Ooo, first time in the Numb3rs fandom, I'm so excited.
To the point, I wrote this after watching the Agents of Shield episode titled "The Well" (Peter MacNicol plays a professor who (spoiler alert) is actually an Asgardian) and thought "what if?"
There are subtle references to Norse Mythology, kudos if you get them :)
Disclaimer: Guess who doesn't own Numb3rs...guilty as charged
His last class of the day ended at 6:45. Luckily, this one went without a hitch. In his second class of the day, some kid knocked over another student's glass sphere diorama. Needless to say, the diorama broke, and so did its creator's patience. It wasn't the first fight he ever had to break up, but it was the most difficult. Just as he was about to eat lunch, Charlie burst in with a stack of files and said he needed help cracking the case of a serial bomber that could strike again at any moment. Death strikes all the time, he mused, but just not here.It turns out, Charlie could have solved the case all by himself.
As he was getting ready for his dinner date (Do you really want to call it a date, Meg?), Professor Thompson approached him and said her daughter was in the hospital delivering her first child. He kindly obliged to teach her molecular biology class while she went to support her daughter during labor.
Closing the door to his office, he felt relieved to finally have time to himself; it felt as if his entire existence had been condensed down into this one day. Something itched on his arm, and he remembered the bandage.
It's been a few days, I'm sure someone would have healed in that time
He peeled the bandage off his arm and dropped it into the trash. On the way back from the FBI building one night, he and Megan were mugged. Luckily, Megan carried pepper spray in her purse and was able to ward the man away, but not after he left some blows. The knife had just grazed him, but Megan was adamant that he seek medical attention. He knew it would only be a few hours and the lacerations would disappear completely, but Megan didn't know that.
There were a lot of things Megan didn't know.
He could have crushed the mugger's skull in if he really wanted to, but he didn't: he's given that up.
And eventually, he realized, he would have to give her up, too. In his entire existence, he's loved many, but not as much as her. How would she react if she knew? She would leave him. She would go away, grow up, grow old, and eventually, she would die. A luxury he would never receive.
He smiled suddenly, knowing that eventually, yes, even he would die. He will hear the horn, and then he will die. But that was not for a long while at least. And he couldn't go back to his garrison, his death would be ensured. Did he make the right choice?
Turning from the window, he sees the picture of Megan he keeps on his desk. It was the first picture he took after he'd received a camera from said person. She was smiling, standing in the east quad of CalSci. Some student in the far background was sitting at an easel, also taking advantage of the beauty of Fall in the campus.
He's lived everywhere, from the frozen north of Scandanavia to the warm tropics of Jamaca, each time taking a new name, a new profession (though he does enjoy teaching), a new backstory. And in some instances, a new lover.
But this life, this life as Larry Fleindhart, a professor at CalSci in Los Angeles, California, this one, he realizes, is the best. She makes it the best. Solving cases, prolonging the existence of these Midgardians through his math and guile, this is what, he realizes, he is fighting for. He put down the staff, but he's still willing to fight.
He's still willing to live.
Review, Midgardians