daylight's dying, run, baby, run, baby, run

[caughtinyourtangles]

Brooklyn had seen lots of scary things but she'd never been as scared as she was right now. 

Joey had been her friend and he'd tricked her and lied to her and she didn't know why. The man in the van had stuck a needle in her arm and it still hurt and itched and it had made her fall asleep for a long time and when she woke up her head had hurt so bad. She'd been in a cold and dirty basement and she'd heard people arguing upstairs. 

There was a yucky old table downstairs and an even yuckier bed that had spider webs under it, but she hid there anyway. It was really cold and she was getting hungry. She'd tried to be brave and find a way out by pushing the table against the wall and climbing up to the tiny widows that were way up there but she couldn't reach, and then she'd fallen down and cut her knee and it hurt. 

Eventually she'd just fallen asleep. 

When she woke up again, she heard more voices.

Different voices than before. They weren't mad, they were just talking. One was a lady, who sounded nice, like a teacher. The other was deeper but not mean sounding, just stern--also kind of like a teacher, or maybe a principal. 

Like before she crept up to the door so she could hear what they were saying, being careful to avoid the third step from the top because it creaked. She wasn't doing very good at being brave, like a Gryffindor, but she was being smart, like a Ravenclaw. 

She mostly heard mutterings at first, like they were a few rooms away, and only caught a sentence here and there--You're sure this is the place from the video?...the camera would've been in that corner...look at the dust over here--disturbed recently?--and she bit her lower lip trying to decide if they were nice people who might help her or just more of the bad people from before. Maybe she should hide again, maybe--

The top step creaked beneath her foot as she backed away from the door.

With a sharp gasp, Brooklyn hurried down the stairs, only slightly hobbled by her injured knee, and flung herself under the bed, as a flashlight beam turned in the direction of the basement door. 

On the other side of which, at the end of the hallway, Alex Reagan had felt her stomach attempt to leap up into her chest and had flung her hand out to grab Richard Strand's arm--looking, for a moment, like one of those reaction images snapped in haunted houses. Not only had she distinctly heard a creak, and what sounded like a frightened gasp, but there had been movement under the shadows of the door. 

Comments

[caughtinyourtangles]

Not having heard Brooklyn's whispered question, Alex was taken aback by the announcement that she was not only not Richard's girlfriend, but one of his best friends. Surprised even more by the remark that Brooklyn would meet Ruby, at some undisclosed point in the future. She wasn't sure what to do with any of that information.

Brooklyn brightened a little, both at Alex's unspoken response (warm and fizzy, like cotton candy melting on her tongue, sour-sweet surprise) and the name Ruby which was very cool, because it was the name of one of the Crystal Gems. "Brooklyn, can you tell us anything about the bad people?" Alex prodded gently once they'd pulled away from the crumbling abandoned house and were back on more well travelled roads. "Did you hear anything, did you see anyone you could describe...?"

Brooklyn frowned, biting at her lower lip. "Well...I couldn't see them very good in the van. They put a needle in my arm and I went to sleep really fast. I couldn't see them in the house cause they left me in the basement and the door was stuck, but there were a bunch of voices and they were mad. A bunch of them said bad words and yelled a lot. One of them didn't, but he was scarier."

"How?" Alex asked, her tone still set to gently lead her through her story. "What made him scarier?"

"His voice made me feel like spiders on my skin," Brooklyn explained after a few moments of hesitation. Most people didn't like it when she talked about the feelings, so she usually didn't, but she didn't know how else to put it. "When he said things everyone else got really quiet."

"Can you remember anything that they said?"

"A lot of bad words," Brooklyn replied, wrinkling her nose. "I don't say those. They were yelling a lot at the same time. Then, I remember the scary one said, 'You know the a--the a-vuh-kit wanted it done legally' and 'we can't go forward now it's done make the call.' I didn't hear anything else after that. I think they left."

Alex didn't say anything out loud, but her lips most definitely moved over the word that she, at least, had picked up from a child's obvious struggle with an unfamiliar word. The Advocate, was what it sounded like to her.

[extremelyfrustrating]

Richard was far more certain of the word than Alex, familiar with the mispronunciations of children her age. Glancing up again at Alex in the rear view mirror, he shared a grim look of concern before turning back to Brooklyn.

"That's good--that you don't swear." Richard declared, offering her a wink. "And it may not seem like it, but what you have to say is incredibly helpful. Now...you're very perceptive, so I think you already know that some police men will want to hear it, too. When we get to the hospital, after you've been looked at more closely, do you think you can tell them everything the same way you've told us?"

[caughtinyourtangles]

Brooklyn nodded quietly because she knew she had to, but her little shoulders sagged. In spite of Dr. Strand's insistence otherwise she just knew she was gonna be in trouble. Cathy wouldn't want to let her live with her anymore and Ms. Tabarly was gonna be disappointed that it didn't work out. Again. And not knowing where she'd have to stay next, if they'd be nice or if they'd be mean, was scary.

"I'll tell the truth," she replied with another somber nod. "I promise."

[extremelyfrustrating]

"Good girl." Richard replied gently, reaching out to smooth her tangled hair back again. He hated that grim little expression, but couldn't bring himself to say more--not until he'd spoken to his contacts at the hospital.

By the time they arrived at the ER, Richard had quietly sent a couple of text messages and made a few phone calls. When they pulled in, there were people waiting--including a couple of faces Richard had already accounted for.

Emerging from the car, he circled around to Brooklyn's side and helped her out, then lifted her back into the safety of his arms.

"Alex and I will be with you the whole time." he promised her, looking into Brooklyn's face. "Unless you say it's okay for me to go somewhere else. Agreed?"

[caughtinyourtangles]

Alex pulled the car beneath the overhang outside of the main doors, unsurprised to see people waiting. She put the car in park so Richard could get Brooklyn out, got out and jogged around the other side. She supposed she should park the car, but that could wait. There was a scared, traumatized kid that was the priority at the moment.

Brooklyn clung to Richard tightly and nodded against the shoulder she'd buried her face in. "Are they gonna put needles in?" she asked in a scared whisper, peering out hesitantly at the faces of the people waiting on them to see who and what they were, police officers or hospital workers. "Is it gonna hurt?"

[extremelyfrustrating]

"You might need a couple of shots." he admitted. "But you won't feel it--know why? Because you're going to show me how strong you are, and squeeze my hand as hard as you can when they give them to you--and if you can turn my fingers purple? I'll owe you an ice cream."

As they approached the gathering, Richard tried to help by pointing out people and explaining what they wanted...finishing with his ace in the hole.

"Those people in uniform are here to keep you safe--that man and woman in business clothes? They're detectives, and the ones you'll have to talk to. Those are technicians that will look at you before the doctor--that's the doctor right there...and that is Miss April. She's a social worker, but she doesn't work for the county, she works for the hospital. She's going to ask you some questions about Cathy and Joey and...well, probably Alex and me. She might also ask you where you want to stay for a while--just tell her the truth, okay? She's a good friend of mine, and she won't tell anyone what you say. Not even me."

[caughtinyourtangles]

"Please follow me, Dr. Strand," said a youngish lady in powder blue scrubs, blonde hair in a high ponytail and a kind smile on her face. "My name is Rachel. We're going to set Miss Brooklyn up in the SANE area. It's quieter there," she added, more for Alex and Richard's benefit than for Brooklyn's, since they would know better what that meant. "Less like a hospital."

Brooklyn had been through that enough to know what he meant, so she nodded again but refused to relinquish her hold on him until she had to. Thankfully, other than the nurse coaxing her out of hiding to get her on the bed and into a little pink hospital gown patterned with tiny green flowers, no one really tried--and even then Brooklyn just went from Richard's arms to a slightly surprised Alex's, who wasn't sure what to do for a moment or two, having absolutely zero experience with kids. Instinct kicked in, however, and kicked in hard when Brooklyn sniffled and buried her face in the curve of neck.

"I can help her," she assured the nurse, soothingly stroking Brooklyn's tangled, slightly dirty hair. "It's okay. We'll just pull the curtain real quick. Dr. Strand will be on the other side. Okay?"

The nurse nodded--she was nice, Brooklyn could tell, but she just wasn't ready to trust yet--and handed Alex a couple of plastic bags. "If you would, put her clothes in this. For the detectives."

"Can you--can we clean her face?" Alex asked quietly, helping Brooklyn with her jumper and her tights, taking care with her injured knee.

"We're gonna have to take photographs first," the nurse replied apologetically, wheeling a cart over. "We'll get it over with as fast as we can, I promise. Could you wait on the other side of the curtain, please?"

"I'd rather not leave her," Alex protested but Brooklyn, having spent the entire time contemplating the nurse in silence said, "It's okay. She's nice. You won't go far, right?"

"I promise I won't," Alex confirmed, fussing the sheets into place and joining Richard on the other side of the pulled curtain. Once she was out of Brooklyn's eyeline she crumbled a little, ducking her head and pressing the heel of her hand against her forehead. The nurse was good at her job, she could tell just by listening--Brooklyn giggled softly a time or two while the nurse talked to her and made jokes throughout the exam, took her photographs and swabs and fingernail scrapings and whatever else, though Alex knew they weren't going to find anything useful. "What was that all about?" she asked Strand in a low, near whisper, lifting her head after a moment. "With the social worker?"

[extremelyfrustrating]

It took Richard a moment to answer, frozen as he was by Alex’s distress. Everything in him burned to...do something to take it from her, to offer some measure of comfort. He didn’t often see her in such a vulnerable moment, ever the impartial journalist, but he understood this breaking point, this moment when it was too much and too evil and not even professional pride was enough...

“Short term foster care.” He confessed quietly. “I had a case some years back—demonic possession. A young boy with a severe mental illness and abusive parents. He would only have suffered further in the system, and he responded well to Ruby, so...April pulled some strings. The Institute acquired a short term foster care license and he spent six weeks in her custody until we located a cousin that took him in.”

He looked towards the curtain, his heart lodging in his throat.

“That girl knows how to identify authorities, and she’s familiar with a social worker’s identification. She has all the hallmarks of an institutional youth—and she’s incredibly smart, Alex, not to mention perceptive. I...something had to be done.”

[elevencalls]

Alex's lips parted in surprise and slowly, after a few moments of stunned silence, closed again. Somehow, all of PNWS's research into Strand and the Strand Institute had completely missed that tidbit of information.

"You're thinking she's gonna need emergency placement...and you're volunteering. I...wow." That was what he'd meant, that she'd meet Ruby later; he'd had this thought even before the subject of The Advocate had come up in the conversation. She didn't know why it surprised her so much, that Brooklyn had pulled so hard at Richard's heartstrings; even Alex could look at her and see a strong resemblance to Charlie.

[extremelyfrustrating]

"You didn't find it because I didn't want it to be found." Richard reassured her, misinterpreting the quiet utterance of surprise. "Once the possession was discredited, we kept as much of the situation off book as we could for the boy's welfare--public exposure would only have done more damage. Our license lapsed after he was placed...but April's a bit of a maverick when it comes to the best interests of a child."

And, from the look on Strand's face, it was pretty clear that he felt it was one of her better qualities.

[elevencalls]

Alex studied him for a moment in silence, a small, soft smile lingering on her lips. "No one would ever accuse you of doing things halfway, Dr. Strand," she quipped, her smile fading a little. "About what she overheard...The Advocate, and make the call...doesn't it seem way too convenient that we just happened to get an anonymous tip about a black tapes case that just happens to lead us to a kidnapped child? Cause it feels to me like we were being set up."

[extremelyfrustrating]

"By a conspirator involved with the abduction, that's my hypothesis." Richard agreed. "And...laying aside the validity of grand supernatural conspiracies for one moment, it's one of the reasons I want Brooklyn somewhere safe."

He hesitated, meeting Alex's gaze for only an instant before looking away again.

"Keeping my family at a distance to protect them...it didn't work before. Whatever this is, I'm involved in it--and anyone associated with me, including that child, could come under fire. I have--"

He cut himself off, biting his tongue physically to stop himself from saying more.

About the burning in his gut, pushing at his instincts over his rationale--making him certain, in ways that had visions of Bobby Maimes dancing through his head, that Brooklyn would be at risk if she wasn't by his side.

[elevencalls]

Alex wasn't used to seeing that much emotions from Richard--not even when he got angry at her. It made the moments where something raw flickered across his face that much more intense. And, as it always did, it made Alex want to take it away. Soothe it, and him, until he was steady again, back to his unflinching, taciturn, slightly arrogant self.

He wanted to protect the girl, and Alex wanted to protect him.

She moved in a little, reaching out with one hand, her fingers bumping lightly against his, her lips parting to tell him it was okay. It would all be fine. And the nurse chose that moment to pull the curtain back, making Alex jump a little and step back. "We're all done here," she announced, barely looking up from the chart and the color coded plastic bags in her hands. "I'll hand deliver all of this to the detectives. Someone will be in soon for a blood draw, but you can clean her up, I'm sure it would make her feel better. There's a bathroom right through there--if she needs to pee there are some sample cups in the cabinet to collect it. I doubt we'll get anything useful on the UDS, but--"

"Procedure," Alex said before the nurse could, nodding her understanding and laying her hand briefly on Richard's arm before moving towards the bathroom.

Brooklyn, meanwhile, was tapping at an electronic tablet the nurse had given her, moving her finger over brightly colored flowers to connect them and make them bloom. She looked up at Richard and beamed. "She said I was very brave and I did great and look," she held up two brightly colored stickers still on their paper backing, each emblazoned with a crest, one in blue and one in red. "I got Hogwarts stickers!"

[extremelyfrustrating]

The brush of her fingers startled Richard briefly, but he didn't pull away, only looked into her face. As Alex's lips parted, he felt some kind of gap starting to close--a cool hand reaching for fevered skin, a pillar to lean against appearing in the middle of an endless race...

The curtain being whisked aside broke the spell, drawing Richard's attention back to Brooklyn. With a quiet murmur of thanks to the nurse, he moved to Brooklyn's side, managing a smile for her benefit as she brandished her stickers proudly.

"That's remarkable." he assured her with the perfect honesty of an adult well aware that, to the child, it was. He frowned thoughtfully, studying both. "I'm sorry to say I don't know much about Harry Potter, but Ruby's read the books...the blue is Ravenclaw, isn't it? Ruby always tells me I'm a Ravenclaw."

[caughtinyourtangles]

"You are absolutely a Ravenclaw," Alex called from the bathroom over the quite hissing and splashing of running water.

Brooklyn giggled happily and held the stickers to her chest with the enthusiasm of a child who not only loved something but was wholly unaccustomed to being given things--or having other adults share her enthusiasm. And yet, she thought nothing of setting the tablet aside and peeling the sticker off of the backing to press it on Richard's chest, like a badge. "Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," she recited with a big smile. "Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are my favorite houses. I can never decide which one I like best, because I like school and I like learning but I wanna be brave and strong too."

[extremelyfrustrating]

Richard was a little taken aback by Brooklyn parting with one of her prizes to adhere the Ravenclaw sticker to his chest. She did it so easily, and with that smile he had not yet seen...

He couldn't quite stop himself from looking down at it, smoothing a hand over it to make sure it stayed put--knew immediately no award he'd ever won could ever be as precious.

"Well, fortunately you're both." he declared with a smile he didn't bother to hide, looking up again--and then melting into a deeply pensive expression--all while he deliberately ignored Alex's commentary from the bathroom.

"We should really figure out a portmanteau for the two, so you can identify yourself correctly." he mused. "Combine the names into one. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor...Gryffinclaw? Ravendor?..."

[caughtinyourtangles]

"You can't be two houses, you can only be one," Brooklyn protested, crinkling her nose with a soft giggle.

"Why not?" Alex challenged as she left the bathroom with a damp washcloth, and proceeded to gently take Brooklyn's chin in her hand so she could wipe away the smudges. "I think it should be Gryffinclaw. Like...a griffon's claw. That sounds better."

"They--pleh!--they have talons like--pleh!--like birds," Brooklyn replied, making a bit of a face and sticking out her tongue whenever the damp cloth got near her mouth. "What house are you, Miss--pleh!--Miss Alex?"

"Me?" Alex squinted one eye closed and pursed her lips, pretending to think it over. "Probably...what would you call a Hufflepuff, Slytherin hybrid?" She had to fight back the urge to laugh at the way Brooklyn's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped comedically, but she used the moment of shock to its full efficiency and made quicker work of scrubbing her face while she was squirming less. "You're thinking of all Slytherins as mean and evil I bet. Mostly, though, I'm probably a Hufflepuff. Just a very ambitious Hufflepuff."

Her face now clean, Brooklyn pursed her lips thoughtfully and swiped any residual dampness from her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I guess that's okay. Long as you wouldn't be a Death Eater."

"Never ever," Alex promised, swiping an X over her heart with her finger before dropping the washcloth in a tray and retrieving the jacket she'd draped over Brooklyn earlier to put it back on. "I'd be very pro-muggle. Cross my heart. Dr. Strand has no idea what we're talking about," she observed with a laugh, fussing her collar into place. "You should see if you can talk him into reading the books. Or at least watching the movies."

"They're really good," Brooklyn assured Richard with an almost somber nod. "Hermione is my favorite. I dressed up as her for Halloween last year. She's very, very smart and she gets the best grades in her classes alway. If I were a Gryffindor I'd want to be one like her."

[extremelyfrustrating]

"She sounds like a lovely young lady--well, if we're not talking about you." Richard replied with a small smile. "Because I don't think even this Hermione is half as smart or half as pretty as you are."

It was all he could manage, sitting there watching Alex clean Brooklyn's face off with the little girl scrunching her face and grunting whenever the wet cloth got near her mouth. There was something about it, watching them together, with the way he found himself desperate to take care of this child...

"Richard?"

Richard glanced over his shoulder. April's head was peeking around the curtain, a worried expression on her face as she discreetly beckoned to him.

"I'll be right back." Richard promised, resting a hand on Brooklyn's ankle to give it a reassuring squeeze. Glancing at Alex, his features stayed neutral, but his eyes were lit with unguarded worry.

"Watch her." he whispered before standing to join April outside.