I didn't start watching Alien Nation again until earlier this year. I really felt bad for Marvin at the end of Chains of Love. What happened wasn't his fault, and it was all kind of funny. So this is a short little closure story. Though I do love a good slash fic, that's not what this is. This is my first Alien Nation story, so if you like it, tell me what you think!

Chains of Love: Afterward

Sergeant Matthew Sykes was just arriving home. He'd had a long day (not that they weren't all long) and wanted nothing more than to sit back on his couch, have a beer, watch some Three Stooges, and possibly slip into a coma for a week. He was hunched over slightly as he stood in the elevator, waiting to arrive on his floor. He stepped out of the elevator, looked up, and froze in his tracks. Standing down the hall, right in front of his door, was Marvin Gardens.

The Newcomer had nearly been one in a string of men sought out by a lonely woman whose face had been burned during the Newcomer's arrival on Earth. This woman, desperate for the attention she'd received from men in the past, had drugged men she arranged dates with through an online service so that they would be enamored with her in spite of her appearance. Then, of course, the first guy she'd drugged had gone into a jealous rage and killed two other men she'd seen. Marvin escaped that fate after Matt and his partner, George had busted into the room before he actually saw Clara Bow, as she called herself. Marvin had seen him first, and that's all it took.

It had been hell for Matt. Marvin had flirted with Matt in front of his co-workers, and he'd pretty much thrown a tantrum about it. It wasn't the first time a guy's advances had caused other people to tease him. The whole mess had made him look like an idiot in front of Cathy. And, to top it all off, Marvin had acted a bit like a stalker. The guy had followed Matt to his apartment, to work, and on a case, though that last one had turned out for the best. Matt had tried to be gentler with his final rejection, and had hoped that Marvin would finally get the message. As a matter of fact, the Sardonac, the drug that had led to the infatuation, should have worn off by now. Cathy had said about a month, as long as they didn't have sex. So why was Marvin here?

Marvin, who'd been staring at the door, suddenly turned and saw Matt standing down the hall, which prompted him to begin walking forward. Marvin cleared his throat, rather nervously.

"Sergeant Sykes," he said, taking Matt by surprise, "there's something I think I need to say to you."

"Uh, sure." Replied Matt. He unlocked the door to his apartment. It seemed safe enough. "Come in." He stepped inside, shutting the door after Marvin followed him in. Marvin simply stood there, looking extremely uncomfortable. Matt decided some prompting was in order. "So, Marvin, what'd you come to talk about?" Marvin gave him a look that could only be described as humiliated.

"Where to begin?" He muttered. "The Sardonac wore off two weeks ago and I've been wondering how to explain myself."

"You really don't have to." Said Matt. "I know all about what Sardonac does to Tenctonese."

"At the very least, I should apologize to you." Said Marvin, shaking his head. "I've never been interested in men, but when I drank it I couldn't help but throw myself at you repeatedly. I followed you around like a lovesick child. Once the drug wore off, I realized how humiliating what I'd done was." Matt slowly let himself relax during Marvin's little speech. The Sardonac was out of his system. There would be no more declarations of love, no more surprise visits or embarrassing gestures.

"It's like I said then," he told Marvin, "you were drugged. And I probably could have handled it better. I mean, you'd pretty much just barely dodged date rape and I wasn't very sympathetic. I just wasn't used to having a guy be so persistent. I kind of grew up with a lot of people telling me that sort of thing is wrong, you know? I don't really care what other people like, but I still get kind of freaked out when a guy comes on to me, or someone else thinks I'm gay. Besides," he added, seeing that Marvin was looking a little less ashamed already, "you saved my life. That guy would have killed me if you hadn't followed me."

"Still," muttered Marvin, "I can't believe how influenced I was by a drug. I've always known what Sardonac is used for, but I never would have thought it could make me feel attracted to another male. Or act so desperate." Matt shrugged.

"It happens. When I was a kid, one of my friends stole some LSD from his brother and brought it to my house to try. We decided to go one at a time in case something went wrong. I went first. He went to the bathroom after a while and when he came back to my room, I was gone. He found me in the kitchen talking to a bowl of fruit. He ended up not taking the drugs, and I never did them again." Marvin seemed torn between amusement and confusion.

"What does that have to do with what happened to me?"

"It just means that a lot of times, drugs make you do things you would never normally do, and there's nothing you can do but deal with the consequences." Explained Matt. "You didn't willingly take the Sardonac. You wouldn't have been chasing me if it wasn't for the drug in your system. I get that. It's over and done with, so now let's just move on. You really have nothing to be sorry for." Marvin nodded.

"Thank you Sergeant." He looked back toward the door. "It's getting late, I should probably go."
"Sure," said Matt, walking back to the door and opening it, "but maybe you should consider a different way of meeting women. After all, you wouldn't want this happening again." Marvin grinned in surprise.

"No, definitely not." He stepped though. "Goodnight Matt." He almost looked worried when he said that, addressing Matt by name instead of rank. Matt ignored it though.

"Goodnight Marvin." Marvin smiled again and turned to leave. Matt shut the door behind him. He went about what he'd planned for the night; getting a beer and watching The Three Stooges on his couch. He really did wish Marvin all the best, and hoped he'd have better luck with the whole dating thing.

Looking back on his behavior from over a month ago, he recalled his own previous homophobic nature which had instilled in him by his judgmental father. For a time, Matt had believed his words. Even after he'd begun to question his father's judgment, it had still caused him to mistreat decent people for fear of having that cruel attitude turned on him. Even now, after he'd managed to grow out of most of it, he still had bits of it left over, as he'd told Marvin. However, having a Newcomer partner and friends had helped him move on from a lot of his past prejudices. It was hard to hang on to all that anger and fear when having to deal with other people's hatred for a living.

He shook his head. He didn't want any deep thoughts right now. There'd be time enough for thoughts about people's troubles tomorrow. Right now, he was going to relax and rest up to prepare for it. He let his mind go blank until the only things he knew were the beer in his hands and Larry, Curly, and Moe slapping each other in the faces.

I've read a couple Matt/Marvin fics, and they're nice, but he was only in one episode and it wasn't enough for me to see them as an actual couple. That, plus the fact that Matt strikes me as the kind of guy who's straight and doesn't care about someone else's sexuality unless it leads other people to question his own. You know, like when a straight person decides to break off contact with a gay friend because someone else insinuates that they're gay for having a friend who is. It's just sad when that happens.

The thing about the bowl of fruit was inspired by my all time favorite YouTube series, The Annoying Orange! An interesting bit of trivia for you; James Caan, who played Matt Sykes in the original Alien Nation movie guest starred in one episode as a Jalapeño pepper! I actually didn't remember that until after I wrote the story! I just thought some talking fruit sounded like a funny hallucination. I don't know what kinds of hallucinations LSD usually causes.

Hope you enjoyed this, and please review!