"I can't possibly allow you to do this."
Neil's doctor, whose name was Dr. Summers, was standing in the doorway to his room, acting as a bodyguard the moment Eva and Roxanne show up with the equipment.
"Sir, as an employee of the Sigmund Corporation, Neil was given the option to sign a contract allowing him to be experimented on for a new prototype of our software." Roxie waved the false papers in front of his face. "This is one of the opportunities in his contract that he legally allowed for us to work with."
Eva was standing a few steps behind the other, currently struggling to keep the machine up in her arms. This really is heavy… she thinks to herself, adjusting her grip. Rob was standing right next to her, his hands together in silence. She knew he was here to oversee the operation from the outside perspective, and communicate with them should there be any troubles.
"But your machines… they guarantee the death of it's user, does it not? You are taking away his chance of living!" Dr. Summers waves his clipboard, looking exasperated.
"Not this one." Roxie assures him, patting the box with a free hand. Eva is still struggling to stay upright with it's weight. Her fatigued body could barely keep it up. "This is an experimental type, meant to run some simulations on his brain. This will not bring about any permanent brain damage!"
Eva could see Roxie crossing her fingers behind her back. Or so we hope… She thinks to herself, biting her lip.
Dr. Summers hesitates, finally releasing a groan and side-stepping out of the doorway. "Alright. But if anything happens to him during this process, the hospital will not be sued, correct?"
"Correct. We will take full liability."
Roxanne steps into Neil's room, but Eva hesitates. She turns to the doctor with curiosity in her eyes. "Have you had any luck contacting his family?"
"No, we haven't." He shakes his head. "They haven't answered any of our calls. We'll keep trying though. Hopefully they'll pick up."
Disappointed, she nods in affirmation and turns around. It was strange that his family wouldn't accept communication with the hospital. She wondered why that could be, and there are several different possibilities that come into her mind, but she knew it was probably none of her business. Instead, she tries to focus on what she was about to do.
She fixes her hold on the machine and steps into the hospital room.
When Eva's eyes land on her fallen partner, she can't look away. Every single time she walks into this space, she's always a bit shocked to see him there. Every instance made the situation seem more and more real, and she didn't like it. It ruins that little spark of hope that this was all fake, or a dream, or something other than what her eyes were showing her.
Plopping down the machine in the open space of the room, Eva begins to set it up.
Roxie was right about one thing. This machine was different. It had several different parts haphazardly attached or removed, and Roxie assured her that she did her best in the past twenty-four hours to smooth out the glitches, but it still looked dangerous. Forget Neil getting brain damage from this, what about her and Roxie?
"Alright, let me take over, Eva. I need to make sure some of the configurations are set up a certain way." Roxie says, and Eva is more than happy to let the technician take over. She hovers for a moment, watching her work, and then walks over to the bed Neil is laying in, pausing at the side to stare down at him.
It's unnerving that he won't open his eyes and look up at her.
People in a coma can hear their family or friends talking to them.
Say something.
Eva can't bring any words to her lips. She just rests her hand against Neil's and squeezes his fingers.
This has to work.
Long, tedious minutes pass while Roxie is setting the machine up. Eventually, Eva feels a hand on her shoulder, thinking that was the technician's signal that they were ready to go. Instead, she turns around to see Robert standing behind her, looking as emotionless as he usually does. He folds his hands and tips his head politely.
"Be careful in there." He says. "And I hope this works."
She tires to offer him a sad smile. "Me too."
He turns around and walks over to Roxie, kneeling down next to her where she's tampering with the machine. Eva can just pick up his soft whisper of "Are you sure you want to do this?", and then she turns around, tuning them out.
She walks closer to the head of Neil's bed, keeping her hand on his. And then, she softly exhales, closing her eyes.
"You're an idiot, Neil." She says as softly as she dares, hoping he could hear her. She wishes she could slap him for all the trouble he's putting them through. "I can't believe you allowed this to happen to you."
She swallows. There's no response from her partner. She wonders if she'll ever hear him really speak ever again.
"Hold on then, alright? Because we're going to pull you out of the mess you put yourself in, you hear me?"
Eva Rosalene sighs, putting a hand to her head. This was going to be difficult.
"Don't you dare die on me, Watts. I need you here."
"Eva?"
Roxie startles her, and she turns around to face her. "We're ready to go." She informs her, patting the machine and gesturing with her hand.
She takes a deep breath.
"Alright."
Eva reaches out with shaking hands and takes the helmet Roxie offers her, suddenly hesitating. "This might be dangerous, Roxie," She points out, her eyes glued to the helmet in her grasp. "…you don't have to come with me."
"Nonsense!" She smiles excitedly, breaking the tension in the air. "I'm not missing out on this."
"But-"
"Eva," Roxie cuts her off, giving her a determined grin with a softer voice. "I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. So get used to it. Now let's go, we have no time to waste!"
Robert puts a hand on Roxanne's shoulder, and she recuperates by putting her hand on his and squeezing. "Be careful in there." Is all he says, and Eva can just detect the slight hint of fear. She doesn't blame him. This machine hasn't really gone through any testing and safety checks.
"I'm nothing if not careful." She says to him, taking a seat in the spare chair of the room while Eva sits in the machine's recliner. They share a look, and then Eva breaks off their gaze to look over at Neil's still form on the bed.
"We can do this, Eva." Roxie assures her.
It takes her a moment, but then Eva nods in response, and then they slip their helmets on over their eyes. All she sees is darkness, and her nerves are shot. She's shaking with anticipation. There's a moment of silence as the machine calibrates and connects the helmets to their users, and all she can feel is the pounding of her heart against her ribs, begging for escape.
And then they take the plunge.
.
Eva hadn't even considered where the machine would take them in terms of his first memory. It never once occurred to her that she was about to be face to face with Neil himself. Albeit a fuzzy memory of him. In fact, she was so whiplashed that when she found herself standing in Neil's office, she felt the overwhelming urge to throw up.
Perhaps it was fear that the machine might break on her, but she felt different entering his memories. Unable to really pinpoint what it was that rubbed her the wrong way, she settled for folding her arms and holding her breath. Hopefully the machine would remain stable.
But there he was, sitting at his desk with the tampered equipment on his right, and calculations on his left. He's writing code into his computer, biting his tongue as he concentrated, lost in deep thought. At least the machine got them this far without collapsing under startup, or causing a power outage at the hospital.
"Well?" Roxie was now standing at her shoulder, gesturing forward. Her presence startled Eva, but she didn't show it. "How do you want to break it to the guy?"
"I didn't think this far ahead." Eva admitted, and Roxie laughed.
"Well, let's do it." Roxie says, reaching for her remote to activate physical interaction. Eva follows suit, sucking in a deep breath.
Their sudden appearance seems to have gone unnoticed by Neil's memory, who continued tapping away at his laptop as though nothing else in the world existed around him. Eva took a step forward and crossed her arms, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "Neil."
Her partner screams, jumping in his chair. The momentum sends him careening backwards, and then the wheels of the chair tip over, landing on his back. He pants for breath, putting a hand on his chest and another on the floor to sit himself up.
In any other instance, this might have drawn out laughter from Eva. However, she just stood and stared, unsure of how to react. "What- what- what are you doing here, Eva? Roxie? How did you get… the door was locked…" Neil looked over at Roxie, making a face that went unreadable with his glasses hiding his eyes. But Eva could tell he was apprehensive- worried that Roxie had hacked the lock and brought Eva into his workspace.
"Neil." Eva simply says, at a loss for words.
"I… Eva, I can explain…" He says to her, holding his hands up in surrender.
"Neil, That's not why we're here." Roxie responds, shaking her head. This causes Neil to hesitate, and he looks over at her. "We're here because this is your last accessible memory to the database."
He looks at her, dumbfounded.
It takes him a few seconds to register what she was talking about. His eyebrows raise and his mouth opens, as though he were searching for something to say, but nothing is said. It's hard to pick up behind his glasses, but Eva swears she can see the fear on his face wash away the confidence he normally presents himself with.
But then, just as quickly as he had fallen silent, he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and lets out a genuine bout of laughter, picking his chair back up and setting it back in place. He can barely speak between his chuckles. "I can't believe I almost fell for that. You had me going there for a second. No really, what do you two need?"
"Neil, we're serious." Eva cuts in, but Neil isn't listening. He's still laughing, shaking his head in response.
"You guys are good. What, you been taking acting classes?" He slips his hands into his pockets. "I will say, props for the sour faces. You both look like you're attending someone's funeral. I'm sure anyone else would have fallen for it. Why don't you go do it to Rob? I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it."
The silence makes his smile drop in the slightest bit. The silence drags for a moment, and he forces another laugh between his lips. "No, you guys are totally joking with me. I know you are. You're both bad liars."
Roxie and Eva exchange a glance, and then Eva sighs, stepping forward with an apprehensive look. Neil takes a step backwards at this, now looking a bit pale and frightened at the sudden tension in the atmosphere, but continues to release nervous chuckles. "Really, you guys can drop the act now. The whole point of a prank is to do the big 'gotcha!' line, so let me have it. You had me going for a second, good for you. Surprise!" He looks more desperate now, taking another step backwards as Eva approaches. "Seriously, cut it out."
"Neil." Eva puts both her hands on his shoulders, and that's when his face drops, his glasses slipping down his nose a little bit. Instead of seeing the reflective surface, she gets a glimpse of his eyes. They're wide, greener than Eva had originally thought, and his face was completely pale now. He swallows. "Your body gave out from your Painkiller addiction. You're in a coma. We're using your altered machine to try to go back in time and fix this addiction of yours. We need you to talk to us, and we need you to help us, because we're going to save you."
He stares at her for a long time, and Eva stares back, unable to get over the fact that it was a rare treat to look him directly in the eyes. Those blasted reflective surfaces he insisted on having in his glasses made it hard just to see the mere color of his eyes. But now she felt like she was looking directly into his soul, seeing just how frightened and vulnerable he really was in that mere moment. There were bags under his eyes. He looked ill. But more than that, he looked terrified.
Deep down, he knew she was telling the truth.
His expression shakes her to her core, and there's a brief pain in her chest that's full of sadness. If only this were really him.
"We need a memento, too." Roxie cuts in, materializing next to Eva's shoulder and shaking her out of her trance. "So while you fill us in, be thinking about what could help us jump."
Neil can't look away from Eva's eyes, but eventually, he seems to force himself to look at Roxie and swallow, fidgeting with his hands. "Alright." He says, looking deathly spooked. "Alright, I'll bite. You've convinced me. By the way, if you're both joking, I'm going to kill you."
"Duly noted." Eva mutters, pocketing her hands to keep them from shaking. "Now when did you start your addiction?"
"I…" He frowns, looking down. "I can't believe I'm about to have this conversation with you. I didn't think…" He shakes his head, pacing a few steps to his left.
"Neil, please. We don't know how much time we have."
Pressing his hands together nervously, he turns back towards them, pressing his lips together. Eventually, he takes a deep breath. "I started in late high school."
"Okay." Roxie says, putting her hand on her chin. "Why?"
He looks at her, and then shakes his head, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Eva, do you remember in junior year when l when I was in a serious car accident?"
She hesitates, bringing back the thought. "Yeah."
There's a vague memory of it in her mind. She remembers hearing about it at school, and getting mixed stories about why he had been admitted. Rumors spreading and all that, saying he got into a fight, or he robbed someone, etc. She never visited him during that time- she hadn't been that close to him yet- but when he came back to school he had been quiet and grumpy, using crutches to get around with his leg in a cast, and a brace around his neck. He had been sour for months after that.
"It all started then." He says, continuing on as if Eva hadn't just lost herself in her thoughts. "But the pills helped with a lot more than just my injuries, so… I kept taking them."
"What do you mean by that?"
"There was just… a lot going on. Personal life and stuff." He seems guarded now. Eva had never heard him speak on a vulnerable level like this, and this whole picture felt unsettling. She waited patiently for him to find the willpower to go on. "I hardly remember it anymore, but it helped. And… in the terms of a memento, you can use my backpack. I've been using it since college, and it should get you a good start."
He wouldn't look up at them. Eva feels a pang of sadness in her chest, and wants so desperately to reach out to him. To hug him. Something.
This isn't really him. He'd forget as soon as she jumped memories.
Neil eventually turns around and walks toward the corner of the room, grasping his discarded backpack in his hand and tossing it onto the floor between them.
"This isn't a joke then?" He asks, but if Eva could see his eyes, she would have seen that he knew it was real. It was in the tone of his voice.
"We'll do everything we can, Neil." Roxie says softly, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. Eva isn't sure if it's meant to assure Neil or herself. He looks down at her hand and then sighs.
"Good luck, then." He says, sitting back down in his chair with his hands on his knees. He takes a shuddering breath. Eva watches him for a moment, taking in this picture before her. Neil, once lively, now looking as though he were about to accept his death sentence from the Grim Reaper himself. He takes off his glasses and toys with them between his fingers, and Eva finds herself captivated by the face he constantly hides.
The bags under his eyes, the way his eyebrows curl with inner conflict, and the green shade reflecting off the glossy layer over his eyes. It all told her so much about what was going on in his head, what he was thinking, what he was feeling. It was more human than Eva had ever seen him express, and she can't bring it in herself to look away.
This might have been the first time she had ever seen his real self.
And this was just a copy of him.
A hazy memory.
After a moment, he looks up at her, and she can see everything. All of his emotions, his thoughts, his genuine self. Their eyes are locked and Eva feels an overwhelming amount of sadness so intense that, in a last ditch effort to maintain composure, she has to tear her gaze away, fighting back tears. Neil says nothing more.
Eventually, Roxie puts a hand on her shoulder in a silent beckoning. She approaches the backpack wordlessly, pressing her hand against it to reveal its bubble.
It was time to begin.
