betterthanaplan | Haven, Maine, over the weekend

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Haven, Maine, over the weekend

The last time Octavia had been to Haven, she'd gotten arrested and Gloria had had to go yell at the Chief of police.

The last time Duke had been to Haven, he'd gotten arrested and Gloria had had to go yell at the Chief of police.

They could both be forgiven for being a little nervous pulling into the harbor now, even without the "let's go meet our mutual therapist in person" part of the deal.

[for one! NFB due to distance]

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"Gonna cry?!" Nathan shouted after him. "'Run home and cry, baby!' Do you remember that?" He flung himself against the chains, moaning again. "Do you remember telling me that, Duke?!"

Duke ignored him. He made it to the end of the docks and sat abruptly, feet dangling over the edge as he curled in on himself and tried to breathe through the rush. The boards of the dock cracked under his fingers. If he had to get up right now, he'd take chunks of them with him.

Slowly, the rush subsided. And Duke was left with just his bruised throat and aching head, and Nathan screaming and taunting him from the other end of the dock.

Octavia crossed over onto the dock as Duke moved away, watching him but keeping Nathan in her peripheral vision. Had to watch them, both but for different reasons.

More or less, anyway.

"Shut up," she told Nathan, cold and assertive - and one hundred percent sure it wouldn't do anything.

Not a blessed thing. Well, other than making Nathan snarl at her like an animal, anyway.

Duke shivered faintly -- he was still shirtless -- and tilted his head into the sun, his eyes closed. He wondered if he'd ever be able to come back here without running headfirst into his trouble and his and Nathan's past.

He wished he could pretend that meant he wouldn't keep coming back here.

He slowly stood and made his way back over, head still down, hand wrapped around the back of his neck. "So. Naturally, Nathan goes nuts and his first instinct is to come try to kill me."

"'Cause you're a prick," Nathan spat.

"Yes, thank you." Duke waved him off and looked at Octavia. "What do you suppose everyone else in Haven would do if they lost their minds? Maybe we should be on the look out for more attackers."

Octavia wanted to ask if he was okay.

But she knew he wasn't, even without asking. So instead, she cast a glance around. "Maybe," she said. "Though I feel like if we were about to get swarmed, it would've started happening already."

"Point," Duke said, ignoring Nathan as he flung himself into his rocking and moaning routine. "And Audrey seemed to think she could get a handle on . . . whoever was running around causing this."

"Audrey likes the strange stuff," Nathan said. "Must be why she seems to like you."

"Jealous, Nathan?" Duke asked.

Nathan hissed wetly through his teeth.

Octavia squeezed her eyes shut for just a second. But very tightly.

"I shouldn't hit him until he shuts up."

Not a question. She was just telling herself that.

"It'd be like punching a brick wall," Duke said, holding up his hand. "Trust me."

Nathan stared at her with a strange grin on his face, still rocking against the chains.

"What did he promise you?" he asked. "Did he say he loves you? He doesn't know what that word even means."

"I'm not opposed to gagging him, though."

Octavia glanced down at Nathan. "You're wasting your breath." And then back up at Duke, with a little shrug. "It's worth a shot."

"I'll go get a nice, filthy rag," Duke said, giving Nathan another glare before he turned and walked away, his back ramrod straight, his shoulders pulled in tight.

He didn't like leaving Octavia with Nathan alone. But he also needed to be away from Nathan's goading words and -- more importantly -- the blood still slowly dripping down his chin.

Thrown into a wall. Choked. Blood running down a chin. His trouble going off.

This was all just -- a lot to deal with.

Octavia already knew she was going to be having another round of nightmares, and none of this had even happened to her.

(This time.)

She watched Duke walk away, and then locked everything down again, crossing her arms.

"You're just like he is, aren't you," Nathan hissed with a giggle. "You feed on people."

[I'M NOT SORRY]

Octavia turned to look at him, her gaze ice cold. Her voice was no warmer, and all edge.

"And don't you forget it."

Duke came back, carrying a nice, greasy rag from his tool box. He glanced from Octavia to Nathan and back.

"I see you two are bonding." He held the rag out to Octavia. "Do the honors?"

"You're going to eat him alive," Nathan said, panting through his teeth again. "Good."

Nice going, trouble. Octavia might've been a little nicer without that last comment.

But now she grabbed the rag, and yanked Nathan's head back, and stuffed the rag in his mouth with very little care for anything except shutting him up and not actually suffocating him in the process.

Nathan growled at her, then started rocking back and forth against the chains again.

"Audrey owes us so much for this one," said Duke.

He would not hear any disagreeing from Octavia, no.

"As soon as this is done, can we just... go?"

Duke sighed and nodded. "Yes. Absolutely."

He'd be back in a couple weeks for Bill and Geoff's opening, but he wasn't going to drag Octavia along with him if she didn't want to deal with all of this again.

The flush drained out of Nathan's face and he stopped rocking, blinking and shaking his head like a dog shaking off some water. He looked up at Duke, then around, frown deepening with every moment.

"Well. At least that didn't take a whole hour."

Octavia looked down at Nathan.

"Are you back?" she asked. She didn't want the gag to be removed only for him to start spewing more goading.

Nathan scowled at her, saying something muffled through the rag. He tugged -- gently this time -- on the chains, the frown growing ever deeper.

"You got hit by a trouble," Duke told him. "We're your babysitters."

Nathan's response to that was still muffled, but pretty easy to translate anyway.

"Yeah. Same to you, buddy."

Octavia looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't.

"You realize you're not getting free until you play nice, right?"

"We hold him to that and he'll be tied here forever," Duke said. "Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but it is pretty close to my boat."

Nathan muttered into the gag again and went relatively limp, clearly doing his best to 'play nice'.

"Better ungag him at least," Duke said with a sigh. "I need Audrey's number so I can tell her to come fetch."

Octavia's bar for niceness from Nathan was set to him not being openly hostile for about ten seconds, so that had been met, now.

So she removed the rag, yes.

"Where's Audrey?" Nathan asked, embarrassed and annoyed, but not quite his full belligerent self. "Did she go after Lilly on her own?"

Duke rolled his eyes. "Does it look like we have that information, Nathan? She wasn't exactly long on details."

"Don't even know who Lilly is," Octavia agreed. "But she said she thought she knew who gave you this bout of crazy before she dumped you on us, so..."

Nathan paled slightly and looked down at himself. His mouth tasted like grease and blood. And it hadn't slipped his notice that Duke was bleeding.

"What did I do?"

Duke shrugged. "Threw punches, called me names. The usual."

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