Adult-FanFiction.org : Movies

Your Hollow Heart	By : KyuKitsune Category: G through L > Hollow Man Views: 3682 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hollow Man, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
~oooOYOHOHOooo~

Chapter 03

It took some getting use to but once Joey and Sebastian had laid their differences to the side and actually started working together instead of against each other like before. It took them a while but over the next few days, they had no trouble whatsoever cooperating with one another. It had not been something they would've considered in the previous months yet realizing the importance of their assignment and decided to leave their petty squabbles behind and place their entire focus on the project at hand.

It was very unexpected on their part since those two thought there was no way he/she would get along with her/him and would've fought it tooth and nail if forced to cooperate. It wouldn't have happened at least in their minds, not in a million years or even if they were the last two people on this planet left alive and had to repopulate it.

Yet here they were now weeks later and so far things had gone rather progressively well and managing fine with minimum issues between them. It certainly came as a total shock for everyone else as this was something they'd never expect and some were unsure how long this would last, especially for Sebastian's tendency to get anger quite suddenly.

But seeing them actually communicating like two normal colleagues and trying to come up with a formula to reverse the effect of the serum without fighting. It seem so surreal though they did come close to having one of their infamous arguments and seeing were still the same two people as they knew.

Half the time they were busy discussing the problem out loud and figuring how to resolve the issue by using each of their hypothesis on the simulation monitor. When that failed, they try the other which was also unsuccessful yet knowing where they might've gone wrong in either case.

They must've done over at least a dozen or so though it didn't stop them from going back to the drawing board and trying to come up with new ones and throwing suggestions here and there.

They were making some startling progress and getting somewhat closer with the results, about 70% more than last time and were just a hair away from getting it right. They had the invisibility down to a patent form and now it was time to try and bring them back: visible and whole and should be as easy as one-two-three.

Sebastian couldn't help but be impress with Joey and found his opinion on her had changed somewhat once they decided to actually put their heads together instead of going at each other throat like they done so in the past. He realized that she wasn't some flake who rubbed him off the wrong way and had been undermining her abilities to think outside the box. Joey had some useful ideas once she laid them on the table and going over with his own to make variable comparisons.

Sebastian had listened to her and hearing some of her earlier conjectures on how the serum effect the cellular structure and had cause great impact on the body after the procedure. She thought perhaps that they should find out if the molecules might need to be adjusted somewhat to a higher level and give it more stability since they were trying to reverse engine it.

It did seem highly probable and was worth looking into about that. She had all documents on hand and adding a few footnotes that she believed should be taken into consideration and then pass along for him to review her findings. He had been also examining the subject particles and seeing their immediate reaction on the data input on the computer monitor. Everyone else was also doing the same and following up on their work and tried to keep up with them.

But right now they had bigger worries to deal with. They were having problems with Isabelle Two, unlike the first who had to be put down so quickly after she got injected within the hour and hadn't react as well as they thought. Sarah hadn't been too happy about that but what could she do since Sebastian made the call and everyone had to follow the standard protocols.

Especially when she was about ready to break her restraints and almost took off Carter's hand while he tried holding her down. Thankfully he didn't require any stitches although Sarah recommend that he take some antibiotics and clean the wound out just to be sure.

But this Isabelle had been set in this stasis for a few months now and was not a very happy gorilla to say the least. She had become a tad aggressive and was getting harder to control while she was like this. They were working persistently on bringing her back, that is if they get the reversion to work and that she didn't died during the procedure...

Sebastian was so focus on what he was doing and not really taking notice of the time until he heard his wristwatch beeping loudly and glancing at it to see how late it gotten. Everyone else had already headed on home with the exception of himself and seeing it was a quarter to midnight. He had been overlooking his previous notes and seeing nothing that could help them which they had already tried so far today.

He ran a tired hand through his hair and feeling the ache behind his shoulders and figure he needed to walk about since he had been sitting in that damn chair the whole time.

Plus, it wouldn't hurt to go grab another cup as this one went cold as he was working. He was getting up and heading down the hall towards the conference room when he heard something and saw he wasn't the only one who decided to stick around and was burning the midnight oil.

He thought that Joey had been acting a little off today…like she was distracted about something and couldn't really stay focus. It didn't really seem like her and no one else seem to pick up on it. But he was the most observant of the group as he followed everyone's movement and notice hers wasn't normal.

It was definitely unlike her and wondering just what it was and figured only one way to find out was from the source herself.

~oooOYOHOHOooo~

Joey didn't hear him come in as he quietly pushed the door open and was making his way towards her. She was holding what was a worn hardcover and seem engrossed with whatever she was reading. It was too good an opportunity as he got behind her and bending down to whisper softly in her ear, "I take it that's a good book you have there."

She cried out and dropping it from her grasp as she whirled around to find him there while doing his best not to laugh at her shaken expression, "Jesus Sebastian, you scared the freakin' crap out of me!"

Her heart was pounding hard inside her chest and the blood rushing towards her face as she felt embarrassed by the way she reacted just then. Usually she would've been more alert but since everyone had left and hadn't guess anyone else be around and let her guard down. But having Sebastian sneak up out of the blue like that almost gave her a heart attack right then.

He had pulled up an empty chair and turning it around to have him lean forward on the back of it and having a seat right beside her. Sebastian had pluck the book off the floor and holding it in his hand as he flipped it over and eyeing the cover.

"Hmm H.G. Wells, not a bad choice to read although I would've gone with something more interesting, like the Time Machine or maybe War of the Worlds as that's a page turner there with aliens and such."

Joey nodded as she took the book from him and place onto her lap. "Yeah but I more into his scientific physiology like this one and the Island of Dr. Moreau. I thought it was a quite captivating read by how his attempts to transform a specie into a more evolved humanoid version and curb their more natural instincts yet question the morality within it's pages. But since all this talk of turning people invisible got me thinking and wondering if this was what Wells had in mind when he wrote this."

She placed her hand over the worn cover, tracing the faded lettering etch on it which spelled out the title of the book. "To some, this was merely a horror story to frighten people back in the day, but I always though there was more to it than what most folks knew."

She must've read this over a dozen times and yet always found herself entrance by not the story but the characters themselves and reading about their perspective on certain events within those chapters. She was fascinated by how Well's was able to write using the means of science and ethical matters in a specific and fundamental context for most of his work, questioning the morals of how far one would go to such length.

Out of all his books, the Invisible Man had been her all-time favorite and consider it her most treasured possession as it belonged to her grandfather before passing it to her along with the rest of the collection in his will.

She missed him a great deal and had so many fond memories from when her family use to visit her grandparents over the summer holidays. She loved going to his studies and see all those rare and wondrous novels sitting on the shelves.

Hundreds upon hundreds of books that were written by such brilliant authors like Jules Verne to Hugo Gernsback and so many others that took up almost the entire room. Her days were spend sitting in his office and listening to her grandpa read out loud from those very pages and just got lost into the story itself.

"I use to think that this one was particular saddening, hearing about what the protagonist had to struggle with and thinking how he could go from being a brilliant scientist to becoming a monster of his own design."

All for an obsession and having a lack of conscience to think of what the consequences of such action could concur if they did so. She read other stories with similar plots and thought how frustrating it must be for the character to fall into the role of the villain when they were just normal people themselves.

"But maybe that's just me, taking into evaluation of what one will go to in the name of science and how far one will go to get there." She turned to find Sebastian was staring at her and just looking with an odd expression on his face.

She then realized that she might've gotten too carried away with her words and not exactly sure how he would response to it. However, she would find he was agreement with her and even said this but had a few things he had to say on the matter.

"What you say does make sense but you gotta remember one cannot go without taking high risks in certain things, it's all part of the job description when it comes right down to it. There's always a fifty-fifty chance that it works or it doesn't yet they try anyways.

"Take Shelly's Frankenstein or Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll or any others if you will. All of them seem like exceptional geniuses who thought they could handle it but wind up getting more than they bargain for as it goes against everything they've been taught, moral-wise or philosophical."

He could see Joey seem to get what he was saying and was rather keen on hearing more and Sebastian was only getting warm up.

"You would've thought they taken into consideration by these concerns and yet they do it anyways because they know no one else would take the chance. Wells' characters had their own drive, their motivation to go beyond what was impossible and make into a reality. He saw to give us an idea of what people could do if they put their mind to it: we have a scientist who turns himself invisible, an inventor who makes a machine to go back and forth in time. Then of course, there's the infamous doctor with the God-like complex and his desire to create the perfect specimen from one mammal into another."

He shook his head chuckling by how ridiculous the notion was and turning to Joey, "I still find it highly unlikely as animals don't have the same mental capabilities as we do and all they care about is eating and mating and that's as far as they can go from there."

Joey though had to disagree on that last bit and decided to add her own two cents to that comment.

"Ah but Sebastian, you are forgetting that some can be taught to follow the simplest commands and have been useful in certain fields once trained to do so. Then there's the fact that we as Homo sapiens have evolved from certain primates and have the same genetic material embedded in our DNA. Researcher have also concluded that they share the same compatible learning capabilities and had tests done to see how well they memorize and with great hand-eye coordination."

"Touché." He should've known she would bring something like this up. Joey found him leaning towards her and saw the mischievous look in his eyes. "You know that's not such a bad idea. Maybe once we're done here, we could bring this to the board and have them consider it for our next pet project. You know how to splice human DNA with animal genetic?"

They would certainly just lap that right up as those high collar stiffs would like nothing more than to have their soldiers with genetically enhanced strength or maybe high definition hearing and other endless possibilities if given the motivation and why stop there.

"And if they do, I'm sure Sarah wouldn't mind being the guinea pig in this once she learns we won't be experimenting much on the animals."

She tried to not roll her eyes at him while grabbing the arm of his chair and pushing him to roll a few inches from her. "Oh I'm sure she would love to hear you say that to her face and probably smack you for the mere suggestion."

She could also think of a few other things Sarah would've done if Sebastian had even dare yet was obvious he was joking about it or at least assume he was. "But I understand what you're saying. Back then they would've thought it insane to believe in cloning or men going to the moon and other endless possibilities. But when you look at things now with the technology and manpower we have at hand and finding it possible to have it become an actual reality."

Sebastian shrugged as they got back to the topic and changing the subject slightly, "Yeah I bet Wells would have been thrill to know his literature open up many young mind to this kind of thinking. I know it did for me when I got started on this project."

He turn his gaze towards the floor and then saw something that was right by his foot and bending down to pick it up and hold in his hand. It wa photograph and was probably what she used as a bookmark. He saw that the image had lost some of the original coloring and was tint yellowed with age. There were some worn creaks at the edges but could obviously see the people in the picture clearly there.

They were in a park of some sort and seeing two kids, a boy and girl and standing behind them a man with his hand on both their shoulder smiling broadly when the photo was taken. Judging from the appearance of the girl it had to be Joey and seeing that the man had the exact same eye color as the two kids, "That you and your family."

She took the photo from him and nodded, "Yeah, me, my dad and my little brother, Gabriel, Gabe as I like to call him. Mom was the one who took this the picture of us. She loved taking photos of everything we did. I was ten while Gabe here was four."

Sebastian notice the sudden change in her tone and notice she was gazing at the three in the image, though mostly focus on the little boy. "I take it you and your brother are close then."

"Yeah, up until a couple years ago that is." Sebastian thought that must've been the reason she was acting so strange and trying to guess what made them split since they looked so happy in the picture there.

He got his answer though wasn't sure if he would've wanted to if he had any idea of the things she had been put through then.

"He passed away due to brain cancer about three years ago…it happened when he got hit by one of those fly ball during his team's practice session and had to be taken to the emergency clinic when he wasn't regaining conscious. We all thought he might've had a concussion and he had to stay overnight for them to run some more test. When they got the results back, it was worst than we expected..."

She recalled how the doctor said they found what was an obvious growth stemming within his brain and near his spine. Anaplastic ependymomas that what the diagnosis came up with. They never would have guess he would have this until they did the neural scans in his brain and found was a grade III level and he was at a higher risk with his condition.

"I couldn't really believe it when they told me and thought they must've gotten it wrong but they double check and saw it was definitely a tumor he was carrying. I mean I never once suspected he could be sick since he was so healthy and didn't think someone his age should have to go through that."

They had try everything to help him and using every medical procedure that was available at the time. From radiation to chemo and just going by the book but getting very weak reaction to the treatment. They hadn't even try to surgical cut them out as the doctors couldn't even remove them without the risk of him dying during the operation.

"They told me he had up to a few months to at least a year at the stage it was, even with the medication they had him on and didn't look so good for him..."

It hadn't been easy for her, seeing how it was so unbearable, watching her little brother in so much agonizing pain and there was nothing they could do for him. Thinking back to those days in the hospital as she saw Gabe lying there and listening to the heart monitor and heavy breathing through the air mask. She could tell he was suffering and there was nothing she could do to alleviate his pain other than hope for the best.

She remembered those restless night she spent by his side, holding his hand and trying to reassure him that everything would be all right even though she knew it wasn't. She had been afraid to let go even when he had those random attacks and then one day they stopped as he drew his final breath and seeing the life leave his eyes…

Sebastian could see the pain and guilt that was wracking her emotionally and seeing this side of her had left him unsure what to do. He had never suspect she would have been hiding something like this, wearing it so close to the vest and hiding it behind the mask until now when the wounds bled out as she tried to hold it together.

His hand was moving on it's own accord and reaching out to place on her shoulder. She turn her head slightly and Sebastian seeing those shimmering amber orbs staring right at him.

"I'm sorry about your brother. No one deserves to go out like that, especially someone that young..." It was really all he could say since he couldn't come up with anything better at the time.

It wasn't hard to understand what she was telling him as he did take an elective course in studying genetic diseases at the university. He knew the likely survival rates with those at a farther stage were slim to none, especially with tumors that were spreading like beads at a Mardi Gras festival.

Some manage to make it through okay with the right drugs or procedure to surgical remove them. But in other people's cases with no hope of containing it and depending how far the prognosis was, then you were just counting on death to knock at your door.

He could almost see what her brother must've gone through and what Joey had to deal with and not able to ease his suffering.

Joey was once again staring at the picture and brushing her finger over the boy's face and closing her eyes as she did. He was so young then and barely even got the chance to get started on his life.

She wondered if the boy in the picture would've even known that he had only have such a short time to live before his life was snuffed out like a flickering candle in the wind. She tried so hard not to think so morbidly but seeing how they came to pass and was practically dragging her to recall all the bad things that had happened.

"It never gets easy no matter how much you try to tell yourself you did all you can and that it's over. Though I wouldn't say it was the peaceful end I would've like for him and sure neither would our family if they had been around still." She went to pull out her cross and holding out the two melted bands in the middle of her palm.

"My parents were killed in an automobile accident a few years' priors while I was finishing up my first year at the university. The driver wasn't exactly sober and shouldn't have been behind the wheel in the first place. The collision had wrecked both their vehicles but he manages to come out with a broken arm and a few bruised ribs. Of course, he did lose his license and was also looking at jail time for vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. My folks on the other hand weren't so lucky and didn't make it out intact…"

It wasn't hard to forget that awful day when she had been called in to the dean's office with no idea of what was going on or if she done something wrong. But then finding two officers standing there and saw the solemn looks they had when they came to deliver the sudden news.

They were explaining what happened though hadn't caught most of it as she had been in a state of shock and not able to comprehend what they were trying to inform her. The only things she did picked up in that whole conversation was they hadn't been so certain about the bodies they had recovered but finding what was left of the license plate and seeing it register to a Jonathan Charnel and wanting her to take a look and make sure it was them.

She had been hoping it had been an honest mistake, that it wasn't her parents that had been in that accident. The drive to the city morgue had been quiet and having to walk through the sterile hallway, feeling the ice cold dread reach its' way into her heart as they got to the room where the cadavers were. It was hard to keep her stomach from twisting as she stepped in to find what was waiting for her down there.

She saw the two figures lying on the steel slabs with the sheets covering their forms before one was removed and feeling her stomach turn at the sight of it and nearly lose her lunch when she did. Their bodies were burn so badly that the smell was nauseating and even the mortician had a hard time trying to lift identifications off them. But when Joey saw the remnant of the silver band on the corpse's hand lying out in the open and recognizing it as she knew that ring anywhere.

Sebastian notice she was absently fingering one of them and recalling how he saw there were initials underneath the black smudging which he could barely depict them but could hazard a guess at: S-nd-a Ch-rn-l. Sandra Charnel, that must've been Joey's mother and was obviously were her parent's that she wore around her neck.

No wonder she had been so worked up when Jo-Jo stole it from her and feeling like a total heel for his behavior back then and wish he could've taken it back.

She had her finger briefly circle around the edge of her mother's wedding band, the one her dad commission for them to wear on their wedding day. Everyone had said she was the spitting image of her but had more her father's headstrong personality. Gabriel had been unexpected yet they had love them both equality and there was no favoring of the other in their household.

"I hadn't want it to be them but knew when I saw these and knew that it was them, no doubt about it. I was at a total loss and took me months to get over this as I knew they wouldn't want me to be mourning their loss all the time, and there was still my brother to consider…"

They were quite fortunate that their parents had been thorough and meticulous when it came to their finances and left them enough to get by since Joey was over eighteen and could access the funds for them to use. Of course, there was also the life insurance they had at the time and the lawsuit settlement that came after the court decided what to do for their untimely deaths.

It helped some with the final arrangements and Joey being able to continue with her classes and Gabe with school and anything else they would need in the future. The rest had been set aside since she didn't like how they even got it by sacrificing two people that they loved and never would have again.

I would've given anything just to have them back again, mom, dad, Gabe…every last cent of that blood money just for them to be with me once again.

She clenched her hand into a tight fist, feeling the cold metal biting deep into her bare palm and struggling not to breakdown like she done the first time. "I was only in my early twenties and we had no one else to turn to other than just us. I was supposed to be the one looking after him though at times it was the other way around as Gabe made sure I didn't overwhelm myself and stress about every little thing. Sometime I was half tempted to give up school and work full time but he refused to let me do that."

She chuckled softly under her breath thinking how he made sure she didn't go dropping out of school, "He told me more than once that if I had ever considered the notion of leaving without my degree, he would run away and join the nearest circus. His words not mind but Gabe never backs down and always kept his word. I didn't him want to throw his future away so I kept attending and he made sure to keep his grades up which was per our agreement."

She knew he had been wanting to play in the nationals for his team and maybe could've gone pro if he had the chance but now never got to live to see that dream come about.

She had done everything to make sure he got the best treatment in the hopes there was an alternative but it was wishful thinking on her part. She should've known better and was only prolonging his suffering when the doctors said there was nothing they could do that wouldn't kill him a lot sooner.

She felt a single tear rolling down her cheek and onto the photo, distorting Gabe's features and trying her best to keep in the rest of the waterworks since the memories were just so fresh in her mind and hate reliving those terrible moments.

She hated letting anyone see this side of her, this helpless weak person where everyone saw she was ready to break at any second with all that happen. She had been trying to keep from letting today bother her, only to have Sebastian show up and finding she couldn't hold it in as well as she liked to.

She used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes away but the damage was already done. She had no idea what Sebastian was thinking and can probably make a few guess on them. Yet hadn't say any other word other than to say he was sorry for her and did sound like he meant it. She didn't know why she was telling him all this but knowing it was better than keeping it all bottled inside as it would do her no good especially on this day.

"Today suppose to be his birthday and was going to be turning eighteen this week. We had all these grand plans for the big day, one being we go on a road trip together to celebrate. We used to do that when our folks were around and Gabe though we could keep their memory alive while making new ones in the process. But I don't think I could very much enjoy going by myself now could I?"

She didn't dare look at him and she couldn't help speaking her mind once again, "So many time I ask myself why I hadn't realized he was ill. There weren't that many signs but I should have at least been aware something was the matter. If I had, I could've gotten him the treatment a lot sooner..."

Its too bad that no time machine existed because Joey could sure really use one. She didn't even care if there were to be any consequences for altering the past, she would've gone back and do things where her family was still be around and not be going through this pain.

But sometimes you can't change what's already been done and you have to move forward if you want to make a difference. It's why she changed majors and went into biomedical engineering and studying everything she could on genetics and other biological theories. It was also why she accepted this job and done so for her own reasons and not just to work on a top secret government project.

"I figured that when maybe I could find those answers and hope to get a better insight while I was here."

Sebastian had been listening to every word she spoke and thinking she had been dealt a bad hand with everything that's happen to her. He only known her for a few months yet hearing how those wounds over her own heart were still there and probably felt the sting of it every time she looked at that picture.

Joey had set the photo back inside the book and sighed softly before turning to him, her doe brown eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"I'm sorry Sebastian, here I am telling you how pitiful my life is and sure that you don't like listening to me prattle on when you probably have better things to do in your spare time…"

"You don't have to apologize, it's no problem really. It's okay to get upset about these kind of thing, especially when you lost someone close to you, Joanna." Joey turn to him after hearing her say her name, not Joe or Joey but her actual name.

It didn't seem like him and though she didn't detect him having some underlying reason but saw how he was being considerate over her well-being was assuring. She saw those piercing blue eyes were hard to look away as they stared at one another.

It took all her strength to pull back as she had no idea what was wrong with her since she and Sebastian had always been at odd but now wasn't so sure what to make of this.

She had slipped her hand into her pocket and then her eyes widen when she felt the object there that had been sitting in there all day.

"Oh I almost forgot, I had some data that I had been working on yesterday but it kinda slip my mind since today just brought many things to light. You can take a look at later and see what you think, hopefully there might be some key notes that could provide useful in the process."

"Sure no problem." She held the thumb drive out for him and Sebastian taking it from her, their fingers briefly touching before she stood up and was heading on home for the night.

"Hey Joey." She turned her head and saw him staring at her before he finally said what was on his mind. "I don't think what you did made you a bad sister. You were only trying to do what you felt was right and Gabe would've understand and never hate you for it."

She was not sure what to say yet felt touch all the same, feeling the words did help ease a small part of her after she lost her family. This was the first to hear him say such and seeming so genuine coming from him really made her feel slightly better about herself and lift her spirit a bit. She gave him a warm smile and thinking there was more to Sebastian than she originally thought.

"Thanks you and you know Sebastian, I want to take back what I say about you before when we first met, you're not so much an ass like I thought. You can be very considerate when you want to be."

"Yeah yeah whatever, I just don't like dealing with people who can't stand to keep up if they too distracted by everything else."

Joey could tell he wasn't trying to be snarky, that he was telling her in his own way to take care of herself. She couldn't help as she wave goodnight to him and heading for the elevator.

She never would've guess she see that side of Sebastian after working here for quite some time but assume they were both the kind that like to keep their secrets and not reveal their true selves to anyone.

Maybe just beneath that bossy annoying exterior of his, there was a person that she wouldn't mind thinking of as a friend.
- 2
- 3
- 4
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Your Hollow Heart