Here’s a little something I’ve been working on.
__________________________________________
Shortfic Eric Morgan pairing. 3577 words. Chapter 1/10.
__________________________________________
Eric ran his hand from one side of Morgan’s taut stomach to the other one, slowly trying to feel his daughter move inside.
“How long does this last?” He heard Aleks whisper from the other side, he was sitting next to Morgan in one of the large blue cushioned chairs in the auditorium in Erudite. Eric looked at his side and watched Aleks be sushed by Morgan, he looked down and leaned his head to her stomach.
Morgan placed a hand on his hair and pulled it out of his face, placing the other hand on top of Eric’s and moving it to her side, he felt a tap on his palm, his daughter saying hi.
“It should be finishing soon” she whispered back, then gave Aleks a kiss on the temple.
Eric looked ahead, finding Myra give the analytics and the results of a research they had launched for this new device, it was supposed to be an upgrade from the simulation chairs. This new equipment was meant for the person to be standing still, slightly leaned back on a gurney type set up, to the side there was a computer, and a suspended tray to the other one.
“While the research in how the instrument would affect the human mind, we came across a revolutionary discovery. The machine, besides working perfectly in simulation, can also allow the participant to enter into a reality in which a decisive choice in their life wasn’t made, creating a split on the reality they now know. Of course, this machine has only worked with Erudite workers to perfect it to the last detail in its programing, but now, the Head Leader of Dauntless, Eric Coulter, has offered himself as a volunteer to testify to you the wonder of this new piece of technology, and how it works in the mind of a member from a different faction”
She motioned at him while the room applauded. Eric stood up slowly, and before walking to the middle of the room he gave Morgan one small kiss. He gave him a smile in return and clapped along the rest of the attendees, mostly Erudite researchers along with a few members of each faction in representation.
He walked to the middle of the room with decisive steps, being surrounded by Erudite helpers who made him stand on the lower step of the gurney, then tilted it back slightly while pressing electrodes to his chest and neck, his heart beat sounded from the computer next to him, surprisingly steady.
“The experience can be a little disturbing, we’ve programed a watch with the amount of time you will have inside the machine, for us it will be five minutes, but to you, I’ve programed an hour, would you like me to lower down the time?” Myra asked, taking a syringe with a magenta liquid in it.
Eric shook his head no, and slowly Myra lowered down the needle to his arm, he relaxed as the liquid entered his bloodstream and instantly began to feel the effect.
“If your heart rate increases, we will also take you out of the sim-”
Eric slowly leans on his forearms, lifting his chest from the bed. He’s in dauntless, but not in his house, not the house he had with Morgan, it’s his old apartment. Next to him, there’s a blonde woman, sleeping.
In the distance, he hears a baby cry, making the woman stir and turn around, giving him her back.
“Shut that kid up would you?” She mumbled.
Eric frowns and stands up, he’s wearing sleeping pants and a shirt, something he would never use to sleep, not if he had a woman still sleeping next to him.
He walked out of his bedroom, finding his old office still with an office desk in the side, but now it has a crib, the baby is still howling and crying, trashing around.
Eric leans into the crib and looks down, his heart squeezes, finding out the baby is a little girl, given by the pearls on her earings. He scoops her out of the crib and pressed her to his chest, slowly shushing her and moving himself around, making her calm down.
The other woman, whoever she is, didn’t came forward to take care of what he assumed was her child, and that instantly got him in a bad mood.
He walks to the bedroom again and tears the cover from her sleeping form, roughly grabbing her by the arm and shaking her awake.
“Get the fuck up and come take care of my daughter” he comanded.
She stands up with a huff and takes the baby from his arms, walking to the kitchen.
“So much for your daughter, I didn’t think you’ll actually give a shit about her. Me taking care of her isn’t part of our arrangement, I just had her because it what we agreed on” she complained, looking into the fridge to find a bottle of baby formula, heating it up beforehand.
What arrangement? They had agreed to have a baby? If she didn’t take care of her who did? Him? That couldn’t be, he should still be the head leader in dauntless.
“I hope you’ve reported with Jeanine, otherwise you need to get off your ass and do so”
She put the baby down on the crib, tilting the bottle up her mouth and keeping it up with a pillow. As soon as she turned around and walked past him, he walked to the baby and picked her back up, feeding her himself.
“I don’t have time for any of this, I was supposed to meet up with Gregg half hour ago”
“Who the fuck is Gregg?” He asked, turning around and looking at her get into a short short and a crop top.
She frowned when she finished and grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the bedside table
“My boyfriend” she said with an obvious tone. She placed a cigarette in her lips and intended to light it up
“The fuck do you mean you have a boyfriend” he said walking to her into the bedroom, when Eric asked about the boyfriend, she took the cigarette out and gave him a confused frown.
“Eric, you’ve know about my boyfriend for months, I don’t tell you anything when I come home and find you with one of your whores jumping on your dick” she lighted up the cigarette and walked past him “did you fall and hit your head last night?”
Eric swatted away the cigarette smoke away from his baby, seeing that he was still holding her.
Like a ton of bricks, the memories hit him.
The moment he saw her first, her name was Briana, Erudite transfer.
The moment Jeanine came to threaten him, telling him he would lose his spot in dauntless leadership with a trial of treason to the faction system that would surely grant him his death.
The moment he agreed, and she told him he would have to for a pairing with the Erudite transfer they sent in. How they would have to maintain a normal relationship, and how Briana was going to be the main courier of information between dauntless and Erudite.
The moment he realized that the fight against divergents was still a thing, that the had to identify the divergents and take them to Erudite for inhumane experimentation.
The explicit moment Briana told him that Jeanine had demanded of them to have a child to put some more strength into the image they gave to the outside world, to the other factions and their own.
The moment he remembered how Briana didn’t take care of herself while still pregnant.
The moment that had never happened, he never met Morgan.
That was the decision he never made, or Morgan never made.
A slam on the door pulled him out of his memories, and he looked down at his baby to find her fast asleep. Laurelei. At least he had that coincidence with his actual life.
He left her in the safe care of the dauntless nanny they had, she was apparently the one who took care of her all day.
He walked to the dauntless records and began searching.
Was Morgan the one who never transferred? Or was he the one who never met her?
With fast taps on the keyboard he looked for her in the database. Nothing, she wasn’t here.
He took a trip to Erudite by train, and while on the way he thought of how his life was in this reality.
He never met Morgan, so he never married her, therefore, he continued to be his usual dick self. He’d gotten tired of Jeannine’s constant requests and means to get him to work with her. One of the many girls they had sent in was actually his couple now, they had a child both of them didn’t want. Briana was a fucking bitch, and he was his old asshole uncaring selfish self.
He couldn’t believe how much his life was affected by just meeting Morgan.
He jumped off the train and walked into Erudite HQ. He didn’t know where Morgan would be if she was here, what would she be good at in Erudite?
He walked aimlessly around the quarters, not wanting to attract any more attention that would get him kicked out.
He stopped dead in his tracks when he found her, writing on a clipboard.
Instantly he felt aroused, because he never thought Morgan would look that hot in Erudite attire, and specially in glasses.
She pushed them up the bridge of her nose and gave the girl next to her a nod.
She walked, still looking back at her clip of papers and towards him, he saw her walk by, her ponytail moving with the pace of her hips.
“Morgan” he called. She kept walking. Of course, Morgan was not Morgan, she wasn’t called that in this reality. “Emily” he called again.
This time she turned around and gave him a look, pressing her clip to her chest.
“How may I be of assistance sir?” She asked. Fuck him wasn’t she hot when she called him sir.
“You didn’t transfer to Dauntless” he said. She gave him a smirk and then laughed.
“Shouldn’t you be hunting for divergents Mr Coulter?” She asked, avoiding the question.
“Em, you got the chart with the results of the divergents to the new serum?”
Eric moved his eyes, and his blood boiled.
“Should’ve know you would end up with this prick” he said, clenching his fist and walking to Cris, Morgan’s ex in his normal reality.
“Excuse me?” He asked, looking at Eric, then at Morgan. He was about to talk to her again, but Eric lounged to him and grabbed him by the soles of his click blue jacket “I’m calling security” he said.
Eric pulled him to his face, fisting his jacket.
“I don’t want you to go near her, I know what you’ve done to her” he said.
Cris looked to the side and to Morgan.
“What the fuck have you told him?” He spouted at her.
In this reality, and even in his real one, no one was allowed to speak to Morgan like that, and if this was a simulation either way, he might as well give this asshole the beatdown he never could back on the day, when Morgan was just in initiation.
Cris pushed him back and looked at Morgan with an angry frown.
“You wait until I tell your father about you talking about our arrangement” he said roughly grabbing Morgan by the arm and pulling her to the elevator doors.
Eric felt his blood boil some more, but before he could take a walk to stop him, he felt himself be tackled to the ground by Erudite security, which were normal dauntless guards in service of Erudite. Eric trashed, and he felt his stomach turn in rage when he looked up again and saw Morgan being pushed into the elevator, a scared look on her face, and when she turned around, Cris stamped the back of his hand on her cheek.
Eric lounged forwards as he grunted in rage, trying to break free from the guards.
The beeping on his side had increased erratically, showing his heartbeat. He was breathing in and out heavily, and looked around.
Morgan was looking back at him with a frown, Aleks as well.
The gurney tilted back to a standing position and the Erudite helpers took out the electrodes from his neck.
“So, how did it feel? How did you perceive the world?” Myra asked
Eric cleared his throat and ran a hand on his neck, he looked at it to find it damped with cold sweat.
“Everything was real, the sounds, the smell, the touches, as if it was here. I was aware it wasn’t my world, but I retained memories from my life in there”
“And how was your life in there?” She asked. Eric looked at Morgan again.
Myra let out a little nervous laugh and pressed her hand to his arm, pushing him slowly back to his seat.
“But it can’t be like that for all people, the machine adapts to the different memories from the different participants, making it an instrument to explore a thousand different realities” she explained. “Thank you so much for your dauntless”
Eric nodded, and the people in the room applauded, standing up closing the presentation.
Morgan met him halfway, holding Aleks by the hand, waddling to him, Eric reached out to touch her stomach.
He felt Morgan’s hand on his neck, touching the sweat in it.
“Are you okay?” She asked, Eric let out a big breath and looked down at Aleks, picking him up on his arm, he rounded Morgan’s waist with his arm and pulled her to his side, walking out.
Once in the dauntless truck, Eric pulled Aleks to his lap and turned on the truck, Aleks liked to drive with him.
“I drive!” Aleks celebrated while he put the truck on drive. Eric drove back, keeping Aleks and the truck steady. He placed his hand in Morgan’s thigh.
“How was it in there?” She asked, holding Eric’s hand.
“A fucking nightmare Morgan. I’m never going back in there”
He parked on the garage of dauntless and hopped off, landing Aleks on the floor and watching him run ahead. Morgan circled the truck and waited for him to come around.
He wasn’t himself after that, he had memories mixed of his life in the machine, and his life here.
He sat in the love seat of their bedroom, overlooking the city and slowly sipping a glass of whiskey.
“Boop” Morgan said, gently touching his arm with her belly, Eric leaned his cheek to her stomach, feeling Morgan’s hand on her neck. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Eric leaned back and invited her to seat in between his legs, Morgan pushed her back to his chest, allowing Eric to place his hand on her stomach.
“Everything was fucked. I was fucked.” He slowly circled his hand around her stomach, hoping his baby girl was awake in there to feel it. “You were never in dauntless, you never transferred. I had a girl I was paired with, one of the Erudite girls I told you about, to keep me in check with Erudite and our agreement.” He stopped, and tried to remember anything else, the memories he had vividly inside the machine weren’t that easy to access anymore. “I had a baby, a girl.” He continued circling on Morgan’s stomach “she wasn’t as beautiful as this one will be because she wasn’t yours, she was that other bitche’s, a slut who doesn’t care about her. And I didn’t care about her”
He shook his head and sighed, pressing his cheek to Morgan’s head
“But it wasn’t a younger version of me, it was still me, and you were still as old as you are. It’s as if it’s another reality, like what would’ve happened if you never transferred and we never met”
“It’s because it was. It is another reality, but that only exists when you’re in there to live it”
“No” he shook his head “things were still progressing, in real time” Eric could still faintly hear his daughter cry in her crib. “What’s happening to that kid now? Am I still the same old me in there when I’m not living there but here?”
Morgan pulled to sit straight and looked back at him.
“Eric, this is the only reality you’re living in, the thing in the machine is a figment of your imagination”
“But who’s in there to protect that kid?” He asked with a little broken voice “that is my kid in there”
“Eric, your only two kids are out here” she tried to reason with him.
“I know, but the other reality is still embedded in my mind, I can’t turn my back on this. I can’t turn my back on you, you need me in there”
“I need you out here more than in there” she fought, standing up “oh my God are you seriously saying you want to go in there and protect that kid and a version of me that doesn’t exist?”
“They exist to me” he said standing up as well. “Morgan if you went in there and saw how your life turned out to be you would want me to go back in there and help”
“And how was my life in there?”
“You were in Erudite, in some kind of arrangement with your dad and that dickhead ex boyfriend of yours, Cris, and he still beats you up, in public”
Morgan’s eyes moved away from his and she touched her stomach, feeling her girl kick. Eric placed his hand on hers and leaned to look down at her.
“Morgan it’s weighting down on my conscience, if I was there for only five minutes… I just need five more, I have to do something”
“If you uh” she cleared her throat and spoke a little more convinced “if you feel like it’s more important to save the world on that reality than to spend your time with me, with Aleks, our real family, then be my guest” she motioned at the door and pulled Eric’s hand from her stomach, walking out of the bedroom.
Eric hated himself for making Morgan think she wasn’t that important, that he would rather be somewhere else than here.
He walked behind her, holding her by the hand and pulling her to his chest.
“Morgan is not like that” he said, holding her by the waist and feeling her stomach touch his.
“I can’t explain it to you unless you enter and see it for yourself, everything is real, everything you feel is real, and I can’t stand to watch you be miserable in there, I had to see you get dragged into an elevator and be bitch slapped. And I know it wasn’t really you in there but not even in my dreams I can let anything happen to you. Just five minutes it’s all I ask. And it’s not like I’m going in there to fuck some chicks, I’m going in to help you”
Morgan sighed and looked down, clearing her throat again.
“Did I really got beaten by Cris?”
“He called you Em, maybe you two are a thing? Maybe your dad’s got you threatened, I don’t know Morgan you’re in trouble”
“My name is Emily?” She asked with a little snort, turning around “was I at least hot in Erudite?”
He held her by the waist and pulled her back to her chest, smiling and kissing her neck.
“You have no idea how fast you made me hard” he said on her ear. “you and your little blue skirt and your glasses” he bit on her neck and gave it a quick kiss “I still like how you are now, I bet you don’t have any tattoos in Erudite form”
“Tattoos are a dauntless thing” she pulled Eric’s hands away from her waist and gave him a smile “okay, you can go and save me in there, but the first sign I see you getting to anxious to go back in there to be with Erudite me, I’m cutting the shit alright? This is the only version of me you’re allowed to love” she pointed at herself.
Eric gave her a smile as he leaned in to cup her cheeks.
“This is the only version of you I love. And I promise, I just want to make things right, I can’t stand to turn my back on this, even if it isn’t real”
“Okay” she said “we can have the machine transported here and I can get a little course on how to put you under, to make sure it’s only the two of us in the room”
“Thank you” he said in a sigh, pulling her I again and kissing her shoulder, then her neck and her jaw. “I just feel like I have to be with you in every reality to wake up, I’m still not engaging in that world. I’ve given up, I gave up and let Jeanine control me and I don’t want that”
“And we’re not letting her” she said, hugging him back by the shoulders.
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
