Characters: Garland Wuornos, Annie Wuornos, Nathan Wuornos, Claire Callahan, and brief Dwight Hendrickson. Mild descriptions of death by explosion. Some spoilers for seasons 4&5 (Mara & William)

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Chapter 6: Garland Wuornos

Garland had been pretty confused when he woke up, whole but shaking, on the beach, but he'd gotten up and trudged to the police station. Nathan was directing, and entirely unsurprised to find his father in one piece. Nathan had sent him after the Rev and Annie, who had apparently died close together in a display of irony that had Garland unsure whether to chuckle or wince.

Annie is alive.

He still can't quite believe it, but here she is, cracking jokes about his age, swearing at people, and greeting everyone with enthusiasm.

Annie is alive, Nathan has apparently accepted the existence of the Troubles and about tripled in competence at handling them in the interim, the town is at least mostly in one piece, and Garland cannot remember the last time has had this good of a day.

Annie's curled into him. "Garland. Did you die, too?"

Garland sighs and grunts an affirmative. "Think I might be the only one back who wasn't a homicide, from the sound of it."

"Yeah? What happened?"

"Exploded."

"Oh, yeah?" Annie asks. This possibility has always piqued her interest as much as it's horrified her. Her Trouble also regularly risked killing her- hypothermia- but apparently didn't have as much flair as blasting outward in a shower of rubble. "How was it?"

"Fast, mostly painless. Humiliating. Nathan was there."

Annie frowns in consternation. "You exploded in front of our son?"

"You know I would have stopped it if I could have."

"Were you taking Valium? You know that helps."

Garland grimaces. "Can't do my job on that stuff; you know that. It went to shit too fast for me to get some."

"Hi; couldn't help but overhear your conversation- Valium isn't the only anxiety med out there, you know, and if you've had side effects we can experiment with other medications that could help relieve your symptoms without affecting your work performance. I don't have any cards with me, and my schedule's going to be pretty packed for the next few weeks, but we can definitely work out a time to talk about it."

The speaker is a young redhead with an eager expression who happens to be wearing pajamas decorated with robot ducks.

"Who are you?" Garland asks finally.

"Dr. Claire Callahan. Psychiatrist specializing in Haven's special cases. I'd love to keep talking, but Nathan just asked me to evaluate a trio of murderous Crockers. Until next time!" And she swooshes off.

"Haven probably needs good shrinks," Annie says. "And I assume she wears grown-up clothes to her sessions."

"Eh, I don't need a shrink."

"You got so stressed out that you exploded, Gar."

"I recovered."

Annie grins. "True. You've got a smokin' hot thirty-one year old wife. Who could be stressed?"

Garland rolls his eyes and elbows her lightly.

"So, Nathan's a cop. How'd that happen?"

"Dunno. Didn't even know he was doing it until he was already out of the Academy and applied for the job," Garland admits.

"Ah. So I take it single parenting did not exactly go well."

Garland lets out a long groan. "Pretty much how we joked about."

"Right. I always was the only one in the family who regularly speaks in full sentences. I imagine it was pretty quiet."

"Yup, and when it wasn't, we were fighting," Garland says, remembering a long string of regrets- not knowing how they happened even still, not knowing how he could have been better.

"Puberty must have been awesome."

"Don't even ask."

Annie chuckles. "Yeah, but look at him now. Garland, our son is a badass."

"That he is." Garland takes a long breath. "Seen the calendars? Time's wrong."

She sighs. "I noticed. The Barn should have passed already… Someone killed Joel."

"I think it was Nathan," Garland says bluntly.

Annie shrugs. "We agreed that we'd do it ourselves if she wanted us to. Only reason we didn't last time is that we wanted Nathan to have the rest of his childhood back."

"He's in love with her. Audrey, this time."

"Aww. Poor kid. So, he kills Joel, destroys the Barn and…"

Garland puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles, getting Nathan's attention, and waves him over.

"So, you shot Agent Howard and destroyed the Barn. Then what happened?" Garland asks.

Nathan stares at him. "Who told you that?"

"No one," Annie responds cheerily. "We extrapolated. So, out with it. Joel told us that bad things will happen if the soft spot is torn open or some such nonsense."

"Uh, yeah. This guy William came over and brought out the person Audrey used to be, and she's…"

"Yeah, Mara's evil. He mentioned that," Garland says, grimacing.

Nathan stares at them. "Who is Joel, why does he know Mara's name, why did he tell you, and what else do you know?"

"Joel is Agent Howard's original name, the keeper of the Barn. I don't know how he knows. Garland is exceptional at interrogation and I am excellent at threatening. We know how to make a new Barn, if you're interested," Annie says, counting each answer on a finger.

"When we figured out that Lucy wasn't the real Lucy Ripley, we realized that he had to be in on it, invited him out to dinner, and questioned him about it," Garland grunts. "I was gonna tell Audrey. That and everything else. Just as soon as she figured out she wasn't actually Agent Audrey Parker. Never got the chance."

"That's why Agent Howard talked to you so much when he was here," Nathan mutters under his breath.

"Wuornos!" Dwight yells and- is Dwight wearing a cop's uniform? When did Dwight retire from Cleaner duty and become a cop?

Before Garland can ask, Nathan tells them both, "Have questions. I'll talk to you later," and strides purposefully toward Dwight.

"If Mara hurts him, I'll kill her," Annie says calmly. "Lucy or no Lucy."

"Gonna kill her anyway?" Garland asks. To an outsider, it wouldn't sound tentative- from Garland, very little would- but he knows Annie picks up on it.

Annie purses her lips. "Not sure. I hate making the same mistake twice, and allowing a close-friend-turned-evil to wreak havoc on Haven and on us… It's too familiar. And Nathan's much too close."

Garland takes in a shaky breath and squeezes her hand. "I know."

"But if Nathan loves Audrey… I don't know if I can handle him hating me."

"That is sort of my wheelhouse," Garland admits.

Annie snorts and rests her head against his shoulder. "I'm not sure, Gar. But one thing's for sure. If Lucy's influencing Mara… Lucy knows I'd at least consider it."

"You think Lucy would want…?"

"I don't know, Garland."

Garland finds he doesn't know either, and suddenly his day isn't so bright anymore.