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“Maybe you shouldn’t run two miles right after eating all that nut butter, Buddy.”
Ben turns his head from its resting place on his arm, which just happens to be on top of the toilet bowl, to glare at Luther. “And maybe you should shut up, ape boy.”
“Wow, that was weak, even for you.”
“Shut up, Sloane.”
Sloane shrugs as she takes Luther’s hand to lead him out to the mansion’s garden.
Ben manages to throw up two more times before flushing the toilet and standing up to look at himself in the mirror. He rinses his mouth out and when he looks back he stumbles backward into the wall. “What the fuck?”
Staring back at him, was him, but it wasn’t him. Not as he is now. Not as he ever was. He shakes his head, no, whatever that was, it wasn’t –. No, it was a cause of dehydration, obviously.
Klaus – who was annoyingly sober – hands him a bottle of water from the doorway of the bathroom. “Thought you might need this.”
Ben takes it angrily, “There’s no privacy in this fucking house.”
“I mean, it’s a mansion, but you chose to puke in the guest bathroom where we could all hear you, so…” Klaus tilts his head, surveying Ben.
Which, of course, annoyed Ben. “What are you looking at?”
“It’s not the effects of your skin care routine, that’s for sure.”
Ben scoffs, “Okay, well, thanks for the water, now, move.”
Klaus moves aside, letting Ben pass, but watching him as he walks away. He moves completely into the bathroom, looking into the mirror, putting his hand on it as if he is searching for something behind it. “Benny?”
🪼
Ben marches to his room, chugging the water and slamming the door behind him before dramatically plopping onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He looks over at the walls, the now bare walls since they’re in a new timeline. He huffs, upset at this whole fucking thing.
Really, what the fuck?
What had he ever done to deserve this hell with them? With those awful, self-important, Umbrellas? Nothing. He had done nothing wrong, ever. Okay, well, maybe a couple things, but nothing that warranted this fresh hell.
He closes his eyes, and sleep soon finds him.
The warehouse is dark, muted, and he’s there alone. Desolation creeps in every pore, a dank feeling of isolation, pain, darkness. He’s being swallowed into the floor. Screaming does nothing. But there’s light, a flash, hope! She offers a hand and a timid smile. He takes it and he’s pulled from the darkness, light encompasses them and then they’re gone.
They’re dancing! They smile! Only. It’s not him. It’s the one before. The one who was beloved. The other Ben. The better Ben. The good Ben.
“No!”
Ben jolts awake from a shitty nap and looks around.
He hadn’t seen her face in years. Ben looks around for paper and a pencil and he begins to draw furiously. Her face. The face that was on his wall, that face, that young face that saved him from nightmares. Her. He sketches her easily, looking at the result.
“I missed you.”
“You don’t deserve her.”
Ben swallows, looking around, eyes wide. “Who’s there?”
There’s a snicker, almost like someone is mocking him.
“You don’t recognize your own voice?”
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!”
“Sorry, no can do. It’s my head too.”
“No, you’re dead, this isn’t happening.”
“Except you know it is. Just give up. You were never meant to be anyway. This timeline is wrong. You’re only here because of me. Allison, she would never have left me out. Something got screwed up, you understand? It’s me. It was supposed to be me.”
Ben somehow knows he’s right, but he won’t give up that easily. “Yeah, well, looks like I’m the one who’s here, huh? Go back to being dead, goody two shoes.”
“She’s here. Alive. I can feel her. I can’t go back, not now.”
“Her? The girl –”
“Yeah, her, Jennifer.”
🐦
It had been three days since the other Ben first appeared. Three days of what he had termed ‘possession sickness’. Which, as it turned out, was mainly a low grade to high grade fever and excessive vomiting. He was, to put it mildly, not impressed.
So, he did what he thought would work to end this nightmare – he decided to share.
His body.
Which yeah, was fucked up, but so was puking his guts out every time he so much as had a sip of water. He came to this arrangement while looking at himself – or rather the Other Ben – in the bathroom mirror after such a display of puking that even Lila came to check on him.
When Lila came to ensure he wasn’t dying, he knew the situation was dire. So, he and the Other Ben came to a decision – they would share this body. 50 / 50. And it wasn’t going too bad. Aside from the Umbrellas thinking he was just playing some sort of sick game by pretending to be their dear departed brother.
So, the Other Ben had to pull out all the stops, and then things got sappy. Unfortunately Ben had to witness because when one of them was taking control the other was still in there.
Today they (the two Bens) were going to investigate the truth of The Jennifer Incident, which meant they were going to go talk to Reggie. Five, Klaus, and Diego were accompanying them for reasons he wasn’t sure of but also reasons he didn’t care.
The only thing they cared about was finding her.
In a twist no one was really expecting, it turned out the Umbrella Reginald had killed Umbrella Ben and Jennifer in their timeline, but this Reginald, who was Ben’s Reginald, didn’t have anything to do with that, nor did he know where this timeline’s Jennifer was.
“Did you…” Ben swallows as he looks at the man who was for all intents and purposes his father, “kill my Jennifer?”
Reginald sits down next to his wife, who puts a hand on his knee, presumably to keep his actions accounted for.
“No, there was no need. Christopher was the one who discovered her in our timeline. He was the one who reached out, touched her. However, because of his powers he absorbed her energy completely. Had to be quarantined, of course…”
“You mean he wasn’t born like that?”
Reginald looks at Diego, “I daresay your bread has never been buttered on both sides, has it?”
Five rolls his eyes, “So, you didn’t kill Jennifer in Ben’s timeline, got it. Christopher killed her in your timeline. Great. So that means, in this timeline, if she and Ben meet, nothing catastrophic will happen? We’re powerless, she’s powerless, right?”
Reginald nods, “I suppose, yes. Odd there’s still a draw though.”
Ben can’t wrap his head around this and The Other Ben was still emotionally processing the fact his adoptive parent killed him. “I don’t get it, if I wasn’t the one who saw her, why was she always in my dreams? Why was I still drawn to her when no one else was?”
Reginald shrugs, “You may have had a glance at her before her end. I’m unsure.”
Ben shakes his head, “No, that makes no sense.”
Abigail smiles, somewhat sadly, at Ben. “I believe I can answer this one, Ben. Like you and your siblings were conceived of the substance labeled ‘Marigold,’ Jennifer was conceived of a substance known as ‘Durango’.”
“The Japanese candy?”
Diego hits Klaus in the chest, “That’s Dango, idiot.”
“This coming from the guy who thought a cube came out of a vagina.”
Five glares at his brothers and they both shut up.
Abigail continues, “Marigold and Durango are almost opposites to one another, but they are very strongly attracted to one another, for when they meet, their true purpose is revealed – destruction.”
Five shakes his head, “But that doesn’t explain why the rest of these morons weren’t attracted to her like that. Why Ben?”
Abigail breathes in deeply, “I created both substances, although Durango was created accidentally, as a result of creating the miracle particles. I fancied myself a scientist of the greatest order, yet I forgot that for every action there is an equal, yet opposite, reaction.”
“You are a scientist of the highest order, my dear.”
Abigail smiles at her husband before continuing. “On our planet the substance was meant to restore life, which, of course, meant Durango was meant to counter it when combined. I did not create enough of the particles to make a difference in our home planet, but when Reginald released them, they created life, on earth, a way of attaining their true purpose.”
The Other Ben stops stewing long enough to pay full attention to the conversation as Abigail continues.
“With the Marigold particles being released, so were the Durango particles.” She looks at her husband, knowing this would be information to him as well. “An equal number as the Marigold, forty three. For each conception caused by Marigold, so was one for Durango. Each particle was meant to cancel out the other.”
“So forty three deaths on the day of our births?”
Abigail nods to Five, “In a way. I believe forty three creatures were affected in some miraculous way from the Durango that day. However, most of these miracles never came to light because they were not as fascinating as your lots’ immaculate conceptions and births. Forty Two deaths are not nearly as well examined, especially if they occur somewhere other than land.”
Ben shakes his head, allowing The Other Ben to ask a question, “Jennifer, she was different, she was…”
Abigail swallows, “Yes, she was conceived and born and grew inside of a squid.”
Diego blinks, “What?”
She shakes her head, “Surely you remember, in your timeline, the tales of the girl found inside of a squid?”
“Well, now I remember, but before Dear Old Dad zapped it from our minds.” Klaus takes a cookie from a tray on the coffee table and takes a big bite, making crumbs go down the front of his shirt he wipes onto the floor.
“It is my belief the Durango particles caused births inside sea creatures instead of humans and Jennifer only survived because she was found by fishermen before she was old enough to be ejected into the sea.” Abigail says this as if it is not utterly absurd. And it would be in any other circumstances, but here it makes sense.
Five follows her train of thought, “So you believe that, for each of us, there was a yin to our yang, and only Ben’s survived?”
“Yes, precisely, Five.”
The Other Ben retreats once more, letting Ben take the lead. “So my Yin is always going to be Jennifer? And meeting her was always going to be catastrophic? I have no choice in it?”
Abigail pats her husband’s knee, “We always have a choice, Ben. And yes, in any timeline, in any Universe, you will always be drawn to Jennifer, your choice lies in how you act upon that attraction.”
“Well, it got one of us killed, so…”
“That won’t happen here, Benarino, there’s no powers, no draw, so if you want to find her, we’ll help you. See if there are any sparks sans other planet science experiments.” Klaus grabs another cookie and gives Ben a reassuring smile.
”She exists here, she’s safe here, let’s go find her.”
“Yeah, okay, hopefully she doesn’t think it’s too creepy.”
“Oh, it’s creepy, but maybe she’s into that.”
Ben glares at Diego, who manages a shit eating grin before having a cookie shoved in his mouth by Klaus.
☂️
Turns out, searching for a girl no one knew the last name of wasn’t too easy. There were many, many Jennifers in the world. So many Jennifers.
”Abigail said that our Jennifer was inside a squid at one point.”
Ben shrugs, “So?”
The Other Ben rolls his eyes, “What if this world’s was too?”
Ben shakes his head, “This world is Marigold and Durango free. Makes no sense.”
”I mean there wasn’t supposed to be but didn’t Allison stop dad before he could finish up everything the way he wanted?”
Now Ben sees where his doppelganger is headed with this. “So maybe the Durango didn’t get the message?”
”Exactly.”
Ben sits up in his bed, planting his feet on the floor, “So, what do we do?”
”Research. Let’s hit the libraries, I mean, there’s gotta be information about something so wild as a girl in a squid, newspaper articles, some kind of paper trail.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” Ben gets up and grabs his wallet, stuffing it in his back pocket. He stands, unmoving.
”What?”
“I don’t know where the library is.”
”Yeah, figures. I’ll take over.”
📚
The Other Ben taps the pen against the paper he wrote down all the particulars of “Squid Girl” on. He went through every microfilm he could find while Ben made random (unhelpful) comments on other stories in the paper.
”So there is Durango in this timeline that… didn’t get the message.” The Other Ben can’t help but wonder if his need to be with Jennifer has to do with that Durango and Marigold more than he cares to admit. But with this timeline, he knew he wasn’t full of Marigold. So even if Jennifer was still born from Durango that wasn’t why he wanted her. Was it?
And even if it was, would that be so bad?
Did it matter even if it was true? He was the only one out of all of them, all forty three, that found his other half. Regardless of anything else, he could not go throughout this half life without finding her.
”You know I had a full life before you came along.”
The Other Ben huffs out a sarcastic laugh at that, “No, you didn’t. Everyone hated you and you spent your time hating everyone. Maybe it was all your own, but it wasn’t full.”
🐦
They decide to start at the fishing town Jennifer was found in. Hopefully they could trace her to where she is now – wherever that is. Most of the family is huddled in a minivan they rented, aside from Ray, Allison, Claire, and Klaus – who are in Allison’s SUV behind them.
It didn’t take too long for Allison to make amends with the family – most of them were just glad to have their whole family back. It didn’t hurt that they all also loved Ray and Claire. And The Other Ben was back, so yeah, they weren’t gonna quibble over things that didn’t matter anymore.
Five insists on taking the front seat, even though he has the shortest legs. Diego drives, Sloane, Luther, and Vik sit in the back bench seat, while Lila and the Bens are in the middle pilot seats. It was comfortable enough. Ben lets The Other Ben take over the body while he sleeps, because even with their newfound harmony he knows he’d get pissed off on a long car ride.
They pass a sign for “The World’s Best Hot Chocolate” and Luther and Sloane manage to get everyone to agree to stop and try it.
The town is so picturesque that The Other Ben can’t help but think of how he would enjoy bringing Jennifer here for Christmas next year. There’s snow on the ground – the good kind perfect for building snowmen. There’s a Christmas Market, old fashioned wooden signs, and a large Christmas tree in the middle of the town square.
Luther and Sloane head off to the Christmas Market, as do Lila and Diego, Allison, Klaus, and Family. Vik stands next to The Other Ben and looks around, “So, what do you want to do?”
The Other Ben feels a call towards the diner for a reason he can’t explain. “I uh… I think I wanna go to the diner.”
Vik nods, heading that way, “I could eat.”
The sign at the front of the diner says “Seat Yourself” so The Other Ben and Vik choose a booth. They each grab a menu from behind the napkin holder. Their waitress comes over to take their drink orders and once The Other Ben’s eyes meet hers, nothing else matters.
“Hi, I’m Jennifer, I’ll be your –” She stops when she looks at the Bens, almost forgetting how to speak. She tucks her hair behind her ear and looks down at her notepad with a smile and a slight blush.
”Jennifer.” Ben wakes up when he hears her, he just knows. As does The Other Ben. This is their Jennifer.
Vik looks between the Bens and Jennifer. Well, fuck. Jennifer. From the way they are acting he knows it's their Jennifer. He pretends to be very, very interested in his menu.
“I’m Ben.”
”The Other Ben.”
The Other Ben tries not to roll his eyes since they can actually be seen right now.
Jennifer bites her bottom lip slightly. “Hi Ben.”
“Hi.”
”Let me take over, you’re embarrassing us.”
“Hi.” Jennifer clears her throat and smiles, “Can I take your order?”
Vik starts, “Can I have a burger, fries, and a chocolate shake?”
The Other Ben nods, “That sounds good. Will you be staying?” He feels an internal kick, “I mean, umm… will I see you again?”
Jennifer smiles, “I think you’ll be seeing a lot more of me, Ben.” She bites her bottom lip again, “Providing you want to.”
“Oh, we want to.” The Other Ben almost kicks himself this time. “Sorry, I mean, I, no I mean, we, but I want to explain all that, I want to explain everything. If you’ll give me a chance.”
”Okay, well, seems like you recovered somehow and then did that shit.”
Jennifer’s eyes search his eyes, “I will give you a chance. After my shift, come pick me up here? I’ll take you to my favorite thing to do in town at Christmastime. Deal?”
The Other Ben smiles widely, “Deal.”
”Wow, good thing we’re hot.”
🌲
One Christmas Later…
Jennifer plops down on Bens’ lap, holding mistletoe over them, “My boyfriends have to kiss me, thems the rules.”
The Bens learned to share housing equally in the year they've been with Jennifer and they’ve both been dating the love of their lives. Very, very happily. They kiss Jennifer deeply, moaning into it and tracing her teeth with their tongue.
“Guys, come on, you have a room upstairs for this kind of thing.” Diego holds Grace in his arms, feeding her noon bottle.
“Says the guy who used to fuck on the stairs.” Five sits down with his festive mug of very expensive coffee that was gifted to him that morning from his future sister-in-law.
Lila sighs wistfully as she wipes spit up from her shirt, “Oh yeah, the good ole days.”
Diego kisses her on the cheek, “Well, now we fuck in our bedroom like civilized parents.”
Lila smiles at him with a look that was nothing short of pure love, “Yes, we do. We need to branch out when the baby hits six months. Home Depot shed.”
Diego gives her a wink, “I’ll be waiting.”
Jennifer leans against Ben and watches her newfound family as they chaotically celebrate Christmas. She even sent Reginald and Abigail a little something and made Bens sign their name on the card. She was happy. They were going to travel to see her parents the next day, but the Hargreeves would always get Christmas Eve.
She feels a presence next to her and sees Klaus holding the mistletoe over her head.
“Just saw this laying here and thought, hum… should totally get a kiss from my beautiful almost sister.”
Jennifer’s eyes crinkle with a smile as she holds Klaus’s cheeks and pulls him to her, kissing him sweetly on the lips. “Merry Christmas, Klaus.”
He gives her a wink, “Merry Christmas, Jenny.”
Bens roll their eyes, “Go kiss your own boyfriend.”
Klaus wiggles his eyebrows, “Oh, I intend to.” To prove that very point he sways his way to sit in his boyfriend’s lap, still carrying the mistletoe. He holds it over his boyfriend’s head, “For the family, Dean.”
Ray, Allison, and Claire are coming over for dinner, which Allison, thankfully, is having catering. Claire’s presents are under the tree, one from each Aunt and Uncle.
Vik comes in from the kitchen with his wife. They eloped in Vegas and the family insisted they give them a reception to end all receptions and they did. They sit next to Lila on the couch and Diego hands Vik Grace because he was fantastic with his niece.
Luther and Sloane are in one of the Academy’s armchairs, Sloane knitting an intricate snowflake designed beanie for their baby that is due next month.
The Hargreeves were growing by leaps and bounds, by marriages, by love.
And Jennifer, who was soon to be a Hargreeves, was infinitely grateful her boyfriends found their way to her in spite of everything. Maybe in every other timeline they were doomed, but not in this one. In this one they got mistletoe and cocoa and so much love.