Random Encounters: Home

More Than Closeted

AJ pulls a couple of shirts out of the closet, tossing them onto the bed. Meanwhile, Gwen sits at the desk, knees to her chest, running her fingers through her hair. AJ looks through the rest of the closet before closing it and turning to Gwen.

"I'm glad you stayed, that means you're feeling better," AJ tells her tenderly.

"No, it just means I'm scared to leave," Gwen half jokes in response.

AJ sits on the edge of the bed, looking at her. She turns in the swivel chair, more than certain he wants to talk with her about something or another. But he doesn't say a word. This catches her off guard, she expected a pep talk or a serious talk, but that hasn't happened, he's just giving her space and it makes her uncomfortable. So, she turns to the computer, pretending to be busy. She moves the mouse in a bored manner and the screen pops to life.

"What the-" AJ mutters as he stands up from the bed.

He walks up behind Gwen, squinting while reading the words on the screen. He scratches his head in confusion.

"I didn't know Nate knew Latin," Gwen whispers.

AJ looks at her then back at the screen. It clicks, the words are, in fact, in Latin. AJ looks at the screen closer, trying to make out any words on the words, the words that repeat. Over, and over, and over again. Gwen bites her nails as she reads the words.

"What does it say," AJ inquires, leaning into his wife.

"It says: For everyone, I can do this, 1983, 1983, 1983," Gwen mutters, "It just repeats that over and over."

She rubs her arm and hangs her head. AJ looks around the room, the words couldn't be random, they had to have meaning, something important. He looks, opening drawers, searching the closet, there has to be something, somewhere. Something to help and-

He catches it out of the corner of his eye. A piece of metal, under the bed, glistening in the LED lights. He crouches down and pulls it out, looking over it slowly. A blue light blinks slowly as he pokes and prods it. Gwen turns in her chair, curiously. She plays with her lips as AJ continues to study the object. He presses a yellow button and a bright yellow light flashes and AJ's gone. Gwen sits up quickly, out of shock.

"A-AJ?" She stammers.

Her brown eyes survey the room, looking for her husband who was there only a second ago. She stands up slowly, intertwining her hair between her fingers. The door to Nate's room opens and AJ walks in slowly, scratching his head. He has the device in his left hand, and is looking around more confused than Gwen.

"Where the hell did you go?!" Gwen hits him aggressively.

"Hey! Hey," he grabs her hands and pulls her close, "I'm fine, I was just in the hallway."

"I could've lost you. I can't lose you," she mumbles.

"I'm okay, baby, I'm here," he rubs her arm soothingly, "Nate must've built this device when he was locked in his room. I wonder if..."

Gwen looks up slowly from the carpeted floor. Her stomach twists and knots from the horrible thoughts forming in the back of her mind. She hopes they're not true, but they are.

"If what?" She asks, her mouth dry.

"If we could engineer this like we did the last one... Judging by the craftsmanship of this, it would support travel. He has a perfect teleportation device, right here. We would just need to... tweak it," AJ looks at the machine.

Gwen shuffles away from him, "This is giving me deja vu-"

"No, no, no. This is different, I promise, this is different. If I can just adjust this," AJ sets the device on the desk.

"How do you know what to do?" Gwen probes, "We don't have any clue of what to do. We don't have Nate."

"We don't need Nate, we have Eggman," AJ taps his head, "We can just use him."

"AJ, no, we can't. Because there is no Eggman, and no Spooky, and no Goose," Gwen says, the anger rising in her voice, "They don't exist. They're figments of your imagination. I didn't see them either!! I just had a psychotic breakdown, didn't I? And it's all just, let's humor Gwen, the psychotic woman."

Gwen is yelling by the time she's done and AJ's face has fallen flat, void of any emotion. The silence hangs, heavier than anything, choking the room. Gwen's breathing becomes staggered as she tries to decide between breaking down and crying or yelling more.

"Gwen," AJ starts, calmly, "You're not psychotic. It wasn't a breakdown. We all saw it, it happened. I'm so, so sorry you went through what you did. And I'm so, so sorry that I can't help you. But we have to work through this. If you want to get Nate back, we have to-"

"I'm sorry, I can't do this right now." Gwen starts to leave the room, pushing right past AJ.

AJ hangs his head in defeat, sighing. He wishes to follow after her, but knows that she needs the space. He looks up, sits down at the desk, and begins to go through the files on Nate's computer.