Haven, Maine, Tuesday Fandom time

[betterthanaplan]

Duke had been back in Haven for two weeks. It ached how easily he'd slid back into old patterns. Things like going down to the docks before dawn every morning, looking for odd jobs on the local fishing boats to earn some cash. Scrounging up whatever food he could find or steal to save his cash for things like keeping a roof over his head. Shrugging off the dirty looks he got when he headed into town afterwards, scruffy and sweaty and smelling like fish.

He couldn't trade on the 'oh you poor thing' factor the way he could when he was under six feet tall, but hey, at least now he could swing by the hotel and jump in a shower to avoid looking too disreputable when he went into town.

He spent most of his afternoons, evenings, and nights at the Second Chance, working on reshaping it from Geoff's vision of fine coastal dining into something that better suited his personal style. The patchouli smell on the wall-hangings he'd picked up at the hippie store for tourists was a little overpowering right now, but it beat the hell out of smelling like cod, and the salty air of the little bay the building sat on would clear it out soon enough. The old, oxidized fishing equipment hung kitchily on the walls was dug up from bits and pieces washed ashore by the occasional storm, but it cleaned up well enough. Bill and Geoff had had the place well stocked, and most of it would keep, so he didn't have to put too much money into dry goods.

It still needed a name, though. Luke's in Fandom was an institution, but the Second Chance hadn't even managed more than a single opening. A new name would make it his own, and help keep people from worrying about getting mass food poisoning. Something . . . beachy. Something that sounded like an escape.

Something that wouldn't make him miss Octavia so much he wanted to cry. So, you know, no sharks or butterflies.

When he'd done all he could do at the restaurant, he'd wander back towards the hotel along the water's edge, the same route he and Geoff had taken that last night. Sleeping on land was still difficult, even without all the extra worries about troubles and wondering when he'd be able to contact Fandom again. He checked Portalocity several times a day just in case they opened service back up, but he'd given up on trying to text anyone. The bar always made it more than halfway across the top of the message app, and every time his heart would soar, only to plummet back into his stomach when it lagged and finally failed.

He usually sat down on one of the beaten up old adirondacks on the hotel's boardwalk when he got there, staring out over the water and drinking his way through whatever bottle he'd managed to get his hands on that day, before finally stumbling up the stairs to the cold, impersonal bed he was calling his own, right now.

"Do you ever sleep?"

Duke glanced back over his shoulder. Audrey leaned against one of the wood columns that held up the hotel's second floor deck, one of those little wry smirks that reminded him so much of Octavia's on her face.

"Not so's you'd notice."

She snorted (another habit she had in common with Octavia, even if her expressions were a bit broader and easier to spot). "Too busy hatching nefarious plans?"

"You spend way too much time around Nathan."

She shrugged and sat in the chair next to his. They watched the water together in silence for a long moment, before Duke gave in to his urge to fill it.

"I'm thinking of buying a boat."

"You already have a boat."

"Yeah, but it's in Maryland. Doesn't do me much good up here."

"You can't go get it from Maryland?"

Duke glanced over at her. He forgot sometimes that she didn't know his full story. "No. I can't."

"Why do you need a boat?"

He bounced his shoulders, letting his lips curl faintly. "Because living on land is for suckers."

"Not because you're planning to go back to your old smuggling ways?"

Duke looked at her sideways. She laughed.

"Right. You're not going to answer that."

"You're learning."

She leaned forward, taking the bottle from his hand to take a big swig, then grimaced. "Where the hell did you get this crap?"

"Why, so you can go arrest the owner of the still?"

"Yes, Duke. Because I'm well known in Haven for my arrest record."

Duke leaned back in his chair. "How many people have you arrested in town?"

"One. Which you don't get to complain about, since arresting Conrad got you off the hook for Jonas Lester's murder."

"Nathan had nothing on me. It never would have stuck."

"Plus, your detective friend would have brought down federal taskforce hell."

Duke felt the good humor bleed out of his expression. He looked back out over the water again.

This time, Audrey broke the silence.

"Alright, enough of this. Grief is one thing — and not a small thing, I know — but you're moping over more than just Geoff. Is having to stick around to open your new restaurant really that awful?"

"No. It's kind of fun, actually." He looked at his hands, remembered that she had his bottle, and reached for it. She shifted it away, giving him a quirked eyebrow that clearly said she wouldn't give it back unless he talked to her.

Dirty pool.

"I can't go home," he said softly. Reluctantly.

"Why not?"

"This isn't going to make sense to you."

"Why, because I'm a fed? I deal with the troubles every day, Duke, I think I can handle a mob boss or whatever it is keeping you out of Baltimore."

"Not a mob boss." Duke shook his head. "I avoid them as a general rule. Safer that way."

"Mmhm. So what is it?"

Duke sighed through his nose. "I don't know for sure," he said. "Lucifer's locked out of his home dimension by a time quarantine, something about the relative speed of it in comparison to Fandom. So probably something like that. Portalocity won't say."

Audrey studied him for a long moment, a strange expression on her face.

"I told you it wouldn't make sense."

"It —" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "It does, actually."

"Interdimensional travel makes sense to you," Duke said skeptically.

"Yes?" She didn't sound very certain of it. "Kind of in the same way that Bill making food spoil when he gets upset does. Or Ray's music driving people insane."

"Fandom's not a trouble."

"Not everything has to be," Audrey said. "I've known there were weird things out there forever, Duke. Drove my boss at the FBI nuts. Why do you think I decided to stay here?"

"Because you think your mom came through 30 years ago?"

She shrugged. "That too." She sipped from his bottle again, then stood up and offered him her hand. "C'mon. You want to be fresh when you go boat shopping tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah." Duke took it and let her haul him to his feet. She was remarkably strong for such a small woman. Another point in the 'just like Octavia' column. "You'll miss me when I move out."

"Yeah," she said softly, trailing behind him into the hotel. "I really will."

[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. This one I just made up all by myself. ;D]