Chapter Text
Ethan Green makes promises.
Against his better judgement, usually. He’s good pretending he’s big and tough and all that shit, but when it comes down to it he wants the people around him to be happy. Lex calls it his Achilles’ Heal or something. He promises Lex that they’ll get to California. He promises Hannah that he’ll take her to Build-A-Bear next time she’s off school. And hell, he even ends up promising to help out his Grandpa Henry when he’d really rather be spending the day with Lex.
Gramps calls, out of breath and sounding like he’s in a fuckin’ tunnel. “Ethan!” he gasps. “Thank god you picked up. I have an emergency.”
Ethan’s sitting in his car— the jalopy (or Hortense— yeah, he named her, what of it?) when it happens. “You alright, Gramps?”
“NO!”
“Okay. Great. Whaddya want me to do about it?”
“Ethan, listen closely. One of my experiments has spilled everywhere and my floor is melting. I need you to come over and help me stop this before it reaches the boiler room. Quickly, Ethan! Clap out “HELP” in Morse code so I know it’s you.”
Ethan doesn’t even have time to say “I dunno Morse code, you coot” before Gramps yells at his Alexa to initiate Code Indigo and the line disconnects. Ethan screws his eyes shut— god. The one day Lex has off from her stupid job, the dude has the nerve to ask for his help. He checks his call history and the last time the coot said hi was three months ago. It almost makes Ethan angry— but then, he can’t say no, right? And he sounded pretty damn concerned.
Just then, his phone buzzes.
[NEW MESSAGE FROM: “LEX”]
ReadySetLex: you still wanna go to The Cliff today?
Ethan stares at the text for a moment before groaning and wiping his face. Goddammit.
GreethanEthan: can’t gramps asked me to come over and help him with something. before you say anything i know
ReadySetLex: ughhh who tf your gramps think he is
ReadySetLex: i’m sneaking out tonight and we’re gonna hang out then k
GreethanEthan: you got it babe ;)))
Ethan throws his phone into the other seat and groans for a solid minute before starting Hortense— which does take a couple tries— and heading to Gramps’ house. The guy lives on the edge of town. Not by the bridge, no, but on the border of Hatchetfield’s last suburban neighborhood, if you’d call it that, and the deep wood that eventually lead down to the scrappy beach and the lake surrounding the town. The entrance itself is super beatdown. A shitty chain link fence surrounding a half above half underground entrance. There’s a place to buzz in next to the gate. Ethan has about ten seconds from when he presses the button to when Gramps answers to look up how to make the word help in Morse.
“Ethan?” crackles Gramps.
Ethan sighs and haphazardly claps out HELP, though he might’ve said HELR. Gramps is silent for a moment and then the gates slide open.
There isn’t a path from the gate to the door. Maybe there used to be, but now it’s all overgrown crabgrass and bushes with burrs that’ll stick to your clothing if you get within five feet. When Ethan gets to the door, it slides open with this god awful CLIKCLIKCLIKCLIKCLIK sound.
Ethan’s been to this place once, maybe twice. He rattles his brain with how to get to the lab. Then he hears screaming.
Ethan stumbles through several weird winding hallways and staircases for about three minutes before he happens upon the lab.
He realizes now that there's a reason why he couldn’t remember the way; he’s never been to the lab. It’s like something straight outta one if those science fiction double features. Beakers lay askew and there’s about a dozen machines making various beeps. Then, there’s gramps in the middle, gripping his hair in terror at the spreading ooze of blue-green liquid.
His gramps looks older than the last time he’d seen him. More weary. Like he hasn’t slept in a solid thirty-six hours and was running on spite, coke and willpower. Ethan thinks its a mood.
Gramps notices Ethan and turns to get a better look at him. His eyes widen and he rushes over, placing his hands on Ethan’s shoulders.
“Ethan, thank goodness you’re here! Come, come.”
Gramps leads him to the ooze. It smells like near death— goddamn. “What is this shit?”
“It’s a semi-corrosive substance of my own design. Meant to dissolve the particles in any substance by not just breaking the bonds between the molecules but chemically altering them to—“
Ethan spaces out. He didn’t fail chem for nothing.
“—tried pouring water on it, but it seems that’s like fuel to it. I have to get it to stop from dissolving into the boiler room below. That’s where the central wiring is.”
“Why did you need something that strong?”
“Unimportant, Ethan.”
“Ookay. So, how am I supposed to help?”
“I was honestly hoping you’d have an idea.”
Now THIS just baffles Ethan. How the hell is this man still alive? Better yet, why did he think Ethan would know what to do? He turns towards Gramps, but he’s already lighting a cigarette.
Cigarette. There’s an idea with just enough backwards logic behind it to work.
Ethan takes the cigarette from Gramps hand and chucks it onto the ooze without much thought. And you know what? It works. Rather than exploding or spreading more, the ooze shrivels up and makes this god awful whistling noise. The ooze is gone now, leaving a sizable hole in the floor.
“Water didn’t work. Heat did.”
Gramps’ eyes are still wide. He claps, almost laughing.
“Brilliant work, Ethan!”
When Gramps has successfully placed a large blanket over the hole in the floor, he leads Ethan upstairs to the kitchen. Theres mugs scattered around, a bottle of booze on the counter and several papers with red marker on it. He rifles through the pantry for a moment and then hands Ethan a lukewarm Sprite.
Ethan doesn’t like Sprite. He takes a sip.
“So, Ethan,” Gramps sits down. “It’s been a while. How’s school going?”
It’s such a stock adult question. Ethan doesn’t have the heart to tell him that he dropped out.
“S’alright. It’s school, so...”
“Are you planning on going to college?”
Ethan winces. “Not sure yet. Lex and I are still figuring it all out.”
“Lex?”
Gramps is sipping some amber liquid out of a glass. He seems interested.
“Girlfriend. We’re thinking of, ehh... moving.”
Gramps brows furrows and then softens. He shakes his head, and Ethan feels like its not so much to him as to himself.
“Good. Get out of here while you still can.”
The can is empty. Ethan stands and walks over to the trash. He feels his phone buzz in his pocket; Lex, maybe? Maybe there’s time still to go up to The Cliff.
“I’m gonna go, Gramps. I hope you figure the whole ooze thing out. And uhh..” Ethan runs a hand through his hair. “You can call me if you need to.”
Gramps is looking down at the paper, chewing on the side of his cheek.
“Thank you for the help, Ethan. I should bring you around more. You have good ideas. Good luck in school.”
Ethan finds his way back to the door. He looks at his phone once he’s safe in the car.
ReadySetLex: when ur done u should come pick me up 😳
Ethan looks back at the shitty compound one more time. He wonders for a moment if Gramps gets lonely.
GreethanEthan: omw 👁👁