(no subject)

[wgraham]

Will hadn't been here very long yet (he estimated about 14 hours), he didn't know if this place was his new home or if he'd eventually be returned to Darrow, he wasn't sure if this place was safe, but he did know he felt a lot better with Molly by his side. Neither one of them were relaxed as they walked hand in hand through one of the station's main corridors, each sporting a set of basic clothes, stripped of everything personal and identifying, but they were calmer than they'd been now that they were together again.

It felt like a dream, impossible, but so had Darrow. There wasn't a lot Will couldn't accept these days, but being in what felt like a scifi movie was more than a little overwhelming. He held tight to Molly's hand as they walked together, glancing around but working hard to avoid meeting anyone's eyes, his glasses gone and leaving him to feel more vulnerable.

"This is insane," he told Molly under his breath as they passed a large, thin alien with huge, unblinking eyes. "No way this is real."

Comments

[thewinterlady]

Quarantine had been short, but hard on them both. They'd been isolated and unable to hear or see anything outside their cells. Now here they were, holding on to eachother for dear life while they tried to acclimate.

Molly looked up and smiled a little at the alien who made an interested noise but they were past before it could make a move towards them.

"I've seen a lot. More than I wanted to, honestly, but this place..." She trailed off as a small box-like drone trundled past followed by a pair of brown uniformed technicians. "It's like something from Star Trek." Will was tense and nervy and Molly was doing her best to temper her enthusiasm until he was more comfortable. She was used to places like this - it reminded her of Faerie more than a little - but Will was most certainly not, and she poured comfort through their connection. "If it helps, I don't get any menace at all from anyone here." She'd got all her defenses up, but she was actively reading the place anyway. The last she wanted was for them to be taken by surprise and separated again. Not if she could help it.

[wgraham]

Will could feel Molly's relative comfort, her excitement, though he knew she was holding it back as best should could, and for his benefit. He appreciated it; as much as he'd gotten used to the unusual, new things, unbelievable things, were still much more difficult for Will to come to terms with. It helped that Molly hadn't felt anyone with harsh motives, that she didn't sense trouble around them. Will was unarmed, but Molly was powerful. Nothing bad would happen to them here, not as long as they were together.

"It does help," Will admitted, but he didn't loosen his grip on Molly's hand. "You're here," he said then, turning to look at her face, feeling overwhelmed with emotion again at still being at Molly's side. "I don't care where we are."

[thewinterlady]

"I care that we're safe and together, where that happens is irrelevant." Molly said, leaning into him. She didn't want to let him go any time soon and the way they'd been parted in quarantine, the way they'd been so sure they weren't going to see eachother again, still made her sick. "I can feel my powers coming back though. I'll protect you, baby." She said, a gentle tease in her voice to ease a little of the tension they were both swimming in.

[wgraham]

Will laughed once softly, bumping Molly's shoulder softly with his own. "I don't doubt that one bit," he said, turning his head to smile at her.

"Were your powers completely gone before?" he asked as they continued through what looked to be a marketplace, curious if she'd felt human again during that time, or just frustrated that she couldn't feel her magic around her.

[thewinterlady]

"They weren't gone, I guess. Just...buried? Controlled?" Molly said, remembering the grey feeling in the pit of her core where her magic was weighed down and dormant. "It was like I could feel the edges of it, but I couldn't get a grip." She looked at him. "I thought I was going insane." They'd talked about being cut off from eachother but this was different. "I came into magic late, but I've always had it. It was like missing taste or smell."

[wgraham]

"Are they getting progressively stronger?" Will asked, trying to imagine what it might feel like to have something like that suppressed, then regain it. He wondered if it was like losing feeling in a limb, knowing it was there but not being able to use it, like being temporarily blind or deaf.

[thewinterlady]

Molly stepped aside as a burly looking, grime covered man passed a little too close for comfort.

"Slowly. It's like being drip fed. Maybe that's intentional but..." She admitted with a sigh. "I don't like feeling unprotected. Or powerless." Smiling, she huffed a laugh. "I'll admit it might have been nice to not have Winter come back with it though."

[wgraham]

Will's mind immediately created an image of what it would have been like if Winter had come back when Molly was released from quarantine, the rage that would have accompanied it, so many people in a confined space. Will wasn't sure he'd be able to bring Molly back like he had last time if Winter ever took hold of her again; it was something they needed to discuss, he supposed, what he could do if there ever was a next time.

"I know what you mean," Will said, his free hand twitching a bit reflexively as they passed another unsavory looking individual who eyed Molly in a way Will didn't appreciate. "I know it's not the same, but I don't like being unarmed," he went on, his voice lowered so only Molly could hear him.

[thewinterlady]

"No it's the same. It's a safety net, right?" She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. "You're a cop at heart." And Molly loved him for it. Some people are just that way. She was a wizard. Will was a detective. It's just what they were. "Maybe they allow weapons..." She pondered quietly between them.

[wgraham]

Before Will had become a cop, he'd never handled a weapon before, at least not with that sort of intent. As a fisherman he'd always been good with a knife, but it wasn't until he'd experienced his life being in danger that he'd learned how to use classical weapons to protect himself (an others). His firearm, at first, had been a burden, required as he was to decide when and how to use it. He hadn't trusted his true intentions and his instincts, and he almost never drew his gun, even when the situation absolutely called for it.

After Jack tapped Will to investigate the Minnesota Shrike, having a gun on him had been practical if not absolutely necessary. He'd come to rely on it, and he felt uncomfortable without it. In Darrow he'd managed until he stole one (while he'd been trapped in the nightmare version of the city), but here he had no idea how he was going to get one here.

"I'd definitely feel better if I had one," Will said, his voice remaining hushed. "I wonder if they have cops here," he mused aloud. "Or security, something that would allow for being armed."

[thewinterlady]

Molly thought about that as they walked. "I guess they'd have to have something like that. I mean, the place is enormous. And it's a port." She said, looking down and smiling as a bunch of alien children swarmed around their legs for a minute on their way past. "Crime must be hard to keep under control." She looked across at him. "Would you want that? To go back to it? To the work?"

[wgraham]

It was an interesting question, and Will had a feeling Molly asked him because she could read his uncertainty, because she knew how the work got under his skin, what it could do to him. Like Darrow, this place had a higher level of unknowns that certainties; the things Will could come up against were innumerable.

"I don't really know anything else," Will finally said after a moment of contemplation. "And I'm good at it," he added, giving Molly a soft smile. "I could do some good here, maybe. Or at least find better ways to keep us safe."

[thewinterlady]

"You could. If nothing else, you've got a very different way of looking at things." Molly said smiling back, nudging him gently. "And you are very good at it." She watched him with a smile for a moment. "If it would make you happy then you should find a way to do it."

[wgraham]

Will smiled back at Molly, and he took a moment to realize, again, how lucky he was to have her. She was strong and independent, but she'd taken to being part of them the same way he had, with fierce determination. And she knew him, better than anyone could because of the nature of their connection, and because he'd let her in more deeply than he'd let anyone before.

"It's less that it will make me happy and more than it will keep me from going crazy," he admitted softly, earnest and a little tired. "You know how my mind can be," he went on. "Too much going on, too many gears turning. If I don't have a problem, if there aren't puzzles I can solve..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "I need to use this," he said, gesturing vaguely at his skull.

[thewinterlady]

"I know." Molly said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. "You'll find something. And if not, we can set up a private detective agency." She teased him gently and peered around them at the various shops and businesses in the area they were passing through. "I bet this place could use it."

[wgraham]

Will laughed softly, and he thought what that could be like, an image in his head like a movie from the 1930s, him in a fedora as he sat in a smoky office, Molly running the show. "You're probably right," he replied, bumping her shoulder with his again, crowding to be close to her. "I can't say I'd dislike working with you," he added. "Getting to see you all day, it sounds petty good to me."

[thewinterlady]

Molly wrapped her arm around his waist and pressed up tight to him. "You want to see me in a lot of short skirts bending over your desk." She teased, but the thought was a nice one. Working with him. Both using their talents to solve mysteries. "I warn you, I'm lousy at paperwork."

[wgraham]

Will chuckled softly, his hand squeezing Molly's upper arm. "I won't say I wouldn't enjoy that," he admitted, the instant mental image definitely not a bad one, though it was far more sexy than realistic. Still, it made Will's body react, and he was sure Molly could sense his appreciation of the thoughts she's put into his head.

"We can hire someone else to do the paperwork," he said after a beat. "I have a feeling some of your talents would be better suited to the investigating even than mine are."

[thewinterlady]

"I'd be lousy. I have to ask permission before I get in someones head. You don't." She said, smile turning a little hotter as she enjoyed the turn of Wills thoughts. "That said, I wouldn't mind seeing what feelings look like on other species." She mused as a reed thing man that didn't look like his feet were touching the ground passed by.

[wgraham]

"I get in from the outside," Will said with a breath of a laugh and a shiver through his shoulders. It had been a long time since Will had detached himself enough to think about his methods, about how his empathy worked. The idea of getting to put it to use again was surprisingly thrilling.

"Have you ever thought of being a therapist?" Will asked, considering how Molly required permission to see someone's thoughts, how people might request it, as a means to learn about themselves. "Could you see things in someone that they couldn't see themselves?"

[thewinterlady]

Molly gave that some thought. "Maybe. It's not as direct as that, you know? And belief has a lot to do with it. If someone truly believes how they feel about something it becomes their reality. And with the way strong feelings overwhelm my own..." Molly shook her head. "I don't think it's for me." If she was honest, she wasn't ready to let other people affect her but Will. She trusted him implicitly, but the rest of this place was completely alien to her. Until she got her bearings she'd rather keep herself to herself. "I was thinking about maybe looking for nanny work."

[wgraham]

Will nodded, and even as attentive as he was being to Molly's words, what she was saying caused him to fall into introspection once again. Molly had seen inside his head, all the way in as far as she could get, and she saw a goodness and a light in him that Will would have said he didn't believe existed. He had the capacity for love and kindness and charity, but he also had dark places full of urges he couldn't deny. It was true those had lessened somewhat when Hannibal vanished, but they were all still there, painted like frescos on the inside of Will's memory.

But he trusted Molly, and he knew if she saw something about him she thought was dangerous, to her or himself or anyone else, she wouldn't hesitate to tell him so. Which meant the ugliness inside him wasn't as pervasive as Will perceived it to be.

"You were a nanny before, weren't you?" Will asked, blinking himself out of his thoughts. "In Darrow?"

[thewinterlady]

That dark feeling that always accompanied Will's more self-exploratory thoughts flowed around their connection and Molly sent a wave of understanding out to soothe it. She watched it fade away as he asked her about Darrow and she nodded.

"For a while. They were bikers. Very cool people, if a little bit paranoid." She said. "But I don't know if I'll find any more bikers here. Space bikers?" She said with an amused smile.

[wgraham]

Will chuckled; Molly's sense of humor always caught him off guard, and it made him wonder if he'd just spent too much of his life before her with people who didn't have the capacity to be lighthearted. "Well, you never know," he replied, giving her a grin.

"How many kids did you have when you worked for your non-space bikers?" Will asked, curious to know more about her experience.

[thewinterlady]

"Two boys." Molly said, smiling at the memory. "Cute kids. Very well behaved. Abel was the same age Matthew was I left home and Thomas was baby Harry's age. It was nice to be around them. Show them magic tricks." She added with a sneaky smile. "I wouldn't mind doing that again. And aliens babies. It could be fascinating, you know?"

[wgraham]

"I didn't even think about alien babies," Will replied, imagining coming home to find his girlfriend taking care of something that looked like a little lizard in a diaper or a small pile of tribbles. "There's enough people on this station that I'm sure you'll be able to find some little ones to nanny, human or otherwise," he said with a soft smile.

[thewinterlady]

Molly leaned into Will heavily as they walked. "Lord, I hope so." She said. "But I'll find something."

They walked in silence for a little while, passing by a row of shops selling all manner of different foods and sundries. Her belly started to growl and suddenly she was very hungry.

"I wonder what we're supposed to do about food? I mean, the replicator stuff they had in quarantine was gross. But how do you know what's safe." She said, pointing out a pile of weird grey-green shapes. It could have been fruit, or it could have been bombs, for all she knew.

[wgraham]

Will shook his head, grimacing at the food Molly was gesturing to. "Considering the fact that the machines knew how to cure any diseases or minor issues we had coming in, I don't think they mean for us to die here," he said, thinking it through. "There has to be food we can eat that's nutritionally suited for humans. Or I hope so," he added. "I'm not sure how long I can eat that paste they gave us before."

They walked a bit farther along, both of them scrutinizing the offerings of the food vendors they passed, looking for anything that appeared at least somewhat familiar. As they walked by a cart with what looked like pastries, Will slowed his gait, turning to Molly beside him. "That doesn't smell too bad," he said, nodding at the cart. "What do you think?"

[thewinterlady]

Following his eyeline, Molly perked up at the sight and smell of the goods on display. "I think I'm suddenly starving." She said, mouth watering. She pulled out the credit chip she'd been left in quarantine and smiled at him. "My treat? And if they have anything resembling tea there I'm going to cry like a little girl, I warn you." She said, happy now that they had something familiar to grasp between them.

[wgraham]

"If we find something like tea, I'll buy you a year's supply," Will replied, thinking about the comfortable life they had before they came here, missing it more than he ever imagined he could. It was strange: Will had gone all these years thinking that he wasn't all that interested in the creature comforts, but now that they were here, in a place so foreign, he longed for so many basic things, like whiskey or coffee, things he'd taken for granted.

"It's probably ridiculous, how much I miss Darrow right now," he admitted lowly as Molly moved to pay the vendor.

[thewinterlady]

Molly had her hands full of pastries and handed them off to Will as she took the two tall drinks, smiling broadly at the guy behind the counter.

"No, I get it." She said, nodding at a bench a little way off the main thoroughfare and moving towards it. "I knew how to work there, you know? Even if it wasn't home, it was similar in so many ways it made it easier. This place..." She sat and curled a leg under her to face him as he sat, the sweet cakes spread out between them as she handed him his drink. "It's literally alien."

[wgraham]

"Quite literally," Will agreed, sharing a smile with Molly as they sat together. "I think we'll figure out how to live here too, in time," he assured, both for her benefit and his own. He paused to take a careful sip of his drink, finding it cool and sweet on his tongue, entirely pleasant in a way he wasn't expecting.

"We're here together," he said after he swallowed, setting his cup down on the bench. "You're all I need to survive, so I know I'll be okay, whatever happens."

[thewinterlady]

Molly couldn't help blushing when Will said things like that. It wasn't like she could help it. She felt the same way.

"We'll be fine. It's everyone else that has to watch out." She said, tearing a pastry and popping a piece into her mouth. It was glorious. Like the best croissant she'd ever had, mixed with some kind of fruit her taste buds couldn't quite work out. She groaned and offered Will a sticky piece. "If we get to eat like this every day, I'm willing to forgive the whole abduction thing."

[wgraham]

Will smiled, leaning in and taking the bite of pastry right from Molly's fingers, his lips brushing her skin, tasting the slight flavor of her as he sampled the food as well. He licked his lips as he sat back, swallowing his bite.

"I'm sure we could have ended up somewhere worse," he agreed. "But I know you, Molly, and you'll always land on your feet. I can't lose with you by my side."

[thewinterlady]

"I'm not going anywhere." Molly said, suddenly fearful they - whoever 'they' were - might try and part them. "They'll have to tear me away." She said fiercely, vision taking on the sharper edges of her magic as it struggled to come back online.

[wgraham]

Will could smell it in the air, the familiar crackle and burn of Molly's powers, and he could feel it at the edge of their connection too. It was comforting, mostly because he knew she felt less secure, being blocked the way she was, and knowing it was progressing was calming to both of them.

"Me too," Will said, reaching out to take Molly's hand, holding it tightly. "We came here together, however that happened. There's no way anyone is keeping us apart."