Tomorrow Will Come- A Hatchetfield Story

Chapter Four: The Brain

Harriet led Hannah down to her lab. Well, technically her uncle's lab. But she used it often enough. Lex and Ethan followed, still a bit tentative about the whole concept of Harriet experimenting on Hannah. Harriet didn't blame them. Not one bit. Science had a bad reputation thanks to science fiction movies where something almost always went wrong. But Harriet was good. Very good. So there was really nothing to worry about. Of course, Lex and Ethan would need to see that to believe it, so she had to be very careful.

Ted watched the young woman as she seemingly sauntered off, and he sighed. His eyes lingered on an area of her body where he really shouldn't be looking. Especially not with her uncle- really, more accurately, her adoptive father- in the room. The room seemed to clear as Alice, Deb and Peter left with Paul, Emma and Bill to start doing some research. Not that Ted noted. The dirtbag was too fixated on Harriet. Henry gave him a pat on the back, snapping him out of it.

"Keep looking there. I dare you." Henry sighed menacingly.

"Oh come on, Hen. She's totally into me." Ted smirked.

"I highly doubt that." Henry chuckled.

"What, you don't think I'm good enough for her?" Ted scoffed.

"Oh, I know you're not good enough for her." Henry started to snicker.

"You can't tell me you haven't noticed how nervous she gets around me." Ted pointed out. "I mean, she can't even look me in the eyes. It's adorable."

"She can't look anyone in the eyes, Ted." Henry sighed. "She's... it makes her extremely uncomfortable. She can't even look me in the eyes. If you look closely at her when she's interacting with people, you'll notice that she either looks above or below."

"Okay, what about the way she was walking." Ted moved on. "She was asking for me to look."

"Also unintentional. She's a trained dancer." Henry started to slowburn.

"She's acting all sexy!" Ted defended himself.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Henry quirked a brow, his mood quickly souring.

"What, with the whiskey, and the cigar... it's hot!" Ted smirked, not picking up how upset Henry was getting.

"Listen to me carefully, Ted: you so much as touch her, or look at her the wrong way, and she will not get the chance to kill you." Henry articulated carefully.

"What's your problem, Hen? I thought you and I were on the same page with girls and sex and all that shit." Ted blinked, finally picking up on his hostility.

"You're talking about my daughter." Henry growled. "I know you, Ted. I know you too well. In some ways, I am you. And Harriet will never, never be subject to you and what you consider to be your wiles if I have anything to do with it. Plus... I'm pansexual, Ted. We've been through this. I also like men. Like Chad... you always cut me off when I tell you about him. He was-"

"Yeah, man, I'm not gay..." Ted cut him off, clapping him on the back.

"Believe me, you've made that very obvious." Henry rolled his eyes.

"Back to that bombshell Harriet, though... I thought she was supposed to be smart, Hen." Ted sighed. "Because either she's flirting with me, or she's dumb. Does she like moustaches?"

"No. I tried one once, and she shaved it in my sleep." Henry chuckled fondly before regaining his seriousness. "And she's not dumb. Just... a bit socially oblivious. It's common in geniuses."

"You've got an answer for everything, don't you?" Ted rolled his eyes.

"It's a Hidgens thing." Henry smirked softly. "We should be useful. I'm going to go and see if I can assist Harriet."