to find some dark place where it can hide and wait for its victims."
"Just great."
"The good news is I have the perfect gun to catch it."
"What's the bad news?"
"You'll need to get pretty close for it to work."
"I knew there was a catch," Will sighed. "Okay, I'm heading to you. Tell me how it works."
ooo
Henry was right. The gun needed to be used at close range. Which was the reason why Big Guy was playing prey, trying to keep Scorpy's attention on himself by shooting at it with the rather useless energy pistol. All it did was piss the scorpion off and make it crawl out of its hiding space. Which was really all Will needed. As soon as the Scorpion clapped its pincers and swished its tail towards Big Guy, the stinger hitting the wall where he'd stood only moments ago, Will closed the space between them and aimed the special gun.
Will didn't know how it worked exactly, just that it would shoot out a special net made from conductive metal and send a strong electrical shock into the abnormal, hopefully paralyzing it long enough for Biggie to inject it with an sedative that would knock it out for half a day.
At least that had been the plan. Somehow, the scorpion seemed to have sensed Will's approaching presence and its tail swished back. Will's eyes went wide as he saw the stinger approaching. Jumping aside at the last moment, he was hit by the tail and thrown against the wall, where he slid down, dazed and confused. He heard Big Guy shout and try to get the Scorpion's attention off of Will, who was now laying in a heap, trying to make sense of the world that had become rather blurry. It took him a second to realize his glasses had been knocked off and he was now half blind. There was no time to look for them, but he also couldn't afford to not see.
Cursing his obstinacy over getting contacts long ago, Will pushed himself off the wall, fighting the growing nausea. He was either concussed or his missing depth perception was playing havoc with his inner ear. Or both.
Will blinked and raised the gun. He wasn't that blind, he could see the Scorpion. What he wasn't sure about was the location of Big Guy. He didn't want to catch him in the net and give him a shock, he wasn't sure how strong it would be. Sensing his hesitation, the Sasquatch got out of the way.
"Shoot!" The growl from Big Guy was all Will needed. Pulling the trigger he watched as the net fell upon the dark fighting mass. When he pushed the button on the gun he could feel the crackling of electricity in the air. There was motion and a jerk from the blurry dark mass, and then nothing. The hair on the back of Will's neck stood to attention as everything fell silent. All Will heard was his own breathing. Nothing moved.
"Biggie?" He asked tentatively.
"Took your time," Big Guy grumbled and Will let out a strangled chuckle. That had been close. Too close for his liking.
ooo
When Magnus and Ashley returned the next morning, they were subjected to a rather lengthy and vivid description of the events from all three persons involved. Magnus listened to their reports, unsure if she should frown or congratulate them. In the end she did both and sent them all to get some rest, as they had spent the night cleaning up the mess and making sure the Sanctuary was safe.
"Will? Stay a minute longer please," she asked as he was about to leave.
"Yes?" He turned, barely hiding the yawn.
"You had an interesting day while we were gone," she commented and Will frowned, waiting for more. "You did good. It couldn't have been easy to catch the Scorpion."
"It wasn't," Will admitted wondering where she was going with it, but she only nodded and smiled.
"That will be all, Will. Get some sleep."
"Uhm... Okay," he said, confused. He was already by the door when Magnus spoke.
"Oh, and I quite like the new look." Will paused, and then looked back. "Contacts?" Magnus asked and Will nodded.
"Yeah. My job description changed, so I had to change too."
"Quite so," Magnus said and leaned against her desk, smiling.
"Quite so," Will agreed with a smile and left.
The End