The Streams of Time

by Deliverer

Time passes so quickly. Things can happen in an instant you never thought would. He never wanted his son to be like him. He never wanted to end up raising him alone. He never wanted to leave him so soon. Harry Junior, though, was his father's son, and he wasn't inclined to lose his family either. When something breaks, fix it. That's just what he intended to do. Whatever it took.

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THE STREAMS OF TIME

(A/N: Some aspects of this chapter will probably change a bit after I finish The Lost Expedition and figure out the lore behind that whole game. Mayan Adventure is also referenced multiple times throughout, and that Pitfall runner game that used to exist. Most all Pitfall media is touched on, actually. Enjoy.)

Pitfall

Whenever he looked towards the distant falls, a sense of dread washed through him. No matter where he went, they were there. There was no escaping them. He saw them from every panoramic view. He feared them but didn't know why. He pitied whatever poor explorer found and attempted to traverse them. It wouldn't be him, that was for sure.

He had been swinging across the vines over a canyon the first time he had seen them. This strange feeling had stirred in the pit of his stomach, and he'd almost missed a vine, but caught it just in time. He put the falls out of his mind, focusing on his quest instead, but they were always there. Lingering in the back of his mind. He had hoped to never see them again. By the time he stood beneath the Altar of Huitaca, though, he could ignore them no longer. Not when his eyes fell on them and locked in place.

The dread had stirred deep inside his gut.

The Battered Bridge had been the worst place of all. From the bridge, you see, he saw that there was a sister fall. He had almost fallen to his death, eyes darting frantically and uneasily from one fall to the other, fear churning inside him…

He watched the cascades now, seated high upon the Renegade Headquarters, and he felt… he didn't know. Numb. Tired. Anxious. Afraid… The dread, deep in the pit of his stomach, was always there like some kind of dark premonition. Somehow, he was or would be connected to those falls…

He heard Micay approaching. She had found him. Come from the past like she sensed he needed her - she did that sometimes, though he suspected more for Leech than for him - and sat at his side without a word, drawing up her knees. "What's this feeling inside me?" he asked after some time.

"What feeling?" she asked without facing him. He described it to her as best he could, which admittedly wasn't very well, but she seemed to get the gist. For some time, she was quiet before looking at him again. "Do you remember when I asked you about feeling like you were out of your time?" she said. He gave her a curious look, but she didn't elaborate. Instead, she turned to look at the falls once more. "Her name is Xibalba. Her sister is Jaina. Jaina Island. From the Battered Bridge you see her as well," she said.

"And feel every bit as unsettled," he glumly confirmed. "That doesn't answer my question, though. It doesn't tell me why I get this weird sense of dread in the pit of my stomach whenever I look at them. It doesn't explain why they feel so foreboding. It doesn't explain why I feel like that part of the jungle is the last place I ever want to go. It's not like I had plans to visit it anyway! I don't know, it just… Whenever I see them, I feel like… like my future is my past… Like I know the answer, but I just haven't learned it yet. It's eerie."

She gave him a rueful smile. "I can't give you answers, Harry." He bowed his head low, closing his eyes, and she reached out, squeezing his shoulder gently. He gave her a woeful look. "One day you'll find them on your own," she promised.

"I know. I just don't wanna find them too late," he answered.

"I wish that that could be helped," she replied, shaking her head. "But a premonition cannot be predicted."

"Why does it feel like not being able to figure it out is gonna cost me everything?" he asked, looking towards the falls once more.

"Dad!"

He swallowed at the sudden thought, so unbidden and unexpected. So… so vivid. Like he could hear the voice in his head… It sounded so familiar yet so foreign. Like he knew it, just not yet. Ugh, he never should have gotten involved in this weird time travel nonsense. He guessed there was no turning back now, though. All he could do was keep going forward.

And every step he ran, it felt like someone else, someone he wanted desperately to protect but couldn't, was reverse-paralleling him across the way in those haunting, eerie jungles…

Pitfall

It was coming up on one year since he'd married Nicole. He'd written once, in so many words, that no woman would ever tie him down. Turned out one had. No regrets, by the way.

She announced her pregnancy the day of their anniversary, beaming like the sun. It was single most happy yet terrifying thing he'd ever heard. The terror won out, but it wasn't the sort of terror you felt when you weren't ready or didn't want that kind of responsibility. It was a deeper terror. A constant question.

What if I'm not good enough? What if I screw it up?

He tried to drown that terror with the illusion of it being a fear of responsibility. A fear of being tied down more than he already was. A fear of having what freedom he still had left ripped away. Convincing himself of it had been the biggest mistake of his life… He should have read up more on self-fulfilling prophecies when Nikki called him on it.

Pitfall

From the start, things went badly. Nicole's pregnancy was difficult. The baby was born prematurely during an adventure he'd been stupid enough to take his heavily pregnant wife on. They'd been trapped inside a temple, separated from the others, and were fleeing from a rolling trap. He couldn't have told you how they'd gotten there. One minute they were reading some wall ruins, the next these creepy smoke spirits appeared, the next they were running, and then suddenly they were in the bowels of the temple, only him and her. Then the rolling trap started up and the stress must have been too much, or something else had gone wrong, because Nicole suddenly cried out.

"What's wrong?" he demanded quickly.

"My water broke! Oh no, Harry, my water broke! The baby is coming! It can't. It's too soon. No, not now! Please!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears. She was so terrified she would lose it. He was scared too. So, so, so, scared…

She barely made it through delivery alive. It had taken forty-eight hours. Two days of carrying her through temples and jungles and mineshafts while she suffered and wept.

He had been so desperate to save her. The baby even more.

She delivered the child in a dirty mineshaft in an even filthier minecart that had been careening down a track out of control but was now coming to a stop. It was a baby boy, barely viable but still hanging on. It lay limp in his hand. Goddammit, it was small enough to fit in one hand! The only sign of life was its breathing, so weak and shallow he had almost missed it.

"Hang in there, little guy. Hang in there," he pled desperately. "Nikki, what do I do?! Tell me what to do!" There was no response, and his heart stopped in his chest. Quickly he looked over to her, eyes wide in terror. Her eyes were closed, her skin pale, and his heart almost stopped. "Nikki?" he numbly asked. "Nikki! Nikki, please, don't go! Don't go!" He broke down. "Don't go, please don't go," he pled. He heard shouting. The rest of their party. "Help! Help!" he called desperately. She still had a chance if Micay was with them! It wasn't a great chance, but it was a chance! "Help!" he screamed again.

Pitfall

The next hours passed by in a blur. They found them and took Nicole. They tried to take the baby as well. He wouldn't give him to them. He wouldn't give them his little boy! Even though the logical part of him said the child wouldn't survive, that it was probably already dead, the emotional part of him wouldn't give it up.

He knew it was still breathing…

They kept trying to take him. All the way back to base camp, at base camp, they just kept trying even though he wouldn't let them! They said the baby wasn't viable. They said that it was probably already dead, but it wasn't. It wasn't! He felt it breathing. He-he felt it breathing. He felt it breathing! The baby wasn't gone!

"Harry, give him to us!" Bittenbinder said.

"No!" he shouted, shoving the man away. Leech quickly intervened, taking his arm and quickly bringing him to a tent. Leech sat him down without a word, looking pained. "Harry, listen to me. Micay will do everything she can for Nicole," he said. Harry barely heard him. "Just sit tight here, okay? No one else will try and take him from you. No one." Vigorously he nodded in understanding. Leech patted his shoulder gently then left, and he found himself alone sitting in that dark tent clutching the newborn close to his chest. Numbly, hardly able to process what was happening around him, he pressed his lips to the infant's head and closed his eyes tightly. Silently he wept, the infant bumping gently up and down with each painful sob.

He was so still…

"The baby is dead. If it isn't dead already, it will be soon," he heard Grahm solemnly say to Leech, Mole, Bittenbinder, and Quickclaw. "He's cuddling a corpse. We can't let him go on like this."

But it was alive. He felt it alive! Why wouldn't anyone believe him? It was cold and still, but it wasn't stiff, and he could feel its breathing. He could feel its breathing! Or was he just that delusional?

He sniffed, wrapping the infant tightly up. For a moment, just a moment, he thought he felt its teensy little hand clutch at his skin. "Please," he whispered to his baby boy. "Please…"

"Leech, you're his best friend! Talk some sense into him," Mole demanded. Harry winced, closing his eyes tightly.

"It's his child," Leech quietly said.

"Yeah! And if Harry thinks the baby's alive, the baby's alive," Quickclaw agreed immediately.

"It was," Bittenbinder answered tiredly.

"Hey! If he says it's alive, it's alive," Quickclaw repeated.

"Do you really believe that, or are you just being supportive?" Grahm solemnly asked.

"I believe it!" Quickclaw insisted.

"So do I," Leech quietly said.

"Then why haven't you gone in to check on it?" Mole tiredly asked the inventor, who was also acting as first aid. Leech chose to say nothing.

Inside the tent, Pitfall felt fresh tears burning his eyes. "Please," he again whispered against the baby's little head.

He heard a little sound and caught his breath, looking quickly down. "Kid?" he asked. He heard what sounded like tiny, muffled sobs or attempts at sobs. He gasped, pulling the child away from his chest and staring down at it, eyes wide in hope. Slowly its tiny eyes blinked open, and it began to move and try to cry again. "Oh god. Oh god!" he exclaimed, shooting to his feet. "Leech, Bittenbinder, Mole, Quickclaw, Grahm!" he shouted.

Quickly the group raced in, fearing the worst. They all gasped when they heard the little infant start to weakly cry and squirm. "Oh my," Leech said, staring in disbelief.

"It's alive! We were right!" Quickclaw exclaimed in delight, prancing a bit.

"At least the baby is something," Bittenbinder grimly said. There was still no guarantee that Nicole would pull through…

Pitfall

She had died, he was told, but Micay had been able to bring her back. Just like they had done before. Leech had helped to the best of his ability, and they had brought her back! There was no guarantee she would stay alive, but it was something. Pitfall, for his part, hadn't let his son go. The baby hadn't left his hands. He walked into Nicole's tent, where Micay was gently bathing the woman's forehead with a damp cloth. Exhaustedly, the princess looked up at him. Her eyes widened in hope when she saw the child. She rose, approaching him, and gently touched the little one's forehead. Pitfall gave her a pleading look. She pursed her lips then looked at him. "He needs his mother. Without her, his chances diminish greatly."

"Will he have his mother?" Pitfall hollowly asked.

Micay smiled sadly. "I hope so. It seems she's stable now," she replied.

He let out a breath of relief and looked at Nicole. Quietly he crossed over to her, sitting at her bedside. He looked down at her, gently stroking her hair with his free hand. Weakly her eyes fluttered open, falling on him. "Harry, the baby," she murmured weakly.

"Shh, shh, the baby's alright," Pitfall promised.

"Then you have to go. Take it and leave me," she said, breaths weak and rattling and painful. "You can't save us both."

"No. I won't leave you," he said, shaking his head. "Nikki, please. He needs you. He needs you so much. He won't survive without his mother."

"He?" she asked in a breath.

"Yes. Yes honey, yes. It's a boy. A little boy," he said, tears burning his eyes and pain unlike anything he'd ever felt ripping at his soul. Sniffing, he looked at his small son. For the first time since delivering him, he let someone else hold him. He placed the infant gently in its mother's arms, and she took it so tenderly…

"Oh. Oh hello, baby. Hello darling," she said in barely a whisper, grinning weakly and holding the child with such love… "Harry, he's beautiful. Such a tiny little guy. What did you name him?" she asked exhaustedly. He shook his head. He couldn't bring himself to speak anymore. He felt like he was watching them both die in front of him. A part of him knew he might be…

"I couldn't name him. It didn't feel right without you there," he answered, voice wavering

"We should name him after you. Name him for his father," she gently said, voice sympathetic. He sniffed, not bothering to argue. If that was what she wanted, that was what she would get. "Little Harry. Harry Pitfall Junior," she said, tending to the tiny babe once more. She unbuttoned her shirt weakly and pressed the teensy little thing to her breast, gently helping him to latch on and suckle. "He's so weak," she said, sounding dismayed.

He shook his head and covered his eyes. "I know sweetheart, I know," he said with a strangled gasp. "He was so early. He'll be okay, though. He'll be okay. As long as you're still here, he'll be okay." He wouldn't give his wife up, he wouldn't give his son up, he wasn't giving either of them up! He couldn't. He curled up next to Nikki on the cot, holding her close as she kept their little one near to her breast, letting him suckle away.

"He's growing stronger," she whispered. "What a good little fighter. Feisty like his mommy and a trooper like his daddy." She looked up at her husband lovingly. "He's going to be just like his daddy." Pitfall was silent. That was what scared him most…

Years Later

He did everything he could to make his son the exact opposite of his father. Did everything he could to foster in him the more bookish nature of his mother. He left on adventures without bringing the child along, even if the boy begged. He tried to make them sound either as scary or as boring as possible, so they'd leave a foul taste in his little one's mouth. At least for a while, he dared to believe it was actually working…

Harry Junior spent hours upon hours in the library or in the book room at home, pouring over books by the dozens. It seemed he wanted to do precious little else but read. He needed glasses like his mother when he did, which was adorable, and sometimes he wore them just as a fashion statement. He got good grades in school, excellent in fact, and wrote papers like it was second nature. He was a bit of a lady's man, but apart from that it seemed he'd taken after his mother completely. Of course, he wasn't around much to see just how much like his father his son actually was… Until Nicole gave him a harsh dose of reality.

Pitfall

He came home late one night, after he'd been gone for months. He opened the door, sighed, and shut it behind him again. "You missed his middle school graduation," he heard his wife bitterly say. He gasped, looking quickly over. Nicole was there, sitting on a chair under a lamp with arms folded and eyes narrowed into slits. He was still. "He was valedictorian." He was silent. "You promised you would be there," she darkly said.

He winced and looked away ashamedly, head hung. "I tried," he answered. "There was bad weather. The plane couldn't take off."

"He searched for you," she hissed. "He always searches for you, and you're never there! Dammit, Harry!"

He was quiet. "I'm sorry," he quietly said.

"What the hell even took you so long?" she asked.

"Uh, volcanic island escape mixed with interdimensional travel into some weird chocolate realm?" he lamely replied. "That only lasted for a couple of minutes before things went back to a normal volcanic island escape though. It was… out there. A lot of running. A lot of persistent little buggers with plenty of teeth." She glared at him. "I know I sound crazy, but it's true!"

"You've spent more time with your niece than your own son!" she shouted at him. He winced and bowed his head. "What, you think he doesn't notice that you spend more time with his cousin than with him?" she asked.

A beat of silence. "I'm sorry," he meekly said.

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to, Harry!" she said. "Dammit, he's fourteen years old and his father is practically a stranger to him! The longest you've spent at home since he was a baby was what, a month? Two? Who do you think you are?! You were always the one championing making your family your first responsibility and not being a deadbeat, so why are you suddenly the one running from those responsibilities?"

"I'm not running from anything!" he fired back sharply.

"Yes you are! You're running from your duties as a father, your duties as a husband, your duties as a role model… You're running from every role you play except adventurer! Your son is growing up without you, and he hates that! He loves you, Harry. He loves you more than you even know! He wants to be with you! He talks about you nonstop. He brags to his friends about you, he loves you so, so much. You're everything to him and he feels like he's nothing to you! All he wants to do is make you proud. Make you want to spend time with him. Make you…" she began.

"I never wanted this in the first place Nicole!" he snapped back. She started and looked stung. He hated himself immediately for his words, eyes widening in alarm. "Wait, no, I didn't mean it like that," he quickly said. "I wanted him, I did! I just… I didn't understand everything I would need to give up for it. I wasn't ready for it. I was caught off guard. I…"

"Harry, having a child does not mean the end of an adventure. It just means the start of a new one. Why can't you see that?" she asked. He was quiet, not meeting her eyes. She sighed through her nose in frustration. "He wants you to love him."

"I do!" he immediately replied.

"Do you? Because he sure doesn't feel like it," she said. "If you'd seen his face when he saw you weren't there… He didn't speak to me on our way home. Not even a word. Just looked out the window. I tried to get him to open up, I tried so hard, but he wouldn't. We got home and he just-just threw his graduation cap and gown and diploma to the side and ran up to his room and locked the door! He didn't come down to eat or get anything to drink… I was afraid, for a minute, that he'd slipped away, but when I peeked in, he was still there. Lying on the bed curled up, staring at the wall. Goddammit, if you'd seen him… If you'd seen him, you'd never leave again. At least not without him." He felt tears stinging his eyes. She looked at him and approached, gently squeezing his shoulders. "He's so much like you. More like you than you know. Those books he reads? Adventure stories. Fiction, nonfiction… His favorite ones are about you." He was quiet. "Go talk to him. Please."

"Okay," he whispered, nodding numbly. They heard a car start up outside and gasped, looking quickly over.

"Oh no. Junior!" she shouted, racing to the door. "Dammit, he must have heard us!"

"Heard me," Pitfall realized numbly, eyes wide. "Harry!" he shouted, racing after Nicole and darting outside as the car tore away. The kid didn't even have a license. "Check if he grabbed anything from the house! I'm going after him!" he said to Nicole, pointing back inside. He didn't need to specify what he meant for her to know.

Check if he took a gun.

"I'll call the police if anything is missing," she said. She'd call them even if it wasn't, for that matter. "Go! Get our baby back! Hurry. If he goes anywhere to try something, it'll be to the big tree by the river in the forest."

"The what?" Harry asked.

"It's his favorite spot to go and read!" she shouted in agitation. "It's not far from where you proposed to me and where I told you I was pregnant. It's on a cliff above that and across the river. He can see our spot from his. Go!" He nodded and ran next door to beg the neighbors for their car.

He prayed to whatever god might be listening that he would find his son in time…

Pitfall

He had never driven faster in his life. He came to a stop near the spot where he had proposed to Nicole, and he ran through the forest until he found it. He slid to a stop, looking across the river and up. He gasped. The tree was there. It couldn't be missed. Her car was there too. "Junior!" he shouted, racing into the water without a second thought. He would scale that cliff if he had to. He'd brought the supplies for it. No one could think for a second that he hadn't. He swam that river like his life depended on it, and honestly, it did, because that kid was his life. If he lost him… He didn't even want to imagine it. He reached the cliff, grabbed on, and began scaling it without hesitation. His heart almost stopped when he heard the car start. "Harry!" he screamed.

The car was over the cliff the next second, crashing down into the water and starting to slowly sink. He dove without even a second's hesitation and swam for all he was worth, up current might he add, to reach his son. He would probably drown doing this, but he was dead if he did and dead if he didn't. If he couldn't save his son, he died with him. There wasn't another option. He wouldn't go home to tell Nicole he wasn't able to save her boy. She wouldn't survive that. She wouldn't survive losing Junior. If the kid died, all three of them did.

He remembered telling Leech exactly what he thought of Kevin McCallister, Nicole's father. That when you had a kid you took on the responsibility of something greater than yourself. That if you had a kid who needed and loved you, and you went off and took unnecessary risks that could get you killed, then you were a chump. He wasn't blind to the irony of it all now. He'd become exactly what he hadn't wanted to be…

"Harry!" he shouted desperately. "Harry!" The car had vanished under the water by now, and his heart almost stopped. He dove immediately, swimming frantically for it. He saw his child, arms crossed on the steering wheel and face buried in them as he waited brokenly to die.

No. No, please no. No. Don't let go little one. Don't let go!

Harry couldn't swim, he realized with a jolt. He'd never had the chance to teach him, and Nicole had never had the time! He grabbed onto the back of the car as the water filled up the cab, submerging his son, and refused to let go even as he felt his ears popping. He dragged himself down the car towards the front and banged on the window as soon as he reached it. Harry didn't respond. Was he unconscious? Did he just not want to see? He began tugging at the handle, but it was locked. He wanted to scream his son's name.

Harry! Junior! Sweetie, open the door!

He jerked and tugged at the door then began frantically pounding at the glass.

Open the door! Open it damn you, son!

There was no response. Scrambling for ideas, he remembered his ice pick and jerked it out. Swinging it with all his might under the water, he shattered the window. He dragged himself in, not caring about how badly he was cutting himself up, and seized his son's body, wrapping his arms tight around it. He pulled him free of the seat and heaved him out the window, trying not to cut the boy, then swam for the surface.

Spots began to dance in front of his eyes, and he knew that he couldn't hold his breath much longer. He barely broke the surface before drowning. He tried not to think about how his son had been down there even longer with a smaller lung capacity. He just focused on dragging the boy to shore. It was too long a swim before he could lay his child on the beach.

"Junior!" he shouted. "Junior, wake up! Junior!" He immediately began compressing the boy's chest, desperate to help him breathe again.

He was so still and pale. Just like he'd been when he was newly born. This time, though, he could feel no breathing and no sign of life.

"Harry!" he screamed, suddenly realizing he was weeping without shame. Desperately he carried out CPR. He carried it out again and again for far, far too long before at last, at last, his little boy began to cough the water out of his lungs. Immediately he rolled his son over, letting it spill out, and broke down, jerking the boy up and into his arms. He clung to him like he'd never let him go again, enveloping him in his arms and a leg, and pressing the boy's face tight against his chest as he sobbed. Gently he rocked his son and kissed him over and over, running his fingers through his hair like he could hardly believe he was still there. Hardly believe he'd reached him in time.

"Dad?" his child's young, wavering, fearful voice said. He shook his head. He couldn't answer. All he could do was weep and cling to his child with no intention of letting him go again. "You came for me?" the youth asked. The surprise and hope in the boy's voice… It almost broke him all over again. To realize his son was shocked he had come… It killed him inside, and he swore he would be a better father from now on. He swore it!

Pitfall

The drive back home was utterly silent. One hand always remained in contact with his son's head or shoulders or back. The other gripped the steering wheel in a grip so tight that his knuckles were white. Junior didn't dare to speak. At least not at first. Soon, though, he turned his head to his father. "I'm sorry about the car," the boy said, voice breaking.

Pitfall felt his mouth waver, and he shook his head frantically. "No," he immediately replied. "No, don't be sorry about that. A car is replaceable."

The young teenager watched his father quietly, concern and uncertainty written across his face. "I-I'm sorry that I…"

"Stop," Pitfall immediately cut off. He didn't want to hear it. The boy hung his head low and sniffed. Gently he rubbed his son's back. "Let's just pretend this never happened, okay? You had an accident, okay? You just… You didn't…" He cut himself off with a breath. "It was just an accident."

"I'm sorry," Junior said again.

"Harry!" Pitfall shouted. The boy flinched and bowed his head. "It's okay. It's… it's okay," he continued after a moment, voice breaking. "Just never… Don't… I just love you so damn much. Your mother loves you so damn much."

"But you said…" he began.

"I never meant you!" Pitfall cut off before he could hear his ignorant words recited back to him. "I never wanted you to become like me. I never wanted you to even try and be like me. I never wanted you to look up to me, I never wanted you to mimic me, I never… I just wanted you safe, and you were safe if I wasn't there!"

"Except I wasn't," his son said, voice breaking.

"Yes you were," Pitfall whispered.

Junior was quiet, his silent frustration hanging in the air. "What makes you think I wasn't already trying to be you?" he asked, voice breaking. Pitfall looked quickly over at him, pain written across his expression. "Did you really think you not being there would mean I turned out any different?" the boy asked, angrily wiping at his eyes. "If you want me safe, then teach me how to be safe! Dad, I wanna be like you and do the things you do and go on adventures like you and mom used to and…"

"Okay," he cut off suddenly. He heard his son catch his breath. "Okay," he said a second time in a whisper. "If you're gonna do this one way or another, then you're gonna do it the right way. I'll make sure of it." He looked over at his son once more. "I promise," he swore. Tears sparkled in his son's eyes, and suddenly Junior was leaning over, hugging him tightly as he drove. He was silent, allowing the contact and damning how deeply he felt he was going to regret this… That night he gifted his son his slingshot. That night their training began.

Pitfall

He saw so much of himself in his child. Some of Nicole too. It was a potent combination, to be sure. Each day his son grew stronger, better, more skilled, more determined. He was a natural with that slingshot. A thousand times better than he'd ever been. Swung it like he was born to… Within himself he felt that one day his son would be a greater explorer than even him. If not greater, then at the very least equal to.

"He's his father's son," Nicole would whisper into his ear. He would swallow over a lump in his throat, then, because he wished with all his heart that Harry had been his mother's instead.

Nicole taught their son the more academic side of exploring. Reading runes and hieroglyphs and such, monitoring and assessing histories and the like. He taught the kid everything else. Everything he knew. Every special move, every attack, every weapon. His son never could manage the dash. He didn't share his father's speed or jumping ability. He didn't match up in hand-to-hand either, surprisingly enough, though the boy certainly put up a good fight. In weaponry, though, and in knowledge, he excelled. They shared endurance. Junior was a track star first year of high school. He and Nikki couldn't have been prouder of their son.

For a while it was good. It was so good. They schooled their child in all they knew about adventuring. Hell, he even began taking the kid along on short expeditions to give him practice in the field, and the boy proved himself again and again, so he figured it would be a good idea to make a family trip of it. Turn their annual expedition into a couple of months long! For two years it was so good. Their luck, though, was soon to run out…

Pitfall

Junior was sixteen when Nicole died. This time there would be no revival for her. That final night passed by like some horrible nightmare…

"Junior!" Nicole screamed as they watched their son stand wavered and dazed, stunned by the Jaguar King in his anthropomorphic form. The beast - who he suspected might be Pusca in some twisted form - approached their boy and protruded its long, dagger-sharp claws. With a roar, it went to slice him to pieces. Nicole, across the way, was closer to the boy than he was… She did what any mother would have done. She ran towards her child and shoved him out of the way as the Jaguar King's claws carved through the air. And then through her…

He watched in horror and dread as it cut her to pieces with one slice, her body collapsing to the ground silently in segments. "Nikki!" he screamed, leaping from his perch and charging towards it. The beast, unaware of his presence, stomped toward his still-dazed son and seized him, standing him up once more and drawing back its claws to finish the boy off and render his mother's sacrifice moot. "Don't touch him!" Pitfall roared, leaping from above and slinging an explosive stone right into the Jaguar King's back. It screamed in pain. He rolled under it and stood in front of his son, unleashing another explosive stone into its face. He attacked it unrelentingly until at last it melted into its jaguar form and raced away. He didn't go after it. He had a child to tend to.

"D-dad? M-mom?" Harry dazedly asked, just starting to regain his senses. He grabbed his son, scooping him up.

He couldn't let him see his mother like that…

"D-dad, what…?" the boy asked, voice a bit slurred. "Where's mom?" Tears spilled from his eyes unchecked, and he didn't answer. "Dad? Dad, what's wrong? Where's mom? Dad!"

Pitfall

There was utter silence at the base camp. Pitfall knew they blamed him for her death. His son probably blamed himself… He wished his son would blame him instead as well. It was Mole and Leech who went to collect the remains… Bittenbinder and Grahm were too old at this point. The shock would probably give them both heart attacks.

He wouldn't let his son see his mother's body… He knew come the next day, though, that his child had snuck a peek anyway.

Junior refused to look in the direction of Nikki's body. He just lay curled up in the tent under the sleeping bag crying his heart out and trying to be silent about it, because of course he would have to be like the old man in that too. He came in to fetch the boy when theirs was the last tent left to dismantle, and sat across from him, eyes tired.

"It's okay you know," he finally said to his son. Junior was silent. "It's okay to let it all out. It's just you and me now, bud. It's just you and me." He hadn't meant for the words to hit his child like they did, but at least it got Harry to stop holding it back. With a wail of grief, he threw himself into his father's arms and wept unabashed, sobbing his heart out until he'd cried himself to sleep. Leech came in, then, and silently helped dismantle the tent around the boy as his father tried to play strong and hold back his own grief.

Leech looked up at him. "It's okay, you know. It's just you and me here now," he said.

Pitfall had to stop. His mouth quivered and he shook his head, then all at once he broke down, hugging his best friend tightly. He was so desperate for the comfort. Leech held him firmly back, eyes shut tight as he too mourned. Nicole had always been like a sister to him.

Pitfall

"You blame me for mom's death, don't you?" his son quietly asked on the plane trip home.

"No," he answered, shaking his head. "I blame myself, Harry."

It should have been him to die, not her.

"It's my fault anyone died at all," Junior said, voice breaking.

"No. It's my fault she died. I knew better," he said. His son gave him a pained look. "Not like that," he firmly said, shaking his head. "I knew better than to bring anyone else with me into Tikal. But your mother wanted to read the runes and it wouldn't have been fair to leave you behind, and I just… I caved when I shouldn't have, and it cost us everything. No. Your mother's death wasn't your fault. If it was anyone's, it was mine." His son was quiet, and he felt like a failure not only as a husband, but as a father and a comforter as well.

Pitfall

From that day forth he threw himself into fatherhood, trying his best to be a good parent for his son. He tried so hard. Then came the cancer… It surged and riddled his entire body. It all happened so suddenly… His son spiraled downhill. Dabbled in drugs in grade eleven until he put a foot down, then dabbled in women all through grade twelve until he had put the kibosh on that one as well. Needless to say, his hypocrisy hadn't gone over well with his kid.

Harry graduated high school on the honor role. No one blamed him for not being able to swing valedictorian after his mother's death and his father's illness, but they judged him for not reaching the principal's role at least. Figured he should have at least swung that to honor his mother's memory, and his father wanted to deck anyone who so much as implied something like that. He did a couple of times, but he was a charmer if he was nothing else, so he'd got off scot-free for those little incidents. His son didn't pursue college… Pitfall knew it was what Nicole would have wanted for him, but Junior hadn't had the willpower to do anything like that since her death. He'd had even less since his father's cancer diagnosis. It was an awkward graduation celebration. Empty and quiet. Bitterness and resentment hung in the air, and he wondered, not for the first time, if his son had started to blame him for Nikki's death after all. He wouldn't mind, honestly. As long as his son stopped blaming himself.

He went to his boy's room that night while Harry was lying awake looking through a photo album of his parents, tears in his eyes. He joined his boy silently and sat with him. Eventually, they began to reminisce, and for the first time since Nikki's death, they began to feel like things could be okay again… He gave his son his journal and icepicks that night. Just in case his time in this world was shorter than expected. He knew the boy had stayed up all night pouring over the book, and let him sleep as long as he pleased the next day.

Pitfall

Whispers of war were on the wind. Memories of World War 2 were still fresh in Pitfall's mind, and that was the last sort of fate he wanted for his son, but Harry was young and strong with his father's skill and his mother's brains. They'd conceived a veritable super soldier, he knew. So did the government. The night the draft began, he packed up his son and their life and stole him away to South America, not once looking back. They didn't get to have his child. They would never have his child.

He took Harry away. The excuse he told his son was that they were going to finish the expedition that had taken Nikki's life, in honor of her. He hadn't seen his little boy, now almost a man, so excited and happy since the day they had left for that fateful mission the first time. Pitfall himself, though, had grown weak and thin. Frail. He pressed on anyway, because damned if that kept him from giving his son this last good memory. That was if he didn't make it through the cancer. He promised himself he would do things right this time. He promised himself everything would be okay.

He needed to learn to stop making promises…

His son crying out to him in terror and racing in pursuit, as the Warrior Spirit swept him away, was the last thing he knew before he woke up shackled to an upright sacrificial slab on top of some ancient Mayan temple. He looked into the eyes of the spirit behind his kidnapping and realized that his hell had only just begun…

Pitfall

He knew now what he hadn't all those years ago. He knew now why the falls he had seen from beneath the Alter of Huitaca, from every panoramic view he came across during the Lost Expedition, had felt so foreboding. Time games were funny things he noted to himself as he watched, tears in his eyes, while his son fought and struggled to climb his way to the top of Xibalba. Fought and struggled to find his way to his father and save him. Save a man who couldn't be saved anymore.

He wished his child would let him go…

No torture the warrior could have inflicted on him would have hoped to match the torment being put on him now; forced to watch every step his son took alone, every blunder, every near-death experience. Forced to watch his child struggle and not be able to help him.

He wanted so desperately to help him, but he couldn't! He just couldn't…

Pride swelled in him with Harry's victories. It swelled in him when he saw his son put to use his lessons and teachings to get through each obstacle that stood in his way. Nothing could match the grief, terror, and agony he felt while screaming his son's name when it seemed the boy was about to die at the hands of the Jaguar Spirit that had taken his mother. He screamed until his throat was hoarse. He wept when at last his son destroyed it. Junior barely made it through alive… His little boy collapsed to the ground, and no words could explain the dread or anguish he felt when it seemed, for a moment, that he would never rise again. Nothing compared to the ecstasy he felt when his son did. He could have died there and then, and never in his life would he have been happier than he was in that moment.

The falls again. Xibalba's sister this time. Jaina Island. He damned that whole section of the jungle to hell. Damned its existence. Prayed to whoever might be listening that he would see his baby alive again. He did so well. So, so well. He was his father's son… Perhaps even greater still.

No torment was worse than the torment he felt overlooking and hearing his son's battle with the Warrior Spirit. Seeing him fight and struggle for every breath. Each second Junior lived was a second spent on borrowed time, but at this point he trusted beyond any doubt that his child would survive. The moment Harry had conquered the Jaguar Spirit, he'd known the boy wouldn't be stopped. That was why, when his son at last arrived and cried out to him, he answered with complete conviction, "Son! What took you so long?"

In record time his son had him down from the slab and was buried in his father's arms, gripping his clothing like he would never let him go again. He held his little boy every bit as tightly, and together, arms over one another's shoulders, they walked out of that jungle alive and at peace…

Pitfall

He died when his son was twenty; a shell of the man he had once been, but in his little boy's eyes still every bit the hero he had looked up to for so many years. He damned himself for the time he had lost with his son, who wept at his bedside as he felt himself fading away. He would have given anything, in that moment, to stay just a little longer, but he couldn't. He didn't want to leave his little boy alone. It was the last thing on this earth he wanted to do, but he knew his son would be alright. Leech and Micay would watch over him. He trusted they would. To leave his child so early and so soon, though, felt like nothing short of a failure. Then again, he'd always known he would be a failure as a father. But his son didn't think so. Maybe in the end that was all that mattered…

"I love you, Dad," his little one said, voice breaking.

He reached up, tucking his hand behind the young man's head and gently ruffling his hair. He smiled softly. "I love you too," he whispered. "You'll do good, son. So, so good… One day we'll see each other again. I promise." He knew he shouldn't make promises, but in this, he would make an exception. "Your mother and I will be waiting for you. Always."

"I know, Dad," his son answered as Leech gripped Junior's shoulders tightly, tears in his eyes. Micay gazed listlessly out a window, hugging a weeping Rhonda tightly. At least his son would still have his cousin to help get him through this, he thought.

"You'll be alright. A greater explorer and a greater man than I ever was. I love you so, so much, Pitfall," he said to his son. Junior sobbed and nodded, kissing his hand for a long moment, then his cheek. His son lay in the bed next to him, holding him tightly, and he rested his head upon the young man's and went to sleep.

"You'll be alright," he whispered with his dying breath just before he drifted off into blackness. He prayed that it would be true…

Pitfall

My name is Pitfall Harry Junior. I was twenty when my father died, but I'm going to get him back. Just like he once got my mother back. He talked a lot about time travel in his journals. If that's how I have to do it, then that's how I'll do it. I won't lose him. I'll search the entire jungle if I have to…