"How about this?" Gabe distantly hears somebody ask from inside his office as he opens the door. He isn't surprised to see Alyssa and Joshua in there, his fifteen year old son on the floor and the girl sitting on the couch, but more curious about what they are doing. Joshua is staring at his reflection in a cell phone and Alyssa's hands are messing with his huge mass of dark green hair. She gently pulls at it this way and that and is constantly asking, "Is this good," and Joshua just mumbles something incoherent that she takes as a no.
"What are you doing?' The doctor curiously asks, striding into the room and raising an eyebrow at the pair. RONI's screen lights up but he ignores her while walking to the couch.
"Doctor," RONI's robotic voice addresses the man and Gabe sighs. "I must remind you that you cannot leave minors unsupervised alone in your office. It is against the hospitals rules –"
"You tell me this everyday," Gabe grumbles, cutting her off and sending her a glare before lightning up a bit. "Besides, what are they going to do? Throw a wild house party? Let it drop, sheesh!"
RONI responds in her monotone voice, "Yes, Doctor." Gabe then plops down on the couch next to thirteen-year-old Alyssa who is still messing with his son's hair. She's about a head shorter than Joshua (who is still growing tremendously) with an orange headband in her auburn hair just like it was five years ago. Her emerald green eyes shine with the sparkle of youth and, while not blood related to Naomi, she has the same creamy skin as her adoptive mother.
Joshua struggles to look at his father but the girl keeps him in place. Instead, he has to view him from the corner of his eye as he answers his father's earlier question.
"Mom insists that I cut my hair," he says sadly and doesn't get a chance to elaborate before his father cuts in.
"What!" Gabe exclaims, his eyes growing wide and Alyssa smiles in amusement to herself. She knew he'd react this way.
"Yesterday at the swim meet I wasn't allowed to compete because I forgot my swim cap and nobody else had one that was extra, extra large," Joshua quickly explains to try to keep his dad calm.
"But if you cut your hair then I can't dress you up as me and get Hank confused!"
"I know, I know," the boys but Gabe won't be brought down.
Standing up, he announces defiantly, "I'm going to buy you twenty extra, extra large swim caps and then you'll NEVER forget it again!"
"Or you could save the money by cutting it," Alyssa ventures, smiling sweetly and twirling her fingers around strands of green hair.
"What are you even doing?" Gabe asks, his curiosity already destroying the determination he had a few seconds ago, plopping back down on the couch in defeat.
"I'm trying to show him what his hair would look like if it were cut but…" she mumbles, looking upset for a second. "It doesn't really seem to be working."
They sit in silence for a moment, watching Alyssa rearrange his hair but Joshua shakes his head.
Resting a hand on his son's shoulder, Gabe explains, "You don't have to get it cut if you don't want to, Joshua. I really will buy you some more swim caps."
"No, no…" the boy murmurs, a little doubtful sounding though. "Having a different look could be interesting. I've had this hairstyle my whole life –"
"Same here," Gabe adds in.
" – So maybe I should cut it…for something new, you know?"
The doctor shrugs while Joshua adds mostly to himself, "I just wish I knew what it would look like if I cut it."
Just then, somebody knocks on the door and Naomi walks in. She calls for Alyssa and the girl leaves, wishing Joshua best of luck with whatever he does and high fives Gabe on the way out. The Cunninghams go down to the break room to get opinions from the other doctors on Joshua's hair. Hank wants the boy to cut his hair because he doesn't want to be tricked anymore and he'll have somebody who will look more like him. Maria is completely against it, picking Joshua up and dragging him away from his dad so Gabe can't drive him home and, therefore, Lisa can't take him to get a haircut. Tomoe says he looks great either way and CR-S01 is indifferent.
While to others getting a haircut isn't a big deal, but Gabe understands why Joshua is so torn. This giant green mass is their signature thing, it would be so weird for either of them to look any different…or maybe that's what his son wants?
As Gabe tries prying Maria's fingers off of Joshua, Hank starts fishing around in his wallet, dumping out a huge chunk of money, credit cards, his license, and other random plastic cards until a crumpled and old photograph falls out.
He snatches it off the table, holding it up high with a victorious grin and exclaims, "I found it!", causing the others to freeze in what they are doing.
"Found what?" Maria asks, her arms wrapped around Joshua's chest and lifting the teenager off the ground. Gabe turns around, raising a curious eyebrow and examines the photo.
"This picture of Gabe and I in the army," Hank explains in a calmer voice, handing the picture to Maria's outstretched hand as she lets go of Joshua, who lands shakily on his feet.
She doesn't do anything for a second - Tomoe and CR peering over her shoulder and studying the photograph - until a smirk stretches across her tan skin and she bursts into laugher.
"This is too weird…" she snickers, flicking her gaze between Gabe and the picture while Tomoe giggles and CR nods silently in agreement.
"What is it?" Joshua inquires, squeezing his way past CR and Maria hands him the photo. He instantly yelps and holds the item away from his body like it's some deadly disease. Gabe, still unsure of what the image holds, quickly walks to his son's side. The boy's ochre eyes are wide with awe and fear as he brings the picture closer to him again to observe better.
The diagnostician instantly recognizes the photo, one of the few he allowed himself to smile in because he was so elated to be going home in that scene. He's on the left side of the photo, the giant man that is Hank in the middle, and Hank's long lost friend on the right. They were all beaming through the dusty haze that had clouded them at the base camp and looked more joyful than school boys getting an extra long recess. Little did they know that they'd get attacked that same day, which would be the battle that Hank's old friend died in.
Gabe knows that the big guy had kept the photo so he could remember his buddy, remember how he had failed to save him, but for Joshua it is to see what his father looked like with a buzz cut. It had made Joshua's heart skip a beat and caused him to cry out in alarm. Studying it now, all he can think is how weird his father looks, appearing shorter without his hair adding an extra foot and his face unnaturally narrow. Even though, Joshua thinks he looks pretty good, just in a different way than the green mass of fluff makes him.
The boy isn't planning on getting a buzz cut, but even if the new look turns out terrible he'll at least make some people scream in the hallways at school.
After a few teases between the doctors towards Gabe, Joshua nods in thanks to Hank and returns the precious photograph. The picture hadn't helped much; he remains troubled and confused about the possibility of changing his hairstyle.
Lisa sighs as she puts dirty dishes into the washer, aggravated that Gabe had failed to inform her he wouldn't be coming in for dinner. Unsurprisingly, Alyssa is at the house with Joshua and the mother decides she'll make her husband drive the girl home. Making him pay for gas is always a good punishment.
Once the task is finished, she goes into the kitchen to collect her workbag. Her son and Alyssa are in there, seated side by side at the table while Joshua tries explaining something about parabolas to his best friend. The two are great together, looking out for one another and Joshua tutoring the thirteen-year-old girl in math and sometimes science (but, thanks to Naomi, she never needs help with forensics or anatomy). Even though they are best friends, it's obvious to Lisa that Alyssa has a thing for Joshua. Of course, being just like his father, he's ignorant to her fond stares or how she smiles wider whenever he enters the room. Feeling uneasy due to her younger age, the mother knows Alyssa won't try doing anything more than just basking in her son's presence, yet in a few years who knows?
"We're in feet…so? It means you have to change your measurement for gravity," Joshua corrects in a friendly manner, reaching across and pointing at something on the piece of paper. Alyssa blushes a bit at his closeness but he notices nothing.
"Joshua?" Lisa interrupts their study session, her son straightening up and staring at her with his adorably wide eyes. "When should the time for your haircut be tomorrow? We can do right after school or before dinner?"
Her son pales a bit at the mention of his hair, which he absentmindedly runs a hand through as he ponders the question.
"I-I'm not sure…" he mumbles but Alyssa cuts him off with encouraging words.
"You'll look great no matter, don't worry," she smiles sweetly at him and he nods in appreciation.
"Whatever is easier for you I guess -,"
He doesn't finish the sentence though, the sound of the front door opening and closing cutting him off. Lisa mumbles something along the lines of "Finally!" and they all listen to the familiar footsteps of Dr. Cunningham coming closer to the kitchen. The hallway is lost in shadows but they can see his silhouette steadily approaching them. Lisa turns to face him, ready to interrogate him at where he has been, but is at a lost for words when the man enters the light of the kitchen.
A heavy silence fills the room, Gabe's lazy and irritated eyes passing over the faces and a frown tugs at his mouth. His hands are stuffed in his orange pant's pockets and his shoulders are hunched underneath his white lab coat. Alyssa nearly topples over in her chair at the sight of him while Joshua's and Lisa's mouths hang open, their eyes as wide as an owl's and bodies frozen in place.
Everybody's gazes are directed at Gabe's hair…or lack of it. He looks completely different, like his mound of dark green decided to shrink until it was nothing but…normal. The bangs and tufts puffing around his ears are gone, the pony tail also nowhere to be found. It's short and wispy in clumps sticking to his head and making his face look a little too long and narrow.
He did the most unexpected thing ever.
He got a haircut.
Turning his piercing ochre eyes onto his son's fearful ones, Gabe instructs in a menacing growl, "Never, ever, get your hair cut more than a trim. What I went through was worse than the army."
In a huff, Gabe spins on his heels and marches up the stairs, leaving the kids and his wife in stunned silence. Joshua doesn't talk to him until the walk to school the following day, where his father explains the horrors he experienced at the hairdressers. After washing it and assailing him with five combs, his hair had finally straightened out and they were ready to cut it…but in less than ten seconds the thing had already started spiking up again. Frustrated and clueless, the ten employees decided to just cut it in huge clumps, starting with the ponytail, then six inches from the top of the head and working around that until they got to a manageable length to brush it out. He had gotten his hair cut before when he entered the army, but he actually feel asleep during that at three in the morning, and their tugging and clumps of his precious hair falling around him forced him to remain awake to watch the horror.
At work he is greeted with the same reactions as his family and Alyssa, though some people actually tripped over the own feet to look at him or ran into walls. Somebody even fainted.
He has to admit, the look is an attractive one, but it's something too different from who he truly is. Thankfully, it doesn't take long for it all to grow back to its unruly length.
While Gabe never admits it, Joshua will always know that his father cut his hair for him so he could see what it would look like. However, the boy took heed of the warning and never cut his hair more than the necessary trim.
Author's Note
Thanks for all of the reviews last time! They were fantastic and I'm really loving them! There isn't much to say for this drabble, just that I tried making it somewhat humorous but I don't think it's a laugh out loud kind of fic.
I wanted to do something less fluffy before I got into some pretty angsty two part fic I'm planning on doing. When I originally thought of this idea, I had wanted the stories to be light hearted and short, but with a small touch of sweetness. We can't have too much angst!
Thanks for reading and please review!
~~Wave~~