Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, they own me. Special thanks to Toby Whithouse and BBC3 for the playground. Beta assistance from TJ4ev and Whimsyfox enables (most of) my grammar to pass muster for Hal.
This penultimate chapter goes quite heavy handed into the supernatural. Hopefully it's still in a Being Human sort of way. Reviews, as always, are love.
Maggie Dan broke the solemn silence with a psychic shove towards the uncertain vampires. "Scram! Get out of here!"
She didn't have to tell them twice. Released, they backed towards the foyer, giving Hal a wide berth. He didn't even seem to see them as they all pushed out the door and fled. Felipe stepped around from behind Richard's chair and began to retreat towards the door as well.
"Not so fast." Maggie ordered, rent-a-ghosting to catch him by the ear. His eyes grew wide. She slammed him against the wall, causing the gold starburst clock to fall off it's hook and crash to the ground. "Let him go."
"You can have Mr. Turner. I don't care," he replied with a tone of indifference.
"Let go of that poor fella you're walking around in," Maggie clarified as she bracketed Felipe's temples with her palms, pushing him back into the room. "Let go, you fiend!"
At first, Felipe laughed. Then, his expression dropped. Alex suddenly understood why Maggie had been patrolling the corridors of the intensive when they first met, looking for 'snatchers'. She could exorcise them. Maggie pushed, forcing the ghost out of Vinicius' body. Keeping her palms against his head, she exerted her will against Felipe's until he phased out of his host. The body fell away and crumpled backwards, landing like a discarded garment into a broken heap.
The true Felipe was non-descript. Brown hair, plain features and average height, he was dressed simply in a long-sleeved white shirt under a loose, brown waistcoat. His light cotton trousers were rolled up to the ankles over bare feet tanned by the sun. He had been young when he died, barely an adult. He screamed a long wail against Maggie's forced eviction, and she tightened her grip.
Felipe's wail tapered off… into a grin. Suddenly, he shoved back, fighting against her. Maggie, despite all her ferocity and experience and psychic ability, flickered. She wasn't going to be strong enough. "Now would be a good time, girlie!" she shouted, suddenly alarmed.
Alex was at Maggie's side in an instant. She caught hold of Felipe's wrist with two hands and was thrown into the struggle of a battle of wills.
"I can't hold this one. He's too strong," Maggie whispered to Alex, and the ghost they held smiled. He shimmered underneath their grip. Free of his living host, he was attempting to teleport.
Alex gasped and hardened her grip. The wrist she held was slipping free. She imagined this was what it felt like to catch someone going over a cliff; an iron grip, but still slipping. Felipe's gaze turned from Maggie, to her.
"You're very strong, but still not strong enough. I can draw from half the Lobisomem, little ghost," he spat as his eyes began to glow with a strange ultra-violet light.
The hand she held was fading. He would rent-a-ghost out from under them! Maggie growled, Alex strained, and they both tried to hold on with all they had. Then Alex realised - it wasn't that Felipe was teleporting. It was they who were fading from the attempt to stop him. Somehow this ghost was drawing from them. The harder Alex held on, the more the sensation of slipping increased.
Hal stepped in behind her. Alex felt him even before he touched her - solid, strong, grounded and real. His breath was a whisper across the back of her neck as he rested his head against hers. His hand shook and fingers trembled as they pushed past her collar to the skin of her neck. His other hand still gripped the stake he had just used to kill Hetty, held against her jacket. Their bond flared at the contact into an infusion of warmth and strength, and Hal's shuddering breath hitched.
Alex kept her grip with renewed strength. If she had been about to careen off the cliff, Hal had caught her. With a simple embrace, he had just saved her for once. Hal trembled. Alex could feel that their contact was growing in difficulty for him by the second. She had to take the upperhand he had given her and retaliate. Quickly.
"That may be," she countered, her confidence growing. "But Brazil is awfully far away."
Felipe's face fell and his grin faded. He began to look quite alarmed as Alex began to grow cold. Hal's fingertips became so cold as to feel the phantom heat of frostbite. He could sense the shift in Alex as she began to reverse what Felipe had taken. Alex's eyes started to glow and Maggie's grew wide. Energy gathered and swirled around them, creating a vortex with Felipe at it's center. Just as the ghost had previously drawn from her, Alex began to channel energy not only from Hal, but from Felipe.
Maggie shuddered and suddenly let go, flinging herself free. Alex took over completely, catching Felipe's head between her hands. The ghost's face was contorting into a soundless scream of pain as he clawed futilely at Alex's sleeves.
Alex was going to obliterate him. Exactly as Annie had done to Kirby.
"Alex, stop," Hal uttered, even as he doubted the plan he was forming in the moment. But he couldn't let her do this. It was one thing to kill vampires, but this was a human soul. No matter how far from the path Hal himself had gone, he refused to allow the same of her. "Alex, stop!"
Hal wrapped his arms around her and held fast. It was like keeping hold of a live wire - the jolt of pure energy, of the power they had summoned. But he held fast. "Alex, please," he gritted out the words. "There's another way."
The distortion of Felipe's features stopped, the apparent agony tapering off. "But he's dangerous," Alex stated in a haunted voice, her eyes aglow.
"Yes, but there is another way."
Alex finally gave a hesitant nod. The otherworldly light in her eyes faded away as she took a deep breath.
"You gonna kick him to the ghouls?" Maggie asked. She had knelt next to the fallen form of Vinicius with a strained expression. "Be my guest. Those nasty buggers with sticks and rope will make him wish for the oblivion she would have bestowed. We're too late for the professor here - it won't be long till we get his door."
"I could have told you that," Felipe countered. "Poor Vinnie hit his head a little too hard. Only thing keeping him with us é me."
"There's another way he can be of… service." Hal stated, ignoring Felipe. At that, Maggie cocked her head while Alex, grounded by Hal, kept her hands bracketed on either side of Felipe's head. "Allison?" Hal called out, before he could change his mind. "Could you bring the box of salt from the pantry? And please, Dominic - you need to leave."
Alex stole a glance over her shoulder, confused, but then Allison stood from her hiding place, framed by the kitchen pass-through. Dominic Rook and Mike Nave stood shortly after as well. Regarding the scene briefly, Allison turned to the pantry with haste.
"I can smell you both. Please, go!" Hal ordered the two humans, still hugging Alex close. Mike Nave looked to Rook, then began to cautiously back away, believing Hal's threat.
"We'll keep watch outside," Rook conceded, beginning to follow his operative, then paused. "Maggie? We're in your debt, as always," he said to the air. "But you may still be needed if those reporters arrive."
Maggie nodded, standing as Rook and Nave departed through the back door.
"You okay, Hal?" Alex asked in a whisper, feeling the tension in his posture. If the presence of Rook and Nave lurking in their kitchen was triggering his bloodlust, her own neck was far more immediate. But she wasn't sensing the threat of hunger from him. Not yet anyways. His embrace was tense, but still felt controlled, and supportive.
"I'm okay," he answered her softly.
Still held fast by Alex, Felipe huffed, trying to push against her to no avail. "Salt will not hold me forever."
"It should hold long enough," Hal countered as Allison came through the swinging doors, clutching a large box of Tesco cooking salt. "Thank you, Allison. Now, encircle us, please."
"Jaysus - you buy that in case I went off the rails?" Alex scoffed.
"No. I bought it when Tom scorched the cast iron."
Allison pushed up her glasses with a brief questioning look, but then stooped and proceeded to trace the ground around them with a line of white granules. Felipe gritted his teeth. "What are you up to, Yorke? You'll trap your girl as well as me."
Allison hesitated, but then trusting Hal's lead, continued as he had directed. "Hope you know what you're doing," she uttered while carefully going around the fallen form of Vinicius to complete the circle.
Alex felt a strange confined feeling click into place as Allison stood, holding the empty salt package. Felipe must have felt the boundary close as well because he renewed his struggle.
Hal leaned in, holding Felipe's fighting eyes, then whispered in Alex's ear, "Let's go." He stepped backwards, urging her with him.
She let him lead her backwards. A sound like nails on a blackboard filled her ears in a deafening rush as Hal stepped over the line of salt. He still urged her with him, and careful of the line, she stepped backwards. The barrier let her pass with Hal in a shivering wave. At the last possible moment, she let go of the fighting ghost. The screeching sound snuffed to a close as if she had shut a door. Alex stood with Hal on the opposite side of a force that Felipe pushed and kicked against, to no avail. They had trapped him.
"Well ain't that a trick," Maggie clicked her tongue and shook her head. "You're full of surprises, handsome."
Allison shook her head in excited wonder, "It's your bond, isn't it? Alex is anchored again, so of course she could pass through with you. But how did you know it would work?"
"I didn't," Hal let go of his hold on Alex, breaking their contact and thereby his temptation, with an audible breath of relief. "Faith, I suppose," he said, meeting Alex's gaze as she bit her lip. But there wasn't time to dwell. Hal walked over to Richard and with one swift tug he pulled the tape clear of his partner's mouth.
"Argh!" Richard bellowed, a rectangle of red flushing his face.
"Maggie," Hal said as he continued behind the chair to unfasten Richard's bonds. "If reporters are coming here, then we need a few minutes to get Richard clear. Can you check with Rook and keep watch?"
"Sure thing," she answered, then disappeared.
As soon as she was gone, Hal said, "Richard, you finally have your chance."
"What? Now? This - thing? If he's a Hangori then his familiar is a wolf!" Richard grimaced with disbelief.
"More like an entire pack of wolves. However distasteful that is, I'd wager it will still work." Hal loosened the last knot and Richard stood, rubbing his wrists.
"I'd wager it won't," Felipe scoffed. "Mr. Snow would have mentioned if he thought I was true Hangori."
"Snow wouldn't have told you," Hal rebutted. "You think this wasn't his plan all along? Did you believe he would spare you for those years of service? Did you know him at all?" At Hal's speculation, Felipe's expression fell into a slight line of doubt.
Hal came to stand next to Vinicius, regarding the professor's fallen body before resuming. "You were tied to the Lobisomem, which is why you believed you needed one of them to travel this far. Only... you had to take someone the tribe wouldn't miss. Someone they hadn't even known had joined their tribe." Hal looked back up to the trapped ghost in the middle of their living room. "You turned Vinicius by possessing another during transformation, then abducted him. If you are the only thing keeping him anchored here, then that proves it. Your bond stuck."
"Hal, what are you doing?" Alex asked. He could sense by merely her tone that she was working it out.
"Richard has to take a soul. And there's not a chance in Hell he's going anywhere near yours," he answered her plainly. "Richard, do you want this, or no?"
"I thought you said there was a ritual," Richard asked, dubiously rubbing his face.
Felipe urgently pressed against the barrier of salt, his hands up against the invisible force. "Certo - yes - there must be preparations? Astrological alignments - or cleansings?"
"Wait, you're going to what?" Allison exclaimed, catching up to what they were discussing.
"It's true. The preparations to become an Old One were historically exhaustive. Mr. Snow was very particular. We do not have the luxury, so you're getting the abridged version. My other self may not be so inclined. So Richard, do you want this, or no?"
"You would really do this for me? After all this time?" Richard whispered.
"I keep my promises," Hal stated darkly, catching Alex's eye. He held their gaze briefly, then stooped towards the unconscious Vinicius.
"But," Allison started to argue. "What do you mean he has to take a soul?"
Alex placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, staying the girl. She felt a strange sense of calm. Hal had just stopped her from effectively doing just that - ending a soul. But she understood. Richard, just like Hetty, wouldn't stop until he had what he wanted. Unlike Hetty however, Richard's reasons were personal. He wasn't after the power of being an Old One.
I miss it sometimes. How the music would resonate, he had admitted to her. Richard Turner just wanted the side effect of immunity - to be able to cross into sacred grounds. He wanted to be a little closer to human.
"I know your argument, Allison, and you would be in the right," Hal answered their housemate's question as he lifted the unconscious body on the floor by the shoulders. "But sometimes the right thing isn't necessarily so clear. I owe this. Call it my unfinished business." Hal positioned Vinicius next to the circle of salt. "Felipe has been possessing members of the Lobisomem for a very long time, and I was the one who told him how. Snow wanted to keep an eye on the pack. Vampires couldn't get close without detection, but a ghost could. With the right motivation, anyone will do anything," he said poignantly, and Felipe glanced away, shame flashing briefly across his features.
"I took his life, then promised a way to another," Hal concluded. "Possession is a very dangerous habit for a ghost to form. Every encounter is an addicting sojourn into the living. Once a ghost learns how, they never stop. It is time for it to end, but you do not have to stay and be privy to it."
Allison swallowed, then looked to the trapped ghost. He shook his head at her. "Não, Allison. Do not let him! I can stop. I can change. There is no more Snow. No more Hetty!"
"They didn't force you to keep taking people," Hal countered. "I understand it now - what I couldn't then. No one can force a ghost to become Hangori. It's a choice. And you haven't done anything you didn't actually wish for," Hal said, then lifted Vinicius' limp arm by the wrist. "Richard?"
As Richard stepped forward, Hal brought his own wrist to his mouth and bit through, then extended the wound. Richard just raised an aristocratic eyebrow. "Drink? From you?" he asked, and Hal nodded.
Shakily, Richard knelt to take the offering, bringing Hal's wrist to his lips. His eyelids lowered with the obvious pleasure of it. One second, two, three... Hal only let Richard drink briefly while Alex and Allison watched in surprise, before pulling free.
Richard wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "And now?"
"Now take him," Hal instructed simply. Felipe's eyes darted to Richard, who stood staring at him with ominous concentration. Backing away, Felipe tried to distance himself, but was trapped inside his circle of confinement. With his attention fixed on Richard, he was caught off guard when Hal lashed out over the line of salt to catch hold of the ghost's bare ankle. "Now!" he urged.
"It's that simple?" Richard asked, stating the disbelief that Alex shared.
"You have to drain him," Hal answered, clenching his teeth in exertion, keeping hold as Felipe fell to the ground, struggling desperately to break free. But there wasn't anywhere he could go. The ghost couldn't teleport from inside the circle, and his powers were reduced. Like a conduit, Hal kept one hand on the fallen Vinicius, and clutched the ghost with the other.
Alex remembered when Hetty had bit her. Take his hand, and give me yours, she had said, tricking her before Alex had known better. A Hangori was made real by contact with their bond. Felipe had bonded with one member of the Lobisomem after another in order to possess them, following the line of the tribe's werewolf curse, stepping out to his true form only at the moment of transformation with the full moon, just as Allison had witnessed.
Felipe bent forward to pry at Hal's fingers wrapped around his ankle. But Richard caught him by the throat and pulled him back, his eyes smouldering to black. With the small token of his blood, Hal had brought Richard into the circuit between Hangori and host. The ghost flailed in desperation against the two of them as Richard leaned in with fangs flashing to tear at his neck, biting down.
Hal tore his gaze away from the ghostly blood. He looked to Alex with a pained flush of hunger, then winced his eyes shut. Allison took Alex's hand as Felipe kicked and gurgled, then she too looked away. But Alex couldn't stop watching. It was almost what Hal had done to her. It was the threat of what Hetty had wanted... and what Hal could still do. And yet, she knew now that it was her choice. She could choose to let go of their bond at any moment. And so could Felipe, had he truly understood it.
As Richard drank, a nimbus of light grew into a flare from Felipe's chest. It flared, then flickered. The ghost dimmed as he struggled and grew transparent. He was fading, but Richard held tighter. The light shimmered between them like a reflection on water, growing darker as Richard kept drinking, as if from a passing cloud. Felipe's struggle was waning. Then suddenly, both the light, and Felipe were gone.
Hal lowered his empty hand and let Vinicius' arm fall with a limp thud. Richard gasped, his extended fangs completely clean, despite the carnage they had all just witnessed. His eyes cleared from vampiric black, alight with a strange glow. Richard's expression widened in astoundment - just before he pitched forward into unconsciousness.
Hal exhaled an exhausted huff of relief as Richard's face hit the carpet, then looked to Vinicius. The unconscious Brazilian anthropologist had grown extremely pale.
Shakily, like she was waking from a dream, Allison let go of her grip on Alex and rummaged in the pocket of her jumper. "I'll call 999."
Hal just shook his head as he slowly came to stand. "Don't. He's dead."
The resounding silence sat heavily between the three of them as they all stared at the body on their living room floor. After a pause, Alex broke the silence. "We have to hide Richard."
"As it turns out," Rook's voice preceded him through the open foyer door. "That will no longer be necessary." He revealed a tranquiliser pistol from the inside of his suit jacket as he glanced dubiously at Richard's prone form. "It's done. McNair has proven to be quite convincing. The hoax is hardly getting coverage. Though Nave and Maggie are still keeping watch outside to be sure. Now all that is left is to get certain loose ends safely detained."
Rook clicked the safety off and took aim at Hal, who regarded him coolly. Alex stepped between them, holding up her hands and Rook hesitated. He obviously could see her. "Please," she said. "I'll take Hal. Promise."
"What have you done with Tom?" Hal interrupted.
Rook looked Alex in the eyes, then seeming to trust her, lowered the weapon. "Tom McNair has been arrested for questioning. As have Mr. Gwedore, Mr. O'Meara and Miss Stammers. Thank heavens vampires do not show up on film, so it is merely a disturbance of the peace and trespass charge at this point."
"Excuse me, a what?" Hal asked, furrowing his brow in distaste at his own confusion.
"A second anonymous video has arrived to the news room. Our legal team is already sorting the situation. They will all be extradited in a matter of days."
"Wait - you had Tom arrested on purpose?" Alex asked, just as confused as Hal.
"He gave them permission," Allison offered.
"Of course," Rook agreed. "McNair was one of the more prominently featured in the footage, so who else? Many of the 'extras' had already left town. And conveniently, Tom already has a history of fighting imaginary people."
"I'm still not following," Hal admitted. He tapped his fingers repetitively in flustered frustration. Alex began to think that Rook's idea with the tranquiliser wasn't a bad one. Hal was exhausted. And hungry. She wondered how much longer he really could hold it together.
"It was all an elaborate hoax you see," Rook beamed, clasping his wrist behind his back "Youths making an independent film. There are receipts and records," Rook gave a pleased smile. "Additional footage of their production and staging storeroom was uncovered at the arrest this afternoon."
"A film. They're really going to believe that?" Alex asked, folding her arms over her chest in obvious disbelief.
"Yes, they will. They already have. There are records. Paper trails do not lie," Rook answered smugly. "The painting is another matter. Memories will have to be shifted for those who have seen it. Thankfully, with the invaluable assistance of Maggie Dan, it has already gone missing."
"If it all went so well," Hal asked, "why did you even bother coming here?"
"We never assume, Hal, that we're infallible. We were here in case there was need to stave off any curious lead-followers. Milo's parcel received by the newsroom this morning included this address."
"Hetty," Hal shook his head. "She wanted Tom and Allison to be found along with Richard. This house would have been the epicenter of supernatural exposure."
"Thank goodness that didn't happen," Allison piped in, eyeing Richard. "Will he be alright?"
"Richard will be high as a flash house when he awakes, but should be fine," Hal answered.
"What just happened, exactly?" Rook asked, and both Allison and Alex quickly looked to Hal. He smoothly shrugged.
"The ghost got to him. And then we banished the ghost."
"Um, would anyone else like tea?" Allison interrupted the brief pause after Hal's short explanation. "I think I'm a touch overdue." When no one immediately answered her, she overly enthusiastically said, "I'll make a pot."
Rook's eyes narrowed, sensing there was something Hal left out, but he didn't force the issue. "Richard will need to return with us. He knows too much."
"Yes, he does," Hal agreed. "I think you'll find him more cooperative after recent events, however."
"I do hope so. It would be ideal if Mr. Turner could return to his areas of expertise."
Hal held Rook's gaze for a long moment, giving a slight tilt to his head like he was working something out. Seeing the mistrust from Hal, Rook added, "There are very few who understand truly long-term investments better than he."
Hal suddenly huffed a laugh. "The Department invested 'His Majesty's Gift' with Richard?"
"Some. We wouldn't want all of our eggs in one basket now. But it has certainly been the most successful," Rook smiled.
"Which is why you didn't just kill him. Christ."
"Oh, and they found my car, thank you very much," Rook declared, returning the pistol to his pocket. He walked across the room to pick up the television remote from the arm of the sofa. "She had a sport suspension, you know."
"Yes, quite comfortable to drive," Hal answered with a sarcastic smile.
"Oh, well! I'm glad you think so," Rook jibbed, then clicked on the tele. He scanned through the channels until he landed on channel four. "We have gotten incredibly lucky," he continued darkly, eyes fixed on the television screen as Hal approached. Channel four news flashed sweeping pictures of flooded streets and drowned tube lines before the image zoomed out to a polished presenter seated at a wide desk. "Most of the newsroom has been put on Hurricane Sandy reports."
"- leaving more than five million people without power today. At this point, nearly fifteen thousand flights have been cancelled. The storm has moved inland from the eastern coast where it continues to wreak a tremendous amount of damage. The full extent of the destruction caused will probably not be known for weeks. Sources are estimating that the the total cost could reach forty five billion dollars or more."
Alex regarded the scenes on the news and crossed her arms over her chest. "Huh. I'm not sure I would call that lucky."
"Our local inconvenience at the Pleasure Park will be swiftly forgotten in light of all this. The news is fickle that way, thankfully," Rook responded. With a weary sigh, he took a seat at the end of the sofa.
"In local interests," the newscaster continued with an organised shuffle of his reader notes. "What had been believed to be a lost painting by Rembrandt resurfaced in Wales this morning, has gone missing again. Before the artwork could be expertly verified, it was mysteriously misplaced. Police are questioning known forgers and ask that -"
"It's here, isn't it? What will you do with it?" Allison asked, watching through the pass-through with a glance to the cabinet behind her.
"A good question," Rook answered, his gaze still on the television. "It appears that those involved in the plot to expose us have all been neutralised. However, our systems and vulnerabilities will need to be reassessed. The Archive project was historically only accessed by a small and trusted few."
"What changed?" Hal asked, keeping his distance by remaining standing a few feet away. He kept his focus on the tele even though he addressed Rook.
"Budget cuts, if you must know. We closed our other Western operation in the '08 recession and became headquartered here. The Department's funding fluctuates with our long term investments. I'm sure you of all people understand how that can change things from time to time."
"Indeed," Hal answered with a small smile.
"Our London division has become quite efficient using the rented parcel box system. The west just doesn't warrant enough activity for a separate locale."
"Will you return this location to limited access now however? After all this?" Allison asked, rejoining the room with a full tea tray.
"In time, yes," Rook answered, then took the cup of tea Allison offered. "In light of current events we will have a full system sweep and a tightening of access points. But we still will need to utilise a base of operations."
"What of Bristol?" Hal asked.
"What of it?"
"The Clifton Rocks Railway was mine. I have no use for it now," Hal stated, then shifted his gaze to the mantle. Anywhere but at the human on their sofa. "I imagine it is in need of some repair after it was bombed, but therein contained an elaborate underground system beyond the fight ring."
"You would… donate it?" Rook looked dubious as he took a sip of his tea.
Hal began tapping his fingers in counted succession, but took a deep breath. "I'd rather it went to your cause instead of returned to its previous purpose. I will ask Richard to negotiate the property transfer."
Rook glanced to where they had left Richard lying on the floor. "You are certain he will be alright?"
"Yes," Hal answered shortly. "Please have him come speak to me when he awakes. It shouldn't be more than a few hours."
"You will voluntarily return to detainment?"
"I had been about to before this all happened. It won't be long before I become… volatile."
"You may use one of the isolation rooms as long as you require. Yorke, I -" Rook started to say something reluctantly, but then a small chime of his mobile made him retrieve it from his pocket. "That would be our transport. Excuse me a moment."
"So," Alex looked to Hal. "How do you want to do this? That room was equipped for chains," she joked, trying to make light. She didn't want to face it, but Hal had been growing increasingly squirrelly. The lapse to the withdrawals overcoming him was closer than he was directly admitting. Hal clenched his hands into fists, stopping the giveaway movement of his fingers.
"I do not want to do this, but needs must," he answered her. "The chair will suffice for now. And," he paused with a glance to where Rook's neck was illuminated by the screen of his mobile while he typed. "The quickest way is probably wise."
Alex extended her hand. "Okay then. I'll come back for the chair."
Hal clenched his jaw and took a step towards Alex. He paused before taking her hand however. "Allison, would you please tell Tom I'm sorry? I may not be inclined to later... given the time it could take for him to be released."
She pushed her glasses up, then gave a small nod. "Alright. But can't he come visit you?"
"I'm certain he will try," Hal answered with a slight smile. Then he took Alex's hand.
As soon as they touched, she whisked them to stand in the deserted corridor deep in Archive. The door to the room Hal had previously escaped from was still open. His jacket still lay forgotten over the foot of the hospital trolley. Hal quickly let go of her hand and walked through the threshold. When he turned to face her, his relief was clear. "Alex… I -"
"Shh," she said. "I'll be right back."
He held her gaze, then gave a small nod before shutting the door.
When Alex rent-a-ghosted back into the living room of Honolulu Heights, Allison was heading towards the circle of salt with a dust bin. She held a finger up to her lips when she saw Alex, then tilted her head towards the sofa.
Phone on his knee, Dominic Rook had closed his eyes. Showing a newfound trust in the supernaturals around him, in the short span of quiet Rook had fallen asleep. Alex smiled. "Let him sleep, eh?" she whispered under the background drone of the news. "I think it's been awhile."
Allison nodded in agreement, then started cleaning up the salt.
When Alex returned to the Archive, she used one of the straps dangling off Hal's chair to push open the door. He was seated in the far corner, his back to the wall and hands on his knees.
"You ready for this? Because I'm sure as feck not," she said as she set the chair down in the centre of the room. He stood fluidly.
Hal rested his hand on the worn arm of the chair. "I most definitely will not say this later, but… thank you."
Alex's heart nearly broke at the weight in his simple words. She wanted to reach out - to hug him, to hold him close, but she knew that would only make things worse.
Hal took a deep breath that shook on the exhale, then took a seat. He bent forward to secure the straps at his feet.
"Hal, I'm so sorry. I really wish -"
"It's not your fault," he rebutted before she could finish, sitting upright and holding her gaze. "This... will be temporary," he said with sad acceptance as he fastened the strap at his left wrist. "We've gone through it before. But Alex, you cannot stay. You musn't."
Alex bit her lip and swallowed down the lump of emotion in her throat, but she nodded in acceptance. She knew he was right. Then, bravely holding back tears, she kneeled in front of him. As she reached for the last strap, she caught and held his eyes. He stared back at her with an open and honest intensity. "I really do love you, you know," Alex finally uttered.
"I know," he answered softly. "I love you too. Please - remember that."
"It will have to be enough," she determined. "Enough to carry us both through."
Alex bound Hal's wrist to the frame.
