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neopuff · 11 months

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title: cured & confused word count: ~3500 characters: beverly, calan, six, holiday summary: Agent Six meets Beverly Holiday for the first time. Again. ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47957149

It’d been three weeks since she was cured.

Beverly Holiday was adjusting well to life as a regular person again, though the world was a lot different than how she remembered it. Rex and Rebecca did a nice job of explaining things to her - as she suffered through test after test after test - but Beverly couldn’t pretend she understood most of it. She had only just finished eighth grade when she went EVO and there wasn’t a lot of biology or mechanical stuff taught before she…left public school.

(A public school which, according to Rebecca, no longer existed. It was completely destroyed by an EVO and their district never got the budget to rebuild. Go figure.)

Now freshly eighteen and feeling not a day over fourteen, Beverly was in a very weird place. Rebecca wanted her to stay at Providence HQ for a few weeks so she could do regular tests, but Rex had been kind enough to suggest that she stay with one of his friends in a nearby town and he or someone from Providence would come pick her up once a week. It wasn’t bad. The Bowmans were really nice people and seemed sympathetic to what Beverly had been through. They were also happy to keep her being cured a secret - apparently Rebecca was nervous about announcing it publicly since she couldn’t reproduce the results.

Or something like that. Beverly couldn’t pretend she was paying attention to everything - she was too busy being reminded of all the sensations she’d forgotten about. As an EVO, she’d lost herself entirely - every thought and feeling was based on primal urges to eat and attack. She couldn’t remember any details of anything except a struggling need to get out. A desire for freedom was the only thing she could remember and when she thought about the memory too hard, it was like the walls would start closing in around her.

Rebecca (and Claire, who Beverly was really getting along with) had taught her some breathing exercises to help when those feelings cropped back up. It wasn’t easy, but she was just happy to be outside. Fresh air, yummy food, cold water, a fluffy pillow…being human again was nice. It was the nicest thing in the world.

It was a crisp October 21st - not cold, like it would’ve been up in Pennsylvania, but Rebecca didn’t want her sister moving so far away just yet - and Beverly was waiting outside Claire’s house for her pickup. Rex had been the one to come get her on the 7th and then Rebecca came to get her on the 14th, so she wondered absentmindedly if the enigmatic Agent Six would be coming this time.

He was one particular thing she didn’t have any understanding of. The first thing Beverly saw when she was cured was her sister all over this handsome, green man - so, obviously, Beverly was glad that her sister finally had a boyfriend. She’d always been really bad at dating so it was nice to see her so happy.

But then when Beverly asked about him or made comments or whatever, Rebecca would shut her down and tell her not to make jokes and not to say anything that might make him uncomfortable. It was strange. He must’ve been really, really shy. But they were sisters. If he was her future brother-in-law, then she wanted to get to know him a little better.

Plus. Well. He saved her life. Rebecca had made that very clear.

Beverly was disappointed to see a small Providence transport truck arrive just a few minutes later than planned, but smiled at the unmasked face that came around the side to take her bag and help her in.

“Hi, Captain Calan,” she said sweetly, happy to see a familiar face even if it wasn’t the precise one she was hoping for.

He gave her a nod and lifted her overnight bag with ease. “Hey there, Lil’ Holiday. How’re ya feelin’?”

Beverly started making her way into the back of the truck. “Good! Nothing weird. No nanite activity as far as I can tell.”

“Your sister’ll be glad to hear it,” he said. “She’s had one hell of a week, so that’ll certainly lift her spirits.”

“Oh?” She wanted to ask for more information, but knew from the last few weeks that almost everything Providence-related would not be discussed away from Providence. Everything was classified or highly sensitive or…just not discussable. It was annoying. “Well, this is supposed to be my last checkup before I move back home, so I hope she’s not too upset.”

Calan hummed in confirmation and closed the doors, announcing to his driver that they could head back. Sometimes Beverly felt a little bad that they went through all this trouble just because she didn’t want to be cooped up in a stark-white building full of soldiers and guns, but…well. It was only three weeks.

“Has anything exciting happened this week?” she asked casually as she buckled in. The drive would only be about a half-hour, so she wanted to get all the hot gossip she could before arriving. Calan was extremely professional, but if she was friendly enough then he might let some information slip about her favorite people.

“Ah…” he started, buckling into the seat across from her. “...yeah. Some stuff. I can’t really talk about it now, but your sister will fill you in, I’m sure.”

Beverly pouted, more curious than she’d been in a long time. He said Rebecca had had a bad week, and something exciting happened. Hopefully she wouldn’t arrive at HQ to find her sister with a broken leg.

They chatted about mindless things for the rest of the drive - most of what she wanted to know, she wasn’t allowed to, and all she could share with this adult soldier man were the comings and goings of teenage girldom which he obviously had no interest in. When they arrived at HQ, Beverly rejected his offer to escort her to Holiday’s lab and went off on her own, letting him take her bag to her sister’s quarters. She’d done the walk so many times already that she was confident she knew the way.

On her solo journey through the halls, Beverly spotted a familiar green suit in the distance and perked up. It was just the man she’d been hoping to see. “Agent Six!”

He turned around and stared at her suspiciously, shoving his hands into his pockets. Normally he didn’t like it when strangers shouted his name in public, but this girl couldn’t seem less threatening if she tried.

Beverly smiled and rushed over to him with a little wave. “Hiii! How are you?”

“...fine,” he answered with a moment of hesitation. “And you?”

She noticed that, but assumed it was because he didn’t really know how to act around her. There wasn’t exactly a code for the relationship between heroic-future-brother-in-law and recently-saved-future-sister-in-law. “I’m good! Excited for my last checkup. And I’m really excited to get back home!”

Six made a small noise of affirmation. He didn’t know who this teenager was, but clearly she knew him. He was still cycling through the benefits of bluntly telling everyone he interacted with that he’d lost his memories or trying to give out as little information as possible without first gauging their previous relationship. In this case, he had absolutely no clue. A girlfriend of Rex’s? But she was getting a checkup, so…a cured EVO, probably. He wasn’t used to cured EVOs being so overly friendly with him.

“I’m sure your family will be happy to see you again,” Six said, trying to keep things vague.

“Well, I mean, it’s just my mom,” Beverly said with a wave of her hand. “I asked Rebecca if she would come with, at least for a few days, but she said there’s no way she could get away after what you guys did for me. I don’t know. Sounds like your boss is kind of a jerk.”

He raised one eyebrow curiously. Rebecca, huh? Six was starting to get some idea of who exactly he was talking to. “He can be. Are you on your way to…Rebecca’s lab, then?” The name felt foreign on his tongue, like he wasn’t supposed to say it. He’d just called her by her title or last name (or flirty nickname) so far. Her first name seemed…off-limits. That didn’t make much sense, but it was how he felt.

Beverly smiled and clasped her hands behind her back. “Yup! You wanna come with? I’m sure she’d be happy to see you,” she said cheekily, knowing that Rebecca didn’t want her making comments about their relationship. That didn’t mean she couldn’t encourage them to spend more time together. He seemed to make Rebecca happy and after everything Rebecca had done for her, there was nothing Beverly wanted more than to see her sister happy.

Six furrowed his brows, trying to figure out what that meant. He hadn’t been able to really get a handle on his previous relationship with Dr. Holiday, but this girl (her sister, he was ninety-nine percent sure) was definitely implying…something. He wondered if it would be unethical to try and get more information out of her.

“I should confess something to you first,” he said suddenly, realizing they weren’t that far from the lab.

“Oh…” Beverly stopped walking and frowned. “Does the bad news have to do with you?”

He stopped just a bit ahead of her and turned around, a matching frown on his face. Someone had told her something, it seemed. “It does.”

“Did you guys break up?” she asked quietly, feeling bad. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”

Six stared down at her and tucked away that question for later. Something to ask Rex about, since Holiday would undoubtedly pretend not to hear him. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. I recently lost my last six years of memory.”

Beverly’s expression turned to pure confusion. “Huh?”

“I don’t know you,” he said awkwardly, hoping she wouldn’t be offended. “I’m assuming you’re Dr. Holiday’s sister.”

“Wait, are you serious?” She walked up to him and hugged her arms in front of her. “You don’t remember me? Or…I’m sorry, six years?”

He nodded.

“That’s awful.” Beverly felt very guilty and very sad, and reached out to lay a pitying hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Agent Six. I mean, I missed out on a lot of years from being an EVO, but I can’t imagine what it’d be like to just suddenly forget everything.” She looked genuinely upset and pulled her hand back before he could get uncomfortable with the contact. “Was it ‘cause of your nanites or did something happen?”

“Science experiment gone wrong,” he said dryly, happy that she wasn’t touching him anymore. It felt strange to be pitied by a strange little girl, but somehow it wasn’t as annoying as when he got the same attitude from Holiday or Rex. Something about the distance between them - the fact that she clearly didn’t have the same type of connection with him that other people here did - made it not as bad. “Not sure if you’ve met Rex’s brother, but you can thank him.”

Beverly shrugged awkwardly. “Yeah, I met him. I’m really sorry.” She started playing with her hands. “Do you want a hug?”

“No.” Six decided he wasn’t appreciating the pity anymore. “Let’s get you to the lab.”

It was only a two minute walk, but the uncomfortable silence between them made the time stretch exponentially. Beverly wasn’t sure what she could say around this version of the man who saved her life - who didn’t remember saving her life, and didn’t remember her or their brief conversations over the past month. He also probably didn’t remember her sister or Rex, which was the saddest goddamn thing she’d ever heard. But he was always kind of an emotionless, aloof guy, so it was hard to tell how he was feeling.

She assumed he was sad. But there was very little chance of getting that out of him.

They reached the lab and Six walked inside with Bev, a little curious why no one told him they’d be having an outside visitor. “Dr. Holiday.”

“Yes?” she called out, not turning around.

“You have a guest.”

Holiday seemed to consider what he said for a moment before turning around to see the two new additions to her lab. She smiled brightly immediately when she saw her sister, and then suddenly looked shocked and grabbed her cell phone to check something. “Oh, my God, Beverly - I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize what day it was!”

Bev walked over and hugged her briefly, then leaned back and shrugged. “It’s okay! Captain Calan picked me up.”

Rebecca sighed and pocketed her phone again, putting a hand to her forehead in frustration. “At least someone’s paying attention to the schedule. I’m sorry, Beverly, I just need to finish this and then we can get started.”

“It’s okay, I was planning to stay overnight, so take your time.”

Six watched the two sisters chatting and felt extremely out of place. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing. Standing there, waiting, was obviously not right. But he didn’t know if he should leave or say something else or…something he hadn’t even thought of yet. He stuck his hands into his pockets and looked around the room, even though he’d already spent plenty of time there over the past few days. He was on Day Seven of his new life and Holiday was still doing occasional tests on his brain despite Knight’s orders to stop. He didn’t mind, personally. They didn’t take long and they gave him an opportunity to spend more time with her. But they were probably fruitless. But if it made Holiday feel better, he’d keep showing up.

“Um…thank you for bringing her here, Six,” Holiday said, finally acknowledging the ninja standing by her door. “You don’t have to stay, I’m sure you’ve got other things to do.”

He took her hint and nodded. “It was nice meeting you,” he said to Beverly before taking a few steps out the door.

As soon as the door was closed again, the younger Holiday turned to her sister with her mouth open wide in shock. “Rebecca! What is going on?! Did he really lose all his memories? That’s insane!”

“Shhh,” Holiday responded with a finger to her lips. “Yes, he did. And yes, it is.”

“But, like…” Beverly played with her hands, trying to figure out how to properly word her questions. “He doesn’t remember anything? You? Rex? Providence?”

Rebecca sighed unhappily and guided her sister onto the exam table, realizing she wouldn’t be able to get her work done without answering some questions first. “He reverted back to about six years ago. Before EVOs, before Providence. Before all of us. Complete reversion. Doesn’t seem to be any chance of memory revival.”

“That’s awful,” Beverly said, repeating her words from earlier. “I’m…I don’t even know what to say. I’m sorry, Rebecca.”

“I’m not the one who lost my memories,” Holiday said ignorantly, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, but…I mean, he was your boyfriend or whatever. And now it’s probably super weird.”

Ah. That’s what she meant. Holiday’s cheeks colored a little and she ran her fingers through her bangs. “That’s not…well. It doesn’t matter. It is super weird now, you’re right.”

Beverly frowned and held out her hand, shaking it a little so her sister would take it. After Rebecca obliged, Beverly squeezed it tight. “I’m sorry.”

Holiday sighed again and wished the breath didn’t sound so shaky. She was dealing. She’d already had her little breakdown about it and she was moving on with her life. But it was hard when someone was sitting there and reminding her of everything that went wrong. “It’s okay.”

“Is it?”

Rebecca squeezed her hand back. “No. Not really.”

Outside of Holiday’s lab door, Six was standing there, flush against the wall, too curious about their conversation to leave. He knew Beverly was a recently cured EVO and he knew that Holiday came to Providence because of that. He knew that, for whatever reason, Beverly thought they’d been dating prior to his memory loss - but no one else had said anything like that to him. And aside from the occasional tests, Holiday had gone out of her way to avoid any alone time with him. A man couldn’t be thrown so much conflicting information without wanting to know more.

Listening to the sisters, though, just left him feeling hollow. None of his questions were answered except for one little thing: Holiday was still uncomfortable around him and she didn’t think he’d ever get any of his memories back. Why were they even continuing the tests, then? Just for kicks? To toy with him?

Six exhaled through his nose and walked into the hallway. He needed to blow off some steam.

Back in the lab, Holiday went through the same questions with her sister as she did every week. And like the last three weeks, Beverly was looking to be a completely cured, normal teenage girl.

“The Bowmans have been really nice.”

Holiday smiled softly. “I’m glad. They came highly recommended from Noah, so it’s good to know we can trust that.”

Beverly smiled back, not sure why her sister wouldn’t trust Rex’s best friend implicitly to begin with, but she didn’t feel like asking about it. Claire had spent enough time talking to her about Noah and she really didn’t need to learn more. “So…what are you gonna do now?”

“About what?”

“Well, like…about Agent Six, I guess,” Beverly said quietly. “He still works here, obviously, but, like…can he do all the same stuff he did before?”

“Well…yes, pretty much,” Holiday answered. “He was in a very…unique line of work before working here. His skills haven’t gone away.”

“What line of work?”

Rebecca pursed her lips and blushed, trying to figure out how to answer that question. She did not need to tell her sister that the man she’d fallen for used to be a contract killer - that information would most certainly get back to her mother and she did not want to deal with that. “Um. Ninja…things.”

“What?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“You’re acting weird. Was he a criminal or something?”

“No, Beverly, just drop it.” Holiday glared at her sister. “He’s a very private person so I’d rather not talk about it.”

Beverly pouted and jumped off the exam table, swiping her hands across the thighs of her jeans. “Yeah, like that’s not a suspicious answer.” She put her hands on her hips and gave her sister a pointed look, then rolled her eyes and chose to move on. “So what are we doing tonight?”

Holiday ignored her sister’s expression and wrote some down the information she’d gathered on Beverly’s nanite status. “Are we supposed to do something?”

“Well…yeah. I’m moving back to Pittsburgh next week.”

Rebecca’s eyes widened and she turned to Beverly, almost bewildered. “Is that…really? Already?”

“We talked about this last week, Rebecca.”

“I know, it’s just…sorry. It’s been a hellish week and everything kind of blended together.” Holiday massaged her temple and sighed. “We can do whatever you want, okay? I’ll take the night off.”

“Yeah?” Beverly smiled excitedly. “That’d be awesome! We can go to the mall, or see a movie, or-”

Just as she was listing a bunch of fun activities they could enjoy on short notice, an alarm sounded throughout Providence HQ. She frowned at the blinking red lights around them and immediately turned to her computer.

“Holiday.”

She tapped her comm, ignoring Beverly’s complaints about how loud the alarm was. “What’s up, Six?”

“Salazar can handle this. You should spend time with your sister.”

She paused and turned to look at Beverly, who had her hands over her ears and was mouthing something obnoxious. Holiday smirked at her and pressed on the comm again. “Roger that, Agent. Don’t let anyone die out there.”

“Not planning on it.”

The alarm quieted down a minute later as Rebecca shrugged off her lab coat, laying it over her arm. “So…you said something about the mall?”

Beverly tilted her head. “Don’t you need to do work stuff?”

“They’ll be fine.” Holiday said with a smirk, heading towards the door. “Come on, let me go get changed and we can head out.”

“WOO!” Beverly cheered as she followed her sister. “I really need some new winter clothes ‘cause I am not prepared for Pennsylvania weather.”

Rebecca smiled down at her sister and let some contented warmth spread throughout her chest. The last week had been so awful and stressful and depressing - it would be nice to be reminded of how there was still one major part of her life that hadn’t been ruined. Beverly was back to normal, she was happy, and she was present. For five years, that was all Holiday wanted, and even if some things in her life weren’t working out…she was glad that this did.

#generator rex #beverly holiday #agent six #rebecca holiday #captain calan #holix #carrofics

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