Then What?, a sanctuary fanfic

Title: Then What?
Fandom: Sanctuary
Rating: PG
Characters: Will Zimmerman, Henry, Helen Magnus
Warnings: Will is getting a little suicidal. They're also probably a little OOC in this one; this should be explained satisfactorily, and should snap back within a fic or two.
Summary: "So. Magnus doesn't know, she won't find out, even if she does she won't say anything; I won't stop, I won't go back to the Sanctuary, and you're going to keep coming to help me. Okay. Then what?"

"Elise." Henry's voice is wry. "Working late tonight?"

"Henry," Elise responds. There's a smile in her voice. Will knows she likes Henry, but not in a straight way. She has a girlfriend. "I thought I'd be seeing you soon."

"And I thought you'd say that." Will blinks, and he's watching Henry pull out a wad of money to pay the fine. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me he was just running with the antelopes?"

"Lion's cage." Elise looks a little sad as she hands over the form for Henry to sign. Henry thinks it's because they're friends (sort of), and she doesn't want to have to give him bad news. Will knows it's because she considers Henry a friend, and she's sad that he'll be going already.

Henry's expression doesn't change, but his anger is palpable even to Elise, and Will can feel her corresponding impulse to try to soothe him. He himself withdraws back into his own mind and eyes, though he can still feel Henry's fury. As attuned to the other as he's become, the emotion is scalding.

The man on the other side of the holding cell is glaring at him, but with the cop at the desk filling out a report and itching for action, he won't do anything. Will knows why he's there. By now they can both hear Elise and Will approaching. He shouldn't say anything, he knows; but the man's anger combined with Henry's is starting to soak into his skin, and ignoring it is just making him more irritable and edgy.

"I suppose we should have expected it," Elise says.

Will lets his head roll to the side to face his cellmate. His eyes are those of a corpse, so he can put all his mocking venom into his words as he asks, "What's wrong? Girlfriend not so eager to come bail you out after you smashed her car for a third time?"

"Really?" Henry responds dryly. "Personally, I was hoping he wasn't going to progress to suicidal until I was too old or too fired to come down here and bail him out."

The other man stands up, suddenly furious. The anger isn't an irritation anymore, more a warm, soothing bath that runs over Will's skin. "What did you say?"

"Well, yes..." Elise trails off as she diverts her attention to fumbling for the right key for the holding cell door.

The cop with the paperwork stands next, wary, one hand going to rest on his gun. He doesn't say anything, but Will knows he'll interfere if anything starts, just to dodge paperwork a little longer. It hasn't occurred to him that he'll need to fill out more if he does.

"Will!" Henry shouts as he enters the room. His anger is still sharp, a thousand bee stings and needles jabbing at Will's skin.

Will smirks at the other. "You got lucky," he whispers, barely loud enough for his antagonist to hear; and the other man roars and throws himself at him. Will knows the moment he even considers the attack, however, and steps neatly aside.

Elise opens the cell door at the cop's motion, going for the knife she keeps at her back. She carries a gun, as well; but she prefers the security and control of a blade, especially for situations like this.

Will's head is starting to hurt. He's been away from people too long, if he can't handle this.

"All right, that's enough!" the cop yells, stepping into the arena. Detective John Lambert, thirty-three years old, steady girlfriend, planning to propose on their anniversary next week, only child, dad died when he was twelve, went into the police force as a direct result--

Will presses his hands over his eyes, for all the good it'll do him. For a moment, he lets everything shift, growing faraway and faint. It's a trick he's picked up in the weeks since he left the Sanctuary. When he opens his eyes, he focuses immediately on Henry. There. Normalcy. Familiarity. The same feeling other people call 'good-to-be-home'.

He walks across the cell to Henry, and leaves with him.

"Lion's cage?" Henry demands in a very soft voice when they're out of the station.

It's the same exasperation Henry feels when a thousand of his precious machines break down at the same time, only he controls it better because Will can respond any way he chooses.

"Yes," Will answers after a moment. "I hadn't tried matching a predator's thoughts before. It was surprisingly easy. What do you think that indicates about humans?"

"You know, it's funny, but I don't actually give a damn," Henry says, still in that soft voice. It's getting louder, though, matching the pricks on Will's arms. "I guess it has something to do with you not actually giving a damn when I told you not to--"

"Not to do anything stupid," Will finishes. "And I succeed at that, most of the time. But every once in a while--" he made a disappointed face "--I slip up and get caught."

"That's not what I mean!" Henry says. He's finally back up to his normal, sarcastic-dramatic angry voice. "You have to stop this. I'm not going to bail you out every time you decide to jump in and take a bath with the sharks--"

"That's a great idea," Will says, and he actually sounds genuine. He almost feels it, too. "But why not? Does Magnus know?"

"NO!" Henry shouts before he gets control of himself. "You know how old she is," he continues in his normal tone.

"I do," Will agrees. "As I recall, I was the one who told you."

"Well, she's got more money than she knows what to do with," Henry snaps.

"Come on," Will presses, patronizing in his tone now. "She has to know. And if she doesn't know, she'll figure it out. She'll figure out that you know where I am, and that you've known for the whole time. She'll ask you. She'll figure out where the money's going--"

"She won't," Henry insists. "No one notices if you take a bucket of water from the ocean. Even if you take fifty, there's just so much left. She won't notice. And even if she does, she won't say anything."

Will stops then, staring at Henry. "She won't?" he asks. "Why won't she?" Suddenly his eyes widen.

Henry looks uncomfortable. "Let's go," he says, pushing past Will.

"I didn't know you had a gambling problem." Will's voice is a little horrified and a little awestruck, but he obeys, skipping around in front of Henry and walking backwards so he can keep facing the other.

"I don't," Henry says, but his objection is half-hearted.

"But you did," Will says, as though he's declaring that the world is safe and war never happened. "And that's why Magnus wouldn't mention it if you started draining hundreds or thousands of dollars from her account. Even if you said it was for repairs that obviously never happened. She trusts you to take care of yourself."

"She trusted you to do the same, and look what happened." Henry's words suggest that that particular topic is closed.

So Will moves on. "So Magnus doesn't know, she won't find out, and even if she does she won't say anything," he says, summing it up. "Okay. Then what?"

Henry shrugs. "You have to stop sometime."

"Come on!" Will half-shouts. "Even you don't believe that! I won't stop," he says in his normal voice. "If I end up in a full-body cast because I climbed in with the wrong predator, I'll go back to doing this as soon as I get out of the hospital. If I overload at the wrong time and get caught when I'm tailing Magnus and Ashley, I'll leave as soon as I wake up, just like I did before; and short of locking us both in the Shoe, they can't stop me. If I end up in a wheelchair forever, or deaf, blind, and mute, I will still do this! You know that, Henry--I won't stop!

"So," he summarizes again. "Magnus doesn't know, she won't find out, even if she does she won't say anything, and I won't stop. Okay. Then what?"

"You have to go back to the Sanctuary." Henry tries to put authority into his voice. "You have to become one of Magnus' patients."

"That, Henry," and Will's voice is momentarily patronizing again, "will never happen. To go back, even just to get my old job back, I'd have to explain why I left. And to become one of her patients, I'd have to consent to being locked up in there, surrounded by the very same reasons I left."

"The Abnormals?" Henry raises an eyebrow. "You seemed to like them well enough. Be silly of you not to, considering you're one yourself."

Will shakes his head and ignores the question. "So, Magnus doesn't know, she won't find out, even if she does she won't say anything, I won't stop, and I won't go back to the Sanctuary. Okay. Then what?"

"I won't come to help you." Henry knows he's overstretched himself this time. This is why Will left, he knows; not because the Abnormals were too weird, but because they were too much.

"Yes, you will," Will answers, and there's almost a smile on his face. "Because I'm attuned to you, and while I don't broadcast nearly as much as I receive, that means whatever I broadcast, you pick up. You're the only person on the world, barring me, who knows what receiving is like. Aren't you glad?"

"I'll shut it off."

"You can't. Well," he corrects himself, "I suppose you could--it is physically possible. But it isn't mentally possible. It doesn't compute. It's like trying to walk through a forest with your eyes closed. The survival instinct's too strong."

"I'll ignore it," he says, getting desperate.

"That's like opening your eyes and finding there's a tree in front of you and trying to keep walking forward," Will replies. The look in his eyes is almost pitying now. "If you're really good and hold out a long time, it might be a day before I see you. But you will show up, every single time."

He's stopped walking now. Henry follows suit. "So," Will says, summarizing for what Henry hopes will be the last time. "Magnus doesn't know, she won't find out, even if she does she won't say anything, I won't stop, I won't go back to the Sanctuary, and you're going to keep coming to help me. Okay. Then what?"

Henry stares at him. He thinks he can feel the same thing he does when Will gets himself arrested, but it's much fainter. It's impossible to define; it doesn't work by any of the senses he has normally, but it's not just knowledge, either. It's another sense, undefinable, like trying to explain sight and color to a blind person. He wonders if Will is calling for help now, if that's why he's backed Henry into a corner like this.

He can't think or ask; Will would stop him, if he's read things wrongly. He glances over at the sign by the road. "Is this the hotel you're staying at?" he asks.

Will nods and holds out his hand. Henry tosses him the wallet Elise was holding at the desk. Will catches it easily--probably knew the flight path the same way he knew Magnus' age--turns, and heads into the hotel.

Henry turns and leaves.

Henry walks into Magnus' office, nodding slightly in greeting to the big guy.

"Henry," Magnus says. "Is something wrong?"

He hesitates. For a long moment, he wants to lie, to turn and go back. But he can't. He can't keep this up, and the sense that Will is broadcasting a distress call has gotten stronger. And when that surety hits him, trying to ignore it is harder than trying to walk into a tree.

"Yeah," he answers finally. At Magnus' wave, he walks over to a chair and sits down. He meets her eyes squarely, searching for any hint of knowledge of what he's about to say; but there is none. She's completely innocent in all this. He wishes he could say the same.

"It's about Will."

Feedback is loved! Oh, btw, I'm not sure if this'll be slashy or not. Thoughts?