Warnings: Explosion, as the title implies, and major character death
Spoilers: For Lost Future
Set: An AU of a flashback scene from Lost Future
Song: Broken by Lifehouse
Explosion (Claire, Dimitri & Bill)
Of all the days for Claire to be late…
In her defence, she had presented Hershel with his new top hat- and then he had proposed!
Claire was ecstatic and completely caught off guard. The two of them had discussed their plans for the future, but she had thought Hershel would want to settle in to his new teaching career before he popped the question. It was unusual for her stoic gentleman to be so spontaneous!
He had gotten down on one knee while they were at the table, right in the middle of their little flat, and revealed a black velvet box to her.
The diamond sparkled on her finger as she dashed down the street. Bill could moan all he liked about 'improper dress code'- no way was she taking it off.
What would Dimitri say-?
An explosion nearly knocked her off her feet. Claire gasped and steadied herself, gripping her bag against her shoulder.
Had that come from…?
Her gaze shot up. A thick cloud of black smoke was rising from the institute. Third floor, third window from the right.
Claire hadn't been anywhere near enough to feel the full force of the blast, but all sound was suddenly sucked away, replaced by a ringing in her ears.
The happiest day of her life had just become the worst.
Something had gone catastrophically wrong with the time machine.
Had Bill attempted to run the experiment by himself? He'd claimed their patrons were demanding results- that they were days away from shutting the whole project down… But Bill would never jeopardise his own life-
Would he?
It was the stench of burning that brought Claire back to the present. Then the surrounding noise came swimming back; collapsing rubble, people screaming, sirens in the distance…
No time to wait for the emergency services.
She dropped her bag, ran past the neighbouring flats, dodged the debris from a caved-in roof. A family cried out from beneath…
Right now, Bill was her concern.
She sprinted into the institute and up three flights of stairs, light-speed fast. (Just last week, she'd made a bet with Bill that she would invent light-speed travel-)
"Bill!" she called, heaving the lab's disconnected door aside. The room was engulfed in even more smoke.
Claire covered her mouth, but it was more for the horror of what she could see. Flaming equipment, shattered dials, sparking wires…
And at the centre of it all, their time machine lay in ruins.
Claire picked through the remains. They had poured their hearts and souls into this- sacrificed so many hours of their time…
What was it all for?
She gasped when she spotted a hand poking out from behind a broken panel.
Bill…
Wait… She realised as she edged closer that the arm was too thin, and the shirt sleeve- it was orange…
Claire couldn't breathe. She fell to her knees and crawled the rest of the way across the floor, numb to the shards of metal and glass that stung her palms.
Of course she recognised the body, but she tried to delude herself.
He'd insisted the machine wasn't ready… He'd had an argument with Bill the day before… He'd never take off his lab coat…
Where was his lab coat?
Claire looked around the room as if another version of her friend would pop into existence, as if he wasn't lying dead before her.
That was when she finally noticed Bill slumped against a storage cupboard. She felt a stab of relief and regret. Between both of her colleagues, why had Bill been the lucky one?
"Bill…" she croaked. "Bill!"
He groaned and his eyes slid open. (There wasn't so much as a dent in his glasses.)
"H-hold on, Bill! Help's coming…" Not for all of them.
Bill managed to sit up slightly. He squinted at her. "Where the bloody hell… were you?" he grunted.
She was too late.
"What happened?" Claire demanded thickly. "The machine-"
"Ugh… Calculations were off. He was too concerned about you."
"Why?" Claire already knew the answer. She had wondered for a while about his feelings, but she had dismissed it as a crush.
She had never dreamed he would risk his life in her place.
"Crazy lovesick fool," Bill muttered.
The test subject's face was half-covered by curly brown hair. Claire brushed the curls away. The ring still glittered on her finger like a sign of guilt.
She choked out, "I'm sorry, Dimitri."