betterthanaplan | Haven, Maine, over the weekend

Entry tags:

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]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

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."

"Nothing to feel too guilty about," Octavia rasped in agreement.

It was probably the nicest thing she was likely to say to Nathan in a long time.

Duke waggled his phone. "What's Audrey's number? I'll call her to come fetch you."

Nathan scowled. "Unchain me. I'll call her myself."

"Nope. Not letting you go until the lady with the taser is back. What's her number?"

"Audrey tased me?"

"Yeah, see, you didn't stop choking me when Octavia smashed a board over your head, so I'm just going to play it safe."

"I choked --" Nathan cut off with a long, deep sigh. "Mr. Crocker. I encourage you to file a complaint and press charges."

Duke dropped his head with a sigh of his own. "Not my style, Nathan."

"Just give him the damn number," Octavia grumbled, "so we can get on with it."

Nathan narrowed his eyes at her, then looked back at Duke and rattled off the number. Duke dialed, pacing away a few steps as it rang.

"Audrey. Hey. Sleeping Beauty woke up. Please come get him so Octavia and I can move on with our lives."

Octavia stayed where she was, looking off towards the water.

Nathan wasn't getting any more of her attention than he absolutely had to get.

". . . Yeah," Duke said, shooting her a look. "I might know where that boat is. But I want to know what's going on."

Nathan shot him a suspicious glare.

"Because I'm a concerned citizen, Audrey. And this trouble tried to kill me, so I'd like to know if I need to be looking over my shoulder."

And if someone might come along wanting him to kill to stop it.

Octavia met his look with a resigned one of her own.

It didn't sound like this was over for them just yet.

Duke mouthed an apology at her.

This was what you got when you dated a compulsive fixer.

"I'll take you there. We can leave Nathan chained to the docks, I'm sure he'll be fine." He grinned at Audrey's response. "Ugh, fine. If you insist. But if he attacks again. . . ."

He was enjoying teasing Audrey. Which made for two cops now whose presence he might actually enjoy.

What was even happening to him?

Octavia only barely kept herself from motioning for him to wrap it up.

Instead, she moved to see about unchaining Nathan. Since that was apparently happening.

"Yeah. We'll be here." Duke hung up and let out a breath. "Okay. Looks like we've got a little more trouble wrangling to do before we're done." He quirked a smile at Octavia. "We'll get back on the water as soon as we're done."

Nathan hmphed, straightening carefully once the chains were off, and warily eyeing Octavia.

"Did you really hit me with a plank?"

"Yes," Octavia said, as if it was obvious.

"Doesn't hurt," Nathan muttered.

"Jesus, Nathan." Duke rolled his eyes. "We get it. You don't feel anything. It sucks. Move on."

Octavia wasn't going to touch that topic at all.

Instead, she looked up at Duke again. "So Audrey's coming to meet us?"

"Yeah," Duke said. "She thinks the troubled woman and her husband might be hiding out on his boat."

"Lilly?" Nathan asked. Duke shrugged.

"I don't know, maybe?"

Nathan shook his head. "I don't know. That doesn't sound right."

Duke snorted. "Man, last time I talked to you, you didn't even think the troubles were a thing."

"Last time you talked to me, you were cuffed to an interview table."

Haven, Maine, over the weekend

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!

Re: BUT THEN!