A/N: In order to keep this story at a PG-13 rating, the next chapter of In This Shattered Globe will not be shown on Fanfic.net. If you want to see it you're going to have to go to the website. Nyah. http://www.dollhousecreations.com/users/drucilla/lxg/ is the URL, and it will be updated hopefully within the week. We thank you for your attention to these matters. We being me and all the voices in my head. :)
Also, as someone noted, Percy and Marie are not, in fact, bizarre attempts at Mary Sues. They are bizarre attempts at author inclusions. I refer you to the movie 'Gothic', or any other retellings of that famous story that you can think of.
And now, on with the show!
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When Dorian opened his eyes at first, it almost seemed as though he was back in his own home. Which couldn't be, of course, his home had been seized by his creditors years ago when he had supposedly 'died' and had been unable to reassert his status as among the living. As he slowly awoke and his eyes focused again he realized it couldn't be the case. This room was slightly shabbier, for one thing, although someone had taken pains to be sure it was just as well appointed as any he might find in a house he would like to have owned. The furniture, draperies, and other articles all showed signs of previous use, but the room was no less tasteful or decorous for all that. High fashion on a budget, Dorian thought with a wry smirk.
He sat up gingerly, mindful of the fact that although he was immortal he was still subject to dizziness, nausea, and the other side effects of starvation and thirst. Damnable situation, really. It brought him in mind of what had happened years ago, in Mongolia, and he shuddered. Pulling himself back from the dead, even as he died repeatedly in the attempt, was going to haunt him for the rest of his miserably long life.
There was something on the table next to him... a tray. With food. Dorian blinked. It all came back to him... London, the large home, the still-tremulous Dr. Jekyll, the girl, being carried upstairs and gingerly placed into a bed. At least they were feeding him; the soup was still hot. Someone had taken in his gaunt frame and, most important, had at least some inkling of an idea of what to feed a starving man. He barely stopped himself from devouring the whole bowl in time.
"Oh!" the young woman who had greeted him at the door... greeted his semi-conscious body, anyway... now came out from just beyond his vision, behind the curtain. "You're awake..."
"Hello..." he said, before she darted out the door and left him staring after her, bemused and blinking. Dorian shrugged and turned his attention back to the soup.
"Well, your appetite doesn't seem to have been affected by your privations," a voice came from the doorway a few minutes later.
Dorian looked up, taking in the young man who stood at attention in the doorway. His hands were clasped behind his back, his legs spread slightly, his back straight. And he was dressed in what Dorian thought he remembered as the uniform of one of Nemo's soldiers. That made two of the old crowd here, or at least present in the city. And of them both, at least one of them was likely to still carry a grudge and have the willingness to do something about it for what Dorian had done... back in the day. Damn.
"Good evening," Dorian said politely, wondering what sort of situation he had fallen into this time. The young woman he had seen earlier appeared behind the sailor boy, half-hiding, half peeking out curiously.
"Good afternoon," the young man corrected with a slight but kind enough smile. "You have slept through the evening and well into the next day." He stepped further into the room, and the young woman (who was older than the sailor, Dorian now noticed as he saw both of them in a better light) moved out from behind him to draw the curtains. Dorian squinted in the sudden light.
"Ah..."
"You must have been exhausted from your ordeal," the sailor continued, a polite invitation for Dorian to say where he had been and what he was doing there. The boy must not have been told about him. "You weren't much but skin and bones when you collapsed on Marie last night."
"Marie...?" the youthful-looking man glanced over at the young woman, who swept a polite curtsey.
"At your service, sir," she murmured. Her shyness was almost endearing, or would have been if it didn't reek of slavery. Dorian had seen enough women beaten into subservience to recognize one when she bowed and scraped the earth before him. Once upon a time he might even have indulged in certain appetites with the opportunities presented to him by such an attitude. He might yet again. But for now he was too exhausted, and too aware of who exactly his hosts were to presume upon their hospitality.
"And you are?" he asked, glancing over at the sailor.
"Percy Harker, at your service." The young man bowed. Dorian suppressed a start at the name.
"Harker... Do you by chance know a Wilhemina Harker..."
"She is our adopted mother, yes." There was a world of meaning underneath that tone, encompassing pride, adoration, respect, gratitude, and an unspoken threat against Dorian should anything happen to the woman. This time the immortal couldn't resist a small smirk, though he hid it well behind another spoonful of soup. Clearly no one had told these two about his previous association with the League... perhaps they hadn't had time?
"And is this her house...?" It would explain the greeting, anyway, and the relatively good treatment with which he had been received, considering his departure from the League.
Memories surfaced, regarding a dagger and a quip about beds, and a fight with swords and teeth. Then again, perhaps her welcome would be more warm than he would like. The status of the children didn't explain anything, after all.
"This is the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll." That from the reticent Marie ... Harker, Dorian supposed, since young Percy had said our mother.
"Really." He drawled the word, spinning out his response, thinking. Interesting.
"Yes..." Percy's tone was a little sharper than it might have been, his eyes narrowed slightly. He hadn't missed Dorian's surprise or reconsideration of the circumstances. Which meant that Dorian would have to watch him a little more carefully. The young man was a good deal sharper than he looked, and might have had the wit to keep any knowledge he had about Dorian a secret. His sister, at least, seemed too quiet and timid to worry about. "Is there something wrong?"
He decided to temporize with part of the truth. "Actually, I hadn't expected Henry to do much more than turn me out again with a loaf of bread and a blanket," Dorian shrugged. "Our last parting was on less than friendly terms, and I was under the impression that he wouldn't be pleased to see me again." Less than friendly terms was an understatement, but he didn't really have any desire to be kicked out with a loaf of bread and a blanket.
"Then why did you come here?" Marie asked in her soft voice. Something in her voice caused Dorian to look more carefully at her. Perhaps she did know, too.
"I didn't have much of a choice. I knew no one else in the city."
Percy shrugged slightly. "Understandable, I suppose. And..." he exchanged a glance with his sister, "There is no reason why you should not be housed here until you are recovered enough to move on, and have a place to move on to."
Dorian suppressed the urge to sneer. Their tone was authoritative enough that it was probably evidence of who exactly was more in control of the arrangements in the house, and it wasn't the inimitable Dr. Henry Jekyll. Even after seven years, the man would allow himself to be bullied by a submissive girl and a sailor boy. How pathetic. How utterly like him.
"We have spare rooms, as you can see," Marie interrupted his thoughts, collecting the dishes as she spoke. "And our resources are not so meager that they cannot stretch to accommodate one more..."
"Marie!"
Ah. There was the man of the house, or so he thought of himself most likely. Dorian sighed inwardly, managing not to roll his eyes as Henry came swooping into the room, tugging Marie away from the immortal invalid so quickly that she nearly dropped the dishes. Marie looked startled, and Percy's eyes flickered from Henry to Dorian, although he gave no other sign of being affected by the dramatic entrance.
"Marie, what are you doing? This man is dangerous..." Henry directed what was probably supposed to be a glare at Dorian. The years, however, had not given him any more threatening an appearance than he had had as his milder self when they had last met. If it had been Hyde glaring at him... but, then, if it had been Hyde glaring at him, Dorian thought Marie would not have been in the room for very much longer.
"Oh, come now, Henry. I'm in bed, I have all the strength of a newborn kitten, what exactly am I supposed to do to your precious charges?" Sarcasm dripped from his every word. A strong start out of the gates, and he could most likely bully Henry into doing roughly what he wanted, despite the circumstances of their last meeting.
But it seemed Henry didn't intimidate as easily as he had, as all the signs in the present had indicated he would. "The same thing you did to the rest of us," Henry said obliquely, without clarifying any further. "Percy, would you and Marie see to the children?"
Marie gave them both strange looks as she was ushered out by her brother. Dorian simply smiled, putting on the most charming face he could muster while looking like a cadaver as he did. Henry watched them both like an overprotective mother hen, and the immortal rolled his eyes at the doctor when brother and sister had gone and closed the door behind them.
"Henry, was that really necessary?" His tone of voice was bored, concealing any startlement he might have felt at the changes made in the last seven years.
The doctor folded his arms. "I don't trust you, Nemo doesn't trust you, Mina doesn't trust you, and Skinner would most likely slit your throat if he knew you were here. Tom certainly doesn't trust you, and his new friend is willing to accept Tom's opinion. Yes, I believe it was necessary. You will remain here only until you are recovered, and then you will leave this house." Henry sighed, becoming more like the mousy little man Dorian remembered. "It's for your own good, Dorian. Really. You're not safe here."
"I'm touched by your concern," Dorian threw back, scornful and really too tired to put up any sort of a fight. Henry shook his head and turned to go, as though all further conversation was useless. It seemed he had only swept in to steal the children away from the old reprobate. Things certainly had changed.
"It's not concern," Henry tossed over his shoulder as he left. "It is pragmatism."
Dorian sighed and leaned back against the pillows, hoping wryly that more soup or at least more conversation with the young brother and sister would be forthcoming. He hadn't really expected a cordial reunion anyway, but he hadn't quite expected the level of hostility and wariness he was getting at least from Henry. Was it simply that the man had too much invested in his new life to want a traitor in it, here and now? Or was there something else going on? And... hadn't Henry mentioned children?
Pragmatism. That wasn't something he would have expected from Henry, not when he had first met the man. What good are you, he had asked him, and had honestly believed that Henry had been of no more use than as the box the murderous Hyde had come in. Jekyll, to all appearances, had believed it too. And yet somehow he had grown a backbone, grown up a little bit, become more practical and perhaps even ruthless than Dorian would ever have given the man credit for. He wondered if similar changes had been wrought in the others, and if so, then what was the cause? Marie and Percy Harker? The mysterious children?
He wanted to look into the matter further, to get up and go exploring. But he was still hungry, still weak from walking so many miles and living on so little for so long. And he was so very tired...
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"Do you really think this is going to help?"
Tom sighed. They had been asking each other the same question roughly every half hour or so for the last five hours. And they had been puttering around in the archives for the last five days, in any case. It was, to be sure, better than being in the house with Henry, Nemo, and Dorian all day long. If things got any more tense around there the house was going to explode. Even the children were picking up on it.
"It can't hurt," he took the box of files from Huck and proceeded to lay them out on the table again, moving the last stack over to the edge of the table where it balanced precariously on the edge.
"I suppose."
They went back to the files. Perusing, taking notes, putting the files away. After five days they had gone through two entire rooms of records of disappearances and dead children, going back ten years. They had depressingly few cases that seemed to match what they were looking for. And being stuck in a room with the memory of hundreds upon hundreds of dead children was starting to get to both the Americans.
Come to think of it, maybe being stuck in a house with Dorian Gray wasn't so bad after all.
"Remind me again why we're avoiding the orphanage?" Huck wanted to know. Tom grimaced... his friend hadn't been there for that particular League battle, and Tom didn't think he'd ever really explained what had happened.
"The last time Dorian was around he tried to bomb us all back into the stone age. With some help... that Fantom character the Secret Service had us running around after..."
Huck's eyes widened. He remembered the Fantom all too well... in fact, he had nearly died at the Fantom's hands. "Dorian was in cahoots with the Fantom?"
Tom nodded. "We all thought he'd died when the horror factory went up, but he turned out to be harder to kill than anyone would have guessed." He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. "For that matter, I guess no one's really sure if the Fantom's dead either."
Huck's eyes narrowed. "You shot him, right?"
"I shot him, yeah. But by the time we got down to the ice there wasn't any sign of the body. Nemo sent divers down as far as he could, but it's possible it just sunk too far for anyone to find."
Huck considered this for a moment, then shivered. "You don't think the Fantom could be behind the abductions, could he?"
Tom's hands froze in the act of reaching for another file, clenching into fists. It was entirely due to the near-death of his oldest friend that he'd run off to England in pursuit of the Fantom, and in direct opposition to his orders. Huck lying in the hospital with no word on his condition for weeks had been bad enough. He didn't want to think about going through it again. "I doubt it..." Tom forced calm into his voice, forced his hands to smooth out over the paper. "Even if he is still alive, he couldn't possibly put together that kind of a scheme so quickly after the last one. If it was just now, yeah, maybe. But not and be connected to what happened with Percy and Marie."
Huck nodded slowly. "Does anyone have any idea what's going on?" he asked as he pulled out a file from the stack just underneath Tom's hand, flipping through it till he found the incident report he wanted.
"The only people who were in any kind of position to know what was going on last time are Percy and Marie, and I don't think anyone's up to trying to get them to talk just yet. The others were really going in blind last time... they had reports that children were being abducted and taken into the sewers, and a map that one six year old kid had drawn, and that was about it. No one wanted to let it go on any more than they had to, so they got the okay to go in sooner..."
"Sooner than was probably wise," Huck nodded. "Damn. We could have done so much more if..." he sighed. "You think Percy will be able to talk anytime soon?"
Tom shook his head. "Kid isn't talking. About any of it. It's as if the years before he got picked up by Mina and Nemo just didn't exist for him. And no one wants to ask Marie about anything, not when she panics if she has to go more than two feet off the front step."
Huck's eyes widened. "That bad?"
"That bad."
He whistled, shaking his head and going back to the papers in front of him. "Damn, but I'd like to get my hands on the bastard... Who does that? To kids?"
"I don't know... I'm not sure I really want to know, Huck. If I knew... But at least Mina will be coming in today with her results. Maybe she's found out something we don't know yet. Something that can help us."
"She better..." Huck stared gloomily at the papers spread out all over the desk, all over the spare chairs in the office. "We're certainly not getting anywhere with this stuff. And this is just one city."
"And they're grabbing kids from all over the continent... and in the States."
Huck nodded gloomily. "We're going to have our hands full with this one."
There wasn't much Tom could say to that. For the rest of the day the only sound in the small room was the shuffling of papers and the scratching of pen on paper.
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"You don't understand..." Henry's voice was agitated, his feet ringing out against the cobblestone street as he walked faster, out of consternation rather than urgency. "I can't do this again. Not now, not when it's been so long since..."
"Henry, you may well be the one person we can count on to be able to see and hear down there in the darkness, if we should have to go into the sewers. You can see and hear things others can't... we don't have anyone else with your talents." Mina's voice was sharper than usual, and she spoke more rapidly as she struggled to keep up with the agitated man. Beside her the unnamed female companion walked easily with them.
"Mina... I'm sorry. But I ..." they were drawing the attention of passers-by. Henry lowered his voice. "I haven't taken the serum in over six months. If I allow him to roam free now, he might very well overtake me... do horrible things, horrible..."
"I know the risks, Henry, but are you really so selfish that you would keep yourself out of danger's way and jeopardize our chances of solving this case?"
Henry stopped in his tracks, staring at her with a look of shock and sudden hatred that would not have been out of place on his alter ego. "That was unfair, Mina," he said quietly.
"You are not the only one with a beast inside, Henry," she retorted, walking on. "You are not the only one with problems to deal with relating to our unique talents. We all have demons to fight."
Henry winced. "Speaking of demons. We've had... a visitor."
"Oh?" She seemed to welcome the change in subject.
"Dorian."
It was Mina's turn to stop in her tracks, and her friend laid a quiet hand on the other woman's arm, as though for comfort. No surprise, since Mina had turned stark white. "You can't be serious... Henry, I saw him die! I saw him crumble to ash..."
"You yourself said that it was entirely possible he couldn't die," Henry shrugged, not unsympathetic to his friend's discomfiture but still aware of taking a perverse pleasure in turning the tables. "His portrait still remains... hanging in your cabin aboard the Nautilus, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps as long as his portrait remains intact he can only be ... temporarily stopped, not killed entirely."
Mina walked along beside Henry in silence until his home was almost in sight, not saying anything further. Her lady friend had slipped an arm through hers, walking almost protectively with Mina. Henry gave them a couple of curious glances, not entirely sure if they should be speaking of their uniquenesses in front of a stranger.
"Well, you don't have to see him right now, Mina..." Henry tried to be reassuring as he opened the door for the women. "Welcome to my humble home, Miss.."
"Orlando." The woman swept in after Mina, through the gate and inner door, and shook Henry's hand in what he thought bemusedly was a very masculine grip. "And you are Henry Jekyll..."
"I have no secrets from Orlando," Mina said, turning as though to challenge Henry on her having told the young Orlando about their abilities.
"But I might, Mina," he said gently, holding up his hands as though to ward off any unpleasantness.
"Mina hasn't told me about any of you, if that's what you're thinking." Orlando turned and looked at Henry with a disturbingly direct gaze. "But she has warned me that you are unusual, to say the least. Well, I myself am also unusual. I can assure you that I have seen and heard enough that nothing you can say or do will shock me." Some sort of look seemed to pass between her and Mina.
"Considering that the first time I met her she was Lord Orlando, I should say not," Mina murmured.
Henry gaped.
Fortunately the moment was interrupted by a commotion in the playroom. Henry murmured his excuses and left to the sound of Mina explaining the functions of the building as home and orphanage to Orlando, who still sounded like a woman to Henry. Although the revelation Mina had so abruptly dropped onto him would explain Orlando's assertive attitude, he didn't understand how a man could change into a woman so abruptly and completely.
Then again, Henry thought wryly as Hyde scowled at him from the mirrors, he wasn't exactly comprehensible to the average English gentleman either.
He walked on. The commotion seemed to have subsided, which meant Marie had been closer than he had. She had probably gotten to the children first, whatever they had been doing. All to the good, then; she had a more subtle touch with the children than he could ever hope to achieve.
"Now, apologize to her... properly, mind you!"
Henry walked into the play room to see Marie holding two children, a boy and a girl, each by the scruff of the shirt. The girl had a scratch on her face but did not appear to be otherwise harmed, and was glaring at the boy so ferociously that he could see why Marie was keeping them apart. The other boy was actually crying with fury, unloading ineffective blows into the air with tiny fists. They couldn't have been more than six years old.
"I shan't!" said the boy, whereupon the girl lunged at him again and tried to kick the boy in the shins.
"Apologize!" Marie said more sternly, and clamped her fingers deep into their shirts. "And Lily, that is not proper behavior for a young lady."
She had gathered a crowd of amazed young children, and Henry stood in the doorway, watching, smiling. After several minutes of negotiating, each child at arm's length, Marie had managed to achieve a truce, and boy and girl shook hands solemnly. It was at this moment that Henry stepped into the room, and Marie moved over to stand by him as soon as she could withdraw from the attention of the children.
"Well, that was a bit of excitement." He smiled, hugging her gently to him with an arm about her shoulders.
"No more so than any other day," she chuckled. "Hopefully the only excitement for the day, although I predict at least two more temper tantrums, and perhaps another fight."
"About average, I would say," he judged. Marie chuckled.
"Yes, Henry."
Henry stood there for as long as he could without drawing the attention of a child, or a League member. It was this, he thought with a tired yet contented sigh, that the entire past ten years had been for. Reconciliation, atonement, redemption... it had all been for this. A home life, Marie's well-being, children... a motley collection of the abandoned and the outcaste, come together in a skewed but comfortable semblance of a family. And so many months without Hyde. Somehow he had managed to achieve so many months without the serum, without succumbing to the beast within, without falling into convulsions and hysterics because of the inner demon leaping out of the mirror and trying to escape or kill him. He almost couldn't believe it had all come true.
He kissed the top of Marie's head and turned to go, ignoring the strange look she gave him at the unusual (for him) display of affection. In the mirror, Hyde was whispering to him again.
"You truly are a coward," the beast sneered. "You have your perfect life, and yet the moment it's threatened you cannot even submit yourself to my better judgment."
"You have no judgment," Henry murmured. "You are nothing but an animal."
"So you keep saying, and so you think, but I can protect your precious children, your darling Marie. I can protect them ever so much better than you can, which shames you. You won't even admit it to yourself."
"You would protect them and then turn around and kill them!"
"That's also as may be. But we'll never know, since the animals that took your precious girl will take her again when your back is turned, along with all of your children."
Henry stopped in his tracks, forcing himself to find something to do, to look busy, anything to keep the children from seeing him talking to his own reflection and scaring the wits out of them. "What do you mean?" he whispered.
"Do you really think that once these creatures have enough power in their hands to abduct children out of broad daylight, that they're not going to come after you, your children, and your precious Marie? You stole property from them, you took what was theirs. They are going to want to take it back."
Henry stared at his brutish other half in horror. The thought hadn't even occurred to him. "You can't be serious."
"Oh, but I am, Henry." Hyde smirked. "And now you will have to let me out, to save your precious Marie."
"Shut up..." Henry hissed. "Just... shut up."
He walked back to Mina and her friend and stood in the doorway, watching them. Falling back into old habits, Henry? He asked himself. In his own voice, thankfully, and not in Edward's The two women were talking together, smiling; they did indeed appear to be old friends. Henry felt left out and alone, a sensation he hadn't felt in his own home in years. The happiness he had found with Marie and the children only a few minutes ago now seemed so much further with Hyde's comments, and the feeling Henry had that told him the words were true.
He didn't want to go, didn't want to leave them. But he was being forced to admit that it was possible he couldn't afford to stay, either.
Henry took a deep breath and walked into to the room, making his footsteps loud enough that the two women would hear. With as much dignity as he could muster he clasped his hands behind his back, straightening up and trying not to pay attention to the feeling of chortling behind the back of his mind.
"I'm in."
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It was a near-idyllic scene that evening, as twilight dimmed the gardens and cast a damper on the play that had been going on. Tom, Huck, Marie, and Percy were overseeing a game of tag through the grounds that had somehow spread to encompass even the small section in which the others were seated. Mina, Henry, and her new friend Orlando all took it in stride and with good grace. Nemo remained as impassive as ever.
"Are you a priest?" one child had been overheard to ask. She was new to the orphanage.
"He looks like that all the time," a young boy had pertly interjected before Nemo could formulate a reply. "He thinks heavy thoughts, and it weighs down his mouth so he can't smile."
Nemo had surprised both children with the barest hint of a grin, exaggerated just enough to be seen through the beard. It smacked of something Marie might have told them, fanciful and yet oddly true. A voice beside his ear said as much.
"She's right, you know. You should stop being so grave all the time. It'll put you in one."
"Skinner," the Captain said calmly without moving his lips at all. "Go put some clothes on."
"Yes Captain, my Captain," he quipped, and then there was the sound of retreating footsteps. Henry glanced over at the door as it swung open and then shut, glanced at the children to see if they had noticed anything unusual. If they had, they didn't seem worried about it.
"I do wish he'd be more careful," Henry worried. "He'll scare the children one of these days if he's not careful..."
Tom skidded to a halt and nearly fell over the table, managing somehow to evade the attentions of the children for a few fractions of a second. "Don't worry so much, Henry. Skinner knows how to handle himself. Besides, they won't be concerned if you and Marie aren't. Kids have more important things to do than worry about voices out of thin air that aren't telling them they shouldn't have done that." He grinned. "Trust me, I know."
Henry watched the younger man as he was tagged by a boy and dragged back into the thick of things, nodding once to show that he had heard, even if he didn't entirely understand. Perhaps Tom was right... it certainly seemed as if the children were concerned with nothing but what Henry and Marie indicated was to be of concern... and, of course, their own amusement. Nemo glanced over at Henry and nodded obscurely, as if to confirm Henry's thoughts. The doctor frowned, and Skinner walked out again in black clothing and white grease paint, glasses over the disturbingly empty eye sockets.
"Better, oh Captain?" His voice was teasing rather than
"Of course."
"Mr. Skinner!"
The now-visible man was promptly tagged by several children, all of whom immediately began searching his pockets. It seemed to end the games, which had Tom and Huck collapsing on the grass and breathing heavily, bemoaning that perhaps they were getting too old to play with so many children.
"Mr. Skinner!"
"Do you have any candies?"
"Any chocolates?"
"Please?"
Henry had to chuckle. Skinner had immediately become the favorite not two days after bringing all the children to the orphanage, solely by virtue of the fact that he stuffed his coat pockets full of sweets whenever he visited. And then, somehow, after he left the entire house was usually filled with sweets hidden in strange places, although no one had seen him skulk around the building no matter how hard the children tried. Henry had tried to get him to stop, citing health problems as an excuse that even he knew was weak, but he suspected Marie was secretly encouraging the thief.
Skinner doled out the treats. "All right, all right, there's room for everyone, don't push." He handed them out individually and in large clumps that he tossed into the air, sending children scrambling all over the grass. "One for you and one for you and some for everyone!"
Percy, having dumped the last armful of toys into the bin just by the door, went and stood by Nemo's chair. Marie went to help Skinner distribute the libations.
"You're going to spoil them," Henry called over to the two. Marie stuck her tongue out at him, and Skinner did something bizarre that Henry suspected was supposed to be the same gesture... except his tongue was, of course, invisible. He shook his head, bemused.
"Oh, give it a rest, Henry, will you?" the invisible man smirked. "We'll all be out of your hair in a few days anyway."
Henry sighed, admitting defeat for the evening. Besides, he could see Hyde's reflection in the glass of the table, and that was much more interesting for the moment. The bestial man's expression was not one that Henry saw on his counterpart very often: an expression of quiet and deep contemplation. Although Edward Hyde was really a part of himself, there were times when Henry wished he could have heard the other man's thoughts, or somehow knew what he was thinking. Now, terrible as it seemed, was one of those times.
The sun finally descended over the horizon, putting an end to reflections and gloomy thoughts. "Everyone inside!" he heard Marie call, and something about bedtime. The children were herded in with fewer than their usual complaints. Most likely it was due to the candy.
"Henry?" Nemo's hand came down on his shoulder abruptly, making the doctor jump. "Will you be joining us?"
"In a little while..." Henry sighed. "I'll be in shortly."
Also, as someone noted, Percy and Marie are not, in fact, bizarre attempts at Mary Sues. They are bizarre attempts at author inclusions. I refer you to the movie 'Gothic', or any other retellings of that famous story that you can think of.
And now, on with the show!
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When Dorian opened his eyes at first, it almost seemed as though he was back in his own home. Which couldn't be, of course, his home had been seized by his creditors years ago when he had supposedly 'died' and had been unable to reassert his status as among the living. As he slowly awoke and his eyes focused again he realized it couldn't be the case. This room was slightly shabbier, for one thing, although someone had taken pains to be sure it was just as well appointed as any he might find in a house he would like to have owned. The furniture, draperies, and other articles all showed signs of previous use, but the room was no less tasteful or decorous for all that. High fashion on a budget, Dorian thought with a wry smirk.
He sat up gingerly, mindful of the fact that although he was immortal he was still subject to dizziness, nausea, and the other side effects of starvation and thirst. Damnable situation, really. It brought him in mind of what had happened years ago, in Mongolia, and he shuddered. Pulling himself back from the dead, even as he died repeatedly in the attempt, was going to haunt him for the rest of his miserably long life.
There was something on the table next to him... a tray. With food. Dorian blinked. It all came back to him... London, the large home, the still-tremulous Dr. Jekyll, the girl, being carried upstairs and gingerly placed into a bed. At least they were feeding him; the soup was still hot. Someone had taken in his gaunt frame and, most important, had at least some inkling of an idea of what to feed a starving man. He barely stopped himself from devouring the whole bowl in time.
"Oh!" the young woman who had greeted him at the door... greeted his semi-conscious body, anyway... now came out from just beyond his vision, behind the curtain. "You're awake..."
"Hello..." he said, before she darted out the door and left him staring after her, bemused and blinking. Dorian shrugged and turned his attention back to the soup.
"Well, your appetite doesn't seem to have been affected by your privations," a voice came from the doorway a few minutes later.
Dorian looked up, taking in the young man who stood at attention in the doorway. His hands were clasped behind his back, his legs spread slightly, his back straight. And he was dressed in what Dorian thought he remembered as the uniform of one of Nemo's soldiers. That made two of the old crowd here, or at least present in the city. And of them both, at least one of them was likely to still carry a grudge and have the willingness to do something about it for what Dorian had done... back in the day. Damn.
"Good evening," Dorian said politely, wondering what sort of situation he had fallen into this time. The young woman he had seen earlier appeared behind the sailor boy, half-hiding, half peeking out curiously.
"Good afternoon," the young man corrected with a slight but kind enough smile. "You have slept through the evening and well into the next day." He stepped further into the room, and the young woman (who was older than the sailor, Dorian now noticed as he saw both of them in a better light) moved out from behind him to draw the curtains. Dorian squinted in the sudden light.
"Ah..."
"You must have been exhausted from your ordeal," the sailor continued, a polite invitation for Dorian to say where he had been and what he was doing there. The boy must not have been told about him. "You weren't much but skin and bones when you collapsed on Marie last night."
"Marie...?" the youthful-looking man glanced over at the young woman, who swept a polite curtsey.
"At your service, sir," she murmured. Her shyness was almost endearing, or would have been if it didn't reek of slavery. Dorian had seen enough women beaten into subservience to recognize one when she bowed and scraped the earth before him. Once upon a time he might even have indulged in certain appetites with the opportunities presented to him by such an attitude. He might yet again. But for now he was too exhausted, and too aware of who exactly his hosts were to presume upon their hospitality.
"And you are?" he asked, glancing over at the sailor.
"Percy Harker, at your service." The young man bowed. Dorian suppressed a start at the name.
"Harker... Do you by chance know a Wilhemina Harker..."
"She is our adopted mother, yes." There was a world of meaning underneath that tone, encompassing pride, adoration, respect, gratitude, and an unspoken threat against Dorian should anything happen to the woman. This time the immortal couldn't resist a small smirk, though he hid it well behind another spoonful of soup. Clearly no one had told these two about his previous association with the League... perhaps they hadn't had time?
"And is this her house...?" It would explain the greeting, anyway, and the relatively good treatment with which he had been received, considering his departure from the League.
Memories surfaced, regarding a dagger and a quip about beds, and a fight with swords and teeth. Then again, perhaps her welcome would be more warm than he would like. The status of the children didn't explain anything, after all.
"This is the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll." That from the reticent Marie ... Harker, Dorian supposed, since young Percy had said our mother.
"Really." He drawled the word, spinning out his response, thinking. Interesting.
"Yes..." Percy's tone was a little sharper than it might have been, his eyes narrowed slightly. He hadn't missed Dorian's surprise or reconsideration of the circumstances. Which meant that Dorian would have to watch him a little more carefully. The young man was a good deal sharper than he looked, and might have had the wit to keep any knowledge he had about Dorian a secret. His sister, at least, seemed too quiet and timid to worry about. "Is there something wrong?"
He decided to temporize with part of the truth. "Actually, I hadn't expected Henry to do much more than turn me out again with a loaf of bread and a blanket," Dorian shrugged. "Our last parting was on less than friendly terms, and I was under the impression that he wouldn't be pleased to see me again." Less than friendly terms was an understatement, but he didn't really have any desire to be kicked out with a loaf of bread and a blanket.
"Then why did you come here?" Marie asked in her soft voice. Something in her voice caused Dorian to look more carefully at her. Perhaps she did know, too.
"I didn't have much of a choice. I knew no one else in the city."
Percy shrugged slightly. "Understandable, I suppose. And..." he exchanged a glance with his sister, "There is no reason why you should not be housed here until you are recovered enough to move on, and have a place to move on to."
Dorian suppressed the urge to sneer. Their tone was authoritative enough that it was probably evidence of who exactly was more in control of the arrangements in the house, and it wasn't the inimitable Dr. Henry Jekyll. Even after seven years, the man would allow himself to be bullied by a submissive girl and a sailor boy. How pathetic. How utterly like him.
"We have spare rooms, as you can see," Marie interrupted his thoughts, collecting the dishes as she spoke. "And our resources are not so meager that they cannot stretch to accommodate one more..."
"Marie!"
Ah. There was the man of the house, or so he thought of himself most likely. Dorian sighed inwardly, managing not to roll his eyes as Henry came swooping into the room, tugging Marie away from the immortal invalid so quickly that she nearly dropped the dishes. Marie looked startled, and Percy's eyes flickered from Henry to Dorian, although he gave no other sign of being affected by the dramatic entrance.
"Marie, what are you doing? This man is dangerous..." Henry directed what was probably supposed to be a glare at Dorian. The years, however, had not given him any more threatening an appearance than he had had as his milder self when they had last met. If it had been Hyde glaring at him... but, then, if it had been Hyde glaring at him, Dorian thought Marie would not have been in the room for very much longer.
"Oh, come now, Henry. I'm in bed, I have all the strength of a newborn kitten, what exactly am I supposed to do to your precious charges?" Sarcasm dripped from his every word. A strong start out of the gates, and he could most likely bully Henry into doing roughly what he wanted, despite the circumstances of their last meeting.
But it seemed Henry didn't intimidate as easily as he had, as all the signs in the present had indicated he would. "The same thing you did to the rest of us," Henry said obliquely, without clarifying any further. "Percy, would you and Marie see to the children?"
Marie gave them both strange looks as she was ushered out by her brother. Dorian simply smiled, putting on the most charming face he could muster while looking like a cadaver as he did. Henry watched them both like an overprotective mother hen, and the immortal rolled his eyes at the doctor when brother and sister had gone and closed the door behind them.
"Henry, was that really necessary?" His tone of voice was bored, concealing any startlement he might have felt at the changes made in the last seven years.
The doctor folded his arms. "I don't trust you, Nemo doesn't trust you, Mina doesn't trust you, and Skinner would most likely slit your throat if he knew you were here. Tom certainly doesn't trust you, and his new friend is willing to accept Tom's opinion. Yes, I believe it was necessary. You will remain here only until you are recovered, and then you will leave this house." Henry sighed, becoming more like the mousy little man Dorian remembered. "It's for your own good, Dorian. Really. You're not safe here."
"I'm touched by your concern," Dorian threw back, scornful and really too tired to put up any sort of a fight. Henry shook his head and turned to go, as though all further conversation was useless. It seemed he had only swept in to steal the children away from the old reprobate. Things certainly had changed.
"It's not concern," Henry tossed over his shoulder as he left. "It is pragmatism."
Dorian sighed and leaned back against the pillows, hoping wryly that more soup or at least more conversation with the young brother and sister would be forthcoming. He hadn't really expected a cordial reunion anyway, but he hadn't quite expected the level of hostility and wariness he was getting at least from Henry. Was it simply that the man had too much invested in his new life to want a traitor in it, here and now? Or was there something else going on? And... hadn't Henry mentioned children?
Pragmatism. That wasn't something he would have expected from Henry, not when he had first met the man. What good are you, he had asked him, and had honestly believed that Henry had been of no more use than as the box the murderous Hyde had come in. Jekyll, to all appearances, had believed it too. And yet somehow he had grown a backbone, grown up a little bit, become more practical and perhaps even ruthless than Dorian would ever have given the man credit for. He wondered if similar changes had been wrought in the others, and if so, then what was the cause? Marie and Percy Harker? The mysterious children?
He wanted to look into the matter further, to get up and go exploring. But he was still hungry, still weak from walking so many miles and living on so little for so long. And he was so very tired...
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"Do you really think this is going to help?"
Tom sighed. They had been asking each other the same question roughly every half hour or so for the last five hours. And they had been puttering around in the archives for the last five days, in any case. It was, to be sure, better than being in the house with Henry, Nemo, and Dorian all day long. If things got any more tense around there the house was going to explode. Even the children were picking up on it.
"It can't hurt," he took the box of files from Huck and proceeded to lay them out on the table again, moving the last stack over to the edge of the table where it balanced precariously on the edge.
"I suppose."
They went back to the files. Perusing, taking notes, putting the files away. After five days they had gone through two entire rooms of records of disappearances and dead children, going back ten years. They had depressingly few cases that seemed to match what they were looking for. And being stuck in a room with the memory of hundreds upon hundreds of dead children was starting to get to both the Americans.
Come to think of it, maybe being stuck in a house with Dorian Gray wasn't so bad after all.
"Remind me again why we're avoiding the orphanage?" Huck wanted to know. Tom grimaced... his friend hadn't been there for that particular League battle, and Tom didn't think he'd ever really explained what had happened.
"The last time Dorian was around he tried to bomb us all back into the stone age. With some help... that Fantom character the Secret Service had us running around after..."
Huck's eyes widened. He remembered the Fantom all too well... in fact, he had nearly died at the Fantom's hands. "Dorian was in cahoots with the Fantom?"
Tom nodded. "We all thought he'd died when the horror factory went up, but he turned out to be harder to kill than anyone would have guessed." He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing. "For that matter, I guess no one's really sure if the Fantom's dead either."
Huck's eyes narrowed. "You shot him, right?"
"I shot him, yeah. But by the time we got down to the ice there wasn't any sign of the body. Nemo sent divers down as far as he could, but it's possible it just sunk too far for anyone to find."
Huck considered this for a moment, then shivered. "You don't think the Fantom could be behind the abductions, could he?"
Tom's hands froze in the act of reaching for another file, clenching into fists. It was entirely due to the near-death of his oldest friend that he'd run off to England in pursuit of the Fantom, and in direct opposition to his orders. Huck lying in the hospital with no word on his condition for weeks had been bad enough. He didn't want to think about going through it again. "I doubt it..." Tom forced calm into his voice, forced his hands to smooth out over the paper. "Even if he is still alive, he couldn't possibly put together that kind of a scheme so quickly after the last one. If it was just now, yeah, maybe. But not and be connected to what happened with Percy and Marie."
Huck nodded slowly. "Does anyone have any idea what's going on?" he asked as he pulled out a file from the stack just underneath Tom's hand, flipping through it till he found the incident report he wanted.
"The only people who were in any kind of position to know what was going on last time are Percy and Marie, and I don't think anyone's up to trying to get them to talk just yet. The others were really going in blind last time... they had reports that children were being abducted and taken into the sewers, and a map that one six year old kid had drawn, and that was about it. No one wanted to let it go on any more than they had to, so they got the okay to go in sooner..."
"Sooner than was probably wise," Huck nodded. "Damn. We could have done so much more if..." he sighed. "You think Percy will be able to talk anytime soon?"
Tom shook his head. "Kid isn't talking. About any of it. It's as if the years before he got picked up by Mina and Nemo just didn't exist for him. And no one wants to ask Marie about anything, not when she panics if she has to go more than two feet off the front step."
Huck's eyes widened. "That bad?"
"That bad."
He whistled, shaking his head and going back to the papers in front of him. "Damn, but I'd like to get my hands on the bastard... Who does that? To kids?"
"I don't know... I'm not sure I really want to know, Huck. If I knew... But at least Mina will be coming in today with her results. Maybe she's found out something we don't know yet. Something that can help us."
"She better..." Huck stared gloomily at the papers spread out all over the desk, all over the spare chairs in the office. "We're certainly not getting anywhere with this stuff. And this is just one city."
"And they're grabbing kids from all over the continent... and in the States."
Huck nodded gloomily. "We're going to have our hands full with this one."
There wasn't much Tom could say to that. For the rest of the day the only sound in the small room was the shuffling of papers and the scratching of pen on paper.
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"You don't understand..." Henry's voice was agitated, his feet ringing out against the cobblestone street as he walked faster, out of consternation rather than urgency. "I can't do this again. Not now, not when it's been so long since..."
"Henry, you may well be the one person we can count on to be able to see and hear down there in the darkness, if we should have to go into the sewers. You can see and hear things others can't... we don't have anyone else with your talents." Mina's voice was sharper than usual, and she spoke more rapidly as she struggled to keep up with the agitated man. Beside her the unnamed female companion walked easily with them.
"Mina... I'm sorry. But I ..." they were drawing the attention of passers-by. Henry lowered his voice. "I haven't taken the serum in over six months. If I allow him to roam free now, he might very well overtake me... do horrible things, horrible..."
"I know the risks, Henry, but are you really so selfish that you would keep yourself out of danger's way and jeopardize our chances of solving this case?"
Henry stopped in his tracks, staring at her with a look of shock and sudden hatred that would not have been out of place on his alter ego. "That was unfair, Mina," he said quietly.
"You are not the only one with a beast inside, Henry," she retorted, walking on. "You are not the only one with problems to deal with relating to our unique talents. We all have demons to fight."
Henry winced. "Speaking of demons. We've had... a visitor."
"Oh?" She seemed to welcome the change in subject.
"Dorian."
It was Mina's turn to stop in her tracks, and her friend laid a quiet hand on the other woman's arm, as though for comfort. No surprise, since Mina had turned stark white. "You can't be serious... Henry, I saw him die! I saw him crumble to ash..."
"You yourself said that it was entirely possible he couldn't die," Henry shrugged, not unsympathetic to his friend's discomfiture but still aware of taking a perverse pleasure in turning the tables. "His portrait still remains... hanging in your cabin aboard the Nautilus, if I'm not mistaken. Perhaps as long as his portrait remains intact he can only be ... temporarily stopped, not killed entirely."
Mina walked along beside Henry in silence until his home was almost in sight, not saying anything further. Her lady friend had slipped an arm through hers, walking almost protectively with Mina. Henry gave them a couple of curious glances, not entirely sure if they should be speaking of their uniquenesses in front of a stranger.
"Well, you don't have to see him right now, Mina..." Henry tried to be reassuring as he opened the door for the women. "Welcome to my humble home, Miss.."
"Orlando." The woman swept in after Mina, through the gate and inner door, and shook Henry's hand in what he thought bemusedly was a very masculine grip. "And you are Henry Jekyll..."
"I have no secrets from Orlando," Mina said, turning as though to challenge Henry on her having told the young Orlando about their abilities.
"But I might, Mina," he said gently, holding up his hands as though to ward off any unpleasantness.
"Mina hasn't told me about any of you, if that's what you're thinking." Orlando turned and looked at Henry with a disturbingly direct gaze. "But she has warned me that you are unusual, to say the least. Well, I myself am also unusual. I can assure you that I have seen and heard enough that nothing you can say or do will shock me." Some sort of look seemed to pass between her and Mina.
"Considering that the first time I met her she was Lord Orlando, I should say not," Mina murmured.
Henry gaped.
Fortunately the moment was interrupted by a commotion in the playroom. Henry murmured his excuses and left to the sound of Mina explaining the functions of the building as home and orphanage to Orlando, who still sounded like a woman to Henry. Although the revelation Mina had so abruptly dropped onto him would explain Orlando's assertive attitude, he didn't understand how a man could change into a woman so abruptly and completely.
Then again, Henry thought wryly as Hyde scowled at him from the mirrors, he wasn't exactly comprehensible to the average English gentleman either.
He walked on. The commotion seemed to have subsided, which meant Marie had been closer than he had. She had probably gotten to the children first, whatever they had been doing. All to the good, then; she had a more subtle touch with the children than he could ever hope to achieve.
"Now, apologize to her... properly, mind you!"
Henry walked into the play room to see Marie holding two children, a boy and a girl, each by the scruff of the shirt. The girl had a scratch on her face but did not appear to be otherwise harmed, and was glaring at the boy so ferociously that he could see why Marie was keeping them apart. The other boy was actually crying with fury, unloading ineffective blows into the air with tiny fists. They couldn't have been more than six years old.
"I shan't!" said the boy, whereupon the girl lunged at him again and tried to kick the boy in the shins.
"Apologize!" Marie said more sternly, and clamped her fingers deep into their shirts. "And Lily, that is not proper behavior for a young lady."
She had gathered a crowd of amazed young children, and Henry stood in the doorway, watching, smiling. After several minutes of negotiating, each child at arm's length, Marie had managed to achieve a truce, and boy and girl shook hands solemnly. It was at this moment that Henry stepped into the room, and Marie moved over to stand by him as soon as she could withdraw from the attention of the children.
"Well, that was a bit of excitement." He smiled, hugging her gently to him with an arm about her shoulders.
"No more so than any other day," she chuckled. "Hopefully the only excitement for the day, although I predict at least two more temper tantrums, and perhaps another fight."
"About average, I would say," he judged. Marie chuckled.
"Yes, Henry."
Henry stood there for as long as he could without drawing the attention of a child, or a League member. It was this, he thought with a tired yet contented sigh, that the entire past ten years had been for. Reconciliation, atonement, redemption... it had all been for this. A home life, Marie's well-being, children... a motley collection of the abandoned and the outcaste, come together in a skewed but comfortable semblance of a family. And so many months without Hyde. Somehow he had managed to achieve so many months without the serum, without succumbing to the beast within, without falling into convulsions and hysterics because of the inner demon leaping out of the mirror and trying to escape or kill him. He almost couldn't believe it had all come true.
He kissed the top of Marie's head and turned to go, ignoring the strange look she gave him at the unusual (for him) display of affection. In the mirror, Hyde was whispering to him again.
"You truly are a coward," the beast sneered. "You have your perfect life, and yet the moment it's threatened you cannot even submit yourself to my better judgment."
"You have no judgment," Henry murmured. "You are nothing but an animal."
"So you keep saying, and so you think, but I can protect your precious children, your darling Marie. I can protect them ever so much better than you can, which shames you. You won't even admit it to yourself."
"You would protect them and then turn around and kill them!"
"That's also as may be. But we'll never know, since the animals that took your precious girl will take her again when your back is turned, along with all of your children."
Henry stopped in his tracks, forcing himself to find something to do, to look busy, anything to keep the children from seeing him talking to his own reflection and scaring the wits out of them. "What do you mean?" he whispered.
"Do you really think that once these creatures have enough power in their hands to abduct children out of broad daylight, that they're not going to come after you, your children, and your precious Marie? You stole property from them, you took what was theirs. They are going to want to take it back."
Henry stared at his brutish other half in horror. The thought hadn't even occurred to him. "You can't be serious."
"Oh, but I am, Henry." Hyde smirked. "And now you will have to let me out, to save your precious Marie."
"Shut up..." Henry hissed. "Just... shut up."
He walked back to Mina and her friend and stood in the doorway, watching them. Falling back into old habits, Henry? He asked himself. In his own voice, thankfully, and not in Edward's The two women were talking together, smiling; they did indeed appear to be old friends. Henry felt left out and alone, a sensation he hadn't felt in his own home in years. The happiness he had found with Marie and the children only a few minutes ago now seemed so much further with Hyde's comments, and the feeling Henry had that told him the words were true.
He didn't want to go, didn't want to leave them. But he was being forced to admit that it was possible he couldn't afford to stay, either.
Henry took a deep breath and walked into to the room, making his footsteps loud enough that the two women would hear. With as much dignity as he could muster he clasped his hands behind his back, straightening up and trying not to pay attention to the feeling of chortling behind the back of his mind.
"I'm in."
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It was a near-idyllic scene that evening, as twilight dimmed the gardens and cast a damper on the play that had been going on. Tom, Huck, Marie, and Percy were overseeing a game of tag through the grounds that had somehow spread to encompass even the small section in which the others were seated. Mina, Henry, and her new friend Orlando all took it in stride and with good grace. Nemo remained as impassive as ever.
"Are you a priest?" one child had been overheard to ask. She was new to the orphanage.
"He looks like that all the time," a young boy had pertly interjected before Nemo could formulate a reply. "He thinks heavy thoughts, and it weighs down his mouth so he can't smile."
Nemo had surprised both children with the barest hint of a grin, exaggerated just enough to be seen through the beard. It smacked of something Marie might have told them, fanciful and yet oddly true. A voice beside his ear said as much.
"She's right, you know. You should stop being so grave all the time. It'll put you in one."
"Skinner," the Captain said calmly without moving his lips at all. "Go put some clothes on."
"Yes Captain, my Captain," he quipped, and then there was the sound of retreating footsteps. Henry glanced over at the door as it swung open and then shut, glanced at the children to see if they had noticed anything unusual. If they had, they didn't seem worried about it.
"I do wish he'd be more careful," Henry worried. "He'll scare the children one of these days if he's not careful..."
Tom skidded to a halt and nearly fell over the table, managing somehow to evade the attentions of the children for a few fractions of a second. "Don't worry so much, Henry. Skinner knows how to handle himself. Besides, they won't be concerned if you and Marie aren't. Kids have more important things to do than worry about voices out of thin air that aren't telling them they shouldn't have done that." He grinned. "Trust me, I know."
Henry watched the younger man as he was tagged by a boy and dragged back into the thick of things, nodding once to show that he had heard, even if he didn't entirely understand. Perhaps Tom was right... it certainly seemed as if the children were concerned with nothing but what Henry and Marie indicated was to be of concern... and, of course, their own amusement. Nemo glanced over at Henry and nodded obscurely, as if to confirm Henry's thoughts. The doctor frowned, and Skinner walked out again in black clothing and white grease paint, glasses over the disturbingly empty eye sockets.
"Better, oh Captain?" His voice was teasing rather than
"Of course."
"Mr. Skinner!"
The now-visible man was promptly tagged by several children, all of whom immediately began searching his pockets. It seemed to end the games, which had Tom and Huck collapsing on the grass and breathing heavily, bemoaning that perhaps they were getting too old to play with so many children.
"Mr. Skinner!"
"Do you have any candies?"
"Any chocolates?"
"Please?"
Henry had to chuckle. Skinner had immediately become the favorite not two days after bringing all the children to the orphanage, solely by virtue of the fact that he stuffed his coat pockets full of sweets whenever he visited. And then, somehow, after he left the entire house was usually filled with sweets hidden in strange places, although no one had seen him skulk around the building no matter how hard the children tried. Henry had tried to get him to stop, citing health problems as an excuse that even he knew was weak, but he suspected Marie was secretly encouraging the thief.
Skinner doled out the treats. "All right, all right, there's room for everyone, don't push." He handed them out individually and in large clumps that he tossed into the air, sending children scrambling all over the grass. "One for you and one for you and some for everyone!"
Percy, having dumped the last armful of toys into the bin just by the door, went and stood by Nemo's chair. Marie went to help Skinner distribute the libations.
"You're going to spoil them," Henry called over to the two. Marie stuck her tongue out at him, and Skinner did something bizarre that Henry suspected was supposed to be the same gesture... except his tongue was, of course, invisible. He shook his head, bemused.
"Oh, give it a rest, Henry, will you?" the invisible man smirked. "We'll all be out of your hair in a few days anyway."
Henry sighed, admitting defeat for the evening. Besides, he could see Hyde's reflection in the glass of the table, and that was much more interesting for the moment. The bestial man's expression was not one that Henry saw on his counterpart very often: an expression of quiet and deep contemplation. Although Edward Hyde was really a part of himself, there were times when Henry wished he could have heard the other man's thoughts, or somehow knew what he was thinking. Now, terrible as it seemed, was one of those times.
The sun finally descended over the horizon, putting an end to reflections and gloomy thoughts. "Everyone inside!" he heard Marie call, and something about bedtime. The children were herded in with fewer than their usual complaints. Most likely it was due to the candy.
"Henry?" Nemo's hand came down on his shoulder abruptly, making the doctor jump. "Will you be joining us?"
"In a little while..." Henry sighed. "I'll be in shortly."