Fifth Avenue - The Replacements
Chapter Fourteen

Doc sat at his computer staring at a file on his screen

‘You seriously think she is the only one?’

‘The only what?’

‘The only child of Catherine and Richard Faye’

The words echo through his mind as he stares at the young boy’s face on his screen ‘Conor Jones, a boy born with naturally fluorescent red hair, fostered at the age of five after his parents died in a mysterious car accident, birth name Conor Faye’

“Knock, knock” Hartley says as she stood at Doc’s doorway, startled he jumps and quickly closes the tab.

He clears his throat “uh- Hartley” he says smiling “how can I help you?” Hartley looks at him strangely replaceing his current behaviour highly unusual “I’m sorry Hartley” he apologises “I’m just tired, what did you need?”

Hartley smiles “Flicker and I made lunch, just wanted to know if you wanted any?” Doc shakes his head.

“No thank you, I’m not very hungry” he smiles and Hartley rolls her eyes walking into the room revealing a plate which she was hiding behind her back.

“Thought you might say that” she says placing it beside him “but I haven’t seen you eat since you’ve gotten back” she sits on a free chair “Doc” she says worriedly, her hand playing with the scar on her neck “Wisdom, before she ordered Justin to shoot me she said, she didn’t need me anymore, she had somebody new in mind, who was she talking about?”

Doc bites the sandwich she bought him, chewing slowly This eyes go to his screen before back to Hartley “wouldn’t have a clue, sorry” he says once he swallowed.

Hartley looks at him for a bit before nodding “okay one last thing, I did something, to Justin, I mean I don’t know how but I would like to show you” she stands and places her hands-on Doc’s head “with your consent” she asks and hesitantly he nods.

Hartley’s eyes close and Doc’s eyes roll back.

The old Fifth Avenue sat around their make shift table, everyone was present apart from Justin whom at that time was still under Candii’s spell. Everyone was laughing and having a grand old time, even Doc was laughing, well he was, until he got a handful of noodles thrown at him.

His hands reach up and move it from his face and looks around to everyone at the table noticing both Kit and Shooter had red faces “Well” he says shortly leaning over to grab some steamed vegetables which he placed onto his plate before placing it back down. “I guess this is war then?” he answers properly dabbing his mouth with a napkin.

Under the table Doc’s spare hand held his container of noodles which he was mixing with Shooters favourite extra spicy hot sauce, the boys look to each other wearily and Doc brings his container back up like nothing had happened.

“Oh yeah” Shooter sneers “bring it o-” he was cut off by Doc throwing his noodles at him, Shooter wipes the noodles from his face and sniffles slightly before placing some in his mouth “this seems to be burning” he says shocked “You sly old man” he chuckles as his eyes turn red and tears start to pour out.

After this a full on food fight broke out at the table, everyone was having fun.

Hartley removes her hands from Doc’s head and wipes the tears from her face, Doc smiles up to her, a hint of pride evident on his face “You’ve done it” he says happily “You have learnt to control your ability, usually this happens at great times of pain and I guess you seeing” he stops “you seeing Justin about to kill you must have unlocked it” Hartley smiles.

“Make sure you eat your sandwich” she says sternly and he nods taking another bite but making sure to do it slightly overly dramatic making her laugh “Thank you Doc” she says happily “I’ve always wanted a family because I think it is an important thing to have and even though I don’t technically have one, you have always been a father to me” Hartley gives him a weak smile before turning to leave.

Doc opens back up the tab “Hartley...” he says and she turns to look at him, his eyes glance to the screen before back to her, his hand moves and he closes the tab completely “Never mind” he smiles and she nods leaving, once gone he lets out a deep breath resting his head in his hands. He felt guilty for not telling her, especially knowing how important family was to her, but if he told her about her brother she would leave him and he wasn’t ready to lose her just yet.

Hartley joins the rest of the team who had by now all finished their lunches and were sitting at the table reminiscing “Remember when Flicker here tried to prove he used to play football and ended up tripping and spraining his wee little ankle” Flutter laughs so hard she snorts making Flicker spit out his drink and laugh at Flutter.

Hartley smiles at the group and bites into her sandwich, Whisper looks to Hartley with a ghost of a smile on his face before nudging her slightly making her smile even more “Hey Hartley” Flicker says, after recovering from his laughing fit.

She looks up showing she was listening, but couldn’t reply due to her mouth being full of food “So right” he stops “Okay well we” he says moving his hands to show Flutter and Whisper sitting at the table, only now did Hartley notice that Trix wasn’t here “okay so just before when we were training you kind of passed out but Doc wouldn’t let anyone but him take you to your room, so dish” he leans forward resting his head on his hands like a teenage girl about to get some good rumours.

“Dish?” she was confused.

Flutter smiles “Well one he wants to know if you, like our disappearing friend Trix, have a thing for our dear old boss and does he have one for you and second what the hell happened when you passed out?” she says and Hartley’s face drops.

“Oh gross” she cringes “Well for starters there is nothing between Doc and I, he’s like a father to me and nothing more” they all nod “and for the other thing I thought Doc would have told you already” she replies honestly “I don’t know much about it but, I get these visions they usually happen right before something big is going down, like a big fight or more likely someone is going to die” she looks down “I can see people around me’s past, usually how their powers became unlocked, and just recently I have unlocked the ability to transfer what I have seen or sometimes even felt to somebody else” Flicker claps slightly.

“That’s freaking awesome!” he cheers and Hartley smiles before glancing to Flutter who was smiling lightly at her. Hartley holds her head which suddenly felt light “Are you okay?” he asks slightly worried and Hartley gives him a small smile.

“Too much excitement for one day I’m thinking, I’m going to lie down” Hartley weakly pulls herself and steps to her room collapsing onto her bed once she reaches it.

Two hands clasp together ‘Til the end’ a voice whispers before a loud BOOM sounded and everything seemed to explode.