sᴏ ʟᴇᴛ ɪᴛ ᴀʟʟ ɢʟᴏᴡ

The Mercers led anything but an ordinary life. By the time Adam and Gillian's fourth and final child was born, their family was already a chaotic mess, and Elijah Mercer was lucky enough to be brought into it. The children, ranging from a six-year-old to an infant, were wild, loud, rambunctious, mischievous brats; they slowly unwound their mother's sanity and their father's patience — year-by-year — until, finally, the parents decided to call it quits. Elijah was seven when his dad moved out of their crowded home, leaving Gillian to care for four children nearly by herself, and he thought it was his duty to help her. He had always been...different. He was quieter than his siblings, more mindful of others and overwhelmingly courteous, and he served at his mother's side for years. Even after the incident.

On March 13, 1997, when Elijah was 14 years old, he witnessed the one thing that would change his and his family's life. All of the Mercers, Gillian included (though she went back to being a Sullivan), had lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for generations upon generations and never saw anything peculiar. That fateful Thursday evening, before the kids were scrubbed clean and tucked into bed, a series of mysterious stationary lights appeared on the Phoenix horizon. The military claimed they were flares, but people were already making comments and gossiping about UFOs and aliens and the peculiarity of those lights that traveled across some 300 miles.

Elijah was fascinated with the events. Unfortunately, his mother — already worn down and frazzled and still suffering from the sting of divorce — put too much credit into the city's gossip and speculations regarding the otherwordly "Lights over Phoenix," and she suffered mentally. Days and weeks and months after the events, Elijah would find her mumbling to herself in a corner of the kitchen or in the middle of their backyard, staring up at the sky as though she was waiting for those lights to return. His interests in ufology and extraterrestrial life only heightened as he scoured books and articles, hoping to gain some insight so that he could inform, educate, protect his mother from her own mind. He thought that if she knew the cold, hard facts, she'd have less to worry about, because in his young mind, the unknown was much scarier than the known. And he wanted to be aware of everything.

However, his constant attempts at comforting Gillian only caused major setbacks, and within the year, she was institutionalized. Elijah and his older brothers and sister moved in with their father, who had remarried and was expecting his fifth child. When his half-sister was born, he began to tease his father and the small, pink baby girl (though she couldn't understand him) about how little Hannah Mercer was a product of an alien abduction, having been born less than a year after the Phoenix Lights occurrence. The playfulness helped to ease the pain Elijah felt from being torn away from his mother, although he tried to visit her as long and as often as he could. Her mental stability never returned, though, and even her health took a turn for the worse.

Gillian Sullivan died when her youngest — her best — was 17.

After Gillian's death, Elijah buried himself in his schoolwork. His obsession with the sciences blossomed, and when he graduated from high school, he knew just what he wanted to do. And with that, he went off to Arizona State University for a degree in biochemistry, and that's where he met her. Brunette, petite and alarmingly classy, Zoey King quickly earned Elijah's affections. They shared enough things in common, from a love for astronomy to geeky sci-fi to being non-natives, and it really wasn't long before Elijah and Zoey started a romantic relationship. Their romance — which included many more firsts in Eli's life — lasted until he completed his undergraduate career, when he was set to move to St. Louis for his doctorate program. The two parted ways amicably, and then Elijah packed up his things to attend medical school in Washington at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Four long years later, Elijah finished medical school and was — once again — ready to pick up his life for the sake of his education. And with that, he moved to Chicago for his residency in internal medicine. A year after starting at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University, Elijah met another woman: Astrid Scheff. She was funny and smart, and their first conversation at a coffee shop paved the way for their first date, and many more after that. They were together hardly six months when Elijah — purely on impulse — proposed, and Astrid said yes. They married that fall in Chicago, and the following spring, Elijah was preparing to move yet again. But this time, the girl would be coming with him.

With his residency complete, Elijah's next step was a fellowship in infectious diseases, his chosen specialization. Once again, Elijah and his new bride packed up their things and headed to Portland, Oregon, where Elijah is to spend a year in the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Oregon Health & Science University. And for the moment, Elijah is content, but that's not to say that won't change in a new city.