The Doctor's Monster

Captain Off Duty

They all got bonuses.
Despite the flaws in the execution of their mission, they overall achieved their goal.
Pierce and Chet stayed with the rest of the team for drinks.
Not Ayla.
Instead, he chose to go home.
He's been away from his family for 3 weeks.
The drive home is usually exciting for him.
This time, he's troubled.
On is mind, the Creature that saved his life.
The way it looked at him.
It smiled at him.
He can't get the image from his head.
Dr.Chapman always talked on and on about Sentience and Artificial intelligence.
But that was always just speculation, right?
This thing wasn't actually a thinking being.
No it's just an animal.
It was acting on instinct.
Still, it had risked its life for his.
It pulled him from the wreckage.
Keepers took credit for that, but protocol states, if any agent is compromised in any way, termination of the asset becomes top priority.
If the goal was to kill him, why send the asset back to save him?
G183 was already en rout to the extraction site with the coffin in tow.
No.
That wasn't instinct.
The animal made a decision.
Bruce makes a turn down his street, towering dark green trees line either side of the road.
He feels guilty for not thinking about his family, and not being more excited to see them.
They are his priority, not the animal.
He opens his car door and steps out, taking a deep breath.
The air has a crisp forest smell.
He loves it.
Instantly his worries fade.
He slings his duffle back around his shoulder and walks towards the elegantly painted door.
The sound of his keys jingling catches the attention of a child playing inside.
Immediately the child drops his plastic dinosaurs and rockets towards the door.
The door flies open.
"Dad!"
He drops his duffel bag and lifts the boy into his arms.
"Hey there Kiddo!"
He says, an unavoidable smile of pride grows on his face.
"Oh you're so big!"
He says, grunting dramatically as he carries him inside.
His duffel bag is kicked inside as he closes the door behind him.
A young red haired woman walks into the living room.
She smiles wide and runs to him.
He extends his other arm and gathers his family into his embrace.
After an eternity of hugging they decide to go out for dinner.
He doesn't make his family dress up for a fancy restaurant.
Instead he wears a hoodie and a pair of jeans.
It's a nice change of pace from the steel suit of armor he's been sporting the past few weeks.
At dinner his son tells him of all the adventures he and his mother have had in his absence.
Alan tells his father of all the things he learned.
Among them is a new dinosaur.
The allosaurus.
He even pulls out a trading card with a picture on it.
Bruce smiles with pride at his child.
Grace looks at him.
She knows something is bothering her husband.
"You okay?"
She asks.
He turns to her and nods.
"I'm just really happy to see you again."
He says, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
"Are you lying to me?"
She asks with a sly grin.
He smiles.
"Yeah I kinda am. I'll tell you about it later, okay?"
He asks.
The trouble leaves his eyes.
She makes peace with waiting.
"Sounds good."
She says.

As he's putting his child to sleep, he tells him a story.
Every child's hero is his father.
In this case, his dad really does have super powers.
His dad actually does fight the bad guys.
At least, Ayla likes to think they're the bad guys.
And not the other way around.
In the story, a knight in shining armor rescues his love.
However, Captain Ayla throws a twist.
Something compels him to tell it this way.
The dragon is a friend to the protagonist.
They fight side by side, endless hoards of pirates.
Grace stands at the bedroom door, watching her husband entertain their child.
She can hear the story.
She knows exactly what he's talking about.
When he first enlisted, she was told that his job had to be kept secret.
Only she was allowed to know what her husband did for a living.
She knows the story he tells their child likely actually happened to him.
She knows of his fireteam, and his...strange ally.
She always imagined G183 as a dinosaur, this is the first time he's described it as a dragon.
Something is different about the way he tells the story.
When he speaks of the dragon, she notices he uses words like "He" or "Him" "His".
He's using pronouns when talking about this dragon.
As if it has an identity this time.
It's a being.
An individual.
Once Alan has fallen asleep, Bruce and Grace sit on the couch downstairs.
The lights are dim and there's a big window in front of them that overlooks the miles and miles of forest and mountains.
Bruce takes a sip from his coffee.
"Hey so what was bothering you?"
She finally asks, unable to contain her curiosity any longer.
He looks at her, she watches him with eager eyes waiting for the scoop.
"I was captured. We were behind enemy lines. It was your basic cat and mouse. Capture the flag. We've done it a thousand times. Pierce didn't want to drop into the elevator shaft with Chet and I. I kinda don't blame him, this one went down several hundred meters."
She smiles and closes her eyes picturing the scene.
"Chet and I managed to get the package, but Pierce stayed behind and our time was running out. There was no way he would be able to leave the way we came. There were too many people to do that twice.
The only out was a back door Chet and I found. I had Chet take the package and get as far as he could, while I go back and get Pierce and we'd meet up with him at the rendezvous point.
When I got to the top, it was too late.
Pierce was captured and they were waiting for me.
There wasn't cover, there wasn't a way I could punch my way out.
We were surrounded.
I surrendered because they had Pierce at gunpoint.
While they were interrogating me, my timer beeped, and just like that our time was out."
She leans in closer.
"I've always wondered what happened when your time runs out."
She whispers.
"Me too."
He whispers back.
"Apparently the timer is connected to a kill switch.
If our mission is not completed within a certain time frame, we are to be destroyed leaving no trace of Keepers involvement.
When the bombs stopped falling, I knew something was wrong.
Usually, the barrage would have kept coming until the target was confirmed dead.
The building above us collapsed and we were buried and pinned in the rubble. I did my best to hold it up for everyone but it was so heavy my armor begin to crack and with that I knew I couldn't hold it up for much longer."
He takes another sip of his coffee, leaving her on the edge of her seat.
He finds it amusing how invested she is.
She stares at him with childlike wonder.
"Well, I felt something above us like the rubble was getting lighter. We heard shouting, and the sounds of scraping and crumbling. And suddenly light poured through the darkness and a giant hand reached down and snatched up one of the men. And then another, and one by one it lifted all of us out. That animal dug for us, it deflected an airstrike, it abandoned its mission, all just to save us. I know Keepers didn't send it back to get us. He's the one that ordered the hit.
The creature made a decision."
He's no longer talking to his wife.
He's talking to more to himself now.
This whole time he's believed the animal had a mind. That this creature wasn't just a monster or a shell.
And now he has proof!
"It smiled at me. It's eyes were filled with such emotion. In that moment I saw it was excited, even proud it had managed to save all of us."
In her mind she pictures this giant lizard with big jewel eyes.
She imagines it's lips curling into a smile.
In her head it looks cartoony.
"Doctor Chapman always said it was intelligent, and that's why they have to wipe its memory after every drop. I knew it was smart but this wasn't intelligence, this was...human."
Grace looks at him quizzically.
"And they're going to make him forget that?"
She asks.
He nods, not looking at her.
"It's probably the only happy memory he's had. The past 39 hours."
The more she looks into his eyes the more she can see guilt.
Like he owes a debt.
"What are you thinking?"
She asks.
Silence hangs in the air as he sits.
He's thinking of a way to explain himself.
"He could be so much more. I saw a different side of him today. But they don't see that. He's just a letter and some numbers."
In his head he's thinking about his conversation with the Doctor.
They starve him prior to drops.
He's more then an animal.
"G183."
He mutters.
She doesn't know what to say.
She remembers the time when the world was normal for them.
Before the portal opened.
Before the monsters came.
Before the world ended.
When they were just a boy and a girl in a world full of life and hope.
But with the monsters came the Catalyst Virus.
And then Bruce got infected, and he became unstable with power beginning to show itself.
He was already approaching stage 5, with random outbursts of anger.
Stage 6 brings death.
This virus, it gives the host power at the cost of their normal brain function.
Yes it gave them an edge in the war, but it took more then it gave.
It seemed hopeless.
And then Keepers came with a solution.
She never wanted him to take it, but he did it for her.
She hugs him by the arm and puts her head on his shoulder.
"I love you."
She says quietly.
"I love you too."
He whispers.