(no subject)

[amicably_absent]

The room had been neatened, but for the sake of the sanctity of the suite and bedroom, they were working in the lab.

And if there has ever been anything more frightening than a headcase in a leather apron, gloves, welding mask and wielding a cutting torch, it's not in the nearby vicinity. He has an assistant nearby, making sure he doesn't hurt himself, but he cutting through pieces of steel and nearly done with this part.

Comments

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"We did." Ambrose bites down. He won't tell Jeb why Glitch thought it was better he go, he won't put that burden on the young man. "But Glitch is down right foolish sometimes."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

"That's okay. I bet he thinks the same thing about you, sometimes. You being sort of different from each other, and all. And, and maybe it doesn't matter, because no one expects either of you to be perfect. No one is perfect to begin with, anyway."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"He does." He looks to Jeb with a soft gaze. "You have the same eyes as your mother."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

He can't help but frown and grin at the same time. "I keep wondering how you know that, Ambrose. You seem to have memories of my mom, but the moment I ask you... I know it isn't your fault you can't remember, but it's frustrating."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose doesn't try to think about it, he just closes his eyes and tries to picture. "She... a bakery. Maybe I ate there. I don't know. I just see you and think of it."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Gramp's bakery. The entire family worked there. It's where my parents met." He lowers his eyes to the floor, resisting the urge to shuffle his feet like a cranky little boy.

"We talk about her sometimes...me and Dad."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose tilts his head and then leans out of the door, waving at his assistant. "Ask Seek if he would attend the lab, please."

He comes back in, grabbing Jeb's wrist and dragging him along using the surprising strength in his lean arms. Towards the back of the lab, where a large shape stands hidden under a heavy drape. "Let's work this out. Here and now."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

Jeb lets himself be dragged along, even if there's not much choice involved with the way his knees suddenly feel weak. He can feel what's about to be offered even before it is, knowing what's in here, and knowing why Ambrose would want one of the Viewers to come down here. He has to swallow quite hard to ignore the sudden lump jammed in his throat.

"Really?" He whispers, hardly believing it and not wanting to get his hopes up. His father should be here, because... Because...

But then he'd have to explain why he's here, and he doesn't think Wyatt would entirely buy his haphazard, unintentional asking about him and Raw.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"You said you hate it, the fact I seem to know, but then I glitch or can't remember. I can't make myself not glitch or remember. I can ask a Viewer here to connect us up and find the answer. It's all I can do, Jebediah." He steps forward and dramatically whips off the drape, revealing the tall, green tank with the remains of the brain inside, plugged in and softly pulsing with the beat of the machines.

As always, he is briefly stunned quiet, hand coming to rest on the glass like he had never seen it before.

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

"I didn't..." Jeb protests quietly, watching the tank with eyes wide open. If he was startled by the way Ambrose unveiled it, he didn't notice. It's too morbidly fascinating to notice much else beside. "I said it's frustrating."

He pauses, wetting his dry lips. "Shouldn't...Wyatt be here?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose waves a hand, dismissing the actual wording. "You resent it. Not me, I know that, but you resent the promise of glimpses in my words that never give you what you need."

He finally turns back to Jeb. "Do you think he should be?"

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

He shrugs. "I think he'd like to be. I think he should get to have a choice about it."

He ducks his head. "They were married for a long time before they had me..."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose had surmised that. They married very young. He nods and looks down. "Would you go find him and ask him? I'll just get lost, knowing me."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

"No problem."

He turns to leave, then turns right back. "Hey, Ambrose? Thanks for everything."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose looks up and smiles slightly, almost sadly. "Of course, Jebediah. Anything for family."

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

...family...

That word stays with him on his way downtown. It stays with him as he goes to his father's office, and tells him they need to talk. They talk, hushed tones behind closed doors, and in the end, Jeb can't beat around the bush any longer.

"He's family, Dad. He's willing to let someone in his brain just so I can get something more than bits and pieces of how he knows my mother. He thinks I'm family, and if that doesn't give you a push in the right direction I don't know what will!"

"What do you want me to do?! We've been over this already!"

"I don't know! But time's all you got to lose, and if you don't make your mind up soon, you'll 've lost plenty of it. Now get a move on. He's waiting for us, him and Seek both."

Together, they make their way back. Both of them silent and lost in thought.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose waits tensely. He paces for a while, strokes the case a bit, hand trembling slightly against the glass.

He eventually pulls his gloves and face shield back on and goes back to his welding, trying to ignore Seek's heavy gaze and sad look, his emotions clear under his mask to the Viewer.

He's sort of scared what he might know. They both are. But he can submerge himself in work.

He doesn't notice when they come in, foot braced on a new piece of metal and taking to it with a circular saw.

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

Neither of them say anything when they enter the room, not wanting to distract the engineer when wielding such a lethal tool. One after the other give their silent nod of greeting to Seek, and only when it looks as though Ambrose is done with the saw, Jeb clears his throat softly. Wyatt's eyes go from the tank and to his lover and back again. Restlessness given silent voice, making Seek's skin twitch.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

Ambrose finishes cutting through, kicking the metal off with a hard, sharp kick and then looking up. "I'm sorry, I didn't realise... Hello again." He turns off the saw and removes the gloves and mask, leaving the heavy leather apron on. "Jeb told you... Yes, of course he did." Pause. "Of course he did."

He goes back towards the tank, the glitch not noticed.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

Father and son exchange glances, and Jeb's the one to give him a push forward. They walk side by side to the tank, but keep a polite distance to it.

Best give Seek and Ambrose some space to work.

His heart's hammering in his chest. By the pinched look on Jeb's face, so is his.

"...Ambrose?"

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"Yes?" He looks back over his shoulder as Seek steps up to him, ready to connect him up to the tank.

[less-hugging.livejournal.com]

"Love you."

That's all.

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

He smiles at Wyatt and closes his eyes, waiting for the moment that Seek's hand touches his face.

He never remembers how it feels. It hits him, almost like sex, a rush and thrill and shock like cold water, making him gasp and inhale deeply, head falling back as thoughts starts to form, memories rush and he fells the broken pieces sliding together in his mind.

He tips his head back down, opening his eyes to look at them.

[spoonfulofwit.livejournal.com]

"Ambrose..." Jeb says, both reluctantly excited and nervous. "Do you remember my mother? You seem so certain sometimes, that I remind you of her."

[amicably-absent.livejournal.com]

"I knew an Adora," he says quietly. "I can only presume it was her. She worked in a bakery with her father. I would spend my lunch times in there sometimes, though usually I only had time to pick up something before returning to the academy. She had blond curls and dark eyes and would laugh that I needed to eat more of her bread and less of her father's pastries, to put some hair on my chest." He looks to Wyatt, alert and focused.