"Dude check this out." Derrick giggled as he passed his phone to Garrett who burst into a fit of laughter.
"Fuck yes please send that to me." Garret returned to typing.
"What are you working on?" Derrick asked curiously.
"I'm trying out this new program. You know about DDOS attacks?" Garret didn't turn away from his work as he cranked code onto the screen.
"No." Derrick said.
"When you flood a website or a server with a shit load of signals, you crash it. All it takes is a click. The Mercurial Elite had me write this new one to bypass these code scanners they have."
"They?" Derrick peaked over his shoulder trying to make sense of it.
"Let's just call them The Dicks. See The Dicks monitor for code that got through their systems. They spend a shit load of money trying to stop people from breaking into or crashing their servers, so we have to write new programs. I pass this up the ladder and everyone adds or edits as we go." Garrett scratched his unshaven face.
"Who are you gonna use it on?" Derrick smiled at the deviance of the member closest to him in age.
"Probably a bank." Garrett said calmly and pushed up his glasses.
"You're gonna fuck up a bank?" Derrick nearly yelled.
"Oh hush, it's fine." The twenty year old hacker laughed as he sat back.
"You're crazy Garrett." Derrick pulled at his hair nervously.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"Can't sleep." Derrick said quietly.
Garrett took his hands from the keyboard and flipped around. "You sleep like a dead horse. What's on your mind?"
"Did you ever...have any vivid dreams?" Derrick shifted his weight and started to run his hands through his hair.
"Sure I did. I still do. Some of the things we do are...grizzly...to put it lightly. What got under your skin?"
"This stupid vampire." Derrick kicked the floor angrily. "He looked like my Dad."
Garrett went quiet for a minute as he thought of what to say. "What did you feel?"
"...Angry. I felt like when I got in a fight at school."
"Back then you said you saw nothing but red, and you put five kids in the hospital." Garrett nearly whispered it. "Have you told the others?"
Derrick shook his head in shame. "No. I snapped his leg. Kai let me shoot him though."
"How thoughtful. Look uh, can you keep something between you and me?" Garret took off his glasses to clean them and saw the blurry child nod his head. "A couple of your teammates grew up in homes like you did. I didn't, so I can't personally say what it's like. I know Miles carries a lot of baggage about his past, and you've heard Jason scream in his sleep."
"I didn't know that...do people still grow up normal?" Derrick tried to wrap his head around the damage and how it changed the people he knew.
Garrett put his glasses back on, leaned back, and sighed. "Yeah. Everyone grows up to be how they're supposed to be. If you have a strong will you can change a lot of that though."
"What was your house like?" Derrick tried to imagine it.
"Very calm. Very quiet. I had good parents, couple of older brothers." Garrett smiled to himself as he thought about them.
"I didnt know you had brothers. Did any of them awaken?"
"No." The smile faded. "I had to hide it from everyone. It sucked ass. I felt like I had to give up the closeness I had with my brothers. I still really love them, but they think I work at a call center."
"That must've sucked, I'm sorry." Derrick frowned.
"It's okay. After a few year of hanging with these idiots I finally feel like I have a real family." Garrett smiled again.
"Garrett...can I tell you something?" Derrick sat on the extra stool.
"Of course. You want me to keep it between us?" He smiled and sat forward.
"Please. I know the cabal wouldn't care but I'm really not wanting attention on this one." He kicked his feet for a second or two. "I think...I think I'm bi."
Garrett stood and hugged Derrick for a minute, and when he sat back down he saw a big smile on the boys face. "Congrats. When did you know?"
"I guess I've always known. I've had crushes on boys in school, girls too. You know and...porn." Derrick said the last part weakly, expecting to be in trouble.
"No judgement. I have an entirely separate hard drive for my weird shit." They laughed together.
"I have these dreams...where I'm at this carnival with a boy. I'm so nervous, and he takes me by the hand and he's just so excited to be out with me. We play those cheesy old games and he wins me a bear with this cute little purple bandana and a pirate patch on its eye." Garrett motioned for him to keep talking as he flipped back to his computer and started typing something. "At the end of the date, he pulls me close on this bench and I feel him kiss me. He tells me he's ready. Then I just wake up all hard and confused." Derrick laughed at himself but stopped when he saw the screen.
"Is this the bear you're talking about?" He pointed to a slideshow of pictures from an old and rundown carnival.
"Holy shit." Derrick practically jumped into his lap as he got closer to the screen. "Where is that?"
"It closed down in '92. I could take you there." Garrett watched as Derrick longily put his hand to the screen.
"Tomorrow?" He pleaded.
"I dunno man, I gotta ask Ariana and Kai and they might -"
"Please Garrett, please! I dream about this place every week, please can you talk to them?" He held his hands together begging.
"I...fuck man alright don't look at me with that face." Garrett shut his screen off. "If you go to bed right now.
"Of course!" Derrick shouted and bounded up the steps as Garrett ran his hands over his own face in consternation.
***
"It's fucking weird is what it is. Look he's an awakened kid going through puberty." Kai shrugged.
"That's exactly the shit you said when he broke that kids collarbone...and his ribs...and the fracture to his-"
"Would you shut up!" Ariana slammed her tea down in frustration. "He's not your child!" She roared.
Garrett felt his eyes tug at him to tear up but he puffed out his chest. "I'm trying to validate and give space to a kid who hasn't asked for anything. He hasn't asked to visit his Dad, or his home, or even to drive. You took him out to beat up vampires, I just wanted to go stand at the fence of the carnival and see if anything comes to mind for him."
Ariana glared at Kai, her soft brown skin covered in flecks of her relaxation tea. "This is absolutely what I told you. My body hasn't even finished processing the backlash of that spell and he's already getting dragged into more danger."
"What if I go with?" Kai offered to ease the tension.
"I can't trust you!" She slammed her hand on the counter.
Kai opened his mouth before he grit his teeth and took a deep breath, his lips shaking as he steading his anger. "Give Garrett a chance. He clearly wouldn't have asked if he didn't care. If he's our son, then you gotta let me help him get back out into the world. Ari, think about it. He didn't leave his room for two months when he got here. If he's excited to do something, let's do it."
Ariana breathed angrily for a minute before picking up her tea and storming out the back door. "I want him home by seven, not a minute later!" She yelled back at Kai who flinched and nodded.
"Go get the kid. Hey, Garret." He stopped him as he was walking away. "No bullshit this time. No crazy, no illegal shit, no messing with people."
Kai wandered up the stairs and knocked on Jason's door. "You wanna come with Garrett, Derrick, and I? We're gonna check out something the kid wanted to see."
Through the door he recognized the sound of Jason curled up in a small ball as he yelled. "I'm not fit for duty today."
Nodding and looking at Miles door, he knocked and received a quick, "No and fuck off."
"Fair enough man." Kai muttered.
Walking back downstairs, Derrick had a big grin on his face as he put his coat and shoes on. "How far is it?"
"It's about a twenty minute drive. We're taking my car." Kai grabbed his keys from the ring and walked them to the car. Derrick looked excitedly out the window the whole drive, waiting for the carnival to come into view.
"Alright." Kai picked a parking spot and fed the meter, beginning the walk through downtown Denver. Garrett kept his hoodie up the whole time, while Derrick looked with a big smile at the buildings. "Keep together." Kai said with a soft smile as they passed various buildings and businesses. As they turned a corner, a large industrial fence came into view and Derrick took off running. "Hey stay with us!" Kai yelled, but Derrick gripped the fence and looked in with a smile.
"This is it!" He shouted. "Come look!" Slowly the two adults caught up, both of them staring at what remained of the rundown park.
"Cool." Garret smiled.
"You watch him, I'm gonna look for a better view." Kai started to circle the fence as he looked in.
When he was out of earshot, Garrett turned to Derrick and smiled. "Tell me about the dream again."
"He's super cute. He has brown hair and brown eyes. He's short, but so am I. I feel like in the dream we're both older than I am now. He wins me the bear, and then he sits with me on a bench. I can feel him get closer and closer until he kisses me. It's...warm. Then I have...different parts..."
"Oh?" Garrett smiled even wider.
