Chapter Text
There he is, standing in the kitchen. The kitchen that used to be so familiar now feels foreign, as if the walls themselves are looking at him and thinking “who are you? What are you doing here?”
“i don’t know” he says so quietly but aloud, surprising himself. The lights are off, the only light source is the faint light of the moon and a bit brighter light of the TV creeping from the room on the other end of the hallway. He may not know why exactly he came here but he knows who is behind that door. And it hurts, it hurts like hell. Like hes being stripped of everything he is once again.
Overwhelmed by the feeling he doesn’t move, even though his would-be-innards are screaming at him to run away and never look back, nor does he notice the sound of careful steps approaching the kitchen
“Johnathan? Is that you?” is it?
He moves to the window to flee, to hide whats left, forgetting to use whats gained.
“John wait! Please dont go” stupid decision, isnt it? He stays, still turned to the window.
“How do you know?” almost audible.
“I know the sound your footsteps” she pauses “I knew you would come back, you always do”
At which she gets no reply, what could he even say?
“What happened to you? All I could get from alchemax is that you quit” her hand reaches for the light switch but get stopped by something that wasn’t there before, why is there a frying pan covering the light switch?
“Please don’t”
“Please don’t what?! You have been gone for weeks doing god knows what without telling me or your family!”, she gets a few steps closer to him, he backs away.
“The light, don’t turn it on”. “Please” he adds, sounding like a kicked dog.
“And I did tell my family, I tried at least. Didn’t work as well as I would’ve hoped”
He sighs “I didn’t go to you because I didn’t want to see you scared”
“why would I be scared? What did you do?”
“My job. I was working on the collider, checking everything before another test run, but it got activated by an intruder, with me still inside” he pauses taking a breath “what followed wasn’t the prettiest picture, left me with less than before, so much less”
“Johnathan…”
“I don’t know if there’s any Johnathan left in me” standing there, wondering why he even showed up. “I shouldn’t have come, sorry for ruining your evening” Spot remembers about portals, he opens one. As hes about to step in Jess grabs his hand. “have some faith in me, you always had.” she doesnt know what to expect when the lights turn on but she says it with as much conviction in her voice as she can manage.
They stand there for a moment, her hand holding his cold wrist, while his other is half way through the void that opened in the middle of the room.
“please” Spot says defeated “please don’t scream, I cant take hearing another familiar voice sound like that because of me”
“promise” she turns to the light switch once again, finally feeling it In the dark.
*Flick*
Silence.
There he is, not quite Johnathan, standing before her. Wearing exactly what he was when she last saw him, the shirt with bright flowers and squares she gifted him a year or so ago, but the person inside it empty, faceless, like a canvas that John was ripped out of, with seemingly a bottle of ink accidentally spilled over it, shifting, contracting and relaxing ever so slightly, as if breathing.
Spot feels stuck on the spot, like a deer in the headlights. Jess doesn’t scream, like she promised. She just looks at where his face used to be with a mixed expression on her face, confusion, determination, fear. until she slowly steps closer to him, looks at where the eyes would be with expression now unreadable and hugs. She hugs as tight as she can manage, afraid that hes going to slip away, trying her best to ignore that she doesnt hear any heartbeat.
“i missed you” Jess says against his chest.
Spot trembles like a leaf in her arms, feeling her warmth and feeling a light pang of remembrance what its like to be Johnathan.
“me too” he says weakly, hugging her back
So they stand in each others arms for god knows how long, not wanting or not knowing how to break the silence