Work Text:
When he first arrived in town Nathan had focused on Allison, wanting to win back her affection after a particularly nasty break up. Deep down he knew they had no real future because neither of them was willing to compromise, but Nathan wasn't the kind of person who gave up on anything. Hell, they'd given him a Nobel Prize because he was tenacious in his pursuit of science, or whatever else had caught his attention.
Plus he simply hated to lose.
Jack Carter was an unexpected impediment to his goal of winning back Allison. Worse still, Carter put as much zeal into his sworn duty as Eureka's Sheriff as Nathan put into his position as Director of Global Dynamics, so it wasn't surprising they clashed so often. Carter treated everyone he met with respect - except for Nathan - so the whole damn town had grown to love their new sheriff. It didn't seem to matter that he was of average intelligence in a town where most had a genius level I.Q., as Carter often saw or said something everyone else had overlooked.
Simple solutions to complex problems.
It was so frustrating, especially as Henry had taken a real shine to Carter despite the massive gap between their I.Q. levels. Best friends.
As the siren wailed, with blue and red lights flashing, Nathan glanced across at Carter, seeing the intense focus on the road ahead as they raced to the bus station where Zoe Carter had used a stolen credit card to buy two tickets. If she and Callister managed to get on that bus then they could easily disappear for good, except Nathan knew Callister didn't have a lot of time left. Something had corrupted his core programming and unless Nathan could fix it, Callister would cease to function. He would die.
"I don't expect you to understand-."
"Of course I understand. I'm a father."
Nathan blinked hard. The problem with being single-minded in his pursuits meant a tendency to ignore everything on the periphery, and now all his feelings for Callister fell into place. Callister wasn't just a machine. He had independent thought, hopes, and dreams, so it didn't matter that he wasn't made of flesh and blood. He was sentient, and he was Nathan's son in every way that truly mattered.
This revelation made him take another look at Jack Carter, sensing in him a kindred spirit as the Cherokee ate up the miles between them and their missing children. He thought of Allison and realized she would never make that simple connection. Now she knew Callister had been built in a laboratory rather than created in a test-tube, she would never see Callister as anything more than a machine that mimicked human behavior.
He recalled her reaction to the clone of Susan Perkins, how Allison had stopped thinking of Susan as human even though she'd been real enough to conceive and give birth to Brian Perkins. Allison had even questioned the re-burial of the clone's body in Susan Perkin's grave, though Henry had interceded there.
From what he had overheard, Henry and Jack were the only ones who had attended the re-burial.
The journey back to Eureka was solemn, with Zoe crying herself to sleep in the back seat, and Nathan's thoughts centered on the body carefully placed in the trunk, recalling how Jack had handled Callister so gently, with care and attention. He noticed Jack flicking his eyes to the rear view mirror often, checking on the sleeping teenager, but Nathan could tell his relief at finding Zoe was tempered by his sadness at losing Callister.
Nathan finally understood what the rest of the town saw in Jack. Compassion, sympathy, and empathy. A sense that Jack would move heaven and earth for even a stranger if it was within his power to save them. He could feel the sadness and concern for him coming off Jack in waves, catching occasional sideways glances though otherwise remaining silent, but he sensed no pity. Something in his posture or in his glance back at Jack must have broken the wall of silence between them.
"Is there anything you can do for him? I mean... My laptop does all these backup things in the background, and I only know about it when it runs out of space. Was he doing something like-?"
"He was hardly a lap..." Nathan fell silent because as soon as Callister returned to Eureka and connected to the unique Eureka WiFi he might have started back-ups automatically.
"Nathan?"
It was a long shot, and it could take months, perhaps a couple of years to piece it all back together but... but it might be possible. And Nathan was tenacious enough to try.
***
Almost two years later, Nathan stood beside the laboratory table where the pieced together back-up of Callister's mental processes was downloading into a newly cloned body. This was the moment of truth, and Nathan found he was holding his breath like any expectant father as he coded in the final sequence. Beside him, Jack was looking just as nervous and excited at the same time, and when Nathan stepped back to stand beside him, he felt Jack's fingers wrap around his, gripping tightly.
Callister's eyes blinked slowly, looking around in confusion at first until they alighted on Nathan.
"Doctor Stark? Am I better?"
Nathan knew his own smile was as broad as Jack's, but it was Jack who stepped forward.
"Welcome back, Callister. And I think it's time you used Stark's proper title." He turned mischievous blue eyes on Nathan before looking back at Callister. "Dad."
And if it was even theoretically possible to love Jack any more than he already loved the man, then it would have happened with that single word.
END