Mwallace: There are more near misses to come.
SunDanceQT: She still works for CPS. I don't imagine her old enough to be retired. I haven't sat down and thought about her exact age, but I imagine her as a very intelligent, hard worker who probably took college courses in high school and summer classes, and graduated early. So I'd place her in her late forties. Chloe's dad is fifty. There is more regarding her job that I'll come back to later.
FromTumblr: More details to come.
96itadakimasu96: Chloe knows she's lucky. Sometimes, I want to do an AU spinoff of them taking Aubrey after Disneyworld.
G: Well. She tried to tuck Beca in, so there's that, lol.
Pixie1913: You'll find out soon enough.
Guest: Thank you.
Andiclauds: The plot is building on itself in ways I didn't expect now.


Dysrhythmia


Can't hide in the den of lions,
Can't move with your feet tied.
No rest when you sleep in shadows.
There's nowhere to run when all is coming undone.
You can try, you can try.
- Ruelle


"Where are you going?" Beca asks, as Aubrey sits on the edge of the bed and tries to slip her shoes on with the utmost silence.

Aubrey jumps. So she was awake when Aubrey was calling her name. She ignores her right back.

"Seriously," Beca says a little louder this time, causing Julia to move again, "Where are you going?"

Aubrey looks behind her at Chloe's mom, pausing to make sure she's still asleep. "You may not want to know anything, Beca, but I do. And, if you're not going to tell me what you know-"

"Dude, you're accusing me of not wanting to know anything and of knowing something you don't at the same time," Beca points out, "Which is it?"

"Why were you and my mom looking at each other like that earlier?" Aubrey asks.

"What are you talking about?"

"When I was talking, you two looked at each other. You know something."

Beca sits up and rubs her face. "The only thing we both know that you don't is that you're a mess. Go to sleep."

Aubrey shakes her head.

"We already know who did it, and we already know why," Beca says, "What else do you need to fucking know, Aubrey?"

"Did you know he burned them?" Aubrey asks, "All of them. That's why no one knows who died. They're going to have to check dental records or whatever they do to figure out who is who."

"We already have the big picture. Why do you need to know every little detail? Do you want to push yourself until you have a breakdown?"

Aubrey isn't going to have a breakdown. If she was, it would have happened by now. "You're the one pretending your fiancé didn't turn your wedding into a massacre," she replies, "It's not going to be me who explodes."

Beca doesn't say anything to that.

"Jesse convinced Luke and Nikki to help him kill all those people," Aubrey says, "And I want to know how." Nothing could have convinced Aubrey to do that. Nothing could have convinced Chloe to do that. And, Aubrey is fairly certain, nothing could have convinced Beca to do that. "And my dad somehow knew I was on that island, which means he knows something else. I think this is bigger than what we know."

"I don't think Jesse colluded with your dad."

Probably not. But something is not right. "Are you coming with me to find out more or not?"

Beca sits there, silent for long enough that Aubrey thinks maybe she's won her over. Then she picks up her blanket and covers herself with it as she lowers herself back down onto her cot. "No, and you shouldn't be going anywhere either. Dude, get some rest, Aubrey. You've done enough."

Aubrey hasn't done anywhere near enough, and she cannot rest until she has.

xxxxx

Aubrey is dragging. Just from sneaking out of the room and waiting for Brian in the hallway, she is dragging. Everything is screaming 'no more', but there is more, and Aubrey needs to know what exactly that means.

"You're in luck," Brian says, approaching her, "We have a boss who likes to spy too, and he wants me to know everything he knows. Did you know he used to work homicide cases until his wife made him stop? I feel like I'm on a cop show."

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this," Aubrey comments when he gets closer.

"I know, I get more handsome by the second," Brian says.

"I meant excited." Great. Her pain is the pleasure of everyone who likes a good murder mystery. "You're usually very…"

"Serious? Professional?"

"Drab."

Brian gives her a half-shrug. "I have to balance out my marriage."

"I'm sorry?" Aubrey looks at his hand. He is wearing a ring.

"What?" Brian asks.

"I didn't know you had a wife."

Brian stares at her with that neutral gaze that she has grown used to. "You are the stupidest smart person I have ever met."

Aubrey frowns and lightly taps his cheek with her open palm.

"Do you think I spend every day thinking 'Golly gee, wonder what my good platonic pal Conrad is up to today'? Better go get me some coffee and donuts and find out."

Aubrey tilts her head.

"We're married. What the fuck, Aubrey."

What? Aubrey isn't in the right mindset for jokes.

"We live above the donut shop?" Brian tries, "With our dog? Why do you think we're always there?"

"Because you like to study there?"

Brian stares at her. "Yeah. Because I live there." He starts to walk off.

They can't be married. Aubrey follows him. "He has sex with literally everybody."

"Thank god. If I tried to keep up with that, my dick would fall off," Brian says, "And 'literally everybody' would imply he's also having sex with you. Are you sleeping with my husband? Not that I'd care. I just can't picture you wearing a strap-on. Or being a top, to be honest."

"Excuse me?" This conversation might actually be equal to or worse than Julia acknowledging that Aubrey sleeps with her daughter. No. On second thought, that was worse than every conversation Aubrey has ever had in the past and will ever have in the future.

"You're a power bottom if I ever saw one."

"I don't know what that means, and I don't want to."

"You lead while receiving."

"I said I don't want to know."

Brian presses the elevator button.

"Why didn't you tell me you were gay?" Aubrey still isn't sure if she believes him.

"Because you were so open about it." Brian steps onto the elevator.

"I'm not gay." Aubrey follows him. At least she doesn't think so…

"Bisexual, then."

Aubrey shakes her head.

"Straight with a passion for women," Brian tries again.

If Aubrey was straight, she probably wouldn't have fallen in love with Chloe nor would she want to have sex with her. She has no idea what she is.

"In denial?" Brian guesses.

Aubrey rolls her eyes in annoyance, and steps off the elevator. "Where are we going?" This is the same floor as the cafeteria, and she really hopes no one is going to try to feed her again.

"To sit down," Brian answers, and leads her exactly in the way she doesn't want to go.

The cafeteria is dark as they approach it, but there are a few tables and chairs outside. Aubrey all but collapses into the chair closest to her. She should really sit up straight. "What do you know?"

"That I would have shit my pants in that place." Brian sits down across from her. "I don't know what you want to know. Your friend gave the name of the person who did this and a motive. What else are you looking for? It seems that you should be answering the questions, not asking them."

Aubrey stares off into the distance. "Something feels off."

"No shit," Brian says, "I saw the pictures of that place; the ones they're not showing on the news. It's a bloodbath."

Aubrey shakes her head. "I want to know why he burned everyone."

"I haven't exactly spoke to him, seeing as he's M.I.A, but I have a theory."

Of course, he does. Brian is smart. Aubrey looks at him as she listens.

"From what your friend said, he wanted to leave with her, right? After he killed everyone else?"

Aubrey nods.

"What better way to stay hidden? If you can't identify all the bodies, how do you know who all is dead? It's a fake your own death scenario."

"He said he was going to tell the police that Beca was traumatized if she tried to come forward with the truth," Aubrey debates it, "He said he was going to pin it on me."

"The keyword there being if," Brian replies back, "It sure sounds a lot easier to pin it on you if you're the only one alive."

"But they're able to identify people in ways other than just looking at them, right?" Aubrey asks, "Their dental records? Facial reconstruction? Something? So, they would know he's not there."

"That place is such a mess, they're never going to know if they recovered everyone or not," Brian answers, "All those creepy fucking tunnels."

Aubrey rests her hand on her stomach.

"They found two bodies that weren't burned," Brian offers more information.

"In the water?" Aubrey asks.

Brian nods.

Aubrey already knows who they are. "They helped him."

"Then he killed them?"

Aubrey shakes her head. "Did they find any children?"

"There were fucking children there?" Brian asks, and that's enough of an answer, "Jesus."

Aubrey rests her elbow on the arm of the chair, and her head against her hand. Hopefully, he didn't prolong it, if he killed Sophia. Hopefully, he killed her quickly, and she didn't feel a thing. She can't believe she's hoping things regarding the death of a baby. She can't believe he did this. Sure, maybe she hated him, but that had to do with him being a Treble. Aside from that, he always seemed like a nice enough guy.

"Aubrey." Brian snaps his fingers in front of her face.

Aubrey blinks and tunes back in. Now that she's there asking the questions out loud, she can barely remember what she wants to know. "My father knew I was there somehow. Did you know that?" She looks at the Hamilton shirt he's wearing, now that he no longer has to dress in professional work attire, and she just wants to rewind everything. She should have gone home after Hamilton and made up with Chloe, told her she loves her. Maybe they wouldn't be here now.

Brian's chair creaks as he leans back. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" There is a creeping feeling of anxiety that makes Aubrey want to retreat back to bed.

"He's working with the Coast Guard to cordon off the island," Brian says.

That doesn't make sense. "He's not in the Coast Guard." That means he's here. Not only does he know; he is here. "He's in the Army." Why would they bring in the Army? The FBI, sure, but the Army? "Why is he here?"

"I don't know, but the police have been questioning your brother," Brian says.

"Which brother?" Never mind. Aubrey already knows which brother. She closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose.

"How is your whole family here and no one knows you're alive?" Brian asks.

Her whole family. "I did not ask for them to be contacted." Aubrey's privacy feels more invaded by their presence than it does by the photos being paraded across every news channel that exists.

"Do you want me to talk to them?" Brian asks, "Is that where we start?"

Aubrey inhales a deep breath, and tries to calm her body with the exhale. "I want to see him."

"Good ol' Dad?"

Aubrey shakes her head. She isn't prepared to face him right now. Especially not looking and feeling like she does. "I want to talk to my brother. Find him, and bring him here."

"One to ten scale, how easy is this task?" Brian asks.

"Hit him and put him in your trunk, if you have to – preferably without my father seeing you do it."

"Bad cop, bad cop. Got it. What else?"

"There was a child on the island," Aubrey says, not quite looking at him, "She's two years old, the daughter of Stacie Conrad and Donald…" She doesn't know his last name. "Her name is Sophia. Everyone on that island should know they should be looking for her. I want to know if they find her…" If they find her body.

"I can't believe there were god damn fucking children there." Brian slouches down in his chair, and rubs the stubble on his chin. "I would have shit my fucking pants," he says again out loud.

xxxxx

There doesn't seem to be anything more that Brian knows that Aubrey doesn't. Everything he's able to tell her, she's seen with her own eyes, and hearing about it again makes it that much worse. He walks her back up to her room about an hour later, under several disapproving gazes from the nurses. One of them probably tried to check on her and got word she was on a nightly stroll. As long as they didn't wake up Chloe's mom…

Aubrey stops outside the door of her room.

"I'll see you in a few hours," Brian says, "If you don't want to quit your hunger strike for coffee to stay awake after this, I don't know what to do about you."

Right. Aubrey is supposed to talk to her boss in a few hours. "Thank you," she tells him, ignoring the comment about the 'hunger strike' she is supposedly on. "Goodnight."

"Night, Aubs."

There is an awkward moment of the two of them just standing there, before Brian pulls her into a hug. Aubrey rests her head against his shoulder. The moment she stops going going going, every drop of energy she has gained floods right back out of her again.

"He's going to rot in prison," Brian says.

Aubrey nods. She hopes he's somewhere bleeding to death, feeling the terror that they all felt. She eases herself upright, and holds onto him until she's stable enough to resume standing on her own. She simultaneously wants to be the one who killed him, but to never have killed anyone.

"Go rest." Brian nudges her toward the door.

Everyone is telling her to rest like it's so easy. She rubs her face in exhaustion, then pushes the stupid IV pole inside. The bag attached to it is empty. The nurses were probably looking to change it. Well. She's back now. She trudges over to the bed, and tries to figure out how to lie back down. Chloe's mom has taken up the empty space Aubrey left, and now there is no room. Aubrey is going to have to wake her or go sit on a chair. She silently shakes her shoulder.

Julia wakes up almost immediately, looking around in confusion for a moment before moving over to give Aubrey space. "Why are you out of bed?"

Aubrey chooses to ignore the question over lying. She lowers herself down on the edge of the bed to slip off her shoes, then just sits there, getting lost in thought about her father being here. She doesn't want him to be here. He's going to be so disappointed in what he raised. Had he been on that island, everybody would have come home alive.

Julia props her head up on her hand. "Lay down, Honey"

He never taught her how to save anyone else. Only herself. It was always a competition to see who could come out on top. Aubrey turns around, her only options being to lie on her back or facing Chloe's mom. She tries both and can't get comfortable either way – even when Chloe's mom tries to help her. Her body just hurts no matter what position it's in. Every muscle feels strained. She finally settles on her back and tries to breathe through it, closing her eyes, covering her face with her hand.

"Do you want me to talk you to sleep?" Julia asks.

Aubrey nods. She would rather listen to Chloe's mom than continue thinking about how close she is in proximity to her own parents right now. None of the times she sat preparing what she'd say to them did she ever think she'd actually speak to them again. Maybe they won't even want to talk to her. That feels just as bad... They're never going to be proud of her now. Ever. That dream is ruined forever.

"Okay." Julia fixes the blanket. "The fact that I can talk and everyone just falls asleep makes me feel like I must be really, really boring."

Aubrey shakes her head, softening a bit under the sensation of her hair being played with and the warm, familiar scent of vanilla. It really isn't that at all.