Oneshots From the Megs-Verse

Once Upon A Time And Long Ago

TW: Death, Viruses, Parental Death, Childbirth, quite a bit of angst. Please advise.

It had been a pretty normal day thus far, Henry thought. The sun shone in the sky, but it wasn't without its clouds. The temperature was neither hot nor cold, but rested in that fair middle ground of spring. No, the day was normal in every single way. It scared Henry. It was the normal days where things tended to go so painstakingly wrong that it felt as though they'd never be right again. Henry hated normal days. And so he made a point of staying as cooped away in his lab as he could possibly be. He didn't even make an effort to venture out to his piano, scared of what might happen. It was silly, he thought, that he should be so scared of a perfectly normal occurrence. Well, what should have been a perfectly normal occurrence. But the world was a changing place, and what was held to be 'normal' seemed to be happening less and less. But that was a topic for another time. All Henry knew was that now... what seemed to be 'normal' was usually the harbinger for catastrophic events.

It wasn't necessarily that he was paranoid, but... well, it had seemed like a normal day when he'd been struck by lightning. It had started with clear skies, and just a little sun shower. He'd thought it was okay to go watch that outdoor concert fundraiser at the Starlight. Then all hell broke loose, and suddenly he was on the ground, flashing hot pain coursing through him. It had seemed like a normal day when he'd gone into the lab to observe his Working Boys. Indeed, it had seemed like a good day. He'd been making progress, he had thought. Then things had gotten so bad, in what had seemed like an instant. In an hour, they were gone forever. He'd failed, and he'd had to watch the consequences of his failure. So no, Henry wasn't paranoid- or perhaps he was. But he had every reason to be.

It was a normal day, with an abnormal man hiding in his lab as though it were the end times. Hidden away from the world, so that not a single person had access to him. Well, he was fairly certain that not a single person had access to him. He was conducting some very remote research on a small virus that seemed like it had the potential to mutate into a plague. Yes, Henry was back into studying diseases again. It had taken him a while to get there after his Working Boys, but the work did a lot of good for the world, and... he was good at it. So he had agreed to start his research again. Once again, it seemed progress was being made. Progress on a normal day terrified Henry. Look at where it had led him last time. But... so far nothing had happened. Nothing at all. Which caught Henry off-guard, because it seemed that something should have. Perhaps some higher force was finally giving Henry Hidgens a break.

It was five o'clock. A time that should have been joyous for Henry. In spite of everything, Henry loved five o'clock, even on the most normal of days. Five o'clock was when his classes had gotten out of school, and when he was scheduled to finish his work now as an adult. Five o'clock, for Henry, seemed to be the beginning of a better time. It was five o'clock on what had been a normal day, and not a single bad thing had happened. He had made it though completely unscathed. It really was his lucky break, he thought. He was eagerly cleaning the lab, the smallest bit of hope inspired in him. And that, of course, was when it had happened. The moment he'd let his guard down. The phone rang.

At first, it didn't really register to Henry that anything could happen over the phone. It was just past five o'clock, after all. He was in the safe zone. But as he approached the phone and it's beckoning squeals, the pit in his stomach grew and grew. And that was when Henry realized that perhaps his day had been too good. That perhaps there truly was no such thing as a normal day. And whatever shred of normalcy lingered would be snatched from him the moment he snatched the phone. He hesitated to even touch it. It was as though touching it could bring an unspeakable, unfathomable cure on him. His heart pounded. God, why did this feel so terrible? It was a phone call! It could be anything. His hands shaking, he slowly reached for the phone, pausing one last time before picking it up.