Chapter Text
Chase dreaded the moment when the metal doors would open. He wasn’t really sure how everyone would react to him. Would they be angry, hurt, indifferent? He hadn’t even considered asking Douglas how everyone had taken his leaving, he hadn’t even considered it, with everything going on. All too soon the metal doors slid open and Chase immediately felt like he was drowning, as he was hit with the chaos of the academy. Students walking and talking, flowing around him like a river inconvenienced by a rock. Chase could feel himself shutting down, he felt numb and unable to move.
“I think it’d be best to avoid causing a scene and to instead move quickly to the dorms, and I’ll have Donny, and Adam, Bree, and Leo come find us there.” Douglas whispered, guiding Chase against the crowd away from the main room. The dorm was, thankfully, empty, but the crowd in the main room had caused Naomi to wake up and she was beginning to fuss. Douglas reached for the carrier she was in to take it from Chase.
“I got it,” Chase said, moving the carrier away from Douglas. Douglas just nodded and busied himself with unpacking the technology they had brought with them. Chase set the carrier down. He took out a small blanket and a few toys from the stroller that Douglas had left near the couch. After arranging a makeshift play area Chase grabbed Naomi out of her carrier and set her in the middle of the blanket as he sat down next to her. She began giggling as Chase held up a stuffed giraffe and rubbed it on her face before pulling it back abruptly a couple times gasping excitedly as he did. Naomi laughed and crawled towards him reaching for the giraffe. Chase smiled fondly at his step sister, freezing with dread when he heard his family’s voices fast approaching. Adam, Bree, Leo, and Mr. Davenport shuffled into the room, voices excited as they talked about the success of that day’s training.
“What’s going on, Douglas?” Mr. Davenport asked, causing the others voices to quiet in anticipation of an answer.
“Um…” Douglas gestured helplessly, “Chase? Wanna take this one?” Suddenly all eyes were on Chase, who now had Naomi happily playing in his lap.
He fought back an overwhelming sense of panic, “Hey,” he said quietly. His family gaped at him. Adam was the first to make a move running over to hug him, Chase stood up and handed Naomi off to Douglas before he was engulfed in a bone crushing hug from Adam. The rest of his family hesitantly came closer. Mr. Davenport patted him on the back, Bree nodded at him still not moving from her original spot, and Leo briefly joined the hug.
Adam finally pulled away from Chase, “What are you doing here?”
Chase sighed, “I need help,” after moving slightly away from Adam he continued, “I need help finding my… uh… my roommate.” Chase knew why he was lying to his family about who Kam really was to him but it felt like a disservice to call Kam just his roommate because Kam was far more than that he was Chase’s best friend, chosen family, lifeline, support system, he was Chase’s everything.
Mr. Davenport moved across the room and patted Chase on the shoulder heartily, “Well, with my all of my genius tech I guarantee I can find this roommate of yours. It’ll be just like old times.”
Chase grimaced, “Something like that.” He ground out.
Davenport continued, either not hearing or not caring about the rigid tone in his son’s voice, “Well, we can get on to that first thing tomorrow. As for tonight I s–.”
“Tomorrow?” Chase asked incredulously, “No, we need to start tonight. I can’t wait until tomorrow.” His voice was becoming shaky.
“Chase, you've been gone for years. We’re your family. We want to catch up and spend time with you. We can start working tomorrow.” Davenport offered
“No!” Chase’s voice was rising, “We can’t start tomorrow, we need to start now. Time is of the essence; we don't have any idea where he is, or what state he's in or, or.”
“Chase…” Douglas softly intervened.
“No!” Chase’s voice was almost at full volume now, “We need to find him now!”
“Chase…” Douglas tried again putting his hand on Chase’s shoulder.
“No.” Chase said, much quieter but still definite, “I- I just can’t-I don’t know…” Chase wrung his hands trying to calm down. “Look, I don’t want to hurt y’alls feelings or anything, but Kam is really important to me and so is finding him, so can we just start working on this tonight and at least make some progress before we catch up?”
“Don’t want to hurt our feelings?” Bree finally spoke. Chase just nodded confused. Bree scoffed, “And did you not want to hurt our feelings when you ran away with no trace or indication that you were still alive or not in danger?”
“I-,” Chase was stunned, “I wasn’t…I didn’t…”
“Whatever Chase, go and find your roommate, leave your family behind again because clearly you don’t care about us.”
Chase was taken aback, “I don’t care about you?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, all he did was care about his family, but as he glanced at his families questioning looks he knew that they all agreed with Bree. He sighed heavily, deciding to go the easy way and surrender. He didn’t have enough energy to fight and simply not enough time. Kam needed him now. “Fine, alright, I was an asshole, or I am an asshole. Whatever you want to believe. I am selfish, now can we eat, so that I can start looking, for Kam, as soon as possible?”
Bree scoffed, “Really Chase, that’s your idea of an apology? That was a shit apology and you know it! It actually wasn’t even an apology. Look we get it this roommate of yours is far more important to you then your own family. Whatever, I don't care anymore. Just leave again, we don't care; abandon us again.” Bree sped off, but not before Chase saw the glistening of her eyes and tears beginning to fall. Bree crying was a punch to the gut, for Chase. Despite what his family currently believed he did love them, he just had to leave. For his own good, so his life could move forward. Because although he loved his family they did hold him back.
“You know she's right, Chase. That wasn’t an apology. We aren’t trying to punish you, man. But we are your family and whatever the reason for leaving was, we do love you.” Adam said softly, before turning to follow Bree.
Chase raised his hands helplessly, as he left in order to get some air. He found a nice spot on the beach overlooking the waves. He sat down, picking up heaps of sand and watching as the small grains spilled through his fingers. Air began to fill his lungs easier, as he let himself just absorb the moment. The sun was beginning to set when Chase heard footsteps behind him. He straightened his back and exhaled deeply, keeping his eyes fixed on the water, as he readied himself to face whichever family member had been elected to come talk to him.
“Hey,” Chase stiffened at the unexpected voice.
“Uh, hey” Chase cleared his throat as he turned to face Sebastian. "Haven’t seen you here in a while."
Sebastian laughed, "I could say the same for you. I haven’t seen you in a couple years."
Chase blushed, "I was away. I couldn’t be here anymore."
Sebastian made a noise agreement, "Why are you sitting out here?"
Chase stared at the water, chewing on his lip as he contemplated his answer, "I got into it with my family a little bit."
"What happened?"
"They wanted to know why I left and I didn't have an answer for them."
Sebastian plopped down.
Chase took a deep breath, “How’ve things been here?”
“Eh, they’ve been okay. Not as good as when you were here.” Sebastian gave a rue smile bumping his shoulder into Chase's.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Huh?” Chase said, “Do what?”
“Leave,” Sebastian clarified, “Why’d you leave?”
Chase grunted, “There were a lot of reasons… I just needed to get away and I needed to find my place in the world beyond the bionic hero.”
Sebastian nodded. Silence reigned again, until more footsteps interrupted them. They both turned to see Leo ambling toward them.
“Um, it’s dinner time.” Leo said awkwardly. Chase nodded and got up.
“Want backup?” Sebastian asked quietly
Chase hesitated, “Okay,” he managed a smile.
“Awesome, the more the merrier.” Leo mumbled sarcastically.