Life on Mars?
The abundance of cars at the Foundation building meant two things: One, this was indeed the correct place, and two, that she had undoubtedly missed the ceremony.
On the outside of town, the English Foundation building was a culture and community center. Located between the main town and the suburbs, the building was built on the side of a hill and overlooking a river. From driving by, it looked like the backyard of the building was an open grass city park with cement walkways and paths. Passing by the building and over the park and river was a cement commuter bridge.
Angela drove her rental through the parking lot, searching for any spot close to the entrance. Sadly, every spot, from the private bus parked across 4 spaces, to even the handicapped reserved spaces, were occupied. Turning around, Dr. Ziegler drove out of the parking lot and up the street to the top of the hill, from there, she finally found an opening among three lone parking spots by the entrance to the park. Before she turned the vehicle off, she checked the clock on the dashboard… and by god she was late.
From there, she pulled down the visor mirror and inspected herself one final time. Her makeup was simple, even subdued from what she normally would put on, but enough to be respectable. Her hair was tied back in her usual high and short ponytail. She checked her collar, the bow around her neck, and made sure that everything looked presentable. Taking a breath to prepare herself, she looked over at her purse and rummaged through it to find anything she may need and put them into the compartments of her vest and jacket. The last item she found was a small pill bottle filled with over the counter pain relief medication. She uncorked the child safety lock and dropped four tablets into her palm before swallowing them all. She understood that now she would not be able to have alcohol for the rest of the night, but there were worse things that could happen. Pocketing the pill bottle and making sure she was ready, Angela finally opened the door and stepped out. Her first leg exited the vehicle easily, but only after a deep breath and concentration was she able to swing her other leg over the side of the car and onto the road. She waited for a moment, and when ready once more, she –still favoring one leg over another- swung herself to a standing position and leveraged her weight against the car.
Slowly, she put more weight down on her bad ankle, feeling the response almost like an air cushion pushing against the weight of her body on the tender area, and after a while, things began to feel better. She was just thankful that the rental shop had slipped a spare set of shoes into the garment bag so she didn't have to wear heels.
With a limp to her step, she walked alongside of her car and up to the sidewalk. Once she got there, she noticed there was a sizeable curb between the parking area and the raised pedestrian area. "Well," she thought, "that's going to be fun getting over later."
Regardless, she swung her wounded side up first, and then against her better judgement, pulled the strong side up to quickly regain her footing on the sidewalk. She had expected to be in a monumental amount of pain after doing that action, and while it did still hurt, it was not as bad as she had expected, so she supposed that must have been some of her treatment finally taking effect.
She walked down the incline and up to the building, around the cars in the parking lot, and finally into the venue.
The first room she entered was sparse, a rollout red carpet over the short carpeting of the banquet center. There were little to no decorations except for a few photographs of locals or events that had been held her before. Soon after she entered, a door opened to the side and a man in a white server's outfit exited pushing a tray full of covered dishes before him. He turned his head, seeing Angela standing there in a black tuxedo and had to take a minute to recognize what she was while she waited as well.
"uh, Excuse me, M'um. Are you with the wedding party?"
"Yes." Angela answered.
"Good, dinner's just begun." He pointed to a doorway, then said. "Down the stairs and to the left." Angela visibly winced at the mention of stairs, but knew that she had to mentally tough it out, so she thanked the server and began to limp towards the doorway she had been pointed to. Luckily, after seeing her take a few wounded strides, the server asked, "On second thought, would you like to use the lift?"
The doctor breathed a sigh of relief and took him up on his offer. She followed him to a steel colored service elevator and the two rode down to the lower floor. The doors opened, and the two were in a secondary kitchen, not necessarily the place to cook food, but instead an area with the space, countertops, and area to stage it before serving. Angela was pointed to another side door, and she took it.
A few hours after midday, the banquet hall would have been bright and vibrant at this hour. The room was a long rectangle, one of the long sides was a wall with doorways to the side areas such as the closet, stairs, and the secondary kitchen. The other side was simply sets of French double-doors down all but a little length of wall on each side. The glass doorways acted as windows when needed, and openings to the outside based on what the event at hand needed them to be. At this time they were all closed. Supposedly, it was quite warm outside today, but Angela hadn't noticed, as she had been inside for most of it. As they were now, the doors were closed and heavy curtains drawn to cool off the wedding party. The action gave them all a much needed break from the sun, but also made the room quite dark.
Angela, by both wearing her ridiculous tuxedo as well as her incredibly late arrival, had a worry in her mind that she would enter and be greeted by some extravagant introduction, that lights would focus on her and all would see her walk into the party like some sort of honored guest. Luckily, she was wrong. Everybody seemed to be distracted with each other at the moment, and she was inconspicuous. The center of the hall was a dancefloor, placed before it like a king's court were the guests of honor, and around the floor throughout the rest of the hall were large circular table full of guests.
It was dark at the moment, Angela's eyes hadn't adjusted from the bright afternoon to the dark building, so she wasn't sure where she was to sit. From her quick estimation, it looked to be 200 people seated in the room, it was amazing that they were able to seat them all here in a single room. On the far end opposite of the DJ was a bartender manning the refreshments and beside him looked to be a sign with the seating arrangements, but that wouldn't be necessary, for even in the dark and hardly able to see at the moment, Angela made out the form of Dr. Winston T. Gorilla at a corner table.
It was hard to miss Winston. On one hand he was over 600 lbs and stood several heads taller than the average person. On the other. He was also a blue Gorilla genetically modified by scientists on the Moon. But, a familiar face was always a familiar face, and if Winston was sitting there, then Angela had a feeling that she wouldn't be much further.
She began to make her way towards him, and after taking a few strides, he happened to notice her and began to wave his large padded hand at her. The doctor smiled, giving him a short wave back and did her best to hide the limp.
When she approached the table, there was indeed a seat waiting for her next to Dr. Winston. His seating arrangement, on the other hand, were two large truck tires, probably the only things that could support his massive frame. When he was close, Winston said, "Good to see you finally made it Dr. Ziegler." His voice was deep, and even as he tried to keep his volume low, it was still quite loud. Luckily for them, though, it seemed that the rest of the party was already intoxicated enough to the point where they were talking loudly as well. It was at that moment that Winston noticed that Angela happened to be wearing a tuxedo and complimented her on it.
She thanked him, looking at him and seeing that he, himself, was wearing his own tuxedo as well. Angela had recognized the suit, Lena and her had went with him to the tailor on the day many years ago that Winston was measured and fitted for his formal wear. It must have taken up a massive amount of fabric to make anything that would fit him, Angela imagined that his tuxedo must have been the size of bed sheets if he just laid it all out. Yet, she had to admit that she was proud with how well he must have taken care of his clothes, as well as him looking quite well in them.
Angela took a seat next to him, taking the weight off her feet and complimented Winston on how handsome he looked. The big Gorilla laughed, saying, "I Know. I'm in a Monkey Suit, ha ha!"
Winston continued to talk, this most likely was the first wedding he had attended. Angela only half listened, for her eyes searched the crowd. She wasn't sure why it took so long to find her, maybe it was because she was expecting her to be zipping around the tables as such, but Angela finally laid her eyes on Lena Oxton sitting next to her newly wedded wife in the center of the wedding party's table.
Angela wasn't sure what she had expected Lena to be wearing. She was a woman, yet at the same time she always acted rather masculine during their service with Overwatch. From the stories Angela had heard, Lena was not "pure" by any means, yet at the same time Angela knew it was customary for women that were to be wed to wear white. So, sitting next to Emilee in a white gown, Lena was dressed in a sharp, slim cut blueish grey dress uniform. With golden buttons down the front, ribbons and merits over the left breast, and a sharp black tie underneath. Angela recognized the ensemble from some of the other patrons in the crowd, and determined that it must have been her old uniform. Over the chest of the uniform was her Chronal Accelerator, and as Angela considered it, she did recall that Lena was in the Royal Air Force before Overwatch, so it did make sense. For as strange and… well… wrong as it felt, Angela did have to admit that the two did look nicely together. Still, eventually the two would have to address one and other, and that was one thing that Angela wasn't prepared for. But, this wasn't about her, so she could wait until the time was right.
Dinner was served, Angela and Winston and the rest of their table kept each other company as the time went. As requested, Angela was served salmon while Winston had a large platter of fruit, and being excited at his new experience, recapped the rehearsal as well as the ceremony for her.
When dinner was done, a small woman wearing a dress and thick glasses made her way over to the DJ and got a microphone. She made her way over to the center and called the newlyweds down to the dancefloor.
The two stood there for a moment as the photographer got into position and the DJ got the sound system prepared. Angela watched the two, just like how everyone else must have been doing, as they scanned the crowd. Lena looked over the guests, and for a moment, the two of them locked eyes. Dr. Ziegler wasn't expecting it, but it was chilling, almost like the time she stared down the optical lens of a DR-01 during the crisis. Quickly, Lena's gaze continued to shift throughout the crowd of people. It could have been a coincidence, afterall, there were a lot of people here. But deep down, Angela knew that Lena had definitely seen her. Now it was Lena's turn to make the next move.
The hostess spoke once more, "Can I get all of the unwed Ladies and identifiers to report to the dancefloor?"
Angela knew what that meant, and for the sake of not looking like a cooked sugar beat out of embarrassment, she remained seated while a crowd began to form on the center stage. From the opposite side of the room- most likely Emilee's family- young women of all sizes began to rise and make their way to the center floor. On Angela's side, people began to get up at move to the stage. All seemed well until someone in a bright pink dress stood up and turned, revealing a big brown bushy beard hanging from their chin. Following shortly behind was a woman with her hair in a short bob cut, but instead of a normal human color, was an indigo blue, and due to the heat and sweat of the day, was dripping down her back. Angela had to take a minute to take in all of the strange characters she had missed upon her entry as they slowly made their way to the dancefloor.
As the crowd awaited the bouquet toss, Angela came to the realization that these people must have been some of Lena's guests. It wasn't all of them, but it wasn't surprising that she was acquainted with people who followed an alternative lifestyle. It was somewhat strange to think, though, that even with the amount of time that they had spent together, being in the same organization for years, that there was still things that could surprise her about her previous cohorts. Then again, she really wasn't one to judge. After all, she was a catholic woman in a magician's tuxedo at a gay wedding sitting at a table with a blue gorilla.
Winston nudged her, quietly saying, "Uh, doctor, I think you're supposed to go?"
Angela shook her head, saying, "I'll stay here."
"But she just asked for-"
"Viston." She said, voice stern and steely, "look down, please."
Dr. Winston sat up, alarmed at her tone. Plus, in his experience, whenever the doctor's accent began to slip into her normal speech, it meant that it was time to listen. He did as he was told, slowly shifting his gaze down and looking at the doctor's foot beside him. Angela Ziegler grabbed her pant leg and slowly began to pull the hem of the trouser up. Winston watched, unsure of what to do as more and more of her smooth and shaved leg was revealed from underneath the black fabric. When he first came to earth, he had been forced to take social training to acclimate himself to humans, to understand that people may be frightened by his large size, loud booming voice, or how he needed to control himself. One thing he had difficulty with was understanding personal space and privacy. For he may be inspecting a shiny diamond necklace, but to onlookers, it may have looked like he was staring at a woman's breasts.
Dr. Winston was unsure what his friend wanted from him, and felt uncomfortable as more of her leg was pulled from her pants. But, before he could ask for assistance, he spotted the dull white of medical tape wrapped around her thigh, and with a wince from Dr. Ziegler, she revealed a half melted bag of ice wrapped around her purple ankle, taped in place by roll upon roll of medical tape.
"…Are you okay?" he asked.
Keeping her voice low and action hidden as to not make a scene, Angela answered, "No. You have no idea how much pain I'm in. So yes, I will be staying right here." She then pulled her pant leg back down, hiding the emergency treatment away from the world.
The crowd counted to three, and then the bouquet went flying through the air, landing in the arms of a woman who had a cat's tail hanging out from under her dress. There was a round of applause, and then the crowd began to disperse. Angela knew what was about to happen next, and more importantly, what happened after that.
The hostess got back onto her microphone once more, saying, "Alright, now can I have all the lads and luvs report to the dance floor?"
Like before, all of the unmarried men began to get up and make their way to the floor. Mostly in tuxedos and dress clothes, and some from Lena's side wearing their Air Force dress uniforms. Winston began to push himself out from the table, but Angela, knowing better as well as Winston's clumsiness, grabbed him by the arm and told him to wait here.
Confused, Winston said, "But, they just said-"
"I know." She answered, "trust me. I'll explain everything later."
Curious, Winston situated himself back in his truck tires and waited, just missing the garter belt as it flew through the air and into the crowd of unmarried men.
It had been quite a while, and although the icebag was now mostly a bag of very cold water, Angela was surprised that the patch job and tape had held up over all of this time. There had been a fair share of dancing and games that had brought the guests out of their seats throughout the night, but Angela had remained seated through it all. She knew what it must have looked like, as if she was some sort of royalty expecting to be waited on hand and foot, but she knew that trying to overextend her endurance could cause an even greater scene, and she didn't want to do that.
She waited, expecting to be greeted by the two newlyweds at any moment, but it simply did not happen. She sat, waiting patiently and conversing with the other guests when they came, but she was not granted the audience of Emilee or Lena. She couldn't blame them, it wasn't for her behavior, but simply trying to address every guest when there was this many people around meant that most likely somebody would be left behind, and if that meant that it was her, then so be it.
As the night began to turn in, and people began to settle down, Angela spotted a flash of blue light heading out of the banquet hall and outside of the building.
Time getting late and leg beginning to act up once more, Angela decided that it was going to be now or never. She stood, both of her legs stretching in different ways from sitting for so long, and then she used the back of her chair to test her wounded ankle. It still hurt and didn't want to bend, but at the same time, icing it for so long had definitely reduced the swelling. With new vigor, Angela made her way through one of the French doors and looked around.
Immediately outside of the hall was a brick porch, arching around the outdoor area was trees and shrubbery in landscaping, while the far end of the brickwork turned to the asphalt of one of the many pathways through the park.
Lena was nowhere to be found, but standing with other women in matching dresses was Emilee. Angela approached, her leg beginning to tell her that the strength from earlier was only a temporary boost of comfort as she began to favor one side once more.
Angela had never met Emilee in person before, but she was easily recognizable from the picture of their engagement that she had received months ago. Emilee wasn't ugly or plain by any means, but the doctor had to admit that now that she was up close, her dress was incredible. The garment was of an ivory color, with a long ruffled train gown. As she was facing away from her Angela saw that it was a backless dress with long sleeves, and the shoulders connected together into a choker at the base of her neck. Her hair was done up, and she turned around as she heard the uneven clip of footsteps approaching her.
"Emilee?" Angela asked.
The newly wedded woman's eyes opened up at the sight of the doctor, either from her surprising attire or the unmistakable sound of her accent, "Dr. Ziegler? It's so good to see you've made it." She began, "We were a bit worried when we learned that you hadn't attended the reception, but don't worry, your friend Winston told us about what happened. Speaking of which, how are you feeling?"
Angela smiled, slightly rolling her eyes. Winston, bless his heart, was good natured but the absolute worst person when it came to privacy. Bringing attention to herself was the last thing she wanted to do, but oh well. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine." She lied, "I just wanted to tell you that you look wonderful in your dress."
Emilee cooed, "aw, thank you." She leaned in, giving Angela a side hug and added, "I'd give you a hug but my makeup's running."
Angela understood and said, "I hope you had a wonderful day, and I just wanted to thank you once more for inviting me to take a part in it. Even if I… well…" Angela began to search for the right words, a lifetime's worth of apologizing didn't seem like it would suffice for all the trouble she felt she had caused, but Emilee smiled and nodded, insisting that all was well.
Angela then asked if she had seen where Lena had gone off to, and she answered, "the photographer said that this was the last chance to get some good pictures before it gets dark, so she and the lads from her fighter squadron wanted to get some pictu-" All of a sudden, the sound of cussing cut through the air. The women turned, and in the grass outside of the banquet hall were two men who began to throw punches and shout expletives at each other. Immediately, some of the men who were still inside began to make their way out to see what the commotion was. "oh, bloody hell!" Emilee said.
"what's going on?" Angela asked,
Emilee sighed at the sight out of disgust, "Tommy and Nigel, my bloody brothers." She said, "I swear, soon as the whiskey flows half the tossers lose their sense of dignity." She began to walk away, moving with the other members of her family to break up the fight.
Angela, not knowing how much longer she could wait, grabbed ahold of Emilee by the arm, begging her to stay of a moment. She did as requested, and Angela, not knowing where this was coming from, pleaded, "Please… take care of Lena for me. She's yours now. You have to promise me that."
Emilee stopped and turned, giving a quaint smile and said, "Don't worry, Doctor Ziegler. I will, I promise." Before walking away to give her inebriated kin a proper earful.
Angela, feeling a weight that she didn't know existed lifted off her chest, breathed easily and slowly made her way inside. As she staggered away, she wiped her eyes. The heat really must have been getting to her, because it almost felt as if she was crying.
Having survived the ordeal of walking upstairs and uphill, Angela approached where she had parked her vehicle and rejoiced as the incline evened out to a level area. The ice around her ankle was all but melted, and her foot felt like it was about to break off. She needed to rest, but the thought of sitting and stretching out the muscle any more felt agonizing. So instead of walking to her car, she walked to the opposite side of the sidewalk and rested her elbows down against the safety railing of the hill overlooking the Foundation center and the park.
She couldn't believe it, but it was over. For as laborious and as agonizing as it had seemed, it was all behind her now.
In the time it had taken her to walk back to her vehicle, the sun had fully set, and night had set in. The sky was clear, moon full, and the town behind her had all but only a few lights off, meaning that the night sky was dotted with a sprinkling of bright stars that stretched on for as far as the eye could see.
Oasis was always so busy, and she had always found more than enough things to keep her occupied that she hardly had enough time to just look up at night and see the stars. When life got busy or things seemed too tough, it was humbling to just look up at night and realize how small you were truly were.
Through all the things that she had done, the inventions she made, the lives she saved, the conflicts she had survived, it was silly to think that, truly, the events that had transpired today had caused her the most bother. Before today, it felt like the biggest problem in the universe was that she didn't want to attend a gay wedding, but now that it was over, she realized the scope of it all, and how petty it was. The only regret that she still held was not apologizing to Lena. Actually, she was surprised to get the cold shoulder treatment from her in the first place, but then again Angela probably deserved it. She was in no condition to try and find her at this point, so she may as well try another day.
Maybe those two would be perfect for each other, maybe their union would last for many years, and maybe they would raise children and make a difference in the world; or maybe, in two years, they would be divorced. Angela didn't know what the future held, and as she was beginning to understand, it was all out of her hands at this point. The only thing she could do now was stand by and wait to see what happened, and be a good friend when the time came.
She continued gazing at the stars, Slowly unkinking her leg and allowing it to rest on the pavement. It was times like this that made her wonder; was there life on Mars?
She looked up, facing towards south and found Sagittarius, the upside down centaur archer who mentored Achilles. Angela followed the arch of his arrow to find the bright dot in the sky, and there it was. The red planet itself. She had heard some time before that they had discovered some bacteria up there, and as she gazed on the orb in the sky, she wondered what life was like for them.
Up there, they probably only dealt with the simple things, like trying to find food, or shelter, or trying to not get eaten all day and night. But, she had a feeling that wasn't true. Chances are, up there, they were fighting over the little things in life, like one microbe not liking another, or how one was trying to convince its friend to be there when it finally split into two, or all of the other tiny things that people fight the most over. Right now, she could bet that there was probably a bacteria looking back at her, wondering what something like her had to fret about.
Right now, all she knew was that it was going to be a long time before she ever thought about getting married again. With that, she slowly turned and made her way to the car.
At the Foundation center, all sorts of guest began to make their way out to their vehicles to leave. After one particularly large crowd, a person came running out of the front doors in a flash, frantically looking side to side and then towards the sidewalk up the hill. She raised her hand and said, "Oi, wait up!" before disappearing in a flash.
In the dark, Angela pulled out the keys to her rented car and hit the unlock button, approaching the side as the internal lights and headlights lit the surrounding area. She stepped, reaching with her good leg while her bad ankle supported the weight, but then lost her leverage as the memory of the significant curb at her car came to her, but just too late. Her bad ankle gave out, teetering her over as she fell. She was about to let out a cry, arms instinctively preparing to brace herself, but then stopped as suddenly as she fell.
"Gotcha." Said a voice from behind her.
It all happened so fast that she couldn't comprehend it in the correct order. All she knew was the she wasn't falling, and that there was a pair of arms wrapped around her best. The air filled with the sound of a hypersonic pop, and the wind rushed around her as if something fast had just blown by. There was a heavy presence squeezing into her back, and as she looked to see her late night savior, she could make out the face of Lena Oxton, holding on tightly as she tucked her head into Angela's back.
Thank you for reading. If anyone is interested, I do have a bonus chapter kicking around in my mind if people want a little more.
