Summary: Carlos studies Cecil's third eye, Natalia has a jolt of memory and the team join in the plan to save the town from StrexCorp.
"Ooh I'm so excited for this!" Dr Green wheezed from her hospital bed.
"Ellie, the doctors have told ya at leas' six times since we got 'ere that you shouldn't be speakin'." Jeffries scolded. The biochemist responded with a grumpy pout.
"I can't blame her. Cecil's special broadcasts are really something." Carlos smiled. Ellie had been driving herself crazy in the hospital bed. The doctors had somehow managed to cure her of throat spiders in record time, but the recovery period was over a month and she wouldn't be let out of hospital for a good two weeks yet.
Carlos and Cecil had sent her favourite foods for her and her weekly Rico's slice and Jeffries had been to see her after school hours each day so she had company. Dave had facetimed her with updates on their project and she responded mostly with sign language through the video screen as speaking was forbidden by the doctors and Dave was the only one on the team who could interpret it. If it had been anywhere else, she would have used a whiteboard and pen; therefore, the ban on writing utensils had never been more irritating for the scientist.
However, that afternoon, both Carlos and Jeffries had come to see her, so she had ignored the doctors and started speaking again.
"Sorry." She muttered.
"Don't speak!" Brent Jeffries whined, placing his face in his hands and groaning at the blonde woman's determination to undermine her own recovery.
"Sorry...." Ellie whispered.
"ELLIE."
"Sorry?"
"Just....please stop talking."
She wisely responded with a nod.
"Well, as I was saying about science..." Carlos immediately began. "I shall be going along to the radio station tonight with Cecil in secret to do some special scientific observations of his broadcast. Natalia and I observed the one last year that Cecil said was extra special. Granted, as scientists, we should have been braver than we were that day..."
Ellie's gaze lowered when he mentioned Natalia. It had been three months exactly since she had disappeared, and she lingered on the biochemist's thoughts.
"...S'been three months, hasn't it?" Jeffries commented solemnly. The blonde nodded.
"We don' even know if she's alive." Brent muttered.
"Scientific probability would sugg-" Carlos began.
"She's alive." Ellie rasped out firmly.
"Ellie, you can't say tha' for sure."
"But I can."
"What?"
"I've been..." She paused to cough and Carlos frowned again at her determination to make her condition worse. "Told. She's been seen."
"She has? Where?" Carlos said in shock. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because I was told by....by....angels aren't real." She sobbed. "They aren't real." Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"That's enough talking." A nurse came in, who appeared to be missing ears. This served to confuse the scientists as she had no visible way of hearing whether Ellie was speaking at all. "I must ask you to leave for now."
Carlos nodded in reply. "Brent, we have science to do." Before the geologist could protest, he added "Ellie, we'll be back later. I have something I want to discuss with the whole team."
The two nodded and Carlos and Brent walked to the exit of the hospital.
"I'm going to the station to run my experiments. I have my instruments in my car. Can you please inform Rochelle and Dave that we're meeting back here after the broadcast."
"Gotcha." Jeffries nodded and scratched his beard. "Give Cecil my best."
"Will do."
Jeffries smirked slightly. Dr Green wasn't here, so he would have to step in.
"Carlos."
"Hm?"
"Don't distract Cecil." He said with the tone that had all the dark implications that Dr Green, and Natalia also, would have given and winked, before leaving the scarlet faced Carlos stood flabbergasted by his car.
~
Bzzz!
Carlos pressed the buzzer.
"Hello?" A strange sounding robotic voice answered.
"I'm here for sci-er, Cecil?"
"Mr Palmer, are you expec-" The voice asked before there was a slight muffle and a crackle on the other end of the line.
"Come in!" Cecil's voice said cheerfully and the cold metal doors opened. Carlos entered hesitantly and walked up quickly, purposely avoiding the break room and the station management area. When he reached the radio booth, he knocked gently. There was no reply for a few moments and he attempted to look into the radio booth window, but it was completely opaque and black, with no light entering it. Carlos was just about to reach for his phone when the booth opened and a hand pulled him inside. A hand clamped over his mouth and the door closed. Carlos struggled in surprise but was cut off by a voice.
"Ssshhh, sshhh! It's me! Carlos, it's me."
Or, more accurately, THE voice.
The hand over Carlos' mouth let go and he breathed out, turning round to face Cecil.
"What scientific reason did you have for that?!" He whispered in annoyance.
"Sorry. I didn't want my producer Daniel to notice you coming in. I've managed to convince my new....MANAGEMENT..." He said in distaste. "That my special broadcast is dangerous for people to witness so I must be alone with all the windows blacked out and the cameras off."
"And is it?"
"Well, yes. But you'll be fine!"
"A scientist is always fine." Carlos replied, his good mood returning. "I just wish you'd warned me."
"Sorry..." Cecil blushed. "I just thought it was more exciting that way."
Carlos swallowed thickly. "I-okay." He cleared his throat. Focus on science. "So what exactly is happening here?"
He glanced around at the radio booth. It looked very different from normal. The room had more thick cables strewn over the floor than normal and the room was basked in a turgid red glowing. The lights that usually illuminated the booth had also turned scarlet. Carlos was taken aback by how different it was from the first time he had entered the odd radio station over a year and a half ago.
'Oh, Carlos, you came! I'm Cecil! SO good to meet you finally!'
He smiled to himself. Much had changed since then.
"I'm nearly ready to start. Do you have all your science....stuff?" Cecil said enthusiastically.
"I do. And I won't talk until there is a break. So no telling your listeners I'm here."
"I can't even if I wanted to. I have a limited amount of control with this broadcast. It's so exciting!"
Carlos did not see how lack of control was a good thing, but he sat in the chair next to Cecil.
"We're ready to go." Cecil remarked. Carlos glanced around. There were no computers or clocks to tell him when it was time to begin, and Carlos knew for a fact that Cecil had forgotten his watch that morning.
"How do you know?"
"Oh Carlos." Cecil laughed and his purple third eye began to open and glow neon purple. "I always know."
He faced the microphone and Carlos took out his instruments ready, slightly in awe of his boyfriend.
"'This is a story about them,' says the man on the radio. And you are concerned, because this is NOT a story you were ever supposed to hear....welcome to Night Vale...."
~
Natalia's head was hurting. More so today than any other day. She rubbed it soothingly and sighed, focusing on smiling to take her mind off the pain. Flashes. That's all they were. Nothing more than flashes. They were probably from a dream. Nothing more! She yelled at herself.
"Are you alright?" One of her colleagues asked.
"I'm fine." She said back in response, forcing a smile onto her lips. She puts on the radio. For some reason, it always calmed her a little. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling inside listening to the radio, although she felt that she should be sharing that happiness with others.
"They are narrated along by the radio, until the man who is not tall turns it off. In the parking lot, the man who is not short looks up.
'Hey, what is that?' he says, indicating the clear nothing of the sky.
'What is what?' says the other.
'I saw something,' he says, 'for a moment. Just there, for a moment.'"
Something in the sky. Another flash. No, like a long flash. A small dream.
She glanced around at her surroundings. Brilliant lights in the sky. An Arby's sign. Two men were sat on the top of a car in the distance. She couldn't see who they were. Someone next to her suddenly shouted and laughed heartily.
"WELL IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!"
She turned to look at them. Their face was blank. Like someone had been photoshopping the dream and blotted out the face of the woman. Everything else remained, however. The lab coat, plaid shirt and curly blonde hair. The blonde hair...she thought curiously. Is that the same blonde hair I keep seeing in my other dreams? She tried to step closer, she if she could observe the woman's face properly, but she felt it slipping away and after a few blinks, she realised that she was still at her lab at the Strex headquarters.
Natalia whipped out her notebook and jotted down everything she had seen. She then added notes next to her headings about her dreams.
She only had headings for recurring elements. They were entitled 'Chicago?' 'Science?' among other things. 'Friends?' had smaller subheadings including 'Man with beard' and 'Main scientist? Boss? Named Carl????'. She flicked through to the page she now required. There was a whole double page spread for 'Who is the blonde woman?'.
Natalia ran her fingers through her hair and added the notes about what she had seen, before putting the notebook back in her lab coat pocket. She hadn't told anybody about the flashes of what she still assumed were dreams. Dr Johnson was still, after all, attempting to convince herself that she wasn't crazy. Best not to let her management know. She still wanted to serve the Smiling God, but it still puzzled her why she had this guy feeling that all her memories before her newest assignment felt...wrong. Detached. Like they weren't hers.
If these dreams were memories, then why didn't she remember them properly? Why were there parts missing? Who are the five people she kept seeing in her dream? The people in labcoats whom she could only assume were scientists. Who, WHO was this blonde woman? And why, most importantly, did Natalia feel a stab of pain in her heart whenever she saw them in her dream?
Natalia tapped her fingers next to her Geiger counter. Maybe it was time to start her own investigation into these scientists. The Smiling God wouldn't have to know. Again, she had a nagging feeling that this was a normal thing to do. She always had had a slight problem with authority.
~
"As they leave the warehouse and the supervisor and the piles of wooden crates, the voice on the radio says something about the weather..." Cecil said calmly and pressed a button on his control panel, leaning away from the microphone.
"Sooooo....how's the science going?" He asked Carlos excitedly, who was sat on his lap observing his third eye with intrigue, his body in the same twisted position it had been whilst Cecil was talking so the radio host could speak into the microphone.
"It's....wow. I mean, you're incredible, honey!" Carlos beamed happily. "I mean the way it can see the whole town and follow the movements of another. It's so scientifically fascinating!"
"Well, you know me!" Cecil grinned, abashed. "I'm very into science these days."
"I've noticed." Carlos laughed lightly. "Oh, Cecil, this is amazing. Thank you for letting me take a look at it in action."
"It's no problem. When your boyfriend is a scientist, it's nice to know that he finds you scientifically interesting."
"You're always interesting, Cecil." Carlos smiled down at him and leaned in for a kiss, but quickly pulled away when, as Cecil's normal eyes began to close, his third eye attempted to do the same. The resultant panic by Carlos resulted in them both falling off the chair into a heap. The two looked at each other for a brief moment before snorting and laughing quietly.
"As much as I'd like to stay on this floor curled up with you, Carlos," Cecil said with a sad smile. "I am a radio professional, and need to finish my show."
Carlos nodded and got up, helping his boyfriend to his feet. "And I am a scientist. I study science. It would be unprofessional of me not to complete my study."
"You can study me all you want later tonight." Cecil said bluntly.
Even in the red glow of the radio booth, Carlos' heated cheeks were obvious.
"P-professionalism." He blurted, more to remind himself than Cecil, as anymore teasing and he would find it difficult to finish his study without breaking the rules of anti-fraternisation in the radio station. Plus he'd break his promise to Jeffries.
"Professionalism!"
Cecil laughed and sat back at his microphone as the 'ON AIR' sign returned to green.
"By the time they leave the warehouse, it is night. Or maybe the sun has just set early. The sunrise that morning had been particularly loud and strenuous..." He continued in his broadcast, smiling occasionally at Carlos, who barely noticed due to his wide-eyed almost childish fascination with Cecil's eye.
Both were in their element at that moment. Unfortunately, both knew that the peace was not to last. Not with the plans that were to come later that evening.
~
"So why are we here again?" Rochelle asked Carlos as the team of scientists stood later that evening in front of the library.
Dave had gone to see Ellie and was facetiming Jeffries, Rochelle and Carlos from her hospital room. Dave had removed the surveillance from the room temporarily (Carlos internally thanked Dave's Boy Scouts training) so they could avoid the Secret Police watching or indeed StrexCorp.
"We're here to meet someone." Carlos said simply.
"But it's the library!" Rochelle hissed. "No-one in their right mind goes in there! Everyone is scared of the librarians."
"Not everyone." Carlos said as the door opened and they stepped in, closing the door behind them.
"Is this safe?" Jeffries whispered to Carlos. "And why did you want us here?"
"Because Cecil needs us. The town of Night Vale, this scientifically remarkable community and our HOME, needs us to scientifically investigate a potential portal to a different dimension that we've seen at Cynthia's House That Doesn't Exist." Carlos explained to his team, before facing a shadowy corner where the welcome desk of the library should be. "Isn't that right, Ms Flynn?"
A figure emerged from the shadowy corner and came into view. The figure was clutching a librarians head under one arm and a stack of books far beyond her reading age under the other. Her dark eyes had a determined flicker in them.
"That's right." She replied, and gave a small grin to the scientists.