Disclaimer: Deus Ex franchise – Eidos Montreal, not me. Kapish?
The beginning of the end
"you're working?" Jim asked irritated as he poured himself a mug of herbal tea. "are you shitting me right now?"
It was one of the first established rules of their household: DO. NOT. BRING. WORK. HOME. Work stayed at the workplace. Colleagues stayed at workplace, or bar, or restaurant, anywhere but home. The last thing kids needed was to be put aside by 'daddy has to work' excuse. And Neil apparently was breaking THE one rule which ruled them all.
"Look, Jim, it's nucl3arsnak3 again…" Neil propped his glasses with his middle finger, Miller raised his brows and glanced at a monitor trying to make sense of all those lines of white coding on black screen "he is a real pain in the ass. Like, he's good… insanely good"
"a hacker?" Jim's eyes narrowed. "you want my guys to pin-point him?"
"I don't think any of your guys could pin him" Neil snorted.
"you could be surprised. Like… Jensen's has lots of augs" the older man took a sip of his tea "I bet one of them can hack a hacker or at least track him-" Neil's body stiffened.
He slowly turned in his swivel chair to look at his spouse.
"and I'm also convinced that one of his augs can easily double as a coffee machine" Miller tried to joke.
"Aria wasn't enough? you had to hire another clanker?" Neil asked dryly "and you didn't ask me about it?"
"You don't come to me to ask if and how to fix a firewall" Jim retorted
"you don't fix a firewall – you find a loophole and you plug it"
"anyway, Jensen's former employer David Sarif – the Sarif you wanted to work for but this Pritchard guy outstripped you - was talking about him in such superlatives, a glowing recommendation that was if I've ever seen one" Miller cracked a dry smile "you should had seen him – he almost turned blue from all of the talking"
"that changes nothing!" Neil spat "he is dangerous"
"of course he is – Jensen's an ex-SWAT-"
"with robo-brain that can override his humanity"
"oh, come ON-!"
"Daddy? Father?" A small boy emerged from the corridor behind them.
Both men turned around. Faces smothered in an instant.
"oh, Ethan" Neil's voice pitched an octave higher "is everything all right?"
"I hope we didn't wake you" Miller added
"monster" the small boy admitted meekly looking his older father straight in the eye.
"I thought I killed them all" Jim admitted.
Neil shoot his husband a death glare.
"one survived the purge" The boy admitted, clutching tighter his stuffed T-Rex "he hid in the vent … told me he will leave if I feed him cereal"
"any cereal?"
"Augmentchoos." the boy admitted.
"you know we don't negotiate with terrorists" Jim replied sternly.
Miller went to his desk to get a toy gun from the drawer. He bought that piece of plastic just for that reenactment.
Neil shook his head in disbelief when his spouse went with their son to his room and then heard how Jim climbed boy's desk to get to the vent, opened it and made fake, but still very accurate, gun noises. As always the whole operation was successful as the younger man also heard a hushed cheer of their son soon after the heist.
The younger father was against the whole masquerade, as IT specialist he believed in ones and zeros, logic and parenting guidebooks. However no amount of explaining and factual data convinced their son that monsters weren't real. Only total annihilation of the entire species done by Australian's best marksman was able to calm the boy's racing imagination.
The only monsters Neil knew and believed to be real were Augmented people – pack of wolves in sheep skins. And Jim started to hoard them like a pack rat! All Neil wanted was his spouse to be as safe as he could in such unsafe environment… and clanks weren't safe – never were never would be! Neil resumed his work. His tapping onto the keyboard got more forceful. Jim would sleep alone tonight! On a sofa! Without dinner! That would teach him! Not to-! Not to-!
"you are still sulking?" Miller popped out of their son's bedroom, laughing. "over Jensen?" He leant for a kiss, the younger man ducked his head.
"I have work to do, James" the other man almost hissed.
For Jim, hearing his first name like that was like a punch to the gut. He looked at his spouse dumbfounded. But yes, of course Neil was mad! He had his reasons.
The deadlines not met because of that New Clear Snake guy and his loopholes, an endless search for baby-sitters who would work on schedules that never worked and… Augmented people. Miller sighed, he hated how the Aug incident changed everyone – even his spouse. He should have known to keep his mouth shut about Jensen – it was like adding a fuel to the fire.
Jim went to the bed alone, forgetting entirely about eating dinner, only the frantic tapping against keyboard kept him company. Normally, it would sooth the Australian's nerves to some degree as it always did, but this time the sound – even if rhythmic and hypnotic - was hard, alien… sinister. Like a war drum.
It wasn't end of the world, Miller tried to reason with the coldness that pooled his stomach, but he had an odd feeling that he could see it from here.