I forgot to mention this before, but I don't own Lost. That's a no-brainer. Reviews make me all happy inside!
"Dad?" Benji asked, after Annie had gone upstairs.
"Yes?"
"Can you, um, tell me about…uhh…you?" Benji paused. "I mean, I barely knew enough really to identify you. Mom never really told me a lot, so…" Benji trailed off.
"Okay," Ben said softly. It was a reasonable request.
Where to start? The moment of his birth, or meeting Annie? What to put in, what to leave out?
He took a deep breath and looked at Benji, who was sprawled out so that his feet were next to Ben, who sat at the opposite end of the couch from Benji's head.
"My parents, your grandparents, went for a hike. They lived in Portland, and it was one of their hobbies. My mother was seven months pregnant." He took another deep breath. "It doesn't seem that intelligent to take your seven month pregnant wife hiking, alone, with nobody around, does it?" He paused. "My mother went into labor by the side of the highway."
Benji shifted his position so that his head lay in his father's lap.
"My father yelled by the side of the road, and a car stopped. The man driving that car was Horace Goodspeed. My mother died right then, in that car, right after telling my father to name me Benjamin.
"So I grew up with my dad in suburban Portland. I went to public school. My dad worked a lot; he had to, his jobs didn't pay much. He never went to college and barely graduated high school.
"I was quiet. The kids at school thought I was stupid. Sometimes they'd beat me up. I learned how to take a punch, however, so there was a bright side," Ben said sarcastically.
"My dad got laid off, and had a tough time finding work. However, around that time he was contacted by Horace Goodspeed, who was looking for workers to join the Dharma Initiative, which was some kind of utopian community for scientists to live and work at. It was located on an island.
"My dad accepted the job. We boarded a submarine and left for the island. That submarine ride was the worst. I had no idea where I was going, no idea of what was going to happen, and I felt incredibly nauseous.
"I met Horace when we got off the submarine. Horace took an interest in me. He said it was okay I never talked, that I would when I had something to say. My father went to check us in. I remember standing around, then hearing a girl's voice. She was the first kid I had seen all day. She said her name was Annie, and offered me a candy bar." Ben sighed. "My father was mad; his assignment was 'work man'. He said we were leaving, and as we left, I looked over my shoulder at your mother, and I hoped that I'd see her again. And I did," He added.
"So that was basically the only thing that had happened in your life so far that didn't suck," Benji murmured, barely awake.
"Yes, it was," Ben said.
He smoothed out the almost-asleep Benji's facecloth. It was only a matter of seconds before Ben himself was asleep.
"Benji bunny, it's time to get up."
Benji opened his eyes. His mother was standing over him. His father was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast.
"I've got you a doctor appointment at ten, that's in an hour, so we should be ready to leave in half an hour." Annie picked up the thermometer. "I want to see if your fever's come down at all."
She stuck the thermometer in his ear. Benji, once again, winced. It beeped. "One-hundred three point seven," Annie read off the thermometer. "Wow, I don't think you've ever had a fever that high. How do you feel?"
Benji gave her a how-do-you-think-I-feel look. "Well, both my ears hurt, my head hurts, my throat hurts, I have a fever of one-hundred three point seven…"
"Okay, okay, I get it. Well, here, take some medicine, have some juice, and I'll make you toast."
Ben popped a piece of bread into the toaster. "You go take a shower. I'll handle things," He said to Annie.
Annie went to take her shower. Ben brought Benji the toast, as well as a glass of juice. Ben placed two small orange pills on the toast, then presented it with a flourish. Benji smiled weakly, then swallowed the pills with a gulp of juice.
Half an hour later, Benji and Annie scurried out the door. Annie ran back to give Ben a kiss.
When Annie and Benji returned an hour and a half later, Ben was sprawled out on the couch, an open bottle of Aspirin on the table.
"Not you too!" Annie exclaimed.
Next chapter: More of Ben's life story.