The Prompt:

Imagine if the team ran into something at one of those many sketchy labs they encounter that like, accidentally de-aged all of them. 10k gets turned into a little kid, we get to see a very sarcastic angst Murphy who is PISSED he has to go through being a teenager again, Warren is a teenager too but tries to not let it affect her. The only one who is happy with the affects is Doc, who is now a younger adult again and gets to carry around little 10k on his shoulders.

Author's Note:

This is rough. Really rough. Like typed and posted in less than an hour rough. It's just... I saw this prompt on Tumblr (by znationthemusical) while I was digging for Z Nation fan fictions - we really need more of them - and decided to go ahead and do it. It is what it is.

Probably a little less cute and fluffy than the prompt was intended to be, but I've always had problems with pure fluff.

Disclaimer

I wish I owned Z Nation. There'd be more of it.

Fountain of Youth

It was not, Murphy would admit only to himself, one of his finer moments. If he hadn't been chased by that damned zombie in what appeared to be riot gear, he wouldn't have smacked into the shelving unit. The shelving unit wouldn't have fallen against the large vat full of a strangely glowing blue chemical. That chemical wouldn't have spilled into another vat - glowing pink - and the resultant luminescent purple mix wouldn't have hit the yellow highlighter fluid in the third vat.

One unicorn and rainbows cloud of fog later, and they were all changed.

He scratched at his chin, trying not to be aware that the chemicals had taken him back to his mid-mayble-late-teens. He didn't want to remember those years. He'd deliberately forgotten them and burned the photos. Being awkward and gangly was bad enough, but he'd had terrible acne. Now, he had to relive the experience? What did blue acne look like, anyway? Did it scar more easily? He was seriously hoping someone could fix this quickly.

He watched the roughly twelve year old 10K riding around on Doc's back - the lucky bastard was in his mid-20s and had spent several minutes crowing that his knees didn't ache anymore. He knew the kid remembered everything. They all did. But, he was just…. He was radiantly happy. Delight lit his eyes, and small giggles escaped his mouth.

No. He was not jealous of 10K's ability to relax and let it all go for a few minutes. It had to be brain damage.

Warren, still busty but now looking like fifteen year old jailbait, was trying to talk with Citizen Z over the lab's computer. Citizen Z kept having to fight to bring his laughter down every time he heard 10K give another quiet whoop in the background or caught sight of a pouting Vasquez, aged approximately six.

Addy was snuggled up to Mack. The two of them were somehow younger than 10K, probably because they'd been closer to the epicenter, and were dozing. The apparent nine year olds were sickeningly sweet in their cuddles.

Cassandra….. She should have been obeying him. She should have been hovering by his side. She shouldn't have been chasing 10K and Doc while her eyes sparkled with life in a way he hadn't seen in over a month.

The image contrasted vividly in his head with what she'd looked like lately, and was making him uncomfortably aware that she might have been happier to die than be bitten.

He shifted his position in the desk chair he'd claimed. Nope. Not going to consider it. She was alive. He didn't have to lose anyone. That was good enough. He had nothing to feel guilty for…. Right?

10K dropped down to give the now-awake Addy a turn riding around on Doc. (Murphy had no idea how she went from dozing to tazmanian devil, but he wished he could bottle and sell it.) The miniature sniper walked over to him slowly and deliberately. Wide, hazel-gray eyes blinked up at him in solemn consideration. Then, his small face pulled up into a wicked grin that was so different and yet reminiscent of his adult self that Murphy had to blink. "You're an ass. If this doesn't wear off, I'm going to kill you."

"How? You're not even big enough to lift your gun," Murphy scoffed at him, trying not to show how unnerving he found a death threat from the current pre-teen.

The darkness in his little smirk knocked the breath out of his chest and sent a chill down his spine. For a moment, just a moment, he saw the kid that had managed to survive, on his own, for three years after Z. "I have ways. And you need to sleep eventually."

"Ten!" Doc had found a deck of cards. Addy and Cassandra were already sitting and waiting for him to deal. "Want to come play Go Fish?"

"Sure, Doc!" Back, once again, to the wide-eye innocent look. Ten smiled sweetly at their medic, and Murphy swallowed. He watched him join the group and start gathering his cards. How much of what he saw from the kid was a facade?

He was suddenly hoping that CZ got off his ass and fixed this for an entirely different reason.