Dream?


 
Author: Eileen Thomson

E-Mail: indigotoast@yahoo.com

Summary: Nick's dream… or is it? Just another flight of fantasy.

Author's Note: Gladiator- Russell Crowe Wolverine- Hugh Jackman. I
put this is because maybe there are some who don't go to the movies.
For all the time and patience Suz and Linda show me, thank you. Next
one is a Nicfic…I Promise.

--+--
 

Nicholas Fallin :The pacifist and thinker. Crrck's choice

Nick wearily climbs the stairs to his house. *Home sweet home* he
thinks, thoroughly despondent. *This must be among the saddest days
I've ever had.* Temper runs hot and fiery through his veins. The
last case he had had at LSP had turned his stomach. *How can people
treat their children that way? The amount of pain in the eyes of
that young girl was appalling. Now, at last I can see what a child
without love really is. I had it easy!* Opening the front door, Nick
feels his spirits flag. The empty silence in his home folds around
him and drapes over his shoulders like a wet cloak. Its times like
this he worries most about a relapse into the drug culture.
Depression and sorrow mingle to bring him down. Running upstairs, he
quickly undresses and, putting on shorts, he goes to the spare room.
He has just installed a StairMaster exerciser and tonight seems to
be a good time to start.

Tilting the machine back to the most difficult position, he starts
to slowly build up speed. Emptying his mind, he fixates on the
burning sensation in his muscles. Arms and legs moving in unison,
Nick feels the sweat run in rivulets down the centre of his muscular
back. *Twenty minutes and I'll have done enough for the first night.
Maybe this will break threw my misery.* Breathing in sharp gasp,
Nick watches the clock. After the allotted time, he slows and then
stops. His temper has not abated and he wearily heads for the shower.

With a heavy heart Nick lies down on top of the bed. Dressed now in
white boxers and a sleeveless t-shirt, he burrows his head into the
pillow. His eyes droop and the darkness of blessed rest creeps up to
wash him clean.

He feels the start of the fall and, gasping for air, he endeavors to
wake, but the fall is fast and furious. He is afraid to pry open his
eyes. *If I don't wake up I'll die when I land.* That thought rushes
into his mind and he thrashes round in an attempt to rouse himself.
Suddenly he feels ground beneath him as he lands with a
soft `thwack'. Still on his back, he carefully opens his eyes and
looks up toward the sun. The sky is bright purple, the color of a
fading bruise, giving an odd hot reflection onto the earth. There
are no `clouds' and the effect is frightening -- and painful -- to
look at. *God, I've got a concussion because of the fall.* As soon
as the thought passes through his brain, he sits up and looks round.
The earth he sits on is deep red and flat. There seems to be no rise
or fall in the lay of the land. He can see for miles. Nick lifts
some of the earth and sifts it through his long elegant fingers.
It's soft and fine like talcum powder. There is plant life here, but
it is in the shape of white stunted trees and they have thousands of
stringy fronds hanging down from the crooked branches. *Well, Nick,
you're not in Kansas any more!*

~*~

Maximus :Warrior and statistician. Nrrt's choice.

Sent into the arena alone, Maximus finds he must fight with a
soldier from his own troop. Together they had served Emperor
Aurelius. The soldier immediately had laid down his sword and
refused to take arms against his commander.

"Pick it up and stand back to back with me," Maximus had told
him. "They will send in others to kill us. We will fight this last
day together."

The young soldier now lies dead and seven other Roman centurions
with him. The crowd roars their approval of Maximus, and again he is
forced to walk between the guards back to the barracks. The crowds
cheer him all the way.

Trying to force him to fight with one of his own has made Maximus
seethe with anger. As he returns from the arena, he catches sight of
a Roman general. He berates him for allowing this to happen. "What
happened to the valor of the Roman officers? Have you no pride?" he
shouts. Maximus tries to approach the General and his shouting turns
quickly into an altercation. Soldiers crowd into the narrow
corridors in the underground area where the gladiators are housed.
Surrounding Maximus and not allowing him room to lift his weapon,
they beat him back and force him into a cell. Quickly locking the
door they leave him to simmer in a murderous rage against the one
person who has brought him to this way of life.

He curls up on the floor, still holding his bloody sword and wearing
full battle dress. He breathes deeply and lets his mind wander to
better times with his wife and son. Their faces are still crisp
and clear in his mind. Sleep curls round him like a mist in the
night. It drifts over him, leeching out the pain and hurt of the day.

His fall is swift and harsh. He shouts in fear as he plunges
relentlessly towards the earth. He is still shouting when he lands
with a jolt. Jumping up sword ready for battle, he espies a graceful
blond man walking towards him. The red earth puffs at his every
step. He is very oddly dressed. He prays quickly to Mithras to watch
over him and, lifting his sword in greeting, he goes to meet the
stranger. The red earth and the purple sky have no effect on him. He
knows this is a dream and eventually he will wake from it.

~*~


Wolverine: The loose cannon. Brrrck's choice.

*Xavier is a prick! Xavier is a prick!* this thought is all that is
keeping Wolverine from imploding. Xavier has been throwing harsh
words at him all day. He and Storm had fought a monumental battle on
the desert dunes with Sabretooth and Megenta. The fight had left
Storm unconscious, and Wolverine bloodied and whimpering in the
sand. He had lost control of the young mutant boy he had been sent
to protect. Magenta had stepped in to protect Sabretooth when it
became clear that he would not overcome Wolverine. Bonding the
knives in his hands to the truck, Magenta had simply walked over and
removed the boy from him, laughing at his feeble attempts to free
himself. The young lad was now in the hands of their enemies.
Running round and round the school building, Wolverine struggles to
conquer his feelings of hatred for Xavier and the control he has
over him.

When his legs can no longer carry him, he staggers into the building
and Rogue comes to meet him. "It wasn't your fault. We should all
have been there. We knew Magenta would ambush you somewhere along
the line."

"I don't need protection," Wolverine snarls. "They ambushed me and I
was taken unawares. It could have happened to anyone." He turns to
leave but, then having second thoughts, he spits out, "If it had
been any of you, you would have been killed. I fought my way clear."
Spitting with temper, he mutters, "I'll get the boy back."

Standing in the shower, he soaps his hairy torso and reflects on the
day. *I've had better ones,* he thinks. *Damn, Megenta doesn't play
fair. That's the only reason I lost that boy.*

Bone weary and dressed in just shorts, he sprawls on the bed and
waits for time to pass until dinner. His eyes slowly close and he
snuggles down into the covers as sleep presses down on his thoughts,
wiping away all the troubles of the day.

The fall has the impression of floating and he feels no fear or
trepidation. Gliding to the ground he lands with a slight bump. He
turns on to his side and opens his eyes. In the distance he sees two
other men coming towards him. One is dressed in a Centurion outfit
and one dressed in what looks like shorts and a t-shirt. *Fancy
dress?* he thinks. *I'll talk to them, they might know what is
happening.* Wolverine is not known as the brightest in the pack and
feels the need to be led. Rolling onto his back he wriggles in the
soft soil, then gets up and heads towards Nick and Maximus.

~*~

"You're in my dream!" Nick says calmly and forcefully to
Maximus. "Don't you understand? You're a fictional character. You
were invented for a movie!"

"I have the blood of a Roman centurion on my blade, I am real and
you are in MY dream." Maximus is red faced and shouting at
Nick. "And what in Mithras name is a movie?"

"Hey, guys. Isn't this the coolest dream I'm having? Just look at
this place. How did I ever imagine it?" Wolverine eventually says,
finding a space to wedge a sentence into the conversation.

Stopping, Nick turns and faces both men. "Let me tell you what is
happening." His tone is reasonable and quiet. "I went to bed
overtired and hurting. I fell into this place. Now, I know you both
find this hard to believe, but you are both fictional characters.
You," he says, pointing at Maximus, "are from the movie Gladiator.
And you," he indicates Wolverine, "are from X-Men the movie and
comic book. I am a lawyer and I live in Pittsburgh. This is MY dream
and I don't know why you're both in it."

A sharp noise enters Nick's head and he howls in pain as it reaches
up the scale and threatens to explode his brain with the high
pitched whine. He feels the earth move and, in panic, he asks the
two men, "What was that? Did you feel something?"

Maximus and Wolverine are already standing with their backs together
and Wolverine has the knives extended from his knuckles. Both men
stand legs apart and knees slightly bent. Nick can see that both are
battle ready. He stands apart from them, wondering what they had
seen that he has missed.

"What is it?" Nick asks again casting his eyes in all directions and
seeing nothing. Then he feels the earth move again. This time he
notices a wave of movement just under the surface of the ground. The
noise in his head starts again and he is felled by the intensity of
the sound. On his hands and knees in the red dirt, he endures the
nausea and pain of the sharp notes as they go up and down the scale
in seemingly random variations. Nick can feel an underlying purpose
to the noises. Sometimes he thinks he can hear a strange voice, but
it is just beyond his reach.

Suddenly the ground around them erupts, and is covered as far as the
eye can see with very large insects. Measuring two feet round, they
come in varying colors of red and blue. The noise in Nick's head is
driving him slowly into the ground when it suddenly clears and he
hears the words. "Crrk is my name. You were my choice. You must help
us get back the Holy orerokore."

"The what?" Nick stands up and examines the insect that seems to be
talking to him.

"Could you tell you them to stop that?"

Nick whips round in time to see Wolverine impale one of the bluest
creatures on his knife and toss it to Maximus, who, with the broad
side of his sword, swipes it out of the area.

In his sternest tone he says, "Max…Woofie…stop that at once!"
Realizing what he has just said, Nick finds laughter bubbling up in
his throat

As the large insect moves towards Nick, he reaches blindly back and
finds his hand on Wolverines chest. Gripping the hair, he says in a
loud voice, "Woofie, if that thing looks remotely like it is going
to climb up my leg, I want you to slice and dice it."

He feels Woofie's hand on his shoulder, and he observes the knives
start to extend out from his new friend's knuckles.

"I've got your back mate." Wolverine reassures him.

"Tell all the others to go back, or at least to settle down. I don't
want any more of them to get hurt." Nick speaks to the one called
Crrk. He has surmised that they communicate the same way crickets
do, by rubbing their legs and making chirruping noises. How they
speak to him he can't figure out.

"It's the magic of the Holy orerokore." Crrk says reading his
mind. "I will bring only Nrrt and Brrrck into the discussions. They
will have to decide what will eventually be done."

"Why have we been brought here?" Maximus quietly seeths. "Answer now
or I will cut you to pieces."

Crrk settles on the ground in front of them and, folding his spider
like six legs he tells them the story of the Holy orerokore. "My
people have always kept it for safety, but now Nrrt's clan has taken
it, and we cannot decide what to do. There will be great battles and
many lives will be lost. We brought you all here through time and
imagination to guide us and to help solve our problem. Whatever you
decide we will abide by. We must not have a war."

"Whose side am I on?" Wolverine asks. "Tell me now, and I'll save
you the bother of war. I'll just go and kill them off and then you
can let me go home."

"Then we will be on opposing sides," Maximus says thoughtfully. "I
will not take arms against one of my own again. I will lay down my
life first."

"What is the Holy orerokore?" Nick asks once more. "We can't do
anything until we know all the facts and can figure out exactly what
we are dealing with."

Until this time Brrrck and Nrrt have sat quietly and allowed Crrk to
do the talking. Now Brrrck demands that Nrrt shows the visitors the
Holy orerokore, and Crrk agrees that it should be given to the three
men until their problem is solved.

Nrrt suddenly burrows under ground in a puff of red dust.

They all sit and wait patiently for him to come back. When he
reappears he is holding a large oval, football-shaped stone. It is
just a plain old rock, but perfectly smooth.

Nick reaches out his hand and, taking it in his hand, he feels
nothing special in the rock itself. It easily fits into the palm of
his hand. He is reminded of colored balls of similar size but the
thought is hazy.

"You want to fight over a stone? Are you crazy little insects or
what?" Wolverine hoots with laughter.

"Be still, you heathen. This is their Holy thing and you should not
shout in the face of the Gods. It's bad luck." Maximus pushes
Wolverine and they start to roll around in the red dust, punching
and gouging at each other. In temper, Nick tries to separate them
and is pushed easily out of their way. Getting between the men, he
blocks Wolverine trying to reach Maximus. Nick becomes entangled
with them and let's go a punch in the direction Wolverine. He
misses, and his fist connects with Maximus' mouth. Pain shoots up
his arm and blood spouts from the cuts on his knuckles.

"Stop the pair of you! Can't you see what this is? This is amazing!
Just look around you. What do you see?" Nick is in awe of the rock,
and tries to make the other two understand. "Look, this may be the
only rock on this planet. If you get down past the red dust, what do
you find?" Nick pushes the loose earth out of his way. "See, you
find hardened red dust. There *are* no rocks on this planet. This is
really an unusual object. Now stop fighting and lend your brains to
the problem of how to solve this dispute without killing anything or
anybody. I want to go home, and the sooner the better."

~*~

Crrk, Nrrt and Brrrck have gone, taking all their clans with them.
The three men wander round each with their own thoughts. Each man,
in his own way, is trying to envision a solution.

Nick plays with the fronds of the plant and wonders why he thinks of
Rusty. Something tugs at his memory again but it still won't
surface. *We have to find something that will make them want to
share this relic.* He tosses the stone up in the air and catches it,
again and again.

"Hey, toss it to me. Nick, throw it." Wolverine's voice intrudes
into his musings.

"It's not a football Woofie…but if we could…" Nick becomes silent
again as thoughts take over and his mind works out a compromise for
the inhabitants of this world. Licking his fingers, he pulls down
one of the fronds. He doubles it and wets it, binding the two pieces
together. They stick fast to each other and quickly harden in the
hot air. *This could work, but there is no water here to bind it.
The fronds must provide the insects with whatever liquid they
need.* Taking a thinner frond, Nick wraps it round two of his
fingers three times, then, taking it off, he twists it in the
middle. Making a small ball, he begins to wind the fronds into an
oval shape. Using his thumb and middle finger, he holds the `ball'
in place and turns it with his forefinger. Soon he has a replica of
the Holy orerokore.

"Look, I've got it!" He turns in time to see Maximus lift his tunic
and prepare to urinate. "Stop…stop, we need that liquid." Nick
quickly explains his plans to the other men.

"You want me to piss in my lorica? Piss in the best armor of the
Roman Empire? This is the best you can come up with? I won't do it."

"There is nothing else to hold liquid in. I would never ask you if
there was any other way." Nick can see Maximus wavering. "Do you
want to go home? This is how we will get there. Now help us, it's
the only solution."


Maximus relents and soon the three men sit on the ground and talk
while working. Nick listens to them give their own version of
reality. He concedes the two men are well worth knowing, and when
the last ball is ready, he sadly acknowledges that he will soon
loose the company of his new friends. They make more than twenty
hand- sized balls and place them in the lorica beside the others. He
can still see Rusty sitting, holding the wool for the old woman and
remembers how her bent fingers had made the oval shape.

The three men sit and, working together, they construct a large
ball. They then run round like children set free from school,
throwing the ball to each other. "Take off your shoes, Maximus. I
swear, you've broken my foot." Nick says ruefully, standing on one
leg and rubbing his ankle.

"These are my caligae. The best the army has for the troops to march
with. You all piss in my lorica and then tell me my shoes are bad? I
am beginning to dislike you, lawyer." Maximus retorts playfully.

Nick picks up the shoe and sees they are made of leather and have
hob nails driven through them to make them sturdy. "Lethal," he
murmurs.

Their game takes up the rest of the day, with them taking sides
against each other. Some of the insects join in and have fun running
between their legs tripping them up. Landing with a thud for what
seemed the hundredth time, Nick leans back on his elbows and looks
at his companions. *I'll miss them, they're good people.* Then he
stops himself mid-thought. *Boy, listen to yourself, Nick! They're
out of a movie. You're going to wake and find you've eaten something
bad and have had a crazy nightmare.*

~*~*

"You smell." Wolverine moves to sit on the other side of Maximus.

"Hey, nobody pissed on your clothes, and just in case you hadn't
noticed, we are NOT home yet." He shoots a glare glares toward Nick.

Oblivious to the complaining men, Nick explains the finer rules of
football to the three clans. What he doesn't know, he makes up. They
will play for the possession of the Holy orerokore and it will be a
fair game. The insects are happy that a solution has been found.

"This will be part of the prize," says Crrk, indicating the ball the
men had made for themselves. "This will be highly prized for our
people always." Crrk touches Nick's arm and makes a brrp sound. Nick
feels himself falling and sees the red earth coming to meet his face.

~*~

"Wake up! We've found the boy and we will get him back if we hurry."
Storm's voice registers, but Wolverine does not understand why
Maximus is talking with Storm's voice.

Wolverine is confused. He sits up in bed and looks round for
Maximus. "Where did the Gladiator go?"

"Gladiator? Get up, or Xavier will be mad. We know where the boy is.
Didn't you hear me?" Storms shrill voice is now a painful whine in
his brain.

"Okay, but did the lawyer come past here? Shit, I'm going to miss
that guy."

~*~

"Maybe I should stay here. I will only die if I go back to my
world." Maximus, still saying the words, sits up and opens his eyes.
He is back in the same dark, dank room. "Woofie… Nick, I'll miss
you," he says softly. Standing up, he pounds on the door of his cell
and calls for the blacksmith to come to him. "I want you to make me
a glove. It should have four knifes coming out of the knuckles. I
want one for each hand."


~*~

"Nicholas, Nicholas…" The pounding on the front door wakens Nick
and, groggily and weak kneed, he moves downstairs to open it.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" Nick's voice is hoarse and raspy.

"Nicholas, its afternoon, and we have been phoning every hour. What
have you been doing?" Burton eyes his son warily. Nick holds his
hand wrapped in the front of his t-shirt. "You're covered in blood!
Have you cut yourself?"

Shivering, Nick mumbles, "I had a dream and hit my hand on the
wall." Saying the words he realizes that his hand is pounding and is
very painful. He wraps it in his t-shirt and walks slowly
upstairs. "I'm going to shower."

When Nick comes downstairs dressed, Burton takes him by the
arm. "Nick, I've phoned a doctor I know at the emergency room and
I'm taking you there now." Burtons tone is uncompromising and Nick
is just too overwhelmed by fatigue the events to argue.

*It was just a dream. It had to be a dream. I have been sleep-
walking and have hurt myself. Am I going crazy?* Fever burns in
Nick's brain and runs rampant through his body as he walks into the
emergency room with help from his father.

~*~

"I will give you a course of antibiotics for the infection and you
should really be in bed." The doctor instructs the nurse to bandage
Nick's hand up. "There is just one more thing…"

Sitting in the car, Nick can hear the doctor saying the words over
and over. "Just undo your pants and let me give you this tetanus
shot. It seems your wall had teeth."

The car's wheels swishing on the wet roads echo the words. "Your
wall had teeth… your wall had teeth!"


The End


Linda tells me that tetenus injections are given in the arm. I got
one last year and had it in my hip. Thats very common over here. I
left this in because the idea of Nick dropping his pants appealed to
me. :)