Title: Lazarus
Author: Diane A. Doty
Email: Jadecow@hotmail.com
Summary: Derek gets a wish, only to have it shattered.
Spoilers: Subject: The Harbingers
Disclaimer: I don't own Freakylinks. If I did, you can only imagine what would happen, and 'Snoop Dog' wouldn't be in the picture. Also, Alice In Wonderland is quoted here often, I don't own that either...I have no idea who has the rights to all of this, but not me, and no infringement intended. If you want to sue me, I think there's five bucks in my bank account...hell I'll throw in my car too...That'll take it up to 15 dollars easily!
Author Notes: 'This is the fic that wouldn't end. Yes it goes on and on my friend...' This entire thing was written before Subject: The Harbingers in 3rd person, then changed to 1st person and to fit into that episode a little better. I wrote the whole thing, and decided I didn't like the ending. So I wrote a new one. And now I can't choose which I like best, so you, the reader, get to choose which ending you want to read. The 'It's So Perfect My Teeth Ache' (to quote our favorite American in the Uncharted Territories) or the 'Realistic, Less Happy Ending'. I can't make up my mind, okay?
Thankyous: Michelle, Lena, and everyone else I forced to read rough drafts of this and assured me that the characterization was right...This would be crappier without the help, trust me.
Enough blabbing. I'm sending the different endings in separate emails, so you don't have to read both if you don't want to....Feedback good...
~~~
Lazarus So Perfect My Teeth Ache Ending
By Diane A. Doty
~~~
I didn't know if I should keep on laughing or start crying when the all too familiar face came running in. I felt the same way I did when I first saw Adam at the cemetery, my body wanting to do a thousand things at once, except breathe, and my mind running in circles. My mind kept screaming 'It's not him!' and 'It's him!' each time louder and louder.
Adam just started at the empty room, wide-eyed concern on his face. Neither of us spoke for what seemed like an eternity.
"Guess you didn't need my help." Adam said finally, breaking the tight silence.
I didn't say anything, still not sure if I could believe that this was my brother. They tricked me into thinking he was dead once. I had seen one of them look exactly like Adam right down to the mark on his lower lip from where I punched him three days ago...Convincing evidence. All Adam was giving me was concern. That could be faked.
"Derek, it's me!" Adam said, easily reading my face.
"Prove it." My voice was hardly above a whisper. A spasm when through my shoulder after I said it, making me nearly cry out in pain.
"Maybe we should discuss this after you see a doctor." Adam suggested, coming forwards two steps.
"PROVE IT!" I screamed, moving backwards until my back hit the wall. The yelling was doing nothing to help the pain in my shoulder.
Adam was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke, eyes half closed, like he was in a trance. "When we were thirteen, you tried to do a skating move down a flight of stairs and broke your arm. I was with Mom; I fell on the ground holding my leg and started screaming like a nut in middle of a shoe store. When we got home, there was a message from Jimmy Gardino's Dad saying he took you to the emergency room."
Painful memory. More from the guilt trip Mom gave me then anything, but that was beside the point. I wasn't convinced.
I wasn't surprised when Adam started talking again, telling another story. "Our senior year we traded places in school. You went to my gym class and I went to your science class. Chris Minson was pissed at me and the two of you got into a fight. When Mom came up to school she had to tell the dean that it was you and not me. You were suspended for three days for the fight and I got detention for a week."
Heavy silence followed. Finally, I felt myself smiling. "I...I think I need to go to the hospital."
~~~
A very evil pair of doctors popped my shoulder back into place after about a thousand tries. They even tried to blame it on me for it being out of the joint for so long. I told them I was sitting around drinking beer and wanted to see the end of the game before getting this taken care of. Adam was hysterical laughing, and dumb and dumber made me take another x-ray to make sure they did it exactly right.
It was in that lovely little break that I managed to get up enough nerve to ask Adam the question that I had been holding back since we walked out of that damn room together.
"Are you leaving again?" I sounded like a little kid. I'm not assumed of that. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to watch Adam go once, I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it again.
For a long time, Adam was silent, and then he smiled. That big, goofy grin I missed. "Well, you seem to get into trouble either way. Not exactly protecting you this way."
I didn't let my heart sore just yet. "You're not joking are you?"
"I'm not leaving." Adam promised.
All I could do was smile.
"This is going to take a lot of explaining, isn't it?" Adam asked after a minute of silence.
I nodded. "Oh yeah."
"Bring it on."
I was in a much better mood when dumb and dumber returned. I even apologized to him for being so sarcastic. Adam, however, was still in hysterics this time about my half assed apology. Considering I was in a hospital, life was pretty good. Of course, I had to go home and face my friends.
~~~
"You always look this nervous going into your own house?" Adam asked, still smiling.
I knew I was probably grinning like an idiot as well. I couldn't help it. Remembering that Adam had asked me a question, I pointed to the car in the driveway.
"Lan's here." I said, as if that would explain it all. "Let me go in first all right, in case-"
"Chloe's there." Adam finished. "Not a good idea to give her a heart attack, right?"
I nodded and opened the door, Adam stepping back and out of the way. The house was bright from the early morning sun. I only made it two feet in the door before Lan came running into the room.
"Derek! Oh my god! What happened? Are you all right? Why the hell did you run away!?" She said it all in one breath.
Before I could say anything, she punched me, hard on my left shoulder. I just looked at her, stunned.
"I just got off the phone with every hospital in the area! I was calling to make sure you weren't laying there in a coma!"
"Lan, I'm fine." I was still shocked by her anger. I had never seen her that mad.
"Fine!?" She shouted back. "Are you wearing that for fun then!?"
Ouch. "No...I uh, dislocated my shoulder, no big deal."
Okay, that wasn't the right thing to say either. "Jason and Chloe are out combing the streets trying to find you! All of us were worried out of our minds!" There were tears in her eyes.
Again, guilt went through me, though it really didn't penetrate my mood. I don't think many things could've. I just reached out and pulled her into a one armed hug. I didn't let her go, even when she struggled against me.
"Lan...I'm so sorry. Really. I wasn't thinking straight." I paused, breathing deeply. Yeah, I didn't notice the new perfume at all! "I...I was ready to murder someone when I left here, Lan. I couldn't call."
"Why the hell not?" There was still anger in her voice, but it a lot had already left.
I swallowed, glad I was still hugging her and not looking her in the eye. "If I called, you would've talked me out of it without trying." More then I wanted to share, but I was beyond being in the doghouse.
"What happened?" She asked, anger gone now. She backed up only a few inches. "Why are you smiling?"
I felt my smile go even bigger. "It was a fake."
She looked a little doubtful of it.
"I saw it with my own eyes...and I have the proof with me out on the porch."
She smiled too. "You're kidding right? I mean, are you possit-"
I nodded, cutting her off. "Trust me, I'd know if it wasn't."
She just accepted that, nodding. "Well..."
I smiled again. "I, uh, gotta call Chloe."
"You're just gonna leave him standing out there?"
"Go let 'im in!" I left the room, heading for the phone. Jason picked up his cell on the second ring.
"Lan?"
"I don't think my voice can go that high." I said, speaking again before he could cut me off. "Is Chloe there with you, Jay?"
"Yeah...Derek, what the hell is going on?"
"Just come here, okay? I don't wanna go through everything on the phone."
"Fine. Be there in a half hour." He sounded made too. Lucky me.
"Thanks." I hung up before he could say anything else.
Lan was more or less staring at Adam in the living room when I came back in. I couldn't stop the laughter.
~~~
I was watching Adam, somewhat amused at the fact that he was more nervous now then he was when he asked Chloe to marry him, when they came through the door. I practically ran to them, wanting to give Adam time to think a little more.
"Oh my God, Derek, what happened to your arm?" Chloe asked, first thing. Jay just glared at me.
"I, uh, got to know how the tug of war rope feels. I'm fine."
"D, man, you okay?" Jason asked. I guess seeing me grinning like an idiot wasn't what he expected. I don't blame him.
"Great!" I said back, feeling light, giddy almost. I felt nervous for Adam and for Chloe, but above all that was the light feeling of being whole again.
"Derek, what's going on?" Chloe asked.
"Come in the living room and sit down...It's a long story."
I started towards the room in question, my heart racing. I was terrified that Chloe wouldn't believe it was Adam. I couldn't imagine what that would do to my brother's heart.
Luckily, all that happened when Chloe saw Adam sitting on the couch was that she literately passed out. Jason caught her. I was staring down at her in disbelief, and Adam was sitting on the couch in shock.
"Wow. I thought that only happened in movies." I said, helping Jason and Adam carry her to the couch.
"D, what's up?" Jason asked, after we had Chloe settled. He kept looking between Adam and me.
"Long story, Jay." I said quickly, a little concerned over Chloe. I never figured her to be the passing out type.
Adam, however, didn't look worried, and that made me feel a lot better. I looked at him, where he sat with Chloe's head in his lap, and grinned. "We should've done that a little better, huh?"
Adam actually laughed. A few seconds later, Chloe was opening her eyes. I didn't say a word, just practically pulled Jason out of the room. I stopped at the door and looked back, not surprised to see the two of them just looking at each other.
"We're gonna go get a pizza or something." I told them then walked out.
I never asked Adam what Chloe's reaction was after that. I'm sure there were tears, and I'm pretty sure she probably punched him too.
~~~
Epilogue:
"You look like an idiot." I joked, grinning at Adam as the two of us stood in front of the mirror.
"And you look so much better." Adam shot back, the same grin on his face. "At least I brushed my hair."
"I brushed it! And we want Chloe to be able to tell us apart, right?"
"Nice try. That work on Mom?"
I laughed. "No. She's got a comb and keeps casing me around. I siced Aunt Helen on her, so I'm okay for a while."
Silence fell. I just watched my brother sweat through his suit, waiting.
"Maybe we should've waited." He said after a while.
I felt my eyes go wide in surprise. "Three years wasn't enough?"
"No...Do you know how hard it is to become undead?"
All right, I have a bad sense of humor. I laughed. I couldn't help it. The fact that I still had that giddy, just left the dentist and the laughing gas was still in my system, feeling didn't help.
Adam just plowed on as if I wasn't laughing. "Half of our relatives didn't know I was alive and then they're getting invitations in the mail. Half of them called and said that this was a sick joke...The past two months have been total chaos."
Like always, I didn't have to speak for Adam to know what I was thinking.
"Chaos I brought on myself, but chaos all the same. Adding this to the mix probably wasn't a smart idea."
My smile faded, I was imagining Adam running from the church, and Chloe left behind. "This is something you should've thought of a month ago when you suggested it."
"Three years was a long time to wait, Derek. I put her through a lot and I can't even begin to make it up to her. There's nothing I want more then to make her happy."
I knew that. Before I could respond, Mom poked her head in the room. "It's time." There were tears already in her eyes as she spoke. "Derek, let me just comb that back."
Now it was Adam's turn to laugh. I let Mom do what she wanted; laughing the entire time at the faces Adam was making at me.
I guess our relatives and Chloe's were a little surprised to see the two of us standing on the altar, waiting for Chloe to arrive, laughing our asses off.
~~~
The End
Author: Diane A. Doty
Email: Jadecow@hotmail.com
Summary: Derek gets a wish, only to have it shattered.
Spoilers: Subject: The Harbingers
Disclaimer: I don't own Freakylinks. If I did, you can only imagine what would happen, and 'Snoop Dog' wouldn't be in the picture. Also, Alice In Wonderland is quoted here often, I don't own that either...I have no idea who has the rights to all of this, but not me, and no infringement intended. If you want to sue me, I think there's five bucks in my bank account...hell I'll throw in my car too...That'll take it up to 15 dollars easily!
Author Notes: 'This is the fic that wouldn't end. Yes it goes on and on my friend...' This entire thing was written before Subject: The Harbingers in 3rd person, then changed to 1st person and to fit into that episode a little better. I wrote the whole thing, and decided I didn't like the ending. So I wrote a new one. And now I can't choose which I like best, so you, the reader, get to choose which ending you want to read. The 'It's So Perfect My Teeth Ache' (to quote our favorite American in the Uncharted Territories) or the 'Realistic, Less Happy Ending'. I can't make up my mind, okay?
Thankyous: Michelle, Lena, and everyone else I forced to read rough drafts of this and assured me that the characterization was right...This would be crappier without the help, trust me.
Enough blabbing. I'm sending the different endings in separate emails, so you don't have to read both if you don't want to....Feedback good...
~~~
Lazarus So Perfect My Teeth Ache Ending
By Diane A. Doty
~~~
I didn't know if I should keep on laughing or start crying when the all too familiar face came running in. I felt the same way I did when I first saw Adam at the cemetery, my body wanting to do a thousand things at once, except breathe, and my mind running in circles. My mind kept screaming 'It's not him!' and 'It's him!' each time louder and louder.
Adam just started at the empty room, wide-eyed concern on his face. Neither of us spoke for what seemed like an eternity.
"Guess you didn't need my help." Adam said finally, breaking the tight silence.
I didn't say anything, still not sure if I could believe that this was my brother. They tricked me into thinking he was dead once. I had seen one of them look exactly like Adam right down to the mark on his lower lip from where I punched him three days ago...Convincing evidence. All Adam was giving me was concern. That could be faked.
"Derek, it's me!" Adam said, easily reading my face.
"Prove it." My voice was hardly above a whisper. A spasm when through my shoulder after I said it, making me nearly cry out in pain.
"Maybe we should discuss this after you see a doctor." Adam suggested, coming forwards two steps.
"PROVE IT!" I screamed, moving backwards until my back hit the wall. The yelling was doing nothing to help the pain in my shoulder.
Adam was silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke, eyes half closed, like he was in a trance. "When we were thirteen, you tried to do a skating move down a flight of stairs and broke your arm. I was with Mom; I fell on the ground holding my leg and started screaming like a nut in middle of a shoe store. When we got home, there was a message from Jimmy Gardino's Dad saying he took you to the emergency room."
Painful memory. More from the guilt trip Mom gave me then anything, but that was beside the point. I wasn't convinced.
I wasn't surprised when Adam started talking again, telling another story. "Our senior year we traded places in school. You went to my gym class and I went to your science class. Chris Minson was pissed at me and the two of you got into a fight. When Mom came up to school she had to tell the dean that it was you and not me. You were suspended for three days for the fight and I got detention for a week."
Heavy silence followed. Finally, I felt myself smiling. "I...I think I need to go to the hospital."
~~~
A very evil pair of doctors popped my shoulder back into place after about a thousand tries. They even tried to blame it on me for it being out of the joint for so long. I told them I was sitting around drinking beer and wanted to see the end of the game before getting this taken care of. Adam was hysterical laughing, and dumb and dumber made me take another x-ray to make sure they did it exactly right.
It was in that lovely little break that I managed to get up enough nerve to ask Adam the question that I had been holding back since we walked out of that damn room together.
"Are you leaving again?" I sounded like a little kid. I'm not assumed of that. I can't even begin to explain how hard it was to watch Adam go once, I knew I wasn't going to be able to do it again.
For a long time, Adam was silent, and then he smiled. That big, goofy grin I missed. "Well, you seem to get into trouble either way. Not exactly protecting you this way."
I didn't let my heart sore just yet. "You're not joking are you?"
"I'm not leaving." Adam promised.
All I could do was smile.
"This is going to take a lot of explaining, isn't it?" Adam asked after a minute of silence.
I nodded. "Oh yeah."
"Bring it on."
I was in a much better mood when dumb and dumber returned. I even apologized to him for being so sarcastic. Adam, however, was still in hysterics this time about my half assed apology. Considering I was in a hospital, life was pretty good. Of course, I had to go home and face my friends.
~~~
"You always look this nervous going into your own house?" Adam asked, still smiling.
I knew I was probably grinning like an idiot as well. I couldn't help it. Remembering that Adam had asked me a question, I pointed to the car in the driveway.
"Lan's here." I said, as if that would explain it all. "Let me go in first all right, in case-"
"Chloe's there." Adam finished. "Not a good idea to give her a heart attack, right?"
I nodded and opened the door, Adam stepping back and out of the way. The house was bright from the early morning sun. I only made it two feet in the door before Lan came running into the room.
"Derek! Oh my god! What happened? Are you all right? Why the hell did you run away!?" She said it all in one breath.
Before I could say anything, she punched me, hard on my left shoulder. I just looked at her, stunned.
"I just got off the phone with every hospital in the area! I was calling to make sure you weren't laying there in a coma!"
"Lan, I'm fine." I was still shocked by her anger. I had never seen her that mad.
"Fine!?" She shouted back. "Are you wearing that for fun then!?"
Ouch. "No...I uh, dislocated my shoulder, no big deal."
Okay, that wasn't the right thing to say either. "Jason and Chloe are out combing the streets trying to find you! All of us were worried out of our minds!" There were tears in her eyes.
Again, guilt went through me, though it really didn't penetrate my mood. I don't think many things could've. I just reached out and pulled her into a one armed hug. I didn't let her go, even when she struggled against me.
"Lan...I'm so sorry. Really. I wasn't thinking straight." I paused, breathing deeply. Yeah, I didn't notice the new perfume at all! "I...I was ready to murder someone when I left here, Lan. I couldn't call."
"Why the hell not?" There was still anger in her voice, but it a lot had already left.
I swallowed, glad I was still hugging her and not looking her in the eye. "If I called, you would've talked me out of it without trying." More then I wanted to share, but I was beyond being in the doghouse.
"What happened?" She asked, anger gone now. She backed up only a few inches. "Why are you smiling?"
I felt my smile go even bigger. "It was a fake."
She looked a little doubtful of it.
"I saw it with my own eyes...and I have the proof with me out on the porch."
She smiled too. "You're kidding right? I mean, are you possit-"
I nodded, cutting her off. "Trust me, I'd know if it wasn't."
She just accepted that, nodding. "Well..."
I smiled again. "I, uh, gotta call Chloe."
"You're just gonna leave him standing out there?"
"Go let 'im in!" I left the room, heading for the phone. Jason picked up his cell on the second ring.
"Lan?"
"I don't think my voice can go that high." I said, speaking again before he could cut me off. "Is Chloe there with you, Jay?"
"Yeah...Derek, what the hell is going on?"
"Just come here, okay? I don't wanna go through everything on the phone."
"Fine. Be there in a half hour." He sounded made too. Lucky me.
"Thanks." I hung up before he could say anything else.
Lan was more or less staring at Adam in the living room when I came back in. I couldn't stop the laughter.
~~~
I was watching Adam, somewhat amused at the fact that he was more nervous now then he was when he asked Chloe to marry him, when they came through the door. I practically ran to them, wanting to give Adam time to think a little more.
"Oh my God, Derek, what happened to your arm?" Chloe asked, first thing. Jay just glared at me.
"I, uh, got to know how the tug of war rope feels. I'm fine."
"D, man, you okay?" Jason asked. I guess seeing me grinning like an idiot wasn't what he expected. I don't blame him.
"Great!" I said back, feeling light, giddy almost. I felt nervous for Adam and for Chloe, but above all that was the light feeling of being whole again.
"Derek, what's going on?" Chloe asked.
"Come in the living room and sit down...It's a long story."
I started towards the room in question, my heart racing. I was terrified that Chloe wouldn't believe it was Adam. I couldn't imagine what that would do to my brother's heart.
Luckily, all that happened when Chloe saw Adam sitting on the couch was that she literately passed out. Jason caught her. I was staring down at her in disbelief, and Adam was sitting on the couch in shock.
"Wow. I thought that only happened in movies." I said, helping Jason and Adam carry her to the couch.
"D, what's up?" Jason asked, after we had Chloe settled. He kept looking between Adam and me.
"Long story, Jay." I said quickly, a little concerned over Chloe. I never figured her to be the passing out type.
Adam, however, didn't look worried, and that made me feel a lot better. I looked at him, where he sat with Chloe's head in his lap, and grinned. "We should've done that a little better, huh?"
Adam actually laughed. A few seconds later, Chloe was opening her eyes. I didn't say a word, just practically pulled Jason out of the room. I stopped at the door and looked back, not surprised to see the two of them just looking at each other.
"We're gonna go get a pizza or something." I told them then walked out.
I never asked Adam what Chloe's reaction was after that. I'm sure there were tears, and I'm pretty sure she probably punched him too.
~~~
Epilogue:
"You look like an idiot." I joked, grinning at Adam as the two of us stood in front of the mirror.
"And you look so much better." Adam shot back, the same grin on his face. "At least I brushed my hair."
"I brushed it! And we want Chloe to be able to tell us apart, right?"
"Nice try. That work on Mom?"
I laughed. "No. She's got a comb and keeps casing me around. I siced Aunt Helen on her, so I'm okay for a while."
Silence fell. I just watched my brother sweat through his suit, waiting.
"Maybe we should've waited." He said after a while.
I felt my eyes go wide in surprise. "Three years wasn't enough?"
"No...Do you know how hard it is to become undead?"
All right, I have a bad sense of humor. I laughed. I couldn't help it. The fact that I still had that giddy, just left the dentist and the laughing gas was still in my system, feeling didn't help.
Adam just plowed on as if I wasn't laughing. "Half of our relatives didn't know I was alive and then they're getting invitations in the mail. Half of them called and said that this was a sick joke...The past two months have been total chaos."
Like always, I didn't have to speak for Adam to know what I was thinking.
"Chaos I brought on myself, but chaos all the same. Adding this to the mix probably wasn't a smart idea."
My smile faded, I was imagining Adam running from the church, and Chloe left behind. "This is something you should've thought of a month ago when you suggested it."
"Three years was a long time to wait, Derek. I put her through a lot and I can't even begin to make it up to her. There's nothing I want more then to make her happy."
I knew that. Before I could respond, Mom poked her head in the room. "It's time." There were tears already in her eyes as she spoke. "Derek, let me just comb that back."
Now it was Adam's turn to laugh. I let Mom do what she wanted; laughing the entire time at the faces Adam was making at me.
I guess our relatives and Chloe's were a little surprised to see the two of us standing on the altar, waiting for Chloe to arrive, laughing our asses off.
~~~
The End