Gen 8 Ch 9: Disconnect

Sometimes it feels like the rain will never stop.

And while fertile ground brings new life...

  
...it's tough to find joy in it when the sky above is an endless sea of gray.

But even if the pain can feel unbearable at times...

 ...sometimes life rewards you with something breathtaking.

Huxley still handled her like she was made of glass. She'd named her Ivy, for no other reason than she liked the sound of it, but the more she'd thought about it during her pregnancy, the more she appreciated the meaning. Ivy was strong and resilient, a plant that thrived wherever it grew. Hux wanted that for her daughter. She was going to grow up to be fearless and tough and never take crap from anyone. But now that she held this tiny, soft creature in her arms, all Huxley could think about was all the potential harm she needed to protect her from.

Grace had told her that this feeling would eventually wear off, but if Huxley was perfectly honest, she didn't want it to. It was nice to be careful and gentle for a change.

The baby had been wailing for a good ten minutes before Grace entered the room, but Hazel did not stir until Grace switched on the lights.

"What?" She sat up in bed and looked around in confusion. "Mom? What happened?"

"He's been screaming for a while, darling."

"He has? I-I thought I was dreaming..." Hazel hunched forward and gripped her head with trembling hands. "He didn't... scream when it happened. There was no time. Just the explosion--" She choked on those last words. Then, suddenly, she seemed to grasp where she was and scrambled out of bed.

Grace frowned and and moved to comfort her daughter, who had started sobbing again, but the baby's screams had become more insistent. "Go back to sleep, darling," she told her. "I'll take care of him."

Hazel crawled back under the sheets and Grace rocked the baby long after he'd fallen asleep. Icarus, Hazel had named him. Grace sighed.

Hours later, Hazel dragged herself out of bed again.

The night air was piercing cold. She barely noticed it. Snow had fallen overnight, covering everything in a layer of white, but for some reason it felt like a punch to her gut when she saw that Aidan's grave was snowed over as well.

She set the flowers she brought down by the tombstone before bursting into tears. "I can't do this alone. How am I supposed to do this without you, Aidan?"

She cried and cried until exhaustion made her curl up on the stone bench nearby.

She must have drifted off to sleep, because suddenly a weird feeling jolted her awake.

It was cold, but it wasn't from the snow all around her. This was a different kind of cold, one that permeated her from the inside out, as if her bones were suddenly made of ice.

And then she saw him. Floating towards her was a tall figure, intangible, fuzzy around the edges, but still undeniably him. Aidan.

"I'm dreaming again, aren't I," she wondered aloud.

His lips moved in response. If there was a sound, it was too faint to hear.

But when his hand touched her cheek, the cold from before seemed to melt away. His touch was warm and gentle, just like it had always been. Hazel closed her eyes and for a moment she was transported back to a summer's day in the park.

"You need to try." His voice. Barely audible, but it was there. "You need to do it for him. I know you can."

Hazel tilted her head in confusion. "I... I don't understand. What do you need me to do?"

He took both her hands in his, but even as their warmth enveloped hers, Hazel could feel them fading away.

His words were less than a whisper now, "Be strong."

She couldn't recall lying down again, but Hazel awoke on the cold stone bench as if she'd never moved from it. Maybe she hadn't.

Hazel sat up and stretched her aching body when the crunch of snow announced another sim's approach.

"Sadie?" For a moment, Hazel was perplexed to see Aidan's youngest sister here. Then again, she supposed she wasn't the only one mourning Aidan. She got up and rushed over to the teen.

Sadie made a face. "What are you doing here? Didn't you, like, just have a baby?"

"I saw him," Hazel sputtered, "I saw him, Sadie! I thought it was a dream at first, but this was different. He's still here, somehow. A part of him, at least. Some kind of energy--what people anecdotally describe as spirits, maybe? You know what this means, right?" Hazel's words tumbled from her mouth, her gestures growing increasingly frantic as she went on.

"What the..."

 "I know! Isn't it incredible? The scientific implications are baffling, to say the least... but if there is an actual tangible imprint of his life force still around, that means that he isn't really gone! And since it must be either mass or energy, there hast to be be a way to contain or redirect it. Which means that..."

Sadie had begun to back away slowly, but Hazel pulled the bewildered teen into a hug. "Don't worry, Sadie," she sobbed, "I'll bring him back. I have to try. He asked me to."

Sadie frowned and patted the weeping woman's back.

***

As magical as those first days of being a mother were, Grace still remembered how challenging it could be as well. Some children were more difficult than others, even long past their infancy. Grace had often wondered how her oldest daughter would fare as an adult, considering how troublesome she'd been growing up.

But Huxley had really stepped up. She spent every waking minute with Ivy and the delight she took in her daughter was palpable.

Hazel on the other hand, was seldom seen around Icarus.

The only signs of her presence were the new toys she periodically left around for the baby. Grace and Adam, who made sure that the boy was taken care of, often wondered if they needed to have a serious talk with their daughter.

However, Hazel was so distraught by grief, it was impossible to get her to focus on conversations. They certainly couldn't demand that she take on the weighty task of caring for a newborn.

She had hardly left the lab these past few days, but her family decided it would be best to give her time to grieve. While she was in in the lab, at least she wasn't crying uncontrollably.

...most of the time.

***

Things had been awkward between them as Huxley opened the door and led him upstairs, but when Theo picked up the little girl, he beamed.

"I wish I could've been there for the birth," he sighed. "I wish you'd called me."

Huxley gave a snort of indignation. "I was kind of preoccupied at the time. And it wasn't pretty. Besides, I..." She cleared her throat. "I didn't know if you wanted to see me again."

Theo had his back turned to her, but she could see him tense up. His voice was flat as he said, "We have a child together now, Huxley, and I'm planning on being a part of her life. So even if I didn't want to see you... I would."

It wasn't the warmest of replies, but Huxley felt emboldened nonetheless.

She cleared her throat again before speaking. "So I've been thinking... my mom said she'd be happy to watch Ivy for one or two nights a week. Which means that we can totally start practicing again, maybe even play a few gigs--"

Theo put the now sleeping baby back in her crib, turned to face Huxley and spoke in an even voice. “I’m not coming to band practice again, Huxley.”

“Come on," she coaxed, "You know Offbeat Autonomy needs you! It was always you and me, since the beginning, but then you stopped coming. And now Ethan too. He’s acting like an old geezer lately, he’s been so lame since he...”

“Got married? I went to his wedding. He and Chantrelle are very happy.”

That was all it took to make Huxley's temper flare up again. “It has to come back to that, huh? I’m not going to marry you, Theo. Sheesh!”

“I know that.”

“So stop bringing it up," she hissed. "I’m still pissed you tried to put me on the spot when I was feeling like shit.”

“You’re taking offense at something most women dream of.”

“Go put a ring on one of those women then.”

“I have.”

“What?”

“I met someone, at Ethan’s wedding.”

Huxley furrowed her brows for a moment, confused. Then her lip curled into a snarl. “And you’ve proposed to her already? Well, I can’t have been that special to you then.”

Now it was Theo's turn to pause. “You were the most special person to me, Huxley. But now I know that you’ll never be able to give me what I need.”

“A housewife?” she sneered.

“A family,” he snapped. “That’s all I ever wanted. With you.” He looked unbelievably hurt. “But I can’t let you string me along anymore. It’s destroying me.”

He turned to leave. Huxley stood rooted to the spot in stunned silence.

Halfway down the stairs, he looked back and said, “I’m still going to keep seeing Ivy.”

It took her a moment to reply. “S-sure. Whatever you…” But Theo had already left.

*

Some things are only truly felt once they are absent...

...but nature abhors a vacuum.





_______________

So yeah... Hazel's roll is single+help :,(

For my fellow ghost aficionados: I turned Aidan into a meteor strike ghost because the faces of the time anomaly ghosts are too difficult to see. Besides, I figured his cause of death was the explosion rather than time traveling issues and meteor strike = explosion.

Gen 8 Ch 8: Until Death Do Us Part

Early that Sunday morning, Huxley leapt out of bed with a strange feeling twisting her stomach. A trip to the bathroom confirmed her suspicions. She trudged downstairs to breakfast and began eating without tasting a single bite.

"Huxley," Grace's voice startled her, "aren't you excited about the baby?"

Huxley inhaled sharply, making the piece of toast she'd been chewing catch in her throat. "Wha--?" She coughed violently, took a few moments to regain her composure and stared at her mother with eyes as big as the breakfast plates before her. She knew? How could she tell?

Grace, positively bouncing with excitement, had already turned her attention back to Hazel. "Do you have names picked out yet?"

"We have a list," Hazel stroked her bulging belly and smiled lovingly at Aidan, who grinned back at her before finishing her sentence, "but we haven't decided yet."

Normally Huxley would have wrinkled her nose at this sappy exchange, but that day she only leaned back in her chair and let out the breath she'd been holding. No one seemed to notice. The entire household had been talking about nothing but Hazel's pregnancy for the past few days, but Huxley couldn't count on that being a distraction forever.

She went to find comfort where she always did.

Neither of them was bound to a regular schedule, but there was just something about Sundays that welcomed indulgence. They moved slowly, Theo savoring every second while Huxley rested her turbulent mind on the pure physicality of the moment.

She could not avoid talking forever though. Once they had found release, it didn't take Theo long to bring up just the thing that was troubling her.

"How's Hazel doing?"

"I'm right here with my boobs out and you're asking about my sister?"

"I mean her pregnancy, duh! Do they know yet whether it's going to be a boy or a girl?"

"No idea. Maybe? Does it matter? Whichever it is, it's going to need a place to sleep."

"Not that again, Hux. I told you, your family are happy to have you around. I don't know why you're so fixated on this. Things are gonna be alright." Theo moved to put an arm around Huxley, but she ducked away and sat up on the edge of the bed.

"Oh yeah? Well, golly, I'm just so relieved now I know that 'things are gonna be alright'." On the last few words her lips curled into an angry snarl that did not leave her face when she began collecting her scattered clothes.

He made her name a gentle rebuke as he reached to touch her, "Huxley."

She shook her head and slipped into her shirt. "You don't understand. It's all...wrong. It wasn't supposed to be this way, staying in my parents' attic forever with no money to do anything about it. Our band was gonna be huge. I was gonna be a real musician, famous, living life on my own terms. And this shit--believing that 'things are gonna be alright'--is exactly what fucked me over."

"You are a real musician, famous or not. And I've never met anyone who lives their life on their own terms more than you do, so--"

She interrupted him with a dry laugh. "And now that's gone to shit too."

"What do you--"

"I'm pregnant, Theo," she barked. "I'm having a freaking baby."

Huxley did not turn around to see his reaction. She hadn't planned on telling him today. His arms could have remained her carefree refuge for a little while longer, at least until she began to show. But now that it was out, she found that she didn't care what he thought. The problem was there either way, and it was hers alone.

She turned to leave, but this time she wasn't quick enough to dodge him. Theo had scrambled up off the bed and planted himself in her path. "Wait," he breathed, "wait right here just a moment."

Still in his underwear, Theo moved to rummage through a drawer and came back to kneel on the bare metal floor, presenting a small box.

He took a deep breath and began to open the box slowly. "Huxley Mason, will--"

"Stop right there." Huxley took a step back. "Don't tell me that's a fucking ring in there."

Theo's face fell. "Uhm."

"You've got to be kidding me... why'd you even... wait, you've been planning this?!"

Theo gave her a hopeful smile. "I've been saving up. It's not much--I wasn't expecting this to happen so soon--but it'll be enough. If we sell both our bikes we can afford a small house, maybe even a car." As he watched Huxley's stony expression, Theo's smile slowly faded. He set the small box down on the floor and stood to meet her eyes. "It'll be tough, but I can get a second job, a third one if I have to. So yeah, I've been planning this. I've just been waiting for the right moment. I thought that--"

"You thought now that you knocked me up and I feel like I have nowhere to go, this is the perfect moment to rope me into something I don't want?!"

"I had no idea this was something you don't want." His voice had grown quiet, barely audible, and as if to balance that, Huxley's next words came as a raging explosion.

"Seriously, dude?! You're talking about getting a shitty 9-5 job and a house with a white picket fence, being a boring square until death do us part and you're saying you had no idea it isn't what I want? What the hell, Theo? It's like you have no fucking clue who I am!"

His frown deepened. "I guess I don't."

His eyes still rested on hers, one last bit of hope compelling him to search for something that was never going to be there. She averted her gaze and kept it stubbornly fixed on the wall while Theo hurriedly picked up his clothes, threw them on and walked out.

She didn't watch him go, but the clank of the metal door told her he'd gone.

She stood in the same spot for a long time after that. Theo had looked so hurt--but seriously, what had he expected? She wished he hadn't said anything at all. Getting married? Why'd he have to make things weird?

When she caught herself absently stroking her belly, she dropped her hand to her side, turned on her heel and left.

Huxley wished things could have just stayed the way they had been. But it was too late for that now, she supposed... She wouldn't be able to hide the pregnancy for long, but for now, all she wanted was to sleep.

She'd have to tell her family soon enough.

*

It had been a while since Grace and Adam had been on a date, but tonight's news called for a celebration.

Even though Irina's Irish Pub wasn't much to look at, it had always held a special meaning for the two of them. So much time had passed since they'd first sat on these bar stools together, but that connection they had felt back then had never left them.

 Together they had created a home and a family, and now they were expecting not one, but two grandchildren. Truly a cause for celebration!

It was such a joy to share Hazel and Aidan's growing excitement for their baby. And the soon-to-be grandparents were sure that, in time, Huxley was going to feel the same way about hers.

*

There was a peaceful stillness to these late autumn days. As the world outside slowly went dormant, sims retreated indoors to curl up with cozy blankets and warm mugs of tea.

In this season of calm restfulness, Adam was aghast when he was faced with a horrid grimace one morning.

His eyesight wasn't what it had used to be, but even as he came close enough to see every single brushstroke on the canvas, the image remained just as monstrous.

"What are you painting there, love?" he asked his wife carefully.

"It's a cute bunny for the nursery," Grace chirped. "I know, I know. The pink is a little gender-specific. But all children love animals!"

"That's nice..." Adam rubbed the back of his head as he wondered if he should just drop it. It wasn't the first time that one of his wife's paintings had turned out somewhat... disturbing. Yet Grace always seemed to remain oblivious to that fact and Adam didn't want to discourage her from pursuing a hobby she so obviously enjoyed. However, the risk of scarring his future grandchildren for life was too high. He had to speak up. "Um... why does it only have one eye?"

"What?" Grace took a step back and tilted her head. "Oh no! It's winking, silly! It's supposed to be cute!"

"Oh... yes." He coughed. "Yes, I see it now."

Meanwhile, Hazel and Aidan continued their secret research of the time traveling portal.

 Up until this point, they had relied on the settings dictated by the people of Oasis Landing, the futuristic city on the other side of the portal. But after many days and nights pouring over the problem, they were confident that they had finally understood how the portal worked. And with that knowledge came the power to manipulate where the portal would lead.

"So," Hazel reiterated, "Once we input the coordinates into the portal's interface and activate it, a quantum copy of the portal's particles is formed at the destination--"

"Creating the point of arrival and return in the form of another portal, yes. The Z-axis is still a variable, which is why you landed one level above the portal that time you almost didn't make it back... But now that we know this, and barring any topographical surprises--"

"We've exhausted the theoretical portion of the experiment," Hazel finished. "Both the computer simulations and your calculations only confirm it. I think we're ready, Aidan."

Aidan nodded and moved to help Hazel heave herself up from the chair.

"I just wish we could go together," Hazel sighed as she waddled into the containment chamber and activated the portal with a practiced motion. "It feels reckless to send you in there by yourself. After all, I'm the one that has been through the portal countless times now."

At that, Aidan placed a hand on Hazel's belly. "This one here hasn't though," he grinned. "But if she's anything like her mommy, she'll be leaping through time before she walks."

"Oh, it's a girl now, is it? Yesterday you were coming up with boys' names until you fell asleep."

Aidan shrugged. "I have a feeling."

She pressed herself against him and wound her fingers into his thick hair. "Just come back to us quickly, you hear?"

"You won't even notice I'm gone," he promised.

Once Hazel was back at the computer, they exchanged one more nod through the thick glass walls.

Aidan knew they had taken the theory as far as they could. This was going to be a short mission--just to confirm that everything really worked as they'd intended. Still, his heart raced as he turned toward the portal.

Sparks of energy buzzed all around him, eliciting a tingling sensation somewhere between excitement and anxiety.

The light was so very bright...

Aidan took a steadying breath and stepped forward.