Ready or not, here she comes

Anthony shrugged, an exaggerated gesture that said, 'what the hell did I do?' before he actually spoke words along those same lines.

"Picking you up from the airport, what do you think I'm doing here?? You think I just hang out at airports looking for suspicious people to give lifts to?"

He reached over to snag her suitcase from her hand as it did look like she was about to drop it.

"Right time, right gate... You're late by the way. What happened, bag get lost in the system for a while?"

"Oh." The snark shook her back to her senses and she glanced up. Motorbike. Right. She was on the edge of a sidewalk, not the sand of some beach she'd never sighted in her life.

"Anthony, you ... " She was ready to say he wouldn't believe her, but then ... that surly fellow Martin had said she shouldn't talk to anyone about it other than these other Different people. And her cousin already had enough on his plate without her suddenly sprouting strange memories. "... have the patience of a saint. Baggage carousel got held up, some government blokes doing a check."

She was a horrid liar, but even so, some of the other passengers toting their bags were going on about being held up by men in suits.

"Government blokes are always doing checks..."

He grumbled with little realization that she was speaking about anything other than your standard TSA nonsense. Like Ellie looked anything like a mad bomber...

"Just the one bag then?"

That suited him just fine as it was easier to carry and would be a hell of a lot easier to strap to a bike, which was conveniently parked right out in front. Some how despite its small size he had still managed to use it to block two standard sized parking areas. The honking, rude gestures, and curses were beginning to reach epic levels... Just the sort of thing your lil cousin should be greeted by!

"He doesn't know you are coming yet. I kept everything very hushed. Pop over there first?"

His comment about the one bag got a snort of laughter. "Oo' do I look like, Mum?" The number of bags Irene had once brought on a trip had looked like they belonged to an entire entourage. "Couple jumpers, some t-shirts, extra pair o' jeans. Et cetera. I don't need much for a week's visit, me."

A shadow flitted across her face at that: the week's visit was going to turn into a great deal more than that. "But yes, let's pop over. Have your cameraphone ready, I want the look on his face immortalized so I can send it back to Mum an' Dad."

As she handed him the suitcase, the card Mr. Martin had given her fluttered free of her pocket to the ground.

It was an automatic reaction. Lady in the family drops something and you bend over to pick it up. Anthony didn't pay it much mind until a name stood out from the card, the dreaded Martin... annoying loser of a FED who showed up to whine at people and play at intimidation... The card was flipped over in his hand several times as if the words might change upon a second reading but the never did. He wished it had, wished the growing dread wasn't real.

"What's this?"

He knew what it was as he had once had one like it. Binned it almost immediately.

"Is he here??"

He better not be! If that guy was messing with his little cousin he was going to get burned!

"Where did you get this!"

"Oi!" She reached for the card, even as he was flipping it over. "I need that. What does it matter where I get things?! It's private..."

Not that the card said anything incriminating, but still, she really didn't need family asking questions. She was a bad enough liar on a regular day, let alone having to pull the wool over on family...

"C'n I have that back, Ant'ny? Please."

"Family doesn't do private."

Theirs didn't go in for it much anyway and it had rubbed off. The card was flipped one last time before being yoinked high over her head and slid into the breast pocket of his jacket.

"You don't need to have anything to do with this guy, you hear me? If you see him call me and I will deal with him. The last thing we need is you getting mixed up in all this!"

"You know him," Ellie realized, the world tilting beneath her feet until she had to reach out and put a hand on a pylon to keep her balance. From what Martin had said, that could only mean one thing.

"You... you have the ... You've had ... Oh, Christ, I need a sit."

"Shit!"

The best word for a crisis, which this seemed to be as Ellie legs wobbled underneath her and she looked on the verge of doing a header right into the pavement. Luggage in one hand he snagged her elbow with the other, holding her up long enough to drag her over to a bench.

"Thought you would have heard. Whole family thinks I've lost it, except mum, maybe... Deep breath now before you pass out."

She did as she was told, sinking gratefully onto the bench. The terminal traffic whizzed by: lines and lines of folks all on not just the wrong side of the road, but the wrong side of the car. It fit, Ellie thought wryly: she wasn't sure which side was up, after all.

"Oh... Is that what was really going on? I thought they were just talking about you leaving wot's her name, the blonde I was never really all that keen on anyway." She huffed out a mild laugh. "So ... how long have you been ... I don't know, what is it: remembering other things? Does it ever feel any less like the world just dropped you on your head? I feel like I need a dramamine."

"Grace."

He spoke the old familiar name like a dreary memory. She was never too far away from his thoughts, even if he would have liked her to be. Some one was always bringing her back up. Usually it was...

"Lilith is still sore over that. She thought Grace was the girl I was going to marry. Nearly made that mistake."

Anthony took a place on the bench next to Ellie, only slightly annoyed to find he was sitting on the right instead of the left. He had gotten too used to it being the other way around with Fell.

"Since March. I wouldn't say it gets easier, everything just feels off now... like I'm meant to be that other person instead of who I am."

He grimaced and patted around his pockets until her found a mint he could offer. It wasn't a dramamine but maybe it would help.

"Wha-- what did you remember?"

"Yes, her. Never felt she quite fit you, honestly. You seem so much happier lately. Whatever you've done, keep it up." She gave his shoulder a brief, bolstering squeeze before taking the mint and listening to the rest of what he had to say, rolling all of it around in her mouth: like the mint was a memory, too.

"I was on a beach," she said softly, clasping her hands around the strap of her purse in case they dared to shake. "Behind police tape. I 'ad a badge in my 'and. There was a body ... a little boy ... and I felt so much grief. I knew him... and this man started telling me to pull it together. I looked up and - and - oh, Anthony, it ... It was Alec!"

His head rolled towards the friendly hand with a faint smile. He wondered if she would say that if she knew what all he had been doing.

"Dead kid on a beach? That sounds like Alec's..."

The sentence drifted off amidst fears that he might just set poor Ellie off again.

"You were a cop? Was Alec a cop too? You both had badges??"

She nodded a few more times than was necessary, swallowing down that remembered grief. "Yeah. I think that was the strangest part of the whole thing. Not the grief, not the boy - horrible as all that was. It was the last thing I said to him 'fore I snapped out of it."

She looked up at the sky, not as grey and overcast as it had been in the memory, searching the New York skyline as though it would have more answers.

"I said he took my job."

Anthony looked at her but glanced away, frowning faintly into the sidewalk. He couldn't imagine that. Standing on the beach next to the body of a dead kid but still worrying over some kind of job. How could you do that? How could anyone compartmentalize like that? Maybe it was a cop thing.

"At least Alec would know he didn't do it. I-- He was worried about that..."

He stood to pace some few meters away, not the easiest thing to accomplish while carrying a suitcase through a crowd.

"I should get you two together, you can compare notes. If you think you could ride?"

"Oh he bloody well didn't do it," Ellie scowled. "Fairly jumped down my throat about keeping it together at a crime scene. ... At least that was familiar. How dare I have emotions in front of him, right?" She sniffled, the grief she hadn't been able to express in the memory leaking through to the present. Watching Anthony, Ellie realized that he'd probably seen something just as jarring, and switched gears. It was easier to care about others, always had been.

"Yeah, I can ride. ... Wha'bout you, love, you alright?"

"Me? Yeah, right, fine."

Each clipped word was spoken quickly behind a tersely set jaw. It wasn't fine, she wasn't fine, he wasn't fine... and if they happened to run into that Mr. Busybody on the way out of the airport he was going to be less-fine than any of them. What that Mr. Martin needed was some one to grab him by the lapels and propel him right into a dumpster... or a black eye. He and these damn memories had made Ellie sniffle!
The fury was barely held at bay but readying the bike for the trip by lashing the suitcase securing to the back gave it some sort of outlet, as would driving 90 madmax style down the New York streets.

"Here," he held out a helmet, "Better put this on and hold on tight."

He wasn't fine and they both bloody well knew it. She sighed, taking the helmet from him. Normally she'd hate the blasted thing, given how much they tended to make a mess of hair, but she'd just finished a trans-Atlantic flight with a decent sized nap, so her coif wasn't really worth writing home about by any means anyway. She fitted it on, adjusting the strap with care before buckling it. It smelled nice, like some sort of men's hair product, and she wondered who else he could have been lending it to.

She climbed on behind him, using her knees and thighs to grip the sides of the seat like a horse, and wrapped her arms around his middle. There was nothing to him, so it was easy to get a good grip on. Ellie reached up and rested one hand over his heart, feeling it hammer as she pressed her cheek against his shoulder.

"I'm still glad to be here. And t' see you."

Some of the fury faded as Ellie snuggled against his back. Had to, it was impossible to feel blind rage when wrapped in a nice warm hug. His mum and Ellie, it was definitely a magical skill they both had.

"Its nice to see you again too."

He snapped his helmet's visor in place and kicked the starter to bring the motorcycle's engine to a loud roar. When they lit out of the parking lot they cut off two tour buses and one cabbie with the loudest horn in New York but driving at Anthony's preferred speeds they made amazing time to Alec's run down apartment building.
Anthony parked right out front where anyone thinking to steal his tires would feature prominently on the one security camera that likely didn't even work. Still it was the only deterrent.

"He lives here. Flat a few floors up, thankfully the elevator is working again just hold onto something when we use it. It shudders."

Her smile at that first remark was cut off by a yelp of shock as he cut off the the tour buses. "ANTHONY! FOR GOD'S SAKE!" That was the only chiding remark she made for the ride, though: he'd been driving the things for who knew how long, and he'd probably had to listen to all manner of squawking from his own mum, and probably Alec, and at least three other people, given how divided public opinion tended to be on motorbikes. She trusted him to know what he was doing and not kill them both - in fact, when the cabbie blared his horn, she screeched "KNOB!" at him in her best stuck-on-the-M25 voice.

As they pulled up to the flat, she wrinkled her nose and let out a little "Oof" as she took off the helmet. "I could try to talk him into something a bit ... safer ..."

Edited 2020-09-14 23:21 (UTC)

"I have talked him into something safer," Anthony spoke while lugging the suitcase up over a shoulder. One couldn't leave something like this out on the street. "He is moving in with me. My new flat is large enough. Unless he backs out of it... He hates the idea."

The front door was held open for Ellie to pass and fortunately the elevator appeared on the first button press. Better still it didn't have the upstairs wino neighbor asleep in one corner. That always made for an awkward ride. The keys jiggled in Anthony's hand as he made a show of using them on Alec's front door.

"Oi Alec, you decent?"

He sauntered into the flat and fairly punched the light on.

"Got a surprise for you!"

Alec loved those.

He was asleep on the badly sprung sofa, deep in a nightmare. His brow knotted as he gritted his teeth and pulled at the pillow he was holding with clawed fingers.

Elle brushed past Anthony at the lack of response, quickly and easily finding Alec on the couch. She dropped to her knees and put her hands over his, gently disengaging him from the pillow as she spoke, keeping her voice soft and low.

"Alec. C'mon, sweet'eart, wake up, it's just a nightmare..."

He stirs not quite awake, heart squeezing in his chest, wet brimming his eyes, salt from the water. He takes her wrist, eyes opening a little, his accent is thick and slurred.

"She was gone. I went to look in on her and she was gone. She can't be out there it's cold..."

He presses a hand to the side of his face. "Don't let her go."

"Who's that, then, love, who's 'she'?" Ellie asked patiently, letting go of one hand to comb her fingers through his unruly hair. "Breathe a bit... Easy, now."

"Daisy..." The name spilled in a near whisper. He leaned into the touch, shivering and then grimaced and curled up, clutching at his chest.

"Christ." Awareness came to him suddenly in jabs of numbing pain. "Meds... need..." He struggled to sit up. "Gnnnghh"

Anthony floated along the wall behind them, quietly closing the door and practicing that newly rediscovered demonic trait of lurking until the request for medication came up. As he knew where they were generally to be found he collected the bottle and pressed it into Alec's hand.

He uncapped the bottle with shaking hands and swallowed two of them dry before leaning back n the sofa and trying to catch his wheezing breath. Give him a second. He'll be properly outraged when he's recovered some.

Ellie locked eyes with Anthony in a silent moment of concern and gratitude as she perched on the arm of the sofa, rubbing Alec's arm since his back was to the cushions. This confirmed what she'd already feared: that he still wasn't out of the woods, and shouldn't have come back to be alone. This memory stuff was probably only making things worse... and in a flash, she understood why he'd scarpered off. If he'd had these memories to contend with, there was no way he could have explained it to her. She'd have to decide if she wanted to apologize before or after laying into him ... once she was sure he didn't need an ambulance.

He leaned into the touch almost instinctively, brow furrowing as he was starting to realize something was wrong. Something his fuzzy brain was kicking over. Something irritating and frankly terrifying. Dread was starting to creep through him and he took Ellie's hand to stop her a second so he could think.

And then realized.

"Oh for fuck's sake. What are you doing here? Go home. You're not wanted." He struggled to get off the sofa and failed as his body didn't seem to want to cooperate. So instead he twisted until he could glare at Anthony.

"You're also an idiot and once I can get off this sofa I'm going to wring your bloody neck."

Not overly bothered about the threat he simply looked on at his cousin with only the shades concealing his concern.

"That's not likely until those meds kick in."

Ellie's look was met in a shared moment of understanding... he hoped. Poor kid had just had her first memory and now she saw what happened to Alec when he had one of his. Hell of a day.

"Who is Daisy?"

Alec wasn't fooling her, the lean-in gave him away: he was hurting, frightened. She gave him her best "I love you, you idiot" frown and stayed put.

"Is she here in New York?" She paused, then realized she should let the medication kick in. "Or, um." Another significant glance at her cousin. "Elsewhere?"

"Nothing. No one." He ran a hand over his face and glared at her-- Nevermind his eyes were bloodshot and he looked like he hadn't slept in a week. "Seriously, go home. You don't want to be here."

"She can't go. We have too much to talk about."

Anthony spoke in a voice that boded no arguments but he assumed there would be one anyway. He considered pulling that card out of his top pocket but thought better of it until the rapid pace of Alec's heart slowed.

"She knows Alec. There's no point in trying to hide it."

"Fuck." He buried his face in his hands. "Fuck!"

He'd kick something if he could move. But he couldn't so he sat there and hated his cousin and his half-sister and above all this bloody city and the bloody bloody Bureau.

Edited 2020-09-15 18:00 (UTC)

"I'll put a kettle on," Ellie said quietly, getting to her feet and ferreting out the kitchen. It didn't take her long to find mugs, and teabags - which she wrinkled her nose a bit at, being a bit more of a loose-leaf girl when time and tide permitted. She filled the kettle, put it on, then did a glance about the kitchen to see if there were any dishes to do, or something she could occupy herself with until the water rolled to a boil and Alec had calmed. She had the odd thought that it was almost like she funneling Alec's temper into boiling the tea. Huh. Gave a new meaning to blowing off steam. Instead, she hovered between kitchen and couch, close enough to each to hear them.

"It's not any of our faults, Alec. I was just standin' there in baggage claim, and ..." She made the universal sound for explosions, her cheeks puffing as she widened her eyes a touch. "It was ... whole world just spun. Came back to myself not knowin' which end was up."

Leave it to Ellie to run to the tea kettle first thing. He wouldn't say no to a cup or two. Anthony wouldn't say it but this was one of those endearing traits his cousin had that reminded him a great deal of home.

"She got a card from that asshole."

He flopped back in the chair with the wonky spring and rolled around in it until it was proven beyond a doubt that there wasn't a comfortable way to sit on the damn thing without lounging over both arms.

"First thing off the bloody plane... It might have skipped one of us."

"Ugh." He flopped over on his side, dragging the pillow over his head. It wasn't anyone's fault except his family's idiocy gene running rampant.

"Fine you're here. Go home. Before it gets worse." She wouldn't he knew, but he could try. He wanted to ask dryly if she'd murdered any children but he didn't want to drop Anthony in it for some bloody reason.

"Can't," she said, filling the mugs and taking out her frustration at Alec's attitude on the teabags as she tossed them in with a little scrunch of her nose that he couldn't see with her back to him. "Mister Mahtin says I've got to stay 'ere now. 'Cos I'm Diff'rent. Like you two."

She's not angry, just out of sorts, and she puts a lid back on it quick, whisking the three mugs onto ... a .... warped baking sheet which will have to do as a tea tray. Godsakes.

"Sides, I figure if I'm going to keep remembering things about you and me, you deserve a right to 'ear what they are. DI Alec Hardy."

"Turns out you're a cop not a killer. Only one child murderer in the family."

Anthony's foot bounced idly as he chimed in with his two cents, more than capable of dropping himself into it on his own. Only he didn't dwell on that ominous missive as Ellie's back was zeroed in on with newfound scrutiny.

"Are you planning on staying longer than a visit? Don't do it because of that ass Martin. I told you I would take care of him for you."

"Like Fell would actually let you kill anyone. Don't be an idiot. And you, don't be a moron, El. You don't have to listen to him, you just want to be a busy body."

All this was said from under the safety of his pillow where no one could clearly see his expression. He wasn't sure how to take the news. The funny thing about hope is that it always feels like a bad idea. Like looking down a steep path knowing you can probably navigate it, probably, but one misstep will send you crashing to the rocks below. He usually chose not to indulge in it but...

It...felt right. Somehow. For whatever reason.

And yet... why did that same feeling of dread still remain like a knot in his stomach? He remembered bleakly the bodies, the weight of the water, the empty cot which he knew was just a dream but-- wonderful, having nightmares about a daughter he didn't even have and one that neither Alec probably deserved.

Anyway he refused to comment on it and pushed all his hope on them dropping the subject.

There were a lot of things that she'd just heard which weren't making sense. They had to be a part of their own memories, but they still troubled her. Murder? Anthony? It didn't seem possible. Not only that ...

"You don't have to take care of anyone, Anthony," she said as she handed him his cup, fixed how she knew he took it. "Furthermore, I don't want you to. That man's got a lot of people at his back, and for us it's just we three. I don't want him - I don't know, swooping you off to Area 51 or something with a black bag on your 'ead."

She handed Alec his own perfect tea, then set the baking sheet on the nearest convenient surface and returned to her perch on the arm of the couch, curling her hands around her mug and inhaling the scent to center herself and think.

"And Alec ... I mean it. I ... you can rail at me all you bloody want, but." Her voice softened. "I'd been making plans to come out here for good in half a year or so, anyway. I don't want you to be alone. And this memory thing is just a reason to speed myself up. You might not think you need me, but if we're in this together? This ... other life? I'm gonna need you." She gave him a pleading look, then looked over at Crowley. She would not cry again, she wouldn't. But dead boys and beaches and talk of murder on top of Alec's usual attitude ... it was a lot more than she'd been expecting.

"Both of you."

Anthony dived into his mug, sipping at the tea as he grumpily considered how uncomfortable it would be wearing a bag on his head. But, at least it would be a black bag. That suited him.

He didn't even think to speak a word of protest against Ellie's plans. Alec needed looking after and if he really examined his own actions hadn't he had been trying to build his own little New York family? A small select support network of people he felt he could trust. He had Alec moving in with him, he had dropped the same offer to Fell, and managed to get Wei that apartment just below his penthouse... Funny that he had run away from family only to crave their support now. Besides she made a hell of a good cup of tea

"You can stay at my place. If you like...? Plenty of room in the penthouse."

Ignoring the rest of bloody that....

"I am fine alone. I prefer alone, but everyone wants to treat me like a bloody child. If you want an excuse to stay, leave me out of it. Only, dont stay. Go before it gets worse and you find out you're s serial killer or something." He glowered onto his tea and muttered something about why not invite the whole bloody neighborhood

"I think I would like, Anthony. You're a dear." She gave him a wobbly smile over her teacup, then turned her gaze on Alec. The change in tone was like flicking a switch: and the stress of the airport and her new circumstances only made it that more stark.

"I'm not treating you like a child, I'm treating you like my brother. Who I love, God only knows why at the moment. If you think you're a child here, it's only because you act like one any time someone shows you a snip of concern, so that's on you."

He was tempted to make some scathing comment about needing to go buy diapers. If Alec thought they were treating him like a kid it would serve him right to end up with a box of those gifted to him. The idea was set on a mental shelf for later.

"I just thought... If we're all here anyway. Makes sense to live together and look out for each other. I'm not taking you for walkies or playdates in the park anytime soon."

"Aye so you all can hover over me like bloody vultures minding what I eat or drink or do. So you can frown at me across the room or give me sad cow eyes when I exert myself even a little. But fine. If you really want me there so I can grouse at you all day, then I'll be there. But when you start complaining or regretting it, remember that I warned you." And he will just hug the pillow to his chest and scowl into the middle distance.

"That's fine, then," Ellie said, her rancor out and settled now that she and Anthony had her way. Alec didst - as always - protest too much, and she knew that given enough time they might both eventually wear him down.

"But I've got a room at an 'Oliday Inn in the meantime, so you don't have to worry about me for a few days at least." She took a drink of her tea, glancing around Alec's flat, taking the measure of it all ... and by extension, a measure of how he'd been faring since he came back to it.

Anthony was back into his tea once that mess had been sorted. He had never really been keen on this place. Small flat in a dodgy neighborhood with a landlord whose arm had to be twisted to get anything repaired... He glanced out of the window but thankfully found it empty of any neighbors in the building over. Apparently it wasn't yet naked exercise time. He was glad for that.

"Holiday Inn? Might as well get in some pool time then. They are supposed to have a nice one."

Ready or not, here she comes

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