Time Warp: Lay Me Down On a Bed of Roses {Open}

[Demetrius Wolfbane]

September 9th, 2027
(Non-canon)

Time had been kind to Demetrius, anyone with eyes could have seen that once upon a time. Hammel had done wonders for the once painfully thin boy. When before he might have been doomed to die young had no one caught onto his troubles, at Hammel he had gotten the help he needed. He'd found peace within himself, turning his anger into words that soon spilled out into a book that became a bestseller. Proper nutrition had caused the boy to develop into a six foot man with slightly angled features, and hair that would never be perfectly straight.

However at the current moment in time, one would never have guessed the man had such good things going for him. His head was bowed over the clear glass, staring at the empty bottom as though it might have the answers to the universe. Minutes passed as he continued his empty stare. Trying to find the will to order another.

He didn't even know when things started to fall apart for him. Maybe it had been the first time he'd kissed Greg. Or the first time he saw the small bundle of flesh in Greg's arms. No... That had to be it. Dem was sure his whole life fell apart the minute he realized his old peer had a family of his own, while Demetrius was still painfully alone. Or maybe when it was when Mathis showed up at his doorstep with two little blue eyed boys, grinning with all the joy as he introduced Demetrius to his godsons.

Demetrius raised a pale hand to order another drink, slumping further into his barstool as though he could force the ground to swallow him. He had never wanted a kid, especially a kid with his damnable DNA. But seeing all his friends, his family, with their own happy bundles Demetrius had become open to the idea. So willing to do anything to have his own bundle that he could cherish forever. He hadn't thought twice when he applied for the surrogate mother. Hadn't even considered the consequences of bringing someone into the world with his DNA.

He could still remember the day he'd first seen his daughter. When those beautiful blueish green eyes opened to stare up at him. He might not have wanted her growing up, he might not even have wanted her as she was growing in her mother's womb, but the minute the soft bundle was in his arms he knew this is what he wanted. And that is when everything went to hell.

The doctors wasted no time whisking away his daughter to run tests, standard and not so standard, and before the day was through he remembered being escorted to a spare room. Being held by the shoulder as he was explained that his daughter not only had his genetics, she had it worse. She was more fragile than even he had been as a child. But he was so sure, so positive that he could do what was needed to be done to care for her that Demetrius hadn't even thought over when the doctors told her she probably wouldn't make it to see three.

If only he'd listened. If only he'd lost his insane hope that he could raise a child alone and she could survive against the odds. Maybe then he wouldn't be in the position he was now. Drinking in the early hours of the days, hair a mess, eyes ringed in red, skin paler than a ghost, with shaking hands and a wrinkled suit. Wishing more than anything that he could just have the child he'd come to love back. Wishing he had more time to love her. Wishing harder than he'd wished for anything that something would come along to fill the void created by losing the barely one year old girl.

Demetrius ducked his head further but knocked back another glass of scotch, almost coughing it back up as he tried to swallow around the lump in his throat. He didn't know what to do anymore, didn't know where to go. He hadn't been allowed to go to the funeral. Something about their being an investigation about his daughter's death. Because apparently someone thought it was all his fault.

((A/N:
Dem's daughter, Ashley, had congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA). She died in the middle of the night from overheating coupled with her inability to sweat. It was an accident but the police are still investigating just in case.))