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jedibuttercup) wrote2010-01-03 11:23 pm
jedibuttercup) wrote2010-01-03 11:23 pm
Fic: Secrets of the Universe (BtVS/Eureka; PG-13; 8/?)
PG-13, BtVS/Eureka; 3000 words. (8th of "No Place Like Eureka.") SPOILERS THROUGH 3.15.
"You're talking about Dawn," Stark said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?"
Title: Secrets of the Universe
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "You're talking about Dawn," Stark said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?" 3000 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-5.05 "No Place Like Home"; Eureka mid-3.15 "Shower the People"
Notes: 8th in series. More AU plot development; you didn't think Stark was the only fix-it I had in mind, considering when I set this, did you? =D
Tess glanced away from the radiation chamber as the glass protective shield came down in its doorway, checking Bruce's expression for traces of the worry and uncertainty she herself was feeling. If the last-minute nutrient bath treatment Henry and the organic A.I. had created to repair her cells while filtering and cushioning the effects of Bruce's laser didn't work, the results of their second attempt to access the computer's data storage would be just as painful, and ineffective, as their first try earlier that day-- and everyone knew how personally Henry was taking the artificial Kim's fate. No one wanted to see him hurt any further-- or the computer, who was rapidly taking on a personality of her own.
She caught Jack and Allison entering the lab out of the corner of her eye as Bruce took his place in front of the monitors, and saw the worry in their faces as well. Both were close personal friends of Henry's, she knew, and both had at least met the original Kim before her death. Jack looked stressed, even more than he had when they'd all met to investigate Dr. Monroe's bizarre drowning, and Allison had a hand pressed to the small of her back; she'd probably been on her feet most of the day, and was feeling the physical effects of late pregnancy in addition to the heavy emotional load she was carrying.
The pair were also standing less than six inches apart. Tess swallowed, then wrenched her attention back to the radiation chamber, mentally kicking herself for being a jealous idiot. Allison and Jack had known each other for more than two years; Allison herself had denied that there was anything currently between them; and Stark was back now, so Allison wasn't available even if Jack were still interested in her. Their closeness really shouldn't be bothering her-- but Tess couldn't help but remember the way Jack had blown off her invitation to the asteroid event that morning, with only a barely mumbled excuse about a birthing coach lesson to cover his indecision.
Right. If that wasn't code for 'I’m just not that into you,' Tess didn't know what was. She didn't know where she'd gone wrong; she'd really thought she'd picked a good one this time, and that he was as interested in her as she was in him. After the stakeout, the meteor shower, and the way he'd included her so easily in the revelations about Dawn Stark, she'd been sure of it. Even his other daughter, Zoe, had seemed reluctantly accepting of the possibility that Tess might start claiming more of his time; his sudden hesitation just didn't make any sense.
She heard the door open again as the system began to warm up, and Stark's voice greeting Allison; then Jack's voice, asking a question about the pipes than ran around the chamber. She took a quick breath, determined not to let her emotions affect her job, and turned to answer-- but Stark beat her to it.
"It's a hydroelectric cooling system, Carter," Stark told the sheriff, in warm, amused tones. "Radiation, remember? The equipment puts out a lot of heat."
Stark had taken up a position on Allison's other side, aiming a smug grin at Jack in front of Allison's long-suffering expression. He had Dawn with him, which seemed a little unorthodox given the security level of the lab, but she knew all the parents involved still had questions about Dawn's origins; he'd probably brought her in for some tests and simply didn't want to leave her alone in his office. Tess glanced between him and Jack, then back at Dawn, and had to admit the girl resembled both of them more than a little; once she'd accepted the unlikely possibility, it was easy to see that their future selves had somehow made one good-looking kid between them.
Maybe Stark's return was why Jack had suddenly lost interest in her? Tess entertained the thought for a second, then dismissed it, amused and chagrined by the prurient direction of her imagination. It would be less of a blow to her ego to speculate that he had simply changed 'teams' rather than rejecting her personally, true, but she'd seen the way both men acted around Allison, and the way Jack had acted around her before his apparent change of heart. No, whatever his problem was, it wasn't connected to Stark; in fact, if she had to guess, she'd say that something must have changed his mind just that morning--
"Yes, well," Bruce cleared his throat beside her. "Starting the download-- now."
Tess blinked, automatically glancing at her former colleague before turning to watch the progress of the experiment. She did know of one new variable that had been introduced to the equation that day, though surely that couldn't be it. What reason could Jack possibly have to be jealous of--?
She shook off the distraction as data intake windows began flashing up on the computer screens; there were more important things to worry about at the moment than her love life, though she would definitely have to revisit that line of thought later on.
"It's working," Henry breathed, enthralled, as flashes of energy continued to light up the nutrient bath and Kim's recumbent form. Kim glanced briefly in his direction, then laid her head back and closed her eyes, and Tess couldn't hold back a smile. The organic A.I. was probably relaxing into the treatment, which was good; it should make things go even more smoothly--
"You're sure it's not hurting her?" Dawn's worried voice carried through the lab, followed by shushing noises from her stepmother.
Kim's eyes fluttered open again at the interruption, and she turned her head slightly in the buoyant fluid, probably checking to see who had spoken. She must not have met Dawn yet, Tess realized; this was the first time the girl had been at G.D. since Kim had been deemed non-hostile, and if Dawn hadn't been in Café Diem during Henry's visit there with the organic computer, they wouldn't have had an opportunity to cross paths.
Kim's expression seemed to convey more than mere interest or surprise, though; the artificial woman looked shocked. An audible alarm echoed through the lab as she gasped and lifted her head for a better look. She stared at Dawn for a long moment, then turned to look at Henry while error messages flashed up on the screens-- then lay back again, the interrupt warnings lapsing as suddenly as they'd begun.
"What was that?" several voices asked simultaneously, Henry's the loudest. He glanced at Bruce, then back at the screens, then back to Kim, hands curling into tense fists.
Bruce's fingers flew over the keyboard, and he shook his head. "I don't know," he said, frowning. "The download stuttered for a moment, but there doesn't seem to be any problem with the data stream now. It could have been affected by her level of concentration; I've used the laser extraction method on organic computers before, but never on one with a consciousness of its own, and never with a nutrient medium, so I can only guess."
"Guess?" Henry made a choked noise, then clenched his jaw, staring worriedly into the chamber.
Kim gave a distressed cry as the laser continued to probe the nutrient bath, but she firmed her jaw in determination, and the data continued to pour in over the screens. Henry shifted in agitation, but before he could demand a halt to the procedure again, Kim spoke up, her voice muted by the glass between them. "No-- let it continue!" she gasped, twitching as the blue energy played over her body.
Henry clenched his hands tighter, but kept quiet; Jack crossed the room to stand at his side and reached to grip his shoulder. In the back of the room, Stark and Allison stood together, Dawn now pressed between them. Tess reminded herself to breathe deeply and furrowed her brow at the screens, anxiously tracking the progress of the download. The tension was really starting to get to her; her chest was beginning to feel tight, and she could feel herself starting to sweat.
"Come on, come on," she murmured under her breath, catching her lower lip between her teeth.
The download process seemed to carry on interminably as Kim jerked and twisted in the bath, her brow furrowed in pain. Henry flinched every time she did, and if there hadn't been so much at stake, Tess would have aborted the process herself, but she knew there would be no other possible chance to save both the organic computer and its data if the current attempt failed. More than that; they were running out of time to save the data at all-- and it was Kim's expressed wish that they do so.
Finally, the screens cleared and a new window flashed up on the main monitor: "Download complete."
"Shut it off!" Henry demanded immediately, blinking unshed tears out of his eyes. Bruce hit a few keys, and the glass door to the chamber began to retract into the ceiling.
Henry ducked under the door before it could even finish opening and immediately thrust his arms into the bluish bath, lifting Kim's upper body free of the liquid. "Are you all right?" he asked, clutching her close to his chest.
"I'm... fine," she replied haltingly, smiling faintly at him. "The data?"
"We got it all," Henry assured her. "It worked. But something happened--"
"I know," Kim said. "I was going to shut myself down, to stop it-- but then I saw the light." She shifted a little, turning her head against the damp cloth of his shirt to look at Dawn as the group of onlookers crowded into the chamber with them.
Everyone glanced at Dawn then, Tess included; but Stark was the quickest off the mark, giving voice to their concerns. "You're talking about Dawn," he said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?"
Kim changed her focus from Dawn to Stark, eyes widening in surprise. "Dawn? You see it as your daughter?"
"It?" Jack objected, spine stiffening in alarm. Tess was still standing nearer to Bruce than she was to him, but at the sight of his distress she moved closer, laying a hand on his arm for support.
"I see light," Kim continued wonderingly. "Green light; the visible form of an energy matrix vibrating at a dimensional frequency beyond normal human perception. I had thought to force a permanent download so as not to cause Henry further pain-- but I have seen that light before, and I did not wish to go before I learned its nature."
Everyone but Henry exchanged alarmed glances at that; Henry just kept staring at her, speechless. Jack and Stark both seemed lost for words as well, and Dawn looked positively terrified as she backed up into her father's arms, so Tess cleared her throat and spoke for all of them.
"Nine years ago," she clarified, remembering the timeframe Stark had extrapolated from his contradictory memories. "You saw this-- light-- nine years ago?"
Kim furrowed her brow, calculating for a moment. "After accounting for the effects of relativity-- yes. It would have been nine years ago. The light was very distant, and lasted only for a moment; but it was very bright, and seemed to exist outside of normal space-time. It was unlike anything else the ship's sensors recorded during its entire journey."
"Oh my god," Allison whispered, glancing over at Stark; the description clearly meant more to her than it did to Tess.
"The Artifact," Stark said quietly, nodding at her, then looked over at Jack.
Tess swallowed. She did know that reference; Allison had told her about the strange, artificial, prehistoric construct G.D. had kept in Section 5, its apparent connection to the zero-point subspace nexus of knowledge known as the Akashic Field, and its part in the death of Kim Anderson nee Yamazaki and the strange things that had happened to Allison's son the previous year. No one had ever found any clues to the fate of the Field since it had been separated from him. Until now.
Jack stared back at Stark, aghast, then looked down at Dawn, who had gone chalk-pale, freckles standing out on her cheeks. "But-- she's our daughter," he said, bewildered. "Is it like what happened with Kevin?"
"No," Stark said slowly, shaking his head. "I think she's saying-- that Dawn is the light."
He looked at the false Kim for confirmation; she nodded back, slowly, and said, "Yes."
"But you said I was real!" Dawn said, clutching at Stark's arm as she found her voice again.
"You are. Shhh; you are, you're just even more special than we thought," Stark soothed her, pulling her into a tight hug. She buried her face in his chest, looking a lot younger than seventeen as her world was rearranged under her feet for the second time in as many days.
Allison laughed a little, breathlessly, on the edge of hysteria. "I think we know now why she always got along so well with Kevin," she said, rubbing a hand up and down her stepdaughter's back.
"And why we would have gone to such lengths to protect her," Jack added, grimly.
"But how is that even possible?" Tess had to ask. "Did it just decide to incarnate and happened to pick you two to be its-- her-- parents?"
Jack swallowed. "If so, it must have buried that knowledge along with everything else when it became Dawn, because she's Dawn, not some profoundly mysterious source of knowledge. And I have to say, kiddo," he added, reaching out to briefly touch Dawn's shoulder to catch her attention, "Even if Kim's right, it doesn't matter; I won't let anyone treat you any differently."
"And if it matters to me?" she replied tremulously, peering at him through damp lashes.
Henry chuckled harshly, breaking in on the conversation. "Never mind all that," he said. "You said you wanted to spare me pain? You were going to force us to put you through the dissolution process instead of downloading you intact, and you thought that would spare me pain?"
"Uh," Tess said, glancing between Henry, the tight cluster of Stark-family-plus, and the clearly fascinated silent onlooker, Bruce. Dawn looked hurt and panicky; Henry was hurt and oblivious; and everyone but her was totally caught up in their dramas. "Maybe we should give Kim a chance to clean up, and regroup in your office, Allison?" she suggested hastily.
Kim didn't wait for privacy to answer Henry; she made a mournful noise and pulled back a little, sitting up in the tank to look him full in the face. "I'm just a copy, Henry," she said. "I'm not Kim."
Bruce took the hint immediately and retreated outside the chamber to the bank of computers and their new wealth of data; it took Allison a moment longer as she glanced between Kim and Henry, but she finally nodded to Tess in agreement and began ushering Stark and Dawn out of the lab.
"You think I don't know that?" Henry replied, the words as rough as though they'd been torn out of him. "That doesn't mean you have to die just so I won't be reminded of her!"
Jack lingered a second longer, torn between new daughter and old friend, but let Tess push him along with her until they'd left the chamber. The glass door came down behind them for privacy again; Jack stopped just outside it, resisting Tess' urge to keep moving.
"Jack," she prompted, softly.
"Just a minute," he told her, then nodded to Bruce. "Dr. Manlius-- the security cameras for this lab. "Would they have recorded that conversation?"
Bruce looked confused for a moment, then startled, then drew his brows together. "Yes, they will have," he said, "but I can erase the last ten minutes of footage, easily. You'll have to have Allison or Tess take precautions in the office, but I can take care of things in this lab."
"Good," Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Good, and-- thank you. We appreciate the discretion."
Discretion. Tess swallowed. She'd been expecting to unearth some of the secrets of the universe that day, yes; but she'd never expected any of those discoveries to be so personal, or potentially devastating to people she cared about. "Bruce--"
"Go," he said, sympathetically. "They'll need you more right now."
"Thank you," she mouthed at him, then followed Jack out of the room. Her palm was a little damp as she slipped it into his-- her nerves were apparently still getting to her-- but he didn't seem to mind; he squeezed it briefly and gave her a grateful look as they rushed to catch up with Allison. The hurry brought the tight feeling back to Tess' chest, and she coughed, trying to dispel it; it wasn't a good time to be coming down with something. That was the last thing she needed, cherry on top of the sundae of stress and worry that had started with Dr. Monroe's death that morning and only--
Oh god, she thought as the penny dropped. "Jack," she gasped, stopping short in the hall as she coughed again. She wiped at her forehead with her free hand and drew it back shaking, covered in a thin film of water. "The synthetic water."
He stared blankly at her for a second, mind still half a hallway ahead of them, then sucked in a breath in comprehension. "Oh no," he said, "Not you, too. Not now!" He glanced back up the hallway, then shook his head and wrapped an arm around her, ushering her toward the elevator instead. "Crap. We've got to get you to the infirmary; I'll just have to call Allison from there and let them know."
Tess gasped, trying to ignore the tickling sensation growing in her lungs, and surrendered herself to his care.
-~-
(not x-posted on LJ)
"You're talking about Dawn," Stark said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?"
Title: Secrets of the Universe
Author: Jedi Buttercup
Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: "You're talking about Dawn," Stark said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?" 3000 words.
Spoilers: B:tVS post-5.05 "No Place Like Home"; Eureka mid-3.15 "Shower the People"
Notes: 8th in series. More AU plot development; you didn't think Stark was the only fix-it I had in mind, considering when I set this, did you? =D
Tess glanced away from the radiation chamber as the glass protective shield came down in its doorway, checking Bruce's expression for traces of the worry and uncertainty she herself was feeling. If the last-minute nutrient bath treatment Henry and the organic A.I. had created to repair her cells while filtering and cushioning the effects of Bruce's laser didn't work, the results of their second attempt to access the computer's data storage would be just as painful, and ineffective, as their first try earlier that day-- and everyone knew how personally Henry was taking the artificial Kim's fate. No one wanted to see him hurt any further-- or the computer, who was rapidly taking on a personality of her own.
She caught Jack and Allison entering the lab out of the corner of her eye as Bruce took his place in front of the monitors, and saw the worry in their faces as well. Both were close personal friends of Henry's, she knew, and both had at least met the original Kim before her death. Jack looked stressed, even more than he had when they'd all met to investigate Dr. Monroe's bizarre drowning, and Allison had a hand pressed to the small of her back; she'd probably been on her feet most of the day, and was feeling the physical effects of late pregnancy in addition to the heavy emotional load she was carrying.
The pair were also standing less than six inches apart. Tess swallowed, then wrenched her attention back to the radiation chamber, mentally kicking herself for being a jealous idiot. Allison and Jack had known each other for more than two years; Allison herself had denied that there was anything currently between them; and Stark was back now, so Allison wasn't available even if Jack were still interested in her. Their closeness really shouldn't be bothering her-- but Tess couldn't help but remember the way Jack had blown off her invitation to the asteroid event that morning, with only a barely mumbled excuse about a birthing coach lesson to cover his indecision.
Right. If that wasn't code for 'I’m just not that into you,' Tess didn't know what was. She didn't know where she'd gone wrong; she'd really thought she'd picked a good one this time, and that he was as interested in her as she was in him. After the stakeout, the meteor shower, and the way he'd included her so easily in the revelations about Dawn Stark, she'd been sure of it. Even his other daughter, Zoe, had seemed reluctantly accepting of the possibility that Tess might start claiming more of his time; his sudden hesitation just didn't make any sense.
She heard the door open again as the system began to warm up, and Stark's voice greeting Allison; then Jack's voice, asking a question about the pipes than ran around the chamber. She took a quick breath, determined not to let her emotions affect her job, and turned to answer-- but Stark beat her to it.
"It's a hydroelectric cooling system, Carter," Stark told the sheriff, in warm, amused tones. "Radiation, remember? The equipment puts out a lot of heat."
Stark had taken up a position on Allison's other side, aiming a smug grin at Jack in front of Allison's long-suffering expression. He had Dawn with him, which seemed a little unorthodox given the security level of the lab, but she knew all the parents involved still had questions about Dawn's origins; he'd probably brought her in for some tests and simply didn't want to leave her alone in his office. Tess glanced between him and Jack, then back at Dawn, and had to admit the girl resembled both of them more than a little; once she'd accepted the unlikely possibility, it was easy to see that their future selves had somehow made one good-looking kid between them.
Maybe Stark's return was why Jack had suddenly lost interest in her? Tess entertained the thought for a second, then dismissed it, amused and chagrined by the prurient direction of her imagination. It would be less of a blow to her ego to speculate that he had simply changed 'teams' rather than rejecting her personally, true, but she'd seen the way both men acted around Allison, and the way Jack had acted around her before his apparent change of heart. No, whatever his problem was, it wasn't connected to Stark; in fact, if she had to guess, she'd say that something must have changed his mind just that morning--
"Yes, well," Bruce cleared his throat beside her. "Starting the download-- now."
Tess blinked, automatically glancing at her former colleague before turning to watch the progress of the experiment. She did know of one new variable that had been introduced to the equation that day, though surely that couldn't be it. What reason could Jack possibly have to be jealous of--?
She shook off the distraction as data intake windows began flashing up on the computer screens; there were more important things to worry about at the moment than her love life, though she would definitely have to revisit that line of thought later on.
"It's working," Henry breathed, enthralled, as flashes of energy continued to light up the nutrient bath and Kim's recumbent form. Kim glanced briefly in his direction, then laid her head back and closed her eyes, and Tess couldn't hold back a smile. The organic A.I. was probably relaxing into the treatment, which was good; it should make things go even more smoothly--
"You're sure it's not hurting her?" Dawn's worried voice carried through the lab, followed by shushing noises from her stepmother.
Kim's eyes fluttered open again at the interruption, and she turned her head slightly in the buoyant fluid, probably checking to see who had spoken. She must not have met Dawn yet, Tess realized; this was the first time the girl had been at G.D. since Kim had been deemed non-hostile, and if Dawn hadn't been in Café Diem during Henry's visit there with the organic computer, they wouldn't have had an opportunity to cross paths.
Kim's expression seemed to convey more than mere interest or surprise, though; the artificial woman looked shocked. An audible alarm echoed through the lab as she gasped and lifted her head for a better look. She stared at Dawn for a long moment, then turned to look at Henry while error messages flashed up on the screens-- then lay back again, the interrupt warnings lapsing as suddenly as they'd begun.
"What was that?" several voices asked simultaneously, Henry's the loudest. He glanced at Bruce, then back at the screens, then back to Kim, hands curling into tense fists.
Bruce's fingers flew over the keyboard, and he shook his head. "I don't know," he said, frowning. "The download stuttered for a moment, but there doesn't seem to be any problem with the data stream now. It could have been affected by her level of concentration; I've used the laser extraction method on organic computers before, but never on one with a consciousness of its own, and never with a nutrient medium, so I can only guess."
"Guess?" Henry made a choked noise, then clenched his jaw, staring worriedly into the chamber.
Kim gave a distressed cry as the laser continued to probe the nutrient bath, but she firmed her jaw in determination, and the data continued to pour in over the screens. Henry shifted in agitation, but before he could demand a halt to the procedure again, Kim spoke up, her voice muted by the glass between them. "No-- let it continue!" she gasped, twitching as the blue energy played over her body.
Henry clenched his hands tighter, but kept quiet; Jack crossed the room to stand at his side and reached to grip his shoulder. In the back of the room, Stark and Allison stood together, Dawn now pressed between them. Tess reminded herself to breathe deeply and furrowed her brow at the screens, anxiously tracking the progress of the download. The tension was really starting to get to her; her chest was beginning to feel tight, and she could feel herself starting to sweat.
"Come on, come on," she murmured under her breath, catching her lower lip between her teeth.
The download process seemed to carry on interminably as Kim jerked and twisted in the bath, her brow furrowed in pain. Henry flinched every time she did, and if there hadn't been so much at stake, Tess would have aborted the process herself, but she knew there would be no other possible chance to save both the organic computer and its data if the current attempt failed. More than that; they were running out of time to save the data at all-- and it was Kim's expressed wish that they do so.
Finally, the screens cleared and a new window flashed up on the main monitor: "Download complete."
"Shut it off!" Henry demanded immediately, blinking unshed tears out of his eyes. Bruce hit a few keys, and the glass door to the chamber began to retract into the ceiling.
Henry ducked under the door before it could even finish opening and immediately thrust his arms into the bluish bath, lifting Kim's upper body free of the liquid. "Are you all right?" he asked, clutching her close to his chest.
"I'm... fine," she replied haltingly, smiling faintly at him. "The data?"
"We got it all," Henry assured her. "It worked. But something happened--"
"I know," Kim said. "I was going to shut myself down, to stop it-- but then I saw the light." She shifted a little, turning her head against the damp cloth of his shirt to look at Dawn as the group of onlookers crowded into the chamber with them.
Everyone glanced at Dawn then, Tess included; but Stark was the quickest off the mark, giving voice to their concerns. "You're talking about Dawn," he said in worried tones, a hand resting on his daughter's back for reassurance. "You recognized something about her?"
Kim changed her focus from Dawn to Stark, eyes widening in surprise. "Dawn? You see it as your daughter?"
"It?" Jack objected, spine stiffening in alarm. Tess was still standing nearer to Bruce than she was to him, but at the sight of his distress she moved closer, laying a hand on his arm for support.
"I see light," Kim continued wonderingly. "Green light; the visible form of an energy matrix vibrating at a dimensional frequency beyond normal human perception. I had thought to force a permanent download so as not to cause Henry further pain-- but I have seen that light before, and I did not wish to go before I learned its nature."
Everyone but Henry exchanged alarmed glances at that; Henry just kept staring at her, speechless. Jack and Stark both seemed lost for words as well, and Dawn looked positively terrified as she backed up into her father's arms, so Tess cleared her throat and spoke for all of them.
"Nine years ago," she clarified, remembering the timeframe Stark had extrapolated from his contradictory memories. "You saw this-- light-- nine years ago?"
Kim furrowed her brow, calculating for a moment. "After accounting for the effects of relativity-- yes. It would have been nine years ago. The light was very distant, and lasted only for a moment; but it was very bright, and seemed to exist outside of normal space-time. It was unlike anything else the ship's sensors recorded during its entire journey."
"Oh my god," Allison whispered, glancing over at Stark; the description clearly meant more to her than it did to Tess.
"The Artifact," Stark said quietly, nodding at her, then looked over at Jack.
Tess swallowed. She did know that reference; Allison had told her about the strange, artificial, prehistoric construct G.D. had kept in Section 5, its apparent connection to the zero-point subspace nexus of knowledge known as the Akashic Field, and its part in the death of Kim Anderson nee Yamazaki and the strange things that had happened to Allison's son the previous year. No one had ever found any clues to the fate of the Field since it had been separated from him. Until now.
Jack stared back at Stark, aghast, then looked down at Dawn, who had gone chalk-pale, freckles standing out on her cheeks. "But-- she's our daughter," he said, bewildered. "Is it like what happened with Kevin?"
"No," Stark said slowly, shaking his head. "I think she's saying-- that Dawn is the light."
He looked at the false Kim for confirmation; she nodded back, slowly, and said, "Yes."
"But you said I was real!" Dawn said, clutching at Stark's arm as she found her voice again.
"You are. Shhh; you are, you're just even more special than we thought," Stark soothed her, pulling her into a tight hug. She buried her face in his chest, looking a lot younger than seventeen as her world was rearranged under her feet for the second time in as many days.
Allison laughed a little, breathlessly, on the edge of hysteria. "I think we know now why she always got along so well with Kevin," she said, rubbing a hand up and down her stepdaughter's back.
"And why we would have gone to such lengths to protect her," Jack added, grimly.
"But how is that even possible?" Tess had to ask. "Did it just decide to incarnate and happened to pick you two to be its-- her-- parents?"
Jack swallowed. "If so, it must have buried that knowledge along with everything else when it became Dawn, because she's Dawn, not some profoundly mysterious source of knowledge. And I have to say, kiddo," he added, reaching out to briefly touch Dawn's shoulder to catch her attention, "Even if Kim's right, it doesn't matter; I won't let anyone treat you any differently."
"And if it matters to me?" she replied tremulously, peering at him through damp lashes.
Henry chuckled harshly, breaking in on the conversation. "Never mind all that," he said. "You said you wanted to spare me pain? You were going to force us to put you through the dissolution process instead of downloading you intact, and you thought that would spare me pain?"
"Uh," Tess said, glancing between Henry, the tight cluster of Stark-family-plus, and the clearly fascinated silent onlooker, Bruce. Dawn looked hurt and panicky; Henry was hurt and oblivious; and everyone but her was totally caught up in their dramas. "Maybe we should give Kim a chance to clean up, and regroup in your office, Allison?" she suggested hastily.
Kim didn't wait for privacy to answer Henry; she made a mournful noise and pulled back a little, sitting up in the tank to look him full in the face. "I'm just a copy, Henry," she said. "I'm not Kim."
Bruce took the hint immediately and retreated outside the chamber to the bank of computers and their new wealth of data; it took Allison a moment longer as she glanced between Kim and Henry, but she finally nodded to Tess in agreement and began ushering Stark and Dawn out of the lab.
"You think I don't know that?" Henry replied, the words as rough as though they'd been torn out of him. "That doesn't mean you have to die just so I won't be reminded of her!"
Jack lingered a second longer, torn between new daughter and old friend, but let Tess push him along with her until they'd left the chamber. The glass door came down behind them for privacy again; Jack stopped just outside it, resisting Tess' urge to keep moving.
"Jack," she prompted, softly.
"Just a minute," he told her, then nodded to Bruce. "Dr. Manlius-- the security cameras for this lab. "Would they have recorded that conversation?"
Bruce looked confused for a moment, then startled, then drew his brows together. "Yes, they will have," he said, "but I can erase the last ten minutes of footage, easily. You'll have to have Allison or Tess take precautions in the office, but I can take care of things in this lab."
"Good," Jack said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Good, and-- thank you. We appreciate the discretion."
Discretion. Tess swallowed. She'd been expecting to unearth some of the secrets of the universe that day, yes; but she'd never expected any of those discoveries to be so personal, or potentially devastating to people she cared about. "Bruce--"
"Go," he said, sympathetically. "They'll need you more right now."
"Thank you," she mouthed at him, then followed Jack out of the room. Her palm was a little damp as she slipped it into his-- her nerves were apparently still getting to her-- but he didn't seem to mind; he squeezed it briefly and gave her a grateful look as they rushed to catch up with Allison. The hurry brought the tight feeling back to Tess' chest, and she coughed, trying to dispel it; it wasn't a good time to be coming down with something. That was the last thing she needed, cherry on top of the sundae of stress and worry that had started with Dr. Monroe's death that morning and only--
Oh god, she thought as the penny dropped. "Jack," she gasped, stopping short in the hall as she coughed again. She wiped at her forehead with her free hand and drew it back shaking, covered in a thin film of water. "The synthetic water."
He stared blankly at her for a second, mind still half a hallway ahead of them, then sucked in a breath in comprehension. "Oh no," he said, "Not you, too. Not now!" He glanced back up the hallway, then shook his head and wrapped an arm around her, ushering her toward the elevator instead. "Crap. We've got to get you to the infirmary; I'll just have to call Allison from there and let them know."
Tess gasped, trying to ignore the tickling sensation growing in her lungs, and surrendered herself to his care.
-~-
(not x-posted on LJ)
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Anywho...very nice fix wonderfully interwoven into the original storyline. We get to keep Kim without losing any of the tension of having the AI version of her there. And of course there's the reveal concerning Dawn's origin. It's still not exact, considering what we know of Dawn's actual history, but it's closer and still a plausible origin considering who the ppl of Eureka are and what they know.
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I've had fun leading these scientific characters toward the truth in as in-universe a manner as possible, while shamelessly fixing a couple of things I hated about the season. Honestly, I don't plan for them to ever find out 100% of the truth in this particular tale (though all bets would be off in any sequel); adding any more Buffyverse characters this late in would unbalance the story, and how else would they find out? But what they do know is certainly considerable food for thought.
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