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Fandom Trooper Station, Thursday

No, Danny wasn't usually spending a large amount of time in the office on Thursday's, but he was there this week. Because it was better than thinking about the God awful dreams he was having. And the whole ~~in sweet slowplay~~ thing with Steve last night.

They'd moved on to just a general, all encompassing level of anxious fear for literally everyone on his life. You know, with just a smattering of personal terror added in for flavor.

He'd intended to focus on paperwork, but instead he was just eyeing his new therapist's number and wondering how many calls a week would scare them off.

[open!]

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Funny, Liam also didn’t spend a lot of the time in the office on Thursdays, but, well. Something was clearly going on.

He stalked through the Station with the single-minded purpose of heading to his office, blowing right past Danny.

And then stopped in his tracks, whirled around, and backtracked until he was in front of Danny’s desk.

“Williams.”

"Sheriff," Danny replied dryly. Because it was the best he had when not firing on all cylinders. "Coffee?"

It was the third pot of the day.

"No," Liam said shortly, and then seemed to realize his tone was unwarranted and he sighed, giving Danny an apologetic look. "I don't drink coffee," he explained, running a gloved hand through his hair, making it stick up in every which direction. "But thanks for offering."

"You alright?" Hey, maybe it wasn't a just him tging happening here. That should not make him feel better, should it?

Liam thought about lying, shrugging it off with an 'I'm fine', but... there'd been a lot of weird shit in quick succession. So, eventually, he settled on: "Weird night."

Danny huffed and glanced away. "Yeah, same here. I think I've called my shrink three times since yesterday."

The overhead light flickered, and Liam glanced up at it briefly, frowning. Hadn't he asked Calvin to replace the damn thing last week? He was pretty sure he had.

"Nightmares?" he asked, since that had been the question Rey asked him.

Yes, but how else would things be the appropriate level of TV show drama?

"Yeah," he replied emphatically. "Haven't had ones this frequent in a long while. This A Thing going on here?"

"Thinking it might be, yeah," Liam confirmed. Rey had been sure it hadn't been something either of them had been doing, and he hadn't quite been ready to believe her at first, given what both of them were capable of.

Still, he'd made a point of covering nearly every inch of skin that wasn't his face when he'd gotten dressed today, just in case it was something he was unknowingly doing. Maybe the layer between himself and the rest of the world would help.

(Spoiler alert: it would not.)

Danny sighed, slumping back in his chair a little as the bulb above them finally gave up the ghost and fizzled out.

And it wasn't even that much darkness, but it was apparently just enough to pull simmering things to the surface because suddenly being behind his desk felt confining in a way that had Danny bolting up to move.

Look, claustrophobia was no fun.

"Wh-" startled by the sudden movement, Liam took a step backwards.

Which threw Danny off, and he was already thrown off by all this ridiculousness happening, which was why he was cursing and stumbling into Liam.

Who, naturally, brought his arms up in an attempt to halt Danny's stumbling. Which... on the bright side, it worked. On the not-so-bright side, they were now touching, which meant those negative feelings of Danny's were now playing at the edge of Liam's consciousness.

Sorry, Liam.

Because those negative feelings brought with them the memory of his child being taken from him and stashed in a small shipping crate, in the dark, for hours. Which had a fun undercurrent of an amalgam of abject terror and rage.

That was making it very hard to move for the moment, Danny's hands clutched at Liam's sleeves reflexively as he tried not to get lost in that weird, terrible flashback. He could hear part of his exchange with Peterson so clearly, though:

"Okay. Uh I'll do what you say. Just please, please don't hurt my daughter, Rick. I'll do anything. Just please, please don't hurt her."

"Oh, D. Whatever happens to Grace, that's.. It's all.. it's all on you, buddy. You act like a smart guy, you don't do what I tell you to do and then sweet, beautiful little Gracie dies. Now, do we understand each other?"

"Yes. Yes. I understand perfectly."

Okay. Okay. Danny'd talked about his kid, Danny loved talking about his kid, so clearly whatever the hell this memory involved had turned out fine, for her, in the end.

... That really didn't fucking help in the moment, though, swept up as Liam was in Danny's terror and anger.

Edited 2020-08-20 20:26 (UTC)

Danny jerked back like he was burned, getting out from under the shadow as he bumped into Steve's desk and tried to get himself back under control from whatever brought that on. "Jesus Christ," he muttered.

The vision itself was gone now, but the anxiety still clawed at Liam's stomach.

"That's. Uh. Also part of the thing," he said needlessly. And as much as he hated all of this, there was a tiny, selfish part of him that was glad it wasn't his fault after all.

Danny was basically 80% anxiety at all time, so it was entirely his own fault this time around. "I hate this place," he said with great feeling.

Most days, Liam would find it within him to leap to Fandom's defense.

Today?

"Sometimes it can be pretty shitty," he had to admit.

"You gonna go check in with the mayor about this?" So they could come up with a way to make it stop. Hopefully.

"Yeah," Liam nodded. Because now they had a mayor that actually might be interested in giving a shit. "We'll figure this out."

What a concept!

"Faster the better," Danny grumbled. "I'll see what I can find out."

Because he was still a detective, damn it.

There you go! Bright side! This whole mess meant there was something to, you know. Detect.

Liam was about to reply to that when, of course, that's when all the lights in the Station gave out, plunging it into darkness.

(They really needed more windows in this place.)

"... Damn it, Calvin," Liam sighed, starting towards the supply cabinet to grab a flashlight, one hand outstretched to prevent bumping into any of the furniture.

Instead, he bumped into Danny.

Which meant it was Liam's turn to relive an unpleasant memory!

Himself, Augur, and Julia handcuffed and sitting around a table in a room lit with a single fluorescent lamp, possessing one door and no windows to speak of. Deep underground, if what 'the Colonel' said was true about this being Mt. Weather.

The Colonel circled the room, looking over each of them in turn.

"Ms. Julia Cooke," he began. "Born in Westchester, New York. Attended Sarah Lawrence College, majored in Philosophy, 'till you dropped out. Tell me something Ms. Cooke: was he really worth it?"

"Hey!"

"What kind of scam are you running?" Augur demanded.

"Scams are more your area of expertise, Augur," the Colonel continued to circle the table. "Computer expert, art collector. Oh, you believe you're motivated merely by profit, but you find yourself more and more involved with the Resistance, which makes me realize you're more idealistic than you'll admit, even to yourself."

"Okay, so you know so much about us. Who're you?"

The Colonel met Liam's steady gaze as he continued: "Liam Neville Kincaid. Captain William Boone's lieutenant during the SI War. Kincaid participated in the invasion of Taiwan, where faulty intelligence landed his unit smack in the middle of a very nasty ambush. The entire platoon, save for Liam and Boone, was wiped out. Boone returned to the States, and Kincaid chose to do something... a little different."

"Such as?" Julia demanded.

"He was offered a new assignment. A unique opportunity to really 'be all that he can be'. Officially he was declared Missing In Action. Unofficially, he joined Operation Dark Knight."

"I've never heard of that," Julia replied.

"It wouldn't be very top secret if you had, now would it? The program was initiated by certain high-ranking individuals in the government. Individuals who wanted to make sure there was a backup plan for humanity in case the Taelons weren't as peaceful as they claimed."

"This is crazy! What is this guy talking about?" Julia shot a pleading look at Liam, who remained silent, a sinking feeling building in the pit of his stomach. He knew what was coming. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded of the Colonel.

"If you had been paying attention, I already told you; I am Liam Neville Kincaid, and this is Operation Dark Knight. So the question is... who is he?" the Colonel- Colonel Kincaid- smirked, pointing at Liam.

"What's going on?" Julia pleaded, as two soldiers dragged her and Augur up from the table and out of the room. "He's lying, right? Liam? Liam!"

Well, it was no Shelburne, but it was still rather surprising to see that sort of bullshit spook stuff. "What the hell?"

Now it was Liam's turn to jerk back suddenly. "Sorry!" he blurted. "I just. Sorry."

"It's--" Great, now Danny was having fun flashbacks to that one time the CIA literally black bagged him because he got real obnoxious about an investigation. "--what is even wrong with this place?"

Danny? Obnoxious? Say it isn't so!

On the bright side, it meant he was a little too busy to demand an explanation for the implication that Liam had apparently stolen someone else's identity!

"That's what we're going to figure out." Liam ground out. "The sooner the better."

They were covering up a murder, so it was deserved. And don't you worry, they'd circle back around to that when it wasn't a dumpster fire of a week.

"And get these stupid lights fixed too." At least that would be the fastest thing to pick up on helping.

"Anything else you need me to take care of, Detective?" Liam asked, a teasing smirk playing at the edge of his lips despite the angstiness of the everything.

"Well, coffee would be great too if you're offering," he replied dryly. Because those darn humans couldn't function as well without sleep, you know.

"Delivery?" Liam said, glancing at the terrible office coffee machine in the dim light.

"If you think I'm picky right now, you are going to find yourself very wrong." He would drink the dregs at the bottom of the pot after a midnight shift at this point.

"I mean, I have no problem bringing you a cup of whatever the hell that machine likes to make," Liam said with a shrug. "But I'm also offering good coffee, so. Take your pick."

"Good coffee would be greatly appreciated."

Yeah, Liam already had a delivery app open and was placing an order.

"I live but to serve."

"Maybe we also institute a rule about being in touching distance too." Since, yeah. That.

"I try not to touch people as a general rule," Liam admitted. Hence why he'd come in wearing long sleeves and gloves and all. "But are you sure you and Steve are gonna be able to stick to that?" he asked. Because he'd met you two, Danno. You were very touchy-feely. At least with each other.

Edited 2020-08-21 22:48 (UTC)

Okay, rude to point out, but fair.

"Well, there was a thing last night in the apartment and now he's avoiding me. If you think you've got skeletons in your closet," he said with a little side eye. "He's got a whole room of 'em."

Yeah, well. Steve was also like, four times his age. He had a huge headstart when it came to skeleton-accumulating. "Not actually surprised."

Well, yes. Way more time spent in special ops bullshit.

"So. Sooner we get this figured out, sooner he'll calm down."

"Which answers my next question," Liam said. "Which was gonna be 'a thing' like 'more of this shit' thing?"

He was kinda disappointed it was that and not an awkward romcom moment thing where one of them had finally made a move.

There was a lot of touching that normal people would be confused by if their totally straight buddy started doing. But alas, Liam.

"I don't know," he admitted, rubbing at his eyes. "I thought I saw something in the shadows. And when that happened, I got... some really bad memories."

"This is going to sound weird," Liam said slowly. "But did this thing you saw happen to look like a horse?"

"Yeah," Danny said, glancing over at him. "Yeah, it kinda did."

"Well, that's something, at least. Another common thread. I just wish I knew what it meant."

It was a terrible, terrible pun, Liam, and you and your sometimes-too-literal way of thinking couldn't see it yet.

"I dunno. Maybe we should Google shadow horses," he said, tossing his hands up.

"Do you think that'll help?" Not even sarcastic, he was genuinely curious here.

Eight years old and still sometimes that earnestness of his early days peeked through.

Edited 2020-08-22 01:09 (UTC)

Which was why Danny didn't get sarcastic. Well. That and it was so far out of his depth of knowledge. "Maybe?"

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Fandom Trooper Station, Thursday

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