HOLY CANOLI I'M AT 50K! Have a new chapter! Aaron enters the picture.
Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.
- o – o -
Chapter two: Aaron
Aaron remembers how the world used to be, before the blackout. He was on top of the world. Things made sense. The guys who'd bullied him in school cleaned his floors. (Well, one of them had, anyways.) Everything had gone right back to how it'd been in grade school the second the power went out. He wasn't on top anymore, and it was likely that he never would be. Not unless, by some miracle, the power came back on.
As soon as General Monroe had discovered the pendant Ben had given him, Aaron was pretty sure he was going to be killed. He'd sat in his cell, waiting for them to come in and kill him, or drag him out to be executed in public.
What he doesn't expect, though, is for Danny—Danny, who he and the rest of the group's been searching for, for months—to walk into the cell, accompanied by General Monroe. Danny looks like he's been crying recently. Monroe has a possessive hand curled around Danny's hip, and Aaron wishes he was brave enough to bull-rush the leader of the republic. He can guess what's happened.
The freedom he's granted after a rather smug speech from Monroe, instead of the execution he expected, is worrisome. Aaron spends most of his time in a suite in what used to be one of the best hotels in the city. He spends a lot of his time writing, mostly useless pages of code for systems that became obsolete fifteen years ago. He doesn't expect any visitors—not being shot is the best he can hope for, especially given that he's just given one of the keys to power to the anti-Christ.
Danny walking into his room one day is a surprise.
Any bit of hope Aaron had of seeing the kid he helped raise takes a jump out the window as soon as he sees how cautious Danny is. Back in the old world—or even a few months ago, he amends silently—Danny would have been one hell of a daredevil. And it would have been safer in the pre-blackout world, Aaron realizes, because Danny would have had rescue equipment and inhalers on hand. In this day and age, any crazy stunts—like the ones he's fond of pulling—would kill him. Have almost killed him, in fact.
"Hello…Aaron," Danny whispers hesitantly, sitting down on the chest at the end of Aaron's bed. He stares at the floor, refusing to look up. If Aaron goes only by body language, he has to guess that Danny's been beaten pretty badly. He's seen a lot of people like that, in the last fifteen years. None of them are like Danny, though—even in a world gone to hell, the youngest Matheson is still an innocent.
"How…how are you?" Aaron replies, not sure what else he can ask. Danny gives him a one-shouldered shrug, still not looking up.
"I…wish…" Danny says, slowly, like he's not sure if he can form the words, "Tom…was here." He looks slightly pleased with himself for managing to say all of that. Aaron wonders who Tom is, and says so.
"He…protects me," Danny whispers. He's fingering the collar around his neck, sounding wistful. Aaron puts his glasses on, and can just barely make out the words "Property of Tom Neville" written on the tag. His blood boils at that.
"I wish I could believe that," Aaron replies, just barely managing to keep the growl out of his voice. He sighs and rubs his face with both hands as Danny shoots him a betrayed look. He wishes he doesn't see the finger-shaped bruises on the kid's jaw, or around his throat, but he does.
"He does," Danny says after a few minutes, voice still soft. He draws his knees up to his chest and buries his face in them, and stays like that until Major Neville (promoted months ago, after he'd abducted Danny, according to papers the gang had acquired on their trek)—the man who shot Aaron's best friend—comes to retrieve Danny.
The look on Danny's face as Neville touches the bruises tells Aaron more than body language ever could. The look of concern on Neville's face, the almost tender unspoken moment between the two, says even more.
If Aaron were braver, he'd kill the bastard who'd put those bruises on Danny's face. Then he'd kill Neville for not protecting Danny.
But he's not, and wishes he was.
- o – o -
So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Want to help Aaron kill Monroe and Neville? Drop a line and let me know.
Author's note: Yes. I'm at 50,000 words in 11 days. I have no hobbies to occupy me. At this rate, I should be able to post FOHL by Thanksgiving. :D
