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“Yeah, it’s going great, guys. Little Amira is doing so well in school… I’m so glad she’s settling in well.”
His long-time partner in the ambulance, Jason, immediately started heckling him, trying to get the newbie they were training to join in. James didn’t give two shits if they heckled him, he was so proud of his kid.
The comms crackled to life right in the middle of Jason’s sentence. “We have an individual down on Pantheon Avenue, I repeat, Pantheon Avenue. Civilian casualty of police chase. Team 4, you’re the closest. Over.”
Immediately, the body language of all three men changed. Jason immediately grabbed the comm while James started attempting to prep the back of the ambulance with the newbie getting in the way. He tuned back in as the bus started moving, just in time to catch Jason’s “...On our way, over and out.”
-
“Daddy!” the light of his life squealed, and James couldn’t stop himself from dropping to his knees and squeezing her to his chest. He felt her ears flatten, and knew he was probably scaring her with his hitched breaths and tight grip, but he couldn’t bear to let her go. Silver ears covered in scars and dotted red, a white tail dyed scarlet and matted with blood, one yellow eye filled with fear and dimming, a scar streaking through the other…
“Daddy…?” Amira whispered, tail (clean, white, well-brushed…) flicking uncertainly, ears (unblemished, one nick from the very corner, no blood in sight…) pinning to her head. She wiggled in his tight grip, attempting to squirm away and gekkering with annoyance when he didn’t immediately release her. He loosened his grip enough to look into her face (two yellow eyes, full of light and life, the one scar, long faded, down her temple…).
Her eyes searched his face, the most formidable frown a seven year old could muster adorning her features. “Daddy’s being silly.” She proclaimed, like a diagnosis.
He sighed, half chuckling, running his eyes over her once more (just in case…). “Yeah,” he almost whispered, “Yeah, Daddy’s being silly.” He blew out a sigh, and mentally shook himself off, standing. “Now, where’s that Papa of yours?”
-
“Today we preside over Yenuuk v. Webtut. I don’t need to remind everyone that this is a landmark case. Please listen and think carefully through all available information.”
-
“What the fuck?” Jason shouted from the front, “Since when are we veterinarians!”
James stuck his head out of the back. “What are you bitching about up here?”
Jason pointed to a crumpled form in front of them. “It’s a fuckin’ hybrid. I don’t get paid enough for-”
James missed the rest, his entire world tunneling onto silver ears and a white tail. The next thing he knew, he was getting the man (it’s not her, it’s not her, it’s not…) into a recovery position and shouting for the newbie to hurry up with the damn stretcher…
The man’s one yellow eye locked onto him (it’snotherit’snotherit’sno-) and James' heart dropped as he whined in pain (just like when Amira- it’s not her).
It was at this point that James realized the words falling from his mouth, running a mile a minute, “It’s okay, you’re alright, we’re gonna take care of you, you’re alright-” and barely managed to shut his trap as the newbie brought the stretcher up next to the hybrid on the ground. Pull your shit together, O’Brien, compartmentalize! Knock it the fuck off!
They loaded him into the ambulance, and James didn’t know how he was still conscious, let alone semi-coherent…
“Floor it!” He snapped at Jason, the man seeming to think twice about arguing with him.
He felt a weak tugging at his sleeve, and he turned to the hybrid (it’snotherit’snotherit’snot-) on the stretcher, snapping a couple orders at the newbie on instinct at the amount of blood…
The guy on their stretcher mumbled something, and James thought he maybe heard the words “call” and “comm” and “please” in the mix. He unclipped his comm from his belt and pressed it to the man’s hand, careful of his injuries.
The man inputted a number that had clearly been memorized for a long time, raising the comm to near his head. James could hear when the call connected, a man’s voice politely answering a strange number. Another garble fell from the hybrid’s mouth, and the tone change on the other end was immediate. He’s trying not to lose it…
The hybrid on the stretcher didn’t seem to notice, frowning slightly and letting out another slurred phrase in response, stopping halfway through. The voice on the other end asked some short question, and the first words James could actually understand passed the hybrid’s lips.
“Bdubs? I’m- I’m scared.”
He knew what new coherency meant with that much blood on the floor, and started snapping orders at the newbie, shouting for Jason to “FUCKING FLOOR IT JASON!!!”
In the midst of the chaos, he heard the voice on the other end change yet again, clearly picking up on the same thing James was. The man on the other end was still frantically speaking when James saw the light dim in the hybrid’s eye, and as he watched the comm hit the floor.
He ignored the comm shouting from the floor, frantically boosting himself up onto the stretcher and starting CPR. He shouted at Jason to go faster again, and then tunneled his attention onto a man who wasn’t- fuck it, who looked just like his daughter.
-
He rolled over into David as his husband finally came back from putting their daughter to bed.
“You know how she is, babe. Both the pink sippy cup and the gold water bottle on the nightstand, on the correct coasters, and then all her stuffies in the right order, and her blankets have to be just so, and then you have to give all the stuffies-”
His husband cut himself off at the first sniffle into his collarbone, arms tightening around him and voice going worried.
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong? I don’t mind it, I think it’s cute, and… Baby, what’s wrong? James?”
He shook his head into the collarbone in front of his face, grasping at his husband as he tried to pull away.
Eventually, James got himself under control, taking a couple deep breaths to pull himself together.
“Today,” he mumbled into his husband’s collarbone, “I did CPR on a silver fox hybrid.”
-
Tibb Yenuuk stepped up to the stand, the light bouncing off their curved horns.
“I would like,” they began, “justice. It is all I ask. Their negligence killed my son. It is commonplace. I never wish another hybrid to lose their child, or sibling, or parent, or friend, or partner, the way I lost my son, and thousands lose their family and friends every year.
“Our entire herd is grieving. It is infinitely more difficult to live the way we do with the loss of one of our strongest, healthiest, and most able-bodied members. He was in the prime of his life, only twenty-two.
“Even if he wasn’t, we should never have lost him. We grieve his loss. Some of the calves don’t understand why he isn’t coming back. Our animals are more rowdy, grieving in their own ways. We may soon lose our matriarch, my grandmother, because of it. Losing him the way we did is tearing our herd apart.”
They took the time to look every Justice in the eye. James could see the tears.
“Hybrids are Players too. It is time to treat us as such.”
-
At the hospital, they rushed them through, and he refused to stop CPR, even as the doctors leveled irritated glares at him. He’s just a hybrid, we don’t have to put that level of work in.
He thought of his daughter as his arms burned.
He thought of Amira as he felt the crunch in the chest under his hands.
He thought of two yellow eyes locking onto him at the group home as his back protested.
He thought of silver ears and a white tail running to him in the pick-up line at school.
He thought of sleepy whines at being expected to go to bed and annoyed gekkering at the Dad Tax of her fries.
But when the hybrid under him took his own breath, as the heart monitor beeped weakly but steadily, as James was pulled from the stretcher as it was rushed into surgery?
He thought of when his husband picked up the phone when their daughter broke her arm at school, and how similar the man on the other end of the comm sounded.
-
“David, I don’t… I can’t do this anymore. I can’t…”
David held him, gently, running his hand along his back and pressing a kiss to his forehead.
“That’s okay, baby. We’ll make it work.”
And then his wonderful, amazing, perfect husband asked the question that changed his life.
“What do you want to do?”
-
“And now, would the second plaintiff, Ms. Zanim Xuyan Void, please take the stand?”
An armored voidwalker, towering above all but Mx. Yenuuk, stepped up and was sworn in.
“I come from the End,” she began. “The End is not welcoming to your kind. It is slightly more difficult for you to breathe, and a dragon wishes harm on you. Our mobs, the Enderman, are strong, and hard for you to understand.
“The Overworld, your… Hub. It is not welcoming to my kind. There are the physical hardships, yes, but they are easily overcome. My armor allows me to breathe. Your mobs, while much more plentiful and diverse, are much weaker than the Endermen.
“There is a difference, between us. You receive hospitality in the End. We understand that it is hard and barren for someone like you, and we attempt to help you find your way home.
“We do not receive hospitality from you.
“Voidwalkers are sometimes sent to your Overworld hospitals. You have resources we simply cannot find, make, or grow in the End. And how are we treated?”
She moved to grip the sides of the stand. Her hands shook with rage.
“My sister, my twin, was forcibly taken from your hospital. She has not been found. We are twin stars, we are connected, and I can feel-”
She cut herself off, helmet hissing, and the entire courtroom held their breaths.
“She was in distress. And now she is gone. My twin came here for medicine, for a simple infection, and now she is gone. And I come here, I make the trip, and I discover that it is considered… legal, was it? It is considered fine for someone to take my sister from her bed in the hospital, and that she is now considered someone’s property…”
“Xuyan Zanim Void was never property,” Zanim spat, “She was the strongest warrior I know. I have lost my twin. I will spend the rest of my days in disgrace, pitied, forever a lone dwarf. I will never become a Supernova.
“I find your practices appalling. I am here because Zatuiga Xisuma Void insisted that this may change things. I do not understand, but I decided to take the chance.
“I warn you, do not expect hospitality from me in the End any longer. I will not harm you as you have me, but you have lost my favor. Do not anger the Endermen, or the dragon. I will not heed your cries.”
-
He tiredly scooped his comm off the floor of the ambulance, only to realize that the call was still connected, the man on the other end (Bdubs?) still shouting one word, over and over. “ETHO?!”
He took a deep breath, and answered. “This is first responder James O’Brien, the man you were talking to has been transferred to surgery. Please call the front desk or his admin for any additional information.” He hesitated, then broke protocol to add, “I hope he’ll be alright. He… he needs a lot, but I hope… I hope he’s alright.”
He ended the call before he did something even more stupid today, like breaking down on a call to a stranger who was definitely having a much worse day than he was.
-
The cake read “The Bar? Too Easy!”
Amira shoved his face in a pie tin filled with whipped cream, and they all had chocolate cake with sweetberry filling.
He laughed the next morning, when David showed him the other cake that read, “Who Wants to be a Lawyer Anyway?”
-
Dr. Webtut stepped up to the stand.
“On a biological level, hybrids are a subset of human. Some more so than others. They have different requirements. We don’t need to change a thing about our hospitals. Sometimes, hybrids succumb to things humans survive. The logical conclusion is that hybrids have a genetic weakness, a biological disadvantage. FHV is a primary example.
“Hybrids are also liable to be offered jobs while in our hospitals, and this should be fine as well. It is not our fault that a hybrid’s biological disadvantage leads to them being unfit. They want to be treated as full Players. Contracts are a part of that.
“I ask the court to dismiss these charges as hearsay. There is no justice to be served here, just two grieving, instinct-driven beings, who cannot accept the truth.”
-
Jason found him sitting on the ground next to the AC units.
“Dude, what the hell? We don’t get paid nearly enough to deal with their kind. We’re not fucking veterinarians, there was no reason-”
James pulled out his wallet, ignoring the tirade, and slowly flipped to Amira’s picture. He held it out to Jason, tapping it with his index.
“This is Amira.”
He methodically put everything away again and got up to leave, ignoring Jason’s shocked face. He paused at the door.
“I hope you get a pay raise, for her sake.”
He didn’t look back.
-
“Guess who’s a judge as of next week!”
Both David and Amira cried. Put under oath, he can’t say he didn’t join them.
Justice O’Brien. He was going to change things.
-
By the time the decision got to him, it was 4-4. He didn’t even blink before ruling on the side of the hybrids.
“Can I present the decision?"