Part Eleven
It’s too early to tell, but the targeted memory wipe seems to be working. The early tests show that the Nexus 6’s and 7’s both keep their long-term memories intact, even if one is erased. The tricky part of this process is the fact that the technician needs to know exactly where the memory to be wiped is stored. That means the Replicant needs to be awake and aware during the procedure. I’m not sure if this will cause further psychological issues.
I can’t go through destroying these creations anymore. We made them, we have programmed them and we arbitrarily throw them away when they break. We need better ways to deal with those Replicant’s that do break and go rogue. Killing them wasn’t the answer. Now corralling them into ‘pens’ like they are animals is just as cruel. I’m hoping that if we can get this to work, we can save not only the lives of Replicant’s but Humans as well.
Dave thinks I’m foolish, even though a part of him agrees with me. He worries that I have gotten too emotionally involved and sometimes I think he isn’t wrong. I think he’s just glad I’m home for a while, no matter the reason.
Personal Diary of Dr. Jason Gideon
Jason stood looking at Steven, who was resting. Well, as much as an android could rest. The procedure went well, but they wouldn’t know anything until he was through his rest cycle and they could question him. He felt Dave standing outside the room and knew it was time to go home. He turned and smiled at his partner, then left the room.
“Jason, you have to put it away for now. You can’t do anything more. If this doesn’t work,” Dave sighed and he took Jason’s hand and steered him towards their aircar. After getting into the vehicle Dave took up where he left off. “Jason, you know that if this doesn’t work…”
“I know. The Committee won’t give me another chance to try something less invasive than total memory wipe. It isn’t right Dave. They may not be biologically human, but they are still sentient. They are aware of their own lives and their own mortality. Who are we to keep treating them like they are just our playthings?”
“You know why. We don’t want to see the same uprisings as we did forty years ago.”
“Have you heard from Aaron?”
“No, and it worries me.” Jason maneuvered the vehicle expertly through the crowded skies of Los Angeles and landed at their private landing pad not too long after they had left Tyrell.
“If his last communication is true, then our suspicions about what Tyrell was doing before he was killed are true.”
“I hope we get to meet the young man.” Jason wasn’t going to bring up Tyrell’s experiments and the fact that he had succeeded. It was only three children that survived out of the whole experiment, but those three children were extraordinary. Jason was proud to have been part of those early experiments, but he had been too afraid to try again. The ethical dilemma alone, and the fact that he hadn’t even told Dave about them all this time. It was the one big secret he had kept from his partner, and he had good reason to.
“Hey, you get lost in your head again, Passerotto?” Jason smiled as he sat down after pouring himself two fingers of scotch. A minor indulgence from time to time, he felt like this was one of those times.
“Sorry. I did.” Jason sipped at his drink while Dave tinkered in the kitchen. This was one of those times he wondered if he should tell Dave what he and Tyrell were doing. Standing up he went to the kitchen and cornered his partner.
“Hey, if you want dinner, you have to let me go.” When all Jason did was dip his head and give his partner a kiss, and wrapped him up in his arms, he felt more settled than he had when Aaron came to his classroom three weeks prior to him coming home.
“I’m just worried. He’s been gone for over seven weeks. He should have been back by now and it makes me feel like something went terribly wrong.”
“We can’t worry until we hear back, now go, or I’m not feeding you.” Jason chuckled as he watched Dave make the fresh pasta, then pull a jar out of the cooler of his homemade sauce. Tomatoes and fresh ingredients were hard to sometimes come by. It was why they had their own greenhouse on the roof of their penthouse. Jason had built it for him when they first had gotten together. Frowning he leaned back and looked down at his hands. Older, and more lines on them, but there was something missing. Something neither of them had talked about in all the years they were together.
“Why haven’t we married?”
Dave stopped as he put the pot of water on the stove to boil.
“Married to our work? Long hours, days, sometimes weeks away from each other. Especially when you go and teach. Many reasons. Why are you bringing this up now?” Dave leaned on the counter studying his partner.
Jason felt so tired suddenly. Too many things happening all at once as he sipped his scotch. He had a bad feeling which he wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
“I don’t know…” Taking a deep breath he pushed back and crossed his legs. “I feel like something terrible is going to happen. Something we can’t stop.”
“Passerotto, nothing is going to happen. Ever since Aaron showed up and you came home suddenly you’ve had a cloud of doom hanging around you. What are you worried about?”
Jason sighed and waved his hand.
“I don’t even know.”
“Then stop worrying.”
“I’ll be in my office. I want to check on a few things.” Jason stood and felt Dave’s eyes on him as he walked out. He went to his personal vault, held his hand up to the palm reader, then the eye scanner. Once it opened up he reached in and grabbed the journals he had been keeping. Grabbing his glasses, he had refused reconstructive eye surgery. In some things, he was very old fashioned. Jason was a conundrum. He treated his creations almost like sons and daughters, even though they were artificial, yet he himself didn’t want any artificial parts. He chuckled to himself as he slipped the glasses on and opened up one of the older journals from Eldon Tyrell.
“So, I assume you weren’t ever going to tell me?” Dave was leaning on Jason’s desk holding one of the journals in his hand. Jason hadn’t realized he had fallen asleep. It took him a moment to become fully aware and sighed as his eyes didn’t stray from the book in Dave’s hands.
“We knew you wouldn’t agree.”
“Agree!?” Dave stood and slammed the book on the desk. “Over thirty years of working together, living together, trusting you. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jason stood and started to pace.
“Because we didn’t know if it was going to be possible. The technology was so very new and it was incredible, but we lost many Replicants. Eldon didn’t want you to know because he didn’t want you to have to lie to the Committee.”
“And you don’t think I would have.”
“I know you wouldn’t have.”
“And you?”
“In a heartbeat.” Dave felt a flare of anger as he stood and crossed his arms, glaring at his partner.
“And the sad truth is, I know you would. I know you would lie to protect even the worst of the Replicants. You would have even tried to save Roy, wouldn’t you?”
“Even Roy had a right to live. We could have fixed his programming, given him more time, but Eldon thought it was hopeless.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to experiment on them,” Dave yelled as he paced furiously in front of the desk. “How many?”
“We have three successful births, but a failure rate of almost 83%.”
“Christ.”
“Dave…”
Dave held up his hand and shook his head.
“No, no you don’t get to apologize for this. Not after almost thirty-five years of keeping this from me. Do McKay and Sheppard know?”
“They know some. They know that in some of the Nexus 6’s pregnancy is possible.”
“But they don’t know…”
Jason shook his head.
“So, Aaron? Is that why you’ve always taken such a close interest in him?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know?”
Jason looked down at the ground and shook his head.
“You kept this secret from him all this time? Who else Jason?”
“A woman named Sasha, and another man named Samuel. I know that Eldon continued after I told him I could no longer be a part of it. Rachel was the only one I knew of that he gave the reproductive nanites to. It wasn’t until after he died that I found out he was successful with a few others. He didn’t name them, only used their designations. I’ve been trying to find them, but it’s been difficult. I know of a female named Jennifer and she recently had a son. Beyond that…I don’t know.”
“I can’t believe you.” Dave spun and walked out of Jason’s office. The food had gotten cold, and he lost his appetite anyway.
“Dave,” Jason called out as he ran after his partner. “What did you want me to do?”
“Not lie to me.” Dave’s shoulders slumped as he picked up his wine glass and took a long drink. “I think you should go back to MIT. I’ll watch over Steven, but I can’t be around you right now.”
“I can’t just leave them.”
“I’m not asking Jason.”
“Dave…”
“You lied to me. This wasn’t just a simple lie, or even cheating on me, God I almost wish it was that, but no, this was a lie you kept for decades.” Dave looked at Jason and felt so betrayed. “There is no excuse you can give me that would make any kind of sense for your reasoning to do it. I’m almost glad we hadn’t gotten married.”
“Dave, I’m sorry.” Jason reached out and tried to touch his lover, but the man backed away out of reach.
“Somehow I don’t think you really are. I mean it, Jason. You need to let me calm down and to do that you need to leave. Go back to MIT and give me time. Hopefully, I can try to find a way to forgive you.”
Dave swallowed the last of his wine and walked towards the door. He made sure he had his ID on him as he reached for the handle.
“I want you gone before I get back. I’ll tell you when you can come home.” Dave opened the door and left.
Jason stood there in the middle of the flat, devastated. He knew Dave would be upset, he didn’t believe that his partner would actually throw him out. He sighed as he walked to their room and packed.
He was almost done when he got a call on his communicator.
“Gideon,” he didn’t even try to hide his feelings.
“Jason, you need to get where McKay and I are, things have gone to hell.”
“John, where are you?”
“Hold on, I’ll give you coordinates.” A moment later a beep sounded on his PDA. The place that pinged wasn’t that far away.
“Give me twenty minutes.” Jason hung up and grabbing his bag, he left. He just hoped that when the dust settled, he had a home to come back to.
“McKay, what the hell?”
“Oh keep your panties on, It’s just a tranquilizer.”
“Why the hell did you bring a tranquilizer, and where did you put that thing?” John frowned as he pointed to the gun in McKay’s hand.
“Let’s see, the fact that Aaron is one of Tyrell’s secret experiments kind of made me fear for my life if he ever went feral, and look, he was ready to pounce on one of us, probably ready to rip one of us apart in a crazy animalistic rage.” McKay’s eyes were wide as he looked between the three men. Then noticed just how naked the young man in front of them was. “Oh for Christ’s sake, go put on some pants.” He waved his hand with the gun at Spencer.
“I…don’t have any.”
Both John and Rodney turned to look at him, and if the situation wasn’t so tenuous, Spencer would have burst out laughing, but at the moment he just felt utter humiliation.
“I’m sorry, why don’t you have any?”
“We had to leave the vehicle so we could run from the crazy bounty hunters that came after us.”
“Where is the vehicle?
Spencer took a long cleansing breath and shook his head.
“I think maybe we should introduce ourselves first.”
Keeping their eyes on the young man’s face, John introduced them.
“And I’m Dr. Spencer Reid, but my real name is Spencer Deckard. Now, if I tell you where the vehicle is, how do I know you’ll come back and won’t tell the police where Aaron and I are?”
“I can assure you, Dr. Reid, that Aaron is our friend and we want the whole story to know what is going on before anyone does anything.”
Spencer studied them a few minutes and decided to trust them for now.
“Fine, but help me get him on the bed.” Between the three of them, they got Aaron into the bedroom, stripped, cleaned up and under the sheets.
After some more discussion and arguing, John decided to go get either the vehicle or their bags, whichever was going to be easier to manage. Since it was close by, he thought he could handle it.
“This is monumentally stupid. Of all the crazy, boneheaded moves, Sheppard, this has got to be the worst idea you’ve ever had.”
“I wouldn’t say the worst.” John quirked a brow as he took his husband’s hand. “You forget, McKay. that I was military first. I haven’t gone soft, despite what you think.”
“Just don’t get that pretty face hurt. I’ll be very put out with you if you do.” John kissed the side of Rodney’s mouth before he turned and was out the door. Spencer had found a throw blanket in a small storage cubicle in the bedroom. He wrapped it around him and stepped back into the living room.
He sat curled up on the couch and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath settling his overwrought nerves. He frowned a moment then opened his eyes to look at Rodney.
“What did you mean about Tyrell’s experiments and Aaron?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Rodney swallowed and looked away from Spencer.
The young man narrowed his eyes and moved to where he was facing the scientist even more.
“Dr. McKay, what do you know?” Spencer’s tone was one that brokered no arguments. Rodney visibly sighed as he swung his gaze to the young man.
“Look, not a lot of people know, okay? I was one of Tyrell’s private research assistants while I was still in college and my idiot husband was doing time in the military on the Mars colonies. Let’s just say that the work we were doing was good work, however, when I found out it wasn’t sanctioned, I made my displeasure known to Dr. Tyrell and backed out. If it ever got out that Tyrell Corporation was conducting illegal genetic experiments, all my own research will come under intense scrutiny. So, forgive me for being a little reticent in sharing any information with someone I just met.” Rodney glared at Spencer as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Spencer just lifted his own brow and crossed his own arms.
“And why should we trust you?”
“Because right now, Dr. Reid, you have no choice.”
Spencer decided to ignore Rodney. He didn’t know what to make of the man, even though he had read everything that the McKay-Sheppard team published. He knew they were both men of scientific integrity, that didn’t always mean they had personal integrity. He had some experience in that with his own research projects. When someone tried to steal his research and claim it as their own, it had taken Spencer months to get it straightened out.
The two men were silently assessing each other as they waited for John to come back. Spencer could tell that Rodney was worried about how long it was taking for John to come back. He almost jumped when there was a chime at the door, that seemed to be some kind of signal.
“About damn time Sheppard. I was getting ready to send out a goddamned search party for you.” Rodney yelled as he flung the door open and Sheppard stood there grinning. “Oh, fucking hell, what did you do? Go a few rounds with razor wire or something? Get in here and get your ass to the bathroom. I swear can’t let you go anywhere. Now, I have to spend time to get you cleaned up and those cuts seen too. You happy, Sheppard?”
John just walked patiently behind McKay as they headed towards the bathroom. The two bags that John was holding he dropped by the couch. Spencer just shook his head as Rodney kept up his snarky commentary, including some very creative things he was going to do to his husbands…well nether regions. Spencer actually blushed as he tried to keep from laughing. The whole situation was beyond ridiculous and out of control.
Standing up he grabbed the bags and took them into the bedroom and dropped them near the bed. Reaching out he brushed the little bit of hair that had fallen over Aaron’s forehead. Taking a shaky breath, Spencer wasn’t sure how he had fallen so hard and so fast. He thought maybe it was the adrenaline, but that was a long way away from explaining why he had been drawn to Aaron from the moment he had shown up at the farm.
“Hey, uh, done in the bathroom if you want to clean up.”
“You didn’t have to risk yourself to help us.” Spencer kept looking at Aaron, finding it hard to leave his side when he looked so vulnerable.
“As I said, Aaron is our friend. I was able to get the vehicle and hide it. When he wakes, we’ll talk.” John had poked his head into the room to let Spencer know the bathroom was free.
Spencer nodded as he grabbed clothes from his duffel. Padding into the bathroom he took his time in cleaning up. He stood under the hot shower and let the pounding water wash over him. He leaned up against the wall and shook. He was scared, he didn’t know how they were going to get out of this situation, and he didn’t know what was going to happen to Aaron for protecting him. When the water ran cold he knew he had to get out. When he did he looked at himself in the mirror and was startled not to see any changes. He felt like he had been changed, that being with Aaron, this whole experience had changed him, he just wasn’t sure what those changes were. Turning away, he stepped up to the dryer and let it dry him off rather than get a towel. Once that was done he put on the fresh clothes and without saying a word to John or Rodney, slipped into the bed with Aaron. When he did he felt strong arms envelop him and Aaron nuzzle at his neck. Spencer knew, no matter what happened, he was glad that he had this man, even if it ended up being for just a short time.
John and Rodney knew Spencer had gone into the other room to get some rest, neither of them could imagine what the young man had been through, they hoped they could get the whole story soon. John had called Gideon while Spencer was in the shower. He knew they needed help, but they needed answers as well.
“We need food. I think the threat is gone, I’m going to take our vehicle and go see what I can get.”
“John…”
“I’ll be fine Mer, I promise.” John wrapped arms around his husband and held him close. “Gideon should be here soon, and hopefully that tranq will be wearing off and we can get some answers.”
John was barely gone twenty minutes when there was a knock on the door. Rodney used the security screen next to the door to see who it was. When all he saw was Gideon he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Jason, come in. John just went to go get food.”
“Where’s Aaron?”
Rodney’s cheeks pinked as he quirked the side of his mouth, “I sort of hit him with a tranquilizer.”
Gideon scrubbed at his eyebrows with a finger as he shook his head.
“He’ll be sleeping for a while then.”
“At least another,” looking at the timepiece on the wall Rodney calculated the time the tranquilizer would keep Aaron down. “Four or five hours. But he is going to have a bitch of a headache when he wakes. I noticed several meds in the bathroom so I’m sure there will be something for him.” Rodney narrowed his eyes at Gideon. “What is going on here Jason?”
“I know you know about Aaron.”
“I do.”
“Do you know that Spencer is the son of Rachel?”
Rodney’s eye got comically wide as he looked at Gideon.
“Jesus, Jason. What did you two do? Begin the experiments again?”
“Yes.”
Rodney threw up his hands and started to pace around the room.
“Do you realize this could potentially put all of our careers at risk? I moved away from Eldon for this very reason. If the Committee finds out what are you going to do about it? How the hell are you going to protect us?”
“Aaron will be the key. Not only is he a Hotchner, but he’s also the Committee’s golden boy. They are not going to want to hurt him. Just, calm down Rodney, everything is going to be fine.”
“Everything is not going to be fine and if you believed that Dave would be here with you. Why isn’t he with you?”
“That’s personal.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, did you two have a fight?”
“He found my journal. The one about the early Nexus experiments.”
“Oh, Jason, please tell me you told him before now.”
Jason didn’t actually respond as he walked to the small living room and sat down in a chair. Thoughts were swirling in his head and he knew this was a huge clusterfuck and he knew he was partially responsible.
Rodney didn’t say anything as he too sat and tried to work through what the hell was going on. He knew he wasn’t going to get much until Aaron woke up and everyone had something to eat. For now, he was just going to sit there and try not to brood.
Aaron was waking up and felt Spencer curled up next to him as close as he could get.
“Hey,” his voice cracked as he caressed Spencer’s arm. Sometime during their nap, Spencer had gotten up and took off his clothes to get more comfortable. He was just as naked as Aaron was.
“Hey,” Spencer said as he turned on the bed to look at his lover. “How do you feel?”
“Like my head was hit repeatedly with a sonic wave.”
“Here.” Spencer sat up with his back against the headboard, legs spread wide. Aaron smirked and thought about all the things he wanted to do to Spencer, but at the moment he just wanted the pounding in his head to stop. He crawled between Spencer’s legs then turned so his back was resting against Spencer’s front. When the younger man began to massage his head and neck Aaron moaned, almost purring. Spencer watched as Teo came into the room and jumped on the bed.
“John and Rodney are here. They want to talk to us. I don’t know what about.”
Aaron didn’t either, but at that moment he didn’t care. All he cared about was Spencer and making sure he was safe. After a few moments, he turned around and kissed Spencer. Moaning, Spencer pushed Aaron back on the bed onto his back, then he straddled his lover’s waist.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better.” Aaron let his hands wander over Spencer’s body, his fingers gently caressing those areas that he had scratched deeply. “I’m so sorry, Spencer.”
“For what? These?”
“Yes,” Aaron couldn’t stop touching.
“Aaron, never feel sorry for who you are. These are just scratches.”
“But they’ll scar.”
“I don’t care about that. They are reminders of what you feel for me.”
Spencer rocked back against Aaron’s rapidly hardening cock. After looking in Aaron’s eyes, his own cock filled at the passion he saw there. His breathing sped up as he rose up just a bit and grabbed Aaron’s erection and held him still as he slid down on the hard cock.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you,” Spencer said as he bit his lip, and rocked his hips moaning in pleasure.
“God Spencer, you don’t know what you do to me.”
Aaron moved with Spencer, he knew he wasn’t going to last long as he wrapped his hands around Spencer’s waist as the man fucked himself on top of Aaron.
All too soon Spencer was taking his own cock in his hand and jerking himself off while he moved up and down on Aaron’s cock. Falling forward a bit he cried out as he stiffened just slightly coating Aaron’s stomach with his release. Aaron held him right where he was, then he started to pound inside him then he too came not too long after Spencer.
“God, I love you, Spencer,” Aaron let the words spill from his lips before he could stop himself. However, he knew the words to be true.
“I love you, Aaron. I know it’s crazy, but I feel like we belong together like we are part of each other, and I don’t ever want you to go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Aaron held Spencer so tight in his arms that he knew no one was going to be taking his lover from him, he was determined to find a way out so that they were both free.
Part Twelve
“John got our bags for us. Why don’t you take a shower.”
Aaron sat up on the bed, his body ached. The feral drive always left him drained, but he knew Spencer was right. He had to get up and clean up. He stood and looked over at Spencer, the mating mark, for he knew deep in his gut that was what it was, on display. Seeing it, and the fact that Spencer wasn’t ashamed had him almost purring with satisfaction.
Spencer lifted a brow and smiled knowing what Aaron was staring at.
“It’s your claim on me, and I wouldn’t want anyone to take it from me.”
“Spence,” Aaron growled as he cupped the younger man’s cheek. “I better go clean up.”
Spencer stood and gave Aaron a peck on the cheek then made his way to the other room.
Aaron stood under the hot shower, washing the last few days off himself. Closing his eyes he tried to sort through everything that had happened from the moment that Morgan showed up at the Deckard’s farmhouse. Guilt settled inside him for what happened to Spencer’s family. He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands, and shook. He had killed, out of survival, yet the deaths of those men would haunt his dreams. Even knowing that they had shown up to do the very same thing to him, Spencer and the Deckards. He still hated killing. The animal that was inside him, part of him, was primal and fierce. Aaron had never truly embraced it, not like he had the last few days. He lived with it, used it when necessary, but had never truly embraced it like many of the other Enhancers had.
After getting out of the shower he looked at himself in the small mirror and thought that maybe, maybe he needed to embrace what he was, truly embrace it. Closing his eyes he took a moment then did something he hadn’t done in years. He took out the contacts he was wearing. While they didn’t obscure his eyes completely, they hid their true color. He could have opted for the kind that totally hid them one hundred percent, but they were expensive, and his eyes were sensitive to the technology. The kind he wore gave him some camouflage except when he was edging towards a feral drive. He knew if he did this, there was no going back. He ran a hand through his short hair, but didn’t mess with it too much, he would let it go naturally.
Moving into the bedroom, he grabbed some fresh clothes from his pack, dressed then walked out to the other room, hoping he made the right decision.