Prompt 16: Questioning

Locked away inside of his office he had been pouring over the information that he had gotten from Francis. His job as an informant allowed him access to almost all files but he just felt slightly wrong about going and getting her folder. Most of the information wasn't too surprising but some of the things he had read well, he expected it to be bad but this was worse than he had imagined. He had specifically asked Francis to remove any information that Claire had refused to share with anyone but who she had to, and even with that removed there was a lot here. Shaun had initially felt bad when he started reading the files, but then that voice came back into his head reminding him that he had to know that he wouldn't be betrayed again.

The last thing he had read had occurred when she was 16 and already a highly praised Templar. It seemed that Claire along with an unidentified male had managed to end an entire bloodline of Assassins, killing children and innocents in the process. Reading the passage had made him feel sick, he had known that family. He remembered the day they had been killed, he remembered reading the report, it was gruesome. Though as he read on he realized that he had known, or at least heard of, most of the people Claire had been recorded as killing. There were hundreds of names in the file in front of him, he just prayed that the list would stop soon. He had blood on his hands yes but to have that much on your hands, to of taken that many lives, he couldn't imagine having that much blood on his hands. He didn't know how she did it.

After a few more gruesome entries he finally reached when she had joined up with the Assassins and was surprised to find her psych profile jammed in with the rest of the information. Typically with his job he got to read just the diagnosis in the persons file but for some reason it seemed that her entire file was there complete with the Doctor's notes on her from the few required sessions that every Assassin went through. It took him a minute to decide if he should read the notes but he finally decided to just read what was normally allowed to him. He knew he couldn't really invade her privacy more than he already was but he felt that at least some parts of her deserved to be hers and hers alone.

Shaun had seen some rather long patient diagnosis in his time, Assassins typically having quite a few problems, Claire it seemed was no exception. Then again, neither was he, and nor were the Templars. He picked up a few of the normal conditions, for assassins that is, that she had been declared as having: Bipolar disorder, anger management issues and slight social anxiety. There were a few in her file though that weren't as common. Clinical Depression was listed under a heading of Most Severe and later on down the list it also noted that she had slight bouts of insanity. It was hard for him to believe a girl like Claire who had seemed so happy and carefree could suffer from these problems. What really struck him as odd though, is that there was a small section on the page that had been blacked out so it could not be read.

A knock on the door broke his concentration and at first he blew it off until he heard Francis' voice. "I know you're in there, Shaun. Let me in." He stood with a sigh and moved to unlock the door. Francis came into the room and sat in the previously occupied chair before plopping her feet up on the desk much to Shaun's annoyance. "Read anything that's really shocked you yet or haven't you gotten to the good part?"

"I've read plenty, now could you please get your feet off of my desk?"

Ignoring his request Francis picked up the file and looked at where it had been left open to, "Ah, her psych profile. I remember when she first told me what she had been diagnosed with, it's worse than mine."

"It was pretty bad, I'm kind of surprised how she can be so happy and have had these things in her life for so long." Shaun moved over to his desk and pushed her feet off of it before sitting where her feet had previously been. "I mean, she seems so... normal. Well, not normal but normal for us."

"We both know that it's the most seemingly normal of people who are the most disturbed. Claire's had a lot happen to her in her lifetime, more than you or I even know. Make no mistake Shaun, she is a happy person, most of the time. Count yourself lucky if you never see her when she's mad, or sad, or suffering from a bout of insanity that was caused by the bleeding effect." She then shut Claire's folder and stood up. "She's on her way back, I'd appreciate it if you could meet her when she gets here. She'll be here 'round 9. I have my own mission that I'm leaving on tonight and I don't want her to be alone. It seems that she ran into an old friend of hers that wasn't too happy to see her."

Shaun nodded, he would have done it just because Francis had asked but he was desperate to see Claire again. There was still one thing on his mind that he thought reading her file would accomplish but it hadn't. "Francis, I need to know. Can we trust her? Can I trust her? She was loyal to them for so long, what if she's just another sleeper agent? We can't afford more betrayal."

What happened next Shaun simply was not expecting. He knew his cousin got angry easily but he never expected her to punch him square in the jaw. "You have no idea what they put her through, if you knew what she went through- the things that aren't included in that damn file of yours- you would understand that she could never go back to them because she would rather die a million times over. That is no exaggeration either, I trust her with my life and I don't trust easily. Not everyone is going to turn out like Lucy."

"Yeah." He rubbed his jaw and turned to look out the window. He was still trying to figure out how he felt about the whole Lucy thing. She'd betrayed them, and even so he had gone to her funeral. She had been a friend and even though her actions had caused him to fear for his life he couldn't bring himself to hate her. He knew why he was so caught up in making sure that she wasn't going to betray them, he didn't want to lose more people he cared about. "I'll go get Claire tonight. Call me when you're done with your mission, okay?"

"I always do." With that Francis walked out of the room leaving Shaun to his thoughts. He picked up the file that she had left on the desk and placed it in the pile with the other ones to be returned to wherever they were being stored currently. Looking at the clock he realized he only had an hour or so before she was due to arrive so after shutting down his computer he locked the room headed back to where he had been living for the past few weeks. He had a feeling that whoever it was Claire had seen was someone from her past and from the way Francis had spoken it sounded like she wasn't too sure if Claire would be mentally okay when she got back. Having taken a quick shower he grabbed a mug out of the cupboard before making tea and with one last look to make sure he wasn't forgetting anything he headed off to meet Claire. He had a lot of questions for her, but for tonight, he would keep his mouth shut. His questioning could wait for another day.