.^^ Alexia Adrian Peterson ^^

— Athenos Axiom Parthenos —

My breath fogged up slowly, trying futilely to warm up my clenched hands.

My father laughed, off to the rear of the party. "Don't bother, Boy. No magic you posses could cure the Cold of Helheim. Just focus on your footing, eh? Wouldn't want to lose another of my apprentices..." he trailed off suggestively, looking at the abyss, and I froze.

"Don't tease the boy, Xeda! Don't worry, my son, you'll be fine." Mother glared at him over my shoulder as he laughed, and led us further into the caverns, before stopping next to a small cluster of crystals in the shape of flowers. She reached to pluck one, and I lunged forward, trying to stop her.

Father cursed, and suddenly a barrier of magic snapped into place around me, and the entire landscape was bathed in pure ice.

—

I snapped awake, sending my textbook to the floor, and blushed as several students snickered at me. I picked up my book, sticking my head back in it.

"Glad to see you back in the realm of the living, Mr. Parthenos! Have a nice nap?" The professor asked dryly.

I deigned not to answer, and sought to make myself invisible for the rest of the day.

After class, I was scolded again for sleeping, and then for disrupting the lecture, and sent on my way, just like every week or so.

I sighed, reaching for a book, and then blinked when a slim, feminine hand took it first. The owner of said hand, as well as a shock of violently red hair, looked at me, and grinned. "Finders keepers!" She danced away, giggling like a mischievous angel.

I sighed. "Yeah. No worries." I started walking away, thinking about ordering it online, and she tapped my shoulder softly.

"Uhm, I only need, like, three pages? Maybe I could copy them, and you could read what you need?" She asked, tapping the cover nervously. She bit her lip in a very distracting way, delaying my answer long enough to make her rethink her question, but I nodded.

"Uhm... sure. I was just going to read it and put it back, anyway." I mumbled.

She grinned and pulled me to sit down in a nearby alcove, the stiff chairs suddenly not bothering me as much as normal. "Alright, well, I'm doing my thesis on Sacred Geometry, and it's importance to the ancient cultures of the world! What about you?"

I blinked slowly. "Thesis? You're starting your Thesis in September?"

She blushed delicately. "It'll take a while. I have it all planned out already! It'll probably end up the length of a novel, honestly."

"Maybe you'll publish it." I smiled a little, then flinched, realizing I'd made a joke that she probably wouldn't laugh at, which was always mortifying.

She bulldozed right over my expectations. "Maybe I will! I think it'll be groundbreaking!" She glowed with happiness and confidence, making my eyes, sensitive to her increased aura, sting a bit.

I nodded slowly. "Well... Uhm... this book isn't really the one, if you want good information about Sacred Geometry... a few good ones are 'Fibonacci's Spiral: The Alpha And Omega', Uhm... 'God's Amongst Us: The Life and Death of the Icons; an Anthology of the lives of prominent mathematicians', another good one is 'The Lines of Fate: DaVinci's Last Words', or 'The Silence of The Numbers: A Mathematical Thriller on the Subject of Sacred Geometry'." I recommended a few off the top of my head.

She blinked, then scrambled for a notebook, writing the last one, then asking me to repeat the others, breathlessly. I complied, along with the names of the authors, and the specific chapters that contained information that might assist her.

She looked at me with Awe, something that made me supremely uncomfortable. "Do you have that thing, the... Uhm!?!? Photo memory?"

"Ah... no, I only remember everything I read." 'Thank the Gods for that...'

She nodded. "That's awesome! Studying must be easy for you, huh?" She grinned happily.

"No, I study like a normal person, I think... just because I can recite the lesson doesn't mean I understand it any better than you or anyone else." I explained.

"Oooh, that makes since... well that's still cool. Let's read the pages I need from this one, though, before I go looking for the others." She opened the book to page 314, and I hummed at her choice.

"Impressive..." I murmured on accident.

"What?" She asked, having not heard me.

"Hmm? Oh, I said, Uhm... Impressive? Your choice, it was a good passage to quote." I mumbled, uncomfortable with her so close.

She smiled warmly, and her aura turned a bright pink, which meant she was happy and embarrassed at the same time. "Oh! Well, thanks, then!"

Before I responded, a deep Ringing sounded.

—

I slapped my alarm, and sat up, groaning. "A dream within a dream? Fucking Sight..." I growled, and stepped out of my bed, cracking my back. The ringing hadn't stopped, I realized, and as I stepped forward, I found myself back in my bed.

I slapped the alarm again, and the ringing didn't stop.

"Oh fuck... who did I piss off?" I muttered, thinking of all the beings I'd pissed off, lately.

The fourth time around, the seventh layer of my dream, I finally made it to the door, the ultimate source of the ringing.

I opened it, and gazed down at the boy in front of me. "Sorry, not buying any newspapers, kid." I closed the door.

The ringing started again, and I groaned, opening it again. Now, a tall woman stood next to him. She smiled forcibly, and I sighed. "Dear gods help me if you're a tax collector..." I muttered in Greek.

She didn't drop her smile, instead holding out a hand to shake. "I am Ms. Jane, from-"

"If you say Jehovah's witness, I swear to Athena that I will promptly kick you off my porch." I sighed heavily.

The kid snickered, then saw me looking, and stopped.

The woman's smile wobbled a bit. "Sir, May we Talk in a way That does not involved a door?"

I closed the door in her face, and pulled on some pants, then opened it again. Her smile was entirely gone, now.

"Come on in. I can make some tea, if this is important to you, or coffee, if it's important to me." I sighed.

She smiled again, and stepped in, sniffing once.

"It's not a mess, nor does it stink. Just because I'm a bachelor doesn't mean I'm a pig." I snapped at her, and sat down at my kitchen table.

She blushed a bit, her aura showing her embarrassment, and I looked away, to preserve her privacy.

The kid hadn't sat down. "Take a Seat, if you like. Drink?" I pointed a thumb over my shoulder, at the bar, and grinned.

He smirked, and sat down while the woman frowned at men

"It was a joke, G.I.Jane, chill out a little." I shrugged.

He snorted, then held it in again.

"You got something against laughing, man? Let it out. My jokes ain't for my health!" I grinned.

He shrugged.

"Alright then. If that's how it is... now, Miss Jane, what do you and your son want? Have I pissed off an alphabet agency? Men in Black recruiting in Miami, now?" I gestured at her black pantsuit.

That make him bark out a bit of laughter, though he quickly squashed it.

She sighed. "I am with child protective services-"

"Oh okay, I get it. Look, If I was a bit rough, throwing those little miscreants out of my house, it wasn't my intention, Alright? They broke my Mother's Urn, What was I supposed to do, ask them kindly to leave?!?" I groaned.

She blinked. "No, I-... I had no idea, this is unrelated. You might need that cup of coffee, sir."

I raised an eyebrow, then looked at the kid again. He raised an identical eyebrow, (though the red color was a bit off-putting,) and I lurched backwards, out of my seat and onto the ground.

He laughed openly, now, at least.

"Fucks sake!!! That's not possible! He might be a-a-a Cousin! Yeah, I have lots of cousins! You're looking for one of them!" I snapped, leaning against the wall for support.

The woman sighed. "Your name is 'Athenos Axiom Parthenos', yes?" She struggled through my name.

"No fuckin' way..." I breathed, starstruck.

"And you know a woman by the name of 'Alexia Adrian Peterson'?" She continued.

I sat back down slowly. "Okay... okay. This is starting to... make a little sense. Only a little, though. How old is he? How old are you?" I asked the kid, confused.

"13." He said shortly, and moved a bit of his well-tailored red bangs out of his face.

"Fuckin' Hell..." I breathed, and rubbed my face tiredly, then got up and started a pot of coffee.

"Ahem... Yes, well, she informed us that she never told you about her pregnancy, so I'm sure this is a shock, sir-"

"Did she say WHY?" I growled, leaning against my spotless marble counter.

"She was very vague, actually, but we couldn't exactly press her for details, in her condition." She shook her head.

"Condition?" I asked.

She nodded, and lowered her voice, as the boy looked away. "Well, She was in the ICU, at the time, in the Oxford Medical Center, in uptown London. She is receiving the best of all medical care available, rest assured."

"What... happened?" I asked slowly, in case she was stupid, and just doing her job as best she could.

"Ah... I am not at liberty to discuss-"

"She got stabbed. The knife had some crud on it, and she got sick, even after the wound healed." The boy said, interrupting her.

"Damn, blood poisoning... that's nasty, but she'll pull through... so why is- that is, why are you here?" I asked him directly.

"The doctors say she has to stay for observation, for the next three months. So I have to stay with a relative. She sent me here to you, with G.I.Jane." He smirked at the nickname.

She sighed. "Well, there it is. So may I examine the premises, to make sure there's a space he can stay in comfortably?"

I hummed and looked at him directly. "I can clean up my computer room, I guess... has a bed in there. It's a single, but that won't be a problem for you, Yeah? Three hots and a cot, right?"

I cursed myself for using one of the things she'd liked to say. 'All's I need to be comfy is Three Hots and a Cot!' Her voice echoed in my head from the dream.

His eyes widened. "You really do know her, then?"

"Did. Past tense." I shook my head, and took my coffee off the cradle, pouring a mug, then offering some to him. "Coffee?"

"You really shouldn't give coffee to him, it's bad for-" she started.

"Woman, As an Internationally Licensed Medical Doctor, Physician, and Part-Time Heart Surgeon, I can inform you, with the proper authority, that coffee doesn't do anything bad to children's health, after about 4 years of age, and I'd appreciate if you never attempted to inform me about medical matters which you have only learned as Hearsay." I snapped at her icily.

She flinched at the tone of my voice, and I softened it. "Now, unless he is diabetic, the coffee won't hurt him. If anything, it'll do wonders for the bags under his eyes, and the Jet Lag, from here to London."

He shook his head. "I'm not diabetic. But I prefer-"

"Green Tea, extra citrus, right?" I reached into my fridge, and tossed him a bottle.

He caught it, and frowned. "How long did you know my mum?"

"Hmm... since my freshman year of college... dated her for about seven and a half years... then she disappeared after she graduated with her doctorate, back to England. Never talked to me again. Figured she was just done with her college sweetheart, honestly. Didn't think..." I gestured at him wordlessly.

He nodded. "I guess you couldn't really have known. I didn't even know you were American."

"I live in America now, yes, but I'm Greek, and I met your mother in a college in Jamaica, where I lived while we were together. I moved here last summer, and to Laos, to continue my medical school, before that." I shook my head.

He blinked. "Oh. Well, that's interesting."

"Mm. I'll show you the house?" I looked at both of them, and strode through my room, to a door I had stealthily summoned. It led to a room filled with some game consoles, a PC, and a bed, with a few bags of tools on one of the three desks, along with a few computers, taken apart and their guts spilled across the empty space.

I took my spare doctor's satchel, showing the woman. "I sometimes keep my spare satchel in here. For emergencies. Far better than a simple first-aid kit."

I tossed it onto the counter of my bathroom, and showed them both the bathrooms, mine and the one in his new bedroom.

"Anything else?" I asked the woman.

She nodded. "Only one thing left, the fridge. He is vegetarian, so I hope you can accommodate that?"

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're a vegetarian, or your mother is, and you eat the same rabbit food as she does, until you can snag a burger while she's not looking?"

He shrugged. "I eat meat sometimes. I don't care either way."

"Alright, then." I nodded, and showed her the fridge. "I can buy more veggies, if I need to. I have a good amount."

She hummed, and nodded. "Alright, that's everything about living conditions... now I'd like to just ask a few questions?"

"I haven't had a partner in about two weeks, no, I never bring them home, I don't party a lot, I don't drink much alcohol, I don't do drugs, and my working hours are pretty normal, for a doctor." I answered all the questions I could think of, from a previous piece of paperwork I'd read, off the top of my head.

She blinked, and started checking boxes in her little notebook. "Okay... then what about medical history? His mother never filled out yours-"

"My family has a history of heart attacks, but not heart disease, and high cholesterol, because of our cultural diet, lots of pork and mutton. No cancer, and no sickle-cell or anemia." I answered again.

She nodded, checking more boxes. "And what about mental diseases? Schizophrenia, OCD, Aspergers?"

I raised an eyebrow slowly. "Two of those aren't mental illnesses, and the answer is no, to Schizophrenia and Aspergers, for my immediate family, but I am diagnosed with OCD, as was my mother and one of her sisters, so it's 1/12, as of now, for members of my family with and without." I answered tightly, annoyed.

She nodded. "Perfectly fine... Alright, last question, and then he's in your care for 3 months! What do you do for a living? I can see your criminal record and bills and such, but you don't have a listed place of work?"

"I have my own practice, as a surgeon. I travel, and deal with people's medical issues." I answered honestly.

"And that won't be an issue, not traveling for three months?" She asked.

"Hmm? He can come with, it's no trouble. They're only day-trips. I leave all the longer trips for weekends, usually, but I can leave off until fall." I sighed, thinking about all the projects I would have to put on hold.

"Oh... alright, then mode of transportation? Bus, train, Cab?" She asked.

"Car? Didn't you see it, when you pulled up?" I pointed vaguely outside, at the beat-up-but-beautiful '65 Fastback I had acquired at great expense, from a Lich in in Detroit who liked to collect one of every type of car in the world. I had traded him a limited-edition Aston Martin.

"The... American Muscle, I believe it's called?" She scrunched up her nose.

"You're welcome to walk to the airport." I said dryly.

She shook her head. "I'm taking the rental car back, actually. I suppose any form of transportation is acceptable... well, that concludes your interrogation! Alright, James, you have my number, and the hospital's, as well, so you can call me or them, and we'll come get you within a few hours, Okay?"

He nodded, and she smiled a bit, carrying in two large suitcases, then driving away swiftly.

"She didn't even close the door. Hmph." I closed the door, shaking my head.

I sat back down with my coffee, and looked at him, standing awkwardly near his bags. "Don't worry about it, man. She'll be fine. I could tell you more, if I had her blood screenings, but with the information I've been given, she'll pull through, no doubt."

"Alright?" He asked, confused.

"So take a seat, eat some breakfast, drink some tea. You're no Good to her, tired and hungry." I shrugged.

He shrugged and sat down, cracking the seal on the green tea.

After he'd taken a sip, I nodded. "Alright. Now how much did your mother tell you about me? For real?"

He shook his head. "Almost nothing. She didn't like me to mention you. Just said that she knew you a long time ago, and you didn't want to meet me."

I snorted. "That's a Low I never expected from her... I always wanted kids. She's the one who didn't want kids. Insisted on birth control and condoms and stuff."

He blinked. "Seriously? You're not screwing with me?"

"Nope. I've lost count of how many times I've tried to have kids, but it's never worked out. I thought I was Sterile, actually, because of how much I've tried, and never succeeded... except, apparently, the one time it really mattered." I gestured at him casually, and sipped my coffee.

He cringed. "Ew."

"You don't know 'Ew'. Wait until I tell you about digging around inside someone's rectum to find their car-keys." At his incredulously disgusted face, I shrugged, explaining. "I'm a traveling doctor. I see some weird shit."