A dying man is given a second chance. This story is a fan fiction that takes place in the Whateley Universe.

After writing four Whateley stories in a row, I’d planned on taking a nice break from the universe to work on other projects, but my muse had other ideas.

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The Fourth of July had always been my favorite holiday, even more than Christmas and Thanksgiving combined. It meant good weather, a parade in the morning, watching the kids play in the back yard while I manned the grill, and then sitting back to watch the fireworks while enjoying a beer and a good cigar. And above all, the Fourth of July meant spending the day with my family.

Today was the Fourth of July, the American Independence Day, and my favorite holiday of the year, but today there had been none of that. There had been no parade this morning, no picnic lunch, and no grill to flip burgers on. Tonight, there would be no fireworks, beer, or cigars. And worst of all, I wouldn’t be spending the day with my family. Instead, the only company I had was the steady beep of the heart monitor next to my bed.

This year, I was spending the Fourth of July alone, stuck in my hospital bed and waiting to die. It was cancer, which had spread through my entire body. Maybe it was too much of the beer, burgers, and cigars, or maybe it was just life in general. What I did know was that when the first symptoms had appeared, I’d ignored them and had been too stubborn to go to the doctor. By the time I did get checked out, it had been far too late.

I chuckled weakly at the irony that ‘Big Al’ Morgan would die like this, wasting away to nothing. I was six foot 3 and pretty husky, or at least I had been until the cancer got hold of me. Now I was barely a buck fifty…a hundred and fifty pounds. My breathing was pretty ragged, my entire body hurt like hell, and I felt so damn tired that I couldn’t even get up to go take a piss anymore. The doctors said I probably had a few weeks left at most.

Since I had nothing else to do, I just lay there with my eyes closed, focusing on breathing, which had become something of a task lately. My thoughts drifted back to other Fourth of July’s, ones from better days. I remembered when my wife Meg had still been alive and our kids had still been kids. The kids had been so young and innocent back then, and I wished that they’d been able to stay that way.

Then I heard a noise and opened my eyes again to see the nurse had come in to check on me. I was relieved to see that it was Janet instead of that guy nurse Rob. Rob was nice and seemed pretty competent, but call me old fashioned, I still thought only women should be nurses.

“How are you doing Mister Morgan?” Janet asked me pleasantly.

“About how you’d expect,” I grumbled. Then I asked her, “Why aren’t you out with your family? You shouldn’t be stuck here with a grumpy old bastard like me…”

“I’d hardly call you old,” Janet responded with a somewhat forced smile. “You’re only a couple years older than me.”

“I turn fifty next month,” I responded grimly, knowing full well that I’d probably never see that birthday. “And I feel older.”

Janet gave me a sympathetic look that she quickly tried to cover up. Then she changed the subject and said, “You’re a mechanic…”

I nodded weakly at that from my bed before responding, “Over thirty years.”

“Well, I have a problem with my car,” she told me, “and I was wondering what you thought.” She was obviously trying to keep my mind occupied more than anything else, but I appreciated the effort. It was good to feel useful.

After she was done telling me about her car’s symptoms, I told her, “Sounds like the clutch…”

Just then, there was a knock on the door and a man’s voice said, “I hope we’re not interrupting anything.”

I looked up and saw my son Rich coming into the hospital room, giving me a sad look as he did so. He was short and skinny, taking after his mother more than he ever had me, both in physique and temperament. He’d just graduated from college with a degree in computer science, while I’d never even finished high school and could barely figure out how to turn a computer on.

A moment later, I realized that Rich wasn’t alone as the rest of my family trailed into the room behind him. My daughter Melanie was the next to enter, followed by her husband Mark and their two daughters, Kimberly and Kaylie. In spite of being exhausted and hurting like hell, I still smiled at the sight.

“Grandpa,” seven year old Kimberly exclaimed as she rushed over to my bed. She was wearing a cute little frilly dress, the kind her mother used to love wearing back when she was that age. In fact, it seemed that every little girl went through that princess stage and wanted to dress like that. “See my new dress?”

“Very nice,” I told her with a forced smile.

“Hey Grandpa,” Kaylie said, giving me a really worried look and keeping her distance, as though afraid she might catch my cancer.

Kaylie was twelve and had recently gotten out of the whole ‘princess’ thing and was instead wearing a lot of black. She even had a pin on her shirt that looked like a skull with a pink bow on it. I couldn’t help but remembering the time her mother had come home with a purple mohawk and had nearly given me a heart attack. It seemed that within just a few years, Melanie would be getting a taste of her own medicine.

“Hey Dad,” Melanie greeted me with a pained look on her face. “How are you feeling today?”

Janet hurried out of the room, giving me a bit of privacy with my family. I grimaced in pain, then answered, “I’ll feel better if you brought me a beer…”

“I heard that,” Janet called from outside the door.

“Sorry Dad,” Rich told me.

I grumbled at that, muttering, “I’m dying. What the hell could one damn beer hurt?” Then I glanced to my granddaughters and added, “Pardon my French.”

“That doesn’t sound like French to me,” Kaylie responded with a smirk.

“We really missed you at the parade,” Melanie told me with a forced smile. “It just wasn’t the same without you.”

“It was great,” Kimberly exclaimed excitedly. “We got to see the marching band, and the princesses, and some super heroes, and another princess…”

Kaylie snorted, “It was okay…”

Melanie chuckled at that and told me, “Don’t let her fool you. She was just as into it as Kimberly was.” Kaylie just glared at her mom.

“The MCO was there too,” Rich said with a clear note of disdain in his voice. “They had some power armor in the parade, doing some of their usual propaganda to convince everyone that they’re here to protect us from mutants.”

I scowled but bit my tongue and didn’t say anything, at least not this time. Rich had a good heart, but he was a little too liberal in his beliefs on mutant rights. He honestly thought that mutants were all innocent victims and that the only reason the MCO existed was to persecute them. I knew better. I’d seen first-hand just how dangerous mutants could be and the kind of havoc they could unleash, even by accident. We’d argued about this more than a few times, but I wasn’t in the mood for arguing right now. I was just too damn tired for it.

“Rich,” Melanie told her brother, giving him a warning look. “Not now.”

Rich looked at me and then gave a faint nod, apparently deciding that he didn’t want to argue right now either. Mark just stood back, looking a little awkward and uncertain. I’d given the guy a hard time when he’d first started dating Melanie, even doing the whole ‘polish the shotgun’ thing on him before their first date. However, I had to admit that he’d done right by my daughter and granddaughters.

“Grandpa,” Kimberly said, staring at me with a curious expression. “When are you gonna get better?”

“As soon as I can,” I told her with a forced smile.

Having my family come to visit was the one thing that I’d been looking forward to and it was the bright spot in my entire day. However, the conversation was extremely awkward as everyone kept dancing around the subject of my situation. They seemed to think that any mention of the C word…Cancer, would shock me horribly or something. I thought it was kind of foolish since there was denying the truth. I was dying and there was nothing to be done for it.

Unfortunately, talking this much was using up what little energy I had so Janet came in after awhile and told everyone that they’d have to leave soon. That got the whole round of goodbyes started, which was damn near as awkward as the conversation itself. Tears started to fill their eyes, and it was obvious that they thought this could be the last time they saw me. And honestly, it might very well be.

I was choked up as well, thinking about everything and everyone I was leaving behind. I didn’t want to die. I wasn’t ready to go. But I didn’t want to worry my family any more than I already was, so I did my best to show a strong face. I refused to let them see me cry like some kind of baby, even now. That wasn’t how I wanted them to remember me. Still, there were things that had to be said, things had to say while I still could.

“Rich,” I said, my voice weak and shaky. It was taking almost everything I had to talk right now.

“Yeah, Dad,” he said as he came over and took my hand in his.

I stared up at my son and gave him a weak smile before saying, “I’m proud of you. I’m proud of the man you’ve become…” I don’t remember if I’d ever told him that before, but I wanted to make sure he knew. I looked at Melanie and added, “I’m proud of both of you…”

“Dad,” Melanie started, tears running down her cheeks.

Then I turned my attention to my son-in-law Mark and said, “You’d better keep taking good care of these girls.”

“Yes, sir,” he responded with a nod of his head.

“If you don’t,” I warned him, barely able to speak at this point, “I’ll have to climb out of this bed and kick your ass.” Kaylie giggled at that and I quietly added, “Pardon my French.” Melanie smiled faintly in response.

“I’ll try and stop by again tomorrow,” Melanie told me with a sad smile. She took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

After that, everyone started to leave the room, though Kimberly rushed back to my side. Then she pulled a brightly colored ribbon out of her hair, where it had been tied, and put it in my hand with a big grin. “For good luck Grandpa,” she told me with an innocent look before she half skipped out of the room after her parents, calling out, “I hope you feel better soon.”

I held the ribbon in my hand and smiled faintly. It was nice and smooth, maybe even silk, though I doubted Melanie would have given her a silk ribbon. Still, it had looked cute in her hair and I felt touched that she gave it to me.

Once everyone was gone, I was left alone in the room with only the steady beep of the heart monitor for company. I closed my eyes to rest, and in moments I drifted off to sleep, absently wondering if this would be the last time.

My dreams were strangely vivid, just like they’d been ever since the doctor had begun giving me the medication. I dreamed of sweet little Kimberly dancing around in her little dress, calling out, “Grandpa, watch what I can do…” Then in my dream, Melanie joined her, looking exactly like she had back when she’d been a little girl of that age. And finally, they were joined by a third little girl who also danced and spun, giving a celebration of youthful innocence.

I awoke to a sudden noise, which in my hazy state, took me a long time to identify. Boom. Boom. Boom. It came again and again. Finally, I wakened enough to identify the sound. Fireworks. I looked towards the window, which was covered in closed blinds, leaving me to imagine what they looked like.

I was so distracted by the sound of the fireworks that it took me a full minute to realize that I wasn’t alone. There was someone in the room with me, though it was dark enough that I couldn’t make the person out very well.

“You’re awake,” a woman’s voice said, right before she turned on the light.

My visitor was tall for a woman, with shoulder length black hair and dark eyes. She wore a costume that was green and black, with a stylized skull on her chest. There were multiple belts and harnesses, each holding pouches and odd looking metal devices. And when she opened her mouth, I could see that all of her teeth were sharp and fearsome looking.

Of course, I knew who my visitor was. Anyone in the area would have recognized Lady Havoc, one of the most notorious and lethal super villains in the state. She was a mad scientist who’s creations have caused untold property damage, and more importantly, had cost dozens of lives. The very sight of her was more than enough to send most people running for their lives, but that wasn’t an option for me.

She looked exactly the same as the last time I’d seen her, except for the fact that she’d been wearing an orange jumpsuit at the time. Eight years ago, I’d given the tip that helped the authorities find and arrest her, then I testified against her during her trial. It hadn’t been easy. In fact, it had been the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life, but it had also been necessary.

Most people would have been both shocked and terrified at finding such a notorious super villain standing at the foot of their bed, but not me. I’d been expecting her.

I stared at her for several long seconds, then then whispered, “Hey, Pumpkin.”

She gave me a sad and gentle smile that most people would never imagine her capable of, then responded, “Hello Daddy.”

In spite of myself, I actually teared up at the sight of my daughter Rachael, who I hadn’t seen in years. Rachael was my middle child, just two years younger than Melanie, and at one time, she’d been a total ‘Daddy’s girl’. However, that had been a very long time ago.

While growing up, Rachael had been a sweet and outgoing girl, until the day she manifested as a mutant. I remember getting up one morning to find that she’d dismantled the toaster, the coffee machine, and several other things in the house, and had built some weird contraption that would actually cook, eggs, bacon, and toast all at once. It had been amazing, even if it did spit out sparks every few minutes.

At first, I’d been stunned and confused by her sudden ability to invent things, and admittedly, I’d even been impressed. After all, I spent my entire life working on cars, so when I saw my daughter grabbing my tool box and beginning to build things, I’d been filled with an odd sort of pride. I’d felt like she was following in my footsteps, even if she was doing things I could only imagine.

But then, we realized that there was something wrong with her. Whenever she started building something, she got lost in a trance and would simply go and take whatever materials she needed for it, even if they belonged to someone else. This sudden kleptomania was disturbing, but not nearly as much as the ‘episodes’. Whenever she got angry or frustrated, she’d have an episode where she’d throw a tantrum, destroying anything she could get her hands on. The first time, it was our living room, then all the dishes in the kitchen. We got her counselling and medication, but it did no good. It turned out she had a condition called Diedricks Syndrome, which sometimes affected mutants like her. There was no cure and no real treatment.

Rachael grew angry and frustrated over her situation, but that only made her episodes occur more and more frequently. It was a downward spiral, and when she was nineteen, she had a particularly bad episode that ended with nine people dead. After this, she was officially declared a super villain and had continued on that path ever since.

Watching Rachael go through all this had been a nightmare for our family, though we tried to protect Rich from the worst of it since he was the youngest. It had been hard on all of us, especially Meg who felt guilty over all the deaths, as though she herself was somehow to blame for Rachael’s actions. Shortly after Rachael became Lady Havoc, Meg seemed to just give up on life and died. The doctors said it was a heart attack, but I knew it was more of a broken heart.

I loved my daughter, but I couldn’t stand back while she murdered innocent people. Because of that, I’d helped the authorities find her, hoping that she’d be able to get the help she so desperately needed. Unfortunately, she’d escaped from prison a short time after and I haven’t seen her since…until now.

“I saw Richie and Mel were here,” Rachael said awkwardly, looking more than a little self-conscious. Then she asked, “How are they doing? How are Mel’s kids?”

“They’re doing all right,” I said quietly. “Rich just graduated from college…”

“I heard that,” Rachael told me with a sad smile. “I miss you Daddy. I miss all of you.” Then she paused to stare at me for several long seconds before saying, “You turned me in. You told them where I was and testified against me…”

For a moment, I wondered if this visit was so that she could get revenge on me for betraying her, while she still could. However, she looked sad rather than angry, and even after everything she’d done, I couldn’t imagine Rachael intentionally hurting me.

“I’m sorry I had to,” I told her quietly, my throat feeling dry and sore. I really wished I had a beer to wet it.

“It’s okay,” Rachael responded with a faint smile. “I understand. I know you just did what you had to, and I know it wasn’t easy for you. That’s why I’ve kept my distance since. I didn’t want to put you in that position again.”

“It’s good to see you again,” I told her honestly, no longer holding back the tears. Obviously, being sick was messing me up because normally I’d never cry, or at least that was what I told myself. Then, since I didn’t know what else to say to the daughter I hadn’t seen in years, I weakly asked, “So, what have you been up to?”

She gave me a faint look of amusement before responding, “Oh, the usual. Planning to take over the world.” At my look of surprise, she actually chuckled. “Actually, I’m not interested in taking over the world or anything like that. All I really want is to make things and be left alone.”

“They won’t leave you alone,” I pointed out quietly, thinking of all the deaths she’d caused over the years. “They can’t.”

“I know,” Rachael responded with a sigh. Then she went to the window and peaked out the blinds, saying, “They’ll kill me if they ever catch me. Or just as bad, lock me up so I can’t ever build anything again.” After several long seconds, she turned to look at me again, adding, “Building things…it’s all I have. If I couldn’t build all these things in my head…”

I nodded as though I understood, though the truth was, I didn’t understand. My daughter was driven by things I could never understand and they’d turned her from the sweet and innocent girl who used to pester me for a piggy back ride into the monster who’d murdered dozens. I desperately wished that she’d never become a mutant, that she could have lived a normal life like her brother and sister.

“I wish things could have been different,” Rachael said, echoing my own thoughts.

“If wishes were horses,” I started weakly.

“Then we’d all be wearing hip waders,” she finished for me with a chuckle. I smiled faintly, wondering if I’d used that line a few too many times while she’d been growing up.

“So,” I asked her with a grimace of pain, “do you think you could grant my last request and get me a beer? It’s been too damn long since I’ve had anything to drink but water…”

“Isn’t that against hospital rules?” Rachael asked me with a look of mock innocence. She really couldn’t pull it off though, especially with all those sharp teeth that made even the most innocent of smiles look threatening.

“Damn it,” I groaned. “Not you too…”

Rachael just gave me a scary grin, though I was pretty sure it wasn’t meant to be menacing. In fact, she actually looked excited. “Daddy, you can forget about a last request. I’m not here to say goodbye. I’m here because I found a way to save you.”

“What?” I gasped, sure that I must have heard wrong. The cancer had spread through my entire body and the doctors had said that it was too late for chemo or anything else to do any good.

“I made a cure,” Rachael told me, removing her gloves and taking my hands in hers. “I don’t want to lose you, Daddy.”

For several long seconds, I just stared at Rachael, feeling dazed and hopeful. Then I gulped and asked, “You made a cure for cancer?”

“I’m a devisor,” she reminded me smugly. “I can invent just about anything I put my mind to.” Then she hesitated a moment before admitting, “But this one was custom made for you, so it wouldn’t work for anyone outside our immediate family.”

I licked my lips, which felt even drier than before. At that moment, I really could have used a beer, or hell, even that crappy wine that Meg used to drink. My eyes remained locked on Rachael, knowing that this was too good to be true. I had no doubt that if Rachael said she could cure my cancer, then she could do exactly that. From what I knew of how her power works, once she put her mind to it, she really could make just about anything. However, I also knew Rachael well enough to know that nothing she made ever worked quite the way she’d intended. There was always something wrong with it, some unexpected cost or side effect. Always.

A few years back, Rachael had run into some super hero who’d busted her chops and knocked out half her teeth. She’d made something to grow her teeth back, and it had worked…sort of. Her teeth came back as those scary looking shark teeth she now had, and from what I understood, she kept shedding those teeth and growing replacements, just like a shark.

Rachael could cure my cancer, but there would be a cost. I had absolutely no idea what it could be, but there was a chance that the cure would end up being even worse than the disease. I gulped, shaking as I imagined the worst that could happen, and it wasn’t pretty. However, the truth was, I didn’t have much other choice. I was literally on my death bed so things couldn’t get much worse.

“All right,” I said quietly, letting out a tired sigh. “Let’s give it a go.”

Rachael nodded at that, giving me a gentle and reassuring smile, which didn’t show any teeth. Then she reached into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled out a transparent vial of golden liquid, which she slipped into an odd looking device that looked a little like some kind of snub nosed laser gun.

“I’m not going to lie,” she told me with a serious look. “This is going to do more than sting. In fact, this is probably going to be the worst fucking pain you’ve ever felt.”

“Watch your language,” I told her with a frown.

Rachael just chuckled at that, then reminded me, “Swearing is the least of my sins.”

I scowled in annoyance, knowing she was right, but I still didn’t like it. In spite of everything she’d done, a part of me still thought of her as the little girl she used to be. Even now, I couldn’t let that go completely.

“This will destroy all the cancer cells in your body,” Rachael explained in a professional manner as she held up the odd looking gun she’d put the vial into. “Essentially, this will consume the cancer cells then transfer the cellular energy to your healthy cells in order to regenerate your body and restore you to full health.” She paused to look at me, smiling faintly and adding, “It’s going to replace the bad parts, flush your oil and transmission, then give you a full tune up.”

“Gotcha,” I said, understanding the second explanation a little better than the first.

A few seconds later, Rachael put the odd gun to my arm and pulled the trigger. I would have expected to feel a needle or something, but there was absolutely nothing except for a strange warmth that started to spread through my arm. It quickly spread over my entire body and suddenly I was feeling way too warm, as though someone had turned the heater up on a hot day and had then thrown a couple blankets on top of me for good measure.

“How are you feeling?” Rachael asked me with a gentle smile and a faintly worried look.

I was about to respond, when suddenly it felt as though I was on fire. A scream of pain tore out of my throat before I’d even realized it, making Rachael jump back. My body had already been hurting like hell, but this took it all to another level. She’d told me it would hurt, but I hadn’t expected anything like this. For a moment, I wondered if she’d made some kind of mistake and gave me a shot of acid instead, but then I was too distracted to think of such things anymore.

“It’s okay, Daddy,” Rachael promised me with a pained look on her face. “You’ll be better soon…”

Just then, the door flung open and the night nurse burst into the room, only to stop and stare at Rachael. A moment later, she was screaming as well, then running back out as fast as she could. Of course, that was probably how most people would react to the sight of Lady Havoc.

“Damn,” Rachael exclaimed with a look of annoyance. Then she gave me a sad smile and, “Sorry, but I have to go. I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to stick around, not for you or anyone else in the hospital.”

With that, Rachael touched a strange device on her belt and suddenly there was a loud ‘boom’ sound, right before a large hole appeared in the wall right where the window had been. In spite of the ‘boom’, there hadn’t been any explosion, nor was there any debris. There was just suddenly a hole. My daughter paused long enough to give me one more long look, flashing me what was probably intended to be a reassuring smile, but which wasn’t because of her teeth, then stepped through the hole and vanished.

Once Rachael was gone, I closed my eyes and tried to deal with the pain that burned through every fiber of my body. I would have screamed again if I’d still been capable of it, but as it was, I wasn’t able to do anything, not even stay awake.