The Dentist
Spoiler Warning: This short story contains major spoilers for The Apex Cycle: BETA and minor spoilers for The Apex Cycle: DELTA.
“The dentist gives toothbrushes out for free. Or have you never been?”
“Of course I’ve been to the dentist,” I snapped, realizing for the first time that I’d never had a real dentist appointment.
-DELTA, Chapter 19
Winter Break was going so poorly that Alex was actually looking forward to taking Samantha to the dentist. After realizing that she’d never been in for a teeth cleaning despite being the world’s first thousand-year-old teenager, he was glad to have the excuse to get out of the cramped apartment.
Besides, Samantha and Andersen needed time apart. Their incompatibility was starting to wreak havoc on Alex’s dinnerware.
The girl walked silently next to him, limping slightly, but her shoulders were the most relaxed Alex had seen them all week now that she was out of the apartment. She didn’t seem to mind the biting December air and squinted up at the sun as it bounced off the surrounding buildings.
Alex’s phone buzzed in his hand, and he glanced at the screen nervously. Most messages were bad news these days, but his stomach unclenched when he saw it was just a text from Jacobi.
“Checking in. No one dead yet?”
Alex suppressed a snort as he hammered out a response.
“No casualties today. Taking S to the dentist.”
Jacobi replied with a selfie, showing off the leashed orange tabby sitting in his lap.
“Neat. I’m taking my stray to the vet today, too.”
“Is that Tonka?”
Alex nearly dropped the phone in his hurry to hide the screen before Samantha saw the school nurse had compared her to the stray cat.
“He has a vet appointment today, looks like.” Alex looked sideways at Samantha as she studied her wrist brace.
“Do Everly’s powers not work on cats?”
“They do, but he’s due for a vaccine, which is something his powers can’t do.”
Samantha smirked and flexed her fingers before looking up at Alex.
“Same way he can’t clean teeth?”
“Exactly.”
Her smirk drew into a frown, and she brushed tawny hair out of her face.
“We could just skip the dentist, you know. We can go get sushi instead.” The mischievous gleam returned to her eye as she nodded sincerely. “I promise I won’t tell Andersen.”
“I told your mom I would take you to the dentist, so that’s what we’re doing.”
“I won’t tell her, either.”
Alex pulled a hand through his hair.
“We need to make sure you don’t have cavities. Leave them alone for too long, and you’ll end up in a lot of pain.” He held a hand out to stop her at a crosswalk. She folded her arms and scowled.
“Right, I forgot that pain is something I’m completely unaccustomed to.”
“I’ve seen you throw a knife through the skull of an immortal warrior,” Alex quipped, keeping his voice low though they were alone on the sidewalk. “You can handle a dentist appointment.”
Alex’s usual dentist was on the eleventh floor of a high-rise complex a few blocks away from his apartment building. He could see the windows of his home from the waiting room, and as Samantha filled out new patient forms, he watched the shifting clouds reflect off the windows. Hopefully the apartment was still in one piece when he returned.
His phone buzzed again and his screen lit up with another picture of Tonka, along with the text, “Need a new vet. This one called my perfect boy too fat.”
Alex went to respond, but a new text took over the screen.
“How long will u be gone?”
Alex glanced back at the face of the apartment building, wondering why Andersen might need to know how long he had the place to himself.
“At least a few hours. We have errands to run. I need to buy new plates.” He hit send before he could rethink that maybe it was rude to remind Andersen that he and Samantha had destroyed a good number of his best plates.
“K.”
“Samantha?”
A dental assistant smiled from the door behind the front desk, holding a clipboard and waving Samantha back. Samantha glanced nervously at Alex, and he nodded encouragingly. She’d be okay. She had fake memories of going to the dentist, after all. She’d be fine.
But he didn’t like the apprehension that settled in his naval as Samantha disappeared into the back. What if someone was back there? It wouldn’t be the craziest thing to have ever happened. Adrestus had people all over the city. He owned the city. Hell, the dentist could be working for him, and Alex would never know until it was too late.
Alex stood, maybe too aggressively, because the woman at the front desk looked up.
“Everything alright?”
Yes, he was fine. There were no immortal warriors hellbent on getting revenge on the world’s oldest fifteen year old hiding in the exam rooms of the dentist’s office. Staying in the crowded apartment had simply put him on edge.
His phone buzzed again. Still standing, he looked at the email notification.
“Thank you for your $4.99 rental purchase of Machine Gun Rampage (R).”
Alex exhaled heavily through his nose. Andersen had figured out how to work the TV. Wonderful.
“Sir?”
He forced a smile.
“Right. Sorry. Do you have a glass of water?”
He sipped on his water as he waited, scrolling through Jacobi’s cat updates. Desirae, Mike, and Naomi were picking out new scarf bandanas at a luxury pet store and were now treating Alex to an entire fashion show. Jacobi was taking his wards to buy cute cat scarves while Alex had brought his in for a teeth cleaning.
He leaned forward. No, they were going to go pick out new plates after this. That was fun, too. Maybe not as fun as cat fashion, but still decently fun, right?
The phone buzzed.
“Thank you for you $5.99 rental purchase of Extermination:4000 (R).”
At least Andersen was having a good day apparently.
A new Tonka picture pushed away the email. The tabby looked dapper in a blue spotted kerchief, cradled in Desirae’s arms. Alex glanced towards the door to the back. Tonka was getting a new post-appointment outfit. Samantha, meanwhile, had worn a blood-stained t-shirt to the dinner table the night before. Maybe it was time she went shopping, too.
Alex lifted his phone to his ear. Jacobi answered on the first ring.
“If her stitches popped again, I don’t want to know.”
“What? No. It’s a different kind of emergency. What are the cool clothes stores?”
Silence crackled on the phone for several, drawn out seconds.
“Are you rethinking your button-ups? Just a warning, it can be difficult to reinvent yourself after a few decades.”
“Not for me.” This was a dumb idea. He shouldn’t have called Jacobi. “Samantha needs new clothes. She’s bled through so many shirts that she’s starting to look like a butcher.”
Jacobi laughed into the speaker, and Alex tried to hide with his forehead down in his hand.
“I’ll ask Desirae and Naomi, and get back to you.”
“Don’t ask Desirae!” Mike’s voice called in the background. “I’m the better dressed twin!”
“Right. I’ll ask Desirae, Naomi, and Mike, and get back to you.”
“Is Fleming taking Sammy shopping?” Naomi’s voice chirped. “Tell him she needs a winter hat. She keeps stealing mine.”
“Okay, yeah. A hat. But where?” Finally they were getting somewhere.
The phone buzzed. Alex pulled it away to check the screen.
“Thank you for your $3.99 rental purchase of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Remastered (PG-13).”
“Great, I gotta go. Send me those store names and I’ll look for a hat.”
Alex leaned back in the chair, trying to get comfy, but the burn scars that wrapped up his arms to his chest itched under his shirt. He took his glasses off, polishing the lenses to keep from scratching.
Samantha had been in the back for a while. Did dentist appointments normally go this long? Maybe he should ask someone. He didn’t put it past Samantha to try to find a back exit. What if she’d made a break for it, and the staff were trying to figure out how to tell him she was gone?
“Mr. Havardson?” The dental assistant from before stood in the doorway.
“Mr. Hav—? Oh, no, I’m not—”
“Come on back. Your daughter’s just about finished.”
Alex cleared his throat and followed her back to Samantha’s chair. She scowled at him as she ran her tongue over her teeth. Cheap sunglasses rested on top of her head, and she kept her arms firmly crossed.
“Apparently I don’t floss enough.”
“Don’t worry, they say to that everyone,” Alex assured her, pushing his glasses onto his nose.
“No, we don’t.” The dentist looked up from her computer. “Other than the gingivitis, everything looked great. No cavities, so you’re all clear there.”
“Really?” Alex couldn’t help sounding surprised. He would’ve thought the millennia-long coma might’ve caused at a least some tooth decay.
“Really-really.” The dentist smiled. “Give Carla a chat up front, and she’ll be able to book your next appointment six months from now.”
“Six months!?” Samantha looked between the dentist and Alex. “But that’s so soon!”
The dentist laughed, but Alex shrugged.
“That’s the standard.”
Samantha took her baggie of free toothpaste and floss and stomped to the front, still running her tongue over her teeth while screwing up her face. She sulked behind Alex as he set up her next appointment and didn’t look at him as they left the building.
She hesitated on the sidewalk.
“You’re going to cancel that, right?” she asked. “Because I’m fine sticking with my current once-in-a-millennium dentist schedule.”
“You don’t have a magical rock keeping you alive and cavity-free anymore.”
She glowered but resigned herself to glancing down the street.
“What way?”
“Right,” Alex nodded, armed with the list of clothing stores Jacobi had sent him.
“I thought the apartment was that direction.” Samantha looked to the left.
“I need new plates, and you need new clothes.” Alex tried to sound matter-of-fact. “Your jeans all have holes, and your shirts have blood stains.”
Samantha grabbed at her stomach, resting her hand over the stitches Alex knew were underneath her hoodie.
“Yeah, fine,” she grumbled. “Better than going back to Andersen, anyway.”
She fell silent as she limped alongside him, and Alex scrambled for something to say.
“You did great at the dentist.”
“Thanks, I hated it.”
It was hard to believe people willingly had kids knowing they’d someday become teenagers. Not that Alex blamed Samantha, of course. The kid had been through a lot and he knew he hadn’t exactly been a bucket of sunshine at her age, either. Living in Paul’s shadow had taken its toll on his demeanor.
The mall was busier than he’d hoped, but apparently post-Christmas shopping deals were hard to say no to for the general public. They fought their way through the first store the other kids had recommended, but Samantha looked out of place, prodding awkwardly at a rack of colorful shirts with shoulder cut-outs before shrugging.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I don’t like this stuff, and it smells weird in here.”
Alex nodded and led the way to the next store, where Samantha pointed out she was supposed to be buying jeans without holes.
“One hundred twenty dollars just seems like a lot for something I already have.” She stuck her hand through the tattered rip in the thigh of the bedazzled jeans. “Though, I guess mine have less gems on the butt.”
Alex grimaced at the jeans and checked the list Jacobi had sent him, but they were already running out of options.
“Isn’t there anywhere that sells plain clothes?” Samantha asked. Alex scratched his head, still looking at the list. He’d never heard of most of the stores on it.
“Maybe we should try a department store.”
Samantha pursed her lips as they made their way through the mall, still messing with her teeth. She glanced around at the storefronts with apprehension and played with the velcro on her wrist brace. Together they were one middle-aged man and one kid from the Middle Ages, Alex thought with a wry smile. As far as malls were concerned, they were a terribly ill-equipped team.
Luckily, the department store yielded better results, and Samantha disappeared between racks. Alex sighed in relief when he saw her draping shirts and jeans over her arms, and he waited at a knit hat display while she tried on her finds in the dressing room.
His phone buzzed, and he looked down expecting a picture of Tonka or another movie rental charge on his credit card. His heart dropped when he saw it was from the dentist.
“CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION: Samantha Havardson, your July 1st appointment has been cancelled.”
Alex crumbled the hat he was holding in his fist and whipped around to look towards the dressing rooms. Samantha wasn’t trying on new clothes at all. She was hiding so she could call the dentist and cancel her next appointment.
He shoved the hat under his arm so he could use both hands to hammer out an email back to the dentist, requesting the appointment be re-booked. Then, he dialed Jacobi.
“Another emergency, I take it?”
“The moment she’s on her own, she calls the dentist and cancels her next appointment!” Alex felt his face flush as Jacobi laughed. “It’s not funny! She’s being difficult on purpose!”
“On purpose, you say?” Jacobi’s voice concealed the remnants of his laughter. “So, not without reason?”
Alex’s face grew hotter.
“What’s that supposed to mean? The reason is she hated the dentist. Everyone hates the dentist! I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have to, but that doesn’t mean I let my teeth rot!”
“It’s like her Spanish final.” Alex didn’t know how Jacobi always sounded so patient. “At first, you thought she did it to sabotage herself, right? Then you realized it was an accident, but you’d already blown up at her and had to apologize.”
“She didn’t accidentally call the dentist and whoops canceled her appointment by mistake. This is different.”
“All I mean is that kids can be weird. Don’t do something you’ll regret before you better understand what’s going on.”
Alex pulled the phone away from his ear at the sound of pealing metal on Jacobi’s end.
“What’s that noise?”
Jacobi laughed again.
“Canned salmon for my perfect boy. He had a hard day.”
“I thought the vet called him fat.”
“Exactly. Like I said, he’s had a hard day.” A low rumble sounded on the other end as Tonka purred his thanks.
“Me, too, but you don’t see me eating fish out of a can.” Alex caught Samantha’s eye as she exited the dressing room laden with new clothes. She grinned, unaware that he’d already re-booked the appointment she thought she’d so sneakily canceled.
“Maybe you should treat yourself to some, then, though I can’t say it smells very good.”
“I’ll find something else. I’ve gotta go. Samantha’s coming back.”
“Don’t be too hard on her. You still have to live with her for another week.”
“Fine, sure.” Alex pocketed the phone and forced a smile as Samantha approached him. “Got everything?”
“If it’s too much, I can put some things back.” She blushed. “I don’t know how much clothes are supposed to cost. Maybe my mom can pay you back.”
Alex’s shoulders dropped looking at the kid in front of him. Though that mischievous gleam had returned to her face, Samantha looked awkward and embarrassed under her pile of clothes.
“No, it’s fine.” He took the clothes into his arms. When he brought them to the register, Samantha stood back. At first Alex thought she was maybe embarassed to be standing with him, but then he noticed her pointedly look away when the price flashed on the small screen.
He handed her the bag of clothes, and she smiled her thanks. Maybe he would wait to bring up the dentist appointment. Let her know in a few months that she better be flossing because she was still on the books for July.
“I suppose we have to head back now?” She grimaced. Alex checked the time. Andersen was probably still watching movies.
“Let’s grab something to eat first. You said you like sushi, right?”
Samantha’s brow knit in distrust, and Alex gritted his teeth. She liked sushi. She’d said it on the way to the dentist, hadn’t she?
“Yeah, sure,” she conceded. “We can get sushi.”
The food court lived on an upper level of the mall, and they were able to snag a table for two at a sit-down sushi joint. Samantha glared at the menu, and Alex gave it a half-hearted glance. He wasn’t very into fish and wasn’t sure what to order.
“What do you like?” he prompted.
“I don’t know.” She was messing with the velcro on her wrist brace again. “Dad usually orders.”
Dull panic fluttered in Alex’s chest. Sushi was a thing she did with Vic. Of course. He’d been an idiot to bring her here, but leaving now would only make it that much more awkward. He pulled his phone out under the table.
“Your canned salmon idea was terrible,” he typed to Jacobi. “At sushi. What do I order?”
“Send me the link to the menu,” Jacobi replied, sending along a picture of Tonka with salmon bits stuck to his white chin.
Alex pretended to look over the menu until Jacobi replied with a list of three rolls and miso soup for the two of them. He rehearsed ordering them in his head, and when a waiter stopped by with his notepad, Alex made a show of putting on his glasses and requesting what Jacobi had recommended.
He smiled at Samantha as the waiter walked away, and she shrugged back.
“You know,” Alex said, taking a stab at conversation, “it’s not surprising you and Vic like sushi so much, considering your roots. I heard on a podcast that it was actually Norway that came up with salmon sushi to increase commerce with Japan.”
“We’re from Iceland, not Norway.” Samantha frowned. Alex cleared his throat.
“Okay, fair point, but if you remember from class, the Icelandic settlers originally came from Norway and—”
“I don’t remember, actually. I was too busy trying to ignore the slides about human sacrifice and my classmates calling me a bad person for being Viking.”
Alex faltered. Yes, he did remember that as well.
“To be fair, they don’t know you’re a Viking.”
“You’ve met Jamie.” Samantha leaned back in her seat and raised an eyebrow. “She wouldn’t care.”
Another fair point. Alex’s scars were starting to itch again.
The waiter came back with their miso soup, and Samantha stirred at the broth absently.
“Have you heard from Wesley at all?” Alex prodded. Her eyes flickered to his, and her cheeks reddened.
“Yes, I’m not ignoring him.”
“I didn’t say you were.” As far as Alex knew, Wesley and Samantha were good friends, but her red face and angry brow told him maybe Wesley was a bad topic of conversation. “Nurse Everly and I were thinking it might be fun to go to the New Year’s Eve festival tomorrow night. Would you like that?”
“Sure.”
He watched her sip on her soup. Might as well tell her about the dentist since she didn’t seem much into talking about anything else. “So, I emailed the dentist and you’re back on the schedule for your July appointment.”
Her spoon clattered against the plastic bowl, and she jerked her head up to face him.
“What? Why!?”
Alex tried to keep Jacobi’s words in his mind as he crafted his response.
“Because you need to go every six months. It’ll keep your teeth clean, and as long as you’re on my insurance, it won’t cost you a thing.”
She crossed her arms and dropped her voice to keep the surrounding tables from overhearing.
“There might not even be a dentist in a few weeks,” she growled. “New Delos is ‘going to burn’ or whatever. Why even bother?”
“Because we’re going to stop whatever it is Adrestus has planned,” Alex replied evenly. “The dentist will still be there in July because we are good at what we do.”
“If we’re so capable, why is my dad still missing?”
Alex stared at Samantha across the table. The absolute adamance on her face made it hard to believe she wasn’t her mother’s biological daughter. He’d seen the same steel in Alison’s eyes many times.
“Is that why you cancelled the appointment?” Realization broke over Alex. “Because you don’t want to think about not having your family back by then?”
Samantha puffed up, looking like she might try to fight him, but then she deflated and dropped her eyes to her soup.
“I’ll go to their dentist on their insurance,” she mumbled. “I’ll live with them over the summer, like I’m supposed to.”
The waiter brought over a platter of sushi rolls and set them in the middle of the table. Samantha watched them hungrily, but looked too defeated to grab for them.
“And you’ll eat sushi with your dad.” Alex smiled. “Not your history teacher.”
The corner of her mouth twitched.
“No offense.”
“None taken.” Alex took a roll between his chopsticks. “I’m sorry. I should’ve realized.”
The sushi smelled too strongly of fish for Alex’s liking but he popped it in his mouth and tried to look like he was enjoying himself. Samantha watched him warily.
“You’re not mad at me for canceling the appointment?”
“I was,” he admitted, forcing himself to swallow the sushi. “I get it, though. It’s hard. Besides, at least you didn’t charge several movie rentals to my credit card today.”
Her mouth twitched again.
“Andersen?”
Alex nodded solemnly.
“Two of them are rated R, so I should probably tell his mother.”
Samantha smiled outright and pulled the sushi closer to her plate. Her eyes grazed over her clothes bag.
“Oh, they put your hat in here.” She pulled the aran knit hat from the bag and held it out.
“No, that’s for you.” Alex felt his cheeks warm, and he rubbed his nose in attempt to look casual. “Naomi said you kept stealing hers.”
Samantha faltered for a moment, then pulled it back in, playing with the large puff-ball on top.
“Thanks, Mr. Fleming.” She set it in her lap and looked to the sushi. “And thanks for all the other stuff, too.”
He nodded. It really wasn’t a big deal. She was just a kid, after all, and someone needed to take care of her.
“No more errands after this, right?” she asked after another bite of sushi. “We’re going home when we’re done?”
Home. The word caught Alex off guard, but he smiled. He could wait to replace his broken plates another day.
“Yes, we can go home after this.”
Samantha smiled again, gray eyes wrinkling, and pulled the hat over her head before continuing to eat her sushi.