Chapter Text
One evening in 1986, Stathis came out of the shower after a long day at work. He headed into the bedroom. Ronnie was sitting on their bed, nursing their beautiful infant daughter, Beth. He dressed and sat down beside her. Beth smiled up at him with adorable dimples.
"I'll make this up to you soon, darling," he told Ronnie.
Ronnie smiled at him. It truly was an exception for him to go out somewhere in the evening. The previous weekend he took Beth quite a lot, bringing her to Ronnie to nurse when necessary. Otherwise, she got to nap, read, watch movies, and go to the gym. He had already done a lot to make up for his night out. Now she got to have a quiet evening with the baby. "See you after you talk to the best and brightest minds in the country," she said. He kissed her and Beth goodbye and left.
He drove to the Bartok party. He wanted to go himself.
He recognized Seth Brundle immediately from The Nightmare. He walked over to him and shook his hand.
"Good evening. I'm Stathis Borans, editor of Particle Magazine."
"Hello. I'm Seth Brundle. I'm impressed that the editor himself, ah, is here talking to me instead of a reporter."
"I remember reading about you. You were the leader of the F32 team at age 20. You came very close to winning the Nobel Prize for physics."
"Yes, that's right. Of course, it's not about winning prizes, and I am, ah, very passionate about my work and improving the world any way I can."
"Did you come here tonight to share what you've been working on lately? The room is crawling with journalists."
"Actually, the Bartok people told me that I, ah, had to come. It's part of my, ah, contract. I don't want to discuss it here because half the scientific community of North America is eavesdropping tonight."
"I know what you're working on. There's information out there if you dig. I dug."
Seth blanched. "The Bartok people will kill me if this comes out now."
"Don't worry, Seth. It doesn't have to come out now. If you'd feel more comfortable, I could introduce you to one of my reporters, Mark Christopherson, and he could write a book that could be published when you're ready for the story to come out."
"A book would be better than a news story in the near future."
"Here's Mark's card. Call him when you're ready. But, Seth, tell me. What is your computer programmed to do if a fly or other organism gets in by accident?"
Seth looked stumped. After a pause he said, "I never, ah, even thought of that possibility."
"It's easy to forget about flies now that winter is coming and they're not everywhere. In the summer they fly in through our open doors and windows all the time. Fix your computer. You don't want a horrible accident."
Seth pondered Stathis's words. Later that night when he arrived home, he turned on his computer and asked it, "What would you do if a fly and a human teleported from Pod A to Pod B?"
The computer generated the text, "fusion of fly and human at the molecular-genetic level."
Seth programmed the computer to refrain from fusing more than one organism at the molecular-genetic level. He programmed it to teleport them into separate entities in the receiver telepod. He did test teleportations with combinations of various insects and rodents. He sent them for testing and waited patiently for the test results. They were perfectly fine.
Eventually Seth designed telepods that could safely teleport humans.
After this happened, there were many dinners and banquets held in his honor. At one particular party, he met a beautiful woman, Anne, who was a lovely person in every possible way. She met him as another guest, not as a journalist or other professional. They had no professional boundaries to break. There was no confusion about their getting together: Their mutual interest was undoubtedly personal. Anne had no connection to any ex-boyfriends anymore. She and Seth were compatible, and their love began smoothly.
One sunny summer day in 1998, Seth and Anne Brundle were walking through a Toronto park with their three kids. Their eldest, Nate, saw three other kids playing soccer on a soccer field. "Dad, could we go over there and play soccer for a while?" he asked.
"Sure, son," he said.
The family walked over. As they approached the other family, Anne noticed that the mother was glowing with happiness.
Recognition flickered in Seth's eyes as he looked at the father. "Stathis Borans!" he said.
"Seth Brundle!" said Stathis.
The old acquaintances shook hands and hugged.
"Ronnie," Stathis said to his wife, "I want you to meet this man. He invented teleportation. Our telepod is all thanks to him."
Ronnie rose to her feet and shook Seth's hand and Anne's. "I'm pleased to meet you. I use teleportation all the time to get the kids to school and soccer practice. Stathis and I use it to get to work. It's a life saver. Imagine if we had to drive our kids everywhere like our parents did with us!" The adults laughed.
Nate asked Beth Borans, "Can we play soccer with you?"
"Sure!" Beth said. The Borans kids took the Brundle kids along, happy to have more players. The Brundle kids were happy to show off their skills.
Seth told Anne and Ronnie, "I have Stathis to thank for my success in inventing teleportation. He pointed out a potential glitch that I had not even taken into consideration."
Ronnie was amazed. She looked at her husband with pride.
"I was happy to help," Stathis said, "but you did all the work. You deserve all the credit."
"It saves so much time," Anne said. "I have time for more important things now, and I am able to be more effective in everything. Soon there will be a whole generation of kids who don't even know what travel time is."
They chatted and watched the kids play soccer. When the kids tired of playing, they came back over to their parents.
"Perhaps we could get the kids together again some day for another soccer game," Stathis said.
"Actually, we're just visiting my family in Toronto. We'll be teleporting back to Vancouver soon. We moved there to, ah, be closer to Anne's family."
"That's too bad," said Stathis. "It was nice seeing you again."
"Likewise," said Seth.
"Mom, can we go home?" Beth asked. "I'm hungry."
"Of course."
They said goodbye, and Stathis and Ronnie wished Seth and Anne a safe trip home.
"Come on, darling," Stathis said to Ronnie, putting a hand on her back. "Let's get these kids home."
As Seth and Anne walked away, Anne remarked to him that Ronnie looked radiant from her husband's love.
He kissed her temple. "I love how you can tell things like that, ah, just from looking at people," he said.
"And I'm just as lucky to be well loved by you."
They walked hand in hand to the park telepod with their kids running in front of them.