Chapter Two:

Hope:

I slept through until morning. When I woke up, Duke and Delia were talking outside the room. After showering and eating, I got behind the wheel of the SUV and drove us back to Haven. We left the SUV down at the harbor by Duke's boat and started walking into town, both to find Duke's car, and his friends. It wasn't long before things went sideways.

"On your knees with your hands behind your heads," a blond man said to the three of us, before looking at me directly. "I don't know who you are, Lady, or what you did to these two, but until we know what the hell is going on, you're all coming with us."

A man with an energy similar to Delia was putting handcuffs on Duke.

"Dwight, what are you doing?" Delia asked, upset with her brother, who was ignoring her. "Look at me, Dwight. It's Delia."

Dwight looked away from her, while a man with dark hair put cuffs on Delia. At the same time, the man who stopped us came around behind me and put handcuffs on me. I didn't fight.

"Can't you do anything about this, Hope?" Duke asked me.

"It won't do anything but make them more scared. You want them to believe that the two of you are really who you say you are and that I'm not a threat to them. It's a bad idea to do anything. I think we need to see this through," I said, wincing as the blond man yanked me to my feet by the cuffs.

"McHugh, if you hurt her, I'm gonna put a world of hurt on you when I get out of these things," Duke growled at the blond yanking me around.

"Since when does Duke Crocker care about anyone other than himself?" McHugh asked, with a laugh.

"Boys!" said the dark haired man. "Stop messing around and let's just get these three down to the station. McHugh, stop manhandling that woman."

"Whatever you say, Wuornos," McHugh said sarcastically.

They each drove us to the police station in their own car, as if they didn't trust us together. When we got to the station, we were all put in different rooms, still handcuffed, waiting to be questioned. It seemed like forever when McHugh walked in with the man he called Wuornos.

"My name is Nathan Wuornos, Chief of the Haven Police Department. And your name is…?"

"Hope. Dr. Hope Corey."

"McHugh, check her out," he said to him, causing him to leave, before turning back to me. "Dr. Corey, we have a problem here. Delia Hendrickson was declared dead months ago, having been shot at her job. Her brother Dwight, identified her body. Duke Crocker… well, I killed him. He begged me to in order to stop a bigger issue."

"Croatoan," I said.

Chief Wuornos looked at me in shock.

"How do you know about that?"

"Chief Wuornos, how about we make a deal? I'll tell you the truth, if you don't try to hide anything about Haven's history from me. Is that fair?"

He was still looking at me in shock, but now it was as if he was weighing his options.

"Fine, Dr. Corey. You tell me what's going on here and I'll be honest about anything you ask," he finally answered.

"Call me Hope. Dr. Corey is too formal for me."

"Fine, Hope. How did you walk into Haven with two people that are supposed to be dead?"

"First, I need to let you know that I am not Troubled like so many in your town had been until yesterday."

"You knew about the Troubles?"

I nodded at him.

"I have my own abilities, gifts. There are things I can do, still do, even without the Troubles here in Haven. They are connected to my mom's side of the family. Generations of both sides of her family can do things like I can."

"Okay, so you can do things that I'm assuming most people can't."

"Right. My grandparents taught me to use these abilities, responsibly, to help people. They made me the person I am today."

"What about your parents?"

I took a deep breath. This was more difficult to explain.

"I never knew my father. He was only in town for one night. I was the result of a one night stand and my mother made sure he never found out about me. He was dead before I was born."

"And your mom?"

"She died in childbirth. She only lived long enough to name me Hope."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I know how much she loved me. My grandparents told me all about her as I grew up."

"Do you know who or where your father is from?"

"He's from Haven, Chief. His name was Simon Crocker, which is why my mom made sure he never found out about me or our family's lineage with magick. She didn't want him to think we were Troubled and try to kill us."

"You're trying to tell me… You're Duke Crocker's baby sister?" he asked me in shock.

Dwight:

"How are you here Crocker? Last time I saw you, you were flipping me off as you faded into nothingness,"

I said to him. "You were dead. You told me to send Nathan to save Audrey. You told me how to save Lizzie. So how do you have a pulse?"

Duke looked at me like I had three heads.

"Okay, first of all, Sasquatch, I know I died. I remember Nathan killing me while Audrey held my hand. Gloria and Vicky were on the other side of the room. But I have no idea about the rest of it, though I guess I would go flip you off as a ghost," he said to me, laughing to himself before he got serious again. "Wait, you said I had you send Nathan to save Audrey. Where is she?"

"Duke… The new barn… Croatoan damaged it when he escaped from it the first time. In order for Vince to power it up the second time, he needed Audrey's capacity to love to balance all the aether. She went willingly… and she took the Troubles with her for good."

"But she'll be back in 27 years, right?" Duke asked desperately.

"Not this time, Crocker," I said as gently as I could. "She saved us all, from Croatoan, from the Void, from the Troubles. Audrey Parker made Haven a safe haven again."

"How could any of you let her go?" he asked angrily.

"You said it when she tried to go into the barn the first time, Duke. It was always her choice to make."

He put his head in his hands for a few minutes. I knew what Audrey meant to him. After losing Evi to Reverend Driscoll's war on the Troubled and Jennifer to the Troubles themselves, losing Audrey too was a lot for him. I let him know I would be back soon and went outside, walking into Nathan.

"Did you get anywhere with our outsider, Nathan?"

"She knew about the Troubles before she came to Haven, Dwight. She says her father was Simon Crocker," Nathan said, apparently in shock.

"Simon Crocker had no daughters on record," I said.

"Apparently he did," McHugh said, joining us. "In Danvers, Massachusetts. Hope Corey, daughter of Penny Corey and Simon Crocker, born July 15, 1984. Mother Penny died as a result of childbirth and little Hope was raised by her grandparents, living in or close to Danvers until she made her way to Haven. She studied medicine and started working at Boston General when she turned 22, not long after finishing med school. No priors, not even a parking ticket."

"Boston General… Dwight isn't that where…?"Nathan started asking.

"It's where Delia was killed. Where her Trouble activated," I answered. "So we have Duke Crocker and my sister, both of which are supposed to be dead. A woman who is supposedly the long-lost daughter of Simon Crocker, who just happens to roll into town with the two supposedly dead people at her side, and we're supposed to believe what?"

"We need Gloria," Nathan replied. "She can run a DNA test on Hope and Duke. If Simon was her father, the test will confirm it. Dwight, only you can confirm if that really is Delia. Nobody knows her like you."

"And what about whether or not to trust Crocker?" McHugh asked.

"They're all staying here until we have more answers. I'll get around to Duke. Dwight, take Delia. McHugh, go get Gloria. I'll handle our possible long-lost siblings," Nathan responded.

At that moment, Hope came out of one of the offices, holding an ice pack to her shoulder. All three of us were staring at her in shock.

"What? My shoulder was killing me from Tarzan dragging me around like Raggedy Anne. If I was trying to escape, I would've been gone, not coming out of an office with an ice pack, heading back to where you had me," Hope said, looking at McHugh before going back into Nathan's office.

"Was there anything she could pick the cuffs with in your office, Nathan?" I asked.

"No, she was still cuffed behind her back," he replied before turning to McHugh. "How roughly were you handling her? She didn't try to resist arrest."

"I may have been a little rougher than necessary," McHugh said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Go get Gloria. I'm going to talk to Houdini. Dwight, Delia."

Dwight:

Here I was, face to face with my twin sister, for the first time since we were eighteen. Back then, things were so tense, with our father being a drunk, abusive asshole. But when I left for the army, she left for college… and never came back. We stayed in touch for a few years, but then she just stopped.

"Dwight, I know I owe you a lot of explanations, but please, give me a chance," my sister said to me, who looked even more mature than she did when we went our separate ways.

"Let's start by you proving to me that you really are my sister. If you really are Delia, tell me something only Delia and I would know," I replied to her.

She stayed quiet for a minute, as if thinking deeply. After taking some time gathering her thoughts, her facial expression changed, and she replied to me.

"When we were in sixth grade, Jimmy Mosley kept harassing me, trying to grab at me and everything. We both knew if we told his Pop, he'd whoop his ass, but Jimmy would just come after me worse. You offered to teach him a lesson for me. I said no, I'd handle him myself. So one day, during lunch, Jimmy followed me into the yard and I beat his ass, accidentally breaking his arm. You showed up before any of the teachers could hear him. When they did, you took the blame and Jimmy let you. He didn't want anyone to know he got beat up by a girl. You got suspended because you didn't want to let me get in trouble for defending myself after what Jimmy had been doing. Even when we both got home, you didn't tell Dad, you just took a beating for me. After that, I took care of your wounds until they healed, pretty much waited on you hand and foot because I felt so guilty that you took that beating because of me."

I could feel the tears in my eyes. Looking at her, I knew she could tell I was convinced. I got up, uncuffed her, and held my twin sister as tightly as I could, for the first time in more than a decade.

"Delia. I thought I lost you forever," I said as I held her. I didn't care if she knew I was crying.

"Nope, Dwight. It's not that easy to get rid of your twin. You have Hope to thank for that," she said to me.

"What does she have to do with you being here? Did she do anything to you? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Relax. Hope isn't a bad person. Yes, she did something to me, something that ultimately saved my life, nothing bad. She's not some kind of cult leader that helps people and then brain washes them into her service."

"Then what happened?"

She explained what actually happened at the hospital, what Hope had done, and what happened after. She told me how guilty she felt leaving the golem for me to identify as her, but why she agreed with Hope. Finally she told me why Hope thought she should come to Haven with her.

"So Hope was coming to help Duke?"

"Yes."

"And she thought you'd be safer with me, in case that shooter was looking for you?"

"Yeah. Things are different and similar where she is, but it's not the Troubles. Since being declared dead Hope was teaching me about medicinal herbs in additional to the pharmaceutical approach all doctors learn in med school. It was really interesting to me."

"So she's not holding you prisoner or anything?"

"No, Dwight," she said with a laugh. "We got here yesterday, and after she helped Duke and woke back up, she needed food and rest. Duke suggested a place not far out of town. That's why we left town for the night. Hope slept from the time Duke put her in the backseat until this morning, she was so wiped out. When she woke up, we ate, got ourselves together, and came back to Haven. Duke wanted to find his friends and find out what happened while he was gone, I wanted to see you, though, not so much in handcuffs, and I think Hope just wants to get to know her brother, the other part of her, for right now."

"Did you know that Hope could get out of handcuffs?"

"The question never came up. She's never been arrested. But knowing the things she can do, I wouldn't be surprised if she could," Delia replied. "Dwight, Hope is a good doctor, a good person, one who can do things I didn't really know existed outside of the Troubles until I met her and her family. She likes to help people, sometimes even if it hurts her. I believe that if she wanted to stop you, McHugh, and Nathan Wuornos from taking any of us, she could have. But she's not looking for trouble."

Hope:

"How did you get out of the handcuffs, Dr. Corey?" Nathan asked.

"Back to the formal names, Chief? Really, I prefer Hope," I answered.

"And I would prefer you answer my questions."

"Which I have been, with total honesty, I might add."

"Then answer this one. How did you get out of the cuffs?"

"I already told you I can do things other people can't. I can actually manipulate matter. I wasn't going to do it, but my shoulder really was starting to hurt. After unlocking the handcuffs, I felt around my shoulder and found some swelling, so I went in search of an ice pack before the swelling got worse. You caught me coming back here."

"You can unlock the cuffs without anything to pick the lock?"

"Yeah. That's pretty much what I just said, Chief."

Nathan had a look of disbelief on his face.

"Then show me."

"Fine, but first, I need some soda. I'm still recovering from helping Duke yesterday and then the other things I did at his boat before he suggested going out of town. Unlocking the cuffs today wasn't a big deal the first time, but doing it again, while I'm hurting, I'm gonna need something to fuel me. I don't think you want me blacking out on your office floor, do you, Chief Wuornos?"

Nathan walked out of the room and came back a few minutes later with a can of soda. I drank half of it and put it down on his desk. He took his cuffs out and handcuffed me to the chair I was sitting in, before moving it into the middle of the room, away from anything I could use to pick the lock.

"So let's see this little trick of yours, Dr. Corey."

"If I show you, will you please stop calling me Dr. Corey? I really prefer Hope."

"Fine."

I relaxed my body, ignoring the pain in my shoulder and wrists because of McHugh. Instead I focused on the handcuffs restraining me, how I wanted them to release me, to let me be free. After about a minute, I felt the handcuffs fall off of me and heard Nathan gasp.

"You were telling me the truth about magick, weren't you, Hope?"

"Yeah, I was, Chief Wuornos. But I'm not in Haven to cause trouble. I'm a doctor, a natural healer, and I'll help you in any way I can. I came to Haven to help my brother, Duke, to get to know him. I don't think it's the only reason I'm here, but I haven't figured the rest out yet," I said to him.

"Okay, why was my Happy Hour interrupted?" asked an elderly woman from the door.

"Gloria, I need you to run a DNA analysis between two possible siblings."

"Can't Intern do it?"

"I'd prefer it be you, especially since I know you'll put a rush on it for me," Nathan told her.

"Fine. Who am I testing and why?"

"Gloria, meet Dr. Hope Corey. I want you to test her DNA against Duke Crocker, who is in the next room. According to Hope, Simon Crocker was both of their fathers."

Gloria turned as white as a sheet.

"Nathan, Duke is dead. He died right out here. The Troubles…"

"Gloria, I'm still figuring it out myself, but he's in the next room."

Duke:

Gloria came barging into the room. When she saw me, she whacked me in the back of the head.

"What'd I tell you about doing stupid things? Now I have to do a DNA test on you and that girl next door? What the hell is going on Crocker? You were dead! I declared it myself. And now you're just sitting here?!" she exclaimed, finally just pulling me into a hug.

That was Gloria. We always had a weird relationship. Two peas in a pod, I guess. Did what we had or wanted to, no matter what anyone said, even the law.

"Audrey's gone, Gloria," was all I got out at first. "She's gone forever."

She hugged me again.

"I know, Kid. She ended our nightmare, but I know you're gonna miss her."

"You have to do a DNA test on me and Hope?"

Gloria nodded at me.

"Why?"

"Nathan ordered it. Wants it fast-tracked too."

"She's my sister, Gloria. I can feel it. And the timing is right. My dad was hunting a Troubled woman in Massachusetts around the time her mom would've conceived. We all know he wasn't exactly a one woman kind of guy, so…"

"Does she have anything to do with you sitting here today?"

"She has everything to do with it."

"How, Kid? What did she do?"

"That's her story. I gotta let her be the one to decide who to tell."

Gloria took a DNA sample from me and left the room. A few hours later, Nathan and Dwight brought Hope in. Her arm was in a sling. Rage started to flow through me. Hope looked at me.

"Relax, Duke. It's not that bad. I'll be fine in a few days. This is to keep me from overworking the shoulder and making it worse. I'm okay," she said to me, trying to be reassuring.

"Why don't you have her handcuffed? Not that I'm complaining," I asked Nathan and Dwight, noticing they didn't even bother cuffing her hands in front of her.

"No point. Hope here can unlock them on her own, no paperclips or anything. She did it earlier to go get herself an icepack for her shoulder," Dwight said.

Nathan sat Hope down next to me. I wanted to check her, make sure she was okay. I didn't know where the impulse came from, but I felt protective of this girl I'd known for a day. I didn't touch her because I was afraid with me still being cuffed, I might accidentally hurt her. She was already in pain.

"Gloria sent over the preliminaries of the DNA testing on you two," Nathan said.

"And?" I asked. "What did it say?"

"It confirmed Hope's claim that Simon Crocker was also her father, Duke. She is your little sister," Nathan finally said.

"Wait, you're referring to me as Duke. So does that mean you believe I am who I say I am? Does that mean you believe all of us, Nathan?"

"Yeah, Crocker, we believe you," Dwight answered. "I spent time with Delia. She was able to tell me things that only my twin sister would be able to tell me. When I talked to you, your reaction to hearing about Audrey was genuine, one I would expect from you. Gloria even said that you are really you. The DNA tests helped prove Hope wasn't lying about being your sister, but some of the things she's done while in the station have shown there is truth to what she's told us. It also showed us, like Delia told me, if she really wanted to keep you guys away from us, we never would've gotten you three into custody."

"Essentially, Duke, you two are free to go," Nathan said.

"Just the two of us?" Hope asked. "What about Delia?"

"I took Delia back to my place while we were waiting on the DNA results for you two," Sasquatch told Hope, handing her a piece of paper. "She wanted you to have this. I know among other things she included my address and home number so you two can stay in touch."

"Thanks, Dwight. I know Delia was nervous about seeing you after the gunman thing, but she really wanted to at the same time. She loves you more than just about anything else in this world."

'Squatch nodded at Hope and left the room. Nathan looked between me and Hope like he wasn't sure whether to be happy for me because I had a sister or terrified there was another Crocker in town.

"So, Hope, Delia is staying with Dwight. Where are you going when we let you out of here?"

"The Cape Rouge with me," I answered immediately. "I mean, if you want, Hope. I just figured we should get to know each other. If you want your own space I can set you up…"

"Above the Gull?" Nathan asked.

I nodded.

"I don't think Audrey could think of anyone better to take her apartment, Duke. Or a better reason for you to occupy it so fast."

"What's the Gull?"

"The bar I own that I need to fix up thanks to the Troubles. There's an apartment above it. Nathan's girlfriend, former partner, the one who apparently pulled all the black stuff out of here used to live in it, but she's not coming back. It's a long story."

"She went with it to lock up Croatoan," Hope said. "I don't know everything, but I did know some things. It's how I knew that I had to wait until all that black stuff was being pulled to one point in town before I could help you. This way any still in you would be pulled out and banished with Croatoan."

"Wait, Duke," Nathan started, "I hadn't thought of that. The Crocker Curse, all the Troubles you absorbed. They're all gone?"

"I don't feel any of it."

"None of it is there anymore. As I helped him, all the black stuff in him was pulled out, into the mass cloud that formed in that one location. When he came around, he was as Trouble free as anyone else in Haven," Hope said.

Nathan uncuffed me. I rubbed my wrists. He patted me on the shoulder.

"It's good to have the real you back, Crocker. I'm sorry about…" Nathan started.

"Nathan, I told you. You killing me was the only way. We don't know what would have happened if I had lived long enough for Croatoan to get all of those Troubles. You did right by me in the end. You don't have to apologize. You helped me do things on my terms," I said to him.

Hope stood up. I put my hand on her good shoulder and started leading her out of the station. When we got outside, McHugh was there. I wanted to punch him. Hope stopped me.

"Wait, Duke. At least hear what he has to say."

"Speak, before I decide to hit you anyway," I said.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to actually hurt your sister, Crocker. After everything this town's been through, I was suspicious of this woman walking through town with two people who should be dead. I'm sorry. Hope, I'm sorry. If I can do anything to help you out while you heal, give Nathan a call here and I'll come find you," McHugh said, seemingly genuine, though I still wanted to punch him. He tossed me keys. "Here, Crocker. I figured you and Hope were gonna need a way to get out of here when Nathan released you tonight. I tracked down your car for you. Figured it was the least I could do after I acted like such an ass."

"It's a good start, McHugh, but touch my sister again, and I'll make you remember why should fear me. Understood?"

"Lookin' forward to you tryin', Crocker."

He walked away and we walked to my car. I picked Hope up and put her in the passenger seat, just to make sure she didn't use her shoulder. Then I went to the driver's side and we left, after a long day. Hope and I both got our answers, even if not all of mine were answers I liked.