Synthesizing the mushrooms was more difficult than either of them expected.
They repurposed a portion of the kitchen as a makeshift chem lab, Ford agreed it was too dangerous to go near the portal downstairs. Aggie wondered if she should tell Ford about the phone conversation, but decided against it. It wasn't really her business to interfere with his relationship with his brother if he didn't want to have anything to do with him.
They chopped the samples up and placed them in a Claisen flask under vacuum filtration. They distilled the solution, collecting the toxic gas into a separate filtration chamber. Aggie turned up the pressure as Ford added the heat, their safety goggles fogging up from the steam as pressure built up inside the glassware.
"We might have to stop," Aggie noted as she checked the pressure. It looks like this could burst."
Ford looked at the output of product. It was a slow trickle of bright blue goo. "Let's hold out, once this filters through we won't even have enough to test."
"Ford…" Aggie protested.
"Just a little more," Ford urged.
Aggie felt unsure, but nodded, turning up the pressure. She could hear the glassware whistle, then she saw the cracks. Finally, it burst- shards of glass flying everywhere.
They coughed, blue gas filling the house as they felt themselves floating, and the house filling with a high pitched laughter.
"Oh no, it's the hallucinogens." Ford groaned.
Aggie could feel the room distorting as she saw deformed figures appear out of nowhere, turning into people she knew. Rusty as a child screaming for help, then his face folding in on itself as he morphed into his adult self, then his future self in his pink speedsuit. Jonas in his orange spacesuit, alive and healthy- decomposing and turning blue as his eyes glowed yellow, his mouth open in a scream. Rick transforming into his many alternate universe versions of himself in quick succession, each screaming until it landed on the long haired version in the duster that she could only assume was the true Rick. Rand standing in front of her, laughing before shedding his skin and revealing the board of shadowy figures bursting into flames.
All of the men who she had failed in some form or another by not being good enough, not being smart enough.
She was alone in a cloud of blue smoke.
"Ford!" She screamed. "Where are you?"
She ran forward for what seemed like miles. It's as if she wasn't in the kitchen anymore.
Exhausted, she felt her vision cloud as she fainted.
When she awoke, she saw she was lying on the couch in the living room. Her speedsuit was gone, there was a large gauze bandage wrapped around her chest, and her arms were bandaged up to her elbows.
"Oh good, you're awake. You gave me quite a scare back there." Ford piped up.
"What happened?" Aggie asked hoarsely.
"You were right. It was too much pressure. We'll have to start over again later, once you're patched up." Ford explained. "I'm sorry I put you through that."
He looked like he had been put through his own ordeal. His head was bandaged, as well as his arms. He had a split lip.
"What happened to you?" Aggie asked with concern.
"Fell over from the explosion, we were both covered in glass." Ford replied. "I'll admit, it took me a while to get over my…hallucinations. But since you were out cold, I stopped the fire and tended our wounds. Don't worry, I took care of the waste too," he added wryly.
"What did you see?" Aggie asked. "I saw my failures, and what they'll lead to."
Ford stared at her, and looked away. "I saw my brother. He was dying."
"Was he wearing a purple unitard?" Aggie asked.
Ford gaped at her in confusion. "How…"
"He called the house last night." Aggie admitted, biting her lip anxiously. "He told me that he signed a contract to become a henchman for Phantom Limb. Benches don't have a long shelf life, usually."
Ford kicked at the leg of the couch Aggie was lying on in frustration. "Damn it, Stan. Figures he'd become a lowlife henchman, but I hoped it wouldn't come to this."
"Hey, henching is a job like any other. It's just more dangerous." Aggie replied indignantly.
"I thought you'd have a more negative opinion on them, what with being kidnapped and everything." Ford retorted sarcastically.
"You get used to it after a while." Aggie said. She looked away. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I wasn't sure how you'd react."
Ford winced. "I guess I haven't made it easy on you. But, thanks for letting me know now." He rubbed the back of his head with his bandaged hand.
"What do you think this means?" Aggie mused. "These hallucinations couldn't have come from our imagination, I never told you about Stan's job."
"Perhaps we are seeing our future." Ford suggested.
"No, I don't think so." Aggie declared firmly. "But, it could be an alternate timeline. Though, from what I know about the current timeline, things have already changed."
"How would you know anything about our current timeline?" Ford asked.
"I…might have dabbled in time travel in one of my old jobs?" Aggie admitted sheepishly. "Nothing that altered the stream, so it's not from that. But, I know Phantom Limb shouldn't even be active until 1987 at least. No idea what your brother would be doing instead, but something must have messed up at the OSI to trigger Limb's accident and cause early onset supervillainy."
Ford gave a low whistle in reaction. "Well, that's something, alright. I just wish my brother hadn't gotten mixed up in it."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Aggie asked.
"Not right now. But maybe later? We still have so much work to do." Ford stood up, then stumbled and sat back down.
"How much blood did you lose?" Aggie asked.
"Not that much. But maybe let's take a break. Bill can wait." Ford said through his teeth. His fingers drummed against the armrest of the chair. He was breathing heavily.
"Did you see him in your vision?" Aggie asked.
"I'm not sure what I saw exactly. There were monsters roaming the town, the sky was bright neon…and there were pyramids floating in the sky…I could see people turning into stone, their faces distorted into a permanent scream," Ford replied in horror. He was shaking. "And Bill…Bill was laughing. I don't know what it means, I'm so confused."
"Maybe you should ask him." Aggie suggested.
"What if I don't want to? If this is a vision of the future…am I the cause of it? Is this the price I have to pay for greatness?" Ford asked. It didn't seem like he was talking to her at this point.
"We could end the project." Aggie said. "It's a month's worth of work down the tube, but still enough to write a paper."
"We can't stop," Ford said with a ragged voice. "Bill will never forgive me if we stopped. And he's done so much for me. He was there for me when no one else was. I just…does it make me weak to be scared of one stupid vision? It felt so real."
Aggie lifted herself up, ignoring the pain. She placed her hand on Ford's shoulder. "Hey, look at me. You're not weak to feel scared. Acknowledging your fears and overcoming them makes you the strongest person I know. Most people bury that inside themselves or hide in denial. That's what I do and I hate myself for it everyday."
Ford sniffed, wiping his face. Suddenly, he reached forward and hugged her tightly. It hurt, but she hugged his back. She rubbed his back as he burst into sobs.
"I don't know what to do, Aggie. I want to believe in Bill. He made me feel special."
"You are special, Ford. With or without him. And whatever you decide, I'm there with you every step of the way." Aggie declared.
"Bill told me not to trust you when you first got here, you know." Ford murmured into her ear. He moved away a strand of her hair, playing with it. "How can I know I can trust you over him?"
"You don't. That's something you have to decide on your own." Aggie replied. "But I would never hurt you, Ford. I know we haven't known each other very long. But I care for you. I don't know why, you're pigheaded, you're a taskmaster, and you never communicate. But I can't help it, you're too damn charming I guess."
Ford sniffed, then wheezed. "No one has ever called me charming before. I think we found our answer. You're insane."
Aggie nuzzled into his shoulder. "Takes one to know one."
They held onto each other for what seemed like an eternity, and Aggie could feel his heartbeat against hers. She felt the cool air on her shoulders, and blushed. She looked down and noticed that without her speedsuit, she was basically in her bra and panties. Had Ford really seen her in this state this whole time?
"I think I need to go back up and change." Aggie said.
"It's not a big deal, we're both professionals." Ford countered. "The human body isn't anything to be ashamed of."
Aggie rolled her eyes and let go of him. "Be that as it may, I think I should change nonetheless. Professionalism be damned." She stood up and adjusted her balance. "Thank you for tending to my wounds."
"No problem." Ford replied. Aggie wished he'd have the decency to look away while talking to her, but evidently he did not. Then again, he had to undress her in the first place. "I had to throw away your jumpsuit."
"Speedsuit," Aggie corrected. "And it's ok, I have a dozen of them." She shambled up the stairs, limping to her bedroom to change.
Ford and Aggie didn't discuss the incident the rest of the day, or the next day either. But, he continued to work on the portal as if nothing happened. Aggie followed him downstairs and continued to assist him. If they stopped the portal project altogether, she wouldn't have much of a purpose to be near Ford in the first place, would she?
By the time Fiddleford McGucket arrived at the house on Gopher Lane, they had made significant progress.
Enough that when he arrived, he was greeted by a flash of blue light bursting from the windows.
When they arrived upstairs, Fiddleford was waiting in the living room. He stood up, and greeted Ford with a bone crushing hug.
"Well, I have to hand it to you Ford, you know how to make quite a scene. I can't tell you how much of a shock it was to come here to that pulse of electromagnetic discharge and open the door to this empty house. I thought you'd done gone and vaporized yourself! Gave me a heart attack right where I stood."
"Good to see you too, Fidds." Ford laughed. "I need to take you down to the lab first thing tomorrow, but let's get you settled in tonight."
"Would you like me to take your things upstairs, Dr. McGucket?" Aggie asked.
Fiddleford looked at Aggie and smiled. "Ford, you didn't tell me we had company over."
"This is Dr. Davis. She will be assisting us in this project. Her contributions have already helped take us past my initial estimates." Ford responded.
"I just spruced up the hardware. But I might need you to take a look at the code. There are some bugs I'm stuck on." Aggie said, reaching out her hand to shake their new teammate's. "Glad to finally meet you. Ford's told me so many stories about your time together in college, it's nice to meet you in person."
"Good things, I hope."
Ford and Fiddleford were immediately in sync, discussing and troubleshooting together. There were times when one of them would think of a breakthrough, and run to the other for feedback. Aggie knew that was the result of years of friendship and collaboration, but she had to try and fight the jealousy as it surfaced. Especially since at this point, it seemed that they hardly asked for her opinion at all.
When she saw the way Ford would light up whenever the other man entered the room, Aggie didn't have to figure out what he meant to him. Call it intuition, or wild speculation, but she suspected it was mutual.
After their workday, Fidds would make dinner. Aggie had to admit, he was a pretty good cook, and with him around Ford was less likely to enforce sixteen hour shifts. Fidds wouldn't allow it.
"Today we're having lasagna. It's my son's favorite." Fidds said.
"How is Tate?" Ford asked. "Last time I saw him, he was still battling the terrible twos."
Fidds gave a weak smile and cut into the dish, hastily scooping it onto their plates with a serving of broccoli per person. "He's…fine. I spoke to him on the phone."
"It must be difficult being away from your family for so long." Aggie said sympathetically.
"It's fine. I needed a change of pace. It's good, you know. Nothing like throwing yourself into something new to clear your head. Go on now, eat." Fidds declared, sitting down and grabbing his fork. He stabbed his lasagna aggressively.
Ford and Aggie exchanged uneasy looks.
"Is everything alright, Fidds? If something is going on, you could tell us." Ford said quietly.
Fiddleford continued to cut his food into small pieces before giving up and throwing his fork on the floor. He placed his hands on his head and hunched over.
"Emma May left me. She took Tate and went to her parents."
Ford's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm so sorry to hear that. When did this happen?"
"A few months ago," Fiddleford replied morosely. "The move to Palo Alto put a strain on us, and I've put everything into the new business. I haven't put in the effort to be a good father, or a good husband. So she found someone else."
"Oh buddy, that's awful." Ford interjected. Aggie silently ate her food.
"I didn't make it easy on myself. I tried to win her back by building a giant robot." He continued.
"Oh, no."
"It worked the first time! Emma May loved my giant robots…" he sniffed. "But the courts think I'm now a safety risk, and she's petitioning for full custody. I don't know, it's such a mess."
"When's your next visitation weekend?" Aggie asked.
"This week. But I'd rather stay here." Fiddleford said. "We're making so much progress."
"One weekend away isn't going to change anything. You can't run away from your problems, Dr. McGucket." Aggie insisted. "This is delicious, by the way."
He looked uneasy, but relaxed. "Aw, shucks. I don't know what I'd do without you two. I'll think about it. But you both better behave yourselves."
They laughed, but Aggie wondered what this would mean for them, and if Ford would ever say anything to his now single friend.
Being the emotionally constipated coward he was, Aggie resigned herself after another month to the fact that he wasn't going to confess his feelings anytime soon. Neither of them would. They just kept dancing around each other, staring at the other when they weren't looking. It irritated her to no end.
As the building process was winding down and Aggie and Fidds were stuck on the debugging phase, Ford retreated with increasing frequency to his room to meditate. Perhaps he was avoiding them, or spending more time with Bill.
"I'm worried about Ford. He's been acting strange."
"Aw, Ford's always been a bit introspective. It's part of his process." Fiddleford said dismissively as he examined the lines of code.
"This is different. I don't know if he's too lost in his own world, or if he wants to be lost. I think you should talk to him and try to reason with him." Aggie begged.
"What do you mean by that?" Fiddleford asked curiously.
Aggie but her lip. "I promised I wouldn't tell you. But he's in touch with, well, something outside this realm."
"You've got to be joking."
"No, he's befriended a full on interdimensional god. He sees the benefits, but none of the drawbacks." Aggie explained.
"And you think this project might be a cause for alarm?"
"I think it could be a disaster." Aggie declared.
"How would you know that?"
"You don't think this could in any way go horribly wrong?" Aggie asked in surprise.
"Let's hear him out. I've trusted Ford this long and he hasn't let me down. Who knows? Maybe we'll witness Yog Sothoth climbing out of this thing." Fiddleford chuckled.
"This…this isn't a joke." Aggie scowled. "Look, he won't listen to me, but he'd believe you. Talk to him, please?"
"I can't promise anything, but I'll try."
Aggie nodded. "That's something at least. Oh, we'll also have to start writing a paper on this project soon enough if we still want any funding from the university. I've tried reminding Ford, but he seems catatonic most of the time."
Fiddleford took off his glasses and wiped his forehead. "Looks like it'll be up to us to burn the midnight oil then. Let's see if this thing has a word processor on it."
