This story was written as part of a writing challenge that we did for June 30, 2000 and is set 20 years in the future.
Disclaimer: This original story is not authorized or endorsed by Warner Bros, ABC, Lors Thornwald Inc, Edelson Productions, William Schmidt, or anyone else having rights to "Prey". It is not intended infringe on any rights or copyright and is not written for profit. Any characters not recognizable from the series "Prey" or Disney Productions belong to the author..*
A PERFECT DAY
Tom looked into the mirror again for one last look at his tie and smiled to himself. He always considered it an accomplishment when he chose something he knew Sloan would like - the red-striped tie, for instance. He would've been just as happy with the black one but these many years with her taught him to take that extra step, beyond himself , to do what he thought would please her. And she always noticed when he did .......
Leaning a little closer into the mirror to look at his hair, he examined the white strands that were now intermingled with the honey-colored ones. He remembered when he first noticed them and remarked to Sloan that the California sun was making his hair blonde. He could still remember the feel of her humor teasing him, and her her soft chuckling as she told him he wasn't going blonde, ... he was going gray. "If going blonde was that easy, Clairol would've been out of business a long time ago. The only thing blonde about you is your thinking," she quipped, as she gently kissed his forehead. Gray, blonde, what's the difference, he thought. And he never quite got what she meant about his thinking.....
"Are you ready yet?"
Lost in thought, he had not sensed Sloan enter the room. He stared at her and smiled to himself. The last 20 years had certainly dealt kindly with her. She looked as beautiful as when they first met. Oh, he knew she had changed, just as he had, - her face looked a little more tired, her body a little rounder - but the dancing eyes that betrayed her inner mischief, the wide smile always on the verge of a joke, and the gorgeous flowing hair were still the same .... at least to him.
"Yes, just about...," he replied, as he continued to look at her. He loved when she got dressed up. He drank in every detail about her - the soft green dress, the upswept hair, and, around her neck, the gold and diamond pendant he'd given her when their son was born.
"You look wonderful."
"No I don't, I look fat," she pouted.
Frowning at her comment, he said, "Come here." Impulsively he pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately on the lips. He whispered in her ear, "we still have time ...." and started to reach up to remove the clip that held the long, auburn curls above her neck..
For an instant, he felt her return his ardor --- but, ... only for an instant ....... All of a sudden he felt two hands on his chest, pushing him away.
"No! We do not have time.... Why do you always start this right before we have to go anywhere. I didn't spend all morning getting dressed and fixing my hair, just to have you pull it apart in 5 minutes! - Now...go see if Adam's ready. We have to leave now or we will be late." She gave him "the look" and walked quickly out of the bedroom. But Tom felt the smile that spread across her face as she left and knew she was pleased at his desire. He smiled and thought to himself , as he readjusted his tie, "She still wants me...." After all, he might be 1.6 but he was still a man, and "we were all alike" ......or, at least, that's what Sloan always told him.
He grabbed his keys and wallet off the dresser, and putting them in his pockets, walked down the hall to Adam's room, still thinking about Sloan. He hated when she referred to herself as "fat". He thought of her more as ... voluptuous. True, before they had Adam, Sloan could eat anything she wanted and never gain an ounce, but maybe having a child, or getting a little older, had changed that. Tom really didn't know but it never mattered to him.
But he remembered the fateful day when the "F" word entered their home. It was a few years or so after Adam was born and he heard Sloan talking to herself in the bedroom. She was angrily sifting through the clothes in her closet and flinging some of them onto the floor. Feeling her distress and anger, he walked into the bedroom in time to be hit in the face with a pair of slacks. He ducked as they were quickly followed by an assortment of other apparel. Sloan had stopped long enough to catch her breath and looked up to see Tom standing in the bedroom. He looked bewildered and concerned, holding the clothes that he'd picked up from the floor.
Ashamed, Sloan walked over to him and took the clothes out of his hands and apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated with my wardrobe . Nothing seems to look right anymore - then she thought about it and added, "I don't look right anymore."
Tom remembered putting his arms out to her and saying, "You look fine - I like you this way." He never understood what was wrong with the phrase "I like you this way. " But all of his Chameleon training had not prepared him for what followed.
Sloan's eyes blazed at him in a way he'd never seen before and he actually took a step backward. She repeated his words to him. You like me 'this way'.... this way???, don't you mean ... 'this fat!' See, ....even you think I'm fat!?!"
"No I don't ....I never said you were ..."
"YES YOU DID, .... YOU IMPLIED IT."
Tom knew he never said it, he would never say it, even if it were true - which it wasn't. He never even thought it. She threw the clothes that she was holding, back at him and stormed out the door. "THAT'S IT ..... I'M GOING ON A DIET !!!"
One thing Tom had learned about living with humans, or at least with Sloan, was that once the "F" word was said, it was soon followed by the "D" word. And, once they took up residence in your house, they never left. He and Adam had both learned through the years how to avoid them as much as possible. They'd listen for the "cue" words, like - "Did this shrink?" or "I don't understand how you can eat so much and never gain a pound." They'd look at each other and knew that this was definitely not the time to bring out the half-gallon of Decadent Dark Chocolate Ice Cream, with Chopped Nuts, Brownie Bits, and Fudge Swirls, and which was Adam's absolute favorite. He and Adam would smile at her and wisely choose fruit for dessert instead.
He reached Adam's room and saw his 18 year old son surveying an assortment of ties on his dresser. He looked at him and thought back to the day he was born. He and Sloan decided to name him "Adam" because he was part of a new beginning, not just for them as a family, but a new beginning for the world - a world they hoped would be better than the one he and Sloan had had to contend with - a true "Eden". Tom had silently prayed that his Adam would fare far better than the original one ....
Dragging himself back to the present, he saw Adam reach for the gray tie, pause a moment and then reach for the plaid one. "Good choice," Tom said, leaning against the doorway. Adam smiled - he had sensed his dad standing there and knew that he had been faced with the same "test". He looked up, seeing the red-striped tie on Tom, and smiled knowingly.
When Tom looked at Adam, he saw practically a mirror image of his younger self - only far happier. He and Sloan, so they'd been told many times, had done an excellent job in raising him. It had been a challenge for a human mother and a dominant father, with only sketchy memories of his own childhood, to raise a 1.6 son. But love, and a desire to instill right values in him had reaped their own reward - and here he was........ a warm, caring 1.6-er, and about to graduate High School today.
Tom once again was pulled out of his reverie, this time by a sharp pain in his right calf. He whipped around sharply, but pulled his hand back when he saw the small black and white kitten clinging to his pant leg. He reached down and unhooked the tiny claws from his leg and brought the kitten up to eyelevel. Cocking his head and raising one eyebrow he said warningly: "Figaro, you just don't know who you're messing with."
He handed the kitten to Adam, who had just finished putting on his tie and jacket. "Put him in the den with his food and litter box and close the door. Maybe we can limit the destruction to just one room while we're gone." "OK," said Adam, "but I have to get my cap and gown." "I'll get them," said Tom and he walked to the closet where they were. He threw the gown over his arm and examined the cap. "Silly looking things, " he thought, shaking his head. "Well, at least they're black."
Tom stepped back into the hall and saw Adam disappearing around the corner, with Figaro's white-tipped tail flicking with mischief under his arm. Tom never had pets when he was a kid, at least none that he could remember. But now he loved them - well, maybe not all pets, but he certainly liked cats. He thought about how that started. It went back to that day he was walking in the park after he'd taken the genogenesis serum. Sloan had called him "Pinocchio". He didn't understand the reference at the time and it would be several more years before he did.
Adam was about 3 years old at the time and Sloan bought him a cartoon to watch on the TV entitled "Pinocchio". As he watched it with his son, Tom figured out that the wooden puppet, who wished he was a boy, was him - a dominant who had wanted to be human. He wasn't sure how he felt about the analogy but, one thing he did realize, was that he liked the cartoon. He'd never actually seen one before and the animation fascinated him. He soon became captivated by the mischievious black-and-white kitten in the movie named "Figaro." After that, he used any excuse to pass a pet shop. Sloan finally convinced him to bring one home but, recommended they get one from a local shelter. They'd had several cats after that - all rescued from a shelter, all black-and-white, and all named Figaro. To Tom, some things were just plain "black-and-white". Well, that's dominants, for you....
The auditorium was filled to capacity and fairly crackled with excitement. Adam's high school was the first school to offer a special program that provided support classes for the different needs of sapiens and dominants, while still integrating the two groups in all other avenues of academic studies. Except for the problems that one would naturally expect when something new is instituted, the program had , on the whole, been quite successful, and had been a step toward proving that there could be coexistence between the two species.
Tom didn't fully understand genetics the way Sloan did, but he knew that sapiens and dominants would be living side-by-side for a long time to come. They found out that even in mixed marriages, like his, where the father was dominant and the mother human, there was still no guarantee that all the offspring would be 1.6 as they had earlier thought. Adam was 1.6 but, had Sloan been able to have more children, his siblings could've been human..
More children .... Tom hadn't thought about that in a while. He knew Sloan wanted more but, she had only been able to have the one. He had grieved with her over this fact until she was able to accept it and move on. Tom never told her the truth, that he was secretly happy to have had only one. He felt that it had allowed him to focus all his energies on raising Adam. Considering his past, being a father was very difficult for him with no role model to follow. He had worried about his ability to handle a son correctly. He thought many times about his pitiful attempt with Kevin 22 years ago at the lab..... But now, as he looked up and heard his son's name called -- Adam Thomas Daniels --, and saw his son reach out for the diploma, he knew he had succeeded as a father.
He pulled his eyes away from the stage and gazed down at his wife, who he knew was crying, even before the first tear ever reached her cheek. The power of Sloan's emotions almost brought him to tears as well and he leaned over and kissed her softly. Sloan looked at him and saw the smile of a proud father stretch across his face. She sighed and hugged his arm for the duration of the ceremony.
The rest of the day grew into quite a celebration as family and friends began to arrive at their home, bearing gifts and food. Their disappointment at not having Ray and Walter there,due to previous commitments, was offset by the fact that Ed showed up with his entire brood. Watching Ed struggling to control his youngest son reminded Tom of himself and Adam. He smiled knowingly at Ed's exasperation and was glad that the two of them had become close friends and bonded by one irrefutable fact: - they were both fathers of a 1.6 son.
"Tom!"
Tom glanced over toward Sloan and he knew it was time for the pictures. There were ones taken of Adam - with friends, with Sloan's family and of course, with Tom and Sloan. But Tom could feel that Adam was beginning to weary of all the attention, especially from Sloan's mother and aunts who insisted on kissing and hugging him every time they saw him. Tom knew that Adam could handle emotion far better than he could've at that age, or maybe at any age, but there was a limit to his endurance. Tom's senses sought out his son, wanting to help ease the tension he felt building in Adam. He began to gently massage and soothe his son's emotions, letting his own calmness wash over Adam until he felt the the tightness disappear and Adam regain his control. After that, from time to time, Tom would look for Adam, and silently encourage him to hang on - it wouldn't be much longer....
The evening ended early and, after the last guest had gone home, Adam asked if he could go out with his friends to celebrate on their own. Tom looked out the front window for the car that he knew would be arriving any second now. "Hmm-m", he thought, "mostly humans tonight, only one other dominant". He knew Adam was comfortable with friends of either species and generally went out in mixed groups. The dominant in the car was a female and dating one of the other boys. But, there was someone else .... he bent his head a little and closed his eyes. Yes, there was one particular human, a female, that was thinking of Adam..... He turned to look at his son, whose smile had just confirmed what he now already knew - the interest was mutual, .... very mutual. Tom realized that he had just entered another stage of fatherhood. He took a deep breath and slowly let it sink in.....
After the usual "discussion" (Tom insisted these were 'discussions' and not 'lectures', as Adam always implied) about showing responsibility - no alcohol, no drugs, and so on, Tom let Adam go, giving him one more "look" to emphasize what was expected of him... Adam knew better than to do otherwise, and left to join his friends.
Quiet at last. Tom and Sloan went to sit on the back porch overlooking the lake. It was peaceful and dark with the only light coming from the twinkling night sky, reflecting off the water.
Tom could feel the Sloan's contentment and instinctively reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Today couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone I love was here - my husband, my son, my family and friends." She sighed deeply. "I could not have asked for a better day" , paused, then added, -"a better life."
Tom looked at her strangely but wisely let her enjoy her fantasy. Their life had been anything but peaceful. He could hardly count the number of attacks they personally received during the early part of the fighting. The clandestine meetings, the secret missions, the betrayals, Adam's kidnapping ...... and he still could not bring himself to think about the Cage and or "that place" for any length of time. No, their life had not been peaceful or perfect but for now he'd let her pretend.
Sloan continued, "You know Tom, I don't think that there's another thing I need in my life to make it more complete than it is right now." Tom smiled at her and agreed. But wondered at her statement. Was there really nothing else he could give her?
As the two of them sat there, silently holding hands, Tom gazed out over the expanse of the lake. He could see the faint outline of hills and trees in the distance. His keen ears picked up the the distant hooting of an owl, the splashing sounds of water lapping at the shore, and the rhythmic song of tiny frogs, .. peepers, who seemed happy just to have a place in earth's life cycle..... And he remembered his first encounter with Sloan over 40 years ago in the park, when they were children .......
Suddenly, he looked over at Sloan, whose eyes were closed as she listened to the music of the lake. "Sloan," he said. "Sloan". She opened her eyes and turned her face to look at her beloved husband. "What is it, Tom.?"
"There is one more thing that I can give you .... something you still don't have". He looked into her expectant eyes and hoped she'd like what he was going to tell her....
And so, on that rare peaceful night , on the day their son had graduated, Tom gave her back the forgotten memory of the first time they'd met as children, the memory that was awakened in Tom that first day he saw her at the lab, the one that would save her life and link their lives together forever .....
And Tom's hope that she would appreciate the memory as much as he did, was also fulfilled that night. He felt Sloan's love flooding over him, trying to immerse every fiber of his being. As he looked down at her, he saw tears start to trickle down her face. Gently he gathered her in his arms and held her close to him. And then, slowly, he opened himself to her and allowed the full power of her emotions to engulf him. He felt his tears begin to flow and mingle with hers and they wept softly in each others arms, .... at the end of their perfect day.
The End.