[reverse darkest timeline AU: rendezvous in cold blood]

[stilljustandrew]

[The morning after this.]

There is a note with Bar, for anybody who might inquire after Andrew Wells, saying that he is currently staying in the cells for his own safety.

No one has told Bar anything about people who maybe shouldn't get that note, even if they ask.

Comments

[mynamesnotmeg]

Well, well, well.

Now isn't that just the most interesting thing?

Meg contemplates the note while she finishes her drink. After a few minutes, she leaves her empty glass and the piece of paper on the bartop, slips off her stool, and ambles in the direction of the security wing.

[stilljustandrew]

There don't seem to be many Security officers on duty at the moment; just one, finishing up some paperwork.

[mynamesnotmeg]

She's pretty sure that this isn't the kind of conversation that needs an audience. Besides, aren't surprises just that much more fun?

Meg waits until the officer in question brushes out the door and off down the hall, then nips in before the door latches.

She looks around and grabs a doorstop from nearby, then jams it home, hard, preventing the door from opening again. Once all's secure, she walks down the hallway, cell by cell.

"One, two, three..."

She slows to a stop in front of one particular cell and beams a sharp grin at its occupant.

"... four's the score. Hello, Andy. Been a while."

[stilljustandrew]

Inside the cell, Andrew's been ... sort of dozing; not sleeping exactly, but sitting with his back against the wall, not doing anything, not thinking much of anything.

At the sound of that voice, he jerks upright into a half-kneeling position, staring at her.



"Meg," he says, voice and face both blank with shock.

[mynamesnotmeg]

"Aw, you remembered me! Isn't that sweet."

A beat.

"Seeing as how you've evidently forgotten your duty to Him, I mean."

[stilljustandrew]

"I haven't forgotten anything." He's struggling to his feet now. "I got caught, okay? I failed, and I'll answer to Him for that --"

(He doesn't quite have the courage to say not to you out loud.)

"But they've been keeping me in here ever since."

[mynamesnotmeg]

She openly scoffs at him.

"And you haven't been able to use that silver tongue of yours to talk your way out?"

Meg takes a step closer to the cell wall.

"Or maybe you just haven't wanted to."

[stilljustandrew]

"They won't listen to me -- I almost talked them into letting me sleep somewhere else so I could at least talk to our lord in a dream, I tried. It didn't work. They, they think I'm brainwashed or something."

[mynamesnotmeg]

"For your own safety. That's what the note I got said."

She sneers at him.

"Running away, Andy? And here I thought you'd given up on that."

[stilljustandrew]

"I am not running away -- They all say they're keeping me here for my safety, but I didn't ask for it, I've been telling them I just want to go home to my lord --"

He chokes a little, on both anger and fear.

(Because that isn't quite all he wants anymore, is it? And it isn't quite all he's been telling them.)

[mynamesnotmeg]

"And yet here you sit. Pathetic."

[stilljustandrew]

"You try breaking out of one of these cells," he snaps back at her. "Or breaking in, if you want to do something useful."

And would he be able to say that so easily if he didn't know perfectly well that it's impossible?

[mynamesnotmeg]

She gapes at him, then breaks into a cruelly delighted smile.

"Begging for my help, Andy?"

[stilljustandrew]

Hours later, he's still sitting there: folded arms resting on his drawn-up knees, face buried in his arms.

He's ignored the one-hour ping he asked Baby to give him before his scheduled outing. It's anyone's guess whether he heard it at all.

[gothamsheiress]

Brix is the first one down the hall, dressed today in a high-necked brown gown; a packet is tucked under one arm, and her expression is easy.

Until, that is, she comes close enough to see Andrew and his closed-in posture. She pauses, frowning.

"Andrew?"

[stilljustandrew]

His shoulders jerk at the sound of his name, and he twists to look up at her, red-eyed and blinking.



"Oh," he says almost soundlessly, after a moment.

[hadyougoing]

Ava's not far behind, definitely not wearing a gown of any description.

She glances between Andrew and Brix with a look of grim confirmation.

"Sorry I wasn't here to let you in," she says, Brix-wards.

[stilljustandrew]

His gaze flicks to Ava, and then back and forth between the two.

"I," he says, and starts to struggle to his feet, "I forgot, are we ...?"

[gothamsheiress]

"Are you all right?"

[stilljustandrew]

He's standing a pace or two back from the translucent barrier now, still looking back and forth between Brix and Ava. At her question, he swallows.



"No," he manages, on the second try.

[hadyougoing]

Ava frowns at him.

She wishes she had something to do with her hands right about now. Like punch something.



"I'm not surprised." Her tone is gentle, but a bit scratchy--like her empathetic register hasn't been tuned in awhile. "Baby told me you had a visitor."

[stilljustandrew]

He wraps both arms around his midsection, clutching his own elbows, and nods silently.

[gothamsheiress]

Brix looks between Ava and Andrew, her frown deepening, and addresses the obvious question to Andrew:

"Who?"

[stilljustandrew]

He shuts his eyes, and whispers "Meg."

[hadyougoing]

"Meg's a demon," Ava begins, before realizing Brix seems to know already.

"--Baby had an alert out for her, but I guess this all just happened."

Demons. They're masters of timing!!