Disclaimer: Other than the kindly aliens, I do not own the characters of this work of fiction, and no profit, monetary or otherwise, is being made through the writing or posting of this.
A/N: This is an AU which features alien abduction, romantic slash (cheesiness), sketchy science (I did consult an actual scientist), limited/third-person omniscient point-of-view (experimenting), jumps in time - I chose not to detail the entire pregnancy. I know that this is imperfect, and am trying not to obsess over errors.
Warning: off-off-off-off screen dubcon using some kind of alien drug that isn't really mentioned, this is only alluded to in the story, not detailed.
Chapter 1: Close Encounters of the Weird Kind
Danny tried not to look the thing, the alien, in the eye. Tried not to obsess about the prospect of something popping out of its chest and eating his face off, or about the fact that it had been so easy for the alien to take him and Chin in the first place, why it had left Steve and Kono behind, or why he was plagued by a vague sense of déjà vu, like he'd met these creatures before, under slightly better, less terrifying circumstances.
Danny flinched when the creature - somewhat human looking - touched his shoulder. He licked his lips, and forced a smile.
Swallowing a lump of fear, Danny kicked his smile up a notch. "Is this the part where you probe me? 'Cause I gotta tell you, I'm not that kinda guy. Flowers, dinner, a good movie, maybe some wine and chocolate first. Is that too much to ask?"
Chin's dry, humorless chuckle reassured Danny that his friend was okay, and he heaved a sigh of relief. They'd been separated, and Danny had been strapped down to something that looked an awful lot like the kind of exam table Danny remembered from Rachel's visits to the gynecologist when she'd been pregnant with Grace. He was willing to bet that Chin had suffered the same fate. It was uncomfortable, even with all of his clothes on.
"Your world's portrayals of our kind have done us, and you, a disservice, Daniel Williams and Chin Ho Kelly," the alien said, ending its sentence with a mechanical sounding whir and click, bony fingers digging into Danny's shoulder.
"I believe that you'll find, if you give us a chance, that we're a lot like you," said another alien.
This one's voice was softer, and Danny wondered if the softness was an indication that it was a female. It looked almost identical to the other alien - large, rounded eyes set in a long face with a sharp chin, skin the color of Grace's periwinkle crayon.
They were tall, almost skeletal thin, and had straight, black hair that went down to their shoulders. Their skin almost seemed to glow in the bright light of the interior of the ship, or wherever it was that they'd been taken. They wore simple clothes: cream-colored pants made of natural fiber, and a matching shirt. Their movements were fluid, almost mesmerizing.
Their eyes, upon closer inspection, not out of choice, but because the first alien leaned over Danny and peered into his eyes, were a dark, pupil-less blue like the deepest part of the ocean.
The longer that Danny stared into the alien's eyes, the harder it was for him to look away. The alien smiled, revealing white teeth that were so straight Danny wondered who its dentist was, and if he could hook Grace up with the same dentist for her braces.
"Relax, Detective Williams," the alien said, caressing Danny's cheek with a long, slender finger.
Danny, staring up into the blue eyes, felt himself relaxing as his fear started to recede. There was nothing to fear, nothing to be alarmed about, nothing to get worked up about, nothing, nothing, nothing...
"I and my partner are about to give you and Detective Kelly a precious gift," the alien said, and it breathed a pale purple cloud of smoke into Danny's face.
Danny tried to hold his breath, but the eyes told him not to. Not to worry, not to resist, not to think, but to breathe, and to accept the gift that he was being given. A gift that would save a world and give greater purpose to his life.
Danny's lungs demanded air, and he had no other choice but to inhale the smoke, which seemed to hover over him, only disappearing when he'd started to breathe it in. The alien exhaled another cloud of the purple smoke into Danny's face, and this time he didn't resist. It tasted almost like grape bubblegum, the thought of which made Danny giggle.
There was a third purple cloud, and this one Danny greedily breathed into his lungs. For a moment, maybe a little longer, he was dizzy, but the dizziness disappeared, and then there were only the eyes left for him to look at.
There was a whole universe residing in the eyes - stars, planets, nebulae. It was beautiful and terrifying.
"Close your eyes, Detective," the alien said, voice soft, long fingers undoing the buttons of Danny's shirt, cool palm pressed to Danny's chest, then his stomach.
Danny's eyes closed, but he could still see the universe. And when the alien's fingers started to work his belt loose, Danny felt no fear. He could taste the grape bubblegum on his tongue. The smoke filled his nostrils and his lungs as he continued to breathe it in.
The smoke-cloud made him sleepy, and, though he felt the alien work his pants down past his hips, Danny wasn't worried.
"Sleep," the alien said, its voice surrounding Danny like a comforter.
Danny felt something cold and wet on his stomach, then there was heat that spread out from his belly button to the rest of his body. There was a general sense that he should be concerned, that he shouldn't just lie there while the alien did whatever it was that it was doing to him, but the stars and the planets of the universe were beckoning him to ride the tail of a comet. He caught the tail, drew in a deep breath, lungs filling with grape-flavored smoke, and then he drifted away.
"Danny? Danny, can you hear me?" Steve's voice sounded like it was coming to him from far away, and Danny wondered why he sounded so worried.
"C'mon, Danny, open your eyes," Steve's voice sounded closer this time, though it was no less worried, and Danny started to worry himself.
He could feel someone touching his face. The fingers were calloused and thick, different than the fingers that had last touched him, and Danny wondered where those fingers had gone. Why they were no longer touching him, caressing his face, his stomach...
"Kono, how's Chin?"
The question confused Danny. Chin was with him. They had been together. Together when...Danny can't remember.
"He's not waking up, Steve," Kono's voice was filled with the same worry that Steve's was, and Danny wondered what had happened to Chin, if he was okay, or if the...if the...he can't remember, can't remember.
"We'd better get them to the hospital," Steve said.
Hospital. Danny balked at the idea, though he had no idea why.
"No," Danny managed to speak the word past a tongue that felt like it was stuck to the roof of his mouth, and through lips that felt like rubber.
"Danno?" Steve's voice had a hopeful lilt to it, and Danny struggled to open his eyes.
He didn't want to go the hospital. Couldn't go to the hospital. Didn't want to inhale any more purple smoke-clouds that tasted like grape bubblegum. Didn't want...didn't want...didn't want to be smothered in a cold, wet, sticky substance.
"No," Danny repeated, shaking his head.
Why wouldn't his eyes open? Where had the universe gone? What was happening? Where were the fingers and the warmth that seemed to spread throughout the entirety of his insides, opening him, laying him bare and then filling him?
"Danny? You're okay, babe. I've got you, you're okay. Just open your eyes for me," Steve said, and then Danny felt warm breath on his lips, the heat and light pressure of Steve's lips on his, kissing him awake, kissing him to life.
Danny's eyes opened, and for a moment he was disoriented, expecting to see an ocean blue eye staring back at him, but instead, he saw hazel-green eyes set in a familiar face. A face that, for some reason, Danny felt like he'd missed for an eternity spent in a hell devoid of anything but grape bubblegum and a sickly shade of purple.
"God, Danno, what happened? Are you okay?" Steve was cupping Danny's face, eyes shining with unshed tears as he kissed him.
"I thought I'd lost you." Steve's hands were shaking, and he ran them along Danny's body, checking him for injuries. His eyes were locked on Danny's, as though he was afraid that if he looked away Danny would disappear.
"I'm fine," Danny said, though he wasn't sure if he was okay. "How's Chin?"
"Kono?" Steve called.
"He's awake, Steve," Kono's voice sounded choked, and Danny could tell that she was crying.
"No hospital," Danny said, sensing that Steve was going to bring the idea up again.
Steve frowned at him, a puzzled look on his face. "But -"
"No hospital," Danny said in as firm a voice as he could muster.
Steve gave him a watery smile and nodded, promising, "Okay, Danno, no hospital."
Steve stroked his cheek, and Danny leaned into the touch, trying to rid himself of something dark that he couldn't quite remember.