Chapter Text
“Grant?”
The room is dark around him by now, only the bright light of the screen right in front of him casting shadows through the room. Grant can suddenly feel the pressure of pain that was building up in his upper back for the hours he has spent in his office room at home. He didn’t even notice the late September sun setting. The clock on his screen tells him it's already ten past 10pm. Grant had wanted to stop working almost 3 hours ago. He groans and rubs his tired eyes beneath his big glasses.
“Grant?”
The old man jumps in his chair at the unexpected sound and turns around to see his wife standing in the doorway. She has her arms crossed in front of her and one eyebrow raised.
An apologetic smile forms on Grant's face, while his hand presses down on his chest against his fast-beating heart.
“Destiny! I didn't see you there, my love.” Grant smiles, but it quickly turns sheepishly, when he sees his wives' foot taps on the floor expectantly.
“Sorry I’ll turn it off now. I just forgot the time again.” He quickly turns to press the computer's off button. Then he starts trying to reorganize the mess of papers on his desk that always somehow appears at the end of longer programming sessions, while asking: “Were you waiting for me, so we could go to bed?”
Destiny shakes her head with an amused chuckle.
“You’ll never change, will you? Even working over hours in your retirement.” She sighs and relaxes her arms at her side now. “But no, actually- We have a visitor. "It's Mike Dobey.”
Grant's eyes widen, and he spins around in his chair again to look at his wife. The papers glide out of his hands on the floor, but he doesn't pay them any mind.
“How is he?” Grant asks and stands up, stepping over the messy floor to his wife. He hasn’t heard from Mike since 2003. They’ve called a few times and written some letters after the sudden end of their shared project, but Grant was bad at holding consistent contact and at some point, he didn't know Mike's address or phone number anymore. The last letter Grant had gotten, only informed him about a brain surgery Mike was going to undergo. Grant had never found out whether it had been a success or not. Now he knows.
Destiny lays a hand on his arm and smiles. “Why won't you ask him yourself, dear?”
Mike looks quite a bit different. He got older, gained a bit of weight, and lost quite some hair. He’s sitting at the small, wooden kitchen table, rapidly typing away on his phone. Grant has to stop in the doorway for a second to just look at his old co-worker. After years of not hearing from him ever after undergoing surgery, Grant had made up many possible scenarios. This was the best one. He felt a weight lift off of his chest he had long forgotten was there.
“Mike?” Grant asks to get the man's attention and steps inside his kitchen. The other man looks startled at first, his eyes searching for the source of the voice before finding him. A wide smile forms on Mike's face.
“Grant!” Mike scrambles up energetically and quickly gives Grant his hand, only to pull him into a one-armed, short embrace.
“Grant, it’s so good to see you!” Mike pats his old colleague on the back, before leaning back and grinning. His eyes still have the same heavy eye bags he always had back when working with Grant, over 25 years ago.
“How have you been? Destiny said you retired? How has that been treating you?” Mike asks him, quickly sitting down again, his foot tapping restlessly on the floor. Grant chuckles, happy to see Mike hasn’t changed much.
“Oh, well it’s nice that I don’t have to do the trip to the office anymore. Destiny and I spend much more time together and we have our grandchildren over twice a week.” Grant starts to tell while sitting down as well.
“He also has way more time to work.” Destiny chimes in, as she walks into the room to sit down beside Grant. She sets a cup of tea down in front of her husband. Mikes smile widens.
“So you still do projects?” He asks and Grant shrugs with a kind of gesture.
“Yeah , somewhat. I just help out people online with programming issues. It’s more like a hobby. Sometimes I get asked by old colleagues to help them out.” Grant smiles coyly, scratching the skin behind his ear.
Mike leans his elbows down on the table and nods, seemingly interested.
“Makes sense, guess I’d do the same pretty much. So have you ever visited old projects of yours? Stuff you had to give up on?”
Grant starts to think and chuckles then.
“Oh I reprogrammed a small game I created in 1973. That was quite funny. It was about a-“
“Say Mike, how have you been? We haven't heard from you in years.” Destiny suddenly speaks up louder, having heard about that particular project for weeks in great detail. Mike blinks and leans back again.
“Oh yeah, sorry about that. I accepted a job offer in Durham, North Carolina after my surgery was a success. Kristin and I married a year after and then a bit later we got our son. I just got so busy, I kinda forgot that I never wrote to you again.” He says, his index finger starting to tap on the table top.
“You have a son? How wonderful!” Grant exclaims. He remembers how Mike and him used to get drunk after work sometimes in a bar. Mike then sometimes talked about his Never going to happen list, holding all the things he was scared of never achieving. Never being able to start a family was right on top. Mike gives him a bright, proud smile at that.
“Yeah, we called him Linus, he’s 20 by now. He’s going to college right now, studying game design. Kirstin feels awfully lonely with him and all his friends out of the house now.” Mike chuckles a bit.
“Yeah, I remember how weird it felt at first, when Andrea and Melody both left for college,” Destiny says with a small smile. “But it gets better pretty quickly, believe me.” Grant nods along.
“One Saturday I slept in past nine, and I didn’t have to wait for Melody to come out of the bathroom.” Their younger daughter had gotten almost obsessed with skincare as a teenager, doing her routine religiously every morning.
Destiny keeps talking, and it snaps him back into the present. Mike must’ve already answered something, but Grant didn’t really catch it.
“Did you come alone, or did Kirstin come along?” His wife asks.
Mike shakes his head quickly. “Oh no. I planned to get something from my old stuff only. Actually… It’s why I dropped by… Did you hear? The old C&A office building is probably gonna get sold to the city. They plan to put a Mall there or something.” Mike tells them, his knee bouncing beneath the table.
Grant nods simply. “Yeah, I heard about it. Probably for the better, the whole complex is just too old by now. At least the place is gonna get used again.” He says, more so having been glad when he heard the place would stop rotting away. Mike however scowls.
“You could think that… but I just wanted to make sure nothing of use was gonna get destroyed, so I- went inside, looked through our old office and data.” Mike explains.
“So, you trespassed?” Destiny asks a bit tense, her lips pressed together tight.
“All of the possible buyers are planning to just destroy it all anyways. So, who cares.” Mike says and waves a hand through the air to hush away her complains. “What’s more important is what I found. Grant, it’s- you won’t belive me if I just tell you. You’ll just have to see it. It’s about the C.A.I.N.E Project.”
Grants eyes widen and he glances at his wife, who looks at him surprised herself. He turns back to Mike, feeling his heart beating faster.
“What? But the AI broke down. It shut off. Did you find something we didn’t see back then in the code?” He asks, his body trembling a bit.
The C.A.I.N.E Project had been the most promising and interesting Project of Grant's entire career. Even after decades of programming, nothing had ever matched the excitement of watching their AI create something entirely on its own. Mike had lost it, mainly running on coffee and determination. He jumped all through their small office room, shouting something about the future. Grant couldn’t stop himself from laughing out loud. He also couldn’t stop himself spending hours talking about it to Destiny afterwards.
Mike smirks. “Trust me, it’s far more than that. It’s- No, I want to hear what you think when you see it. Maybe you’ll understand it better than me.”
Grant looks down at his watch; 10:34pm. Then he looks up at his wife. Destiny is squinting her eyes at him, arms crossed in front of her chest. Grant tries an apologetic smile, but that only gains him a firm shake of her head.
“No, Grant. Not now, not tonight. You’re 75 years old. You can't wander through abandoned buildings at night. Mike, whatever you found, it has been there for at least 27 years. It won't be gone by tomorrow morning.” Destiny decides and Grant sighs. He knows she is right.
“And must I say,” she adds. “I don't think it's a good idea for you to wander around abandoned buildings at any time of the day. But-” She sighs and her face gets softer. “I know how important that specific project was for you two.”
She reaches for his hand, and Grant's fingers close around hers automatically. He’s again and again surprised about how even after all these years, her touch still fills him with the same gentle warmth it always has.
“Don’t worry we’ll be careful. Plus we already know the complex quite well and I’ll take my phone with me so you can always call me.”
He turns back to Mike.
“Let’s meet at the same cafe as always back then. Around 9am? Then we can eat breakfast before you show me.” Mike nods in agreement and stands up quickly.
“Yes, sounds good. I can show some of it over breakfast already. You’ll understand why you just have to see for yourself. I have to get going though. Gotta work some more on something.” He says and quickly grabs both of their hands after each other to shake them.
“It was good to see you again Destiny. See you tomorrow, Grant!” He shouts while he slips on his jacket quickly, before hurrying out of the door all on his own.
Grant turns to look at his wife, who looks at him. Destiny starts to snicker, making Grant chuckle into his hand.
“Oh, he didn’t change one bit.” Destiny says, while rubbing a tear out of her eye and Grant nods. He’s quite glad about that though.