[reverse darkest timeline au] all you want is refuge

[stilljustandrew]

He goes back to his own cell, after the exorcism. And lies down, after a while.

Nita's okay. She'll be okay. There's no reason for him to feel this shaky.

Except there is. Oh, there is.

He's trying not to think about it.

Comments

[nita_callahan]

"Yeah."

(This line of conversation doesn't seem likely to make her hands less shaky, so she keeps them below the table.)

"You told me. Looking for people with power."

[stilljustandrew]

"That's why I thought the, the demon might be ..."

His fingers tighten a little on the spoon; it makes a tiny clink against the side of the cup.

"Because I didn't bring any back."

[nita_callahan]

"Okay. But. It wasn't." She shakes her head. "It took me because I was there, not because it had a mission, like you. It just -- it just wanted to feel something. It didn't even know who I was, I was just a, a warm body. Finding out I could do wizardry was just a bonus."

[stilljustandrew]

"... Did it talk to you?" He looks up from his tea again.

[nita_callahan]

"Yeah."

Her jaw tightens; she swallows, sighs, and finally picks up her own tea, with both hands.

"Some of the time."

[stilljustandrew]

"It kept saying ... I mean, you know this. That you were okay with it being there."

His tea's cooled a little. He drinks some; the ginger is still warming.

[nita_callahan]

"Yeah, and it was lying. I mean, you all got that."

[stilljustandrew]

He nods swiftly. "No, yeah, obviously."

A beat.

"I just wondered if ... if it was trying to get you to agree. Or if it didn't care one way or the other."

[nita_callahan]

"I'm sure it would have preferred it if I had shut up and stopped fighting it," she says, a tad dry, "but no. It didn't try to convince me. It wasn't very good at that kind of thing."

[stilljustandrew]

"I knew you wouldn't have." Soft. "Stopped fighting it."

[nita_callahan]

Her breath catches for a second, but she breathes out, breathes out, is okay again.

"Thanks."