Go over to New Horizons

Tony doesn't remember walking himself back to his apartment and to his bed. The next morning he simply finds himself there, jerking awake as he rolls onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. Maybe he can go on like this for a while; all he has to do is think happy thoughts and it's almost as if nothing changed. But in the long run, with the thought always at the edges of his mind...

Some people went their entire lives without any kind of companionship. Voluntary celibacy was, among some, even a noble pursuit. But Tony has always been an atheist and given all the events that had unfolded recently he'd seen nothing but affirmation that he's been right the whole time.

Or maybe this was God punishing his non-belief as some kind of joke after all.

It takes him a moment to clear the sleep from his eyes before sitting up and throwing his feet over the side. If he didn't have someone waiting on him he might've sat there the whole day, struggling to justify having his worldview shattered apart into even smaller pieces. She hadn't said it last night, but Tony was sure that Katie wanted to know as much as he did how New Horizons was going to continue operations given that its single biggest push to prove its technology had proven itself far too dangerous to be handled as recklessly as they had. The corporate suits who were on the board wouldn't care about his predicament but the fact that there was such a dramatic chance of failure was going to make them even more averse, Tony was sure, than they would've been otherwise.

His morning routine is likely the most mundane thing that's going to occur today. He goes through all the motions - brushing his teeth, flossing, taking a shower, brushing his hair, throwing on a pair of cargo shorts and a short sleeved shirt, halfheartedly eating a bowl of Cheerios - before he's ready to head out, smacking right into Katie's closed fist as she lowers her arm hurriedly to her side from the door she was about to knock.

"Oof!"

"Sorry about that. Guess I have a pretty bad sense of timing, huh?"

Grumbling and rubbing his face, Tony gives Katie a once over. She's wearing a plaid flannel long sleeve with a white undershirt, skinny jeans, and a nice pair of black boots to go along with it. Even this bizarro version of Katie looks flawless in whatever outfit she decides to wear.

"Just try not to make a habit of it, alright?" Tony snarks, moving past her as he waves his keys at her over his shoulder. "C'mon, I'll drive. I know the way anyway."

"Zeke..." Tony spits out, pinching the bridge of his nose. "...I know we didn't have an appointment or anything, but how busy can Zimmerman be on the weekend?"

Zeke, the portly middle-aged security guard sitting at the station after the modern glass doors open to the company facility, scratches what remaining white hair he has left on his balding head at the question.

"Sorry, Tony. Doc doesn't normally come in on Saturdays, so whatever has her and the rest of the team on edge must be pretty serious. Something happen with all of you lately?"

"You... could say that," Tony concedes and out of the corner of his eye he sees Katie physically wince. "It's just that my situation is kind of urgent. She'd want to know about it; related to the experiments and all."

"They got super pissed at me interrupting them one time just to let them all know their takeout arrived. Sounds to me like they were raising hell in there earlier when I was doing the rounds about an hour ago and I don't want any part of it. I can let her know you came by and she can call-"

"Look, man. I've never asked for much around here. You and I are cool, right?"

Zeke frowns, thumb and forefinger stroking his double chin.

"..."

"Look, you don't do this, and I'm not gonna do fantasy football with you in the fall."

It's one of the lamest threats he's ever given but the way in which Zeke's eyes light up at the hint of such betrayal tells Tony that he's managed to find his mark.

"Don't take that from me! I never win on my own!"

"I can already feel myself tearing up my bracket sheet as we speak."

"Fine, fine! I'll go try and see if I can't tear Zimmerman away from the pack of wolves in there to talk with you and your girlfriend."

Tony's about to correct him when the guard leaps from his jar and heads down one of the hallways at a speed Tony didn't know a man his size could go. Deciding to look over at Katie's reaction, it seems she's found the back of the computer monitor a much more interesting subject than meeting his gaze over Zeke's assumptions.

"It might not be a bad idea, honestly," Tony says aloud, working through his excuse about being here. "If you do pretend to be my girlfriend, I think Zimmerman might play ball easier. Otherwise, I'm a liability and I doubt she'd want to tell just anyone about all of this."

"I-if that's what you're comfortable with," Katie says, nodding a little too aggressively.

"Who thought a guy like me could get so lucky?" Tony smirks, giving her a wink.

"Careful. Keep up that charm and maybe I won't let you stop pretending once we leave," Katie says with a snort. There's a moment of awkward silence as she takes a moment to reevaluate her choice of words before closing her eyes.

"That was... I shouldn't have said that. Sorry."

"Hey, it's fine. I shouldn't have teased you like that either."

It's at that moment that Zeke saves the both of them from further uncomfortable small talk as he comes around the corner, beckoning both of them with a hand.

"Seems you're staying on the team after all, Brewer. You lucked out and the doc just got out of her board meeting..."

Dr. Zimmerman's look, if anything, is even worse than yesterday.

Her cheeks are flushed, her hair isn't even in a bun at all, and she looks ready to collapse in her office's swivel chair as she faces the both of them.

"I figured you'd want to stay as far away from here as you could for now given everything that's happened, Tony."

"Some things have come up since I left, doctor."

"Oh?" she says curiously and Tony notes that, even if it's brief, for a moment he sees some of the spark he's witnessed before in her flare up. "Do tell."

"I know a major difference between this world and mine, that's for sure."

Zimmerman arches an eyebrow, but says nothing, and reaches into a drawer, only to pull out a pack of gum. Unwrapping one of the items slowly, she pops it into her mouth and chews thoughtfully. Her silence is as good an indication as any she wants him to continue without prompting.

"Guessing if I asked you to describe the differences between men and women here, you'd only go over stuff like being able to get knocked up, long hair, wide hips, and boobs, but not their junk."

"While true, I'm afraid I don't really follow."

"See? That's exactly it," Tony says. "In my world, men and women don't have the same plumbing. It's different."

"Different?"

"Where I'm from, men have a penis and women have a vagina. I'm not an artist; I couldn't draw a diagram for you. Hell, I couldn't even do that for ours. Think of it like... a crevice? I guess? Guy goes in there, orgasms, and sperm fertilizes the eggs."

"Some sort of... genitalia dimorphism?" Zimmerman sounds utterly puzzled and Tony's sure that it might end up a dead end of inquiry for her. She's not a biologist. "Then that would mean..."

Zimmerman's always been quick to put the pieces of puzzles together, Tony notices, as he watches her eyes widen in realization then quickly become sympathetic as she looks over at Katie.

"I understand why you brought her here, then."

"Right. So, please, tell her everything you've told me."

It all comes out. The barely legal and ethical experiments done here at New Horizon, his coma, waking up to find himself in a place where he didn't belong, and, most of all, his dead twin in the parallel universe he'd left behind. He watches a litany of emotions fly across Katie's face as she sits there in the uncomfortable plastic of their seats, saying nothing.

"I told you," Tony whispers to her, gently rubbing a circle against the small of her back with a palm.

"I-I won't lie, I thought you'd gone a little off the d-deep end..." Katie murmurs, trailing off again into catatonic silence.

"Miss...?" Zimmerman interrupts, clearing her throat.

"Yang," Katie says, snapping her attention to the scientist, her tone suddenly weary. Tony can't say he blames her for the mistrust.

"Miss Yang, please know that the man before you is the same one who left the other day, by all accounts. We can't account for every minutiae but our tests were meticulous. It seems that, despite the crucial difference between the sexes, the Tony next to you is just as much yours as the one that passed."

Tony feels his heart break when he watches Katie flinch at Zimmerman's words.

"If what he's - you're - saying is true, then you've just killed our relationship. I've got something that he's not likely to be interested in. Isn't that right?" Katie asks, turning her attention now to Tony. The hurt in her expression is palpable, like a dog that's been kicked one too many times.

Neither Zimmerman nor Tony say anything.

"Well, if there's anything good to come out of today..." Zimmerman says, trying her best to steer the topic somewhere other than where it'd been heading. "...It's that they're not going to come after you, Tony. All of us on the team made sure of that."

"How'd you...?"

"Told them that the interview we did with you proved nothing conclusively, that we likely reached into a world that was nearly identical to ours by accident, and that you answered a different favorite color than the one listed on your psych test. As far as the CEO and the rest are concerned, this was a colossal waste of time."

A beat.

"That's why this place is being shuttered soon."

"Good," Tony can hear Katie muttering. "Means you can't fuck someone else's life up."

"Are you going to be alright?" Tony asks, concern filling his voice. "I mean, I appreciate it, but I don't know if I'm worth losing your livelihood over."

"Your girlfriend's not wrong," Zimmerman acknowledges, turning to Katie to meet her steely gaze. "What we've done... it really is inexcusable. If we didn't then the only alternative would be to have you become a full time guinea pig and I doubt you'd want that."

Being subject to nightmarish scenario after nightmarish scenario all for the sake of corporate greed isn't something that Tony feels compelled to volunteer for, that's for certain.

"Go home, Tony, and try to do your best to fix things. I know it's not fair, but once they turn off the lights then that'll be that. This 'failed' science experiment won't mean anything in a few months."

Tony looks over at Katie. Her expression has completely soured since they walked through the doorway and he has the urge to reach out and, in a reverse of the night before, have her lean into him.

"I think it'd probably be best if we get going, doctor."

"Right," Zimmerman nods, looking over at Katie uncertainly. "Oh. But before you go..." She reaches across her desk to a small indented container, plucking up something, and handing it over to Tony. Looking down at the object he can see that it's a business card.

"If something goes wrong somehow just let me know, alright? I figure it's the least I can do."

Nodding gratefully, Tony picks himself up from the chair and Katie follows suit.

"Bye."

It's a long way back to their car and it's even longer back to their apartment complex.