Summary: How does Lucas react when he is finally reunited with his father?
20 years after Lucas' birth
Lucas' pov
Lucas stares at the dog. The dog that he has gone past so many times without so much as a high, and every time he have even come close to the dog it have almost bounced of happiness without Lucas even knowing why. But now he knows.
It has, all this time, been his father in disguise. All the time Lucas has tried to find a way out from this black-and-white hell called Tranquility Lane and how he has looked for Braun. And now, when he has finally found Braun, he finds out that the old fool has transformed James into a dog.
Lucas gets down on his knees in front of the dog. The dog observes him with eyes that are all too recognizable now when he knows who it really is.
"Dad?" Lucas asks with a sad voice. "Is that really you?" The dog whines and gives something that can be recognized as a nod. "I… I'm so sorry, dad, that I didn't recognized you. I promise to get you out of here."
James' pov
He has been so happy to see his boy again, even though it is in a dog's body. And Lucas seems to have gotten several years younger, but still, James recognizes him. The sight of his son coming up to him as a small child only reminds James of how fast the time have gone since when Lucas was really in that age. How James was able to make him laugh only by throwing him up high into the air.
In reality his boy isn't so little anymore. Lucas must be twenty years now. How long have he been outside of the vault? Why did he get out, and how? Why would the overseer allow Lucas to get outside the vault? It is questions that James hopes to get answers to when, or maybe rather, if they get out of this simulation.
A few hours later
Lucas' pov
Lucas' eyes strains against the fluorescent light that hits his face as the small simulation chamber opens up around him. He has finally escaped Braun's simulation and has freed his father from the prison that he has walked into.
He sits up and climbs down from the chamber, and on unsteady legs he walks a few steps. He has been trapped in a child's body for so long that he has grown used to be small again. Now, when he is in his twenty-year-old self again, he have trouble to steer his own body.
Lucas hears strides from someone else come towards him and he looks up. He can't stop to smile when he sees his father go towards him, in his usual human form again. How long have Lucas been searching for this man? Surely for several months and after several miles of just walking and savaging for everything he needs.
James opens his mouth to speak, but before he is able to say anything his son embraces him in a hard and desperate hug. James is taken aback for a moment, but then he returns the hug. The two stays like that for surely a whole minute, and neither wants to let go.
Thereafter they take a seat on the floor, with their faces turned towards Braun's simulation machine and just talks. It is mostly Lucas that does the talking, as he has the most to say. He tells of all the adventures he have been thru the last couple of months, and James gets surprised that his son have been able to take care of himself so well in such a heartless world.
In the end their discussion dies out, and they only enjoys the company of each other.