While they were so much the same--both outcasts from society for their outlandish theories; both strong-willed, obstinate, and passionate human beings--it was the moments, when those strikingly similar traits clashed in a mesh of professional dissonance, that she valued almost more than anything.
He kept her honest, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
* * *
It was raining outside. Pouring, actually. The billowing clouds had finally burst and water flooded down from the heavens. Water droplets splattered against the barren windows, meandering haphazard paths down the glass until they rolled into oblivion.
The case was over as far as she was concerned, but the fact that Will remained on her heel (following, always following, one step behind, his mood carved into the air between them) even past his office immediately alerted her that he thought otherwise.
"Magnus, how can you do this?"
"And what would you have me do, Will?"
Lighting flashed.
He shifted his weight to his opposite side and ground his teeth together behind a taut jaw.
Thunder rumbled.
"I don't know. We have to tell this little girl's parents something. It's unfair to them. The last memory of their daughter is her screaming before vanishing into thin air, for God's sake!"
"And what a lively conversation that would be, yes? 'I'm sorry to inform you, Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, but your daughter was captured and eaten alive by a shape shifter who I've managed to capture. Oh yes, shape shifters most-definitely exist and are part of a wide-range of species we call Abnormals. I happen to have an entire Sanctuary brimming with them!'" she mocked, eyes fixed coldly on him from only several feet away.
"I'm not saying give them a resume of your life's work. Just some kind of closure would be nice."
"I'm not stopping you from talking to them, Will. In fact, I accounted for this type of situation when I hired you in the first place. But we can't tell them anything. They would go straight to the authorities, who are already being driven up the walls by the dead ends in this case, and you know this."
There was a moment of silence as he shifted awkwardly again and she studied him closely, willing defeat to arise in him from slumped shoulders or apology written on his face. When it didn't come, and all that was filling the empty void was their adrenaline-heavy breathing, she turned on her heel and began a brisk walk down the long corridor.
"Magnus!" he called.
He found himself breaking into a jog after her.
"I believe we're finished here, Will."
"Are we really? We seem to have this same conversation over and over again."
She continued walking, not slowing down despite his obvious struggle to formulate coherent and structural arguments while matching her pace (and she was wearing bloody heels!). She silently questioned his poor multitasking skills and how this knowledge may or may not have affected whatever she saw in him when pursuing him for all those years, studying him as her next potential protege.
"Hey, all I'm saying is we obviously disagree on some professional issues, and each time they come up, it seems to escalate. I don't want this to get out of hand."
She stopped, but only because she'd arrived at the elevator shaft. The doors rolled open and it didn't surprise her when he squeezed into the small car behind her, stubbornly refusing to let to of the damn issue at hand.
She both loved and hated his tenacity.
Her back was to him as he kept rattling on, levels of the Sanctuary mingling with their reflections in the glass of the window.
"I know this is your place and we run it by your rules, but I thought one of the reasons you brought me here in the first place was to bring a different perspective, a fresh set of skills that you thought would be valuable to the team. But the moment you disagree with something I have to say, you shut me out and brush it off."
She heaved a controlled sigh, still turned away from him.
"I don't understand why this is so hard for you to grasp. We can't tell them anything," she muttered, eyes dropping to the floor as the elevator continued to carry them downward.
"Maybe not the long version, no."
"And the short version is too complicated. It will only leave them with more questions and hardly any closure."
"You are such a stubborn woman," he admonished suddenly, the car shaking slightly as it rolled to a stop.
She whipped around with wide eyes, searching his face for some cheekiness or jest that he so often chided her with. And even though there was the slightest of smirks played on his lips, she found nothing more than irony in his expression.
"No more stubborn than you are," she shot right back.
The doors slid open, and she went to move past him. Not much to her surprise, he stepped in her path and crossed his arms, his smirk growing.
"A non-disclosure form," he offered.
"No. Again, too complicated. And it's not like I can have them imprisoned for breaking contract."
"Fine. Just...let me say something to them. I promise I won't give away too much, but they have the right to know even a skeleton of the truth."
She exhaled sharply through her nose, pale blue eyes falling to the ground once again for a moment before journeying back up to meet his expectant gaze.
"Will."
"Magnus."
"You really aren't going to let this one go, are you?"
"Nope."
"And you're going to keep me in this elevator until we've come to a compromise?"
"Yep."
"You do realize I'm carrying a hand weapon and you're not."
"You're going to shoot me?" he asked incredulously.
"Just in the leg. I'll patch you up good as new afterward, promise."
Humor hinted her face for the briefest of moments that Will wondered if he'd imagined it. He didn't put it past Helen Magnus to shoot him. She'd even tried a couple of times, never mind parasitical influence.
"Five minutes. You can be there the whole time."
"And again I will ask, what are you going to say to them exactly?"
"I don't know yet! I'll think of something."
"When you do think of something, put it in writing, leave it on my desk, and I'll get back to you. Thank you."
She gave him a tight smile and attempted to move past him once again, but her efforts to dodge his squared shoulders only proved futile.
"You do realize we're on camera right now."
"What, you really think Henry is monitoring us?" He chuckled. "Henry and Ashley are playing video games in the upper level den. Last I heard, Ashley was beating him pretty bad, and you know how competitive those two get. And the Big Guy is taking a nap."
She rolled her eyes.
"Please move."
"No."
"I'm this close to lowering your salary significantly!"
"I could just quit."
"I could just fire you."
"Not if I quit first."
"I could shoot you. You seem to keep forgetting that."
He scoffed. "Magnus, please. Come on."
"Will, you are trying my patience! You're being absolutely irritating! Let me out of this elevator and...I'll consider approving your request."
"Fine," he said, and even though it came as a total surprise to her, not expecting him to give up so easily considering, as soon as he moved out of her way, she used the opportunity to maneuver around him. But just as she thought her escape was inevitable, his arm flew across the doors of the elevator and nearly choked her in the process.
"Ah!" he said. "Just one more thing."
"What."
"I don't want to keep doing this," he confessed, his expression growing somber.
"Will, have you ever thought that perhaps this...this...confrontation that we occasionally have is only healthy?"
His brow furrowed at that, and she crossed her arms and leaned her back against the wall.
"We have a sort of check and balance system. As much as you think I don't value your perspective, I truly do. Recruiting you as part of my team here has been the best choice I could have possibly made and I haven't regretted it once. I do value your opinion, Will. You keep me honest, and I'm sorry that I've made you think otherwise." She paused, studying his face as his knit brows slowly separated as her words registered as a sincere confession.
He soon mimicked her stance and leaned his weight against the edge of the doorway.
"I do kind of like arguing with you."
"What?" she asked, his blunt response catching her off-guard.
"Not for the sake of arguing, but...I don't know. Similar intentions. I like to challenge you, and I like when you challenge me. It's just been escalating like I said earlier. I do think it's healthy to challenge each other in a working relationship, but I think the more we get to know each other, the more..." He stopped, shrugging it off and waving his hand. "Never mind."
"What?" she asked. Curiosity etched itself into her face as she peered at him. "No, really. I want to know what you were going to say."
He sighed and glanced back at her.
"It feels like it becomes more personal, the more we get to know each other. It was easy to argue with you when I first started working here, but over the last several months, it's become a lot more difficult."
She couldn't help but smile. Her smile caused the upward turn of his own lips, and they shared a tender moment where faces forgave and understood and apologized all at once.
"What are you going to say to the Hopkins?" she asked again, but this time there was patience and a true curiosity laden in her voice.
"That dental records confirmed this morning that their daughter is dead, and that the creature that is responsible for this has been captured and put in a high-security facility so that this sort of incident will never happen again."
She nodded. "Alright. But that's all."
"That's all," he replied, uncrossing his arms and taking a step towards her. "Trust me," he added, and her eyes shot up to meet his, a smile reemerging on her lips.
"I do. Do you trust me?"
Her eyes sparkled, a comfortableness settling into the previously tense foot and a half between them.
"Only when you're not being controlled by a parasite while I'm looking down the barrel of your gun," he joked, smirking.
"But only then?"
"Yup."
She pushed away from the wall, and a foot and a half became a foot. She watched his shoulders rise and fall as he tried to calculate her next move. Helen wasn't sure she even knew her next move.
"I believe this is the part where we'd both admit how sorry we are, forgive each other, and then--"
"Kiss and makeup?"
Her eyebrow shot up.
"But then," he added, "when have we ever done things conventionally?"
"Yes. When have we." Her smile grew wide and she turned to leave the elevator, pausing and glancing at him over her shoulder. "I trust you," she said.
"I trust you, too."
They emerged from the elevator just as a nearly simultaneous flash of lightning and clap of thunder filled the corridor. He shoved his hands into his pockets, following the click of her heels and lingering scent of musky perfume down the hallway and to her study. As Helen took a seat behind her desk and he collapsed onto the couch and reached for a case file laid strewn about the table, she watched him, smiling to herself, storing the last half hour into the recesses of her mind for safe keeping. It was times like these, when their obvious likenesses caused them to clash, that she would value in the long run. Each time they went head to head professionally, despite Will's fear that it would tear them apart personally, she only felt them grow. It wasn't his cheeky remarks or friendly smiles that caused her to learn more and more about her protege (even though she appreciated those more than she'd ever let on), it was his challenging viewpoints, bluntness, and obstinacy.
His valued input, perseverance, and undeniable charm.
As he read in silence and she pretended to read in silence (darting her eyes down to the paper in front of her just in case he caught her staring), they had reached their compromise, but she couldn't help realize that Will was right. They would end up revisiting the argument during another case on another day. It was inevitable.
The rain stilled outside as a beam of sunlight spread through her study. A distant clap of thunder and the drenched, green Earth was now the only evidence to the war that had raged on in the atmosphere. The storm had come to an end, the sun winning the battle for dominance of the afternoon sky. In all likelihood, the rain would begin again on another day. But...
Until then, she decided inwardly, concluding her earlier thoughts.
A blush tempted to color her cheeks when he did finally catch her staring and shot her a smile. She smiled back, then returned her semi-full attention to the paperwork before her.
He kept her honest, and she would never have it any other way.