Quick Author's Comments...
Okay, so this is kind of hard. I feel extremely bad for just... well, leaving this story after having gotten so many good reviews. I haven't done anything to it in 11 months (like, holy s, right?!)... and I'm going to try and get back into it. I have a novel in real life I plan on releasing soon, and I've been real busy with it, but I shouldn't have let this go. :( I let Wilbur down. So even though it might not be 12 chapters, I'm going to write a couple more. Hang in with me!

Beyond Reason

Ch. 3 - Mistakes & Miracles

He watched in complete frustration as the bubbling grey goo spilled over the sides of his flask. This wasn't right! Wilbur glanced over at his young father, seeing the blonde's own concoction turn a misty grey. "We're doing something wrong." The brown-eyed boy muttered just loud enough for the other to hear as he set the mess of an attempt down on the lab counter.

Lewis turned to match Wilbur's annoyed look, his cerulean eyes brimming with confusion. There was something in them that reflected more than determination. Wilbur respected that. Here was a teenager, fighting for his life- thirty years into the future of his own time.

The blonde wiped sweat from his face as he took off a pair of goggles and replaced them with his glasses. "I know. The second one I made had a good feeling to it, and this one just doesn't have any of that. Your try, the one that nearly worked, what did the final result look like? Or have in it?"

Wilbur's mind reeled as he struggled to bring back the experiment. "It was lime green. Dad almost wouldn't drink it because he thought it was radio-active." A slight laugh came from the tired seventeen year-old. "A lot thinner than this, too. But I can't seem to recall... what I'm doing different."

"Did you write down any of your work?"

There was a long silence.

"Oh, c'mon, Wilbur, you're kidding me! What use is that, if you don't record anything...?" Lewis huffed, blue eyes judging.

The black-haired boy scratched his head. "Honestly, now. We're talking about me. Work like writing is used in school and such... it's not the kind of thing I do everyday. Not that I fiddle in the lab everyday, either. How am I supposed to know to write stuff down?"

Wilbur was given a reply in a glare and a tap to the head that clearly meant 'common sense'.

"Well, I didn't, okay?" He scowled heavily. "Just read out the names on some of the jars, I might recognize them."

He took a seat on a stool not too far away. Lewis muttered a string of words that Wilbur couldn't hear, and stepped up to examine shelves full of jars. Wilbur was quick to realise that Lewis had grown quite a fair amount in the four years since they had met- the boy, though a year younger than him, was at least an inch taller. Whenever his growth spurt had been, it had given him quite a height.

"Um, okay, so... here we have Anscem Tazol, Juveric Hyoride, Klep... Klepk... Klep-can-vosk...? Klep-can-vosk Nitride?" The bottle read something spelled K-L-E-H-P-K-I-A-H-N-V-O-S-C-H.

"It's pronounced Klep-quan-voh-psych. Klehpkiahnvosch Nitride. I remember that one! Bring it here." Wilbur said hurriedly, looking in at the yellow powder. "Yeah, looks right. A cup of that..."

"You're just guessing?!" Lewis cried in fear. His son-to-be was just too much.

Wilbur turned to him with a grin. "Of course not. For all of my previous experiments, I only put in a cup of each base. I remember this one, so I'll put in a cup."

The blonde stared. Basic enough.

Wilbur chuckled to himself as he took his seat on the stool once more. He had to get this right. A heavy feeling weighed down his every thought lately, a constant nausea and fear swept through every dream. His mom had told him that they were visiting the hospital tomorrow. 'Tomorrow,' he thought with a pang of guilt that wanted to make him cry, 'I'm going to have to count down another day. Oh, dad...'

A comforting hand on his shoulder did little to help. Wilbur didn't know how this boy standing in front of him could have enough strength to realise the situation at face and handle it as easily and calmly as he was. "It's you!" the black-haired teen wanted to scream at his healthy, albeit much younger father. "How are you not... afraid?"

"C'mon, Wilbur. We've got to keep trying, don't give up on him yet. Well, I mean, me."

Wilbur didn't answer.

Lewis kicked the stool from underneath him, and with a grunt the black-haired mope toppled to the floor.

"Hey, that's not cool! You just wait, Lewis, I'll get you back for-"

The blonde wasn't listening to a word. Instead he was gawking at the 'stool' which had been kicked. As the blanket uncovering it slid off and a jar rolled out from underneath it, Wilbur swore.

The turquoise-colored jar, presumably and thankfully plastic, rolled out from underneath. In bold black font, the words letters 'TDP-Dust' were written across the visible side. Lewis carefully picked it up in shaking hands; it was heavy, and twice the size of his head. On the reverse side from the name, a list of seven materials used were scratched into the plastic.

"Hey Wil, think you'd recognize the stuff you used if you read the name of the counter-opposing?" Lewis asked quietly, his voice trembling with anticipation.

Wilbur scrambled from the floor.

"And lastly, Beryllium Cuoffsate."

"Bery- that must have been the one I left out! It's reverse effect element is Cytonic Cuoffsate, I didn't add that originally!" Wilbur yelled in disbelief, with a large smile plastered across his face. "What does the book say?"

"Hold on a sec..." Lewis murmered as he scrolled through a book of definitions. "Cy... okay, here it is."

The black-haired teen leapt over to the blonde as he propped the book up slightly.

" 'Cytonic Cuoffsate, 14-R' " Lewis started, blue eyes scanning quickly. " 'In powder form, also known as Cytonic Cuoffsatsa. Reduces high amounts of energy power and protects the senses of sight and taste from the effects of its opposing element, Beryllium Cuoffsate/Cuoffsatsa. When mixed with 12-D and 12-H, it may be used as an antidote for cell or nerve aggravation.' "

Wilbur looked at him blankly. "Translate it to English."

"Basically, if we mix it with the stuff we have in the brew already, it won't cancel out any of the good after-effects, but it'll cure stuff like... overreacting pain in the nerves or... or it will stop whatever is destroying his, uh, my cells."

Eyes wide, Wilbur grabbed the junior inventor's shoulders and shook him, his face breaking into a smile. "That's so right! Perfect! Okay, let's add some. That's it!"

The shock-green coloured liquid hissed a bit as the Cuoffsate was added. It formed into something a bit more dark, an emerald green that still was bright.

The two boys stared at it for a little while, before Lewis finally whispered, "Is it done?"

His son to-be looked up at him from across the counter, eyes glazed over with pure happiness. 'He can't even understand what a miracle this is. I can't believe it. Lewis... dad... thank you...'

"That is an excellent question."

When Franny came in the door at quarter after nine, she was surprised to find both the boys on the couch in their television room, fast asleep. Wilbur took up most of the couch- all of it, really, one leg dangling of the arm and the other off the side, hands lazily placed over his stomach with his head in Lewis' lap. Said blonde was resting back against the sofa, glasses askew on his face and hair ruffled.

The black-haired woman smiled sadly. She didn't want to tell them that Cornelius' health was deteriorating, fast. She rubbed her eyes and let out a sigh, before turning off the light.

"Mrs. Robinson?"

Franny turned back to see the sleepy Lewis glance at her from over the sofa. His voice was strained, and yet he tried to whisper. "Yes dear?" She asked quietly as she tip-toed over, trying not to wake her son. Lewis gave her a calm look, as if his emotion was undecided.

Then he smiled. "I think... I think we did it."

"Er- did what, dear?" She continued with a nervous smile. "Do I really want to know or is it to be kept between... um, you two...?"

Lewis didn't understand at first what this random seriousness was about, why Franny didn't- oh shoot. "N-no, not... not... eh!" The blonde squeaked, his face red. "I meant the remedy! A cure! I think me 'n Wilbur found a proper cure!"

There was a moment of complete silence, and his future wife brought her hands to her lips in shock. "You're serious? That's..." She paused, not sure what to say. Her eyes became wet and she kissed his forehead "That's... wonderful... what did Wilbur say?"

"I'm pretty sure he thinks it's perfect too. We worked on it most of the day."

Lewis smiled warmly as Franny put her face in her hands. "Thank you Lewis... so much. We'll give him some tomorrow..."

"How am I doing? Well, him."

"..."

"Mrs. Robinson?"

"It's Franny, dear. He's... not looking good. In a coma as of early this morning, the doctors said."

"Oh... I'm sorry..."

Franny gave a slight laugh and gently combed through Lewis' hair with her fingers. "No, it's me that's sorry, Lewis, we should've gotten to you earlier. I'm glad I put all my confidence in you. How did you do it?"

"By chance, really, we found the originial powdered formula for TDP. We read the ingredients and countered them, and then countered any effects that were bad from that. Scientifically in my day, there'd be no way such a thing should work, but now you've got an entirely different system of elements. Wilbur's sure of it."

"You're only in grade ten, aren't you?"

Lewis blushed. "Yes, ma'am. But I'm currently studying university third-year chemistry and physics, and I've got quite a few calculus and technology credits under my belt as well. First year university English, as well as German and French and Spanish a bit lower than that. The only reason I haven't skipped forwards is because of Phys-Ed and... well, music." He added sheepishly. Franny gave him an odd look.

"Have we started dating yet?"

"Beginning of last year. Frankie's already quite a hit, though 'yet to work on singing high notes and vowels' as you like to put it."

This rewarded him with a smile from the lady. "Nice to hear that. You wait until prom; that night is one you'll never forget." She laughed when Lewis' eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Oh calm down. And just a heads up: we do break up- twice, in fact, but you always came running back to me."

"I'm sorry, but this just turned into a really awkward conversation."

"Tell me about it," Came a disgruntled voice from Lewis' lap. Wilbur raised his head and glared at his mom. "Stop it with that, will you please? It's like you're flirting with my best friend. Ugh, creepy."

Franny grinned. "Goodnight, boys. Don't stay up too late. I've heard from Lewis here that tomorrow's going to be an important day." She turned to leave. At the stairs, she paused, and turned around again. "And really, thank you, Lewis," she added before disappearing up the steps.

The cerulean-eyed boy looked down at Wilbur. "She's got a point. Let's get upstairs. Besides, my arse is numb from not moving for so long."

"Too much information, man," Wilbur laughed as he stretched and got to his feet, offering a hand out to the blonde. Lewis accepted it, before being pulled into a heavy bear hug. He knew that not any word or phrase would be suitable for Wilbur to say right now. 'Thanks' was much too little. But apart from everything, he knew that the hug was filled with every emotion the black-haired seventeen year-old had in him at the time.

Fear, relief, worry, anticipation, love, dread, sadness, and happiness. Somehow, he knew they were all there, plus many more. Lewis hugged him back, and when Wilbur finally let go, his chocolate eyes were brimmed over with tears. It was only a few mere seconds, but Lewis thought he had seen the older reflection of himself in his son's eyes.

They turned without words, and trudged across the hall and around the stairwell to the corrider which housed Wilbur's room, silence only interrupted by their footsteps and the occasional hiccough. They took turns getting changed for bed, each having their own tonight (thankfully, Lewis thought). As the sixteen year-old folded his circular-rimmed glasses and set them carefully on a the nightstand between Wilbur's bed and the one which had been placed for him, he wondered what would happen...

...if it didn't work.

"Goodnight, Lewis." Wilbur whispered as he pulled back his sheets and slipped under, his genetic cowlick hair settling down on the pillow undisturbed. "And thanks."

Lewis grinned as he slipped into his own cozy bed. "Don't mention it. Goodnight, Wilbur."

I know. It's at least 600 words shorted than the other two chapters. But I have to make time for my head to work again. Did this in three hours! There'll be a couple more chapters. Please review, and don't give up on me yet!!

-Seya

PS- I think I need to reply the video game. ;;