I love you, Dad. And I will always love you.
by MasterTman2
Dr. Maslov T. Manferd was awoken by a phone call. What he was doing earlier in the day was unimportant, and what he was going to do later in the day was equally unimportant.
He rolled over and picked up the phone. "Maslov," his mother began. "You need to call out of work tonight."
"Huh? Why?" he asked in his groggy state.
"Something happened to your father." She sounded as though she was sobbing.
"What?" Maslov sat up in his bed. He was no longer tired. "What happened? Is he okay?"
"Your aunt is coming to pick you up." She hung up the phone.
Maslov sat for a few moments, trying to comprehend what just happened, before he got out of bed and raced to put his shoes on.
His aunt arrived at his house some time later.
When he got in the car, he realized that the car had none of his immediate family. He asked what was going on.
"Something happened to your father," his aunt replied. "We needed to come pick you up."
Maslov took a moment to process that. "To go where?"
"The hospital."
He didn't pry further.
On the way, his aunt stopped by her house. While there, she picked up two additional family members and they all crammed themselves into her car.
He glanced at her phone which had the GPS turned on. It read 60 minutes until they reached the hospital. If he was that far away, he must have gotten injured while he was driving his semi truck for work.
Nobody would tell him what exactly happened. Maslov was getting more worried by the second.
Midway through the car ride, his uncle got a phone call.
The man on the phone asked a few questions. His uncle gave a few answers.
"Make it quick," his uncle added without thinking. "I just lost my—"
His aunt quickly shushed his uncle.
Maslov heard what he said, however. He stared at his uncle for a few moments as tears welled in his eyes.
He didn't want to believe it, but there's only so many things that that phrase can mean.
They arrived at the hospital. Another one of his uncles took him away from the group. Him and a doctor explained what happened.
Once he was ready, his uncle brought him to the family waiting room, and they all went to go see Maslov's father.
His mother was already there. She was lying on his chest. He was unmoving.
Maslov sat for a few moments in a chair next to his father. He sat in silence for a bit to process what had happened. After some time, he began to cry.
He cried harder than he ever cried before.
Maslov sat in his office. Maslov normally sat in silence in his office quite often, but this was a different kind of silence.
He was thinking about what had happened. He wasn't trying to think too hard about what happened, because if he thought too hard about it he would start crying again.
He read over some text conversations he had had with his friends about it. It was comforting to talk about it, but at the same time he didn't want to annoy them by talking about it too much.
Maslov was snapped out of his trance by a knock on his office door.
"Hey." Ian Simons was standing in the door.
Maslov smiled. "How'd you get in here?"
Ian pulled up a chair and sat next to Maslov. "I have my ways. Apparently, I've been around you enough that they either don't care or just don't know that I'm Hand."
"Just don't steal anything on your way out and you should be fine," Maslov chuckled before falling into silence, staring at the ground.
"I just— I miss him."
"I know." Ian pulled Maslov into a hug. "Try to remember all the good times you had with him."
"I just wish I could speak with him again. I miss his— " Maslov sat up. "Wait. Wait wait wait. The— the Bone Batallion. I just— I just need to change what they write on his tombstone. I've seen their recruitment ads.
"Maslov." Ian tries to get his attention.
"Nono, wait. Then he'd be a skeleton. Okay, I just have to wait until I shift again. I can spend a year with him wherever I end up, the Right Phase or the Third Empire or something, hell I'd take that universe where humans are livestock. I'll be fine with being a dog-person if I got to see him again."
"Maslov. You know he won't be there. That's not how your powers work."
Maslov paused. "Yeah, you're right," He sighed before quickly looking up again. "Wait, I've heard about some portals, they sent people to other dimensions, right? I just— I just need to go to a universe that has him. I can deal with getting used to shifting into that universe's local universe cluster. I'll be able to be with him again."
"What about the Maslov that's already there? What are you going to do with him? Replace him? Your dad there will notice that you're different."
"But— but I— I—"
Ian reached over to Maslov and engulfed him in a hug. Maslov began sobbing.
"I know, I know. Let it out. It's gonna be okay."
"I just— " Maslov said between sobs. "I need him back."
"I know you do. But unfortunately, that's not a feasible option. But you will work through this. You will persevere.
"You will be okay."