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

[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.