Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Liam swears that just a few weeks ago, he had it all. His medical diploma was in sight, he had a secured job at the hospital for his residency, he was gonna marry Hayden,... It would be easy to blame Theo Raeken for the way his life took a turn for the worse. And maybe that’s what he should do! Maybe he should kick Theo’s ass so hard he gets shipped right back to Sweden or whatever prestigious European medical school he came from! 

Now, Liam has nothing but his filthy apartment turned science lab, an indelible stain on his academic record, and dead bodies in his basement! He’s genuinely surprised they managed to escape jail so far! 

But when he’s with Theo, everything seems worth the risk. Who is he to prioritize his own comfort if he can save lives? If they can save everyone? And Liam believes it. He believes Theo can save everyone. Theo can fight death itself, he saw it before and he can’t wait to see it again, the way he shines like a forsaken god, some sort of Prometheus back on Earth with the gift of life after death.   

His private rage doesn’t seem quite so important when Liam sees what they can give birth to again. 

“So, yeah, I know Theo’s… peculiar. I know he’s… Hayden said he was bad news and that I shouldn’t listen to him but I don’t know. What if this is the way I can make a real difference? What do you think? Be honest,” Liam finally asks after a solid 20 minutes of venting to Dr Harris’ head on Theo’s desk.

The head stares at him for a couple of seconds. “I think you’re an idiot,” Dr Harris’ dismembered head spits out.  

Liam makes a face, deeply offended. “...rude.”

“Listen here, you whining baby,” Dr Harris hisses, “some of us have actual problems! I, for example, am stuck here listening to your girlish ramble like it’s the tenth circle of hell and-”

Moving purely out of fury, Liam punches the head as hard as he can, making it hit the wall in a squishy crash before it splatters on the ground.

“Oh shit! Oh, I’m sorry!” Liam winces as he kneels down to look at the state of the head. “Dr Harris? Doctor?” 

The head which was so lively just a minute ago is now completely inert, stuck in a rigid form of shock. Liam lets out a heavy sigh.

“Theooooooo?” Liam screams apologetically, sounding like a kid who just spilled some milk. “I think I killed Dr Harris again!”

“It’s fine, just put the head in the fridge next to the dead cat!” Theo screams back from upstairs, sounding almost bored. “But write the details of it in the log this time!”

Liam rolls his eyes. The freaking log! He takes a pen and opens the notebook filled with Theo’s chicken-scratched and frenzied writing and adds “Punched Harris’ head and killed it? Sorry :)” He then adds the date and the precise time and closes the book.

Gripping the head by its hair as gently as he can, Liam opens the fridge and struggles to squish it between a jar of eyeballs, a new batch of bright neon re-agent, and… what he thinks is a rat’s tail in a cupcake liner? 

“Hey, Muffin!” Liam smiles warmly at the dead cat before closing the fridge's door. “Theo! We need a bigger fridge!”

“If you’d just let me use the upstairs fridge-” 

“Raeken, you’re not putting bits of corpses in the kitchen’s fridge and that’s final!” 

A few weeks ago…

“She’s dead, Dunbar, let her go! I’m calling it!” Nurse McCall exclaims at his side.  

“We didn’t try everything!” Liam cries, starting CPR once more.

“Yes, we did. Now, let her go,” Nurse McCall repeats, the decisiveness of her tone bleeding into sympathy, making Liam snap out of it. 

Looking around him, all the other nurses are staring at him with various degrees of fatigue, having long ago given up on the woman in front of them. Liam glances at the woman on the hospital bed one last time and apologizes in his mind before stopping the CPR. 

Another one dead. 29. 29 people he saw die since he started working at the hospital. 29. People said it would get easier but it’s actually becoming more and more unbearable. He doesn’t want the toll to reach 30. He knows it will but if he could somehow do something to make it stop… Because if it reaches 30 then it’ll reach 40 and then 50 and then 100 and then he’ll stop counting maybe… And who will he be if he stops counting this kind of thing?

Louise… That was the name of the woman who just died. 

Louise died today. 

“Time of death 11:23. Dunbar, get her to the morgue and take some time to cool down while you’re at it,” Nurse McCall says, giving him the same disappointed look that earned her the nickname “Mom” from the hospital staff.

They all leave him there and he looks at Louise’s lifeless face before covering her up. He lets out a heavy sigh and leaves to get a gurney. 

“Hey, Bobby,” Liam says when he sees the morgue’s guard, happy to see someone after struggling to get the heavy gurney this far. “Can you get the door for me?”

Bobby chuckles at his request and stays seated, his eyes glued to his tiny TV and his match. 

Liam groans. “Thanks, Finstock,” he mumbles as he opens the big door and stays there for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to drag the gurney in and keep the door open at the same time. He tries to do it in one swift pull but then the gurney gets stuck between the wall and the closing door. Liam groans and tries to pull the gurney inside but the sound of metal scraping on metal is making a ruckus in the dead silent morgue. It’s barely budging and Liam starts panicking as he tries to open the door more but it’s incredibly heavy and the half-in gurney is in the way. He sighs and puts his feet against the wall to get more force. With a deep grunt, he tugs the trolley in and the most high-pitched shriek follows before the bed successfully makes it inside and pushes Liam on his ass. Still, seeing the gurney inside, Liam throws a fist in the air in victory. 

“Um, um,” a voice behind him coughs dramatically, making him jump. He turns and, seeing his teacher Dr Harris, he quickly gets on his feet and straightens his scrubs. 

Shit!

“Mister, um… Dr Harris. Sorry, the… the door and…”

“I didn’t ask for your life story, Mr Dunbar, simply that you shush it! We’re performing an autopsy here. This is a workplace, in case you forgot, and not some circus,” the doctor says with venom and disgust before looking back at his assistant next to him taking notes.

“Right,” Liam mumbles, clearing his throat and opening the door to the morgue’s refrigerated space. The door stays open on its own. “Uh, this is… that’s practical.” Liam chuckles nervously at Dr Harris, only earning him yet another angry glare from his teacher. “Sorry, keeping shush…”    

While trying to subtly peek at the autopsy, he pushes the gurney inside the little space where they put the bodies and struggles to find a “parking space” for Louise. The chilly temperature keeps sending shivers down Liam’s back. He hates it there. He keeps expecting the dead bodies to move. So he quickly “parks” Louise, sends her one last sad smile, and heads out. 

“...top of our field in- Oh, Liam! What a coincidence!” Dean Romero exclaims when he sees him get out of the morgue’s refrigerated space. 

Liam straightens his back in shock. Jesus, is this the “meet your boss at the wrongest time” day or something?    

“I was just showing our newest student the hospital,” Dean Romero says with a warm smile, pointing somewhere on his right. 

Liam frowns but then spots a man about the same age as him in the corner of the room, checking a shelf for dust, unimpressed. Liam’s not sure how he missed him in the first place, the new student’s suit is beautiful and pristine, and his body language gives him an air of unbothered superiority. In many ways, he looks like he owns the hospital. 

“How are you doing, Liam, my boy?” 

“Um… I’m doing good, thank you, Dean Romero.”

“It’s doing well,” Theo whispers with a sigh to no one in particular.

Liam snorts at the rudeness, more shocked than angry. Who the fuck is this new guy?

“Oh, how rude of me,” the Dean says through gritted teeth like this isn’t the new guy’s first offhand comment of the day. “Liam Dunbar, this is Theo Raeken. He’s also a third-year student. He just got back from Switzerland where he did independent research with the notorious Dr Marcel before he died. Mr Raeken, this is Liam Dunbar, Miskatonic's bright young hope for future medicine.”

Liam beams at the compliment, feeling his heart skipping in pride. He smiles brightly at the Dean before turning his glance to Mr Raeken.

“What were you researching?” he asks politely as he extends a hand before his eyes are drawn to a drop of blood on Theo’s sparkling white collar and he barely notices Raeken discarding his hand as he walks past him to go observe Dr Harris’ autopsy.  

“Death,” Raeken says absentmindedly. 

There’s a surge of annoyance that goes through his body but Liam stays there, his eyes fixed on the one drop of blood and feeling calmer than he’s ever felt in this hospital. The new student looks so confident and in his element that, for a second, Liam thinks he shouldn’t fear other people’s opinions even if he’s just a student as well. He doesn’t have to fear the dead bodies either, everything is fine. Everything is under control.

Everything except the intriguing drop of blood.

“Dr Marcel, uh?” Dr Harris asks with a hint of disgust as he takes his gloves off and specifically doesn’t look at the new student but at the Dean instead. 

“This is Dr Harris, Mr Raeken, our most proficient and respectable-”

“Oh,” Raeken scoffs, “yes, I’m very familiar with your work, Dr Harris. Your theory on the location of the will in the brain is... very... interesting. Although maybe it isn't that fascinating considering Dr Marcel wrote about it in the 70s... It's actually so derivative that your thesis is considered plagiarism in Europe.” Theo chuckles but it’s obviously sarcastic. “Isn't that funny? Although, I guess some would say outdated theories are more sad than humorous.”

The morgue becomes completely silent for a few shocked seconds before Liam lets out a nervous chuckle.

“Um, Dr Harris, there’s this committee dinner later this week. It would be our absolute pleasure if you could come and…” Dean Romero begins asking, trying to defuse the tension and maybe avoid having a doctor kill a student in his teaching hospital.

Liam can’t help but stare at Raeken who’s still standing so proudly in front of Dr Harris’ red face. His cheeks hurt and Liam realizes he’s been smiling unabashedly for a few long seconds. Even when he feels their teacher’s angry eyes on him, he can’t help it. The new guy just committed academic suicide and yet he stands taller than anyone else in the room! Like he’s untouchable! Liam can barely ask for a favor from a fellow student without being scared that they’ll hate him forever! 

“I shall look forward to it, Dean Romero,” Dr Harris finally accepts the dinner invitation once he’s cooled down somewhat, his face still several shades too red. “And mister…” 

“Raeken, Theo Raeken,” the new guy says with a bright smile. 

“Mister Raeken, I'm looking forward to seeing you in my class,” Dr Harris says with a contemptuous scowl before leaving the morgue, soon followed by his assistant.   

Dean Romero lets out a deep sigh of relief before turning towards Raeken with an intense glare. “Mister Raeken, I’d appreciate it if you could show a bit more respect towards your superiors!” he hisses through his teeth with contained frustration.

“Isn’t being honest a show of respect?” Raeken asks, faking innocence.

Dean Romero blinks at him for a few seconds before taking in a big breath to calm down.

“Dunbar!” the Dean exclaims suddenly, redirecting his anger. Liam straightens his back so suddenly, he hears it crack. “Don’t you have work to do?”

“I… Yes, sir! Um, Dean! Yes, Dean Romero!” Liam stutters and fumbles on his own two feet as he walks towards the door. Gripping the door handle, he hesitates for a few seconds and looks back. 

Theo is examining the body left behind by Dr Harris but, for a second, his eyes raise to meet Liam’s. Swallowing hard, Liam finally turns the door handle and leaves.   

They’re in bed and Liam is still looking sad… Hayden is trying very hard not to take it personal. 

Although, to be fair, Liam has been feeling down for a while now and nothing seems to help. It’s honestly getting harder and harder to make him excited to study, he keeps talking about the patients he lost. Last week, it wasn’t even about someone who died, he just cried about some boy with a broken leg who didn’t have health insurance and couldn’t afford care! And the week before, it was about a baby born with a heart condition! Hayden keeps telling him that he has to toughen up but… it’s like Liam can only focus on the negative and never the good he did. Hayden is beginning to think that nothing will ever be enough for him to balance the scales!

Thank god they’re close to residency! Her dad keeps telling her that residency is what breaks students into real doctors. And then, well, after residency, Liam will have a job at the hospital right away!  

“Liam, you just need to focus on the big picture.” She sighs and cuts him off after half an hour of rambling about some woman who died that day.

Liam frowns at her, pulling away a few inches. “People dying isn’t the big picture?”

Hayden rolls her eyes. “Us living is the big picture, Liam. They’re already dead, it happens. But we need to keep on living, alright?” she says, taking his hand and squeezing it hard enough to remind him he’s alive. He gives her a small smile. “And you need to study.”

“Or…?” Liam starts, his smile shifting to hint at something more. 

Hayden laughs. “No! You already dragged me to bed once, it’s not happening again! And if you can’t focus, then I’ll leave so you won’t have any excuse to distract yourself!” She chuckles, getting out of bed and into her clothes. 

“Or…?” Liam tries again, reaching out to get her back in bed.

“Liam, stop!” She slaps his hand away with a laugh and gets her bag before leaving the room.

“C’mon, we gotta make it worthwhile before someone finally sees my ad for a roommate,” Liam whines between two laughs.

But Hayden has always had more focus than Liam and she knows that this is their forever. No need to rush, she thinks and smiles. They’re engaged and the second that Liam is officially a doctor, they’ll be able to marry! 

She always hated school so being a doctor was always out of the question. Her dad was so relieved when she introduced Liam to him. Liam will be able to keep up the family tradition and be a great doctor at the Miskatonic Hospital! And she'll be able to continue working at the newspaper and perfect her writing. She really never thought her life would be this amazing! Nothing could ever break the perfect future they planned for- 

There’s a knock at the door. 

Liam and Hayden both hit the brakes and freeze just a few feet before the front door. They glance at each other and Hayden points to an old blanket on the couch so Liam can at least cover himself. When she’s sure he’s at least a little bit presentable, Hayden opens the door. 

“Can I help you?” she asks after a few seconds of the stranger not saying anything.

“I don’t know about you but he can,” Theo says coldly as he points to Liam in the small space of the ajar door.

She looks back and sees Liam with both of his eyebrows high and his hands around the blanket covering most of his body.

The silence drags on and Theo sighs before showing them the ad paper. 

“You’re supposed to take one of the phone numbers, not the whole-”

“Oh,” Liam cuts her off in surprise, “you're here about the room. We... We met this morning, right? You're the guy who was rude to Dr Harris.” 

“Yes. Theo Raeken,” he says and swiftly makes his way inside while Hayden is distracted.

Liam smiles at him but also looks down at his lack of clothes. “Um... Give me a minute, I'll…” He runs back to his bedroom, tripping over his blanket for a second and crashing into his door instead of calmly getting in.

Now alone with him, Hayden looks Raeken up and down, trying to spot why she has such a bad feeling about this man. There’s nothing specifically wrong about him… simply a strangeness, like there’s something offbeat about him. She was so happy just a minute ago but, now, she can’t help but feel on edge. 

Hayden crosses her arms, glaring at the man in front of her. “You're the pretentious new student at the hospital. My dad told me about you.”

“Your dad?” he asks, his tone barely interested, more like he’s humoring Hayden than waiting for an answer.

“Yes, the Dean,” she says with emphasis so he finally understands that he should be on his best behavior right now. 

But it looks like the new student isn’t easily intimidated because he simply nods, distracted as he looks at the mess that is the living room. If this man is not a good person and if she can’t intimidate him enough to pretend to care, then there’s no way Hayden is letting him stay here. Liam is fragile enough, she won’t let someone push him lower than he already is. 

“My father didn’t say why you left Switzerland…” she starts because she knows his type. They clearly fired him either because his pretentious ass was getting on their nerves or because he was overly confident and made an unforgivable mistake.

“Dr Marcel died, haven’t you heard?” Raeken says suddenly. 

He still seems so cold, but Hayden is stunned out of her own quiet rage. No, she didn’t know that.

“Were you close?”

The man raises both eyebrows and finally spares her a few seconds to look at her. Hayden suddenly understands Theo Raeken doesn’t know the first thing about being close to anyone when she sees him smirk, and a shiver runs down her spine. 

“Close to a breakthrough, yes, before he croaked.” 

Hayden stays there, her mouth open for a few seconds in horror. “What kind of man are you?” She hears herself ask in a hushed voice.

Theo’s smirk shifts into a full-blown smile. “I'm a scientist,” he offers with wicked pride. 

“Sorry,” Liam says as he comes back into the living room with a light jog and a chuckle. “Turns out, my pants look the same when they’re inside out. Everything alright?” he asks when he senses a bit of tension.

“Of course,” Raeken says charismatically but there’s still a hint of coldness in his tone, “we were just getting acquainted.”

“Oh, right, Hayden, this is Theo Raeken, he’s a third-year medical student,” Liam says to Hayden with a smile before turning to Raeken with the same warmth. “Mr Raeken, this is my fiance, Hayden Romero.” 

At the word “fiance”, Theo raises one eyebrow as if unconvinced. 

Oh, it’s official, Hayden hates him!

“Oh, Theo, please,” Theo insists with a warm smile directed purely at Liam. Hayden almost slaps her face because she sees how Liam is falling for it.

Liam starts making small talk but Theo cuts him off quickly to ask: 

“Does this building have a basement?” 

Liam stops, puzzled. “Um… Yeah. I don’t really use it. It’s a bit scary.”

“Great!” Theo says with a smile. “Could I see it?”

The way to the basement consists mainly of Hayden trying to send “Abort!” signs at Liam, Theo pretending he doesn’t see them, and Liam asking her “Are you trying to tell me something?” out loud.

Hayden sighs in defeat. “No… Just look where you’re going,” she says, rolling her eyes and pointing at the stairs.

“C’mon, I only fell down those stairs once,” he says a bit irritated, looking back to talk to Hayden and missing the first step, “and I’m not some kid for you to- Ahhh!”

But his scream is quickly cut by the sudden realization that he’s not falling to his death. Panting, he looks back and sees that Theo is holding the back of his shirt with a straight face.

Liam clears his throat. “...thanks.”

Theo lets him go with a nod. “You should look where you’re going,” he says, his tone low and tired.

“Right…” Liam whispers a bit shamefully, turning back to look in front of him before walking down the second step.

Finally in the basement, Liam and Hayden stay close to the stairs while Theo is looking enthusiastically at every dusty nook and rusted cranny of the place.  

“Oh, yes, this is perfect!” Theo says, ecstatic, before looking back at Liam. “I have my things outside, shall I move in now?” 

For the first time this evening, Liam looks a bit suspicious and uncertain.

“Isn’t this a bit soon?” Hayden asks in the three seconds of opportunity before Liam will probably fold and accept.

Theo’s eyes slowly leave Liam to focus on her instead. 

“Do you often talk for him?” he asks innocently but there’s a hint of rage in his eyes.

“Do you have something against women sharing their opinions?” Hayden frowns, using the same fake innocent tone.

“Alright, please, stop.” Liam puts himself between them. “What’s going on?”

“He’s weird,” she says immediately, pointing at Theo. “I don’t like him.”

“You met him five seconds ago,” Liam tries to reassure her. “And being weird is not a crime. No offense,” he adds before looking at Theo.

Theo shrugs, completely unbothered, although he thought he was doing a good job of passing for normal.

“If it can help, you won’t even know I’m here! Besides the first of the month, of course,” Theo says smoothly, getting an impressive stack of 20 bucks out of his pocket.

Liam, who’s been broke for a year and broker than broke for the last few months because his previous roommate left in the middle of the night without paying the last six months of rent, forgets what they were talking about and starts nodding. 

“Uh… Deal! Yeah, great!” Liam exclaims once he sees the money and, this time, Hayden doesn’t hide the facepalm. Taking her hand off her face, she doesn’t miss the victory smile Theo sends her nor the smugness behind it. 

Theo is in anatomy class - if that can be considered a class! -, squirming in his seat in violent rage. Dr Harris already told 5 untrue “facts” and 14 unprovable statements and they’re barely halfway through the lesson! Isn’t this supposed to be a school? For idiots, maybe! 

Dr Harris pulls the skin off the cranium of the dead body. “It's just like peeling a very big orange,” the doctor says with a somewhat charismatic smile to the small crowd of impressed students. 

The students around him all laugh and it only adds to Theo’s foul mood. Don’t they understand what a charlatan this man is?! No, they’re too indoctrinated by idiocy to-

A strange sound on his right shakes him out of his rumination. Theo turns and sees Liam trying to look away from the corpse, his eyes filled with water.

“What are you doing?” Theo whisper-screams in the little operation theater. 

“It's just… that was a person, you know! They had a family and like…” Liam stops to sniff. “They had a favorite shampoo, you know? Because they thought it smelled nice! And what if they had pets? Oh my god, what if they had pets! And now they're searching for them,” he moans, wiping the few tears that made it to his cheeks. 

Theo frowns in disgust but makes a note of Liam's emotionality. 

“If you can't look at a dead body, why are you trying to be a doctor?” 

Liam shrugs, getting a bit more control as he searches for an answer. He sniffs one last time and takes deep breaths before nodding to himself. “I want to help people,” he says, resolute. 

Theo stares at him for a few seconds, surprised to see what he’s been looking for in a fellow scientist for a long time… Enthusiasm… Devotion, even. 

“Well,” Theo says, looking straight at Liam to watch his reaction, “you can't do anything for them now. Might as well learn so you can help the next person better.” 

Liam’s eyes widen as he stays there, stunned. Gradually, his gaze shifts and his expression twists into something weird, like Theo just told him the meaning of life. Theo almost feels uncomfortable under his intense and revering staring. 

“That makes sense,” Liam whispers.

“Obviously,” he scoffs before looking back to the autopsy in front of him.

“...after everything in the body ceases, the brain can only survive for 6 to 12 minutes until brain death brings an irreversible conclusion,” Dr Harris says, making sure to keep eye contact with Theo who dared calling his theories outdated the last time they saw each other.

Theo can no longer restrain his fury and makes sure to break his pencil as loudly as he can, making a clean snap! in the small room. All the students and Dr Harris turn to look at him in quiet shock. 

“Do you need another pencil?” Liam asks in the silence of the room, offering him one.

Theo takes it, his eyes never leaving the doctor. Raising it, Theo shows Dr Harris his new pencil like a warning. The doctor, his face red in indignation, simply continues with the lesson in a virtuous display of patience.

“Of course, although many have tried proving the opposite, brain death is a simple fact of life and it is a fool’s errand to try and-”

Another snap! echoes in the operating theater. Dr Harris jumps before looking at Theo, a vein waiting to burst in his forehead. 

“Mr Raeken, might I suggest you bring a pen to our next class!” he hisses through his teeth, his entire body shaking in anger. 

“If this is the time to make suggestions,” Theo starts before being cut by Dr Harris.

“It isn’t!”

“A question, then,” Theo corrects himself, just as angry as the doctor. “How can you teach such drivel? These people are here to learn and you're closing their minds before they even have a chance! Maybe you should've continued with plagiarism, at least you wouldn't be stuck in the last decade!” 

“MR RAEKEN!” Dr Harris’ shout booms in the room, bringing it to perfect silence. The doctor takes a few big breaths and gains a bit more control. “It's gonna be a pleasure to fail you.”

Theo’s expression doesn’t give him anything, he just looks at him with his chin held high as Dr Harris tells everyone that the class is dismissed and leaving the room before anyone else.

Still seething in rage, Theo turns towards Liam who’s slowly getting his things.

“Forget what I said earlier, you can't learn anything here.” Theo snatches his bag and gets up on his feet with a deep sigh. 

“Well, maybe we could learn something if you stopped throwing tantrums in class,” Liam says, his attitude only hiding a portion of his amusement. 

Theo smirks, not looking at him but getting his things and leaving the room, knowing Liam will follow him.

“Maybe you could learn something from the tantrum,” he says once they’re in the corridor.

Liam snorts. “Right. Like never lend a pencil to someone who needs to make a point dramatically.”

“Empirical evidence is the heart of science, Liam. I broke a pencil before, what would stop me from doing it again?”

“It was my pencil!” Liam whines. 

Theo rolls his eyes. “Someone had to stop him! He is spewing nonsense like it’s God’s truth!” he says, so enthralled by his own rant that he doesn’t see the nurse coming their way with a tray full of various cups of pills and small glasses of water. “His limited brain shouldn’t be in charge of teaching the next…”

Liam pulls on Theo’s lab coat just in time for him not to crash into the nurse. The woman gives a grateful nod to Liam but it seems Theo didn’t even notice her because he turns and stops in front of Liam.

“What?” he asks harshly. 

Liam knows he should be annoyed - he picked fights with people for far less in the past - but there’s something so endearing in Theo’s obnoxious personality. 

“Nothing,” Liam whispers with a smile he can’t seem to bite down. He simply fixes Theo’s lab coat with a snort.

He expects Theo to do his usual “eye roll and leaving with a scoff” routine but he stays weirdly still in front of him. Liam frowns and raises his gaze to meet Theo’s but the man is looking at the floor like it asked him a very tricky riddle, his jaw tight. 

“Are you okay?” Liam asks, a bit thrown off by the uncharacteristic hesitation.

“I’ll be in the basement for the remainder of the day, do not disturb me,” Theo says, his voice especially cold, as he leaves their conversation at a brisk pace.

“Wait!” Liam exclaims as he tries to keep up with him. “Why can’t you give me a lift? We’re going to the same place!”

“Don’t you know? Walking does wonders to the body,” Theo tells him sarcastically.

“The body, yes, but the bus destroys the mind!” Liam exclaims before giving him his best puppy eyes as he walks beside him. “Theo, please! Please! You owe me, you broke my pencil!”

Theo groans, knowing full well that this is a slippery slope and that one lift will soon turn into a daily favor that he really doesn’t want to sign himself for.

But alas, Liam takes the groan for a yes and almost jumps in happiness. There’s no turning back now.

“Thank you! Oh, this is great, we can stop by the grocery store on our way home and get-”

“I never said yes to the grocery store,” Theo warns him before whispering to himself. “...or the lift.”

“You’d say yes if you saw what we have at home. Which is nothing! Wow, this is very exciting! Doing grocery shopping with a car! Wait, let’s do a list!” Liam says enthusiastically before struggling to get a pen and paper from his bag. “Now, juice. Thoughts?”

Theo groans again, this time louder. 

“Alright, we’ll circle back to it…” Liam says, nodding and writing something on his piece of paper.

Chapter Text

They barely saw each other in the last two weeks. Granted, Hayden has been just as busy with the newspaper but it still feels weird not to see Liam for so long and, as soon as she steps into Liam’s place, she remembers exactly why she hasn’t been keen on visiting.

Theo isn't physically present – or, at least, she’s pretty sure he isn't – but his being is still very omnipresent in the apartment. She thought the new student's uptight personality would force Liam to clean up after himself but it seems the opposite happened and now there’s Liam and Theo’s mess everywhere. She had to throw a mountain of stuff on the ground just to dig herself a little spot on the couch as she helps Liam study. Well, the “studying” could actually start if Liam wasn't constantly distracted by Muffin. He keeps making little giggles like a kid and pretends that the cat knows the answers to the questions but that he doesn’t. It was endearing the first 5 times, now, it’s downright annoying. 

“Liam, can you please focus, we don't have that much time and-”

The door of the bathroom opens and Hayden jumps, surprised that there’s someone else in the apartment. 

With a small cloud of steam behind him, Theo steps out of the bathroom with only a towel around his waist. The living room turns completely silent as Theo walks up to them, the cat leaving with a shriek.

“The sink is leaking again,” Theo says but words don't seem very important right now. 

Pearls of water drip from Theo's still-wet hair and slowly make their way to his glistening muscled chest. Time seems to slow down as the air becomes warmer and heavier with steam. Hayden loses many seconds to the careful observation of Raeken's well-defined body but as her eyes finally rise to his face, a familiar annoying smirk brings her out of her thoughts. Following Raeken's gaze, Hayden turns her eyes towards Liam who's looking just as consumed by the sight in front of them, a light blush on his neck and his mouth slightly open. 

Finally snapping out of the trance, she punches Liam as hard as she can on the arm. It’s fair if Hayden salivates in front of Raeken sometimes despite her deep hatred of him, but what the fuck is Liam doing?

Liam jumps at the punch and cradles his arm after a loud “Ow! What the hell!”. 

“I was…” Liam mumbles after getting his bearings. “The sink! I was thinking about the sink! It… It was about the sink, right?” he asks Theo a bit shyly. 

Theo breaks into a bright smile and nods before glancing at Hayden whose face is getting red in anger. There’s an air of victory in his look before he turns and makes his slow walk back to his bedroom. Hayden’s jaw is so tight that she might need to plan a trip to the dentist soon. Once the door of Raeken’s bedroom is closed, she groans and slaps Liam’s arm again. 

“Ow, will you stop!? What did I do?” 

“You know what that was for! And you’re not… He’s trying to… Arg! You’re not like that, Liam!” 

Liam frowns, puzzled but also wary of how serious Hayden is right now. “Like what?” he asks, making a face in confusion. 

Hayden rolls her eyes and sighs in deep frustration.  

Liam is exhausted! He woke up this morning before dawn to go and pull a 10-hour shift with barely a few minutes here and there to catch his breath and now that he’s home, he still can’t catch a break! Falling asleep in his manual, he thinks that if he dreams of studying then maybe-

A plate hits the table with a loud clac! right next to him. Liam jerks awake, expecting an accident or Muffin up to some mischief. What he doesn’t expect is a sandwich. It’s simple and it looks quite small on the big plate but it’s still very much there. Liam frowns and turns to look at his side. Theo is staring at him with a smile but there’s nothing comforting about it. Liam has seen nice little grins from time to time on Theo’s face and this is not one of them.

“Is this for me?” Liam asks because the action would normally suggest so… but Theo’s ominous smile, not so much.

“Yes.” 

Theo doesn’t add anything which makes it so much worse. The maniacally enthusiastic smile doesn’t help either. Liam starts wondering what he might have put in the sandwich. His heartbeat accelerates. 

“That’s so sweet,” Liam says hesitantly, trying not to sweat under pressure. He still can’t bring himself to touch the sandwich. He just looks at it like an enemy. “Any reason?”

“I need blood.” Theo smiles brighter. “And in your state, I don’t think you’d survive me taking a blood sample.”

Liam lets out a huge sigh of relief. The sandwich isn’t poisoned! Silly him! He reaches for it but then.

“Wait, why couldn’t you take your own blood?”

“I need a blood type that’s negative,” Theo replies quickly, rubbing his hands in excitement. “Eat, eat, I’ll be back with the equipment.” 

Seeing Theo leave the living room with such glee, Liam snorts. “Might need some juice and a freshly cut orange with that!” he says pathetically, trying his best to sound faint. He doesn’t have to fake the yawn.

Biting into the sandwich, Liam quickly realizes that it might as well have been poison. Chewing what is mostly mustard, Liam feels tears building in his eyes. There might be some ham in there, maybe, somewhere, deep within the sandwich, but Liam sure as hell can’t taste it. He pushes through the disgusting taste thinking that it’s the gesture that counts when he suddenly remembers something.

“Wait! How the hell do you know my blood type!? Theo!”

Hayden is at Liam’s again and time did nothing to make her more comfortable with Raeken living there. As soon as she came in, she felt a shiver down her spine and insisted on going into the kitchen instead of their usual place in the living room. And she tried not to bring it up, she really did, but it’s been bugging her ever since Liam accepted Raeken’s cash and made him his roommate. 

“I mean, he’s always there with his stuff everywhere! If he’s in his room with the door closed all the time, why are his clothes on the couch? I never saw him use that couch, Liam! Did you? Have you ever seen him in the kitchen? Does he ever eat? Is he even human?” she lets out after Liam asks her why she’s so tense. 

Liam blinks at her for a few seconds like he’s just been hit by a big gust of wind. He clears his throat before answering her. “Sure, he's a little bit... unconventional but he’s-” 

“‘Weird’ is the word you’re trying not to say, Liam! Disturbing! Queer!”

Liam simply shrugs. “He’s just European.” 

Hayden’s face becomes red in embarrassment for Liam and there are several seconds when she just stays there, stunned and speechless. “What- No, he’s not European, Liam. He’s American.” 

Liam does that Idiot Frown he does when he can’t figure something out. “He came from Sweden,” he lets out after a few seconds like Hayden’s the one not getting it. 

“Switzerland! And it doesn’t mean he’s European.” 

His dumb face only grows even more confused and dumber. Hayden sighs, trying to figure out if this is a battle she wants to pick. 

“Switzerland is in Europe, Lovey,” he says with a tight smile, patting her tight in a patronizing manner.

And he’s the doctor? Hayden thinks but stops herself from saying. Liam has other qualities, she says to herself, he is filled with admirable and wonderful traits. Common sense simply isn’t one of them.

“If you won’t take my opinion seriously,” Hayden says, rolling her eyes and opting for changing the subject before she starts a lesson on Traveling And Other Reasons Someone Might Not Be From Europe And Also Why The Fuck Would It Explain Why Theo Is Weird 101, “then think of Muffin! Muffin is scared of him too! When Raeken comes in, he runs and hides!” 

“Muffin runs and hides all the time. Typical cat behavior!” 

“Yes, but not when we're together, he's always trying to get your attention and... Where is he? I haven't seen him since I got here. I didn’t even hear him!” 

Staring at Hayden as she gets on her feet and throws a few “Pss, pss, pss. Muff-Muff!”, Liam sighs. It feels like they never just talk anymore. There’s always something going on or Hayden wanting him to study or, apparently, her saying his roommate is bullying his cat or whatever. Actually, he wonders when was the last time they just hung out together, not doing anything in particular. Or maybe he’s just tired and he needs to take a nap. 

“Now, you're the weird one.” 

“Help me find him,” Hayden urges him.

“He's somewhere,” Liam whines, too tired to get on his legs and off the chair. He just came back from a long shift. He just sat down. 

“Exactly,” she hisses, “so help me find him.” 

Liam groans but gets on his feet. So when he plays with the cat, it's “annoying” but when he doesn't, it's suspicious? How is that supposed to make sense?

They split up to cover more ground and Hayden heads into the corridor, knowing the cat sometimes likes to drink from the toilet no matter how many times Liam tells him to stop. But the bathroom is empty. 

“Did you find him?” she screams at Liam.

“No,” he answers from the living room a bit tiredly. 

Hayden stays there and eyes the one door that is closed. Theo's room. She walks closer to it and whispers Muffin’s name through the door before carefully listening. Nothing. 

But it doesn't mean he's not in there. Hayden tries to remember if Raeken is working right now or if Liam said he was home. She decides it's better to piss him off and apologize later. Anyway, frustrating Raeken might be its own reward. She slowly opens the door. 

Hayden doesn’t know how someone can make such a mess with so little things. All of his clothes are littering every possible surface instead of the perfectly usable closet. There are dishes and glasses on the floor and she’s pretty sure there’s a mold experiment on the desk, right next to a pile – a mountain, really – of papers and files. The curtains are completely shut so the room is clothed in darkness. Certain that Raeken isn’t there, Hayden opens the door some more. 

“Muffin? Muff?” she whispers, losing some of her nerves as she steps into the room. 

The silence is overwhelming and just a hint ominous. She should leave. But then again, her gut is telling her that the cat is here… and her gut is never wrong. She turns around when she spots a faint light in the corner of the room and she suspects Raeken isn’t the kind to have a nightlight. She walks quietly towards it, surprised to see a mini-fridge with its door left slightly open. The kitchen’s fridge is big enough for two people and god knows it’s always empty. 

Hayden doesn’t know she's so nervous until she sees her trembling hand reaching for the mini-fridge’s door. 

It’s almost as if she knew what she was going to find before she even finds it. Her throat closes as she tries to call out for Liam. Needing to walk out of here as soon as possible, she turns and lets out a deadly scream when she’s stopped by Theo’s silhouette blocking the doorway.   

“What did you do?” Theo hisses low, not moving a step and essentially trapping her inside the room.

Thankfully, Liam runs to the room, stopping just behind Theo and looking inside with a frown. “What are you doing in his room?” 

“Would you please leave! Now!” Theo says through gritted teeth, his eyes still sending daggers at Hayden.  

“Easy!” Liam warns, pushing him slightly so Theo isn’t between him and Hayden.

“In the fridge!” Hayden says to Liam with a pained voice. 

Liam feels a chill at her words. Hayden is always self-assured and strong so this can’t be good. Hesitating for a second, he doesn’t hear Theo calling his name as he makes his slow way towards the small fridge. His knees give out when he sees his cat frozen in a painfully twisted position. He’s on the shelf like a fucking Tupperware of leftover. Kneeling in front of it, Liam wipes some of his tears before reaching out to touch Muffin’s cold fur. 

“I was going to show you,” Theo starts, his voice low and soft.  

“Shut up!” Liam cuts him off with venom before turning again towards his cat and breaking down a bit more. Muffin is so cold and hard under his delicate touch. 

Behind Liam’s kneeling form, Theo sends a death glare at Hayden who’s now standing next to him. She’d see it if she wasn’t so focused on Liam. She tries to put a hand on his shoulder but he shrugs it off violently. The act of rejection doesn’t settle the fury inside of Theo. This wasn’t supposed to unfold like this... 

“What happened?” Liam’s voice croaks as he continues crying, but it’s also filled with the strength of anger. 

“It was dead when I found it,” Theo says. 

“Liar!” Hayden replies immediately. “You killed him! He hated you!” 

“It knocked the garbage and got its head stuck in a jar. It suffocated! You weren't home and I certainly didn't think you'd want to find it like that.” Theo looks at the ground, rushing through his words as if he was embarrassed or sorry. 

Hayden scoffs, rolling her eyes at the dumb story, but when she looks at Liam, she can see that he’s buying it. Of fucking course, he is!

“Don’t-” Hayden starts before being cut off by Theo. 

“And I didn't want to stink the place up,” Theo says before turning and looking Liam in the eyes. “I was going to show you.” 

“You couldn't call or write a note?” Liam exclaims angrily. 

“You were still at work when I saw it and what was I supposed to write in the note? 'Cat dead. Details later?'” he says sassily before calming down a bit. “I knew you were fond of it.” 

“Killing him isn’t enough, you need to lie about it too?” Hayden pushes him and makes Raeken’s back hit the doorway. 

“What kind of sadist do you take me for? You don't even know me!” Theo exclaims, taking a menacing step towards her after recovering from the hit. 

“Alright, that's enough!!” Liam screams and it makes both of them stop. 

The bedroom slowly calms down under the weight of silence. Only their angry breathing and the quiet buzzing of the fridge can be heard for a few long seconds.

“I'd like for you two to leave my room now,” Theo says.  

“What is that?” Liam suddenly asks, spotting a weird neon green liquid in the door of the fridge as he was about to close it. 

“None of your business!” 

“It’s his apartment and-” Hayden says. 

“Privacy is a very precious thing, don't you think? Or do you want your dad to know you're not just coming here to help him study? Premarital sex is a sin, you should know,” Theo says, his lips turning into a sick smirk.

“Blackmail? Are you serious?” Liam says, quickly getting on his feet. 

“You…” Hayden can’t even finish her sentence, shaking in fury. She could kill Raeken right now! If her dad finds out, Hayden’s best outcome might just be the nunnery!

“Not blackmail. I would never want a promising student to be thrown out of school and a profession simply because of moral grounds.” Theo says the word “moral” like it’s so insignificant and disgusting. “But considering this, how high do you value privacy, now, Liam?” 

“Let's stay on last name basis…” Hayden adds when Liam doesn’t say anything for a while.  

Liam stops her with his hand. His chest heaving, it’s clear that Liam is thinking but there’s a glint of intelligence in his eyes Hayden doesn’t often witness. It sends a chill down her spine. Her presence in the room feels entirely inessential now. 

Theo lets out a heavy and pathetic sigh before looking straight into Liam’s eyes. “I'm very sorry for your cat,” he says carefully and calmly. “I didn't want you to find out this way.” 

Liam’s anger almost immediately dissipates even if it’s clear he’s still thinking. 

“Liam!” she screams, now angry at him for folding so easily. 

Liam tenses again but this time his bad mood shifts towards her. “What?!”

Hayden doesn’t know why she starts whispering, Raeken is right next to her after all. He can hear everything she says. “I told you you can’t trust him and I warned you he would be bad for you! What needs to happen before you open your eyes and realize that you can’t trust him? If he kills me too, will you forgive him again after only a few minutes?” 

“I didn’t say I forgave him and I’m not-”

“You’re not even mad at him!” Hayden laughs in disbelief. “Did you even like Muffin?”

Liam freezes in shock, his eyebrows twisting in an angry frown. His mouth is open but he stays silent. His eyes are still red from crying. Hayden looks away, ashamed that she’d say something like that but that’s how she spots Theo smirking. 

She raises her hand, quickly pointing at it. “He’s literally smiling!” 

“Hayden, what did I do to you?” Theo says, his voice filled with fake despair and his smile turned into a slight pout before Liam could shift his eyes on him. “You seem to hold a grudge against me and I’m baffled as to why.” 

Her eyes widen and she lets out a groan of annoyance but before she can tell him to go fuck himself, Liam takes her arm and drags her away.

“Alright, let's do this out of his room.”

“But do you see how he’s trying to manipulate you into-”

“Alright, stop!” Liam cuts her off before she can start on another rant. “I’m tired of you going on and on about him. This is just like my previous roommate, just like my cousin Fred, just like Tiffany from school!”

Hayden stops and fights to get her arm out of Liam’s hold. He wanted them out of the room, well, now, they’re in the living room and boy oh boy is she ready for this discussion!

“Your previous roommate skipped town owing you hundreds of dollars, your cousin Fred is a compulsive liar, and Tiffany was always inviting you to parties and your grades dropped like-”

“You hate everyone, Hayden! You don’t trust anyone!”

Their ears are ringing from their screaming voices and they both stare at each other, waiting for the next person to add to what is definitely an argument.

“I trust you…”

“Do you?” Liam retorts. “You treat me like some damsel who needs rescuing all the time.”

“Yeah, well…” she lets her sentence drift off to let him know exactly what she thinks about it.  

Liam is offended and his face expresses just how much. 

“Who called your landlord when he tried to evacuate you under false pretense? Who got you a place at my dad’s hospital even if they don’t take students with scholarships? And who told you not to trust that pyramid scheme patient? I could easily go on, Liam!” 

Liam doesn’t look as angry anymore. He looks… small. Hurt.

“Yeah but... that's because... because we love each other, and not… that's not…” 

She should stop right now. But this feeling in her has been building for a while and if she doesn’t let it out now, she probably never will. 

“Believe me, Liam, my goal in life isn’t to micromanage you. I want… I want the normal stuff. I want what everyone has! I want to support you but I don't want to be your babysitter all my life.” 

“Babysitter?!” Okay, no, he’s pissed again. He tries to take deep breaths but he knows Hayden needs to leave right now or it won’t be pretty. His hands are tightly closing into fists and he starts seeing red. He doesn’t want her to leave mad but maybe it’s the better option. His mind is getting cloudy with rage and he doesn’t know what to do.

“You know what I mean,” she says, her voice a bit softer when she sees how tense he is. 

“No, I don't, actually!” 

Hayden hesitates for a second but it’s clear Liam is expecting an answer. “You're... sensitive and, um... not weak but…” 

“Weak????” 

“I said not weak!!!” 

“So just a synonym of weak. Fucking great! You know what, you had a fucking hard day babysitting me and everything, so how about you take the night off!?”

“Liam, I'm not the enemy here! Raeken is-” 

“My cat died and you keep insulting me!” Liam shouts, trying to bring her back to what is really happening. He doesn’t give her time to argue. “Good night!” 

She stays there, stunned for a few more seconds, but seeing Liam still so angry, she decides that she’ll give him time to calm down before they talk again. She leaves, wishing him a good night too.

Liam goes to bed even if he knows he won’t be able to sleep. He spends the first hour overthinking his argument with Hayden as he lies on his right side. He spends the second hour overthinking the sudden death of his cat and Theo’s possible involvement in it as he lies on his left side. He spends the third hour overthinking the fact that he can’t sleep as he lays on his back and tries to name all the unhealthy side effects of sleep deprivation. And sure, hallucination is one of them but it’s only in acute cases and it’s only been three hours so why is he hearing hissing? 

Moving so he’s lying on his stomach, Liam tries to pay it no mind. It might just be an alley cat or a very feline raccoon outside. But the hissing doesn’t stop so Liam gets on his feet and shuffles his freezing way to Theo’s door, his feet never staying on the cold floor for more than a second.

“Did you hear that sound?” Liam whispers through the door, shifting his weight from one foot to another to keep moving. “Theo!”

But there are no sounds coming from the bedroom. Liam groans and turns on his heels to fetch the baseball bat he keeps under the sofa. Weapon acquired, he makes a few steps towards the door when he hears a new high-pitch hissing but, this time, it seems to be coming from the basement. Liam isn’t sure if it’s an alley cat or a demon so he takes his sweet time making his way towards the door leading to the basement. The doorknob in his hand, he waits and finally turns it when he hears a very human yelp.

Running down the stairs, Liam is only saved from a sure fall when he suddenly remembers the handrail Theo installed last week (needless to say, Liam may or may not have fallen down those stairs a third time but, to be fair, it was after Theo took some of his blood) and grips it for dear life. Already sufficiently down, Liam freezes as his mind struggles to explain what he’s seeing.  

“Don’t just stand there!” Theo screams, managing to scold Liam and fight for his life. 

The dim light of the night only brightened by a stray lightbulb, Liam can’t really identify the dark blur attacking Theo with unnatural speed and demonic sounds.

Still holding the bat, Liam can’t seem to move. He doesn’t want to hit Theo by mistake and everything is happening so fast. “What the hell is that?” 

“Later! Later!” Theo urges before the creature latches onto his back violently and the normally so composed man lets out a loud scream in pain. Liam feels a wave of nausea simply hearing the sound of Theo’s skin tearing. Thankfully, it also snaps him out of it and Liam launches, letting go of his bat to try and grab the creature with his hands.

Which, of course, turns out to be a terrible idea.

Just when he thinks he’s got a hold of the creature, its sharp claws slash his arms and he lets it go when the pain finally registers in his brain. Theo is screaming something at him but it’s covered by the small monster’s shrill growling entirely too close to Liam’s ears. Like three individuals stuck in the world’s tiniest tornado, the violent dance continues until every object in the basement that could possibly be knocked over is knocked over. Moving purely on instinct and adrenaline, Liam takes two steps back, picks up his bat, and takes one calm breath before striking as hard as he can, hoping he doesn’t hit Theo and give him a concussion in the process. 

The next few seconds are spent in complete silence and not an atom in the room moves. Somewhat convinced that he hit the creature and not Theo – who’s still standing –, Liam does the thing he should’ve done in the first place and turns on the other lights. They both stay still as they slowly adjust to the sudden blast of light. 

Liam takes a few tentative steps towards the black creature now rendered stiff and silent. The bat drops to the cement floor, creating a sharp echo in the basement. Muffin is on the floor, blood and entrails out where they shouldn’t be. 

Speechless, Liam looks left and right, as if he might spot another small, black creature with sharp claws that could be responsible for the previous attack. He finally turns back to beg Theo for answers but words fail him when his eyes fall on the mess that is his bloody back. With such wounds, Liam expects Theo to groan or moan in pain but the sound that slowly builds into the scientist’s throat is neither of them: it’s a laugh. It starts low but Theo’s shoulders shake as the laughter becomes powerful enough to make his stomach cramp up. Holding his stomach with one hand and holding himself upward with another on the wall, Theo’s laughing fit doesn’t stop and he finally turns, slamming his damaged back to the wall and lets himself fall down to the ground, his maniacal hilarity only briefly interrupted by a sharp inhale at the contact of his back and the brick wall.   

Blood on his face and his normally pristinely white shirt in tatters, Theo looks all kinds of crazy as he wipes tears of laughter from his eyes, still holding onto his stomach. His whole being is in disorder but it doesn’t seem to procure him any emotion other than amusement.

“Are you okay?” Liam whispers, a bit scared and his heart beating loudly in his chest at the sight. 

“Me?” Theo chuckles some more before finally settling down. “I’m great.”

“You sure? Maybe I should look at your back, it-”

“It’s nothing, Liam!” he cuts him off. Getting back up, Theo bites his tongue so as not to groan in pain. “Now, we have serious things to talk about.”

Liam opens his mouth to stop him because he knows that his back is still bleeding and that Theo probably needs several shots in case of infection but his head is still trying to wrap itself around the ridiculous amount of things that happened in a few minutes. It feels like he barely blinks and then both Liam and Theo are in front of the autopsy table (which Liam didn’t know Theo brought to his basement) staring at the poor state of Muffin. Liam would pinch himself to make sure he’s not dreaming but he’s got enough slashes to know better. Both his arms are pulsing in stinging, warm pain. 

“I thought you said he was dead,” Liam says once he gathers a bit more sense.

“It was!” Theo exclaims with a type of energy that betrays his excitement. “And now it’s dead again!”

Liam frowns. It’s so late, maybe that’s why he doesn’t call bullshit on the whole absurd situation. Instead, he suddenly takes Theo’s arm with an iron hold and he’s not sure if it’s to keep himself upward or to warn Theo not to fuck around right now. 

Theo smiles at him like Liam is being the silly one. “Don’t you see? It's quite simple,” Theo says with the calmness and reason of a man without blood on his face (which isn’t the case). “All life is a physical and chemical process, correct?” Liam rolls his eyes so hard he's giving himself a headache. Now’s not the time for an elementary science class. “It stands to reason, then, that if one could find extremely fresh specimens and recharge that chemical process… Bang! We have re-animation!” 

Despite Theo’s childish joy and him pointing at the cat with enthusiasm, Liam has to bring them back to Reality Land.  

“The theory is not new, Raeken.” The last name slips out of his lips and it’s probably because Hayden uses it all the time... Or maybe it’s because he feels especially vulnerable and he needs some distance, he needs some time to think away from Theo. And yet, Liam doesn’t let go of his arm. 

Theo freezes at the use of his last name but decides to move on instead and he quickly gets a large book on the table. “But my re-agent is. Read! Here!” Theo says frantically before shoving his notes in front of Liam. 

With a sigh, Liam finally leans forward and lets go of Theo to start reading. It's about all his experiments on small animals he either found dead or killed and how he managed to re-animate them. The research is well-detailed and meticulously precise but all Liam can think is… 

“Be honest. Did you kill my cat?” Because he doesn’t care much about the research right now, that’s the only question on his mind and he won’t be able to focus until he knows for sure.

“What? No!” Theo exclaims before turning towards him and speaking more softly. “I wanted to bring it back. For you.” 

Liam isn't sure if he believes him but, if Theo wanted to get rid of his cat, there would have been easier and subtler ways to do it. 

“Don’t you understand?” Theo says, underwhelmed by Liam’s reaction. “I've broken the 6-12 minute barrier. I've conquered brain death!” 

With a scoff, Liam shakes his head. “That was not life.” 

“But it was!” 

“It was feral! Totally out of control! It wasn't Muffin!” Liam says, confident in his statement, but his hands shyly go back to the book and he flips through the pages with a curiosity he’s trying his best to suppress.

Theo shakes his head slightly. “The dosage is still to be refined and, yes, the... violence of the test subjects is a problem... but scientific research wouldn't be research if we got everything right on the first try, right? We just need to work on it.” 

Liam stops going through the notebook. “We?” 

“Of course! I need you to help me.” 

“Help you!?” Liam screams, outraged. “This is insanity!”

Theo pretends he didn’t hear that last statement and puts a hand on Liam to get his attention. “You're the perfect person to assist me. You're hard-working, bright, people like and respect you, and you have access to certain... authorities.” Liam still isn’t persuaded so Theo decides to use the big guns. “Liam, we can defeat death!” 

“In my dusty basement. With no money. No-” 

“This is every doctor's dream! Think of all the lives you could save! Isn't this what you want?” 

“This... this isn't even legal,” Liam stutters, trying to ignore the blooming hope in his chest, an irrational and horrible blooming hope, “this isn't sanctioned, no authority will respect the work-” 

“Legal? Authority? I'm talking about defying nature and God and you're thinking of paperwork?” Theo takes a step back, looking at him with disgust for a second, which is a reaction Liam has seen plenty of times on Theo’s face but it has never been directed at him before. 

“I'm... I'm just trying to think…” 

“Then think of all the brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and children we'd save with this! No more people being left alone with their grief.” Theo finally gets closer to Liam, so close to his face Liam can only look at him. He puts both of his hands on Liam’s shoulders as he looks him right in the eyes for the final nail in the coffin. “No more pets left behind, wondering where their owners have gone.” 

Liam’s eyes widen in longing. Theo can’t help a smile knowing that he has Liam exactly where he wants: in the palm of his hand.

“I've done all I can here,” Theo says, letting Liam go and walking around with a newfound lightness in his chest now that they’re both on the same side. “I need a new lab space.” 

But instead of suggestions or a simple sign of agreement, Theo is met with silence. Frowning, he turns back and looks at Liam who seems hesitant. 

“You will help me,” he says, certain. 

“N-No!” 

“Why? Because it's ‘mad’?” Theo says with mockery, using quotation marks on a word that is actually pretty spot on and meaningful in this situation.

“Yes! Mad and impossible!” Liam exclaims, dumbfounded that he has to be the rational one here.  

Theo’s expression turns cold at Liam’s words. Letting out a frustrated sigh, Theo decides that they’re done going around in circles.  “How can you say that? You've seen the results!” 

“No... Muffin wasn't dead to begin with. You drugged him... lowered his body temperature, his vital signs were too low, too faint, so I thought... He wasn't dead! He can’t have been.”

“Do you agree that it's dead now?” Theo says with another sigh before harshly taking the petrified body of the cat and making it fall on the table with a loud Bang!. When Liam still doesn’t answer and only stares at Theo, Theo stares back and exclaims, “Do you?!” 

Liam finally looks away and nods. 

“Great,” Theo says bitterly and leaves the table to fetch a syringe and a bottle of the neon green liquid Liam saw earlier in his fridge. 

“Raeken…” Liam sighs but then shakes his head and starts again with a pleading voice. “Theo, wait.” 

Theo doesn't wait and takes some of the weird serum with the syringe. 

“Stop,” Liam whimpers. 

Theo doesn’t stop.

“I'll show you,” he says, resolute. “Then you'll help me.” 

“No…” Liam says weakly, paying only half a mind to his own words, growing restless at the possibility that this strange liquid could actually give life back to the dead. 

“Yes, you will!” Theo says with an authority that makes Liam shiver. The serum in the syringe, held close to the disheveled scientist, shines in an uncanny green light, its rays reaching him and giving his face a supernatural hue and, his eyes, a strange glint. Hayden’s words about Theo not being human come back to Liam’s mind for a second. 

The scientist moves the cat and inserts the syringe at the back of its neck, directly into the brain. Glancing to his left, Theo sees Liam watching the specimen expectantly, metaphorically at the edge of his seat, and Theo knows that, once Liam sees the results, he’ll have him. He needs to have him! 

“It shouldn’t attack again, it has a broken back,” Theo says, his voice much calmer now that he knows everything will be revealed and Liam will join his side. 

“Shouldn’t?” Liam asks, growing a bit more worried, but there’s a hint of amusement in his tone and Theo smiles.

Looking at his watch and taking his notebook, Theo doesn’t look at the cat when he hears faint meows of distress, he looks at Liam. They’re very close now and Theo sees every micro-expression of Liam’s wonder and awe. It’s such a beautiful sight, Theo finds himself moved by Liam’s fascination. In a strange and intimate way, Theo feels relieved.

“Is he in pain?” Liam whispers, his eyes glued to the cat coming back to life with painful breaths and its limbs spasming.

Theo finally takes his eyes off of him for just a moment to write the time of rebirth in his log book but those few seconds are entirely too long and it’s almost desperate when he looks back at Liam. “Birth is always painful,” he tells the man in front of him. His words are a soft whisper against Liam’s cheek and it makes him blink for a few seconds before looking back at Theo. 

The fascination in Liam’s eyes doesn’t fade away as he lays his gaze on Theo. If anything, his expression grows even fonder. There’s barely a few inches between them but Liam is struck by the needy feeling that it is too great a distance. With a smile on his lips, Liam opens his mouth to say something but his trance is suddenly broken by the cat shrieking in pain. 

Liam turns towards the cat but only for a second, as if he forgot what was happening, before looking right back at Theo. “It was dead!” Liam softly exclaims, both amazed and horrified. 

“Twice,” Theo adds with a warm grin. Sharing a long eye contact, Liam’s lips slowly start to shift into a copy of Theo’s.

A horrified cry from behind them makes them both jump and they’re completely bewildered to see Hayden there in complete shock. The softness of the moment is immediately broken. 

“Muffin!! Is he… How did…” she says before looking at the two men in front of her.

“What are you doing here?” Liam exclaims because it’s the middle of the night and there are several reasons why she shouldn’t be here right now.  

“But he was... he was…” she says, completely ignoring him to continue staring at the moving cadaver, speechless. 

“Let's go upstairs!” Liam says quickly, trying to block the cat from her line of sight. 

“What the…” She’s still staring at the thing. “What is that? What did you do to Muffin!?” she screams at Theo. “You monster!” 

Liam drags her upstairs and Theo can tell she’s still screaming and that Liam’s attempts at calming her down are not working. Theo’s expression grows sour as he takes a few deep breaths to calm the fury he feels inside. She fucked up his plans! Again! Closing his notebook with more force than necessary, his mouth twists itself into a nasty pout. 

He goes through all the possible scenarios that could unfold now that Hayden saw what she saw… They’re all bad, of course, but at least one of them brings him some serenity. “What are the chances he breaks up with her, you think?” he asks the agonizing cat. 

He doesn’t even pretend to wait for an answer.

“You're right. She's more likely to do it. Hopefully, she's mad enough to do it. Now… thanks for the show and the scars on my back, bitch,” Theo hisses before delivering a hard blow to the cat’s head, killing it once more.  

And then, he writes down the time of death in his log book.

Dean Romero always made an effort to stay calm and dignified at his school. He understood from a young age that no one gets high on the ladder by being emotional or rude. Composure was always his top priority, no matter if he was a medical student or the Dean of Medicine. He was known by all of his employees and previous employers to have nerves of steel…

But this is about his daughter.

“Hayden came back last night crying, in complete hysterics! But I’m not jumping to conclusions, Dunbar, I know there must be a logical and reasonable explanation for all this chaos,” the Dean says rather menacingly, letting Liam know that there better be a clean and simple reason for his little Hayden to be so shaken. 

Liam squirms in his seat, wiping the sweat off his forehead. Is the Dean really willing to listen to his side of the story? He thought Dean Romero would wait for him with a gun when he was asked to get to his office this morning! This is great! If he just tells him what happened then maybe everything will be okay.

“Theo Raeken has accomplished to re-animate dead animal tissue,” Liam says, eager to come clean to the Dean and fix the problem.

The Dean is stunned for a second and then a shadow creeps over his face. A deep and low sigh passes through his flaring nostrils and Liam has the weird impression that this was the wrong thing to say. Dean Romero looks at the young man with disappointment, like Liam saw the kind offer of a way out and then shut it down himself. Liam curses mentally when he sees all the restrained patience and the ghost of any familiarity leave the man’s face. Dean Romero might as well have gotten out his gun. 

“I didn’t expect such nonsense from you but I guess I should’ve known you weren’t to be trusted when you started keeping company with Raeken,” he hisses through gritted teeth, shaking his head. 

“No, no, I’m not making this up! I’ve seen the results! Hayden too, just ask her!”

The Dean gets up from his chair in outrage. “I will not let you involve her in any of your crazy schemes!” He waits until he’s sure Dunbar won’t say anything back but Liam is simply looking at the floor, shaking slightly. Satisfied, Dean Romero sits back in his chair and clears his throat before continuing. “Tomorrow morning, you will submit to me a written apology for this entire affair! The ‘experiments’ were clearly beyond the scope of your legitimate studies. They’ve obviously interfered with your ability to do your class work… and to use your brain.” The Dean leans forward to make sure Liam understands the severity of his threat. “If any equipment from the hospital or from the laboratories of Miskatonic University were involved in any of this unauthorized activity, criminal charges will be pressed. You will, in any case, have your scholarship rescinded.” 

Liam could probably see his life crumbling to pieces if his eyes weren’t filled with tears. He tries really hard to keep it all in.

“My scholarship?” he manages to say even though he can’t breathe. The Dean doesn’t even spare him another look. “But I won’t be able to continue school.”

“As for Mr. Raeken, he need submit no apology,” the Dean adds as if he heard nothing. “You may tell him that he may continue with his research without the impediment of an education. As of now, he is no longer a student of this university.”

Liam stutters on a few words, unable to form a complete sentence. He can’t even get himself to think! The Dean has to reconsider. He can’t- He… If the Dean doesn’t change his mind, then he can’t continue school. He won’t have his diploma. What the fuck is he gonna do? What is he gonna do! 

“If this is about Hayden, she-”

“Hayden is no longer your concern, Mr Dunbar, and if I hear her name in your mouth one more time, you will meet Mr Raeken’s same fate.” 

“What!? But we’re-”

With a predatory glare, it’s almost as if the Dean is waiting for him to say something else so he can expel his ass. Liam flees the room before he can cry in front of him.

The floor isn’t as steady as it was when he came in, the doorknob feels like empty air under his palm and the clamor that normally reaches the waiting room of the Dean’s office turns into high-pitched ringing in Liam’s ears. He’s pretty sure the door is closed behind him but he can’t move again. He’s stuck there, his legs growing weak under the heavy weight of his heart squeezing. 

“You don’t have to tell me, I heard him scream my expulsion through the door,” Theo says with an indifferent sigh. Liam jumps, seeing him waiting for him on a chair, his legs crossed, looking bored.

Liam wants to say something, he wants to scream or, at least, he wants to leave but he’s stuck there, both of his legs paralyzed and his mouth open. Numbness pools into his blood like a powerful analgesic. He lost everything. In 5 minutes, he lost everything. 

And it’s all Dean Romero’s fault!

Heat makes it back into his every cell as rage replaces numbness and his hands clench into fists, his jaw shuts tightly, his shoulders tense, and his face becomes red. Liam is shaking in anger. He hasn’t felt this type of blind fury in years. He thought it was all in the past, but he now realizes it was only dormant.

“I’m gonna fuck up his car,” Liam says, resolute.

Theo looks surprised by his statement but not as surprised as the Dean’s assistant. With a chuckle concealed by him clearing his throat, Theo gets on his feet and gently drags Liam out of the waiting room with a smile.

“He’s kidding. He doesn’t mean it. He’s just upset,” he tells the assistant as he guides Liam away, both hands firmly on his shoulders to move someone who definitely doesn’t want to be moved. 

They barely made it out and into the corridor that Liam suddenly shakes himself out of Theo’s hold. He’s boiling with rage but it seems that’s not a concern to Theo. He almost looks amused, his eyes sparkling with something Liam hasn’t seen before. With a frustrated sigh, Liam looks away.

“I wasn’t kidding,” Liam growls.

“Yes, you were,” Theo says like it’s more of an order than a fact. “He’ll throw you in jail if you do it. But before you say that you don’t care about that…” Theo looks around before continuing with a bright smile. “I have a better idea than wrecking his car.”

The way to the morgue is clear but it always is. Why would someone hang out in the basement of the hospital? Someone beside Finstock… And the man is paid to be there, not that he’s really present. 

But it doesn’t matter, Liam still feels sweat running down his temple as he pushes the gurney towards the morgue’s doors. He keeps his eyes firmly away from the security guard and tries to remember what he usually does when he normally brings bodies down here. 

“You working today, Dunbar?” Finstock suddenly says and Liam thinks it’s honestly the first time he heard him say something relevant. He didn’t even know the guard knew his name!

“Yep,” he says, trying to look casual as he points to himself wearing his scrubs. 

Why would Finstock ask such an obvious question!? What does he mean by that? What is happening? Does he know? How did the information of his expulsion spread so quickly? Is there no sports match playing? At all? On all the channels?

Finstock gets up with a groan and Liam tries to avoid his intense eye contact. 

“Another one, uh?” the security guard asks a bit languidly, making his slow way to Liam and the gurney.  

Is he bored? What the hell is happening?

“Yes…” 

“Anyone I know?” Finstock says a bit humorously as he reaches for the sheet over the cadaver.

Liam immediately slaps his hand away and clears his throat, faking to be laid-back when he can literally hear his own brain screaming. “I sure hope not! It’s a… a mess under there. Real ugly mess. Bloody.”

Finstock blinks at him for a few seconds and then breaks into a smile, patting Liam a bit aggressively on the arm. 

“I always thought you were okay, Dunbar,” Finstock says enigmatically with a grin. 

Liam is weirdly touched by that. 

“Now, I need to go get some coffee so you stay around and make sure no joker tries to go through those doors, alright?” Finstock tells him, pointing to the morgue doors.

“Absolutely! No one… No one will illegally go through here! That’s for sure. Not… Not on my watch!” He salutes Finstock nervously and thinks it might be weird but then Finstock salutes him right back with all the patriotism of the US Army. Then, the security guard turns and hits the elevator button. 

Having learned his lesson, Liam keeps the door open by leaning on it with his back and only struggles a little bit to get the gurney inside the morgue. As soon as the doors are closed behind them, Theo sits up on the gurney and takes the sheet off his face.

“‘Real ugly mess’?” Theo immediately says, obviously offended by what Liam said to Finstock. 

“I panicked!”

“You don’t say!”

“Just hurry up!” Liam scolds him, helping get the sheet off of his body. “We need to do this fast.”

Liam is already opening the door to the refrigerated part of the morgue, weirdly focused for once. Theo thought he’d be nervous about this but it seems his anger is still helping him push through. Almost impressed, Theo gets on his feet and follows him. All they need is a fresh-ish dead body without any big injury that could prevent the re-agent from working. So when Theo checks the few potential test subjects and finds a burn victim, a murder victim with a shotgun wound to the head, and a rotten skeleton, he lets out a groan. Even Liam is growing impatient and Theo knows he’s got only about a few minutes before Liam’s overwhelming compassion starts working again. 

That’s when he finds the perfect corpse. Arrived that day, John Doe, no record of any damage,... 

“It’s almost perfect,” Theo whispers to himself.

“Why almost?”

“Could be heart damage… But it doesn’t matter,” he adds when he sees Liam starting to tap his foot. “All we need tonight is a specific, conscious reaction. Now, he’s been dead for hours. Any evidence of re-animated consciousness will justify proceeding.” 

Theo shoves the recorder in Liam’s hands. 

“Start the recorder and make the entry, we’ll transcribe it into the log later!”

Blinking his confusion away, Liam hesitates for a second before starting the recording. Mentally, he’s still in the Dean’s office. 

“October… 10th. It’s close to 4 pm, I guess… Subject is male.”

“Age?” Theo says as he prepares a syringe of re-agent. The bottle of bright neon green looks like a tiny lighthouse in the dim room. 

“Early thirties? He appears to have been in excellent physical condition. No external damage to the body visible. Apparent cause of death…” The mechanical list of points helps Liam get more focus but as soon as he stumbles in his description, all of his nervousness comes back and his voice starts shaking. “What’s the cause of death?”

“Heart failure!” Theo tells him again.

Liam nods one, two, three times before he remembers to say it into the recorder. “Right. Heart… heart failure.”

“The time is 4:33 pm,” Theo says, looking at his watch.

“Time is 4:33 pm,” Liam repeats, trying to find some sense of normalcy back. He stares at Theo lifting the head of the John Doe. “15 ccs of re-agent being administered.” 

As he watches Theo injecting this dead man with his re-agent, he suddenly wonders what the fuck he’s doing there. He was supposed to be a doctor. He was supposed to marry Hayden. He was supposed to be a normal, successful, thriving adult. What the fuck is he doing in the dark, putting strange chemicals into non-consenting dead human bodies? He slowly realizes that he’s not in the Dean’s office anymore. His entire life did crumble. It’s not crumbling, he’s actually walking in the ruins of his already fucked up life and powering on the jackhammer. 

What is he gonna tell his mom?

“I told you not to take it out on Liam! You don’t have the authority to-”

“I do have the authority!” Hayden’s dad stops her with a firm tone and an even firmer eye contact. “He’s working - he worked - in my hospital and you are my daughter!” Dean Romero turns to look at the Chief Nurse sitting at the reception desk of the emergency room. “Melissa, I need you to pass the word. Liam Dunbar is no longer allowed to work in this hospital. He can’t work, he can’t observe. He’s not even allowed in the staff room to get back his things, is that clear?” 

“What about the morgue?” Melissa asks him, her attention split on three different files and not really having any time to give her boss. 

“What about it?”

She frowns at him and then points at the corridor they’re standing in. “He just passed by, he was headed for the morgue, I think.” 

The Dean freezes for a second, biting his tongue as he tries to keep his cool. There are too many witnesses for him to completely lose it here. Turning back to look at Hayden, he puts a vicious finger in her face. 

“You’re getting an arranged marriage and that’s that!” 

Hayden would probably tell him to go fuck himself if she wasn’t so speechless at her father’s archaic thinking. Just when she finally opens her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, her father looks back at the nurse. “Pass me the goddamn phone!” 

Melissa gives him a bit of the stink eye but passes him the phone nonetheless. 

“He completely lost it…” Dean Romero mumbles to himself as he puts the morgue’s extension number and waits for someone to pick up. “I’ll take his ass to court…”

“Dad, can you stop for a second and listen to-” Hayden tries once again, like she’s been trying all day.

“Shut up!” he screams, losing his cool.

Hayden stays there, red in the face from anger and outrage. She doesn’t spare the patients and employees around them a single look. This is between her and her dad. Still, she doesn’t say anything, knowing that it will only bring her a worse reaction.

“Finstock is on duty,” Melissa tells the Dean after a few seconds, just long enough to make sure her boss wastes a bit of his time and to send Hayden a warm and compassionate smile. 

The Dean hangs up the phone immediately, not bothering to finish the call. He points at Hayden and, with a deep, angry voice, exclaims, “Sit down! I’ll come back for you when I’m done!” 

“But maybe he-”

“Sit! Down!” 

“Time?”

Liam doesn’t know why Theo is asking him since he’s the one wearing a watch. Still, he checks on Theo’s watch while the scientist continues staring intensely at the cadaver.

“15 seconds,” he tells him.

Theo groans. “Something should’ve happened by now!”

In the corridor, the phone rings twice. 

“It’s not working, we gotta go!” Liam says quickly, walking to the door and looking into the morgue to make sure it’s empty before closing it again.

Theo doesn’t move an inch and sighs frustratedly before getting the bottle of re-agent again. “Obviously, the human dosage is unknown. Increasing the dosage of re-agent. 20 ccs of-”

“Theo, let’s go!”

“No!” Theo shouts back, cradling the head of the John Doe to inject some more of the green fluid. The movements are surprisingly gentle even if Theo is obviously pissed.

They both wait by the body for ten long, heavy seconds.

“Listen,” Liam says, his voice softer to finally get Theo to do what he says, “we failed. Now, we know it’s not 35 ccs. Great! We gotta go!”

The look Theo sends him is downright desperate as he points to the cadaver. “He failed! Not me !”

“Liam Dunbar, please report to the security desk. Liam Dunbar, to the security desk,” the intercom screeches into every room. 

“Cover him up! We’re going!” Liam exclaims, feeling the walls close in on him.

Theo groans but furiously covers the body up. The sheet barely touches John Doe’s forehead that the dead man jerks alive with an agonizing scream. Liam lets go of the recorder to cover his ears and Theo’s smile is quickly wiped off his face when the rising dead strikes him and makes his whole body hit the nearest wall with a loud crack!.

Liam would ask him if he’s okay but he’s a little bit more concerned about the living corpse being suddenly on its own two legs and throwing the metal table it was lying on at his face. Barely dodging the hit, Liam lets out a less-than-virile scream as he crouches to the ground and tries to make his way to where Theo landed but tables and dead bodies are being propelled everywhere as Alive Again John Doe continues throwing his heavy naked body around with deafening cries. 

“Stop!” Theo shouts at the feral man. 

And it does stop… for a second before it tries to punch Theo’s skull into the wall.

Caught in a tempest of violence and wailing, it’s totally by chance that Theo and Liam end up being thrown at the same wall, sharing a mental “yikes” as they glance at each other for a second. Then, the animalistic screams continue and Liam is getting pretty frustrated of being treated like a doll and decides to do something to stop it. He takes the first thing he sees that could be considered a weapon.

“What are you doing?” Theo hisses like Liam is being stupid right now.

“Something!” Liam replies, holding the broom like a baseball bat. “And stop smiling, we’re getting our asses kicked!”

Just as he’s about to hit the living dead man’s back, there are loud bangs on the door.

“Dunbar! Open that door right now! You’re in so much trouble, don’t make it worse!” Dean Romero’s screams are muffled by the door but they still make Liam shiver despite his skin already being cold.

Alive Again John Doe is still twisting and turning, not caring about the wounds it causes on its own body. Still moaning in pain, it’s momentarily distracted by the difficult task of ripping the burn victim in half. Liam doesn’t know what’s worse, the sound or the smell.  

“Get help!!!” Liam shouts loudly instead of opening the door. The only thing worse than being stuck with a feral dead body brought back to life in a little room would probably be that very same creature escaping said room. 

But, of course, the Dean doesn’t go and get help.

“Is Raeken in there with you?!” Dean Romero shouts as he continues pounding on the door. And he says many more unsavory things, but it’s hard to take it seriously when there’s a literal alive corpse, looking at them with murderous intent, spitting blood, its veins all hideously bulging out.

The dead man pounces and Liam yanks Theo out of the way just in time not to get smashed by a raging entity. Turns out that was for the best because the force of Alive Again John Doe is so grand, it takes the heavy metal door off its hinges and makes a loud crunching noise as it falls on top of something. As if that wasn’t enough, the alive corpse jumps on top of it a few times before ripping the door off and raising the agonizing Dean up by his lapels.

Liam is helping Theo get out of the refrigerated area when he sees his ex-almost-father-in-law raised in the air, completely disheveled, his face bloody, and one of his arms facing the wrong way. As if that wasn’t enough, Alive Again John Doe starts biting the hand that Dean Romero is trying to use to push its face away. Liam stays there, paralyzed, as he watches the blood splashing everywhere and the Dean screaming, and screaming, and screaming senselessly before losing consciousness.

The alive corpse throws the Dean against the wall like it’s nothing but a broken toy. Liam finally remembers that he can move and he sprints and punches the mountain of tense muscles. It seems John Doe’s nerve endings didn’t quite come back to life and the dead body continues choking the Dean as if it didn’t feel a thing. 

“Stop! For God’s sake, stop!” Liam shouts as he continues hitting it.

“Liam…” Theo says from behind him with a weirdly calm voice, as if he was merely tired. “Step away.”

Liam shifts just in time to see Theo turn on the electric bone saw in his hands. He quickly walks away.

Wrapping his arm around its neck to keep it close, Theo jams the bone saw in its back. The living corpse lets go of the Dean and starts squirming his excruciating way out of Theo’s grip but it seems the pain is finally getting to it. It struggles for a few long seconds in Theo’s hold as the bone saw makes its perfect way from his back to his bloody and glistering chest.

The body falls to the floor next to the Dean and Theo’s shirt, which was sprinkled with a few blood drops before, is now more red than white. Theo stops the saw and moves his arm up and down a few times because it’s dripping with blood. The threat finally dealt with, Liam’s legs give way and, leaning against a stool, he sits on the floor, his eyes unable to look away from the scene in front of him. 

Theo calmly gets to the Dean’s body and tells Liam something about the recorder but everything is turning to mush around him so he’s not sure what. There’s so much blood everywhere! Liam almost jumps when he sees the blood on his own hands. 

Hesitating between staying close to the Dean and being close to Liam, Theo finds a compromise by dragging Dean Romero’s body closer to where Liam is sitting. 

“Did you see? It heard me!” Theo says proudly to Liam as he glances at the pile of blood and skin that is now Dead Again John Doe.

“What? No, you... You made a sound and it turned! He… he heard you like an animal would!” he stutters, pushing himself to speak only to shut down Theo’s stupid statement.

Animal. That’s the only word for it.

Theo tilts his head as if thinking about it. “You may be right. It- it probably had been dead too long. It wasn’t fresh enough! We probably only revived the senses, the instincts, so c’mon, help me get him up.” 

Liam follows Theo’s look but he doesn’t move nor let go of the stool he’s clutching for dear life. He doesn’t think he could. His hands are so cold. His whole body is cold. 

“Is he dead?” he asks, looking at the Dean.

“Obviously! Will you give me a hand now? He interrupted an important experiment in progress. Granted, it was an accident. But a lucky one! This is the freshest body that we could come across save of killing one ourselves and every moment spent talking about it costs us results! Now, will you help me?” Theo exclaims, his breath angry in exhaustion and impatience.

Liam doesn’t move. He looks at the ground. He feels so cold. He hates it when people scream at him. What is he doing? What is he doing? What is he gonna tell his mom?

After stopping his attempt to get the Dean on the autopsy table by himself, Theo finally looks at Liam. Letting the body drop like a sack of potatoes, Theo kneels down right in front of Liam so he’s all that the other man can see. His voice is completely changed and sweet when he speaks again. “We can bring him back to life, Liam.”

They stare at each other as the words finally make it to Liam’s panicked brain. Seeing hope, Liam finally gets on his feet and helps Theo get Dean Romero on the table.

And they do it all again. Liam gets the recorder, Theo gets the re-agent. Having learned their lesson the hard way, they tie the Dean’s hands and legs to the table before Theo inserts 15 ccs of re-agent right into his nape, where the spine meets the brain. 

And in the few seconds it takes for Theo to administer the serum, Liam is yet again on the floor like his legs can’t support him any longer. 

“5 seconds,” Theo says, looking at his watch, out of breath.

“5 seconds,” Liam repeats distantly in the recorder.

“C’mon!!! I’ll show you!” Theo exclaims at the corpse before checking his watch again. “15 seconds.”

“15 se-”

“17 seconds! Re-animation at 17 seconds! The eyes opened! Dean? Dean Romero! Dean… welcome back to life,” Theo says softly and happily as blood slowly drips from the corpse’s mouth.

“Dad? Liam?” a voice down the corridor asks.

“Damn the bitch!” Theo sighs loudly.

Liam frowns. “Hayden?” he asks before a powerful hand suddenly gets around his throat, choking him with unnatural strength.

“Liam? Is everything alright?” Hayden asks worriedly from outside the morgue. 

“Do not open the-” Theo starts before being choked too by the Dean’s other hand which made it out of the restraints like butter.

Hayden opens the doors and makes it inside just in time to see a bloody version of her father holding and raising Liam and Theo in the air by their necks. 

“No!!!” she shouts, paralyzed by the inexplicable scene.

The Dean immediately lets go of both of them, grumbling like an animal in pain as he quickly walks into the corner like a child being scolded. Theo and Liam cough loudly, holding their throats as they struggle to get back on their feet.

“Dad! What are you doing? What’s-” Hayden says, taking a few hesitant steps towards him.

Liam almost trips on his own two feet as he struggles to get in front of her. “Don’t go near him! He’s-”

And as if it couldn’t get any worse, Finstock is back!

“What the fuck happened here?” Finstock exclaims, more puzzled than alarmed at the bloody wreck that is the morgue. “Dunbar, wh-? Wait, who is that?” He points at the little ball of whimpering in the corner of the room. “You know what?” he suddenly stops himself before anyone can answer him, getting both of his arms in the air. “I’m just gonna… I’m gonna head out and call the cops and um… I’ll wait for… I’ll wait outside,” he adds, walking backwards, obviously uneasy. “For the cops.

Before Finstock can go back to the safety of the corridor, Theo slides in between him and the door, blocking his only way out. 

“That’s Dean Romero, sir,” Theo says with a much more frightened voice than at any point today, his breathing rushed by fear. “You see, I came here to visit my good friend Liam over there as he was working and the Dean, he just… he came in here and he started ranting at us rather irrationally. He-”

“No!” Hayden exclaims, more because she believes Raeken could never tell the truth even if he tried (which he wouldn’t) and because she can’t believe such a scenario than anything else. Still, she saw what she saw so she’s not ready to proclaim her dad’s innocence. She joins Theo to be in front of Finstock, trying to bring some logic back into the conversation before Raeken can have his way. “He was just angry! He- Dad!” she screams, looking at the man still sitting in the corner and whimpering, asking for an explanation that’s not coming. “What happened!?”

The security guard is still eying the door, hoping for a quick escape but there’s still something bugging him. He points to the naked dead body covered in blood on the ground. “And… who… who is that?”

Theo unconsciously moves towards Dead Again John Doe, probably to hide the body behind him so the guard can’t get a good look at it. “Um, that’s just a corpse, sir. See, the Dean grabbed it and, well, he went crazy,” he says, pointing to the bone saw.

Letting out a nervous sigh, Finstock turns towards the man sitting in the corner. “Dean Romero? Is- Is that true?” 

Dean Romero barely manages to turn his head and, with a brief hint of consciousness in his eyes, he speaks again. “Arrest them!” he mumbles, his voice weirdly guttural.

Finstock, seeing the door now mostly unblocked, takes this as his cue. “Right. Like I said… Calling the police!” he blurts out before running out. 

Liam sees Hayden make her way to her dad, in tears. He also sees the Dean still curled up and making pained moans. And then he sees the ground as he falls to his knees and starts shaking uncontrollably. Liam’s brain finally snaps and, next thing he knows, he’s in a fetal position on the dirty floor. All of a sudden, he doesn’t know where he is, almost as if he can see but the image doesn’t connect to any memory. All he knows is that his body is so so cold and he’s so tired.

It takes him a few seconds to feel the blanket suddenly around him and hands tucking him into an even tighter ball. It takes everything in Liam to look up and he doesn’t know what to feel when he sees Theo so close. His brain doesn’t seem too concerned about the blood on his roommate’s face but he can’t really take his eyes off the simple and honest smile he wears. 

“It’s shock,” Theo says clearly to Liam’s face as he hugs him for additional warmth. His voice is calm and soothing as he adds, “don't worry.”

Liam is still shaking so he hangs on to Theo’s hands around him before lying his head back against the floor. He’s so tired and his lungs and heart are racing, making him only more tired in the process. He can’t focus on anything. Everything hurts and nothing does at the same time. But there are two hands on him. That, he’s sure of. Two warm hands.  

It’s much later that night when Liam and Theo make it home, both of them quiet after the eventful day they had. Theo talked to the police and it seems that they bought his story. Now, they’re in the bathroom. Theo is taking care of cleaning up Liam’s face and arms, and making sure the few slashes he gained today are properly bandaged and disinfected. He was going to let Liam do it but, when he saw his roommate heading to his bedroom, he realized he would have to do it himself. 

With his face clean again, the fog around Liam slowly fades away. When reality snaps back into place, he’s staring at Theo applying a bandage over one of the cuts on his right arm. He’s not even sure if the wound is from today or from his fight with Muffin yesterday. Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s all the same. 

With nothing else occupying his thoughts, Liam quickly becomes captivated by how still and skillful Theo’s hands are. It’s the only part of Theo that isn’t caked in blood right now. 

“You would’ve made a good doctor,” Liam finds himself saying, his voice still a bit distant. 

Theo’s hands stop for a second, hovering over the gauze with the medical tape. But it only takes a second for Theo’s fingers to go back to work, his touch firm but not painful. Liam’s mind almost has the time to forget what he previously said before Theo responds.

“You’re the first person to say that.”

“Really?” Liam asks, raising his eyes in surprise. 

Theo nods, his expression closed and unreadable.

Liam finds that surprising. Theo is so knowledgeable. He barely has to study, he constantly corrects their teachers, and… well… he created the re-agent. His attitude surely is a problem but Liam finds it hard to believe that no one ever praised him for his incomparable grasp of medicine. 

A silence stretches in the dim and quiet room as Theo continues his careful work. Liam stares at him, he can’t help it. Theo always seems so distant and he often wears this air of otherworldly superiority but, here, right now, it feels completely different. They’re so close Liam can see each eyelash, the beauty mark on his cheek, and how his nose is just slightly crooked. For once, Theo looks human and Liam can’t take his eyes away.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now. As your only patient, only my opinion matters anyway,” Liam reasons, his voice hushed because of the close distance between them.  

Theo breaks into a private smile and Liam sees every second of it. It makes him feel all warm inside. Slowly, Theo raises his head to meet his eyes and, even if he sees every microsecond of it, Liam is still surprised when he feels Theo’s lips on his.

It’s been a while since he kissed someone other than Hayden but this feels very different in a whole new way. The numbness only starting to leave his being, the kiss is like a burning pulse of sensations and Liam gets lost in it. Chasing the feeling of Theo’s lips on his over and over again, it takes him a while before he realizes that the reason why this might be so unlike anything he felt before is because Theo is a man. 

His brain cells finally clocking back in, Liam quickly pulls away, tripping over his own breathing as he comes to terms with what he just did. What they just did. 

Liam never… He’s not… 

And it’s not like he’s against those types of people! His best friend growing up was into… that stuff and Liam never said anything, he never snitched on him. He always thought “to each their own” but… but he wasn’t supposed to be an “each”. 

And now… now that he understands. Now that he feels this sudden urge to close the distance again and to kiss Theo until he can’t think… Now, the only thing coming out of his mouth is what he’s been hearing all his life. 

“Why- We can’t do that, Theo! That’s not natural!” 

Theo smirks, rubbing a thumb on his cheek and Liam melts into it. “In case you haven’t noticed, Liam, I’m not interested in what’s natural,” he says, his voice low, before kissing Liam again. Liam sighs in relief, secretly hoping he’d do just that. Immediately leaning into the kiss, Liam grabs a handful of Theo’s dumb, bloodstained white shirt, ruining it even more to keep Theo as close as he can.

An undetermined amount of time later, they both freeze when they hear a loud banging noise coming from the basement.

They pull away and glance at each other, surprised. 

“Muffin?”

“Muffin’s dead,” Theo reminds him with some sass.

“Didn’t stop him before…”

Theo tilts his head like Liam might have a point.

Chapter Text

The second Liam sees what’s going on in the basement, he lets out an agonizing sigh and painfully walks back up a few stairs.

“No. I’m done. I’m going to sleep. Damn this.”

Theo doesn’t even try to stop him but it has less to do with respecting his boundaries and more about Dr Harris being in their basement, going through his sacred notebook. 

“Get your greasy plagiarist hands off my damn log!” Theo barks, a hint of rare and genuine panic in his eyes.

Liam makes a quiet frustrated scream and heads back downstairs, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Why couldn’t Harris do his evil intimidating act (or whatever he obviously has planned) tomorrow?! What’s wrong with tomorrow? 

“I’m simply searching for answers, Mr Raeken. I had a feeling you’d know why Dean Romero’s heart fibrillated... Why his pulse is erratic…” Dr Harris’ voice is disinterested but loud enough to control the room and to send Liam into fight or flight once more.

“I’ve told everything I know to the police, now unhand my logbook!” 

“Why he cries out in pain…” Dr Harris continues.

“Please leave,” Liam groans, more to himself since he knows Dr Harris won’t do it.

“...when we both know he’s dead,” Dr Harris finally concludes, staring right into Theo’s eyes.

Theo stays silent as he walks down the last few stairs and stops in front of his ex-teacher. Liam follows him but pauses on the last step. He feels weirdly obsolete in this conversation. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel on edge as he watches the battle of wills in front of him. There’s no way this doesn’t end badly.

“I’ll be brief. The only reason I haven’t called the cops to let them know is because I want your discovery. Your research,” Dr Harris says simply. 

Liam’s eyes widen. Wow. That’s bold. And stupid! Has this guy even met Theo? What the hell did he think would happen? That he’d just give him his log? The beating heart of his obsession? Liam didn’t believe Theo before when he badtalked their teacher but, wow, Dr Harris really is stupid!

Just as he suspected, Theo bursts out into a fit of mocking laughter. Laughing but not saying anything, Theo walks a few steps closer to Harris, sending all kinds of alarms in Liam’s mind. Theo loooooves to monologue. So what is happening? Liam should probably do something but he doesn’t really know how he could help. He ends up leaving the stairs so he wouldn’t block them in case a miracle happens and Dr Harris decides to leave the house and save them all from a more-than-probable bloodbath. Liam already had one today, thank you! 

“I want everything you have. Everything that gives the dead the appearance of life,” Dr Harris says, keeping his cool even under Theo’s fierce glare. 

“It is not the appearance of life!” Theo hisses. “It is life! This isn’t some party trick and you wouldn’t be interested if it was.” 

Harris smirks as he considers him. 

“I’ll have you locked up as a madman… or a murderer,” he says calmly with a menacing smile. “You give me your research and you’ll still be free to work on whatever you want. Refuse and, well… You won’t get to hold a pen for the rest of your life, much less lab equipment.” 

Silence falls on the room as Theo stares at Dr Harris, a man with such a pristine reputation here in the States that it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to take after Romero as the Dean. 

“I’m right here!” Liam exclaims suddenly, shattering the tension, their staring contest, and the silence. “Aren’t you gonna threaten me too?” 

“Who cares about you?” Harris spits out, barely turning to look at him. 

Oh, fuck this! In his exhausted state, Liam’s anger takes a particularly violent edge and he walks past Theo to get to Harris and shake him by the lapels. 

“I’m in the room, you dick! And you’re preventing me from getting some much-needed sleep right now! The least you can do is try to threaten me too!”

In the commotion, Theo takes advantage of the distraction and snatches his log back. As soon as he has his hands on his precious notebook, he puts it against his chest as if hugging it.

Harris’ eyes finally land on Liam but a mocking smirk curves his lips. “Why would I waste anymore of my time on you, Dunbar?”

Liam takes his hands off of him like he’s just been burned.

“Years of listening to your constant emotional babbling in class and for what? You never would’ve made it as a doctor! We all knew that!” Dr Harris chuckles as he looks at Liam shrinking himself, glancing at the floor. “Let’s face it, you don’t even have the stomach to be a nurse! We all played along because the Dean was humoring you but… I sincerely wished to never lay my eyes on your moronic face again.”  

“Shut up.” Liam’s voice is small as he backs away a few steps.

“Hayden is such a bright young lady… It was such a shame when she introduced you to everyone. We were all wondering where she found such a dense boy. I hypothesized that, with a father so controlling, maybe she was searching for someone… pliable. That, I could understand.” 

“Shut! Up!”

“Sure, you have that idiot charm of yours. Everyone didn't mind keeping you around for a while. You were like the department’s little mascot. The laughingstock that helps boost morale.”

“I wouldn’t rile him up if I were you…” Theo interrupts their confrontation to say but his face is utterly pleased and his eyes fixed on Liam. 

“What will he do? The poor boy can barely write his own name-”

Liam punches him as hard as he can and Dr Harris, too shocked, doesn’t react in time to dodge or block and he falls to the ground gracelessly. Not often caught in a fistfight, the doctor looks around for an exit when he sees Liam get a hold of the shovel that was against the basement wall. A strong chill runs through his spleen and he suddenly realizes that he’s outnumbered. Sitting up on the cold floor, he turns to look at his last option, the stairs, but Theo silently moves behind Liam, thus blocking them. Raeken’s wide eyes shine in the dimly lit room, just like the teeth of his bright smile. There’s no way he could get past Dunbar and Raeken.  

“Stop it this instant, Dunbar! You hurt me and I’ll make sure you both get the chair!” Dr Harris screams, his voice wavering a little bit. 

“All I wanted was a quiet night!” Liam exclaims with the shovel in hand, the tip of it grazing the concrete floor with a clear shrill. His eyes crazed, he stares at Dr Harris trying to crawl away from him on the floor. “Just a few fucking hours of peace! Is it too much to ask!?” Liam raises the shovel high, ready to strike. “WHY CAN’T THIS DAY END!?”

Liam plunges the shovel right in Dr Harris’ neck. One time, two times, three times. Then, the blood splatter makes his hands slip and he drops the tool which makes a dull but piercing sound as it falls. It doesn’t really matter, the tip of the shovel already clanked as it hit the cement ground. Harris is now not only dead but in two pieces. 

Before Liam can even notice his hands shaking, he’s fighting nausea as he looks at the ripped veins and muscle tissue under him. Pressing his hand over his mouth to keep himself from puking, he immediately takes it off when he realizes he’s smearing his lips with blood. The fear of it snaps him out of his nausea and, before he can try to find an inch of clean sleeve to wipe it off, warm hands take hold of his wrists and start cleaning his hands with a clean cloth. Liam watches Theo calmly get rid of the blood and tries to keep himself from crying as he freaks out about potentially being contaminated by the blood. 

Theo folds the dirty cloth roughly before placing it in his shirt pocket. Liam stares at the bloody pocket square while Theo gets a new cloth and wets it with a glass of water he left here a few days ago. With a seriousness Liam hadn’t seen before, Theo slowly and meticulously wipes the blood off his face, making sure that the now soiled parts of the fabric never touch Liam’s lips, using a clean new corner every time.  

“Use your own shirt to dry your face, mine won’t help,” Theo says quickly. 

Liam looks at the fresh red stains now covering the dry blood on Theo’s previously white shirt and nods. He finds a clean portion of his sleeve and wipes what’s left of the water from his face. Now that Theo isn’t in front of him anymore, his eyes fall on the corpse at his feet and he feels dizzy again. Just as his breathing starts getting out of control, two strong arms wrap themselves around him and slowly take him away from the man on the floor. 

“I’m okay… I’m… I’m okay…” 

Theo doesn't listen to him, knowing better than to believe someone shaking so much. 

“He was gonna steal our research and sell us to the cops no matter what we did. This was needed,” Theo says softly into his ear. 

Liam still has that crazed look and he’s still shaking but, keeping his finger on Liam’s carotid artery for a minute, Theo is glad to know that Liam's heartbeat is slowing down. He gently lets him go.

“He really was a damn plagiarist,” Liam says with a small, panting voice. Theo isn't sure if he's trying to lighten the mood but it's not working. 

“I wouldn’t lie about intellectual property and academic integrity,” he says like it’s obvious but then, looking at the body, he considers it for a second before looking at his watch. 

“Don’t you dare!” Liam groans, his face gaining back some colors with the angry red blush. 

Theo hesitates for a few seconds but really, why wouldn’t they? 

“This is a golden opportunity!” 

Liam tries to hold on to Theo who’s walking towards the dead man on their basement floor. “He just said he wanted us to get the death sentence! Don’t bring him back!”

“Just the head, Liam,” Theo asks like a kid would beg for five more minutes of television before bed.

“No!”

“We’re wasting valuable seconds here! C’mon, it’ll help us figure out the dosage. Liam. Please. I need the data and I need you.”  

Liam hesitates, his eyes going from the cadaver to Theo and then Theo to the cadaver. Obviously, he doesn’t want to, but Theo is doing his best impression of puppy eyes and, although it’s not great, the effort is still endearing enough for Liam to fold. He sighs. 

“This is the worst fucking day! I just wanted one calm night!”

Theo breaks into a smile. “I know,” he says as he kisses his cheek quickly in excitement before fetching the serum. “It won’t take long. And then we’ll go to bed.”

Liam is slightly red in the face and it’s not because of annoyance or because he just killed someone. He tries to bite down a smirk but he can’t seem to do it. And, alright, fine, his body might be going through denial but focusing on Theo kissing him instead of his guilty conscience sounds like a pretty good deal.

Watching Theo get the re-agent and the recorder almost giddily, Liam can’t believe that he still has enough energy to be so enthusiastic. 

As always, Liam gets the job of recording their experiment but he decides that it's too late for professionalism. He’s so brutally exhausted and his legs are still shaking as if he ran a marathon. He’s grazing the insanity line but, looking at the two parts of Dr Harris, maybe he already crossed it. 

“Hello, it’s Liam again!” Liam exclaims into the recorder with bitchy annoyance. “Same goddamn day. Or more accurately, the morning after. It is currently Who-fucking-cares o’clock!”

“It’s 1:17,” Theo tells him after looking at his watch. 

“It’s 1:17,” Liam corrects himself with a groan.

Liam sits – falls really – on the stairs because he’s too tired to be up and why can’t this be over?! 

“Dr Harris died about two minutes ago and Theo lost all of his smarts so here we are, about to make a few more mistakes. Because that’s all this day needed! More madness!”

“Stay on subject!” Theo teases him, a hint of amusement in his tone as he pulls out some re-agent with the syringe. “15 ccs.”

“15 ccs of re-agent.” Liam sighs. “Cause of death deca… de… decapitation.” Sudden unbearable nausea takes over him and he blocks it out, trying to keep his indifferent mask and keep the denial going. He can’t break down twice in one day! This shitshow would’ve been avoided if Dr Harris had called before showing up. Actually, the whole thing could’ve been nothing if Hayden had called before showing up yesterday! What is it with people and showing up out of the blue?! Liam starts shaking once more as he remembers everything that went wrong in the last 48 hours. 

Alarmed by Liam’s silence, Theo stops right before administering the neon green liquid and turns his head to look at his partner. He gives him a little smile like he knows exactly what he’s thinking about. Liam notices how soft his eyes are. Maybe Theo is just as tired as Liam after all. 

Theo turns back and injects the re-agent into the back of the head. Looking at his watch, Theo says, “5 seconds.”

“5 seconds.”

“10- Hello, Dr Harris,” Theo says, his voice low, bordering on mean and sarcastic. “How do you feel?”

“Reanimation after ten seconds,” Liam says before spotting something in the corner of his eye.

Just like Theo, Liam was focused on the head. How it strangely moved even if it was completely detached from its body. It was something out of a horror film and Liam almost wanted to check under the table for the practical effect to be revealed. Maybe that’s why, at first, he hadn't noticed the body on the ground moving as well. Eyes wide, Liam stays still and breathless as he watches the body that wasn’t even injected with the re-agent clumsily get up. 

“Theo?” Liam’s voice is so high-pitched, it’s barely audible. 

Hearing the whistle sound, Theo turns around and, his eyebrows raised high, he hums as he sees the massive headless body now upright. “Hmm… I didn’t foresee this…” 

The body immediately grips Theo by the neck, trying to strangle him with its raging force. Liam would love to be petty and let Theo reap what he sowed, but there’s no going against instincts and he’s on his feet before he can think of a way to help. 

Theo is wriggling like a mean kitten in the body’s firm hold, his face growing more and more red by the second. Liam takes back the bloody shovel on the ground but his hold is nowhere as strong as it was just a few minutes ago and he only manages to push the body against the autopsy table. Thankfully, that’s enough for the body to let go as it almost crashes on its own head. That’s when Liam realizes that Dr Harris has been talking – screaming more like – this whole time, giving instructions and ordering his own body around. Right. It can’t see or think. But maybe they’re still connected somehow…

Looking around for a big flower pot or a bucket, Liam doesn’t notice the body straightening itself and pushing Theo against the brick wall like a wet doll. With a relieved gasp, Liam finds a big bucket he keeps around in case the roof starts leaking again. He takes it and immediately turns it over to put it on Dr Harris’ head. The body immediately lets go of Theo, completely disoriented. It’s just enough time for Theo, coughing and obviously in pain, to take his operating scissors and dig them right into the body’s heart. 

Obviously hurt, the body staggers backward and Liam takes the opportunity to bring the chair Theo usually uses and brings it behind the body so it falls into it. Unable to see anything, the body indeed falls into the chair and Liam puts his arms around it to keep it in place.

“Quick, get the tape!” Liam says, struggling to hold the panicked body down.

“All I have is medical tape,” Theo tells him like he’s not making sense.

“Just get something!” 

A few minutes later, the body is firmly attached to the chair with rope – Liam purposely doesn’t ask why Theo has rope just lying around in his lab – and both men can finally relax. Or relax as much as the maddening and echoing screams of Dr Harris against the metal bucket can allow them to feel. Theo casually yet firmly bangs on the top of the bucket a few times and, besides a scream of pain, Dr Harris finally shuts up. 

Looking at the mess that is the lab, Theo sighs. “Don’t just stare at me, Liam, if you have something to say, just-”

“I told you it was a bad idea! I warned you! But no, of course, you just had to try to bring him back, uh? Now, instead of one dead doctor, we have two alive parts trying to kill you! If they ever give you the Nobel Prize for medicine, please know that this is what I’m gonna be thinking about when you say your short and probably rude speech!”

And instead of biting back or even sighing again, Theo’s eyes light up and there’s a shadow of a smile on his lips. Liam can only spare a glance in his direction since he wants to stay vigilant of Harris’ body and also, seeing Theo in such disarray is almost painful to watch. 

“That’s the nicest I Told You So I ever received.” Theo chuckles, probably because of the late hour and the many near-death experiences he survived in the last 24 hours. 

Liam groans as he keeps his eyes locked on the body, just in case it moves again. Since the I Told You So didn’t work, Liam tries another approach so that Theo might think twice the next time he proposes something as stupid as what they did. “You know, for a guy who’s used to pissing off a lot of people,” he says, still panting slightly, “your fighting skills are awful.”

“My skills reside in taking the punch.” Theo smirks as he winks at Liam.

Liam laughs, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t need to if you fought back!”

Theo doesn’t say anything but chuckles a little as he wipes his nosebleed with his already bloody sleeve. Liam shakes his head again. He can’t help but be charmed by the pathetic state of him in some strange way.

It’s around noon when they wake up the next day, both exhausted and starving. Since there’s nothing in the fridge besides the loyal box of baking soda, they head towards the breakfast place not too far from there. 

The waitress gives them a booth and they don’t let her leave until she takes their orders. In the five minutes it takes her to get back with two grotesquely filled plates – she must have sensed that they needed that food immediately –, they don’t even talk, they just wait in silence. 

Everything feels more real and concrete once they have food in their bellies and yet everything that happened yesterday still feels like a distant dream. Liam can barely make sense of it. It feels less like “yesterday” and more like a weird movie he saw a decade ago and can’t quite piece together anymore. And yet, that awful feeling in his stomach is very much real. 

“If you’re still bothered by what happened last night, I can assure you that it’s totally unjustified,” Theo says after a few minutes of watching Liam scratch the wooden table with his nails as he overthinks. 

“Unjustified?!” Liam snaps before remembering that they’re in public. “My actions were unjustified, not me being ‘bothered’ by it! Aren’t you upset? No, of course, you’re not.” Liam rolls his eyes as he folds his arms, leaning back into his side of the booth. 

“You had gone through shock. You were in an altered state, Liam. It wasn’t your fault,” Theo states, almost bored by the subject. 

“That would be a nice argument if I punched him or even broke his arm, Theo,” he hisses real low, looking around the restaurant to make sure no one is listening. “But I took a shovel and…” Liam can’t say the rest, he just mimes the action with his fork multiple times.

“What else could you have done? It’s not like we had a gun lying around!” Theo snorts.

“I could’ve done nothing, Theo!!”

“You said it yourself, he wanted to send us to jail! Or worse!” he says with just as much force, looking Liam in the eyes. “He wanted to take our work as his own and send us to the gallows! There was no way that was gonna happen.” He stares at Liam, trying to make it clear he would’ve done the same thing as him. 

Maintaining his glare, Liam resumes his scratching. He’s not sure if he’s comforted by that. Or if he should be comforted by that at all!

Theo tries to take his hand so he might stop damaging the wood but Liam immediately snatches his arm away. He looks around, his eyes wide with panic. They’re in a dark corner of the restaurant so he’s pretty sure no one saw them but he still needs to make sure. 

Liam sighs once he’s sure no one is paying attention to them and leans back into his bench seat. He still can’t shake the bad feeling. And now, he wants to leave. He feels like everyone is looking at them. What if he still has blood somewhere on him? What if they think Theo reaching for his hand was odd? 

“Let’s go,” Theo says after he sees Liam start to absentmindedly scratch his own arm. 

“But we haven’t finished-”

Theo snaps his fingers to get their waitress’ attention and then mentions something about doggy bags. Liam gets on his feet and sends big and angry eyes at Theo, scolding him that you can’t do that, it’s impolite! Theo rolls his eyes as he gets to the counter to pay for the meal while Liam stays behind to apologize to the waitress. 

Boxes of food in hand, Liam makes it next to Theo just in time to see him stealing the thing they use to stab the stack of receipts on and throw the papers in the trash casually. 

Liam looks around them, getting palpitations all over again. “What are you doing?” he whispers passionately in disbelief.

Theo doesn’t answer, he just winks at him. 

When they come back home, Theo goes straight to the basement. 

“Many things to do,” Theo warns Liam with an ecstatic energy, barely keeping himself from running downstairs. “We’ll start by transcribing everything we recorded last night and then I’ll catch you up with the various experiments…” 

Liam lets out a breath of relief when he sees the body still limp in the chair and the bucket upside down on the table, hiding the doctor’s head. His eyes then drop to the floor and he’s surprised to see that the concrete floor has been washed and bleached. He’s not sure when Theo had the time to do this. 

Turning on the lights, something Theo rarely remembers to do, Liam opens his mouth to say something but then he’s interrupted by Theo taking the bucket off the table. With a proud smile, Theo puts the receipt holder he just stole from the restaurant and then takes the head that was lying on its side. Dr Harris is cursing at Theo and Liam but Theo doesn’t seem to hear anything and he picks up the head before impaling it on the pointy thing. Showing the head finally staying up and straight, Theo turns around to smile at Liam like he just did a magic trick.

And yeah, a part of Liam is amazed but another, far more important part, thinks that maybe this is his limit. It’s not, of course, but wouldn’t it be nice if it was?

Liam sighs and heads upstairs instead of commenting on Theo’s little act. “I need to take a nap.”

“But… Liam… We have work to do. We don’t have time to-” 

“I spent the last decade of my life busting my ass to get a scholarship to become a doctor… And now that’s gone so… I’m gonna take a nap! Don’t kill or resurrect anything while I’m gone!” 

Theo can’t find any counter-argument to that. He grins as Liam slams his bedroom door shut. There’s something very endearing about Liam being so disagreeable. 

“You know, when I said that we should get a bit of fresh air, this isn’t what I meant,” Liam tells Theo but the scientist suddenly yanks him lower as they turn another corner of the hospital hallways. Liam groans and slaps Theo’s hand away as he continues, “And this is the last place we should be right now!” 

Theo spots a coming doctor and pushes Liam towards a nearby door. They both get into the empty bathroom and try to listen to the man walking in the corridor.

“Harris had evidence of our research,” Theo whispers next to Liam’s ear so that they won’t be heard through the door. “We need to get it back.”

Liam is simply glad that at least one of them is focused because his brain just turned to goo the second Theo’s breath reached his ear.

Theo must think that the coast is clear because he opens the door and, after a small look, yanks Liam out with him. This time, Liam simply lets himself be manhandled happily. 

It's 8 pm and most of the doctors made it home by now. And, well, Dr Harris surely won’t be in his office! Walking down many empty corridors, they finally reach their destination but, putting his hand on the doorknob, Liam panics when he realizes it's locked. 

“Shit. Do you think he- What are you doing?” 

“Opening the door,” Theo says sassily as he gets a small toolkit out of his pocket and kneels down. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Liam repeats with a mocking tone.

Looking around, Liam starts tapping his foot on the floor when a minute passes and Theo still hasn't opened the door. Theo slams his hand on Liam's foot to make him stop before he continues his meticulous work. With a frustrated sigh, Liam continues being the lookout, his nerves still fried after yesterday despite the hours-long nap he took earlier. He can't help it, his foot starts stomping again and, this time, Theo grips his whole leg, making him freeze as goosebumps cover his entire body. While Liam temporarily forgets to breathe, Theo goes back to work and he smiles when he hears a faint click. 

They rush into the office and Liam winces when the door slips from his hand and closes with a loud bang!. 

“Sorry…” he whispers to Theo who's looking at him with an impatient glare. 

“Just look around for anything that has to do with Dean…” Theo’s eyes widen. “...Romero.”

Liam frowns and turns to check what has Theo looking so puzzled. 

“HOLY-!!” Liam stares at the window – which isn’t a window at all – in the office’s wall revealing a closed adjacent padded room with the very feral Dean Romero in a straitjacket hitting the wall over and over again. “What kind of office is that? Why would he need a room like that? Why is there a window? Who authorized-”

Theo gets his hand over Liam's mouth and keeps it there for many long seconds so that Liam might finally understand that they’re supposed to be quiet. “Could you be any louder?” Theo scolds him in a hushed voice.

“Mdnjdjdhdjjxjdkksn,” Liam says in return, his annoyance growing into real frustration and risking to blossom into rage soon. 

Theo rolls his eyes and finally takes off his hand. 

“If you didn't want me to make noise, then you should've just come here alone!” Liam at least has the intelligence to whisper his scream this time. 

Theo frowns at him, confused. “But I needed you.”

The statement snaps Liam momentarily out of his anger… but he doesn't want Theo to know that. He's not about to let him have his way every time he says something that can barely be considered as nice! So he does the self-respecting thing to pretend to still be furious so Theo might learn the lesson. 

“You needed a lookout, you didn't need me!”

“If this is about what Harris said to you…”

Blush immediately covers Liam's face and he's not sure if it's because he's angry with Theo again for not understanding what he's saying or if it's out of shame. He's not wrong. In a way, Harris' words have been playing in his mind all day. Why would Theo even keep him around? Is he humoring him too?

“Let's just get this over with!” Liam urges him as he starts looking at the piles and piles of paper and files everywhere. 

It takes Theo a few more seconds before he nods and starts looking around as well. He obviously noticed how Liam just changed the subject but he’s willing to let it go if it means focusing on the task at hand. Even with the two of them checking every piece of paper, ten minutes later, they still haven't found anything. There’s not a trace of Dean Romero's name besides the few signatures he left on important documents. It's almost as if Dr Harris never treated him as a patient at all. 

Liam looks at the window leading to the joined room. But Dean Romero is right there… he thinks. There has to be documentation of it somewhere. Some… tests. Something!

Barely hearing Theo groaning in frustration at their fruitless endeavor, Liam takes a few steps towards the window. Although it's true that they left Dean Romero in a pitiful condition, he doesn't remember him being so… monstrous. 

The man is pale as a ghost and yet red all over like he's been itching himself which is impossible with his straitjacket so he must have hit himself somehow. His hair is disordered and his protruding eyes ping pong from one place to another in a frenzied way. Liam's heart squeezes as he looks at him moving and moving and moving like a restless animal in a cage. 

What have they done?

If there was a chair nearby, Liam would probably let himself fall in it. For now, he simply stays there, his body growing cold and heavy. He stares at Dean Romero – or what's left of him – for a few minutes. Maybe that's how he notices it. 

“Theo…” Liam starts, his voice so small. “Theo!” he asks again, almost desperately when he doesn't feel the man's presence by his side. He only relaxes slightly when he does. With a shaking hand, he points at Dean Romero. “Is that…?”

Theo gets as close to the glass as he can and he finally spots a weird red spot on the Dean's head. “He lobotomized him, that medieval cretin!” he whispers, his hands clenching into fists. 

“I have to tell Hayden,” Liam exclaims, overwhelmed, as he takes a few steps back and passes a hand through his hair.

Theo turns to give him a disgusted look. “What? Why?”

Liam is speechless for a few seconds. “Because her dad has been lobotomized?! I know she wouldn’t let them do this. This was done without her consent. She knows medical terms, they wouldn’t be able to fool her with complicated words either! Is there a phone here?”

“You want to call her now ?” Theo asks him, barely able to keep on whispering. 

“Yes!” Liam tells him through gritted teeth before he finally spots the phone. Composing the number, Liam spins the cord around his finger as he waits for Hayden to pick up. Liam waits for a few rings, his index now definitely stuck in the phone cord, when someone knocks at the office door. Liam immediately hangs up and he almost takes the phone with him when Theo suddenly yanks him down on the ground but his finger miraculously untangles itself before creating a ruckus at the worst possible moment. 

“Dr Harris?” a voice asks on the other side of the door. “Dr Harris, I'd like to go over some notes on your last class if you have the time!”

Liam rolls his eyes. Jenkins. Freaking Edmond “Teacher's pet” Jenkins. 

“Dr Harris?” Jenkins tries again and, when the doorknob rattles, Liam desperately hangs on to Theo in fear. Thankfully, the door doesn't open and Liam begins releasing Theo from his iron hold. 

The knock on the locked door seems to have roused Dean Romero in the other room and the man starts to wail senselessly as he throws himself against the padded walls. 

“Shut it, you ape!” Theo scolds it.

Now, it's Liam's turn to put a hand over Theo's mouth. He doesn't do it gently either. With his left hand on the back of his head to maintain him there, Liam presses his right hand hard on his face. He thinks Theo will put up a fight as he so often does. And sure, Theo freezes for a moment but it's oh so clear how he eases into the firm hold with the willingness of an obedient dog. Liam stares at him, mesmerized. There's something so intimate about feeling the air that travels in and out of Theo's nose against his hand. Liam doesn't even care about the person in the corridor anymore, all he can think about is how dark Theo's eyes are as they finally land on him. 

Liam needs to keep his hand over Theo's mouth just to keep himself from kissing him. 

“I- I’ll come back tomorrow,” Jenkins says quickly before leaving. 

Both Liam and Theo relax at the sound of the student walking away. Only Dean Romero seems to still be agitated, shouting and hitting his head against the padded wall. 

“We should go.” 

“We don’t have his notes,” Theo reminds him after easily taking Liam’s hand off his face. 

“Because they’re obviously not here! Now, c’mon, before anyone actually sees us. We can’t look for Dr Harris’ notes from a jail cell.”

For once, Theo has to agree with Liam’s logic. They manage to exit the office somewhat smoothly but they should’ve known a problem would arise when they come across some stairs. They barely make it one floor lower when Liam’s brain overestimates the distance and his foot misses a step altogether. Theo’s hands immediately grip Liam’s shirt as if he knew the man would fall down. Because he did. He knew this would happen. It always does.

They stay still for a few long seconds as Liam catches his panicked breath. Theo doesn’t move and keeps his two hands on Liam, one under his arm and another holding on to his sleeve where he first caught him, waiting for Liam to settle down and find his balance once more. That doesn’t seem to be a priority for Liam since the man keeps one foot dangling in the air, looking back at Theo with wide eyes.

“Thanks,” Liam says, a bit embarrassed. He really doesn't know why his body can’t do stairs.

Theo grins. “I'll start thinking you're doing it on purpose.” 

“I wish…” Although his voice is distant, his eyes never leave Theo’s face. He doesn’t even know what they’re saying, he's too close to Theo to really pay attention. The warm touch reminds him of last night when Theo put himself around him every time something bad happened. It felt good to have someone always at the ready to help him. To be honest, what Liam needs is often just a hug. 

His eyes drop to Theo's lips even if he knows they're still in public. Dread and anticipation both rise in him until Liam can’t possibly know what he’s supposed to feel anymore. 

Theo grins and Liam can't watch anything. It feels like he’s looking at the sun, the sight of it blinding yet mesmerizing. His heart is pounding intensely in his chest and yet he can't breathe. 

Someone opens the staircase door a few floors up and Liam immediately breaks contact, quickly getting down the remaining stairs and leaving Theo behind. Liam puts a hand over his face, feeling more feverish than flushed. As he reaches the bottom of the stairs and steps outside, Liam barely has a moment to breathe, Theo is suddenly gripping his wrist and dragging him away towards the car. 

Hayden finishes what's left of her fourth coffee and throws the plastic cup in the trash when she finally sees Liam enter the cemetery. She looks at the time. So predictable. Barely 15 minutes late.

She keeps her distance at first but, when it's clear that Theo isn't with him, Hayden grins to herself. She'll finally get to the bottom of this! All Dr Harris could tell with his initial assessment of her father is that he must have suffered some kind of head trauma. But Hayden knows better. Theo was lying through his teeth that night and Liam looked too spooked not to know what really went down. Maybe the police being their usual useless selves wasn't surprising but if Theo and Liam thought she would simply let it slide, then she’ll take advantage of their arrogance! They should’ve known that messing with her would be a grave mistake. Journalists are not only very hard to get rid of. They also remember everything. 

Just like Hayden remembered that Liam comes here every two weeks on Sundays to put flowers on the grave of the first patient he couldn't save… And now, she has the perfect opportunity to confront Liam without Theo being in the way! 

She hesitated at first, thinking that no one would believe her if she started pointing fingers and talking about the “living dead”. She thought she couldn't do this to Liam. But, well, he did worse to her father. He was the only family she had left. Is. He is the only family she has left. He’s still alive but there's so little left of him, sometimes, it feels like he's already gone. 

So this is why she has to do this!

She silently gets behind Liam who's taking a quiet moment by the headstone, fully intending to corner him into answering her questions. Even if she can feel her heart beating fast, she stays there patiently, waiting for Liam to-

“Hayden!” Liam screams in shock when he turns and sees her. It takes him a moment to catch his breath but, when he does, his expression changes to worry. “My god, are you alright?”

Wow. So she doesn't sleep for a few days and, yes, maybe, her clothes aren't ironed and she can't remember the last time she had a shower but is that all it takes for Liam to be so horrified!? 

“What did you do to my dad?” she asks right away, her tone cold yet firm. “What happened?”

Liam’s hands open and close as he stands there, uncomfortable. He looks around him, almost begging someone to come and rescue him. But there's no one. Hayden finds a sick pleasure in refusing to help after she spent the last few years of her life doing exactly that day after day. 

“Hayden…” He tries to walk up to her but she steps back. He stops. “I’m so sorry.”

She frowns, trying to focus on the questions she prepared. Her cold expression breaks for a second when she sees how heartbroken Liam looks but she quickly controls herself.

“What did you and Raeken do to my dad, Liam?” she asks again with force. “You drove him mad!”

Liam’s voice twists itself into a pathetic and frail body of an apology. “He’s not mad, Hayden… he’s dead.”

She takes a few seconds to understand and then snaps. Her right hook hits Liam’s face with the strength of the hopeless.

“And who killed him, uh?” Hayden cries, her face twisted with justified fury. A flock of birds flies away in a distant corner of the cemetery. 

Liam holds the side of his face, moaning in pain. “The dead guy, the John Doe! When we brought him back, he was so violent, he-”

“The dead body you brought back killed my dad!?” Hayden screams and she tries to punch Liam again but he dodges this time. “You wretched little idiots! That was my dad! You killed my dad!” 

“I- I know.”

“Then fix it!”

Liam frowns like the thought hadn't even occurred to him and Hayden struggles not to get violent again. 

“I don't think that's possible, Hayden. He's dead. There's no… The only thing we could do is… kill him again. For good.”

And, of course, that’s not what Hayden wanted to hear.

“I… I don’t understand you, Liam! You cry for weeks about a patient who was gonna die no matter what you could’ve done but… but what? You kill my dad and you’re barely fazed!? Where the hell is your sentimentality now?”

“I didn’t kill him, it was the John Doe who-”

“But you didn’t save him!” Hayden screams, losing all of her previous fragile composure. 

Liam stops breathing for a few seconds, her words as painful as any fist to the face. No, he didn’t save him. Did he even try? Really try? Liam glances back to Marcus Thompson’s grave behind him.  

“I don’t even recognize you anymore!” she adds when Liam doesn’t give her anything more than silence. “You used to… We were supposed to…”

“I tried to do the right-”

“What was so wrong with having a normal life with me?” she pleads and Liam recognizes the same despair which has been marking his own face for a while now. “What was so unbearable that you'd… you'd start to… that you'd choose Raeken over it?” she cries, her eyes gaining a ruthless edge as she pronounces the name. 

He wishes he had an answer for her but he doesn’t. Does she really believe that he had any say in everything that went down? Regardless, he can let her spit her anger and despair at him but he won't let her say Theo's name like that. Like he's contemptible. 

Liam’s voice is neither strong nor angry. Actually, the words come out quite soft when he finally says, “Theo doesn't blame me for things.” 

He stands there, waiting for her to say something about it. He won’t argue with her anyway. Years of endless criticism drained him of any will to fight back with her. 

She glares at him with wet eyes but finally turns on her heels to leave. 

“Well, I hope you both live happily ever after, Liam!” she says sarcastically with venom in her tone. “But I'm sure you won't!”

When Liam leaves as well, sorry to have caused such a ruckus in a place meant for serenity, it’s with a heavy heart and an even heavier body. He drags himself towards his house at a painful pace. Alone and in thoughts, it was obvious that his mood would deteriorate drastically. After all, what in his life is going well right now?

It was Liam’s stepdad who inspired him to become a doctor. Liam always liked him and he considered himself lucky to have him as a role model. David was more than someone who did good things, he was a good person who took the time to get to know Liam even if he didn’t have to. Maybe that’s why Liam can’t bring himself to call him or his mom. He’s been screening his calls all week, scared it’ll be one of them on the other line. He can’t let them know he failed. That he finally ended up like his dad after all. A failure. An angry, destructive failure.  

As if the whole school fiasco wasn’t complicated enough, then there’s Theo. 

The kiss meant nothing! Liam keeps repeating to himself for the hundredth time but the much-needed repetition is starting to send a different message. But no, this isn't Liam. He wouldn’t do that. He’s not… 

It’s not to say that Liam isn’t… cool! He read the Kinsey Reports! He signed a petition for the World Health Organization to stop considering homosexuality a psychological disorder! He's… hip. But he's not that. Oh shit… What’s the definition of homosexuality again? Shit! Shit! Shit! Liam likes women! Looooves women! Women are great! …Theo is also somewhat fine. He’s… objectively… good… looking. Attractive, hot, and stunning are words that some people might use to describe him. 

Liam bites down on his fingers. Damnit! He might be more in the middle of the Kinsey scale than he thought he was.  

Liam is barely more than a hollow body as he steps into his apartment. He throws his coat on the floor. Same for his keys. He goes downstairs. Theo is working. Of course, he is. Liam gets back to the ground floor and makes some sandwiches. He cuts some vegetables since he knows Theo doesn’t eat enough. Then, he walks back downstairs and barely touches the portion he made for himself. He’s thinking. Theo doesn’t seem to notice or maybe he simply doesn’t comment on Liam sitting beside him and looking at the void. 

Since the room is so silent, despite the metal equipment and the squish of flesh tearing, they both hear it when the phone rings. Liam jumps slightly. 

“You’re not gonna get that?” Theo asks after a few rings.

Liam sighs in despair. “What would I say?”

“Most people start with ‘hello’.”

Liam is so shocked by Theo trying to make a joke that he ends up grinning. The faint smile drops two seconds later. Liam finally takes one half of a sandwich and continues watching Theo at work as the phone keeps ringing upstairs.

It’s only half an hour later that Liam decides that maybe he should make himself useful. He gets on his feet and, still ruminating, helps Theo silently. There is so much clutter on the examination table… and on the few carton boxes Theo piled up to make more counter space… and on the floor… that Theo has been trying to find something to get a cell sample for a few minutes now, growing more and more annoyed. Liam passes him the scalpel he easily found and he holds on to the dead rat so Theo will be able to work easily. 

“What is that?” Theo completely stops what he’s doing now that Liam is closer and in front of him. 

“Pliers?” Liam says as he looks at the equipment in his hand, a bit lost by Theo’s surprise.

Theo lets go of the scalpel and suddenly takes Liam's face, bending it towards the timid light bulb. His thumb putting pressure on the bruise on the side of his face, Liam lets out a shocked moan of pain. He almost forgot about that.

“It's nothing.” 

“It is not nothing,” Theo corrects him with a harsh tone. “Who did this?”

Liam doesn’t like that tone and he certainly doesn’t need Theo to act this way right now. Like his bodyguard. Or – what were Hayden’s words again? – like his babysitter. 

“What are you gonna do about it?” Liam challenges him and gets out of his hold. “Gonna kill someone over this? I bet you'd loooooove a new corpse to experiment on!” Theo’s mouth opens to say something else but Liam talks again first. “It doesn't matter anyway because I deserved it!”

Theo is obviously still angry but his face eases when he finally understands what Liam means by that. 

“Hayden did this?”  

Liam is speechless and his fury witters with the shock. A cold chill runs down his spine. He didn't think Theo would get there so fast. Maybe that’s why he stays silent for so long. Maybe that’s why Theo feels the need to make a bad joke… Or, well, Liam hopes it’s a joke.

“I could kill her, you know.” 

Liam stops him, his jaw tight, not finding this funny. “You could, but you won't,” he says each word very clearly and with emphasis, looking Theo in the eyes. 

They share a small staring contest before Theo puts his hands in the air in a show of surrender. Liam sighs subtly in relief. 

“You should put some ice on that,” Theo says like they’re done with the subject. Yet, he still adds, “And if you ever change your mind…”

“Stand down, Theodore, she'd crush you in a fight!” he says with a small grin and an eye roll.

“It’s Theophilus.” 

“It’s what!?” Liam exclaims and barely manages to stop a laugh but he just ends up making himself cough. 

As soon as he gets back his breathing, Liam starts a huge laughing fit when he sees Theo’s cold glare pointing right at him.

Liam can barely talk between the rows of quick laughs. “You were really so upset about being named ‘Friend of God’ that you became a scientist?”  

Theo never looks shocked or surprised, it always feels like everything is going to plan. That being said, he does look very baffled right now. He continues staring at Liam with a light frown and an open mouth. 

It only makes Liam laugh harder and the man needs to hold the side of his face because the laughing is making the bruise hurt. He wipes a few tears from his eyes. 

“Theophilus…” he repeats quietly, still chuckling. “Wow, this is good. Oh, I needed that!”

If Liam knew the cops were gonna pay them a visit, he wouldn’t have cleaned up but he would’ve made sure that he wasn't home. He shouldn’t be surprised anymore. This is exactly the type of terrifying nonsense that strikes him every day now! He’s unemployed and expelled from school, how hard can it be to have one quiet, boring night?

“Can I get you…” Liam's brain browses the entire nothingness of both their fridge and pantry before he finally settles on something. “...water?”

The taller officer refuses with a movement of his hand. “We shouldn't take too much of your time.”

“Great!” Theo says, earning himself a warning glare from Liam. 

Tapping his finger on the leg, Liam wishes that the two police officers would sit down. Seeing them pace around his living room is making him nervous. He shows them the two armchairs again but they pretend to not see it. To be fair, the armchairs are more clothes than chairs. 

“We just have a couple of questions regarding a potential missing person. It’s our understanding that you both know Dr Adrian Harris.”

Liam jumps slightly on the sofa, reliving the feeling of Dr Harris’ blood across his face. He tenses, remembering the sound his flesh made as his head was severed from his body. Theo says something about Dr Harris being their teacher and Liam tries to compose himself. 

“Is or was your teacher?” the other and much shorter officer asks – talking for the first time since he came in – with a smug tone.

“Well, I know he’s missing but isn’t it a bit premature to use the past tense, officer?” Theo asks smoothly, his smile barely covering his arrogance. 

“I meant that…” the shorter officer pretends to look through his pocket notebook, wetting his index every time he turns a page, “...Ah! Yes, according to the hospital staff, you both have been fired from the school. Any reason?”

“Jealousy,” Theo offers simply with a shrug.

“Dean Romero expelled us,” Liam says quickly so the cops might forget about Theo’s dumb answer. “It didn’t have anything to do with Dr Harris.”

“And why were you expelled?” the taller man asks. His eyes, locked on Liam, seem almost kind compared to the vulture glare coming from the shorter officer. 

“Uh………………,” Liam says. “It’s……. private?”

Liam’s heart is blaring in his chest. Can he say that? He never denied anything to a cop before! The last time he saw a police officer, he was 16 years old and cried for an hour, apologizing and offering to pay for everything, when he saw that he rear-ended their police car. This is so much worse. He wipes his sweaty forehead with his sleeve.

The two police officers stare at Liam and let the silence linger, hoping to force a new answer out of the man. And if Theo wasn’t on his left grinning proudly at him, maybe it would’ve worked. 

“When was the last time you saw Dr Harris?” the taller officer asks, his tone definitely less friendly now that Liam decided to withhold information. 

The head or the body? Liam stops himself from asking.

“Must have been Dr Harris' last class we participated in, right, Liam?” Theo says confidently. “Almost two weeks ago now.” 

Liam nods eagerly. 

The two cops share a glance before they move on. Liam isn’t sure why the shorter one isn’t writing anything in his little notebook. Shouldn’t he be writing? Does this mean that he doesn’t believe them?!

“Was that when you had your big fight with Dr Harris, Mr Raeken?” the shorter officer asks. “We’ve had quite a few witnesses account of your… animosity towards each other.”

“Nothing more than a little academic disagreement, I assure you. I didn’t know the man enough to hate him. Hate is such a big word, don’t you think?”

“Four letters,” the shorter officer tells him, deadpan.

Theo’s easy grin brightens at the cop’s attitude but Liam knows they’re one minute away from a fight. He needs to wrap this up!

“Are you sure you don’t want water?” Liam says between two rushed inhales. 

The officers ignore him but Theo sends him an unconvinced look. Liam shrugs slightly. At least he is trying not to get the cops on their bad side!

“We know Dr Harris was in his office two nights ago because his phone made a call to the Romero residence,” the taller officer tells them, looking at his partner’s notes for a moment and missing Liam making big eyes at Theo like ‘see? It was a good idea to call!’. Theo’s grumpy face gets even grumpier. “We already talked to Ms Romero and she doesn’t know why he’d call her. Any idea?”

“Well, as I said, officer, we weren’t close.”

The shorter officer snorts like he can tell Theo is lying through his teeth. “No, but I know at least one of you was close to Ms Romero,” the cop says, shifting his gaze to Liam who tenses yet again. Lying isn't his best skill. 

Just as he opens his mouth to try and spin a story that doesn't involve necromancy, Liam spots a hand – as in only a hand – running loose on their living room floor. Liam screams, instinctively moving closer to Theo who, judging by his shocked but amused face, has also seen the experiment running free. The hand sprints everywhere on its little fingers but thankfully makes its way behind the couch before the two cops can see it.

“Oh… A spider! He’s very afraid of-” Theo says smoothly before he gets a rough elbow jammed into his ribs. 

“What did you do!?” Liam whisper-screams at Theo.

“Nothing!” Theo says, his eyes never leaving the two cops in their apartment. “It’s not like I can control the spider population in the house, Liam!”

Liam sends him a glare because he knows damn well Theo is responsible for this. As if they didn't have enough problems with the cops asking questions! Before he can think of a way to subtly say all of this without alerting the two police officers monitoring their every move, Liam sees the hand creeping out of the couch, its fingers making the faintest tap tap tap on its way to the kitchen. 

“Well, can you go and control this one!?” Liam snarls through gritted teeth. 

“Of course! If you’ll excuse me a moment,” he says to the cops before getting up. The shorter officer tries to stop him but Theo insists. “He gets angry when he’s scared.”

As much as he hates this situation, Liam is a bit relieved now that he’s alone in front of the two cops. At least, Theo won’t be here to get them sent to jail. 

That relief lasts exactly three seconds before he spots both of the officers staring at him. He straightens his back as he feels cold shivers run down his spine. 

They stay in silence for a few seconds. The tension is unbearable but Liam fears them asking him questions far more. 

“What happened to your face?” the taller officer asks, pointing at the bruise on Liam’s cheek.  

“Oh. That's… A girl did that.” 

Both cops frown as they glance at each other. 

Just as Liam opens his mouth to say that it’s complicated, loud sounds emerge from the kitchen. Pans clatter to the floor and something – Theo most probably – keeps hitting the kitchen cabinets. Liam sighs. 

“Must have been one hell of a spider!” the taller officer says, doubtful. 

“Yeah, we get those a lot here,” Liam groans.

A minute later, Theo finally comes back to the living room, his clothes and hair slightly undone. He casually unrolls his sleeves but Liam still sees the new wound Theo is trying to hide from the officers.

“All under control,” Theo says calmly, as if nothing happened.

“Did you kill it?” Liam asks with a very dry and tense tone.

“How heartless, Liam.” Theo sits back on the sofa, right next to him. “No, I did the humane thing and simply placed it somewhere more suited for it.”

Liam is still angry and he has about a dozen questions to ask Theo about what he just saw but he puts them all on the backburner. They need to get through this first. Looking back at the cops, Liam blushes in embarrassment when he sees the uncomfortable suspicion in their eyes as they watch Theo and him sitting so close. Liam scoots a bit further away from Theo.

“This is a nice apartment,” the short police officer asks coldly. “How many rooms?”

Liam feels cold shivers again. “Two bedrooms,” he says hurriedly. “Plus the living room. Obviously. And the basement.”

“Could we see the basement?” 

“No!” Liam exclaims immediately.

Both of the police officers frown at Liam’s strange reaction. 

“There’s a rat infestation down there,” Theo says and, almost on cue, loud sounds suddenly emerge from the basement. Both of the cops try to look around to find where the sounds are coming from. “The extermination guy is coming this weekend.” 

Theo smiles as warmly as he can – which isn’t a whole lot – and the cops are obviously grossed out but it seems the ruckus is enough for them to believe him. 

“Now, if there’s nothing else, I’d love for you to leave,” Theo says with a big fake smile.

“He means it’s getting late and we have things to do,” Liam corrects him.

“That’s not what I-” Theo starts before getting another elbow in the ribs. He swallows down a groan of pain.

The cops are evidently very suspicious of them but, since they don’t have other questions, they share a glance before heading towards the door. 

“One last thing,” the shorter officer says as he puts his notebook in his pocket, “don’t leave town. We might have more questions for you.”

“Won’t do! Thank you, officers!” Liam practically screams before he closes the door behind them. Letting out a heavy sigh, he lets himself fall against the door and looks at Theo. “What the hell was that?”

“The police, Liam.” Theo shrugs before walking away.

“I know that!” Liam quickly moves to block Theo and confine him so they can talk. “What was the hand thing?”

Theo rolls his eyes. “That? It was simply a little experiment that I did. Nothing serious. And it wasn’t supposed to get out of its cage. That was my fault. A little accident.” Theo’s tone is warm and his eyes are soft but it doesn’t matter because Liam doesn’t believe him. 

“Show me,” Liam orders him, hands on his hips. 

“Show you what? You already saw the h-”

“Show me all the other stupid creations you made just to see if you could.” Theo opens his mouth to deny so Liam quickly adds, “I know it's not the only one. It's because we found out Dr Harris’ body could move without a head, isn't it?”

A small grin grows on Theo’s lips. “It barely walked into anything!” he says with pride. “Did you see how fast it was going?”   

“You're lucky the police didn't see it!”

“But they didn't.” 

Liam groans. “Where are the experiments? Downstairs?”

Before Theo can even stop him, Liam marches on towards the door leading to the basement. 

“Alright, fine, I might have conducted some experiments while you weren’t there but nothing of value. Passing fancies, that’s all!” Theo says almost frantically as he stays close to Liam while they’re going down the stairs. 

“...which you hid from me.”

“Yes, well, you already have so much on your plate and-”

Liam lets out a sigh so powerful it ends up sounding more like a grunt. “Just show me.”

Standing in the basement, Theo hesitates on his two feet before folding. “Alright,” he says, now slightly excited.

After removing literal bricks from the wall, Theo leads him to another space right next to their basement where, apparently, Theo has made himself quite comfortable and set up like a second lab.

“Isn’t that the neighbour’s basement!?” Liam asks, coughing from the thick layer of dust everywhere.

“Not if he doesn’t use it!” Theo says with a bright smile. Not losing a second, Theo brings Liam to a particular corner of the basement. 

“Oh god…” Liam says, horrified, as he stares at what’s in front of him.

“God has nothing to do with this!” Theo says with a wicked smile. 

And Theo might just be right. This is a vision from hell. The wall is completely covered from floor to ceiling in various makeshift cages of different sizes, all containing their own monstrous experiment. In one butterfly cage meant for kids, there’s a squirrel with the legs of a frog. In a broken aquarium fixed with some duct tape, there’s a fish with human toes for tail. In an empty large mason jar, there are eyes, ears, and a nose stuck to a literal rock. Liam doesn’t know where to look. He doesn’t know how to react when he finally spots The Hand in a cat cage suspiciously similar to Muffin’s. 

As he starts to count them, Liam can’t shake the shivers on his skin. 23? 23 unspeakable creatures? How long has Theo been working on this? When did he even do all of this without Liam knowing about it? 

Theo starts a passionate speech about each and every experiment, more or less presenting them to Liam. And maybe it’s Theo’s pride or his excitement but Liam starts to see the little creatures in a whole new light. They are not monsters one could simply find in a horror movie, meant to create shock and disdain. These were the work of someone who carefully assembled them and fervently desired to bring them to life. Someone who looks at them with amazement and devotion. Slowly, Liam starts seeing the small beings through Theo’s eyes. 

It is fascinating that all of these were possible! That what was dead is now reborn in a new and formidable way!

It takes him a while but when Theo is about halfway done, now presenting the experiment in the aquarium, Liam can finally talk. He clears his throat.

“Yeah, the siren.”

“What?”

“Half human, half fish,” Liam says like it’s obvious before taking the pen Theo always keeps in his shirt’s pocket and writing “siren” on the weird tag taped to the aquarium. 

“No, no, I use an alphanumeric code for each of them. See?” Theo points at the string of letters and numbers on the pieces of paper attached to each “cage”.

“And the hand is called ‘Spider’, obviously.” Liam stretches to reach the cat’s cage tag and writes down the name. He only slightly jumps when the hand suddenly pounces towards him in the cage. How can it see!?

“Liam!” Theo exclaims, uncharacteristically overwhelmed. “We need to use the code!”

Liam gives him an annoying smile. It’s not every day he gets to see Theo so panicked. It’s fun in its own twisted way. So he continues. 

“Yes, name codes!” He considers the half-frog, half-squirrel creature for a moment. “What about Frogrrel? Squirrog? Uh. Let’s just put ‘Greg’.” 

Theo tries to fight him off to take back the pen but Liam holds on to it despite all the laughing. Feeling Theo’s hands on him is slightly uncomfortable when he still has the memory of the cops looking at the both of them weirdly but Liam tries to let go of it. Annoying Theo is far more amusing anyway!

After another hour in the basement, adding a name to each creature with Theo once the scientist realized it was pointless to fight him and after they went through the files of the 23 experiments, Liam feels a bit better. Getting up the stairs, he thinks he’ll make himself a cup of tea and- Oh, right, they ran out. He’ll make himself a cup of water, then, and get an early night of sleep. 

Liam barely puts a foot on the ground floor when he hears the phone ringing. Warily, he walks towards the answering machine, petrified. He’s almost more scared of it than the cops or Spider. He looks at it as if he knows exactly what’s coming.

Hum… Liam Dunbar here… Uh… Leave a message? Beep. Hi, Lovey, it’s mom. I’ve been trying to call you recently but I guess you’re very busy at the hospital. Don’t worry about it, just call me back when you can. I miss you! Don’t work too hard! The message ends with her chuckling.

Liam stays there, staring at the answering machine for a long time. He can’t help it, a few tears run down his cheeks. Is he ever gonna be able to call his mom again?

That night, Liam can’t help but lie awake, eyes staring at his cracked ceiling as he overthinks for hours. Before, when that happened, he would go and fetch Muffin and he’d talk and pet his cat until he felt a bit better but now… Muffin is in the fridge. Even if they re-animated him once again, he would only hiss at him. Liam lets out a heavy sigh before getting on his feet. 

Staring at Theo’s door for a few seconds, Liam gently knocks at it and opens it when he hears a quiet “yes” from the other side. Liam stays by the doorframe, a bit ashamed of himself and not quite knowing what to say. It’s the middle of the night but he’s still surprised to see Theo in bed. He’s always working, always so excited to work… Liam thought maybe he wouldn’t be in bed yet… But it’s too late to regret now. And Theo obviously wasn’t really sleeping. 

“I miss my cat,” Liam says after a few awkward seconds. 

The silence simply continues right after Liam finishes his four little words.

“Alright…” Theo says after a while because he doesn’t actually know what to say.

“I used to… talk to him when I felt… bad.” 

It’s so dark, he can’t really see Theo’s expression. He can’t tell if he’s angry Liam woke him up or if he has that disdainful grimace he sometimes does. 

Theo chuckles lightly and Liam can somehow see him fall back into his pillow. “Did you come here so I’d be your cat, Liam?” 

Liam feels a bit embarrassed but he’s relieved Theo isn’t mad. 

“You kinda owe me.” Liam shrugs a bit pitifully.

Theo lets out a small groan but there’s the sound of covers and Liam thinks he sees Theo scooching on the left side of the bed. 

“You’re gonna hold that against me for a while, uh?” 

Liam doesn’t answer and simply gets in the bed, under the covers because it’s kinda cold. Lying down where Theo was a second before, the place is warm and he tucks himself in with care, his eyes getting used to the darkness of Theo’s bedroom. 

It seems they’re always in dark rooms.

“There’s just a lot happening and it feels like I can’t… I can’t think. I can’t even call my mom about it. I can’t tell her any of it. She was so happy when I decided to study medicine. She told everyone about it…” Liam sighs. He thought talking would help but it’s only making it worse. Yet, he continues, “And now I might go to jail! I know I did a very bad thing but- Well, more than one. More than one bad thing but… I can’t go to jail! I-”

“I think you mean ‘prison’,” Theo says with his usual cold tone.

Liam groans to let him know that now is not the time.

“And I don’t know what to do about Hayden’s father or Harris or anything that’s in the basement! I feel like everything is out of control and I don’t know how to fix it.” Liam notices all the small ways this ceiling differs from his bedroom’s. Its moulding and the way it almost makes a perfect rectangle if it wasn’t for the door being at an angle. He doesn’t know why he’s saying all of this, it’s not like Theo can help. He’s actually the reason Liam is in this mess. A small portion of Liam hopes Theo knows that. “It feels like I’m waiting to hit rock bottom and that’s scary because I’ve already hit two rock bottoms this week. Maybe even three.”

“Four if you count this moment,” Theo teases him.

“Cats don’t talk, Theo,” he scolds him softly, not in the mood to laugh

“Not yet…” he answers ominously like it’s on his list of experiments to accomplish. 

It makes Liam smile but when he tries to talk again, his voice is still a bit shaky. “Do you think he meant it? What Harris said? That they were… humoring me? That they knew I wouldn’t…” 

Liam can’t finish his question so he simply looks at the darkness around them and waits for an answer.

“I thought cats weren’t supposed to talk.” 

“My cat is dead.” 

Silence clothes the room and they both stare at the minuscule ray of moonlight dodging the heavy curtains and spreading across the covers.

“What I know for a fact is that Harris was an imbecile,” Theo finally says. 

Liam doesn’t say anything. All he hears in Theo’s statement is that he’s not denying that all the professors and the Dean knew he wouldn’t make it. Maybe that’s why Hayden was so scared of him failing. Because she was busting her ass trying to prove them wrong. 

He sighs and tucks himself tighter under the covers, searching for some of the previous warmth that seems to evade him now. 

“I think you would’ve made it,” Theo says after a moment of silence.

“You don’t have to lie to cheer me up, I’m okay.” Liam still smiles. It’s nice to think that Theo would try to comfort him like this.

“I think you would’ve had your medical degree and then you would’ve burned out in two, maybe five years,” Theo states with brutal honesty. 

“Fuck you!” Liam slaps his arm but not with much force. He’s too tired for that and he’s not sure Theo is completely wrong. Or even just a little bit.

Theo sighs like he doesn’t want to talk right now but he’s forced to. “You care too much, Liam. You’re…” His voice is obviously annoyed as he starts his sentence but between one breath and the next, Theo is calming down, forcing himself to think about what he’s saying. “I might be a brilliant scientist, Liam, but you’re an incredible doctor.” 

Frowning at the ceiling, Liam stays still in shock. Feeling blush on his face, he’s grateful for the darkness masking it but he also still doesn’t understand. Why would he- Is he lying? Is this a joke he doesn’t get yet? What’s-

“You… talk to them. You… It always took you hours to make the rounds because you’d make a point of asking every single patient about their families, about their jobs, about what they ate the day before. You kept asking that little girl about her dreams, for fuck’s sake!” Theo chuckles but it’s barely audible. “I can’t be bothered to remember their names.”

“Yasmine kept dreaming of Wonderland. Every night!” Liam says like he can’t believe that no one is as amazed as he is. “It was awesome! The only thing different was that she dreamt of a smiling bear instead of a cat which I always thought was a terrifying image…”

Theo snorts like Liam is proving his point. After yet another pocket of silence, he continues. “On my first day working at the hospital, I got stuck in your group and… you kept talking and talking…” 

Liam feels like they’re drifting a bit far from the original compliment but it’s so rare for Theo to talk like this, about himself and not some new experiment he needs to try. So Liam lets him go on. Plus, it’s not like Liam has any regrets. He wouldn’t do anything different. 

He’ll miss talking to the patients. It was his favorite part of the day. Checking up on them. Most doctors hate that part. He’s not sure why. 

“But then you caught something some woman said. Something about what she ate the night before,” Theo continues. “And you ordered a new blood test and figured out that she didn’t need to do all those invasive tests they prescribed her. Her heart was fine, she was just having an allergic reaction.” 

“They would’ve realized that at some point.”

“Probably,” Theo says, “but you got there first.” 

Liam forgot about that. He remembers the patient. Meredith. But that was the same day he saw a nine-year-old go into cardiac arrest. The little boy made it out by a hair. Hard to get that picture out of your mind. Hard to think of anything else when you go home after your shift. 

The silence drags on once more and Liam’s eyes close on their own. He doesn’t feel as anxious as he was when he came in and Theo’s presence in the room is making him feel more grounded. Safe. Which is probably stupid of him. 

He opens his eyes again to glance at him. Theo’s eyes are closed but Liam knows he’s still listening. Liam wants to ask him all kinds of questions to know if this feeling of safety is actually justified. He wants to ask him if he’ll just end up like Muffin and, if he could either save him or save his experiment, which one he’d choose. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to hear the answer.

Turning so he’s on his side, Liam twists himself closer to him and keeps his eyes on Theo’s face. 

“Can I stay here tonight?” Liam whispers. 

“This is your apartment,” Theo says plainly, his eyes still closed.

“This is your room.” 

He sees Theo’s lips breaking into a smile and Liam likes this one. It seems like every time Theo smiles, it’s all new and different. But this one might just be his favorite yet. 

“Yes, Liam, you may stay in my room.” 

“Okay… Thanks, Muffin II.” 

“I changed my mind, get out.” Theo opens his eyes and immediately points to the door. 

Liam laughs but uses the moment of Theo moving around to bury himself even closer to Theo, practically digging himself a small place under his side. Theo groans at the needless contact but he doesn’t move. Liam takes it as a victory and lets out a relieved sigh. 

“Good night.” 

“Night, Liam,” Theo says and it’s unusually warm, although maybe he’s just happy that he can finally go to sleep. 

The house is so quiet. It’s not like her dad used to make a ruckus – he was barely ever there! – but it feels like Hayden can now hear the absence of her dad. Frenetically avoiding the emptiness of the house and the intensity of her own feelings, she does nothing but write and write and she doesn’t let herself one moment to catch her breath. It feels like if she just continues, maybe she’ll figure it out. Ink smeared on her face, Hayden keeps on tapping on his typewriter even if her fingers hurt. Her empty cup of coffee and half-drank coffee pot sit beside her as she makes little annoyed groans. Photocopies of a Switzerland local paper are scattered around her. “Illegal research kills famous scientist!” and “Stolen bodies leave families distraught” are simply two of the many articles with Theo Raeken’s name in it.

If Liam won’t put a stop to Raeken, then Hayden will make sure they both rot in jail. There needs to be consequences to their actions! It’s not because no one understands what they’re doing that they’re safe from the law! 

Frantically searching under the stacks of papers for the pen stuck in her messy perm, Hayden lets out a muffled scream of frustration before settling for a pencil as she circles some data in Dr Harris’ notes. She knows that she should’ve simply made a copy of them but there was no time and, if she learned anything in her field, it’s that it’s better to take and then apologize than to come back empty-handed. Besides, even if he was one of her father’s closest friends, Dr Harris always rubbed her the wrong way. 

She might change her mind now that he’s helping her get her vengeance on Liam and Raeken… even if he doesn’t know it yet. She might just send him a thank you card when all of this is done. 

Hayden looks at the dozen drafts scattered on her desk, all stuck between various medical books and school files. She needs more. She needs proof. She can’t just go to her editor and give him this story without any kind of tangible proof and some data that she stole. Everyone will call her crazy. She needs… she needs pictures. For an hour, she digs through her father’s things, convinced that he had a polaroid somewhere. Her hands are red as she keeps carelessly and violently going through boxes and boxes of her dad’s stuff which is now her own. Her body buzzing with pain and exhaustion, she finally falls to the ground and breaks down. 

The tears last one minute before she hears the sound of her father’s voice in her head telling her to stop acting like a little girl and to get to work. She wipes her face and almost runs to the phone. She has a friend who sometimes sells photographs to the paper. She must have about 4 cameras! Surely, she’ll be able to spare one.

“Hey, can I borrow your camera?” she asks before her friend can even greet her back. 

“Hayden? Hey, I heard about your dad. Are you-”

“Your camera, can I borrow it?!”

“I- Yeah… Of course, anything you need. But… why do you need a camera? ”

“Taking pictures, Mary,” Hayden tells her sharply.

“Ha-ha. Taking pictures of what? ”

Hayden takes a breath in and smirks before wiping the last tear on her cheek. “Oh, you know… still life.”