#5.3k

As if on cue, Felicity started wailing. Alex sighed and went to where she was on the couch, picking her up and doing his best to console her. He didn’t mind taking care of her. Over the last few weeks, he’d found he sort of liked playing dad. However, he liked sharing those duties. Michael was mentally MIA and didn’t even react to her crying for him. That’s really what solidified him firmly in the worry category. He’d gone from being overly attentive to nothing at all.

“Jesus, you think it’s whatever’s on that stone, not the prison and not her?” Kyle wondered, concern lacing his tone. Alex shushed the baby in his arms, bouncing her slightly.

“I guess. I just don’t know what to do.” Alex wondered, mindlessly rubbing his eye as he went to the kitchen to fix her a bottle. Kyle followed. “C’mon, Fiz, quiet down.” She didn’t.

“Do you think we should get Max and Isobel over here? See if they can break him out of it?” Kyle suggested, taking over to scoop formula into the bottle. Alex nodded his thanks, trying to cuddle Felicity closer in hopes that his warmth could somehow replicate the comfort she got from Michael’s.

“What if it puts them in the same state he’s in? Then I’ll have three aliens just glued to my porch.” That would be worse than the current situation and it was already pretty bad. He hated this. He was beginning to think the universe didn’t want him and Michael together. It literally went as far as to have a stone tablet with mind control powers take him away.

“Well, look, if we don’t get him out of it soon, he’s gonna get hurt. I don’t know how long an alien can go without food or water, but I’m feeling like four days is a good place to not push past,” Kyle said, handing over the bottle. Alex relaxed the moment she stopped crying. “We need to try to pry him out of it.”

“We need to get him away from that thing is what we need to do.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s gonna work. He’s been dreaming about it for weeks,” Kyle scoffed and brought his mug to his lips as if he hadn’t just given Alex some new information. Alex furrowed his eyebrows at him and then over towards Michael before looking back at Kyle.

“What are you talking about?”

Kyle furrowed his eyebrows. However, as Alex stared with pursed lips, he seemed to understand.

“Shit, he never told you?” Alex let out a slow breath. “I mean, he said he was scared to tell you, but I thought he would at least tell you when we got back.”

“Yeah, no, he said he was having these dreams that were fucking him up about wanting to go back to the prison. He said it was keeping him from sleeping. I don’t know all the details, I just know it was mental,” Kyle explained, rubbing his eyes.

Alex stood still for a moment as he went over everything in his mind. Everything was going to shit. He thought he’d finally got Michael back, but, instead, all this alien bullshit was working against him. Michael was working against him. He wished he’d never brought him to that fucking prison in the first place. He should’ve learned his lesson from Caulfield.

When Alex looked down at the baby in his arms, he couldn’t help but feel bad. She was the tie to everything. Maybe she hadn’t actually done anything, but she’d played a massive role in the last few weeks. Which was insane and he knew it. Alex liked being a father and he liked taking care of a baby with Michael. At the end of the day, though, he found it hard to separate her from the bullshit. He wanted stability from Michael and this wasn’t it.

He was just going to have to make it happen.

“Can you hold her for a minute?” Alex asked, not waiting for an answer as he passed Felicity to Kyle. She immediately started whining, but Alex just turned and headed for Michael. One more try and then he would be taking some drastic measures.

Michael was silent, his skin windburned and his eyes glazed over. His hair was dirty and flat and his hands were shaking as he held onto the stone. It was a really windy morning and Alex knew it was supposed to storm later.

“Michael,” Alex said softly. He didn’t even look towards him. He went up behind him, draping his arms over his shoulders and resting his cheek against Michael’s. It was cold to the touch. “Baby, come inside. Come eat and bathe and sleep.”

Michael didn’t budge, didn’t even blink.

“We can…” Alex started again, his hands sliding over Michael’s chest and placing a few kisses along his jaw, “Do whatever you like. Anything to take your mind off anything.”

Again, nothing. Alex clenched his jaw as he gave Michael a bit of a squeeze. When he again didn’t even seem to be aware, Alex grabbed the stone from his hands and threw it as hard as he could before Michael could even react. It landed somewhere in the woods behind the house and Alex made a mental note to hide it even further.

That woke him up.

“A-Alex?” he whispered, blinking as he slowly woke up, “Alex?”

Michael looked around, seeming to be confused about where he was and what he was doing. Alex touched his cheek again, pulling him to meet his eyes. He relaxed into it as the fatigue visibly settled in him. Alex felt at least a little bit relieved.

“Alex,” Michael breathed.

“Welcome back,” Alex said, “Come inside.”

“Where’s the tablet?” he asked immediately. And there went the relief.

“Forget about it, come inside. Come take a bath and eat and come to bed with me,” Alex urged softly. He wanted so badly to bury that thing and never see it again. But Michael shrugged him off, standing shakily to his feet.

“N-no, I need it. I need it.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do!”

“I don’t want that shit in my house!”

“That is my one way to find answers! You don’t want me to have answers?!”

“Not if it makes you like this, no!”

Michael narrowed his eyes at Alex, breathing angrily as if he wasn’t shaking and pale and thin. It hurt to look at. He took a risky step forward and placed his hands on Michael’s cheeks.

“Please. You’ve been gone for days. I want my boyfriend back,” Alex pleaded. Michael thankfully softened. “Come inside. Please.”

“I need to know, Alex, I need to know what that is. What it’s for.”

They were silent for a moment, a debate that didn’t need words. Just staring. This wasn’t something Alex could think of a compromise for. He was tired of the mind control, he refused to have it willingly in his house anymore. Or, at least, not around Michael. He wasn’t willing to budge on that.

Alex let go of him.

“Then go,” he said simply even it was not simple to say, “I threw it. Go find it, get your shit, and go somewhere else. I’ll take care of Felicity because you can’t when you have that thing and whenever you find what you wanted, maybe I’ll let you back in. But I’m not going to sit and watch you willingly be mind-controlled.”

Michael’s eyes searched over his face, his eyebrows pulled together as he tried to gauge how serious he was. When he realized that Alex was indeed serious, he shook his head and moved closer.

“You don’t want that.”

“No, I don’t, but I’m not enabling you. So if you want that tablet more than me and Felicity and being in control of yourself, then go for it. I’m not going to stop you,” Alex responded. He could see the turmoil on Michael’s face and that killed him.

“Not to butt in,” Kyle’s voice was heard softly, “But I think I might be able to help.” Alex and Michael turned to face Kyle. Felicity was in his arms, whining and reaching for Michael desperately.

“How?”

“Alex, you remember how we were able to decipher some of the writing my dad did?” Kyle asked, hesitantly checking to see if it was okay to give Felicity to Michael. He seemed okay enough, so Alex gave a small nod. She immediately curled against Michael and he cradled her close like it brought him just as much comfort as it brought her. Alex would find it irresistibly adorable if he wasn’t so fucking angry that Michael chose mind control over them.

“Yeah,” Alex said, tearing his eyes away from the first right thing he’d seen in days, “But I’ve looked at it, there are only four symbols on it. What could we get from translating it?”

“It might be instructions or something,” Kyle suggested, “Let me at least see before you guys have some massive break up. Just… place nice for a couple more days, okay?”

Alex stared at Kyle for a moment. He looked less like a doctor and more like a kid determined not to let his parents break up. He sighed softly and looked towards Michael.

“Would you be okay if Kyle took it?” Alex asked cooly. Michael sat on the table behind him, his hand splayed across the entirety of Felicity’s back. She seemed to make the decision for him.

“If he takes it, can I stay?” Alex nodded without any hesitation. “Then okay, just be careful with it,” Michael said and Alex wondered if he was willfully ignoring the fact that Alex had hurled the fucking thing into the woods.

“Yeah, yeah, of course, just… don’t fucking break up over mind control,” Kyle said as if that was a normal sentence and then started heading towards the trees. Alex sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to relax. He didn’t think he would until this shit was out of his life for good.

“Michael, go inside and in our room so it doesn’t latch onto your mind again if it gets too close,” Alex ordered. They could talk after he ate and slept.

Michael opened his mouth to protest but closed it once he looked back down at the baby on his chest. “Yeah, I can still feel it calling for me,” he murmured, slipping past him and heading inside. Finally.

Alex leaned against the table where Michael had been, feeling more than a little drained. He wanted to sleep, but he knew that wasn’t an option. He had to talk with Michael, watch Felicity, and get something done other than bullshiting around. Maybe he could call Isobel an explain the events of the past few days and see if she had any advice. Although, that sounded like a bad idea when he realized how angry she would be if she found out her brother had been under a mind-controlling alien artifact for days and he hadn’t told her.

Fuck, he just wanted to go back to normal. Not even by himself normal. He was completely happy with the normal he’d gotten used to with his alien boyfriend in his bed and his alien baby in the next room creating a mobile out of Jim Valenti’s trinkets. He didn’t know he could crave something like that but he did and he needed it.

“You know, when you stalked out here, I didn’t really know what you were going to do, but trying to dump him was not even close,” Kyle said when he walked back up to the porch. He was back to looking like an annoyed best friend and Alex would never admit how much he was thankful for it.

“What was I supposed to do? He was happily being controlled by a fucking rock. I don’t want that. I don’t want to watch him wither away because he’s controlled. If he wants to choose that over us, then fine,” Alex said. Kyle tilted his head, his face screaming ‘really, Alex?’.

“He doesn’t want that, you know he doesn’t. If you would’ve just gotten him away from that far enough where it stopped fucking with him, he would’ve told you that. He loves you, dude, he just wants answers. You can’t hate him for wanting answers,” Kyle said softly. Alex’s eyes were stuck on the stupid fucking rock in his hands and he was again overcome with the desire to break it.

“I don’t, I literally just told him I don’t. I want him to have answers, but, fuck, I still want him. I don’t have him when he’s with that thing.” He immediately regretted as he spoke. He hated how vulnerable he was sounding, especially in front of Kyle Valenti of all people. He really just needed to sleep.

“Look, maybe it’ll stop once it gets what it wants from him. Maybe there’s a reason,” Kyle pushed. Alex shrugged halfheartedly. It seemed like Michael would’ve figured out what it wanted by now if it wanted something other than to take over his body. He didn’t see what other reason there could be right now.

“That’s a big fuckin’ maybe.”

“Listen, if we can’t figure it out in two weeks, then we destroy it‒with or without their approval. How does that sound?” Kyle asked. That brought a smile to Alex’s face.

“Perfect.”

-

“Did you eat?”

“Yes.”

“Bathe?”

“Yes.”

“Felicity’s asleep, did you sleep?”

“No, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Alex kept his back to Michael as he rummaged through his drawers to get changed for the night. After Michael had gone inside, Alex took the opportunity of not dealing with a baby to go into his office and work on his actual job. That was five hours ago.

He could see Michael through the mirror. He was bundled up a thick sweater and sweatpants, curled up in bed with a pillow tucked in his arms. He looked small, tired. It reminded him of those times in the last month that had brought them closer, little moments of comfort that they’d shared. Alex weighed if he wanted this to be one of those moments or if he should walk away.

He turned to face him.

“I know you’re mad at me. I don’t want to sit here and say that it wasn’t my fault ‘cause at least a little bit of me wanted to sit and stare at it, I still want to now. But… if I had been in more control, then I wouldn’t have let it do that. You know I want you and Felicity, Alex, don’t you?” Michael said. He sounded so weak. Alex took a slow breath.

“I know. And I’m not… mad, I guess. I’m frustrated. I hate that every time things are going good for us, something has to fuck it up. I mean, we finally get on the same page and get our shit together and, and then a fucking mind-controlling rock tries to rip us apart. It makes it hard to… to…” Alex didn’t know what he wanted to say.

“No, no, the universe only throws us shit we can handle. Us making it through bullshit after bullshit… We’re meant to be, baby,” Michael said, a sleepy little smile on his face. Alex huffed a laugh, shaking his head. “I’m serious though. It’s gonna be alright. We’re gonna be okay. We have to be. We’re Michael and Alex, we’re always okay.”

“You sound so sure,” Alex said softly, pushing off the dresser and making his way towards the bed. Michael shrugged.

“I love you, Alex. Every inch of me wants every inch of you all the fucking time. I have you now and I will do my damnedest to keep you. We’ve been doing good. I’m sorry I almost fucked that up again,” he said, his voice getting softer the closer Alex got. He opened his arms, the pillow easily being replaced with Alex’s body.

“I want you to have answers, Michael,” Alex whispered as he rested his head in the crook of Michael’s neck. He had almost forgotten how comforting it was to be in Michael’s arms and it made it so much easier to understand how Felicity was brought so much comfort by it. “I just don’t want it to be at the cost of you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry I almost kicked you out.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry that it got to that point.”

“And I’m sorry Valenti of all people had to be the one to tell me I was being irrational.”

“I’m sorry I left you alone with the baby and work for days, I know how hard that can be.”

“I’m sorry we keep saying sorry.”

Michael let out a soft laugh, “Yeah.”

They fell silent for a moment, just taking each other in and relaxing until both of them began to drift. Alex had to catch himself, gently pulling himself drearily away from Michael so he could change and get out of his prosthetic. Michael protested gently but easily went back to cuddling the pillow on his side of the bed.

After Alex changed into his own sleep shorts, he checked the baby monitor once more. She seemed to be alright so he took off his prosthetic and turned out the lights. Slipping his arms around Michael from behind was natural, even after multiple nights in bed alone. He held him and the pillow he had in his arms tightly, pressing a kiss to the back of his shoulder before closing his eyes for the night.

It would be okay. They were Michael and Alex. It would always be okay.

-

“What the fuck are you saying?”

“I’m saying we need to get Max and Isobel over here immediately to see if my theory is correct because, if it is…”

“If it is?”

“Then we have might have a bigger problem than we originally thought.”

Alex sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair as he stared at Kyle. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, eyes wide and panicked. Alex didn’t share his panic if only because he knew better. Panic got you nowhere.

“Okay, tell me again.”

Kyle huffed roughly, his hands pressing hard against the table as he leaned forward. He looked around the bunker once more as if he was scared someone was watching him. Alex was beginning to feel more concerned for him.

“Okay. So there’s four symbols on the tablet and I was only able to locate the translation for three of them. The first one I can’t find, but the last three basically say ‘Child of High General Heinar’. Well, I’m pretty sure it actually says son instead of child, but the two symbols are really fucking close and so I’m being careful, so I think the first symbol is a name,” Kyle spewed and Alex nodded slowly, “So, so I went through all the records from Caulfield, specially searching for High General Heinar or, or just the name Heinar because obviously if I was able to find the translation, then they’d written it and hopefully even spoke about it before. Then I found the transcripts.

“Alex, there were only three aliens in all of Caulfield who spoke English. They were presumed to be linguists on their planet and they made transcripts of their torture sessions to see if they could get anything from them. We didn’t really read those the first time we went over them because we obviously weren’t gung-ho for torture porn, but every single one of them mentions him. It’s always ‘do whatever you want to me, General Heinar is coming for us’ or ‘General Heinar will destroy you’ or ‘our Heinar is ruthless when it comes to those who torture innocents, so prepare for total damnation of you and your offspring’, that type of shit. It-It was horrible and I don’t know whether to empathize or to be fuckin’ scared since we’re their offspring that got threatened,” Kyle finally took a breath and Alex had leaned forward. While that didn’t exactly scare him, he was intrigued by the fact that Kyle had actually read the transcripts instead of passing them onto Alex.

“Okay,” Alex said, “That’s the second time you’ve said that and maybe I’m dense or maybe you’ve just watched too many of those sci-fi movies I suggested, but I’m not following with what your theory is.”

Kyle gulped and took a steadying breath, combing his fingers through his hair as he tried to order his thoughts. Alex waited as patiently as he could even though he was very eager to hear what Kyle thought was happening.

“So, how did a mind-controlling tablet that seems to be either for or dedicated to that ruthless General’s child end up in a secret tunnel not far from a secret pod in a completely different prison?” he said and Alex nodded slowly.

“So you think Felicity is his child and the sons of the people who tortured their people happen to be harboring her?” Kyle shook his head.

“At first that’s what I thought. I thought that the tablet must be, like, a warning or something and that’s why it latched onto Guerin because he’s the one taking care of her. But then I realized that you are too, you both are doing an equal job at it, so why wouldn’t it be controlling you too? So then I thought, well, maybe it’s just aliens that it affects. But it doesn’t do anything to Felicity, nothing at all. So it’s something about Michael,” Kyle pointed out. Alex suddenly started to feel the dread as he began to piece together what Kyle was trying to say.

“Are you saying Michael is the long lost son of a terrifyingly loyal and protective alien general?” Alex said slowly. Kyle nodded.

“Not only that, but my theory is that it’s connected. That, that maybe him finding the tablet alerted their planet that he was still alive. That maybe him being in a trance that whole time wasn’t because it was trying to communicate, but because it’s like a GPS tracking device. What if they can find his exact place when he’s holding it and they’re coming back for him?” Kyle rambled. Alex’s eyebrows came together and he stared at the table. The idea was scary enough. What would happen if he was right? Would they come to take him back? Would Michael go willingly?

Would they kill Alex in the process?

“Wait, wait, it’s been over 70 years since the crash, General Heinar is probably extremely old if not dead,” Alex pointed out. Kyle shrugged.

“Or maybe they put him in a pod to freeze him in time until they found the whereabouts of his son so he could come back just as strong,” Kyle said.

Oh. Well. Fuck.

“Which is why I need to get Isobel and Max to touch it. If they get sucked in, then maybe my theory is wrong and we can address it a different way. All I know is that was the first thing that came to my mind and now I’m freaking out,” Kyle breathed out. Alex nodded in understanding.

Alex racked his brain for a moment for literally any other option. Obviously, there were a ton. It could be something else entirely. This just happened to be the scariest option. The thought that they basically were the cause for an upcoming alien invasion led by an angry, vengeful general who was looking for his son whom Alex happened to be with was… A lot.

So they should probably figure that out as soon as possible.

“Right. I’ll call Isobel and Max.”

-

“You think my dad is coming for me? You think I have a dad?”

Alex gave Michael the most comforting smile he could manage as he pulled him to the couch.

“I don’t know yet. We’re gonna experiment before we try to rationalize anymore,” Alex explained. He had gotten the crew over before he had let Michael in on the ordeal because he didn’t want to give him too much time to get used to the idea if they were wrong. Yeah, Michael might have a dad that loves him so much he’d put himself in a pod to wait and then destroy a whole planet to find him. But maybe not.

“But, wait, wait, what are we doing? How are we experimenting?” Michael asked. Isobel and Max were already on the couch, looking extremely alert for whatever was about to be thrown at them. Liz was standing behind the couch and Kyle was standing on the other side of the room, the tablet wrapped up in a sheet and held close to his chest. Maria had thankfully agreed to babysit for the day.

“The only way we can move in the right direction in figuring out what that thing is for is seeing if Max and Isobel are affected by it as well. If they aren’t, then we know it’s specially for you, Michael, and that narrows down our reasons. Kind of,” Alex said. He was more than a little eager to see what would happen.

Hopefully, nothing would and he could, in good conscience, destroy it and never think about it again.

“First things first, can you feel it now?” Kyle asked. Max and Isobel turned towards him.

“I mean, I can feel another presence if that’s what you’re asking,” Isobel said, nodding towards the bundle in his arms.

“Yeah, it’s like just making itself known,” Max said. They looked at Michael who has pretty much not torn his eyes from Kyle since they entered the same room.

“It’s calling me. I can feel it in my bones, under my skin, in my head. Like… Like the way I feel Felicity and Max and Isobel, just… stronger. Like when you guys call to me. It’s like that. It’s like that. It’s like that,” Michael said, that same spacey tone of voice coming back when he let himself focus on it. Alex clenched his jaw. Both of Michael’s siblings were staring at him like he’d fucking lost it.

“Okay, that’s not a good sign, Alex,” Kyle practically hissed. Alex shook him off.

“Next step is we need you to hold it, see if it gets stronger,” Alex said. Kyle looked at him hesitantly before unraveling it and handing it to Max first. He flipped the tablet around in his hands before looking to Liz and then back to Alex.

“It got stronger ‘cause it got closer, but that’s it,” he answered honestly. Then he passed it to Isobel. She flipped it around for a moment as well before she smirked with a silent idea.

They watched as she got settled in her position and closed his eyes, splaying her hand across it as she slowly began to focus. It was about a solid minute of silence before her face filled with something akin to fear and she threw it onto the table to get away. Michael quickly went to reach for it, but both Alex and Kyle dove to keep it away. They weren’t going through that bullshit again.

“What happened?” Alex asked sternly at the same time that Max and Liz asked it much softer. Isobel just looked more concerned than ever as she looked at Michael.

“It’s definitely calling him. It’s loud, it-it’s living. It has something in it, like… like information maybe,” Isobel tried. Alex looked down to it before looking up to her.

“Information?”

“Yeah, like… It felt like it was trying to tell me a million different things all at once in a language I can’t understand. Like it’s full of something, all happening at once and repeating itself, just holding a bunch of shit,” she tried to explain. Liz lit up as she looked up at Alex.

“A harddrive,” Alex said just as Liz said, “A biological USB.”

“Okay, cool. How do we get it off?” Kyle asked. The room grew silent, waiting for anyone to get an idea.

It took way longer than Alex wanted.

“What if I used my handprint? You said Michael’s mom did it to transfer information before, what if that’s how it works?” Max suggested and Alex could’ve kissed him. They should’ve thought of that. Michael should’ve thought of that.

They passed the tablet back to Max and he did his weird alien handprint thing, only to come up with nothing. Isobel tried after him and, again, couldn’t seem to access anything, so she gave it back to Alex. The room sent hesitant eyes towards Michael as they debated if they should actually let him try or not. Yes, it was their last option, but what if it sucked him in and never gave him back? It had already gotten too close to that.

“My turn,” Michael said after a moment.

“Wait, let’s just‒”

“My turn.”

Within a second, it was telekinetically ripped from Alex’s grasp and into Michael’s. He tried to move forward to take it back so they wouldn’t risk it, but he couldn’t get close to him. Literally. A visible barrier formed around him as his hand lit up.

“Wait, no, we- we need to talk about this first!” Alex argued, trying to push against the barrier. Something felt wrong, very wrong. This felt like he wasn’t going to come back. “Michael! Stop!”

It didn’t seem to matter how desperate he begged, Michael pressed his hand to the tablet. And his eyes rolled back into his head. And his jaw dropped. And he was gasping for air. And Alex couldn’t even get close.

“Michael! No, no, no, just… just let me get him out! Help me get him out! Michael!” he yelled, panic overwhelming him as he watched helplessly. This was bad. This was so, so bad. “Michael, please.”

“Alex,” Kyle said softly, “Just give it a minute.”

“Just give it a minute?” Alex snapped, his body feeling like it was on fire, “He’s fucking suffocating or something! He needs me! I’m not losing him like this, I’m not!”

“Alex,” Isobel interjected, firmer than Kyle had been, “Just wait.”

Alex looked around the room and, while they all looked concerned, they all seemed to be perfectly content in doing nothing. He had never felt so fucking helpless. He could feel his bottom lip quivering.

“So you won’t help?” he asked. They shook their heads because of course they did because they didn’t get it. But what could he do?

So he stayed against the barrier, quietly petting it and trying to assure Michael that he was still here. Maybe if he knew that he was there, he would be okay. This would be okay. This wasn’t the end. This couldn’t be the end. This was bullshit. Stupid, alien bullshit.

They were Michael and Alex.