[reverse darkest timeline AU: cellthread]

[stilljustandrew]

[After this: 1, 2, 3]

It's late, at least by his body-clock. There's nothing else he can do, so he may as well take a nap.

The cot feels unreasonably exposed; he spends a few minutes wrangling the thin mattress onto the floor, at which point the framework obligingly vanishes to give him a convenient place against the wall to lay it down. He takes off his shoes and socks and his button-down shirt, and lies down in his jeans and undershirt, and stares at the wall.

A week. Maybe in a week he can convince them that he isn't a danger to anyone and they'll let him go.

Comments

[hadyougoing]

She sighs.

"Yeah. You wanna come up and hang out for awhile?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Yes, please."

The mobile clambers up onto the seat of the booth, and settles against Ava's side like an exhausted child.

[hadyougoing]

Ava pats the top of Baby's carapace lightly.

And, with her free hand, grabs her mug to sip some tea.

"We get to keep Andrew as long as we need to," she says. "Until he gets better."

[stilljustandrew]

"That is good."

A long beat.

"He has not asked for food yet. I wish to provide a meal but I do not know what he will eat."

[hadyougoing]

"You could give him a choice," Ava considers. "A or B, that's what he gets. And maybe remind him he's no good to the Big Guy dead."

[stilljustandrew]

There's a pause.

"He will not let me speak to him."

[hadyougoing]

She frowns.

"Not at all?"

[stilljustandrew]

"When he first returned, I felt his mind immediately, and I could perceive that something was very wrong. I asked him what had happened, and tried to look further into his memories. He reacted with intense fear, and closed his mind to me, and ordered me not to speak to him again."

Baby's voice is even, almost uninflected, but very low.

"He has not yet countermanded that order."

[hadyougoing]

Ava nods slowly.

She takes a sip of her tea.


"When you felt like something was wrong," she says, "did you get any sense for what kind of wrong it was?"

[stilljustandrew]

"I could not be certain without further access," Baby says slowly, "but what I perceived suggested that he has been hurt, repeatedly, since he was taken. And that he is working constantly to suppress or alter those memories."

[hadyougoing]

"Yeah," she sighs. "That sounds familiar."

A frown.

"Well--I'll remind him he's no good to the Big Guy dead, then. You just focus on the food."

[stilljustandrew]

The mobile bobs slightly, in an approximation of nodding.



"I do not know how to help him. Or whom to ask for help."

[hadyougoing]

She shrugs.

"Honestly, I'm not sure either. I know getting him away from there will help, but ..."

But even at her most 'rah rah evil,' she was never that level of true believer. She didn't think about her life enough to be one.

[stilljustandrew]

"But it will not be sufficient."

The mobile leans against Ava again.

"This situation is entirely outside of my experience," she says disconsolately.

[hadyougoing]

"Well, it's not outside mine. Entirely."

[stilljustandrew]

A pause.

"Do you refer to your imprisonment by Azazel?" Baby sounds uncertain, as though there might be some other parallel situation she isn't aware of.

[hadyougoing]

She nods.

[stilljustandrew]

"I believe I see how the situations are analogous."

Still uncertain.

"But you have stated that you do not know how to help. Is the similarity insufficient?"

[hadyougoing]

Ava sips her tea.

"I just never met Lucifer, you know. Like, I thought of Azazel as my tough-but-lovable mentor, but I didn't ...

I was very loyal to him," she says carefully. "But loyal like a soldier? That's what I thought I was."

[stilljustandrew]

Baby's quiet a moment, processing that.

"I do not know how Andrew Wells perceives his relationship with Lucifer, at present. But I do not think it is that of a soldier and a mentor."

[hadyougoing]

"Probably not," she agrees, sour.

And thinks, with a slight downward twitch of her mouth, of the words our Lord.

"Seems more like a religion."

[stilljustandrew]

"More closely analogous to that of a worshipper and a deity, then."

A long beat.

"I find the concept extremely unpleasant to contemplate."

[hadyougoing]

Judging by the look on Ava's face, she agrees.

"Maybe that's the kind of fear you felt," she says in a low, mordant tone. "Fear of God."

[stilljustandrew]

A considering pause.

"I do not believe so. The dominant emotion appeared to be a combination of fear of discovery and fear of failure. I did not understand at the time why he should feel either of those."

[hadyougoing]

"But you get it now, right?"

Gentle, or at least as gentle as she can be on the subject; the result is a little flat.