Scientific Crescendo - Book 1: The Seahorse Experiment 🪼✔

28 - Would You Like A Jelly Baby

I couldn't believe what I was seeing right in front of my eyes. It looked like him, even sounded like him... but I could tell it wasn't him. I knew it wasn't because I had just seen him not thirty minutes ago.
"Tarot?" I asked, confused and utterly faced with naked body.
I moved and found a lab jacket that wasn't burnt and threw it over the Tarot look alike.
"Put that on please... You're naked."
He looked down at himself and shrugged the lab jacket on, buttoning the buttons.
"How the- I just saw you..."
"I woke up here..." he said seeming slightly confused himself and looking none too coherent on much.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm a little unclear of what happened. I think..." he looked at his hand and I blinked at him.
"Why do you look like Tarot?"
"I am Tarot... I think... Something's not right..."
"What do you mean you're Tarot? Tarot got burnt up and was sent to the hospital. I just left him."
He looked at his hands again and I stared at him, trying to understand what was going on. He looked back up at me but I just couldn't quite deny that the young man standing before me was Tarot as well as the guy in the hospital. The eyes were the same color and I don't know many people with those sea green eyes like that. Not those sea green eyes.
"I'll deal with you later... As gross as it sounds, I'm looking for a finger. Severed..."
I started moving some stuff around to try and see if maybe it was on the floor or by his desk when I felt a small tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw that Doppleganger was holding the finger.
"Ah! Hey, thanks!"
I tried to grab it but he seemed to be holding onto it tightly. I tried to yank it but it only resulted in pulling Doppleganger forward and I looked at him. He held up his hands to me and my eyes widened at what I saw. Every other finger and thumb was the same peachy color as Doppleganger except the pointer finger, which was about three shades whiter.
I gulped and looked at the finger and then looked at Doppleganger.
"Um..."
"I think I regenerated from this finger."
I stumbled backwards and tripped over some of the burnt debris, falling down. Doppleganger, or Cloney now, watched me in confusion. Then I remember something that Tarot had told me about starfish and their ability to regenerate from just a single spine sometimes. But I thought that it had to have some of the central parts...
"Mr. Leoda, are you alright?" he asked, looking a little frightened as well.
I composed myself and closed my eyes to think. If Tarot could handle me coming to his doorstep three months pregnant then I could take a clone that regenerated from my best friend's finger. Though it didn't explain why he looked sixteen.
"Why are you so young?"
"I- er... he used up all the blood in the vial. So he found that the facility had stored some vials of blood from when he was sixteen. He decided to work with that since he wanted to have limbs that were taken off years in advance to grow back and so I guess when he was experimenting the blood from then became mixed with the finger? I'm not quite sure of anything... My head is a little fuzzy and I don't feel well."
"You looked a little pale... Um... I... I guess you can just come home with me..." I said with a shrug.
Cloney suddenly collapsed and 'father mode' turned on. I ran to him to see if he was alright and found him with fever.
"You're burning up... God I hope you don't die. This will be horrible on so many levels."
"I think I'm hungry. I don't know for sure."
I nodded and felt his heart just to make sure he wasn't dying on me. His heartbeat seemed steady but he was just really hot with fever.
"Can you stand? I can take you home and you can get some rest there, alright?"
He nodded and I grabbed his arm to help him up. He looked like he could walk and we went to my car.

******************

Cloney slept the whole way home, which wasn't long, and I helped him to the apartment.
"Why don't you take yourself a good shower? Get that smell off of you and get you all cleaned up. There's towels right there and wash rags are in the bathroom."
He nodded and went into the bathroom. When I heard the water turn on, I sank into the couch and wondered how in the hell I was going to tell Tarot about this. What would he do? How would he react? I just didn't know. It was overbearingly complicated. I decided the best thing for now would just be to get him clothed and washed and fed so that we could figure out what to do with him.
Sim would be happy to have him here. Ever since he learned that he had an older brother, he has been begging me to marry Tamari so he can have a sibling. Then again... he is five and explaining where babies come from is difficult. Explaining that in this family the babies come from me? That's ten times harder. I sighed and leaned back, just ready to leave it all behind. Drama was never a good standing in my life...
I also needed to name the kid something that wasn't Tarot. But then again, maybe Tarot wanted to name him. I couldn't call him Cloney all the time though... He also needed some clothes and I don't think that he would fit in Tarot's clothes. He looks a little bit on the skinny side unlike Tarot, who was more on the buff side. I mean, I'm not amazingly skinny but I seemed to be more of his size than Tarot. I decided that I should just pull out both mine and Tarot's clothes and let him choose.
Underwear was another problem. Not that he really had a choice considering that I just bought a bag of briefs. Whether or not he liked them was not his choice. He'd have to figure that out on his own...
I set out some casual clothes for Cloney and then knocked on the bathroom door.
"Hey, can I come in?"
"Yes..."
I opened the door and he stuck his head out, his long curly brown hair dripping all over the floor.
"I don't know your size so I just set out some of my clothes and Tarot's for you. You can pick which fits best... Um, listen I'm going to have to name you something else other than Tarot. Tarot is Tarot and even though you kind of... um, regenerated from his finger, you're a different person. Your personality is not like his and so in essence, you're not him."
"Oh... Okay..."
"I was thinking Ace. Is that alright with you? I was going to try out King but King Koine sounds weird."
"Ace is okay, I guess."
"Do you not like it? You can name yourself, you know..."
"Ace is fine."
"Alright then. Finish washing up and I'll make you something to eat."
Ace nodded and I left the bathroom to cook some food. I had no idea what he would like but I decided to start with Tarot's basic favorite, which was eggs. You can get really full on eggs and so it seemed logical.
As I finished the eggs, Ace came out of the hallway, drying out his hair and wearing my things.
"Are the briefs okay? I mean..."
"They're fine..."
"I made you some eggs. Tarot likes them a lot and so I thought maybe that's what we should start with. Um..."
Ace sat down at the table and started eating the eggs. He smiled a little and continued to eat. I sighed, relieved that he liked them and I sat next to him at the table.
"Tarot is in the hospital being treated for burns and such so you can sleep in his room until he gets back. I have no idea what he's going to want to do with you... I mean, you look young enough to be his son but I don't know if he will want to call you his long lost brother or what so..."
Ace nodded and then pushed the plate from his body.
"That was good. Thank you, Dr. Leoda."
"It's just Dexter. I thought you knew who I was?"
"Things are fuzzy. I have memories from... Tarot and stuff but things are jumbled. It's like snapshots or something. Clips of audio... I remember hearing your voice and that it belonged to someone named Dexter. You're vaguely familiar, which is why I went with you. And you were kind to me..."
I nodded and he yawned, clearly exhausted and he looked a little ill, too.
"Are you tired? There's no harm in napping. I have to call up Tarot anyway and tell him that I couldn't find his finger. Er, well, that I didn't find his severed finger, heh."
"Will he like me?" he asked, innocence pouring from his body like he was a little child.
In that moment, I realized that though he was Tarot in a sense, he was like a newborn child, or a lost child. He didn't understand what was going on and he was worried what the person who 'created' him was going to do about him.
I smiled at him and pat his arm.
"We'll have to see. I think he will, because it means that the experiment works. How he'll react? I can't tell for sure. If he doesn't like you then I'll keep you or whatever, alright?" He nodded. "Besides, Sim will absolutely love having you. He's been begging me for a sibling and wouldn't you know he gets an older brother without any consequence on my part."
Ace looked at me for a moment and then blinked. "Sim... he is your son? You gave birth to him."
"Yeah... thanks for reminding me." I said flatly.
Ace smiled a little and nodded. "I remember him... He is cute."
"Yes he is. Adorable, if you will. Now rest up."
He nodded and headed to Tarot's room.
I watched him and then grabbed the phone to call Tarot at the hospital.

*******************

"Did you find my finger?" Tarot asked expectantly over the phone.
"Well... uh... about that..."
"Aw, it's not there? Oh well."
"I'll go look tomorrow. I'm sure it's there on the floor or something."
"Alright then. Tamari said she is going to come over and Miller is going to drop her off. Is that alright?"
"I was going to take her out to eat tonight anyway... Hey, I have a
question."
"Shoot."
"I've only known Tamari for a short time but do you think... do you think she'd want to marry me?"
"Well, that's up to you to decide. She seems to adore you and I can tell that she makes you happy. If you feel that a union together would be alright, then go for it."
"I just want to know if it's too soon."
"Again, that's really up to you. I have to go, they're about to soak me in this stuff to scrape the burnt skin off of me. Fun... I'll talk to you tomorrow, alright?"
"Yeah."
I hung up and went to check up on Ace. He was sleeping soundly and I watched him for a moment when there was a knock at the door.
I went to it and opened it up, seeing Tamari.
"Hey." she said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. "I thought I'd keep
you company."
"Thanks. Hey, um, there's something that I need to show you."
She gave me a suspicious look as I took her hand and led her to Tarot's room.
"Who's that?"
"Go look."
She went over to the bed and looked, gasping.
"How... What in the world?"
"He regenerated from Tarot's finger. Somehow blood from when he was sixteen got mixed in or something and this happened. I've named him Ace for now."
"And you just found him today? At the lab?"
"Yeah... He was walking around and I decided to bring him home. He's not feeling very well though and he has a fever. Will it be alright with you if we just eat in tonight?"
"Sure..."