Chapter Text
“Should I ask?”
Torres peeked out from his hiding place behind the desk. “Oh, hello Mrs. Jekyll!” he said cheerfully. He glanced over towards what Lisa assumed was the source of the explosion and the reason Torres was hiding behind Henry’s desk. “It should be safe now, but I’d still stand back just in case. In hindsight, I don’t think the machine was quite ready for that particular test yet.”
“I think I’ll have to agree with you, Mr. Torres.” Cautiously, Lisa stepped into the lab and inched her way over to Torres, giving the Time Machine a wide berth. “I suppose now isn’t the best time to ask how repairs are going.”
“Actually, I’d say repairs are coming along better than I expected!”
“…Really?”
“Well, obviously the explosion just now is less than ideal, but we’re still moving at a much faster pace than major repairs like these usually take, in my experience, mostly thanks to your husband.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that. I’ve barely been able to pull him away from your notes, so I think it’s safe to say that he’s enjoying being a part of the process.” Lisa decided against mentioning that Henry wasn’t enjoying all the extra company quite as much. “How long do you expect it’ll take to recover from this, well, little setback?”
“Hard to say. Hopefully only a few days, especially considering we were still in the early stages of repair anyway. Of course, everything will go much faster once Dorian gets ahold of everything I need. Did you get to meet him earlier?”
“No, I did not. Maybe next time – is it supposed to be making that groaning noise?”
Torres turned back towards the machine at her question, his brow furrowing as he focused on the time machine’s creaks and groans. “In a perfect world, no, it should not be making that sound. But considering the events leading up to this point, groaning is not the worst thing it could be doing right now.”
Lisa couldn’t argue with that logic. “You seem oddly calm about this whole situation.”
He shrugged. “Let’s just say this isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with my machine being… difficult. I’ve managed to fix her up every time before now, why should this time be any different?”
“That is… very wise of you.”
“Thank you. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to perfect that mindset.” Torres moved his attention past Lisa, adding, “Why hello, Monsieur le Comte! What brings you in here?”
“Pardon my intrusion,” Dantés replied with his usual partial bow, “I was merely curious as to the source of the…”
“Explosion?” Torres supplied.
“Yes, explosion. I take it I am not being presumptuous by assuming that–” he gestured towards the time machine “–to be the source?”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Lisa interjected. “I overheard part of a shouting match going on immediately after that blew up. Was that you?”
Torres laughed. “I wouldn’t call it a ‘shouting match’, per se, but yes, that was me and Dorian. He wanted to stay for just the one test, and when it all went… less than perfectly, he decided that was his cue to leave. Just was hard to hear each other over all the racket, so there was nothing to worry about. Besides the explosion, obviously.”
“’Besides the explosion’,” another voice behind Dantés mocked, a voice Lisa immediately recognized as her husband’s.
“Ah, Jekyll, I was wondering when you would…” Torres started in his cheerful tone, but he trailed off at the sight of Henry’s expression. “Ah. Right. I suppose I owe you an apology?”
The time machine, with its excellent sense of timing, chose this exact moment to give in under its own weight, caving in on itself with the loudest groan yet.
No one in the room dared be the first to comment on that particular development. For what felt like an eternity, they just stared at each other in dead silence, tension mounting until Lisa could feel it choking her.
Finally, Torres decided to break the silence. “At least it stopped groaning?” he ventured.
Lisa winced. Whatever the correct response was, that was certainly not it.
All at once, Henry’s patience finally snapped.
“I have tried to be patient, I really have. You can’t deny that, can you? When you showed up with the Frankenstein boy and his– and his– and with Creechur, what did I do? I took them in, no questions asked! Never mind that you already owed me a favor, never mind that one of them looked half-dead and the other was half-dead, never mind that I have my own life. And when you and the Count over here dropped in unannounced with a wrecked machine in tow, what did I do again? Do you recall?”
Torres tried to interrupt, but Lisa tugged on his shirt to stop him. Best to let Henry get it all out now.
“I was even happy to help this time, at first,” Henry continued, not noticing either of their actions. “But we’ve made barely any progress, and you don’t even seem to care! You’re so wrapped up in making sure the Frankenstein boy and his creation aren’t mad at you, and every second you’re not with them you’re away at that Gray fellow’s house doing who-knows-what! You quite literally have all the time in the world to socialize, why is that more important to you than making sure your life’s work isn’t permanently irreparable? And the one time, the one time you do actually seem to care about your time machine, it ends up even more broken than it started!”
“Oi, what’s going on in here?” Griffin asked as he strode through the open door. (Under different circumstances, Lisa would have found greater satisfaction in the fact that he had donned his overcoat.) “That explosion, someone shouting their head off–”
“And then there’s you,” Henry said darkly, turning to Griffin. “At least Torres let me know before he barged in here, but you? You just waltzed in here as if you own the place, stealing Lisa and I’s food, my chemicals, and whatever else under the sun you wanted.”
“Wait, why’s this all suddenly my fault?” Griffin snapped before Lisa could stop him. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but you aren’t some poor, innocent soul everyone else here’s picking on. There were more than enough signs I was here, even if I wasn’t trying to make myself known, but you were clearly too wrapped up in your pity party to notice any of them. Not that I’m surprised.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Maybe you’d know if you ever spared a single thought for anyone besides yourself!”
“You–”
“No, I’m not done. I don’t care that you barely remember who I am. I don’t care that you’ve gone and become this big-name, successful scientist while I’ve had to scrape by all these years. I don’t care that you’re living this prissy, perfect life. All I care about is perfecting my serum. The very serum you always dismissed in favor of your stupid ‘duality of man’ theories. Remember that? No, I didn’t think you would. But guess what? My serum works! How about your formula? Ever figure that out? And don’t you dare claim you did prove your theories; I know for a fact you haven’t mentioned them in years.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Henry scoffed.
“Is that so? Then why don’t you prove me wrong, right here and now?”
For one terrible, heart-stopping moment, Lisa was convinced Henry would take the bait. Every inch of him screamed that he was dying to prove Griffin wrong. But the moment passed, leaving Henry deflated and defeated.
“Hm,” Griffin smirked. “Just what I thought.”
“I… I need to go,” was all Henry said in response. “I don’t know when I’ll be back; try not to burn down my house while I’m gone.”
Instinctively, Lisa followed him out of the lab. “Let’s go on a walk, shall we?” she said as she caught up to him, taking his hand in her own.
“Maybe another time,” he said, gently pulling his hand away. Despite the obviously bad mood he was in, Henry met her eyes with the barest hint of a smile. “I need to be alone for a little while. I’ll try not to stay out too late.”
Lisa knew better than to protest; even if she wanted to, Henry was out the front door before she could have formed a single word.
As the door clicked shut, Lisa turned back around to see Creechur standing just around the corner, peeking nervously into the front room.
“I’m… I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to… listen to you. I just heard people shouting…”
“It’s nothing,” Lisa said soothingly, temporarily tucking away her concern for Henry; she’ll deal with those emotions later. “Henry just needs some alone time, that’s all. No need for you to worry.”
Luckily, Creechur believed her. Without any more urging, he sequestered himself back in his room to continue reading his book. Lisa sighed in relief, then steeled herself to go check on Victor. Hopefully by the time she returned to the lab everyone’s tempers will have cooled down.
Still, she couldn’t fully distract herself from worrying about Henry. She hadn’t seen him that upset in years.