Disclaimer: Aki and co. all belong to Square.
Author's Note: Woo hoo! It seems we have someone else out there who's familiar with Lovecraft! *grins at weyland-yutani* For any who may be curious, this story was spawned by a conversation I had on romance novels, about how you can find them about vampires, and werewolves, and ghosts… but what about zombies? Don't they deserve love, too?
Also… Curse you, Phi! I didn't intend to bring Elliot and Boyer into this, but now I feel it's a challenge to fit them in somehow. What did I do to deserve this? And the horrible thing is, once you mentioned it, the ideas for how I could do it just threw themselves at me…
Y'know, this really is a comedy. I just haven't gotten to the funny bits yet. Really. I promise.
ZOMBIE LOVE
Chapter Two
The Not-So-Evil Dead
Despite the fact that this was what Aki was hoping for, the scientist found herself latching on to Dr. Sid, digging her hands into his bony arms. Jane's eyes fluttered, then opened completely. For a moment, the irises were obliterated by the pupils, giving her a demonic look, then Jane blinked, and her eyes focused. "Ungh?" the woman said, the noise a wet gurgle.
"She's alive," Aki breathed. Then, her voice bordering on hysteria, "She's alive!"
Dr. Sid extracted his arm from her death grip and rubbed his bruised flesh. "Promise me you'll get some sleep after this; you're starting to scare me."
Oblivious to the sleep-deprived Aki and the horrified Dr. Sid, Jane slowly sat up. "Wh…" She spoke as if her tongue were too thick for her mouth. "Where… 'm I?" Both Aki and Dr. Sid turned, the elder scientist rushing to the soldier's side to steady her. Aki was still too excited to do anything; all she could think of was Gray… If the serum worked on him at the same rate as it had Jane, then he'd awaken tomorrow night.
"You're freezing!" Dr. Sid said. "Aki, do you have a blanket around here? The corporal's skin is like ice."
Aki blinked. "Yeah, I think so. I've been spending so many nights here that I brought some bedding." She pulled a folded quilt from the utility closet, offering it to Dr. Sid. He wrapped it carefully around the shivering corporal, who tugged at the edges with seemingly nerveless fingers. "Where… am… I?" Jane asked slowly, her words more pronounced.
"The Bio-Etheric Center," Dr. Sid said softly. He cast Aki an unreadable look. "Dr. Ross has taken care of you while you recovered."
"The Center? Not… not the… hospital?" Jane's face had a curious expression; half of it was puzzled by her location, the other half was slack, as if the muscles didn't quite work.
"You were attacked by Phantoms," Dr. Sid began.
Jane's eyes widened. "The hangar! Neil! Ryan! Did they… did we…?"
"They're all here," Aki interrupted happily. "We won! There are no more Phantoms!" She giggled.
Jane stared at her. At first, Aki thought it was disbelief that the war was finally over, then Jane said, "What the hell is wrong with you? You on something?"
Well, Jane is definitely recovering. A shame her sarcasm is one of the first things to return, Aki thought. But nothing could ruin her mood tonight, not even Jane's ungrateful attitude.
"How are you feeling?" Dr. Sid asked, reminding Aki that Jane was a patient.
"I'm cold, and tired." Her eyes were wide as she took in the lab, moving her head in awkward jerks. "I don't want to be here." She huddled into the blanket, shivering.
Dr. Sid pulled Aki aside. "We can't tell her she died," he said softly. "She's already in shock; telling her the truth could push her over the edge. We need to get her out of here before the others revive and she figures out what's going on."
Sleep-deprived Aki may have been, but she could still see the sense in Dr. Sid's words. "You're right. But, Sid, we can't just take her to the hospital. And she doesn't have a home here. What do you suggest I do with her?"
Dr. Sid's eyes narrowed. "You're the mastermind behind all this," he said coolly. "Did you think about anything beyond having Captain Edwards returned from the dead?"
Huh. Now that Dr. Sid had mentioned it, Aki hadn't thought about that. "I was just gonna, uh, dispose of her body," Aki said weakly.
The old scientist could only stare for a moment. "Aki. Go home. Sleep. You're really, really starting to scare me. And I want you to take Jane with you."
"Wha?" Aki yelped. She saw Jane's head whip towards her at the sound, so she lowered her voice. "Sid, I can't. She doesn't like me. We'd kill each other. That's why I did her first; so that if anything went wrong, it would happen to her!"
"I'm calling a taxi for you," Dr. Sid said, ignoring her protests. "I don't want you to come back to the lab until tomorrow night. I'll clean up here." He went back to Aki's storage closet, sorting through the junk that had accumulated while Aki had been monitoring her experiments: coffee machine, a half-dozen cheesy romance novels, a notepad with some rather disturbing scribbles that would give a psychiatrist nightmares, a dog-eared copy of "The Necronomicon For Dummies", a chainsaw…
"A chainsaw?" Dr. Sid said blankly.
"It was here when I leased the lab," Aki said, shrugging.
Finally, Dr. Sid found what he was looking for in the accumulated junk: a spare set of clothing for Jane. "Here, help her dress while I go call that cab for you."
"Right," Aki said, her voice resigned. She'd let Jane stay at her place for the night, since it really was her fault the woman was alive in the first place, but tomorrow, after the others were revived, she was going to get to work finding them a place to stay.
She wasn't going to let something like a lousy roommate ruin her happiness! And, if she did manage to get to sleep, time would fly much faster, and soon, she would again be with Gray!
* * *
After Aki left, Dr. Sid left a message with his other assistant, Betty, that he wasn't going to make it to the lab that day. Instead, he wanted to see just what Aki had done. This shouldn't be possible, Dr. Sid thought to himself as he flipped through Aki's files. They were surprisingly coherent, despite Aki's decaying sanity. But despite Aki's careful research and her obvious results, that one thought kept nagging at Dr. Sid. It should never have worked.
The spirit regeneration serum needed a partial spirit to work. There was no such thing as spontaneous regeneration; you couldn't get something from nothing! Well, there were theories that a residue of a spirit was left in a body after a Phantom ripped it away, not enough to animate a body, of course, but perhaps enough for Aki to work with. But why would that regenerate the dead tissues of a body?
Dr. Sid sighed, rubbing his scalp in bafflement. Perhaps it was a miracle, something that couldn't be explained, and shouldn't be questioned. Unfortunately, his scientific mind urged him to delve into this miracle, to find the explanation behind it.
Sometimes, being a scientist really sucked.
Aki's notes were no help, Sid concluded after about two hours of flipping through both those stored on the computer and the hastily scrawled notes Aki had left scattered about.
He did, however, have something he could investigate. Before letting Aki take Jane home, he'd taken a small blood and tissue sample from her arm. And he had access to the bodies of Neil, Ryan, and Gray, as well. "Let's see your secrets," Dr. Sid murmured, as he took the sample of Jane's blood he'd stored in the cooler.
He could see something was very wrong as soon as he examined the blood under a microscope. That can't be right, Dr. Sid thought, stunned. He wondered if his sample were tainted, somehow, because what he was seeing wasn't possible.
Because he had no other samples from Jane, he decided to take samples from the other Deep Eyes. The results were the same: though there were definite signs of a spirit in the samples, there was no cell regeneration, no cell activity whatsoever. While hearts pumped, and lungs drew in breath, they seemed to be half-hearted attempts to carry out the functions they were no longer needed for.
They were dead.
He had to tell Aki; she hadn't resurrected the Deep Eyes, she'd only given corpses a semblance of life! But would she listen to him? No… She's so excited about Gray that she won't listen to reason, not if it means she won't be getting him back. I can't let this happen… this is a crime against nature. I'll have to destroy them. His heart was heavy at the thought. He was going to have to destroy Aki's dream… but it was better that she hate him forever than to have to deal with the consequences of what she'd done.
If he destroyed the bodies, then that would be it. Perhaps he could set fire to the lab… say it was an accident…
The sound of clanging metal jerked Dr. Sid out of his planning. What was that? His head jerked around, searching for the source of the noise. "Aki? Is that you?" Dammit, had she come back against his orders? Or maybe one of the scientists had wandered in… had he remembered to lock the door?
Dr. Sid turned towards the door, frowning when he saw it was definitely locked. Had the sound come from outside the lab? Odd, it sort of sounded like the door from one of the lockers banging open. That was it; when he'd taken samples from the Deep Eyes, he hadn't shut one of the lockers all the way, and the door had fallen open.
He got up to remedy the situation. As he did, it occurred to him that maybe this would be a good way to destroy the bodies; if all of them were left open, the bodies could get spoiled. He could blame it on Aki… tell her she'd been too tired to check that they were latched properly…
All thoughts of destruction flew out of his mind when he saw the gaping, empty locker before him. What the hell? Where's-
A pair of cold, stiff arms wrapped around Dr. Sid's neck. "I'm hungry… so hungry…" a voice whispered in his ears. It was the last thing Dr. Sid ever heard.
* * *
She felt warm and safe, wrapped in her beloved's embrace. Aki smiled and snuggled her back closer to Gray, and felt his grip on her tighten in response. It felt so good, so right… Definitely not a dream…
Because this wasn't a dream. Aki's eyes snapped open when she realized she really was being cuddled, and that, while she would soon be reunited with Gray, he wasn't due to awaken for – her eyes strained to make out the numbers on the digital clock – five hours. The next Deep Eyes member was going to awaken in two hours. Which meant that the person holding her was…
Aki slid her hand backwards and encountered soft flesh where no man would have it. Uh-oh… Aki thought as the person behind her tensed.
"Don't touch me!" a voice howled, shoving Aki out of the bed. Aki tumbled off, hitting the floor with a yelp. Eyes wide, she met the equally startled look on Jane Proudfoot's face. "Okay," Jane said. "Would you care to explain this? One moment, I'm letting a Phantom kill me, then I have these brief flashes of memory of you and Dr. Sid and now… now… now I wake up in bed with you?! Is this hell?"
Aki opened her mouth to try to explain, but found she couldn't remember much either beyond Dr. Sid pushing them out of the lab door and towards the waiting taxi. "You're alive," Aki said, "and, um, you're here because you don't have anywhere else to stay. Everyone thought you died, so you don't have a home to go to. So, I said you could stay here for the night." Well, that wasn't quite how she'd phrased it, but Jane didn't need to know that.
"Ah. And that gave you permission to cop a feel?" Jane hissed.
"I don't even know why you were in my bed!" Aki protested. They stared at each other for a moment, then suddenly, Aki laughed. Jane looked baffled, so Aki explained. "This is good. You seem to have your attitude back. That means you're fully recovered from your… ordeal."
"Ordeal…" Jane suddenly snapped to attention. "The others… you were able to help me, but what about the others?"
"They should revive tonight," Aki said. "Even Gray." A smile spread across Jane's face, the first Aki had ever seen on the woman. "But, uh, I can't bring you with me. You'll have to stay here while I take care of things."
"They're my teammates," Jane said rebelliously. "I should be there for them."
The glint in Jane's eye promised pain and mutilation for anyone who stood in her way. Hastily, Aki said, "It's lab policy. I suppose you can come to the lab with me; I just can't let you in to see the others until they fully awaken. It's the best I can do."
Jane considered for a moment. "All right. So, when does this happen?"
"About an hour. We should get going."
"Right." Jane slid out of the bed, a graceful movement that Aki envied. "I still seem to be dressed. So are you. You in the habit of sleeping in your clothes?" Then Jane shrugged before Aki could answer. "Who cares. Let's go. The sooner the Deep Eyes are back together, the better!" She looked as if she was ready to take on the world, and Aki grinned. Well, the world was going to get quite a shock soon when Captain Edwards and squad returned to active duty.
* * *
The labs were emptying when Aki arrived, and she greeted acquaintances as she and Jane passed them in the hall. She searched the smocked scientists for Dr. Sid, but saw no sign of her mentor. Perhaps he'd already left for bed. Or maybe he was avoiding her. She'd never seen him so angry before.
She did spot Betty, however, and was surprised by the woman's presence. She usually left the labs much earlier, and she stopped Betty in the hall. The woman looked tired, but she seemed willing to speak to Aki. "Hello, Dr. Ross. Is everything all right?"
"Yeah," Aki said, wondering at the concern she saw in the woman's eyes. "Everything's fine."
"Good," Betty said, smiling tiredly. "When I got Dr. Sid's message this morning, I was worried that something was wrong."
"Message?" Aki repeated blankly.
"That he couldn't make it. Is everything all right?"
"Yes. He was probably just tired. He was helping me with an experiment late last night, after a hard day yesterday. He must have gone straight to bed after kicking me out of the lab." Aki gave her a reassuring grin. "I'll see you later."
She walked off, with Jane in tow. "The offices are down here. There should be some magazines or books or something you can look at while I take care of this."
"Oh, good," Jane grumbled. But she didn't protest further. The prospect of seeing her teammates again was enough to keep her spirits up. "Let me know the moment they're awake."
She left Jane and hurried back to her lab. The door was locked, and the lab was in good order. Not that she mistrusted him, of course, but she'd been scared, this close to Gray's awakening.
Neil was first. She prepped the scanner over the table, so she'd be able to be there the moment his spirit completely regenerated, then went to the locker that held him. When her hand touched the latch, she frowned. The lock was broken! Alarmed, Aki yanked the door open, worried that the seal had been breeched and the body had been left to warm throughout the day. While she hadn't had the temperature high enough to freeze the bodies, she'd been keeping them cool to slow decay. If he'd warmed, then his body could be ruined past saving.
A puff of cold air, however, reassured her that everything was all right. She wheeled the gurney over to the table and shifted Neil over, then turned on the scanners. He would likely awake in half an hour –
Neil's eyes abruptly shot open, and his hand closed around her wrist with lightning fast speed. Aki gasped in shock, then took a deep breath to slow her frantic heartbeats. He shouldn't have woken that fast!
"Hey, Dr. Ross!" Neil said brightly. He showed none of the sluggishness that Jane had. If it weren't for the chill in his fingers, she would have thought he'd been awake for hours.
"Corporal Fleming," Aki said, trying to sound clinical. "You're in the Bio-Etheric Center after an experimental treatment-"
"I was dead, but now I'm alive again." Neil shrugged and sat up. "You don't need to explain it, Doc."
"Not dead…" Aki was shocked at the man's insight. She hadn't wanted to deal with this! "Just… almost dead."
"Uh-huh," Neil agreed. "All that matters is that I'm alive again. What about the others? Did they make it out alive? Was I the only one…?"
She'd forgotten that he'd been the first to die. He didn't know about the others yet. "I stitched up Sergeant Whittaker's wounds, and Jane is waiting in my office down the hall. Gray… didn't survive this unscathed…" or at all, she didn't add, "but… well, you'll all be reunited tonight. They had to have treatment, too, but everything's going to be all right."
Neil arched his eyebrow, as if he suspected the truth, but he seemed willing to play along. "Okay. Can I see Jane?"
Aki considered. If he knew they'd all died, he could tell Jane. But would the down-to-earth soldier believe him? And was she doing them a favor by making them wait? Besides, this way, she could get rid of Neil while she saw to Ryan and Gray.
"She's this way." Aki took Neil to her office, leaving before the happy reunion could get underway.
Ryan was next. What she hadn't told Neil and Jane was that he probably wasn't going to awaken just yet. His wound had been severe, and he'd lost a lot of blood. His body was going to take longer to recover, but he'd live. The others would be disappointed, but their teammate's safety came first.
She'd been half afraid that Ryan's locker would be busted, too, but it was intact. What happened to Neil's, I wonder? Maybe she'd accidentally knocked one of the gurneys against it when she'd wheeled past, or something. No matter; he was safe. They were all safe.
Ryan's revival went without a hitch, though, as she'd suspected, he didn't awaken. She considered going to tell Jane and Neil, but decided to wait until Gray was awake, and she could tell them together. Besides, she'd just wheeled Gray out, and in less than an hour, they'd be together again.
She busied herself in the lab, straightening shelves that didn't need it, rearranging tools, pacing…
The soft sound of Gray drawing a breath made Aki spring towards the table. Color was returning to the captain's face, and his breaths were becoming stronger. Aki took one large hand in hers, and nearly wept when the fingers lightly closed around hers. "Gray," she whispered.
"A-Aki?" The voice was so soft she had to strain to hear it. His eyes opened and met hers, and a faint smile touched his lips. "Aki!" He struggled into a sitting position.
He didn't get the chance to repeat her name, for her lips were upon his. Then she wrapped her arms around him and joyfully wept against his chest.
To Be Continued…