Project - Bring Back 208

Jack walked over to a switch that was resting on the wall that was behind him. He put his hand on the switch and faced a table that he walked away from. He took a deep breath, and let it escape through his lips as he turned the switch on. The light’s flickered, the machines roared, he switched it off and ran toward the bed.
He looked it over with hopeful eyes, but they son faded as he saw that it didn’t work. He dipped his head down and put his hands in his pockets as he walked away. But as he walked away, he heard what sounded like a computer being turned on. He shot his head up, he faced to where the sound came from. He saw movement, ha ran toward it, and looked it over.

“It worked…” He whimpered as tears filled his eyes. The cool breeze of the air conditioner ran through the hair of his project. Its eyes flickered open, they made eye contact toward Jack’s eyes. Brown and blue color eyes looking at one other. But the brown were emotionless and the blue were shining with joy. Jack took his creation’s hand in his and help him sit up. His creation flung his legs over the side of the table, breaking the eye contact between the two.

“Where…?” Its voice was deep and mechanical. But then he looked toward Jack and made eye contact. “Who…?” He then pointed toward Jack. That alone made Jack’s heart sink. He should’ve expected this, his creation needed to learn.

“I am Jack Mcloughlin. And you are in my lab” Jack answered. “Do you know your name?” Jack spoke slowly so his creation could understand him. It then looked down to his lap, he then looked up and once again made eye contact.

“Don’t…Know” Okay, two words now, this is good.

“Your name is Mark, Mark Fischbach” Jack answered, trying not to let his voice break or let tears form from just saying those words.

“Mark Fischbach” He echoed. His eyes then slightly closed and his chin then hung his chin low. “Jack Mcloughlin” He echoed. He was storing the information in his data.

“Are you ready to walk out of this lab?” Jack asked him. When he did this previously, his other projects would malfunction from too much information. But all that Mark did was lift his head up and nod. Jack reached behind Mark’s back and cautiously unplugged the cables that were attached to the robot. Jack then took both of Mark’s hands in his and slightly tugged on them.
Mark slid off of the side of the table, but just as soon as his feet hit the cold floor, he clasped. Jack quickly pulled him up off of the ground and held both of his hands.
“It’s okay, just put one foot in front of the other” Jack told him in a soft voice. Mark did what Jack said and they both slowly made their way out the door.

Once they got to Jack’s house, Jack sat him down on one of his couches. Jack left the room to go get Mark a shirt.
Mark then looked around the room, he looked at the T.V, the other furniture, and then his eyes found their way toward a picture that was on the mantle. He stood up from his seat and walked toward it. He picked it up. It was of Jack and another man, the two of them were smiling. The other man that was in the picture was darker than Jack was, he had red hair on the top of his head and black at the sides, he also wore glasses that had slightly wide rims and red on the sides, he had a strong jaw with dark stubble along with brown eyes. The two looked happy. Mark then heard footsteps behind him.

“Who is this man?” Mark asked. He turned around and faced Jack, still holding the picture in his hands. Mark saw that Jack’s face saddened as he walked toward the robot. He put the shirt that was in his hands down on a chair and took the picture from Mark’s hands.

“He…He was a friend” Jack’s voice hushed at the last word as he put the picture back on the mantle. Mark then put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“’Was’? What happened?” Mark asked him with an unexpected worried tone, despite it sounding like hardware. Jack then looked at him with glassy eyes.

“I…He, he’s gone” Jack’s voice was quiet and low. Mark then turned Jack toward him and looked at his eyes. Mark then let go of Jack’s shoulders and walked toward the chair that Jack placed the shirt on, he then slipped it over his head. He was just about to say something before Jack started first.

“Mark.” Jack then faced toward Mark with a stone face. “I don’t want to talk about this” Jack told him with more force than what was needed. But just as Jack was about to walked toward the kitchen, Mark grabbed his shoulder. Jack then stopped.

“Although I wasn’t going to ask about him, I know that you are thinking about him.” Mark then said in a matter of fact-ly. “I just want to tell you that it’s okay”   

-.-

“I-I messed it up, I messed up everything!” Jack yelled as he paced around the room. He then stopped to roughly rub his temples. “I CAN’T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!” His husband then sat up from his seat on the kitchen counter and walked toward the pacing Irishman. He grabbed his shoulders from behind and turned his around. He looked toward Jack making brown and blue clash, his husband then pulled his into a rough but then soft, warm embrace.

“Hey” Mark’s deep, and kind voice rumbling through Jack’s ears. “So what you didn’t get it right this time. I promise you that you will make your projects fully functional and ready to use, just stick to your work and don’t pressure yourself.” Mark then pulled away to once again look into the others eyes. “It’s okay”

-.-

“Jack?” Mark snapped Jack from his train of thoughts. “What do you want me to do?” Jack then shook his head from side to side and sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose as he thought of an answer.

“For now, learn” Jack replied to him with a smile on his face as he left to get something. He then returned to find Mark sitting on the couch. He softy sighed as he walked toward the robot. He handed Mark a black notebook with a pen and pencil. “Here, you can write or draw anything you want with this.” Jack smiled as he almost caressed Mark’s face before walking back up to his room. He took off his lab clothes and replaced them with sweatpants and a red long sleeve. He walked towards his bed and sat.

What am I doing? It’s not really him. Jack told himself.

 It’s just a…copy. Those thoughts then started to plague his mind.

 He’s not really hear. He’s just a piece of hardware. And every thought that he had, tears started to flood his eyes, thought after thought was a another tear that slid down his cheeks and down to his chin. He then forced himself to snap out of it by shacking him head and walked out to the living room, wiping the tears from his face and eyes. He then looked up to see his creation sitting on couch, writing on the notebook that Jack forgot that he gave him. Jack sighed as he started to walk towards the robot. He looked over Mark’s shoulder to see what he was drawing and/or writing. He then saw his robot drawing a comic, a comic that was about space and time, from what Jack could see.
“Mark” Jack murmured. “Go to sleep” Jack told him, he then put the notebook to the side of him and dipped his head. Jack then turned around to start too walked back to his room, hearing what sounded like a machine starting to slow down.

If I knew that it was a copy, why did I make it? The thoughts came back. He then walked to his bed and laid down on it, without the duvet.

I miss him. He then thought, letting a single tear slide down the side of his face.

A nightmare then welcomed Jack into its trap that night…