Several Years Ago
The town was small and cold with entirely too much open land, simply vast swaths of scruff field that just sat there unutilized for either housing or farmland. The sky was gray and the ground was dusted in a light layer of snow that turned much of the remaining plant life gray or brown. What little city there was didn't amount to much, its tallest buildings reaching no higher than three to four stories give or take a few levels. Ramirez was used to an altogether different caliber of city, the kind where they tend to build up and not out, with multilevel city building blocks that were taller than they were wide and reached higher than the cloud cover. This little two nwas something out of the movies, an old relic of the way things had been done in the past. Single level houses sat on open tracks of land spaced unevenly apart separated only by the soft shimmering of energy fences.
He took a corner following his GPS through the cold morning, glad only for the fact that his car didn't have tires and he didn't have to worry about potential black ice lurking under the surface of the snow, which glazed the pavement with a light dusting, like a powdered doughnut. The neighborhood he entered was small and rundown, populated primarily by cheap rundown houses mass produced on an open market and at least a century behind modern urban planning. Snow still dusted the ground here, browning already scruffy lawns. A few of the houses didn't even have energy fences and were forced to settle for chain link/
A rather miserable looking pitbull barked at his car as he passed by fro behind the chain link, his paws leaving prints in the snow. The neighborhood was mostly quiet, a sad sort of reminder of where life tended to lead some people. The neighborhood seemed tired, just like the few people Ramirez noted peeking through their curtained windows lording over castles of cracking cement and splintering plaster.
It was all rather depressing.
He wasn't sure if this was the right place.
He glanced down at his GPS again.
Your destination is on the right.
He pulled to a stop, examining the little house, squinting as if he could garner some clues as to the truthfulness of the GPS. The house itself was, again, small sandwiched on either side by one energy barrier and one chain link fence. The house on the left was clearly a hoarder's den, with items practically spilling out fo the windows and onto the front lawn, including several old bicycles, a ton of children's play equipment, and a sagging rusted swing in the background that likely hadn't been used for several years if at all, sagging there quietly in the soft morning dusting of snow.
However, this house was relatively well put together.
It was something his mother might have even called homey or cute. There were no cracks in the sidewalk, and the lawn looked like it might have been rather well maintained. The house itself was freshly painted sometime in the last year, and there was no visible unk in the yard.
He shrugged and pulled into the Driveway cutting the near quiet engine, and reaching into the backseat for the basket his mother and abuela had sent him with. Some of it was for his long trip, which had taken well over ten hours, but some of it was for his housewarming gift, "If I know young men." His mother began, "They'll be eating boxed noodles and very few vegetables, so it'll be your job to feed them while you are there." He brought with him some of his mother's cooking in sealed cooling containers, and a boat load of pastries, which had taken him gargantuan effort not to simply eat on the spot. If needed he could make his own, no son of his mother or grandson of his Abuela could manage to grow up without knowing how to properly feed himself, but still there was a high likelihood these poor sods wouldn't have half of the ingredients required.
Including about ninety percent of the spices.
Ramirez stepped softly out of the car, with the basket over one arm and into the blistering cold. A puff of mist rolled out from his nose as the cold stung his cheeks. He shuffled his feet awkwardly in the snow. It had been a while since he had seen his friend, heard about what happened and wasn't sure how to behave.
What would Adam be like now?
Back on the enterprise he had been a ball of energy, a radiant spark of personality, but war does strange things to people.
He made his way up the little sidewalk and onto the porch.
He didn't bother to knock when he saw the doorbell monitor and instead blew it a kiss for his own amusement.
The door clicked eventually and then opened.
At first he thought the man standing before him was Adam, but had to doubletake a second later. Not Adam but definitely a close relative.
There were two ways to deal with meeting new people, you could be awkward or you could be fun, ramirez always chose fun, "I was told you and Adam looked alike," He grinned "I'm sorry for your loss." Then he held out a hand, "Thomas right."
HE worried for a moment the opening had been too much. Open a man's door and insult him immediately, but Thomas smiled warmly, "And I thought you'd be taller."
Touche, the man could play.
Thomas Vir was a little shorter than his brother, with blond hair tousled in an unruly mess around his face, like it hadn't been cut in a few months. He was thin, and probably handsome were it not for the slightly gaunt look on his face. Ramirez didn't know the specifics but had heard through adam at one point that Thomas struggled with a drug addiction at some point.
He had been assured that Thomas was no longer using, but that sort of thing tended to stick around for a while.
"Come on in, before you freeze anything important off." Ramirez was all too eager to oblige and stepped into the little house which was nice and warm. Firelight flickered from a rather antiquated stove thing in the far corner of the room, but it added a nice ambiance. Christmas lights were strung with tinsel rather drunkenly around the room, but it was cozy enough, and the room itself smelled like cinnamon and cloves.
Hesniffed at the air, "Making a pie or something."
Thomas snorted, "I wish, but no, our mom gave us these melty candle things because, and I quote, "This place smells like feet."
"Which is funny because we have only seventy five percent of the average amount of feet we should have." Ramirez turned at the sound of the second voice to find A familiar face standing in the hallway. He grinned and brightened up, setting down his basket and walking over to pull his friend into a crushing embrace. Adam huffed and then laughed, patting Ramirez on the back.
"You've packed on a couple pounds."
Ramirez set him down, "Of muscle, which you seemed to have lost beanpole." And it was true enough, Up close he was able to get a better look at his friend who, when they had last seen each other had had significantly more muscle than seen here. Over the course of whatever had happened, Adam had lost an unusual amount of weigh, making him and his brother look even more similar. Adam's hair was cut much shorter, but he had the same gaunt face. He was wearing a T shirt, and shorts, which Ramirez couldn't help but note the shiny metal prosthetic. In silver and black.
How to handle this?
Ignore It?
Or engage?
He had briefly dated a few people with disabilities. A girl in a wheelchair who was in a word "Freaky." and this really cute Korean guy with half an arm. Each of them had different opinions on the subject. Eun had preferred people just ignore it, while Wendy preferred it if people engaged her and asked her questions.
It was hard to judge.
So he pulled back and held his friend at shoulder length, "Ok first things first, how do you want me to proceed?" always better to ask,
Adam understood the question without needing to be told.
"However you want. I don't care."
So Ramirez did taking a good long look, "Hot damn, that is both unfortunate and mega cool. This makes you a cyborg you know."
Adam grinned, "I know, pretty awesome when you get over the losing a leg thing."
Ramirez leaned in closer to get a better look, "Thisbitch even has toes, that's a bit freaky, why would it have toes/"
Adam snorted, "Well as it turns out Toes are rather important for balance. At least the big toes anyway, besides, you need feet to sell feet pics on the internet."
Ramirez laughed in surprise, "Is that the world's biggest prude making a foot kink joke?"
From where he leaned against the counter, Thomas snorted, "I've been working on him."
"Good, he needed some help."
Something cold and wet touched Ramirez on the hand, and he almost leaped out of his skin, looking down to find a dog standing at his side. He hadn't even heard her when he came in, didn't even see her, which was weird because dogs usually barked at things, especially german shepherds as far as he was aware. She tilted her head to the side to look at him in interest.
"Well hello, who is this?"
Adam smiled, "Oh, that's my service dog, Waffles."
"Aww how cute, they gave you a mandatory best friend." Ramirez teased, "May I."
"Yeah go ahead, she's not working."
Ramirez knelt down and held out his hand for Waffles to sniff. She stuck her cold nose against his hand, tail wagging slowly back and forth before nosing his hand. He took that as a good sign and reached out to rub her ears with both hands, "Well hello, aren't you a pretty girl." Her tail thumped against the couch, "Oh young think so." He rubbed her ears some more and then stood, "Well I bring food, which knowing you guys you probably need."
"That's a given." Adam said with a smile.
Ramirez was all too eager to unpack his food, and before long the three of them were sitting at the cramped little dining table, waffles sitting underneath as they talked,
"So what do you plan to do now?" Ramirez asked as he took a sip of water.
"Well I...." Adam began, "I was thinking about maybe.... Talking with Captain Kelly. See if they can get me back in."
Ramirez snorted into his drink and looked up with a raised eyebrow, "Dude are yo usure about that."
Adam nodded, "Prosthetics are super advanced now. I can feel and run and walk normally, so there's no reason they should say no."
"I mean but do you want to.:
There was a pause and Adam nodded, "I think I do."
Ramirez paused and raised an eyebrow, "Like go back to space..... What fi you meet one of those scarabs again. Are you going to be able to handle it."
He noted the drain in Adam's cheeks as blood fled from his face.
But he kept his composure clenching tightly to his form. Thomas eyed him with concern, and Waffles grunted as she pushed herself upright and came to rest her head on Adam's human leg. He patted her with his off hand but took another long, deep breath,
He glanced down at his glass.
"I.... think so." He stared at the water for a long time, "Besides I turns out we weren't exactly saints."
Now that was something Ramirez wanted to hear though it would take a few late nights for the story to come out.