Friends With Time ⌛ (Tyler Galpin x Reader)

Day 136

Day 136:

The next week flashes by in a flurry of hyperactivity.

Between your chores and duties on the Bubble and all of the forms that have to be signed, you inform your friends what happened.

Mary is flabbergasted. (You anticipated this.) Jin and Deion are surprisingly encouraging. (You did NOT anticipate that.)

Deion tones it down for Mary, but tells her that he used to work with EUOAT and that their rehab plan releases monsters like this all the time. Mary is unconvinced.

"Well," she keeps saying, crossing her hands neatly in her lap, "if you're going to free the beast, you'd best keep agents with weapons trained on him until you reach shore. That way, you can shoot him if it gets out of hand."

Aliyah is silent almost the entire whole meeting. "I can't believe you're still here," she keeps saying, shaking her head in disbelief. "That thing didn't kill you. I guess he must be thinking forward."

Rob's response is a little more predictable. He keeps snickering and saying garbage like, "He didn't attack you? You've got him weak in the knees for you, Y/N. And maybe-"

"ROB!" Mary yells, her face turning a scandalized shade of red.

Rob lifts his hands. "I'm just saying," he says, laughing. "Y/N, you better stay with him when you to shore. Keep him happy and maybe he won't maul everyone."

You scoff and Rob and wave him off, but when the call ends, you can't stop smiling. You make Tyler his coffee, exactly the way he likes it, and a cup of chai for yourself. The two of you sip your drinks and talk to each other, snuggled up against the cold glass together.

It's exciting, it's incredible, it almost doesn't feel real. Your father would be ecstatic. You read in his journals, soaking up his voice and his enthusiasm for freeing Outcasts, and even add pages of your own after the torn one and your entry on getting Tyler to shift back.

Dad, I did it, you write, beaming as morning ocean breeze ruffles your hair. I did it. I followed you.

It's a beautiful, hazy time, as you feed the squawking seagulls and squint happily out onto the morning ocean.

But not everything is pleasant. Afua calls as soon as he finds out.

"Y/N, I've heard about the video," he says after a while, pausing and staring down into his fireplace.

The clock in the living room ticks down from 9pm.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

You nod. "I know you don't want him released-"

"He killed my people," Afua snaps, then sighs, pressing his fingers to his forehead. "I'm sorry. Y/N. I don't mean to yell."

His fingers rifle through his book, absent-minded. "They're asking me now if you're sure. Are you sure?"

"Yes, Commander," you tell him, swallowing and glancing back at the submarine door. "He's okay. I promise."

His hands sift over the brown, leatherbound book, a different one from the one he showed you before, but undeniably the same type. A book of the dead.

He nods slowly, watching you. "I will you ask you one more time, Y/N, because you're a good agent. Will you revoke your claim and let him stay?"

You close your eyes, then open them. "No, sir."

Afua watches you, then sits up. "Then whatever happens, happens," he says, turning off the camera. "I tried."

***

Your request for release is officially approved by the board. The clock ticks 10.

***

Your mother hasn't said a word. Her chair is empty in your mandatory board meetings. No one so much as passes a message from her. The clock ticks 11.

***

And as the day grows closer, you can't help but feel that something

is not

right.

Like there's a puzzle piece you're missing.

The clock in the hall ticks down from midnight.

Tick, tick, tick.

Are you ready?

***

Prepare yourself for the finale and epilogue, girlbosses and guybosses! IT IS UPON US, and BOY do I have a CRAZY TIME for you! Hehehe. We will see.

As always, love you all, thank you SO much for reading, and I'll see you next time!

This is DS Chickadee, signing off for the night.