[reverse darkest timeline AU: cellthread #2]

[stilljustandrew]

[Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

What's worried Baby the most, over the past few days --

Well. What's upset her the most is Andrew's consistent refusal to speak to her mind-to-mind, or out loud beyond the few necessary words she might exchange with any other inmate, such as requests for food, fresh clothes, an extra blanket.

But what's worried her is that he hasn't asked for anything to pass the time. No tablet with games or videos on it, no pencil and paper, no baseball to bounce off the opposite wall.

No books.



In the cell, Andrew finishes his breakfast (cornflakes, with sliced banana), sets aside the bowl, and settles down leaning against the wall.

Comments

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew shakes his head as she's speaking, his face creasing miserably.

"I don't --" He presses his lips together. "I, I'll try them, but -- I just need to be out of here. To sleep. Even, even just for one night, I promise I'll come back quietly in the morning."

[gothamsheiress]

"Would you let someone stay with you?"

[stilljustandrew]

He nods, immediately.

"They could be armed, even. Whatever."

[gothamsheiress]

"All right. I'll ask. And I'll be back -- soon, if not immediately. And, Andrew . . ."

[stilljustandrew]

He looks up at her with wary hope.

[gothamsheiress]

"Thank you for talking with me. And for listening to me."

[stilljustandrew]

He swallows again, visibly.

"Thanks. F-for coming. And for asking."

[gothamsheiress]

She nods. "I'll leave you alone, now."

The wall offers no more resistance going out than it did going in. Brix's gait is measured and graceful as she goes down the hall.

When she's sure she's out of sight of Andrew's cell, she stops, closes her eyes, presses her hands to her mouth. This work leaves her heartsick, not to mention drained. She'd expected--

It hardly matters what she expected. Naamah came to the King of Persis out of compassion, not out of expectation. Listen to the patron before you, not the one you wish was there.

After a minute or so to compose herself, she returns to the front office to look for Ava.

[hadyougoing]

Ava's in the same spot she left her, working industriously on her papers.

(However, curiously enough for someone so intent, she doesn't seem to have gotten any farther on than she was when Brix left.)

She looks up, cautious.

"How'd it go?"

[gothamsheiress]

"It's difficult to say." She comes to sit across from Ava. "There were moments where I thought we might be getting somewhere. But it was not . . . easy. Not for him."

[hadyougoing]

Ava's expression is tough to read.

"But you thought he was listening to you?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Most of the time."

[hadyougoing]

Her lips quirk.

"That's more than I got."

[gothamsheiress]

"I imagine it's easier for me to listen to him in turn than it is for those who care about him." She shakes her head. "And some of what he said was far from easy for me to hear."

[hadyougoing]

Ava may look faintly guilty, though it only manifests as a glance to the side, and a slight downward twitch of her mouth.

"Yeah," she says, "I bet."


A pause.

"Hey, do you want some tea? I was thinking I could go for tea."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix looks surprised -- and perhaps, for a moment, faintly wary -- but she nods.

"Yes, thank you."

[hadyougoing]

Ava smiles faintly at her.

"Awesome. Be right back."


When she returns, she has a tray loaded with a box of various teas, strainers, a plate of cookies, and, of course, mugs and teapot.

"Okay." She lowers the tray carefully onto the desk. "Knock yourself out. I'm calling dibs on one of the chamomiles, though."

[gothamsheiress]

. . . This is so weird on several levels, but weirdest is definitely the thought that she could come to like this not-Iva person.

"Thank you." She finds a bag of mint tea and sets it to steep, wrapping her hands around the warm mug.

"He asked again to sleep somewhere else, at least for a night. He even agreed to an armed chaperone."

[hadyougoing]

Ava has already dunked the chamomile into her own mug, and is reaching for a cookie.

"He asked again?"

[gothamsheiress]

Brix nods.

"As far as I can see," she says carefully, "I think you should let him, if only for one night."

[hadyougoing]

Ava sits back with her cookie, eyebrows climbing.

A little flat, "Why?"

When Brix was on her way in, she seemed like she was on Ava's side with this one.

[gothamsheiress]

"He's being kept prisoner in a place of punishment, after being kept as a prisoner for four years. I don't think he can see anyone offering help for who they are, in that case. We're all just jailers. And we don't offer him anything as attractive as his last captor did."

She fetches a sigh. "And in practical terms, if he doesn't sleep, he'll grow ill."

[hadyougoing]

"Well," mordant, "if he grows ill, we'll have to send him to the Infirmary." She bites into the cookie. "Problem solved."

[stilljustandrew]

Perhaps unexpectedly, Baby's voice speaks from the nearby wall.

"I do not believe physical illness is a likely outcome, Brix nó Balm de Marsilikos."

[gothamsheiress]

Brix starts, looking around to the source of the voice, insofar as there is one.

"No?"