Summary: The team catch pterodactyls, Carlos meets some absolutely non-angelic beings and getting behind on the lab rent has sinister consequences.
By the time they got back to the lab, it had been a long, long night for the scientists. I mean, pterodactyls? At a PTA meeting?!
Carlos had once again worked through the night to aid the efforts to put the pterodactyls back in whichever crazy void world that they had sprung from and chart the observations. It was the third night in a row that he had neglected sleep or rest, and it was beginning to concern his fellow scientists.
Carlos didn't see what all the fuss was about on that front. A scientist should be prepared to work for hours on end if it meant the goal was reached.
As for eating, well, he didn't exactly ignore the food, he'd just sort of forgotten about it.
Ellie, of course, had dismissed that as "utter bullshit" and the moment the last pterodactyl scan was uploaded she, with Jeffries' help, had taken Carlos away from the laboratory, made him have a large piece of Perez's homemade lasagne - the man had turned out to be a great cook, who would have guessed? - before sending him to bed and demanding that they didn't want to see him up and about for at least 12 hours.
Carlos had obliged, on the condition that he could go to the meeting about the lead door at 2pm the next morning. He really wanted to go; partially because there was apparently a lead door outside of town that protected Night Vale from plutonium and partially because he'd heard that 'Old Woman Josie' would be going. He wanted to see these so-called "angels" that she claimed existed. Carlos had turned his back on the idea of angels and their heavenly father being real a long time ago, much to the disappointment of his grandmother. He was still pondering the angel's existence as he drifted off to sleep.
~
Carlos awoke to the sound of Cecil's voice drifting from the radio.
"...PTA meeting ended in bloodshed, as a rift in space-time split open in the Main Street Recreation Center Auditorium, setting loose several confused and physically aggressive pteranodons. The glowing portal remained open and shrieked incessantly..."
Pteranodons? Carlos laughed tiredly. Pteranodons, Cecil. Really?
Carlos heaved himself out of bed. He hated to admit it, but he had really needed the rest. He looked at the clock. 13:00. He couldn't be sure that that was the actual time, it being Night Vale, so he checked multiple clocks. At least 70% of the clocks around him said about that time, so he figured that was good enough.
After getting dressed and grabbing a bite for lunch (again, he was forced to eat), it was agreed that Carlos would go to the meeting, whilst Perez and Jeffries would go out to the door near the canyon to have a look at the subject.
"Anyone have any gum?" Carlos asked, when they reached the meeting to drop him off. He had neglected to clean his teeth like an idiot.
"I do. Picked it up from the Ralph's." Jeffries said. "They're weird flavours, but definite' non-lethal."
"What do you mean 'weird flavours'?"
"Well the gum is all from th'same packet, but every bit I've had so far has been a differen' flavour. I'm pretty sure I got calamari on Wednesday. It's not so bad. Natalia had a piece yesterday though tha' tasted like....oh, what did she say?"
"Stale blood. It is apparently a popular flavour." Perez said. He was frowning.
"Huh. Okay, then." Carlos said.
He took one and put it in his mouth gingerly. Then a smile lit up his face.
"What is it?" Jeffries said eagerly.
"Lavender." Carlos laughed lightly. "Like Mama used to have on the windowsill at home."
Jeffries beamed. "Righ', well we don't want to make ya late for your meetin'. We'll call in a bit."
"Thanks."
He climbed out of the van and headed into the meeting, avoiding the pieces of wood still dangling from the ceiling as a result of last night's PTA meeting.
~
The meeting shocked Carlos. It seems the citizens were attempting to remove a door that kept in dangerous amounts of plutonium. After a text from Perez that confirmed that it was indeed protecting the town from an onslaught of potentially fatal exposure, Carlos had despaired at the amount of residents that still supported the measure.
"That old door." A old woman next to Carlos suddenly said. "Oooooohhhhh, that door. Someone's gonna get some kind of lead poisoning. Don't you think so, dearie?"
She turned to Carlos. He didn't know what to say. He was more focused on the beings that were behind the woman he now presumed to be the 'Old Woman Josie' that was mentioned on the radio. The beings that were two metres tall and wore colourful robes. The beings that had enormous brown and grey wings. The beings that, apparently, the rest of the meeting were willing to ignore.
The....angels? They didn't look like the porcelain angels that had sat on Carlos' mantelpiece when he was young; these looked.....well, it was hard to describe them.
"Are you going to get that, dearie?" She said kindly, indicating to Carlos' pocket, where his text alert had just gone off.
"I....." He felt incredibly tongue tied.
"Oh, is it the Erikas? They're quite safe, dearie. No need to be frightened."
She put her hand gently on his shoulder.
After a few moments of studying his face, she said "You're the scientist that my dear Cecil won't stop talking about, aren't you?"
"I.... I guess." Carlos stammered.
She beamed. "Well he was right about one thing. You are a handsome young man, even without all that perfect hair."
Carlos blushed slightly. Josie reminded him a lot of his grandmother, always telling her friends "how handsome my grandson has gotten". Even with the so-called angels surrounding them, Carlos felt his fear of the meeting begin to vanish.
"Thank you."
"It's no problem, dearie. Here." She whipped out a makeshift pen that appeared to be made out of several different types of hair and wrote a number on Carlos' notebook.
"If you ever need something, call me or come out near the car lot. Or ask one of the Erikas if you see them."
She then moved back to her seat and sat down, hidden from Carlos by one of the angels' wings.
He smiled to himself before pulling out his slightly bulky looking phone to register the number. He'd had to attach several black devices around it to stop it mutating. He noticed that the text he'd gotten earlier from Ellie looked strange.
The text from Ellie simply said:
"There is no time. No more time."
Ellie would never type anything like that, Carlos thought, confused. Which meant she was in trouble. He muttered the text aloud before grabbing his things and running out. He really wished he had worked out more recently as he sprinted back to the lab.
~
"Carlos, over here!"
"Edwardo, what happened?" Carlos looked down in horror at Ellie, who was lying on the floor, blood pooling around her shin. Her trouser had been pulled back and Carlos nearly threw up as he saw the chunk of skin missing from her calf.
"We got in a few minutes ago. She was already like this. She was even more rigid than she is now, Dr Valdez." Perez said. He sounded perfectly calm. Carlos had noticed that about him. Perez was a grumpy, moody man in everyday life who preferred his own company. But whenever someone was in danger, he instantly became quiet, controlled. His medical skills were outstanding, and he had been an essential asset the last two months. The Night Vale General Hospital were generally apathetic to most normal injuries, so he had stepped up for the team.
"She had her phone next to her," he continued. "and she's lost more blood than is safe."
"Ellie...." Carlos said, pushing her fringe aside to cup her face. "Can you hear me? You're going to be alright."
"We should call someone." Jeffries suggested, who had brought a pillow to put under Ellie's head. "We can't use th'ospital. What 'bout Cecil?"
"No." Carlos said.
"Hey, guys." Natalia came in clutching bags, which she promptly dropped on the doorstep. "Oh my gosh, Ellie! What happened?"
"We don't know."
After a moment of looking at the wound, Natalia said "Did you pay the rent on time?"
"WHA'?! Wha' does tha' have to do with anythin'?!" Jeffries fumed.
"If you don't pay it on time, the landlord has the right to slice off a piece of leg flesh for each day you missed before paying it!"
"How on earth do you kn-"
"Just PAY IT, Carlos!" She ran over to Perez and helped put pressure on the wound.
Carlos ran to the telephone hanging on the wall. It hadn't turned into anything the last few days or nibbled his ear sensually so he figured it was safe to use. He paid the bill as quickly as he could, as well as yelling about human rights, before rushing back to Ellie.
He found her sitting up shakily, drinking water and being soothed by Natalia, who was in turn explaining to Jeffries why everyone should bother to read their rental agreement as Perez gently stitched her up.
Perez was smiling at her reassuringly. It made Carlos stop in his tracks. Perez never smiled. When he was finished and Ellie assured Carlos that she was fine and that she just wanted to sleep, Carlos called over Perez, who was putting away the medical kit.
"Edwardo, may I speak to you?"
He nodded.
"What is it, Dr Valdez?"
"Carlos, Edwardo. It's Carlos." He laughed gently. "And I just wanted to thank you for what you did today."
"It is no problem. I do not like to see people in pain."
"Where did you learn to do all this?" Carlos asked in wonder as he looked at the fully stocked medical kit and across at Ellie's neat stitches.
"I taught myself. My father died of cancer when I was twelve. My stepbrother was a cruel boy, especially to my little sister. Both of these things meant that I wanted to help people. So I learned to help in any way I can. But as you know, my passion is for physics. Hence why I am here."
"You never mentioned you had a sister." Carlos said.
"I do. Gabriella. I miss her, being here. And my niece Sophia."
"How old is she?"
"Sophia is six. She is a keen scientist." Perez smiled proudly, a look that seemed strange on his features.
"Science is the most thrilling subject in the universe. She has good taste." Carlos replied.
"She does. She has a very proud uncle."
Carlos grinned at Perez before helping him finish tidying the medical kit and clearing up the now faded patches on blood on the linoleum.
~
"....Carlos, beautiful Carlos, tragically shorn of his locks, reportedly was the only dissenting voice-"
Ellie was giggling again over the radio. Her spirits had lifted and the colour was returning to her cheeks. Whilst Carlos revelled in the fact that his best friend was feeling better, he didn't like that she was listening to Cecil's jokes about him.
He went in and sat with her.
"...According to Old Woman Josie, he was still absolutely perfect, and smelled of lavender chewing gum."
He turned the radio down.
"Do you have to listen to his jokes, Ellie?" Carlos said rather miserably.
"I don't think he's joking, Carlos."
"It's not funny anymore, okay? Cecil's cute but no-one 'falls in love instantly' and goes on about someone's hair on the radio. Stop encouraging his poking fun at me."
Ellie must have caught the hurt in Carlos' voice, because she pulled him down - avoiding her leg, of course - and hugged him gently.
She could see Carlos' point. It was very odd, the way Cecil acted when he was around or talking about Carlos. Even so, she didn't think Cecil was one for pranks or teasing. He seemed very sincere and serious about his work. But she figured Carlos didn't need to hear about that now. He was obviously still shaken up by the events of the day.
"I'm sorry." She said calmly.
He sighed. "Okay.....how are you feeling?"
"A bit better now the painkillers have kicked in. Johnson said they were a bitch to find. It would seem most of the town is under the impression that they don't have pain receptors. Just ignore Cecil if you don't feel comfortable, 'kay?"
"I'm glad to hear that. And I'll look into the pain thing whilst I absolutely ignore Cecil. It's very scientific."
"Carlos, you're doing the thing."
"Doing what?"
"I know you. When you get all flustered, you turn into super science Carlos. You speak in formulas."
"I don't. A scientist should be clear."
"You're doing it again."
He sighed and leaned back against Ellie's bed headboard.
"C'mon, let's watch a film." She nudged him.
"I have to work."
"I won't let you."
"Ellie-"
"No. Now get Star Wars IV and some popcorn for all of us."
Carlos laughed. She was definitely getting better.