Chapter 16: The Vanishing Machine
That was when I heard a quiet buzzing in the air, something that Liv didn't seem to notice but from the way that Betty's face twitched, I could tell that she could hear it. Meaning that it was a signal for her.
"I think I'll just leave the two of you… alone… so you can… get to know each other better."
It was with that the woman left, finally leaving me alone with the Doctor once more, something that she seemed to be really happy with. Like creepily happy about if her rather Joker-like smile was anything to go by.
"Would you like to come in for a drink?"
She asked, her eyes inviting me inside for something much more than a drink. And while super uncomfortable with the idea of doing certain actions… with this woman, I also needed to get inside her apartment.
I needed to see what the Doctor was doing.
So I followed her inside and sat down on her couch when I came to a realization.
This was never a situation that I'd thought I'd be in. Sitting on a couch with an older woman, her smiling at me seductively while twirling a piece of her hair around her finger. We were facing each other, my smile had become rather shy,
"So you've heard about me," She whispered, her eyes peering at from her glasses. "But what can you tell me about yourself?"
"I'm an open book," I held my arms out wide, with one of them going over the back of the couch. "Ask me anything you want?"
"You from Ireland or just have the heritage?"
"Yup, I grew up in the Irish countryside," I told her, trying to be as truthful as possible. Since from what I can tell, my actual home didn't seem to exist, in its place was just a series of fields.
So what I said was true from a certain point of view. "Out in the fields, went to school in a nearby town. Learned what I could, I had a massive issue in trying to find myself in my late teens. Got very lost, ended up in New York."
"Metaphorically lost, you mean?" Liv asked, me, a single brow raised paired with a smile that would melt butter.
"Yeah," I nodded, placing my head against the back of the couch. "At first, I was looking to become a programmer, then I went for a lawyer, then it was business. But none of those were for me."
"You dabbled a lot then?" At my rather questioning expression sent her way, the Dok continued. "From what you were saying outside, you seem to have a great understanding of physics for someone that didn't study it."
Between all this, Liv had stood up walking to the fridge and pouring out some sort of drink into two glass, wine glasses but the drink wasn't wine. It was pretty early in the afternoon for a stiff drink, but it didn't matter to me anymore.
I couldn't get drunk anymore.
"Oh, I took the subject for my Leaving Cert, which is close to what someone would study in their first year of college-level," I shrugged smiling at Liv while the woman handed me one of the glasses in her hand.
The Doctor then sat down taking a sip out of her own drink before going back to smile at me. "So while I ain't an expert, I can nod along and get the gist of what your experiments are about."
And I did, but it was mostly since I was comic book nerd as well, so a lot of the odd technobabble that wouldn't make much sense to actual well-learned men, I could sieve through it all and use my limited knowledge of science to understand what was going on.
"I'm impressed with the Irish Education system," She wiggled her eyebrows, trying to be charming but only ending up with me holding back a rather large laugh.
"Don't be," I chuckled, taking a large gulp of the beverage in front of me, Tasted weird, but not alcohol weird… in fact, I couldn't put my finger on it. I'd never had anything like it. "I'm self-taught, the system's good but the resources were crap."
"Well then," She leaned in close to me, her breath smelling like what I would imagine the scent of science would. "You impress me more with every second."
Suddenly, I could feel the liquid start to shift through my body, like it was some sort of foreign invader entering my body so it could take over. My super immune system quashed the foreign-ness from my body before it could do any damage.
Or at least before it could affect my behavior.
That was when I started to notice just how leery the woman had become. Her stare made me feel like I was some sort of meat. It also told me something that I should have known, don't go into some stranger's apartment and drink whatever they hand you.
I needed to make up for lost time now, so once more concentrated hard, letting my sight cycle through all the visual spectrums that were available to me. What I saw in the next room over blew my mind.
It was like something out of Stargate, a large circle that seemed to be made from some sort of metal, one that I didn't recognize it but that wasn't saying much. I've not had much chance to study the chemical make-up of various metals.
The rather severe study of the next room was broken when the Doc placed her hand near my chest.
I knew that I needed to make a choice, make a decision on what I would do… but I really didn't want to. It was like butterflies had started to swarm around in my chest while a black hole was eating at my stomach.
Then my ringtone started, something that actually brought me an incredible amount of joy.
"Sorry," I said sheepishly at the rather peeved expression she threw my way, but that was only on the outside, on the inside, the butterflies that had been building up in my stomach stopped dead. "It's the boss, I've gotta take this."
I stood up, pushing her hand away from me, before walking to the other side of the room and placing the phone at my ear before pressing the answer button.
"Hello Motto," I said, referencing something that was far too old even in 2008.
"Pat..." Lousie's voice broke through the speaker, sounding rather relieved. The two of us had kept in touch, much to her father's annoyance. Though we were just friends and she hadn't seemed to have cottoned on to the fact that I was moonlighting as a vigilante yet. "You're such a nerd."
The sentence was said in a fau-Valley Girl accent, one that Louise knew caused me to cringe each time I heard it. I swear that the only reason that the girl used that accent was to bother me in life. But I was happy that this cougar time was interrupted that I could ignore it.
"What?" I said, faking a confused tone while on the phone, something to mislead Fem-Dok into thinking that I was questioning someone on the other end. "Down to the office now? Well, if it's the way it's gotta be Mr. Elission."
"Am I saving you from someone that you don't want to talk to?" My younger friend giggled, while her father started to yell in the background, something about some parking tickets he had? "Should really get pagers so you can panic button me."
"Not really something that I've considered," I said, not when even the current model phones can already use email that was.
Also considering that I'd only need that when I was panicking, not something that I would even think to use in that state. "But I understand, what was the address of the contract?"
"Just come back to my house," She replied, sounding like it wouldn't bother her to meet with an older guy back in her home. Hell, I'm not sure Louise could be bothered. "Mom likes you, thinks that you're cute."
And now I wondered if Louise's mom, not currently separated from dear old dad, had also been flirting with me. I would hope that Lou would tell me if she was… though knowing her she might find it funny or disgusting.
With her, it was a flip of the coin.
"Fine," I waved my concerns away, it didn't matter. Not if it could get me out of here. "I'll meet you there." Hanging up, I turned my face into a frown, an attempt at seeming disappointed at being called away.
"I'm sorry the boss is calling me in, what's me to go over research with some of the other reporters,"
"That's your job?"
"I've only been on the job for about six months," I shrugged closing my eyes while walking towards the door. "So any assignments are secondary to my other role as an assistant."
"That… is a shame," She licked her lips, another action that creeped me out. Especially as her tongue peeked out and touched her chin. There was just something wrong about this woman, I just couldn't put my finger on it. "Maybe… when my experiments reach the next stage. You'll want to interview me?"
It was as her finger popped the top button in her shirt that I decided that waiting any longer… maybe a dangerous idea.
"We'll have to see," With my hand on the door handle, I opened it and left as quick as a breeze. There was no way to hide my groans as I started to walk away, keeping my pace under control so I wouldn't accidentally biltz off in a blaze of super speed.
It was only as I turned back to stare at someone stepping off the elevator that I noticed that there was something wrong with this building. Because I could no longer see that odd device in the Doctor's apartment.
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