Another Life (Oc x reader)

Chapter 35 - Just a Tool

"Argh.." Ethan groans annoyed and turns on the lights in his room. "William."

William appears in his room. "Can't sleep?"

"No. Now I think I'm overtired."

"Alright, but I don't wanna hear 'I was high on alien opiates', when I whip you."

"No chess tonight." Ethan's stands up to take a glass of water.

"Okay, scrabble, then or.. Tic-tac-toe." William suggests.

"Can't we just talk?"

"Talk?"

"Whenever I couldn't sleep, my brother would stay up with me. Keep me company."

"What would you talk about?"

"Uh.. The day. School. When we got older and he was the one that couldn't sleep after Niko died, I would stay up with him. Then we would often talk about Jana."

"Okay, well, maybe I can get Yn to come here and keep you company." William smirks and wiggles his eyebrows at him.

Ethan's eyes widen. "Nooo. Don't do that. You'll do. Talk."

"Okay, uh.. ah, our water levels are higher than I thought. 98,2 percent versus 90-"

Ethan burst out laughing. "I'm sorry.. I'm still high."

"Yeah, and I am useless at small talk. I should leave you. You can watch a holo-video of Erik and Jana-"

"Already tried that." Ethan sighs and sits back down on the bed. "Come on, be creative. Entertain me, do a standup show or something, I don't know. Give me a solution." He says, expecting him to just fix his problem. William frowns, now he doesn't really want to help, but he gets an idea so that at least he can leave Ethan, hoping to not get more hurt than he already is.

"I know something that can help." William says and makes a hologram of you appear in his room. "I'll leave you to it." He says and leave the room.

"What!?" Ethan says, waking up from his frozen state when he was suddenly faced with you. "No, William, I don't, uh.. you should probably.. uh, turn her off-I-I mean, that, uh.. turn that.. uh.."

Ethan struggles to finish his sentences as he can't help himself from staring at you. Your hologram dance seductively toward him.

...

Javier realises he's locked out because his ID is already in use in the particle accelerator. He runs there and asks Sasha if he had hacked his access code. Sasha grab and shoves him, pinning him against the wall. He complains that he had done everything he was supposed to do, by what he found out from going into his brain, but William still wouldn't shut down. He then tells Javier that he's gonna give him something else something he can use this time, that he'll now take everything.

...

Skipping, you make your way to Ethan's room. On the way, you mumble as you practice your confession speech.

"Ethan. I need to tell you something.. I think that.. you and me.. we should be more than friends and colleagues.. uh, no, not like that." You clear your throat. "Commander, I have a confession to make. You know I love working under you, but I should be under you in other ways." You cringe. "Oh, no, definitely not like that."

You sigh and shake your head, deciding to just go for it. You're too high to think about consequences or how you might make a complete fool out of yourself.

When you reach his room and are about to knock, you hear sounds coming from inside. Frowning, you lean your head against the door. Your eyes widen and your heart breaks when you hear moaning and groaning. You can faintly hear mumbling, but you can't hear who or what is said and you don't plan on staying to hear more.

You back away from the door, tears forming in your eyes. Hurriedly, you move down the hallway and back to your room.

However the room that you had gone to was not Ethan's... but in your head you saw his name and number on the door. You're too high and seem to be hallucinating without realising it.

On your way, you frown deeply as you wipe your tears, wondering who he would be hooking up with. Getting to your room, you close the door and lean against it. You sniffle and wipe your tears, huffing angrily. But then slide to the floor and start sobbing.

...

Ethan had fallen asleep and wake up to see your hologram still just standing casually in his room. He jumps in surprise.

"William!" Ethan says and William appears in his room again.

"Yes?"

"Can you, uh.." He points to your hologram.

"Sure, if you're done?"

"What, no, I didn't.. Never mind, yeah.. I'm, uh.. Mhm." Ethan feels really awkward. William makes your hologram disappear and Ethan sigh in relief.

"Do you ne-"

"Just go." Ethan says. With a clenched jaw, William disappears.

...

Dubois finds Erik and asks how Jana is doing. Erik says that there is nothing he can do. Dubois then tells him that he could come back to work since she is reinstated after Egan Harrison's death. Erik asks for Harper and realizes that she is still inside the Artefact.

The doctor comes to update Erik, and tells him that Jana is producing too many white cells and she wants to check if he's a bone-marrow match, revealing to him that Jana has acute lymphocytic leukemia. It happened because energy blast from the Artifact emitted high levels of ionising radiation.

"You're telling me the Artefact.. gave my daughter cancer?"

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