When he wakes up, he's clinging to someone like a lifeline, and he can still feel the warm blood trickling down his arms. He gasps for breath, and he can feel the woman stir in his arms, and he's trembling as she slowly starts worming around in his arms. His fingers—his stubs of fingers—are still warm, and he's digging them into her back as she wakes up.
"Desmond? Desmond, calm down."
"Ugh, I told you I should have lain on him. Tell him to stop thrashing."
He feels someone stroking his hand, and his fingers are still there. He can feel them being coaxed out from the warm blood that's still fresh and on his fingertips. He chokes on a breath and let's himself be coaxed from the stupor. There's a man's hand linking fingers with one of his hands, and a woman's in the other, and he feels a set of callused hands grip his hair. He swallows right before there're gentle kisses being placed on each of his eyelids, and he opens his eyes to see Lucy staring down at him.
"Desmond?"
He blinks. "L-Lucy?"
She kisses him softly, and he finds himself wrapping his arms around her as best he can before he breaks the kiss and hugs her tightly. He blinks, noticing that Shaun is stirring beside him, and Rebecca is on his other side.
"What happened yesterday?" Rebecca asks, rolling on her side. "You had a full-blown panic attack."
He blinks again as he lets Lucy kiss him, and when she pulls back, he wants to tell them about Clay, but something inside him, something nagging at the corner of his mind, tell him not to.
"I… thought I saw a ghost."
"Really, Desmond, you should be used to that by now."
"Be quiet, Shaun."
What worries him most is the fact that he can't feel those pleasant veils of cotton over his mind, and as he lays there, Lucy on top of him and a partner at either side, the cotton slowly gets unwrapped, lying over his eyes and brain. Ezio is murmuring in the back of his mind with Ratohnhaké:ton, and he can feel Altair, like a weight, just behind his eyelids and trickling through his blood. He smiles as Lucy kisses him, slowly and languidly, and he feels so good, despite the now-mounting paranoia. He needs to know what Clay's motives are, and what his ultimate plan is for them. When he hears Lucy's shocked gasp and Rebecca's laughter, he blinks, wondering what's going on.
"So, Desmond, you need to have kids, huh?" Rebecca says, and he has to blink because he doesn't know why she's asking him.
His answer is, "Of course."
"'Cause Ezio said he wants Lucy to have babies for you."
His eyes widen, and his entire face heats up. He shouldn't be so embarrassed, but what a thing to ask a woman he's not even married to. He hisses at Ezio in the back of his mind, and he's alarmed that both Ezio and Ratohnhaké:ton agree that he should be having children now. Altair tells him that it might be a good idea, that he'll still live a long time, and that he might even be able to see his great-grandchildren. He can feel excitement in his stomach: that would be an incredible thing to see, but as he tries to calm himself down, he can feel Lucy's embarrassment as well. He offers a tentative smile, and Rebecca and Shaun laugh.
"You'd better get on that, Lucy, before Ezio comes out and tricks you into making a baby before you know what's happening."
Lucy's face is bright red, and he can't help but be amused as he runs his knuckles along her spine.
"Ugh. Keep it in your pants a while longer, ape," Shaun hisses, "I'm not moving."
"Don't worry, Shaun, we're not going to be doing it anytime soon," Lucy murmured.
"I dunno, Lucy," Rebecca says, grinning like a demon, "I wouldn't mind a rugrat around here. And Ezio made it obvious he would much prefer your kids to mine."
"Rebecca," she says in that tone that warns him that this is not going to be discussed now. "Besides, he's only thirty."
And he snorts. "I want kids early. I want to live just as long as I can with them in my life."
He blinks, hearing Ezio murmur in the back of his mind, and he chuckles at whatever he's saying, because as he closes his eyes, he can feel Altair wrap him in his "arms," and he feels so at home with his ancestors there to help take care of him. When he wakes up next, he's saying goodbye to the eldest of the three groups of scheduled students he works with. All that's left are the youngest, and he already feels giddy. When the little kids come charging in with Lucy and the others, he can't help but smile at them and feel just so utterly content that the two hour session goes by much too quickly for him to register. After they've left, he smiles at his three partners and offers to let them come to his office if they like, and he won't say he's not disappointed when they don't stay and chat with him.
So he busies himself with paperwork and other things, and by seven, he's completely done. He rises, and all four of him are more than pleased with the fact that they've finished the paperwork. As he closes his office door, he thinks he sees Clay standing in the corner, but when he checks, the man isn't there. He frowns and dismisses it as residual paranoia from the panic attack last night. He feels Lucy take his hand, and he looks over his shoulder smiling at her as he locks the door with his other hand.
"We want to go out. Want to come with?"
"Sure. Where are we going?"
"To a Chinese buffet."
"Sounds good."
He lets her pull him out of the underground compound and into the streets of New York. He had one arm wrapped around Lucy's waist as Rebecca and Shaun walked on his other side, walking hand-in-hand. They enter the small restaurant, out of the way of most tourists, and are seated immediately. He sits down while the other three get their food, and he watches the girls' bags. Once Shaun comes back, he gets up, fetches himself some food, and returns to scoot in by Lucy, who turns and kisses him gently.
Desmond can feel himself click back into place, and he starts wolfing down the food. He eats more than enough for the price they have to pay for his meal, and by the time he's done, he knows he's going to be hungry again in two hours because that's just the way Chinese food works. He leans back, his hands on his stomach, and smiles when he feels Lucy's hand on his. He squeezes her hand back lightly, enjoying being around her, and he covers his mouth with his hand as he burps. Shaun tells him how incredibly rude that was, and all Desmond can do is laugh. It doesn't take much longer before they're all done and paid for, and he's walking home with Lucy in his arms as he peppers her with kisses. As they walk through the door, he sees the psychiatrist waiting for him, and he smiles warmly. He'll tell her about everything.
He kisses Lucy and Shaun farewell, and he follows Dr. Harbrig to a homely little room. Still, just out of curiosity, he wants to flick on his Eagle Vision to see what she is. After all, she had been red when he first saw her, and was presumably now still. Nevertheless, he was pleased to see the calm blue sitting in a chair, and he sits in a chair near hers so he can face her. He relaxes into the chair, sinking into the cushions and closing his eyes momentarily. Ezio berates him for ignoring a young woman like Dr. Harbrig, and Ratohnhaké:ton tells the older to shut up because he should be comfortable before he starts talking. He feels Altair's arms around him mentally, and he hums quietly. It was remarkable, really, how addicted to touch Altair was once he discovered the joys of it. He remembers the hours he spent holding Maria, the way he used to just press the palm of his hand against his sons' backs just to feel them beneath him, the millions of times he would just rest his head on Malik's shoulder as he straddled the man late at night. He remembers the way he would reach out to touch a novices who had a bad hand on something, instead of just telling them how to fix it—he remembers the way he used to wrestle with his boys to the point of getting in trouble for not doing his work, and he remembers the way he trailed his fingers over Maria's body every time they were intimate. When he wakes up next, he's got his hands folded over his stomach, and he feels utterly relaxed as Ratohnhaké:ton sings quietly in the back of his mind.
"Oh, my, so that wasn't you who was flirting with me."
"Hm?"
"That charming older gentleman—"
"Ezio," he murmurs, feeling a mild chill as all of a sudden the other three vanish.
He frowns, straightening and looking around.
"Is something wrong?"
"Ah… I don't think so."
He flicks on his Eagle Vision, and there, on the bookshelf behind the couch—he had no idea when he had moved—is a dripping, purplish ooze. He flicks it off again, hoping to see something, having never seen purple before, but he sees nothing.
"Desmond?"
He waved a hand at her to get her to shut up, because he's pretty damn sure he knows who this is, and he watches as the purple ooze slides slowly to the floor in a puddle, and after a bit, it's just a smear on the books, and the purple itself dissipates like fog in the sun. He flicks off the Eagle Vision, and sees no one, so he turns around.
And nearly screams.
He sees two bugging, wide eyes, the color of madness as two firm hands grab his cheeks and the head twitches to the side.
But there's something else wrong.
The man's face is upside down, and those lips are slightly parted as those wide eyes stare back at him. He's crouching on the back of the couch, hunched over his head, and he's not even sure that's possible as he stops breathing, holding his breath as his muscles tense. They stare at each other for a while, and Clay blinks, his eyes wide and almost panicked as he seems to be assessing him. He's almost certain the man can read his entire life in his eyes.
"You'," Clay breathes out and sucks in a breath all at the same time, and he seems to melt off the back before straightening up like someone jammed a stun baton up his ass.
The man slinks around the couch and sits, stiffly, staring into nothing, and he blinks when he feels a hand on his leg, and it's the doctor's.
"Desmond?"
He looks over once more at Clay, who seems to have melted into the couch by the way he's sprawled.
"Uh, yeah? Sorry. Personal problem. You see, recently, another person seems to have taken up residence in my head… well, I think my head."
"I'—no you aren't—yesIamIwillIpromise—No—Yes—n-No!"
He jumps at the shrill scream, and Clay fists his finger in his hair and pulls as his eyes bugging again as he twitches violently and then looks at him and snarls. He frowns, pulling back just in the slightest.
"You'd better not tell them about me, you self-centered freak!"
It ends in a shrill hiss as the man slides to the floor, and Desmond picks his feet up and puts them on the couch, his eyes wide as the man writhes for just a minute before falling deathly silent. Those eyes are staring, lifeless, at the ceiling.
"Desmond, what's wrong?"
He looks at the doctor and decides to speak quickly. "It's the man who helped me in the Animus—he went mad and is now haunting me," he looks to the side and sees that Clay has vanished, then back at the doctor, "and I don't know why, but whenever he's around, Ezio, Altair, and Ratohnhaké:ton don't come, at least this is twice now and—" In the corner of his eye, he sees Clay emerging from the ground, his arms crossed and a narrowed, displeased look on his face. "And it's not like I can blame him 'cause he was forced into that hell much worse than I ever was, Christ, Clay, just—"
His breath catches in his throat as Clay appears in front of him, pinning him to the couch and a mad look in his eye. The man's breath is warm against his face, and he can feel the heat of his skin as he leans in close, his mouth frowning.
"Desmond, Desmond, Desmond, I thought this was going to be our little secret."
"It wouldn't have mattered," he hisses in response. "They would have figured it out."
Clay's lips split into a manic, dark grin. "Of course. The game was to see if I could drive you crazy first—before they found out."
He growls, and Clay chuckles. Much to Desmond's chagrin, he finds himself attracted to it in the same way he's attracted to Altair's touching, or Ratohnhaké:ton's tribal singing, or Ezio's talking. He swallows.
"What's that, Dessie? You enjoy my mad company?"
"I-I do not!" he hisses, snarling, and Clay laughs—yup, he thinks, it's that laugh that's doing him in. "I don't want a madman living in my head!"
"You're wrong, Desu-Desu," Clay hisses gleefully, his body disappearing like smoke and leaving behind those eyes and mouth. "We're all mad here."
He blinks, and those eyes are gone. He looks around and sees the doctor, hovering, and he smiles warmly, that chill in his skin gone. It's clear that she' never dealt with a patient like him, probably more accustomed to PTSD symptoms and things.
"We're fine now. He's gone for the time being."
"For the time being? Who is he?"
He explains to her all about Clay and all the help he's given him. He tell her about how he was his guiding light at the darkest hour, and how he went mad and killed himself. He tells her about everything there is to know about him and Clay and Ezio and Ratohnhaké:ton and Altair all in a few hours, and he feels as if a world has been lifted off his shoulders when he's done.
There's a knock at the door, and it's for her next patient, and he leaves a little reluctantly, swearing to murder Clay again if he tries to do anything freaky to the doctor. He wrinkles his nose, not wanting to admit that as that laugh is heard in the back of his mind, right before he can hear the other three come back, that he is hopelessly attracted to it.
He shoves his hands in his pockets as he hunches over and keeps walking down the hallway, through the foyer, and into the dorm-like wing of the compound. He yelps when an arm comes out of nowhere and pulls him into the bathroom, and it takes him a minute to register that it's the girls' bathroom, and all the women are staring at him as he presented with one extremely naked Rebecca. He blinks, keeping his eyes on the rest of the women who are all giggling, and he feels his face heat up as he backs for the door. Rebecca grins like a goof.
"Come on, Des. Didn't you say you wanted an ankle-biter of your own?"
He blinks.
What?
"Well?"
He must be giving her a deer-in-the-headlights look because she and the other women are laughing, and his entire face feels warm.
"Look, if you're waiting for Lucy, it's not gonna happen. I've never seen a woman more married to her work than her. So, I talked it over with Shaun, and we both agreed if it will keep Ezio from coming out to screw every woman he sees here for a kid," she winks, "I'd give you one."
He can feel Ezio chuckle quietly in the back of his mind, the proverbial "high-five" between Ezio and Ratohnhaké:ton as Altair murmurs to him that everything will be fine and he can still just walk out if he wants to. He swallows, and his legs aren't his own as he steps forward and sees Maria standing there, that alluring smile on her face as she gestures him forward again, and he finds himself being drawn into a shower as he smirks. The walls melt back into the dorm-like showers, and he watches her as she locks the door and looks at him. There's something surprisingly seductive about Rebecca, he muses, as she steps forward with that sway of her hips as she starts to undress him without letting him help. Once he's standing naked, she places her hands on his chest and pushes against him, that challenging smirk on her lips as she leans up for a kiss. His hands find their way to her hips on their own before he leans in to kiss her deeply, and he has to say it's probably the best damn thing he's felt in a long time before she pulls away to turn on the shower.
And by the time Desmond's leaning against her as he lets the afterglow of sex in the shower wear off, he can't keep his hands still courtesy of Altair, one arm holding her up and the other hand pressing her closer as he nuzzles against her neck and exhales with the feel of the hot water running down his back. And then he realizes he doesn't remember any of it. He must have been anyone but himself, and while he's disappointed, he realizes it all probably for the best, because his ancestors are probably better in bed than he is, but that's okay, because he's not good for much. Ratohnhaké:ton is singing in the back of his mind as he slowly stops feeling the need to touch Rebecca, and he steps away, forcing a grin. Rebecca is leaning against the wall, looking inordinately pleased. And he supposes that it's okay that he's actually that much of a mess-up if Rebecca looks that pleased.
"Christ, Desmond. You are hot."
He laughs. "No, I don't think it's me."
She grins. "No, definitely you."
He shakes his head, trying to keep the feeling of absolute disappointment from his mind—he is so useless. Still, he takes her offered towel before she rubs her stomach as she wiggles.
"All righties, magic sperm of Ezio's descent, you'd better get to working."
He laughs, unable to help himself. "Careful, or you might get twins."
She pauses, then laughs, once, and gives her stomach a challenging grin. "Ha! You hear that, sperms? Better get to work, bitches! I'm expecting to lose my period this month, thanks!"
He rolls his eyes and walks out with her by his side, and she looks far too happy for everything she's just done. Still, when he walks into his room and finds Shaun waiting, he can't even bring himself to feel disappointed by the thumbs-up and the eye roll. Rebecca is more than happy to sleep with him that night, and as he drifts off to sleep, he thinks he catches Clay in the corner of his eye glaring.