Becoming Bridge

Prologue - Meetings, Partings and Reunions

Their meeting had been nothing out of the ordinary. As fated meetings went, it wasn't much of a story to tell years down the line. She had been a librarian working in NewTech City's Hall of Records; he was a trainee scientist looking for some reference books. He'd had a small accident in which an entire shelf of documents collapsed on top of him, she'd come rushing to help and an hour later, when everything was put away in their proper place; he'd asked her if she wanted to get some coffee.

From then on, it seemed that the two met practically on a daily basis; he'd always seemed to have forgotten some sort of book, so they'd share some small talk. A month into their friendship, they'd learnt copious amounts about one another:

Her name was Lily, his was Daniel. Yes, her hair was naturally wavy and yes, she was indeed a brunette with natural highlights, it was indeed possible for such a thing to exist. Daniel agreed with her statement that he needed a haircut, but expressed to her a desire to grow it out long enough for someone in the lab to comment. Yes, he always looked a little disheveled, with his dark brown hair sticking up in every direction imaginable and his shirt never properly tucked into his pants, due to long nights and the most 'experimental' experiments imaginable. He had a great laugh, a primary school sense of humor and he always had a mischievous glint in his bright green eyes. She was only working at the library for a few months more, until she could apply for a large publishing firm to work as an editor. He was an intern for a lab working specifically in genetics, on a project that, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, he described as 'classified'. She loved cupcakes, he loved toast. They both agreed that green was the best color, that the best superpower is super speed, and they both agreed that Daniel spent far too much time every day flirting with Lily than actually looking for reference books.

It took her three months to identify the stomach-flipping sensation she felt when he entered the library as a kind of crush, and another three to act on those feelings.

After a half a year of knowing one another; Lily told him she had two spare tickets to the newest Star Wars reboot, with no one to go with. He asked her if this was a date, she replied yes.

It had been the first time she'd seen him wear anything but a dreary shirt, tie and pants, and she thought jeans suited his slender figure rather well. He seemed more vibrant, if that was possible, in his own clothes.

She swore that she'd never learnt so much about the inaccuracies of light speed time travel and the portrayal of flesh wounds in mainstream media than she did in that cinema with Dan. Halfway through the film, as the man was pointing out the 20th flaw in the circuitry of the Millennium Falcon's cockpit, she decided to shut him up for good and kissed him. When they pulled apart, all thoughts of the movie's inaccuracies were long forgotten, and for once, the dark haired boy was speechless. He stared at her, wide-eyed and open mouthed. She smirked.

The next day went by like lightning for Lily.

"You seem cheerful, Lil'," Maria, the library's one and only tech-support employee stated, eyeing up the smaller girl. "Good night yesterday?"

"The best," she replied, another wide smile creeping up on her as she remembered Dan's expression. "I think I just discovered a new way to rule the world."

"Boys," the blonde woman replied, chuckling and continuing her work.

A year into the relationship, Lily had left the Hall of Records, and found herself working for a big-time, no-nonsense firm by the name of Longboat Publishing. She found herself wearing a suit to work, and discovered that punctuality was everything when it came to meetings. The pay rise was appreciated, she told Daniel, but the hours were long, and the commute horrific. There was no way she'd ever be able to keep it up.

It was then that Dan came up with a plan.

"You know," he told her, leaning on a pile of boxes in an attempt to look suave. "You could always, well…move in to my place…"

It was at that moment that one of the boxes the boy had been leaning on gave way, causing the brunet to trip and fall profoundly on his backside.

"Whatever you say," Lily managed to say in between fits of laughter and gasps for breath, "boy blunder. Though knowing you, I'll have to keep the place from falling apart too."

The following week, they had officially moved in together.

Lily was right, of course. The place, to put in the most frank of terms, was a state of chaos. In contrast to her apartment back in the outskirts of NewTech City, which had been spacious, clean yet slightly disorganized; Dan's place was tiny, cluttered with filing cabinets, spare files, chemistry sets full of most likely illegally home-brewed explosives, and now with a new tenant, piles upon piles of book manuscripts. Yet (according to the crazy scientist himself) everything in the place was well organized for he knew where each document or odd piece of equipment was kept. Lily told him she'd cope, but she'd gained many bruises in the first few weeks from tripping over random objects, in the rush to get out the door and, in turn, Dan gained far too many paper cuts from attempting to sort through his own papers and hers before he left for work. Often, they'd enter the office with each other's documents, and not notice until an assistant or manager pointed it out. They argued, as couples often do, in small spats about the dishes and whose turn it was to leave out the bins for collecting. Other than that, they seemed completely at peace with one another.

Another trait that the couple had in common was their overall disdain for cleaning, and so, the apartment remained like this for another ten months, until Dan was nearly killed by a rogue filing cabinet by the front door losing its balance and crashing into a misplaced flask of an unknown chemical compound. If he hadn't been in the equally cluttered bedroom catching up on another restless night at the lab, he would have been undoubtedly hospitalized.

It was then with a heavy heart, and a missing wall to their apartment, that the landlords ordered the young couple's eviction.

Their relationship reached a rocky point from then on. They each had to move back in with their parents until they could 'find their feet', which meant the commuting was worse, their parents got frustrated with them and the little spats that the couple had grew into full blown arguments with an unnervingly increased frequency. Their fights were almost daily, over the smallest of things, almost always beginning with simple teasing which escalated into full-blown arguments. Neither of them were happy when they finally found a new apartment.

Their position as tenants of the new apartment lasted only a month, before they called it quits and went their separate ways.

Life continued at a slow, monotonous pace for the two of them for the next two years. They met other people, changed employment, (with Daniel working at a privately owned research lab and Lily at a smaller, calmer publishing house) and life went on for the both of them.

However, they were left with a vacant, unidentifiable feeling within them. Everything seemed so…normal and slow since the breakup. Perhaps that was what drove them to visit the Hall of Records that day; perhaps that was why they seemed unsurprised to find each other there.

"Hey," Daniel began, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I…how are you doing?"

Lily looked up from the manuscript she was reading, trying her hardest to suppress her smile.

"Bored," she responded, her level-headed hazel eyes twinkling with amusement, "you'd think after five re-writes, the guy would start improving his narrative skill."

A few moments of soft chuckles between them, a few more of awkward small talk before Dan got to the point.

"I miss you."

"Dan-"

"There's an apartment with a vacancy I checked out last week. Really nice; close to my work, probably close to yours too if you take the NewTech Central Line…the rent's too high though, I'll have to find someone to split it with," he began, sitting beside her as she fully closed the manuscript.

"I missed you too, mop-head," the brunette responded, gesturing to his somehow even messier hair than before. "Hey, we won't know till we try, right?"

Daniel didn't even attempt to suppress his wide grin; lighting up every aspect of his features and making Lily feel that stomach-flipping sensation that she always used to have when he walked into a room, "Yeah!"

Needless to say, this time, things worked out.

He had taken the initiative to create a narrow pathway between the mountains of filing cabinets, experiments and any other odds and ends so she could sprint with ease out of the apartment and to the train station in the morning, and she'd gotten him a smart pair of black leather gloves to act as a barrier between his delicate hands and the daily-pillars of paperwork. They argued less, and laughed more. The days went by faster, and the sun shone brighter.

Four years went by before he asked her 'the question'. It was, by nobody's definition, romantic. She'd gotten onto the train as the doors were closing; he was just a step behind her. She wedged herself between the closing doors just the right amount of time for him to leap in, and realize he'd forgotten his briefcase. With a smirk, she raised the rugged, black abomination to his eye level.

"You saved my ass, babe," he told her, taking the briefcase and kissing her tenderly. "What do you say about marrying me?"

"I'd say yes."

One year later, Lily and Daniel became Mr. and Mrs. Carson.

Their story had been nothing out of the ordinary. Many people have lived this kind of life, and many shall in the future. It was only two years, 9 months and 16 minutes later that their lives became something different.

That was the moment Bridge Carson was born.

Hey there! Well, that was the prologue for this story 'Becoming Bridge', which I'm sort of treating as my big project, even though I only expect it to be about 10 chapters long.

One thing I've noticed when re-watching SPD was the lack in parental back-story to the main cast, other than Sky and Cruger, which is fine, since I love to speculate. Loads of fics on here like to focus on a tragic, abandoned childhood for our favourite man in green, and I love them so much, but at the same time I feel it doesn't really suit his attitude towards life. I sort of feel that he grew up amongst a family who really do care for him, and that's what shaped into the guy he is today, hence 'Becoming Bridge'!

Special thanks go out for my super-special-awesome beta reader Hunter10600 for being the world best proofreader! And to the inspiring Increasing Paranoia who's helped me with the summary, came up with the title and general moral support!

Hope to see you next time!