Chapter 9: Another Human

JUST A QUICK THING! I decided to split this extremely long chapter into hopefully two chapters... it's to make up for the hiatus. Anyway, enjoy!

Layla wandered around the mercenary dimension, it having been sixteen years since her arrival through the portal, her looking for any useful weapons and items to defend herself with.

It had seemed that everyone was gathered in a large group in the center of the one town she was in, her curious to what was going on. The voice of Bill Cipher bellowed in his usual shrill tone, causing her to stiffen. She moved through the crowds, bumping into various characters that were in the dimension to get jobs.

"Hello, all!" Bill's voice shrilled. "So… I have been informed that there was a disturbance in this dimension…" Layla stiffened and stopped moving through the crowd, her eyes darting around. She started to back away to get to the edge of crowd, ready to run when she needed to. "And it's a disturbance from that metal bag filled dimension. I'm looking for a Stanford Filbrick Pines, since he had access to a portal."

Layla stopped dead in her tracks. Another… human?

There was a light of a hologram, most likely showing what the person looked like. Layla could not see due to being blocked by much taller mercenaries. She continued her way out of the crowd, heading to one of the very few abandoned buildings she had a few things stored in. Along the way she kept hearing Bill's voice, which made her skin crawl.

"So… if you find this man… bring him to me, Bill Cipher. Dead or alive. I honestly don't care which, as long as I get that meat bag."

Layla made her way to the building, her truly debating whether or not to help. She then heard someone from outside, cursing under their breath. Finally, she took a deep breath and rushed out the door just in time for a man in a long brown trench coat to pass by the door. Layla grabbed him and put a hand over his mouth to cover his yelp of surprise and dragged him inside.

"You need to be quiet!" Layla hissed to him, seeing his brown eyes through black glasses trying to get a look at her. He was bent over backwards because of her height, her being at least a couple of feet shorter than him, she had to jump just get a hand over his mouth and dragged him inside. Layla dragged him further inside and shut the door with her foot. Once they were inside deep in the building she released him and he sprung away from him.

The man like she had assumed was a couple of feet taller than her, but he was now slouched as he was in a boxing position with his fists up. He had dark brown hair that stuck up in all directions, as though he had ran his hands through his hair multiple times. Thick bags were under his eyes, as though he hadn't slept in weeks, his five o'clock shadow thick on his square jaw from not shaving daily. One of his dominate facial features was his large pinkish nose and another was that he had a cleft chin. Along with his trench coat he was also wearing a dirty white dress shirt with a black tie and pants, him wearing brown muddy boots. But what she could tell that he seemed to be terrified and paranoid, but that didn't stop her for being her usual self.

"That's how you thank someone that just saved your ass, Stanford Pines?" she snapped at him, clearly exasperated.

"Ford…" the man replied slowly, him not relaxing one bit. "You can just call me Ford, Miss…?"

"Layla, Layla Bartek." she replied automatically, her mentally slapping herself. Not only did she just give her name without a second thought, but she was still processing on why a man named "Stanford" called himself "Ford" instead of "Stan", which is what people with the name shorten it as. She once again mentally slapped herself as she held out her right hand, him hesitating to grasp her hand. "Come on, you're being rude!" she then snapped at him, surprised at herself for being extremely excited for another human. He finally then gave her a handshake, her immediately noticing that and extra finger grasped around her hand. "Six fingers…?" she whispered in astonishment. "Wow… polydactyl, I've never met someone with that! That's pretty cool!" Layla noticed that her voice was getting high with excitement at this, her remembering reading about the birth defect along her own.

Ford removed his hand from hers and hid them in the pockets of his trench coat. He looked as though he was about to have a nervous breakdown. His cheeks were tinged pink with embarrassment.

Layla then gave him an odd look. "Why are you hiding them?" she asked, her sounding a bit sad that he would be so ashamed of his hands.

"I… I don't like showing them." Ford stated, him stuttering. "A lot of people… don't react the way you just did."

Layla had hid her hand because it was such a dominate feature that she would be searched for, but she really never was ashamed of her hand. She knew it wasn't normal to be missing partial limbs, but she knew it wasn't her fault either, it was just a miscode in her DNA. Layla then held up her hands, showing that her left hand was missing her thumb and pinkie, only having nubs. She noticed that Ford was staring at her hand, so she lowered it, but he was still staring.

She then explained, "I have symbrachydactyly, only on my left hand though. You have polydactyl on both your hands… that's a double anomaly." She then gives him a small smile, but to her it felt forced. "So… I know what you mean about not wanting to show your hands." It was sort of a lie, she never really was ashamed of her hand; she just hid it from many so that they wouldn't turn her into Magum.

Ford then took his hands out of his pockets, staring at his right hand with a new look of surprise. He cleared his throat. "Sorry…" he then said. "I didn't mean to be rude then…" After just taking his hands out of his pockets he then put them behind his back.

"It's alright," Layla then assured him, thinking that maybe he never saw someone with her condition like she had never seen someone with his. It was almost like an odd comfort that there was someone similar to her… "But… I do have a question for you, Ford."

"Okay… what is it?"

"What does Bill Cipher have against you?"

Immediately his face twisted to bafflement and shock. "Pardon me?" he inquired, his voice taking on the tone of surprise.

Layla rolled her eyes as she groaned with annoyance, "Don't play dumb, Ford." To her it felt very odd to say "Ford", her thinking it was just plain weird to be called that. "Obviously Cipher wants you for something, and you were running. So, why does he want you?"

That was when Layla found out that Ford was a scientist that studied the anomalies in Gravity Falls. According to him he had met Bill during the studies and was tricked into building a portal for Bill. When she was excited that he was from Gravity Falls, he had to inform her that he was from Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey, a place that she never even heard of. He had seemed surprised that she was from Gravity Falls as well… until he realized her last name.

They argued about her father, a man who hadn't seen in years and still tried to defend him. She didn't understand why she defended him, but she felt she had to because he was her father that raised her when her mother disappeared. No matter what, he was her father, doing what he did for his stem cell research for her. But, she did have to admit that he was a monster for killing innocent people, and even for sending them as monstrosities to another dimension.

In the middle of their arguing she had heard the door being crashed in from the monsters that were chasing Ford. "We need to go! NOW!" she ordered, her grabbing Ford's hand and started running, trying to get them to safety.

She knew the building very well, and led them to an open chasm that she had a rope dangling to swing across. Layla immediately lets go of Ford's hand and jumped onto the rope and after a moment of swinging she started to climb it. She felt the rope move as Ford jumped onto it, but she noticed that he was barely climbing and heard him cuss.

"Ford, hurry the hell up!" she screamed at him after she made it to the top. She had grabbed her knife from her side so she could cut the rope away. The problem was… Ford was barely climbing. "Don't you know how to climb!? I have less fingers than you and I can climb!" she screamed, clearly agitated.

"Well I'm spry I was terrible in gym class!" Ford snapped at her, him glaring up with his brown eyes, hard with fear and anger. The man then continued to pathetically pull himself up the rope, making Layla's hands sweat with irritation and panic. Why did she decide to save him again…?

"You're a man and you can't climb a damn rope!?" Layla shouted with disbelief, her proceeding to face palm herself with her left hand. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Layla could feel his hard glare. "Hey, don't judge me! I was the academic twin, my brother as the athletic one!" He was close to the top, but she was thinking on what he had said. He had said he was a twin. Did that mean this twin was in this part of the multiverse, or was he on the other side of the portal losing his mind that his brother was gone?

The raven-haired woman then got impatient as he neared the top, sweat on his brow. She grabbed him by the collar of his dress shirt and pulled him up with all the strength she had, which surprising was a lot. She could see that his mouth opened to say something, but she sliced the rope as quickly as she could, seeing the insect-looking monster that had been chasing them fall deep into the chasm with screeches of screams.

"Thanks…" Ford thanked breathlessly.

Layla mumbled, "Yeah, yeah…" She stood up as she said, "There's going to be more, so we need to get moving. I'm assuming you don't have a weapon…" Layla then looked around, looking for her chest that she kept extra clothing and weapons in. Once she had found it she jogged over to it and opened it, revealing all the extra weapons she did have but preferred not to use, an extra coat she had stolen that ended up being way too big on her, goggles, battery-cell packs for the weapons, and just a few random knick-knacks. "Here, takes these." Layla then grabbed the coat and weapon to hand to Ford.

Ford looked terrified of being handed a weapon. "A-a gun?" the brunette stammered nervously. "I don't know how-"

"You aim, pull the trigger, and hope whatever you shot is dead," Layla snapped at him angrily. "That is a highly intense laser beam weapon, that thing can blow holes through metal. So, I suggest you make sure what is in front of you really needs to be dead…"

Ford looked at her, baffled as he shouted, "Do you think I'm going to point this thing at you? I mean, you did save my life twice now… your father may have been a terrible man but I don't see any problem with you."

For a moment her heart stopped. How could her trust her so quickly? As she searched his eyes she could see that they were still hard with distrust, or more like they were hesitant.

"It's all about survival, Ford Pines," It was still weird to say "Ford". "And in this world… you trust no one."

Just a few hours later after their meeting they sat in the bar to meet Kerum, Layla taking shot after shot.

Ford on the other hand really didn't want to drink, he had said he dabbed a few drinks here and there but wasn't really into it. However, for her she wanted to keep on drinking since once again they argued about her father. She had even explained to him about who controlled what in the multiverse, him looking more like he understood with each word.

The guy is a damn Brainiac…

Once she had told him that she was traveling around the multiverse for sixteen years, he looked like he had sympathy for her. That irritated her to no end, but she did find out something…

We're the same age…

That couldn't be a coincidence…

"Why are we here…?" Layla heard Ford ask. "Don't tell me it's to get drunk…" As he was talking she downed her third shot.

"I'm waiting for my inside guy," she responded to him, her taking out her device that she was given to contact Kerum. "Ah… he's here." She gave a small smile, her noticing that Ford glared at her with clear annoyance, but he regardless downed a shot.

However… Kerum wasn't too friendly this time around.

He had heard of a bounty that was placed over Ford's head, which wasn't a surprise in the least. She knew that Cipher wanted him for something, and Ford was an intelligent man, that meant he was a big part of something. Once Kerum had a gun pointed in Ford's face Layla got hers immediately and pointed it Kerum.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" she screamed at Kerum in the language that they had agreed to use. She couldn't believe that Kerum would do this… "Ford… RUN!" she then shouted in English as she pulled the trigger, a plasma beam shooting from her gun and it going through Kerum's skull, a sickening hole appearing showing blood and tissue.

More guns were being pulled out, now seeing why Ford was so important. He tried to aim his gun, but his hands shook terribly. Layla grabbed him immediately, seeing someone pulling a trigger, her pulling him away just as a plasma beam shot where Ford's head was just a moment before.

As they had left the tavern Layla had got shot in her shoulder, it burning her flesh, but luckily for her that it just grazed the skin instead of fully going through. Ford had ended up carrying her as she had gotten distracted by her shoulder.

"That… bastard…" she heaved.

"Who?" Ford questioned worriedly. "The guy that shot you?"

"No…" she wheezed. "My information… apparently Cipher had a bounty on your head… you must be really important… It was a setup because they wanted the reward…"

She saw that he glanced down, her seeing that he was guilty. "Sorry then that you're associated with me…" he told her sentimentally. He slowed his pace, finding an alleyway for them to tuck away in. He had set Layla down, her holding her bleeding shoulder.

Her face was covered in a sheen of sweat as she glanced at him. "No… it's my fault… I probably should've went in alone…" she admitted.

That and I didn't even follow my own advice… "Trust no one".

She tried to reach into her coat, looking for the small first aid kit she had carried around. She winced in pain, her struggling. Ford lowered himself in front of her and went inside her coat where her hand was trying to get the kit. "Thanks…" Layla whispered with gratitude as she shrugged out of her coat. She wore a black tank top, it tight and accenting her figure, her arms covered with the scars that she had received during the years. In the corner of her eye she saw that Ford's eyes widened at the sight of the scars. "It's all fine…" she assured him as she started treating her wound.

Ford then whispered sullenly, "I'll just be going then…" He slowly then got up so that he could leave.

Layla noticed and did a double take from her wound treatment to Ford. She shouted, "Go where? You're gonna get killed out there!" Layla then finished bandaging her shoulder, it looking a little sloppy but at that point she didn't care. As she shrugged back on her coat she continued, "Cipher is going to find you easily, you don't know what you're doing."

"Look where trying to help me got you, Layla!" Ford then snapped at her, him putting his hands to his head, fingers gripping into his dark brown hair.

Layla didn't understand why, but she hated being pushed away. "You just like pushing people away, don't you?" she screamed at him. Once again they were arguing, and once again she really wanted a drink.

But after a few moments of both of them taking a breather, Layla took Ford to one of the secret alcoves that she had found before while being in that dimension from previous times. She noticed that Ford was getting heavy eyed so she let him sleep first so that she could take the first watch. She started humming a song that she remembered her mother singing before, not the lullaby she had sung but a different one that sounded from an old book. Soon Ford fell asleep surprisingly soundly, probably the first time he truly slept in quite some time.

During their argument Ford had said that he pushed his twin brother away, Layla was so stressed out that she didn't even recall what his name was, and that Ford moved on the other side of the country to study the anomalies of Gravity Falls. He had wanted to focus on his work, so he pushed people away…

That sounded familiar…

Layla then noticed as she hummed that Ford started grinning in his sleep. She couldn't tell if he was already dreaming or if it was from her humming… She immediately stopped, her face turning pink with embarrassment. Surly it wasn't her humming that was making him grin…?

A loud sound made Layla jump nearly out of her skin, her looking around frantically thinking that someone had found them. The loud sound happened again and she ended up glaring at Ford.

He was snoring. Extremely loudly.

Layla then covered her ears with her hands as she continued to glare at him with newfound annoyance. But at the same time, she couldn't help but grin herself.

It felt good to have someone else along with her.

Two months.

It had been two months since Layla had saved Ford from being chased down by those mercenaries sent by Bill to capture him. During that time Layla had taught Ford how to use his weapon better, which he progressed quite well. In exchange he actually showed her some boxing moves, which made her laugh at him that he could actually to do it quite well.

When she had asked him where he learned to box, he simply shrugged and said he took lessons as a kid to fight against bullies. She knew there was more to the story, he had mentioned numerous times about having a twin brother, but he seemed to forget that she knew and would try to hide the fact once again. Layla played it off like she didn't, her thinking that maybe one day Ford would tell her the full story on why he and his twin originally fought.

They sat at a bar, her scarf wrapped around her neck but not covering her face. In front of her was her third pint of some green slop that she knew was a delicious drink. To her it tasted like a crisp green apple, but sometimes when she drank it the memories of her time with Magum would come creeping back.

Layla noticed that Ford wasn't drinking much, him eyeing the drinks she presented him until he took a few sips. Sometimes his face twisted with pure disgust and at other times he would give a small shrug and continue on drinking it.

Layla finally had to say something to the scientist. "Ford, you need to live a little!" she slurred. Once her fourth drink was put in front of her she slid it to Ford as she ordered another for herself. Despite her excessive drinking they still served her, not caring.

Ford retorted, "Not while any minute we can get shot at." He had finished his original drink and he then finished the one that Layla had given him. The bartender asked if he wanted another, but Ford lifted a hand and kindly declined.

Layla's vision started to bend and it seemed like the room was spinning. Or was it really spinning? She's been to a few bars where the actual room was spinning… or maybe she was just that drunk. She couldn't tell and she didn't really care.

She took another swig of her drink, the crisp apple taste hitting the back of her throat. "I've been here for over a decade, Ford," she drunkenly pointed out, her words heavy with alcohol. "I-I think I know what I am doing."

The raven-haired woman noticed that the dark brunette rolled his eyes and he fished for something in his trench coat. He then pulled out a small green rectangle, a cash card that she had pickpocketed and gave to him, and he threw it on the table. As Layla went to take another drink she was grabbed by Ford, his six-fingered hand gripped around her wrist as he dragged her out of the bar. "Hey!" she had yelped, her feeling the cold air slap her face from being outside. Ford had then put on his goggles and turned to put Layla's scarf around her face to conceal her identity. "W-what w-was that for!?" she muttered angrily as she stumbled.

"You're drunk," Ford insisted. "So we're leaving before a scene could be made." He had kept a firm grip on her wrist, almost like a parent dragging their kid away from the candy aisle at the supermarket.

As they had walked, Layla noticed the countless wanted posters that were up of herself and Ford. With newfound strength she tore her wrist away from Ford as she stumbled the walls, her practically leaning on the wall to tear them down. She a giggled a few times, noticing that many posters were of her with her short hair that she had cut when she first broke off from Magum.

Once they made their way back to an old building where they had set up a camping site, Layla rummaged through her pitiful possessions and pulled out a fifth of vodka that she had found along the way. She was extremely giddy that she had found it as it was her favorite, her holding it close to her as Ford lit a lantern.

He glanced over to her as she did so and his chocolate brown eyes widened with disbelief. "Wait a minute…" he murmured, seeing what she had. "How the hell do you have Earth vodka?" He had then snatched it away from her drunk self, her getting pissed that he would do such a thing. Ford eyed the bottle, his eyes glazing over with recognition of the brand.

"O-once in a-a while some t-things from other d-dimensions go through a p-portal and get sucked in." Layla explained in a drunken drawl. "I-I find them and I-I s-stockpile." She had managed to snatch the bottle from Ford, her ready to pop it open so that she could take a swig of it, but he snatched it right back.

"I'm cutting you off, Layla," Ford snapped at her, his chocolate brown eyes hardening as he glared at her.

Layla rolled her electric blue eyes, clearly drunk and agitated with him at the moment for ruining her fun. "You're no fun, Fordsy," the raven-haired woman complained, her giving him a pout.

It was like a switch in Ford as he screamed furiously at her, his face tinging red, "Don't call me that!"

"Whatever, Sixer," Layla mumbled as she stumbled to her small sleeping pile. She noticed that he gave a confused look when she called him that. Layla had heard him once in a while talking in his sleep and he mentioned it a few times, her figuring it was because of his polydactyl.

Layla then proceeded to go to her small stash of alcohol that she did have. They were small sample bottles but she felt like she really needed a few dozen of those. When Ford came and snatched them, causing her to groan loudly and trying to get them back to no avail.

Ford growled, "Layla, enough." He was now holding the bottles above his head, Layla being too short and when she was jumping to try to reach it. She ended up hitting his nose, which caused him to narrow his eyes with irritation.

"Ugh… you r-really are a stick in the mud," Layla muttered, finally giving up. She stumbled over to her pile of blankets and pillows and plopped down on them, her not bothering to take off her coat and boots. Layla heard the clink sound of the bottles that Ford put to the side, her throat longing for the burning taste of her alcohol.

"Well, if there had been an incident, what would you have done besides get yourself killed?" he had then asked her seriously, his voice soft with concern. There was a gentle sound of a page turning, him skimming through the books that were similar to the ones Layla had read to learn the multiple languages of the multiverse.

Layla rolled her eyes from where she was at, knowing that Ford couldn't see her anyway. She then drunkenly drawled, "E-easy," she then raised her hand to point at the ceiling. "I-I'd shoot them in their G-God d-damned faces!" She then proceeded to make gun shooting noises, either realistic of laser, she couldn't tell because she was too drunk.

Ford then sighed a reply, "You can barely walk in a straight line right now and you think you could've-"

Layla then tuned him out as she began to doze off. Her eyes heavy, she closed them and fell asleep.

The next morning when Layla had awoken her head painfully ached and she vomited violently next to her sleeping pile. All that she hacking up was the alcohol that she had drunk the night before, her vision immediately blurring as her body suddenly became dehydrated. Water and sleep sounded amazing to her at that moment.

"You drank too much, Layla," Ford chided her as he began packing up whatever little things that he had. Layla groaned in response, her mumbling about sleep. "Why do you drink so much anyway?" he then asked her. "You're going to end up with liver failure and alcohol poisoning."

Layla stiffened at that statement. All the drinking that he had done to try to forget the tortures that Magum had given her. But… she couldn't tell Ford about Magum. The less the man knew about the demon the better. It would just be easier to lie for the most part.

She then retorted, "The real question is why do drink so little?" Her long jet, black hair was sticking up in random directions from her sleeping. She then put one of her pillows over her head to block off the small bit of light.

Ford then lifted the pillow off her, his gaze looking to her worriedly. "I'm serious, Layla, why do you drink so much? You know it's not good for your health, especially living in shitholes like this."

She snatched the pillow back form him, trying to form her lie. But… she played the truth slightly. "I drink to forget, but sadly you can never truly forget," she then finally mumbled into her pillow. "No matter how bad a memory is, no matter what you do try to forget, it finds its way back…"

Ford gave her a sympathetic look, the one that she knew that she would receive from him about it. It wasn't a lie what she had said, but she wasn't about to tell the full truth either. "What are you trying to forget?" he then asked her gently, trying not to trigger anything. But it didn't matter that he would not try to trigger her, the way Magum had touched her over the years was so integrated into her skin that she would think at that point not even a lobotomy would let her forget.

"My father…" she lied smoothly. It was half true, she rather not remember her father much either. It was Magum that haunted her, not her father. "The way he did things… the way he put us here…" Layla then sat up and fixed her hair with her fingers, trying to untangle her natural feathered hair. "But… that doesn't matter now… we need to get moving." She had abruptly said it, her trying to get off the subject before her brain would force her to speak from her heart on how she was tortured by Magum, To keep her mind off of things she began to pack her own bag with her few blankets that she had grabbed from the last alcove that she and Ford were in.

Ford had thrown his bag over his shoulder. "To where?" he inquired, clearly confused.

"I have a lead on where important documents regarding my father's research is…" explained Layla. She then realized that that was a stupid thing to say. Layla had just said with her lie that she wanted to forget Dr. Bartek, but here she said that they needed to get his research.

I have everyone here equipped to enhance my abilities. Thanks to Dr. Bartek's research…

Layla needed to get what she could get. Magum couldn't get a portal to function for himself, and neither can Bill Cipher. At this point her decision on which was the worse demon was biased because of the personal relationship between herself and Magum, so she really didn't want him to get to Earth.

"A lot of it is about the portals, so if we can access those documents we can easily find the portals to all the pocket dimensions and even access them ourselves without to wait for them to open naturally." Layla finished her explanation. She noticed that Ford shook his head gently, as if he was already figuring out that what she was saying about forgetting wasn't making any sense. Well… the guy was a scientist with twelve PhDs… of course he would figure it out.

"So… why do they have his research?" Ford then asked, him looking a bit skeptical. "Didn't you say he was on the run?"

Layla then gave a quick answer, "I'm assuming at one point he got caught and they took some of it… but then he can escape." It was all she could really think that that would happen, but she wasn't one hundred percent if that was the case. "They don't know how to decipher his research, he put it all in code."

Ford raised a dark brown brow. "Are you saying you can decipher it?"

"No… but you can."

His brown eyes widened. "Wait… what?" he had managed to sputter out.

Layla gives a smirk. "You're the kind of guy that writes shit in code, so if anyone can write in it they can crack it. Once we get that research we can have access to the other pocket dimensions easily, which means eventually once we find my father's main portal research we can find a way to get back home!"

Ford just stared at her for a moment, and she could see the emotions run across his strong facial features. He then shook his head, now it was her turn to give him a confused look. "We shouldn't mess with any main dimensional portals." He then finally stated, causing Layla's heart to falter. She had always known that she may never return back to Earth, but Ford stating it perfectly clear still hurt her slight hopes that she held onto. "The portal I built was literally set up in a weak spot in the dimensional wall, punching a hole through it. If we that here we basically give Cipher a one way ticket to Earth!" He began gesturing with his hands, something that Layla picked up that he did a lot while pondering and thinking, and especially while frantically explaining things. "Then once that happens he'll spread Weirdmageddon."

Layla couldn't help but chuckle at that, her giving Ford a skeptical look herself. "Weridmageddon? Really? You couldn't figure out a better name, Ford?"

Ford gives a deep frown as he groaned loudly, him beginning to walk away from her. "We'll find that research though… we have to, because if we don't, Bill will…"

Layla had herself a plan that was extremely risky, her having to go back into the heart of one of Magum's minor warehouses…

She had to put a metal plate in Ford's head.

This was a way to protect Ford from possession of Bill Cipher. The only downside was that Magum would have full access, but luckily for them that Magum had no idea who Ford was and therefore would not even think about tapping into his head.

Layla had lead Ford to the warehouse that she had known that had the equipment to do what she needed done. Despite that she wanted to forget about Magum, she knew deep down that she never would forget, so she still kept some tabs on Magum and his followers. This was one of his recruitment warehouses in a dimension that she would try to be as far away as possible.

Ford was obviously not into putting a metal plate into his head. Layla could tell that he was frightened and nervous of it. But at the same time she could read his facial expressions and could tell that he was literally weighing the pros and cons.

Finally, he agreed to have the metal plate into his head. What he didn't like was that at the age of sixteen Layla was forced by her father with no anesthetic. What surprised her was that he told her that he would do the procedure without it.

"You didn't get a choice, so neither should I." Ford said to her, him strapped in the machine.

There were no words to describe what Layla felt in that moment. In her entire life she never really had a friend. Was Rick at one point a friend or did he just tolerate her because of she was the daughter of his mentor? Was Mari and Kari her friends? She would like to think they were friends, she would love to believe it fully. But with Ford… it was different. She was with him nearly one hundred percent of the time, she could already tell how he thought things through, how cautious he was, and how giddy he could get when he discovered something new.

But… was there a word that described what she felt that moment…?

There was no time to think of one now, she had to go on with the procedure. Layla activated the machine, it starting to hum as it powered up. She strapped the helmet onto his head, his brown eyes widening as she could tell he was shocked by the cold metal. He took a deep breath, which caused her heart to skip a beat, she really didn't want to hurt him, but he had insisted with the no use of anesthetic. The final touch was that she removed his glasses so that they wouldn't get damaged, her seeing how they were cracked in the corner; it made her curious just on how blind he was, her almost tempted to put them on herself.

Layla pressed a few buttons and she went to sit next to him. Without even thinking she put her left hand on his arm, a small way to try to comfort him. It wasn't much, but she felt that he needed someone with him, unlike hers when she was suddenly awoken in the middle of the night.

Once the machine started drilling, she saw the blood slowly drip from the side of his head. His screams of pain echoed throughout the warehouse along with sound of the machine. Layla saw that his hands went into fists repeatedly to going back to try to claw out of the restraints. He twitched involuntarily from the pain, but he had tried to stay still.

Layla kept her hand on Ford, it was all she could do besides watch the blood drip from his temporal bone. After what seemed like an eternity the machine hummed to a quiet stop and watched as he collected himself, taking deep breaths and calming himself. Once the restraints were removed he managed to put his right hand on hers that was resting on his arm.

She could feel her heart pick up in pace, she didn't understand what it meant. Layla could feel her face heating up, but luckily Ford's eyes were closed from him trying to calm his own heartrate from his ordeal.

"Are… are you okay?" Layla finally asked, her voice laced with concern and worry. Ford looked a little too pale to her, at least paler than she was used to on him.

Ford raised a free hand, a simple gesture. "Yeah I'm fine…" he whispered hoarsely.

Layla needed to get the budding feeling out of her chest. So, out of an act of silliness, she slapped her free hand to Ford's raised. A high five, or, in his case, a high six.

"High Six that you're okay then!" Layla cheered, feeling the tightness from her chest lifting like the weight was lifted off her shoulders, although he really didn't respond. She had no idea why, but it was an absolute need to get rid of that feeling. Layla then gave him back his glasses and had seen that Ford's eyes glossed over sadly as she removed the helmet from his head, seeing the deep wound that went to his skull. It could get infected if not treated, like hers had done. She had set his glasses on his lap, and with his hand he gripped them to make sure they didn't fall. As she patched him up with a medical kit she had found, Ford winced from the antiseptics.

"Thanks," Ford whispered as he stood up, his face paled to an almost grey sheen, worrying Layla. "The hell…" he muttered.

Without thinking she wrapped an arm around Ford's waist, trying to help his balance. "It might take you a bit to get used to the metal on your skull, for it to be more top heavy," she told him as they slowly walked out of the building, her shutting and locking the door to the facility behind them. "They're gonna know that their equipment was used, but hopefully they won't trace it to me…" she whispered mostly to herself, but she knew Ford heard her.

He then questioned her in a hoarse voice, "What would happen if they do?"

Magum will find me and never let me leave his side ever again…

So, once again she lied. "Well… they'll hunt me down and do ungodly experiments on me since I'm human," she lied smoothly. Again, it wasn't a total lie… after all Magum experimented time and time again…

"What!?" Ford gasped, clearly horrified. "D-did they try to do it before or something?"

"Reason why I left besides them wanting to rule the universe like Cipher." Again, not a total lie. "Once I found out they wanted to experiment on me I ran away, I was hunted down for a few years and then they gave up." That part was for the most part a lie. As far as she was concerned Magum was still looking for her.

They had walked back into the industrial district that the warehouse was located. Layla lead Ford back to the alcove where they had stored their bags so that Ford could rest from his surgery. Ford was practically falling down from being delirious, Layla trying her hardest not to let him fall.

"I thought… we were going to-" Ford was trying to say, him referring to getting Bartek's portal research, as Layla helped him get lowered into the pile of blankets and pillows that was used for sleeping.

"We were… if you had used the anesthetic," Layla told him firmly, noting that his eyes were dropping heavily. "But right now you're in no condition to do something dangerous. Just rest okay?" She tried her best to give her wide blue eyes to beg. All Ford did was sigh as he nodded his head. "Okay… I'll keep watch, okay?"

Personally, Layla didn't want to stay in that dimension any more than she had to. It was too dangerous and Magum could find them at any moment, which frightened her to the core. But, Ford was in deep pain from the procedure because he didn't want to use anesthetic, so she had to deal with it.

Layla started to hum, once again the lullaby that was sing to her so many times very young by her mother. She noticed that Ford's eyes fluttered shut and he began to snore his extremely loud snore.

She hummed more, a slight smile on her face, despite the immediate danger that the two were in.

A/N: Finally! I decided to just split these chapters into two. I'm doing a lot of paraphrasing of the chapters from "Beyond the Portal", but the key points are being shown in Layla's point of view and how she started to develop feelings for Ford.

Thanks for reading as always and all of the support!

~Skye Hendersen~