Finding the Professor CH. 05

Freddie Attacks Merlin

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There was a new character in the ship. It surprised Walt how easy the Professor had recruited the werewolf. What had she said to convince the blonde woman to join them? How does the werewolf curse work? These were a few questions running through his head.

The girl in the console room was a short mousy thing. Standing at 5'6" Freddie, slightly taller than Triple, yet felt smaller.

She had nothing in terms of muscles. Walt guessed the werewolf had kept most, if not all, the muscle.

And she felt more shy, somehow, than Walt. Perhaps it was a new place, or perhaps she felt all three of their eyes observing her and looking for any clues to how a short blonde woman transforms into a werewolf.

Why was she shy? Of course, it was a new place, a weird fucking spaceship, and a spaceship that installed software into your head.

"How long had you been... in hiding?" Walt asked. His shy behavior not kicking in because thankfully no one was staring at him.

She didn't answer. Instead she left the group to retreat to a safe place. Which was the sitting spot on the upper floor surrounded by books. She wrapped her blanket tightly around her and left for cover.

Years of hiding in crypt would be awful. The idea of being alone all that time made Walt shudder. Being alone with all those dead bodies. Surely it wasn't the only hiding spot?

But then again she didn't want to interact with humans and an abandoned tomb was perfect for that. So is a forest.

She sat alone in the upper sitting room. Walt thought he should leave her be. She was recovering from something he'd never experience and it wasn't his place to be a psych counselor.

"Help her, Walt," the Professor said quietly to avoid Freddie hearing them. "I don't know how to deal with this. She's hurting and she needs help."

The Professor tasked him with interacting with the French woman, so he stared harder at the werewolf while the Professor stared hard at him.

"You're human, Waltzy. I'm not and it's hard for me to understand human emotions when I don't feel some of them," Walt could have sworn that was a lie.

He eyed her with suspicion and she simply lowered her stare to the ground as if he could see right through her. She was more than likely over exaggerating more than lying. Her brain was filled with puzzles she needed to figure out more than dealing with others emotions.

"She's being shy like you and the logical thing to do is let you talk with her," the Professor said quietly still staring at the ground. Her eyes were headed for the console. "Even if you have to sit in silence with the woman it's better than I or Triple can do."

"You underestimate yourself and others, Professor," he told her and looked at both the Professor and Triple. Triple who had been watching interested, but apparently not interested enough to join in.

Before either of them could say anything he walked up the stairs and sat across from the new crew mate. He sat with Freddie in silence for a long time.

The woman looked older than him. She was probably in her 30s. Walt didn't ask. She wore clothes from the wardrobe. A room Triple and him had failed to find in their efforts to find the Professor when all she was doing was playing with a robot named Roger. All Triple and Walt could find was the bedroom.

Freddie stared at the ground for the majority of time they sat together in silence. They sat in the chairs which were a perfect place in the round atrium room to see everything.

Walt felt like he was in theater seats overlooking a stage. The play would have been Triple and the Professor quietly talking beside the center column in the middle of the room. A center console full of controls Walt had no idea did what.

Freddie didn't observe the theater she sat in. Instead she looked down at her cup of tea. A cup of tea that the Professor had made for the woman after they brought her into the Thunderbird spaceship.

She stared deeply at the hot liquid too nervous to drink and too nervous to do anything. At least she was clean after her shower. Freddie was handed a brush which she used for hours trying to get knots out of her hair alone in the bathroom. It was obvious to anyone she cared deeply for her hair. It was one thing she took great pride in, but it took hours of brushing nonetheless.

Walt felt an extreme pity for woman who had been turned into a werewolf, spent 10 years in a crypt full of dead, protected her territory, only to be removed from said territory, thrown into a spaceship that was bigger on the inside, and now a dorky shy kid was staring at her. The woman who wanted to hide.

Plus she lost some of her blonde hair on top of it all. There must have been several times the brush had to be cleaned of massive clumps of her hair.

Walt was surprised by how much was still left. It was a great amount and the hair loss was hopefully kept to a minimum.

"I'm Walt... again."

"Frederica... my friends used to call me Freddie," Freddie said in a French accent.

She sounded more coherent when she wasn't a 7 foot tall hound. Freddie sounded sweet. Walt winced even more at her situation.

"What the fuck put her in this terrible situation," Walt whispered. His words were supposed to be for a silent thought, but being the shy man he was and not used to these tenuous social situations the words seemed to have slipped out of his mouth. "D-damn... Didn't mean to say that aloud."

And then he found it stupid when he actually wanted to talk the connection between his mouth and brain wasn't connecting.

"I don't remember," Freddie said quietly. She avoided eye contact and continued staring at her tea.

Freddie spoke as if she only wanted Walt to hear her.

"One second I was on my way to work... and then the next... I was in part of Paris I had never been before. A maze of dead bodies and... alone," Freddie said. "I want to be cured... if that's even possible. I don't want to be a territorial monster. Ten years of my life gone. It was my birthday."

Walt nodded. Freddie didn't see him nod though. Walt didn't know what to say and he was afraid of saying the wrong thing.

"... I-I want to go home," she said with a sob.

Walt still couldn't say anything. Instead he stared at the silently crying woman. He wasn't sure if words could help her. He wasn't sure what could help her apart from being cured and going back to her life as it was.

They sat in silence, again. Walt's mind raced to find the right thing to say, but nothing came. Then his mind began to wander again as he watched Freddie and the spaceship they were in.

"It's painful, you know," Freddie had finally said in her French accent. "Transforming into a beast is like ripping all your muscles and breaking all your only for them to be rearranged and healed immediately."

The Professor and Triple had finished speaking together. Walt thought about what they said.

"If I know the Professor..." Walt said. He probably didn't know her that well, but she had always made an effort to help. That was the case with Gabe. Who refused her help and tried to kill him. It was also the case with Triple even though he had to convince her, but was only because the cat lady had been seemingly bad. It was even the case with him, he guessed, she had been helping with his shyness. "I-I think she tries to help those in need. You're a... problem... for her to fix and I'm sure... she'll try to help you. I won't make promises on her behalf... because I can't, but I think she'll look for a cure."

"If there even is a fricking cure," Freddie said. Her French accent was laced with anger. "Maybe... I just need to give up.. on a normal life."

Walt worried of where the conversation was going. What the hell could he say to convince her to not give up hope? He didn't know this woman. He barely knew Triple and somehow the furry woman had taken his virginity.

"C-come on... it's not all bad? R-right? There... must be something... good to come out of this situation?" Walt said. Perhaps it was the wrong thing. Perhaps not, but it was what came out of his mouth. "The Professor and Triple are good people. We will do what we can to help you."

Somehow, with the important words, he didn't trip around because of his inability to be confident.

"If there isn't any solution to my problem... then I'm going to have to get used to it," Freddie answered. "I may have said the wrong words before. Thank you... Walt. I'll think on what you've said."

They ceased speaking. Walt watched her drink her tea and kept the poor woman company. Slight pangs of fear hit him when he thought of leaving the woman alone.

What was 10 years like without another voice to keep you company?

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"Magic exists apparently. When science tries to explain magic things get weird," the Professor said. The words were confusing to Freddie, so she simply nodded.

The human looking woman in a blue dress and ruffled blouse then whacked a machine that was sitting in front of her. A machine she had been using to examine her body. It looked like an ultrasound machine had sex with a box of electron tubes and transistors.

"I'd be a liar, if I told you I knew what I was looking at. Technically I'm looking at your DNA and that stuff is complicated," the Professor said and showed her the monitor.

Freddie had seen DNA before in science class, but the stuff on the monitor looked weird. It didn't look anything like it should've to her untrained brain. Aa mess of interlooping chains in a particular order. It must've been an extremely advanced machine if it could see that small.

"When stuff happens to the body, like exposure to the timeheart or a werewolf virus, something is added. Perhaps stuff is taken away, but mostly stuff is added..," she said. Apparently she had also procured a lab coat and was wearing it. Above the pocket on her right side it said, Professor Who."Perhaps... it's also a window to the soul..." she continued, but dropped off at the end.

"Does magic really exist? What the absolute hell does that mean for this damn curse?" Freddie felt like she was draining all her anger onto the woman with her ridiculous lab coat. "How the hell am I supposed to be cured now?"

"I don't know. Find... Merlin I guess? Or some good wizard! Oh... maybe the Wizard of Oz!" The Professor's excitement grew with the mention of wizards. Freddie wanted to slap her for not taking this seriously.

What a ridiculous woman. Freddie thought. At the mere mention of wizards and she's staring off into space like a madwoman.

"Great find me a man to rescue me from this fucked up curse," Freddie said sarcastically. She had hoped this madwoman could have helped her. Her and the spaceship she sat in on an uncomfortable exam table down an awful amount of halls.

The Professor lost her grin and the smell of desperate lust evaporated. She stared down at Freddie with cold and calculating. Then she sat silently on a stool beside the machine and studied the images of Freddie's DNA.

Freddie said nothing more and watched the woman furrow her brow only to settle her brows under her cascade of lily white hair. This went on for a few minutes.

Whenever the Professor was about to speak she stopped herself and studied the screen more.

She can't help. Can she? How fucked am I?

"Just an ordinary French woman with something tacked on. I'm sorry, Freddie. I don't think I can help," the Professor said and looked absolutely defeated. "I'm gonna go check my libraries and see if it has anything useful."

Freddie drooped a little more. This can't be happening. I'm never going to have a normal life again. She found her head in her hands a moment later.

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Imagine going to the time of King Arthur only to find out Merlin can't fix your problems. Except to send you on your way with a stupid self help book from a god.

That's what happened to Freddie.

They had been in Medieval England for about 10 minutes, at about the time King Arthur would have existed, in the approximate location his castle should have been. Instead they found a field. A giant field of wheat being worked by several peasants.

It was like Freddie was in Holy Grail. She fully expected that when the Professor asked where King Arthur was that she'd receive jokes about doves and ladies in lakes. Something about feudalism as well, but then again this was real life and these workers looked too tired to be cracking jokes.

How long have they been working? It appeared as if they had been working all day to harvest the crop of yellow wheat. All day working under a hot sun.

Freddie had been there 10 minutes and the sun already getting to her, but that was for other reasons. She stared at the Professor who stood there looking around. Probably expecting a castle to pop up out of nowhere. She expected the woman to be like a man and wouldn't ask for directions, but soon she was marching towards the group of harvesters.

There was an exchange of words and an elderly man pointed a direction. The Professor looked that direction and squinted then pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked harder.

She looked ridiculous. It looked almost comedic seeing the woman with her saturated dark blue dress with patches staring a certain way with advanced tech while being surrounded by workers wearing desaturated and frayed clothing. It brought a slight smirk to the corner of her mouth and she slightly shook her head.

Ridiculous madwoman.

Monty Python didn't show up, but this impossible display was close enough to Freddie. She remembered watching those films with her mother. Nights with her mother, popcorn, and a comfy couch. Freddie was 16 when she had died. Too young to lose your mother.

The Professor came back to the small group.

"That old chap there, his name is Wilfred, he says the castle is that way a few miles," the Professor said. "Wilfred also tried to flirt with me and offer tea, but I politely declined."

Freddie eye rolled and shook her head. Madwoman. It's like she likes proving she's mad. She looked over to Wilfred who was waving them goodbye and blowing kisses. He did look a bit older, but not old enough to have fun. A thick white mustache rested on his upper lip and a horny smile said goodbye.

They walked towards the castle. Freddie really hoped it was actually this way. "Wilfred said his wife died two seasons ago and he's been really lonely. He was sad I had a mission to accomplish. He thought I was some noble woman."

She understood what the woman was doing. She was trying to keep everyone calm by telling them what had happened. They were quiet and the Professor tried to fill the dead air.

They found Arthur's castle. It was what you'd expect. Instead of a small castle that was found in the Holy Grail the thing in front of them was massive. A giant garden greeted them at the front and the paths looked prestine.

Two guards stopped them at the front gate. The Professor pulled out a piece of paper from her pockets. Pockets that contained impossible items. The guard simply nodded and gestured them through. He politely asked them to use the back entrance.

Once they were at the back door they asked a nearby servant where Merlin's quarters were. They headed downstairs and took them exactly where they needed to go.

Once inside they found Merlin. Freddie was surprised it had gone this far. It felt real. It certainly didn't feel like a dream and there were no boom mics or camera crew following them.

Meeting Merlin. How stupid?

Freddie looked over at the Professor who was jumping with excitement. She had whole heartedly believed that this was reality even after complaining about magic previously.

Merlin greets them with wary eyes. He slowly approached them and stared hard at each individual. Evaluating everything about them wordlessly. The Professor was polite and said nothing, but a small voice in Freddie's mind was telling her to strangle the man and plead for answers.

That was her angry side and her more rational side told her mind to calm down.

"Obviously out of your time," the old man said. "Obviously you need something and Merlin was the first door you thought you'd try."

He looked unenthusiastic. It was as if the man from the legends was not real and anyone who came for that man was stupid for trying.

This enraged Freddie even more. The desire to strangle the man was increasing.

"Hey! I've got a fucking problem here!" Freddie screamed. The room was silent. Walt and Triple had come, but stood in the background. Freddie should've thought it was supposed to be a comfort. Freddie had a problem and it seemed like no one wanted to try. She was sour.

"You coming here was foolish, but I will listen to your problems," Merlin said.

"I'm the Professor and this Freddie. The other two are Walt and Triple. We're here to find a cure for Freddie. She's a werewolf," the Professor said it so quickly that some words were hard to make out. She was still obviously excited about meeting the legend.

"Ah. Werewolf. I don't have many of the answers you seek. I don't have a cure. All I have is a spell that will make it so the curse triggers when angry and not every night," he said. "Good thing too because the moon is about to rise."

"Great. Another person who can't fix me," Freddie growled. "Merlin, the great and powerful mage, knows dick all."

"Calm down, Freddie," the Professor said while massaging her shoulder. "Getting angry isn't going to help."

Merlin said these things as if they were children and knew nothing. It infuriated Freddie.

Merlin was quick to cast the spell, so Freddie wouldn't turn due to the rising moon. It was several hand gestures and words which caused something in Freddie to snap. That probably wasn't supposed to happen. If he had done something wrong she was going to choke him.

"That spell broke your connection to the moon's schedule. You will turn when you're dealing with extreme emotions instead," Merlin told her.

"Broke my connection to the moon? That fucking doesn't mean anything."

"I have nothing for anger issues, nor territorial behavior fixes," Merlin said. "Take this and get out. You'll have to get used to the curse. That's the only way to fix it."

"Fix this!!!" She screamed at the snooty man who had been pushing her buttons since the begging of the conversation. Her clothes ripped, her muscles tore, and her bones broke rearranging in patterns to create a werewolf.

She ran towards the curt mannered mage who was telling her to get over it. Claws outstretched and ready to clutch the wizards small neck. Teeth barred to rip his head from his puny body.

A simple hand wave blasts all four of them out of his study with wind magic. He chucks a book directly at the Professor and slams his door shut. The sound of locks fill the hallway they stood in.

Something in Freddie felt broken as she collapsed back into her human form. The ruined clothes barely covered her body as she clutched at her heart. Invisible strings had snapped and it hadn't felt good.

The Professor comforted the broken woman laying on the floor. It was unusual she cared so much. From Freddie had seen the Professor was more interested in science than the matters of the heart. It was evident she cared about what was going through her heart. She knelt beside Freddie and had placed her hands on her shoulder. It was very motherly.

"I don't how to help, Freddie," the Professor said softly, "it's as if options keep getting ripped from my hands. Our hands."

She rubbed her shoulder softly and didn't expect Freddie to say anything.

"I want what's best for you and you are clearly being torn apart inside, so from now on, if there's anything you need you come to me. I might not have a cure for you being a werewolf, but I have ears and I will listen."

Freddie needed someone to listen to her. She needed someone to comfort her. She expected Walt would be that person with how he had treated her before in the ship. However, she felt, in that moment, she could trust this woman trying to comfort her.

Trust mattered to her, she realized, and she wouldn't ever trust a man the same way as a woman. After all her father had left her when she was very young and then she lived through her mothers death.

Where was my father when mom died?

"Come on, Freddie. We shouldn't stay here," the Professor told her.

The woman helped her to her feet and they walked in silence back to the ship. The sun was setting by the time they got back to the pink car parked on a dirt road.

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When they got back to the ship the Professor led Freddie back to the sitting area. She wrapped the blonde, who had said nothing since battling Merlin, in a blanket. She also placed the book Merlin had given them on a nearby table.

The Professor also almost kissed Freddie on the forehead, but stopped herself. She had already felt like she was overstepping boundaries and didn't need to add that offense to the list. However much the kiss would comfort both of them.

But the Professor did it nonetheless. She gave a gentle kiss on Freddie's forehead. She also gave Freddie's hand a squeeze. Freddie's hand squeezed back.

She sat in the chair opposite of Freddie like Walt had done when she asked for his help. The Professor wasn't used to magic. She had no idea how magic worked and the whole thing had made her extremely uncomfortable.

I can't ignore her problems, but I can't fix it.

If fucking Merlin can't figure this shit out how the fuck will I?

Her thoughts were sullen and she stared hard at the woman who needed a cure. The cute woman said nothing and stared down having an internal crisis as well.

She stared at the werewolf with a longing look. The kind of look you see a toddler give a piece of candy they can't have. The kind of look a dog gives you when begging for your food.

It weirded her out in all honesty. It was a side of the Professor she had never knowingly presented. She had never been this stumped, nor stumble like this. Merlin shouldn't have to figure this out. She should, yet there was a desperation written on her intelligent eyes.

She was questioning everything and every little thing she did, or ever had done. A hundred years of life experience felt like nothing in the face of this problem. To her magic didn't exist. That it shouldn't exist and because it now exists then it was a big problem for her to figure out. That's what her companions, especially Walt, would see in her light blue eyes. She saw a chaos magic brings in a world that was supposed to be perfectly ordered.

A reality that was falling apart before her very eyes. A reality she trusted. That she relied on. That she could protect others with.

The Professor, for the second time in her long life, felt powerless. She hadn't felt this powerless since she ran from her mother. A night she pushed quickly out of her head.

There was a human being in front of her who was hurt and was hurting. There had to be something she could do. Even if all she could do was provide a home.

"Merlin doesn't know shit," she finally told Freddie. Walt and Triple could probably hear as well. Her statement was completely out of character. "I'll figure this out and I'm sorry if it takes 10 years, Freddie. I'm sorry I can live thousands of years while you only have 100. It's unfair, but I want to help. Even if means all I can offer you is a permanent residence on my Niobe."

The Professor stared at her hands and avoided any potential eye contact with Freddie.

She looked directly into the cursed girls eyes and said, "my ship can be your home as much as it's mine," she said it in such a sincere motherly fashion.

Freddie gave her a saddened look. A look of complete defeat and then she simply nodded. Her eyes fell from the Professor's gaze.

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France never really gets cold. Paris never really snows. It's a rare occurrence and when it happened one year Freddie locked the memory away.

It was one possession she'd never let go. They'd have to pry that memory from her cold lifeless hands and even then it was only worth something to her.

A kiss on the forehead had reminded her of her mother.

She was 14 on a snowy evening. It was a school night and she had begged her mother for one last movie.

"Please, mommy? After this one I promise I'll go straight to bed."

"You honestly should be studying, Fred."

"Please? One more??"

"Fine, but straight to bed after," her mother said with a smile. It wasn't a disappointed smile. She was happy her daughter had wished to spend more time with her.

They watched Monty Python. It was Life of Brian. A movie Freddie could quote line by line. It was her mother's favorite Python movie and that's why she chosen it.

As much as she struggled to stay awake she couldn't. She sleepily spoke with the characters of the film. Her mother's lap was so comforting and it soon put her to sleep. She fell asleep halfway through the movie. The last words to leave her mouth was a half quote.

Her mother turned off the tv with the remote. She stared down at her daughter's head on her lap. Blonde hair a mess splayed everywhere.

She slowly got Freddie's head off her lap and put her on a pillow. Strands of blonde locks were maintained and put away.

She adjusted the blanket her child was already using, tucked her in on the couch, and didn't take her to her bedroom.

Her mother gave her a kiss on the forehead.

She stared at Freddie for a few minutes with a happy, but sad smile on her face.

A sad smile that spoke volumes. Saying that this moment wasn't going to last. This little moment would soon cease to exist.

It was another fleeting moment that would never come back.

She still smiled though. Still happy to see her daughter sleeping peacefully. Still happy to have this memory.

A memory she would cherish and lock away forever.

And then she was gone.