Chapter Twenty Nine: Stupid Jack
(Bonus chapter because I feel like it)
The TARDIS whined and groaned as it settled into place. The floor shook just a bit, then leaned slightly to one side, making several lose items slide towards the far wall.
"Can you seriously make this thing any quieter?" Wasabi asked, sure the entire countryside had heard the awful noise.
This time around had taken slightly longer than the quick jump from the Manor to Hiro's Garage. Whether or not that was because of distance, or other reasons, was beyond any of the Big Heroes, but at least they'd arrived, more or less.
The Doctor shrugged. "Noise never bothered me," he said as he flipped a few levers, setting the mechanism on standby. "Always kind of liked that sound, to be honest."
Jack shook his head, Rose joining him. At least the noise had always alerted them to the Doctor's presence. It was kind of nice, in a way, knowing he was there. But not when they were trying to be stealthy.
"Where exactly are we?" GoGo asked, not sure she wanted to open the door and look out. She moved to walk around the console, stubbing her toe on some grating that had come loose. "Ow." Behind her, Baymax activated.
Looking at the monitor, the Time Lord made a few adjustments. "Looks like she's landed us a good couple miles away from the search area," he answered. "Be a bit of a hike getting there tomorrow. So, I suggest everyone get plenty of rest. I did try to jump ahead a few hours, but one never knows."
Wasabi went for one of the tents. "I'll be outside if anyone needs me," he said, "Unless anyone wants to joint me?" He glanced questioningly towards his friends. When none of them seemed inclined to join him, he shrugged. "Suit yourself."
Heading to the door, the super hero paused, looking back just to make sure no one had changed their minds. When they continued to just stand there, he turned back to the door and opened it, only to stare as the sound of rain filled the silence. "I didn't think the forecast called for rain," he managed, his eyes wide. "Please don't tell me there's thunder."
Almost as if in answer to his question, lighting flashed across the treetops, lighting the sky. He quickly closed the door. "I think I've changed my mind," he managed as the tent dropped from his hand. Thunder accentuated his point, rumbling through the TARDIS's walls.
Hiro resisted the urge to shudder, folding his arms across his chest as if to hold himself together. "That was really loud," he commented, looking more than a little spooked. His words were followed by the sound of rain pelting the outside of the TARDIS.
Without any warning, Hiro felt Baymax's arms wrap around him. He looked up, a bit confused, until he realized there were tears sliding down his cheeks. He exhaled, pressing his spine against the vinyl belly of his robotic friend. The hug tightened just a bit as he managed a wan smile. "Thanks, buddy."
His friends avoided looking his direction, faces down turned as they realized what was going on. It became a shared moment of grief as they each remembered the day of the funeral.
After a rather uncomfortable moment of silence, the Doctor cleared his throat. "Right then," he began. "Maybe we should try and get some rest now. The rain'll make the ground a bit of a mess, but that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. In the meantime, maybe we can get everyone bunked down for the night?" He glanced over at Rose and Jack.
"Right," Jack said, seeming to jump out of his thoughts. "Assuming nothing's moved, if the boys could follow me, I'll show you to your room." He stepped towards the other end of the TARDIS, heading away from the main doors.
GoGo was the first to move, hoping Jack was right about nothing moving, though she wasn't sure she'd believe it if anything did. She'd spent the last night in a rather nice bedroom with Honey, bunk beds, but not bad. "Let's go," she called to her female associate.
Wasabi reluctantly followed after Fred and Jack, giving a backwards glance at Hiro, who attempted to smile.
"Don't worry," the Time Lord spoke up, "I'll make sure he finds his way."
Still a bit uncertain, Wasabi slowed his pace as he walked past Hiro, pausing to give his hair a bit of a mussing. "You know we're here for you, whenever you want to talk about, right?" he asked, then continued on, not waiting for an answer.
With his friends out of sight, Hiro let his shoulders slump, pressing further into Baymax's soft belly. "Yeah," he finally uttered, eyes downcast. Maybe things would always be like this, the rain making him feel depressed and without energy.
"It will be all right," Baymax said as low-level heat radiated from his core. Sometimes physical things like warmth helped calm the boy. That, and it might help loosen his tense muscles. "There. There." He patted the boy on the head.
Hiro sniffled. "You'd think it would get easier with time," he admitted as he moved to wipe his nose on his sleeve, a rather childish move, but he didn't have a tissue.
The Doctor leaned against one of the consoles as he watched the pair. "It never gets easier," he said, his eyes looking slightly haunted as he remembered all the death he'd seen. "You just learn to deal with it. And, sometimes, it just catches you unawares. It never really goes away, but you learn ways of handling it."
Hiro looked up at that, realizing the Doctor was staring off into space, his arms slightly folded across his chest. The look in his eyes seemed to mirror the pain he felt in his heart, only going much deeper. "You've seen a lot of death?" The question came out more timid than he'd planned, but his throat did feel a bit constricted.
"Yeah." The Time Lord continued to stare out, not really looking at anything. "I watched my whole planet burn, everyone I ever cared about just up and gone. Even for as long as I've lived, it never hurts any less."
Baymax released his hug as Hiro moved to join the Doctor at the console. He waddled after the boy, facing both the Time Lord and his young charge. "Those who suffer a loss require comfort and contact with close individuals," he noted. "Do you have any close contacts or individuals you can ask for comfort?" He glanced at the Doctor with a tilted head, somehow showing his concern. "Rose Tyler, perhaps."
The Doctor seemed to sniffle a bit. Though no tears had actually fallen, his eyes were a little wetter than usual. "Rose has a basic understanding," he admitted. "But she doesn't have the lifespan or context to completely understand. Don't get me wrong; she's suffered a lot of loss. But it's not the same as losing your entire planet."
Hiro glanced up at, his eyes widening. "What happened?"
Still not looking at the boy, the Time Lord tightened his arms around his chest. "War happened," he answered, his voice more hard this time. "No matter how many times you see it, death always effect you on some level. And I see it every day. It's part of who I am, a curse almost. The last Time Lord."
"If you would like, I can offer physical reassurance in the form of a hug," Baymax spoke up, his arms rising slightly as if he wasn't sure if the gesture would be accepted or not.
"Time Lord?" Hiro asked at almost the same time.
Finally turning to look at Hiro, the Doctor nodded. "Time Lord. It might be hard to believe, but I'm over nine hundred years old."
The look on Hiro's face went from shock to a sense of awe, allowing him to at least momentarily forget his own emotional pain. "No way."
"Totally way," the Doctor responded, smiling a bit. A few tears leaked from his eyes and he quickly brushed them aside.
Hiro shook his head in disbelief. "You don't look that old. I mean, for someone as old as all that." He looked at his feet, feeling lame. Most people over the age of thirty looked old to him, but at nine hundred? Well, the Doctor looked really good if that were true.
Shrugging, the Time Lord reached an arm around Hiro's shoulders. "Yeah, well, it's kind of complicated. A bit wibbly wobbly and all that. I've lived many lifetimes, seen a lot of things. A lot of really neat things," he emphasized.
Before either could speak further, Baymax wrapped his arms around them both in a group hug. The Doctor looked a bit surprised but just went with it. After a good minute or two, the older man moved away from the robot's embrace, still sniffling a bit, but more his usual self. "You should get to bed," he admonished the boy. "Big day tomorrow."
Hiro gave a rueful smile. "Yeah." He reached over to give the man an individual hug. "Thanks."
The rain dampened Kim's mood. And the lightning didn't help either. There was a reason this facility was secondary to their original one. Sometimes it leaked. And when lightning hit too close nearby, well, the power tended to flicker, which slowed production.
"Get those emergency generators online!" she called out to her crew. If they took another hit from the electricity above them, it could cost them at least a day's work. Not only would she be unhappy, but so would Thomas. And she couldn't have that. He tended to get violent when upset. And she was already a bit shorthanded.
"Come on, people! We have less than a week until everything goes down. I want to see it happen in glorious fire!"
For the briefest of moments, Hiro wasn't sure where he was. The fabric under his fingers wasn't familiar, nor were the features of the room. He struggled with the blankets, feeling like there was something else there in the bed with him. He thought he felt something slither against his leg but couldn't be sure. He sat up, his heart pounding.
"It is all right," Baymax said as his head came into Hiro's view. "You appear to have had a bad dream, but you are safe."
Hiro lay back against the pillow, one hand pushing back his mop of hair. "Ugh. I hate dreaming about snakes," he confided. He sat back up, wishing he had a clock. "What time is it?" Looking around, he could see Fred across the room, sprawled across the lower bunk. Wasabi's arm hung off of the upper bed.
"It is six thirty in the morning," the robot answered, one finger in the air, something he did whenever he answered most questions.
The boy slumped back for the second time. "Two more hours, huh?" Why did he have to have crappy dreams the night before a major campaign? It wasn't fair. The only good side was that he hadn't dreamed of Tadashi dying or any of the other traumatic events from his past. But snakes, that was something else entirely. He hated them with a passion, ever since he'd come in contact with one as a child.
He shook himself, as if that would free his mind of the images from his dreams. "I think I need some coffee or something," he admitted as he placed his feet on the ground. Not that he really drank coffee. He was more of a hot cocoa kind of guy.
Baymax moved so Hiro could get up from the bunk. "Perhaps it would be wiser to try and sleep longer," he advised. Judging from his patient's actions, however, he doubted that was going to happen, so he shuffled after the boy as he exited the room.
After a couple of wrong turns, one that almost landing him in a giant swimming pool, Hiro found his way back to the control room. He was about to just walk in when he heard voices. Deciding to keep things low key, he chose to peer around the doorframe instead of barreling in.
"That's right," he heard Jack say. It looked like the man was talking into an old-fashioned, corded phone connected to the ship's control panels. "The boy managed to figure it out, just as you thought he would. No. I haven't told the others yet, but I won't turn down some backup. How soon? Okay." Then the man hung up.
Hiro couldn't help but stand free of the doorway as Jack turned his direction. He tried to act casual, but the hair on the back of his neck was standing up. Baymax would likely comment about his accelerated heart rate, but wisely chose to remain silent. "Hey," he called out, just in case the space captain hadn't noticed him.
Jack seemed to come out of his reverie at the sound of Hiro's voice. He seemed momentarily surprised, then quickly changed to an almost pleading demeanor. "Hiro," he replied, sounding a bit like a kid who'd been caught stealing cookies. "I didn't know you were awake."
"Um, yeah," Hiro fudged, slowly walking into the room. He felt Baymax behind him. "Who were you calling?" He glanced at the phone now back in its usual position.
Jack cleared his throat. "Ms. Smith," he declared, eyeing the boy like he wasn't sure what he'd do next. "I figured we could use some backup, just in case."
Adopting an almost hands off approach, Hiro laced his fingers behind his back as he strolled towards the Torchwood agent. "So…. Are you working for them? Or maybe for yourself?"
The captain let out a sigh. "I can't believe I'm explaining myself to a kid," he muttered, then shook his head briefly. "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your team is good, but the best laid plans of mice and men, you know? UNIT is experienced in handling alien tech."
Hiro continued to move towards Jack, now circling him slowly. "But this isn't really alien tech, is it?" he asked smoothly. "I mean, not really. Is it? The metal is alien, but the technology isn't. Maybe that's why the Doctor didn't want them involved?"
Jack might have laughed if this had been under different circumstances. Instead, he swallowed, hard. There was no denying that Hiro was a genius. His creations were pretty amazing for someone his age. But he was also way out of his element. He managed a nonchalant shrug. "Maybe. But are you really prepared to put your team up against a group of bloodthirsty dictators?"
The boy stopped, craning his neck to look up into Captain Harkness's eyes. "When are they going to be here?"
"A couple of hours," Jack admitted, though he wasn't sure why he was telling him that. He was just a kid, for crying out loud! The boy should still be in middle school, or maybe high school or something, not off fighting world despots.
Hiro glanced back towards the doorway he'd come through. "Then I guess we'd better get moving." He turned on his heel in an almost military manner, Baymax following him back through the door.
Jack smacked himself in the head after they left. "Stupid. Stupid, Jack," he admonished himself.
