They had gone 3 more rounds, and Duke had drunk two of them when he spied an old upright piano in one corner.
"I bet you a full, honest discussion if I can show you something amazing." Duke challenged, excited.
"If I win do I ask all the questions?"
"Doesn't matter, I'll ask and answer as much as you want either way. I just really want the chance to blow your mind."
Lexie was tempted to make a dirty joke, but knew he was expecting it and refrained.
"Deal. But this better not be lame."
Duke stood and grabbed her hand, grinning as he led her to the piano. "Have you ever had lessons, Lexie?"
"No. I didn't exactly have what you'd call 'parents'."
Duke looked curious, and she said "I'll tell you after you 'blow my mind', thanks."
He sat on the bench with her and said, "Just rest your fingers on the keys and close your eyes." She did, and the sudden darkness amplified his voice in her ear, humming a strangely familiar tune.
She didn't know if it was his proximity or the dark silk of his voice, but a shiver crept up her bare back and goosebumps rose all over her skin. It felt like her chest was filling, expanding. Like the tide was rushing in. Like a locked door was opening inside her.
The piano was playing the strange melody suddenly and Lexie opened her eyes and stared at her hands in awe and fear as they danced over the keys. She watched in horrified fascination until the song ended, then she jerked away so violently she almost fell back over the bench, Duke barely managing to catch her.
The feel of his bare chest against her didn't distract her from the dread filling her. The all-encompassing terror and pain pressing down on her like a living thing as she fought, feeling like she was breaking in two and drowning at the same time. The pressure was growing, she was going to erupt like a volcano.
"Not here! Not here! I shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be here! This is wong. You're not real! Not again!" She screamed, pushing against Duke and trying to hold her head at the same time. He was shocked, speechless.
"No! You got what you wanted, why are you showing me this! I know he isn't here!"
Duke was trying to calm her down, to hold her and keep her from hurting herself, but she was frenzied, writhing like a wildcat. He tightened his grip and spoke into her ear.
"I will let go of you if you stop screaming and calm down." Duke insisted. Lexie froze and the screaming cut off instantly, but she radiated tension and fury. He slowly loosened his grip, afraid she'd try to bolt. His arms were still loosening around her when she spun, slapping him and taking his moment of shock to dart away from him, grabbing his button-up and throwing it on as she ran behind the bar, only stopping when they were on opposite sides of that relative barrier.
Duke was standing in front of her, looking lost and scared. She was shaking hard and gasping herself.
"Why are you still here, why do you still look like him?" She growled at him.
"I am me." He looked at her beseechingly, his hands raised and open.
"I know that's not true. It can't be true, it's never happened before." She looked lost and afraid, beautiful in his too-big shirt. She looked very young suddenly.
"I will do anything to prove who I am, anything. I haven't lied to you yet, have I?" He begged.
"No." She finally admitted, sounding almost amused as she continued, "I suppose we still don't count lies of omission."
Duke laughed and she shook visibly harder, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Please stop, I can't... it hurts, physically hurts to hear you laugh. I shouldn't have joked. If I believed..."
Kinda-Lexie grabbed two more tumblers and another bottle of scotch, managing to still pour the drinks neatly and pushing one at Duke insistently as she threw back her own, one arm wrapped around herself.
Duke sobered instantly, hands held up in surrender, his whole posture radiating submission. "Okay, I'm sorry. It's okay, we'll do whatever you say."
"I say stop pretending and show your face!"
"If I could change my face, I'd have done it years ago. Please, ask me anything."
"Don't you see the horror I face? Seeing every possible outcome, each missed opportunity. They use it against me, finding new ways to break me. Please, I've done my work. You don't have to hurt me by showing me what might have been!"
"Then fuck possible outcomes. You let me show you a definite outcome." Duke said forcefully. He hopped over the bar easily, pushing into Lexie's space, overloading her fragile system and sending her subconscious into overdrive.
He pushed against her, crowding her against the bar as he strode forward, his hair flying and his hands coming up to hold her precious, beloved face as he kissed her.
This kiss was desperate; needy and demanding. She gripped and clawed and a tiny piece of imagination they both shared wondered what it would it be like without the barrier of clothing between them.
Duke was the entire universe in a kiss. Every wish, hope, dream or half-assed want were promised, sworn to her.
She felt like an atom bomb was shaking through this magnificent... whatever he was, for he couldn't be here if he was entirely human. Nobody like Duke could be entirely human. He was too perfect.
He was holding her face, but one hand traced down her throat as he kissed her. It traced the curve of her neck, that adorable freckle on her throat that he wanted to kiss every single time he saw her. He didn't try to move beneath the neck of her borrowed shirt, content to feel her pulse beating quick-time beneath his fingers.
Duke broke the kiss this time, and as he pulled his lips just an inch from hers he said, "Now tell me who I am." He breathed the words against her lips.
She hesitated, frozen with apprehension. "...Duke?"
"Yes. I swear, I am here and I am real, but I can't explain if I don't know what you remember."
She swallowed, taking a breath before she whispered back, "Too much, but not enough. I know you shouldn't be able to be here. How are you here? You can't be, but the simulations can't touch me... your face should have changed when I hit you."
She jerked a little. "I hit you! Oh my gods, Duke, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Her fingers flew to his face, looking for damage and he laughed a little.
"It was a slap. Next to what I'm used to, it was a love tap. I gotta say, for such a fighter, you hit like a girl." He grinned, stopping her heart even as she glared at him. They were still an inch apart, hands on each other's faces.
She brought her lips to his, whispering, "I wasn't trying to cause damage. Just a slap, to make it go away. And I am a girl." She insisted, pressing against him to kiss him again.
He had to be the one to break the kiss again. "What should I call you?"
She looked thoughtful. "It doesn't really matter. Lexie. Audrey. In here, they're all true."
He was shocked and excited, as if seeing her for the first time.
"Audrey?" He asked, afraid to believe.
"Yes, Duke. It's me. But... kind of Lexie, too. I... in here, my name is Mara, the name I was born with. I don't generally like being called that, though you may be an exception. You are to everything else, obviously."
"Mara?" Duke tasted the name as he said it. It tasted like bourbon, tears and old, arcane knowledge.
She tilted her head. "It almost sounds pretty when you say it. Huh."
He hugged her like he'd wanted to since he heard her voice, the adrenaline rush making him feel strong and unstable at the same time. He was surprised to feel tears running down his face, more surprised when he saw the tears were black.
He stared, stunned as the black tears flew through the air and into Audrey's hand. She shuddered, a black ball appearing in her hand, which she dropped into her pocket. She immediately went back to hugging him as though he hadn't just leaked magic fucking black tears on her.
This was way, way stranger than the time he'd done acid. It was starting to edge out the sweat lodge and vision quest in New Mexico on his 'weird shit-o-meter'. And he'd woken up from that naked against a cactus with a coyote licking his face.
"Audrey. Mara, whatever you want to be called. What just happened?"
"One name at a time is fine, Duke. They're all accurate though the old ones like Lucy and Sarah may as well be names for my left hand and my right. Audrey or Mara or Lexie. You may as well say Audrey for the moment, since that's what you're used to. Gods, how are you even here? And Troubles don't work in here. I... I don't understand." She gripped her head again, leaning heavily against him.
"Come on, beautiful, let's sit you down before you fall down." He swept her into his arms, carrying her to a loveseat in a tucked-away alcove. He sat her down and sat next to her, still shirtless. She curled up against his side like a cat.
"Audrey, tell me what you remember."
"I remember giving you my gun. Thanks for the trade, by the way. Ironic that you'd bring the gun from the case I was sent to Haven on in the first place."
"Glad you approve, smart-ass. It's what I had on hand at the time."
"I told you not to let Nathan follow. Oh gods, he didn't, did he? Duke, he'll be killed!"
Duke thought about the moments leading up to his jump. His stomach turned, thinking of Nathan bleeding, begging Duke to save the woman they both loved. "He didn't come in. He... got hurt. Sent me instead."
"Hurt how? Is he okay?"
Duke sighed, resting his head back. "Jordan shot him, but it wasn't bad, Audrey. I'm sure. And I shot her back, so there's that."
She thought hard and huffed out a sigh, relieved. "He'll be fine. So will she. He's going to need our help eventually. We have time, though. What else happened after I went in?"
"The meteors didn't stop, Audrey. Nate shot Howard, everything was going crazy, but the meteors fell even with you inside."
Audrey looked horrified. "He shot Howard? Oh no, no... without the guardian, of course they're still falling! Nobody is driving! Fuck!"