betterthanaplan | Haven, Maine, Wednesday (Fandom time)

"The only time I was in school after 3 pm was for detention," Duke said, pulling on the lockers as they went by. It was an old habit from high school, looking for unlocked lockers that might have cash in them, or things he could sell.

"What are you trying to do," Audrey asked, "swipe a lunch box?"

"Maybe." Duke flashed her a smile. She was a lot easier to spend time with right now than Octavia was. Less complicated. Even accounting for the whole 'oh yeah, I maybe knew your mysterious mother' thing. "Some of those are collectibles." He reached up, pushing on a ceiling tile just because he could, then looked around. "For the record, this place gives me the heebie jeebies."

"Huh. I had you pegged as one of the cool kids."

Nope. More the troublemaker everyone was embarrassed to admit they hung out with.

"Nobody was cool in high school. Not even me." Another furtive glance around. He couldn't shake the feeling that the vice principal was about to appear out of nowhere and ask if he should be in class.

Or maybe that he was about to get run down by a moose.

"High school, like so many other things, should be left in the past. Where it belongs."

"Wait, wait." Audrey touched his arm. "Is that your way of saying you don't want to help me with this?"

Duke sighed. "No."

"I find a picture of the Colorado Kid's death," Audrey said. Again. Duke raised his hand, then resigned himself to another emotional blackmail session. "And I spend all this time running around Haven trying to ID the woman in the photo, who could be my mom, and then after all of that, you tell me you were in the picture."

"Okay," Duke allowed. "That may have been unfair."

"Yeah, you think?"

"I'm going to try to get Vanessa to talk to you," Duke said, as they stopped outside the door to the guidance office. "But she was just my babysitter. I haven't even seen her in over a decade." He reached for the knob, then stopped and looked back. "And — one other thing. I can't remember anything from that morning. Nothing."

Audrey frowned, clearly adding that to all the other strange things she'd been learning about Haven and its history. Duke didn't bother trying to tell her what he'd told himself most of his life, that he'd blocked the day out due to trauma.

Considering all the trauma he'd been through lately, all of which he remembered perfectly well, he was starting to think that wasn't it.

Audrey nodded, and Duke led the way into the office. Braced for, he felt, just about anything.

Well. He was maybe not braced for the idea that he'd be very attracted to his former babysitter. In his defense, she did look really nice. And she wasn't really that much older than he was. . . .

"Maybe I should just leave you two to catch up," Audrey said, giving Duke some serious side-eye for his habitual flirting.

"I'm sorry," Vanessa said, turning to her. "What can I do to help you?"

Audrey showed her the old newspaper photo, pointing to the teenage girl in the background. "This is you, isn't it?"

Vanessa looked at the photo, then looked up at Duke. Duke tried not to look too uncomfortable, and was pretty sure he failed.

"The woman next to Duke in the photo," Vanessa said. "That's . . . you mother?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Audrey said. "Her name is Lucy Ripley. It's been 27 years, but that morning is still a mystery. We don't know who the Colorado Kid was, how he died. . . . So anything you could tell me, that might help me know why she was there or what happened. . . ."

"Look," Vanessa said. "I'd — I'd like to help, but. . . ."

"You don't remember what happened," Duke guessed.

"No," Vanessa said. "Not a thing."

Duke sighed and nodded. "Me either."

"Really?" Vanessa leaned towards him. "I mean, that's a horrible feeling, right?"

"Yeah." Duke shot a look sideways at Audrey. "Which is why I don't talk about it. "

The plan to go visit the photographer captured in the photo was delayed when the high school principal's car suddenly exploded in the parking lot, with her inside. Audrey tried to beg off the case, pointing out that a car fire didn't really sound like their sort of thing, but Nathan insisted that it was. Even when Julia chimed in to agree with Audrey, in her new official capacity as interim ME. By the time Duke swung by the station to bring her to see the photographer, she and Nathan were still arguing over whether or not it should be an investigation.

"Does that mean we're not doing this?" Duke asked. "'Cause that's fine. I mean, I'm happy to —" Not deal with the giant mysterious hole in his memory again for awhile.

"None of this is going anywhere tonight," Nathan said, dashing Duke's hopes. "I'll stay, poke around a bit more."

Audrey protested, and Nathan shot her down. "You don't need to be on the clock 24-7, Parker. Go."

"Wow." Duke propped his foot on a chair and leaned in. "Nathan Wuornos being magnanimous. It's a rare, and — and beautiful —"

"Please?" Nathan said to Audrey. "Take him and go?"

Audrey nodded, and Duke straightened. "Okay!"

"I was giving you a compliment," he told Nathan. "I'm just saying. That was a legitimate —" Audrey pushed him out the door. "— From the heart!"

The photographer was a dead end. He was, in fact, kind of completely nuts. The story about the crab people coming out of the water admittedly wasn't the weirdest Duke had heard, in any sense of the word, but the fact that he seemed to feel the need to take all his clothes off while he described it was . . . a bit of a red flag.

"It was real nice meeting you," Duke said on a laugh, and Audrey ushered him out of yet another room.

"Right," he said as they headed back to their cars. "That's it. You now know everything I do about the Colorado Kid murder."

Audrey sighed. This was clearly not enough for her. "Yeah. Well. Thanks for trying, anyway."

"Look," Duke offered, feeling bad. "Maybe Tavi and I can stick around a little longer. At least until tonight. I'll get Vanessa to come to the Gull, and we'll, I don't know, see if we can put our heads together, more closely compare our . . . gaping lack of memories."

"That's sweet," Audrey said. "But I'm pretty sure if Octavia sees you and Vanessa together, there's going to be a murder."

Duke couldn't really argue with that.

He tried it anyway. Vanessa turned him down flat.

He wasn't sure why he was delaying heading back to Fandom like this. Maybe there was something easier about being here, where he could blame everything on Haven and the troubles, instead on him and Octavia just — being different people. There was definitely something easier about being here without Lucifer rather than in Fandom without him.

(For one thing, Lucifer was apparently paying attention to things here. If Ted were to be believed.)

And, well. Maybe Duke just really missed spending time with his friends here, too. He was definitely not going to tell Octavia that, though.

Then a kid got boiled alive in a swimming pool.

Duke was swinging through the station again, looking for Audrey, when he saw the police sketch artist's drawing, and recognized Vanessa. He headed out again before Nathan could ask too many questions, and went right for the Gull. Where he could sling some beers and maybe get his head back on straight.

Friends were one thing, but killer babysitters? Boiled teenagers? Exploding cars?

Haven was going to try to kill him again. That used to be the sort of thing he knew well enough to get out of the way of. Now he just wanted to stick around and help.

Speaking of, it looked like Vanessa had decided to show up after all. Duke greeted her with a big smile. "Welcome to the Grey Gull. Thank you for coming."

"It's, uh." She pointed to the netting. "Charming. I don't see any gulls, though."

"No," Duke said slowly. "They're not allowed inside."

"Oh." She smiled. "Right, of course."

He showed her around ("Here's the bar, there's the deck, and — that's about it."), and they grabbed a two-topper by the windows to catch up. Duke flirted gently, trying to put her at ease, then finally asked the question he'd been mulling over since the station.

"So, uh. Why does Nathan Wuornos have a sketch artist drawing your face?"

He hadn't gotten her comfortable enough yet. Even having let her in on the . . . less-than-legal side of his business ventures. She stood abruptly, clearly spooked. "I gotta go."

"Vanessa, I can probably help if you —" Duke cut off as she let out distressed noises. There was a crowd at the bar and she was caught in the middle, looking like she was about to be ill. He made it to her side and tried to help her to a seat. "Let me help."

"D-don't!" she snatched her arm away from him and backed towards the door. "You can't."

"Vanessa —"

"It's coming!" she said, and then vanished back out the door.

"Well." Duke frowned after her. "That doesn't sound good."

Duke wasn't the only one to recognize the sketch. She and Nathan headed for Vanessa's house, wanting to talk to her not just about the heat-related deaths in town, but also the Colorado Kid's, 27 years ago — only to find her out and Duke inside.

"I came here looking for her and she was gone. But I found. . . ." Duke gestured as he led them into the living room, which was plastered in hastily scribbled notes and drawings of . . . bad things. Guns and blood and explosions. "All this."

"So you just let yourself in," Nathan said.

"Yeah." Duke glared at him. "Call a cop."

Nathan actually laughed at that. Duke counted it as a win.

"She came by the Gull earlier," he explained. "We were talking —"

"You saw the sketch," Nathan said, amused to pissed in .015 seconds. "You tipped her off!"

"You want to arrest me, or do you want to let me talk?"

"Vanessa," Audrey prompted. "The Gull, then what?"

"As I was saying," Duke said, nodding his thanks to her. "We were at the Gull. We were talking. Somehow she found out about the sketch." He shrugged expansively at Nathan. "I don't know. And then she freaked out. Alright? She took off. That was a few hours ago. She wouldn't answer my calls, so I came here to check on her, and I found all this. I don't know what it means. I mean, it's nonsense. Just descriptions of explosions and guns. . . . It's all pretty freaky."

Nathan looked over the papers. "It's kind of manic."

"Yeah." Audrey sifted through them, and pulled out a list of names. "Wait, look at this. Those names that are crossed off? Those are the two people that died earlier." She looked at Duke. "This a hit list?"

"A hit list," Duke said. "Vanessa. You did meet her, right?"

"You knew her, what, 27 years ago?" Nathan pointed out. "Your babysitter? You know, people change."

Duke stared at him. "You didn't."

The next name on the list was a Matt, which Nathan connected to Matt West, one of the students on his witness list for the pool. Audrey nodded, folding up the list to put in her pocket, and they set out, Duke close behind.

Someone had to make sure the cops in this town kept in line, after all.

Vanessa wasn't killing people. Vanessa was predicting people's deaths. When she touched anyone, she could see the last things they did, just before they died. That was her trouble, set off when Audrey and Duke came to talk to her at the school. She'd been so disturbed by the reminder of the Colorado Kid that her death visions had triggered, starting with seeing her principal go up in flames.

She hadn't seen the one causing the fires. But she knew he was out there. And that he had more to set. Including a large scale disaster, set to take out maybe a dozen people at once. Including Vanessa.

Duke and Nathan managed to save the party Matt West was attending by throwing a propane grill into the backyard pool before it exploded. Audrey brought them and Vanessa back to her house, to try to figure out this incoming disaster.

None of the details added up, though. All Vanessa saw were the last few seconds of a person's life, through their own eyes. She pulled Audrey aside, leaving Nathan and Duke to continue to puzzle over her notes.

("You're not buying all this fate stuff, are you?" Duke asked. "What," Nathan said. "Duke Crocker charts his own path?" "Don't you?")

Vanessa had remembered something about the morning of the Colorado Kid's murder, specifically why she and Duke had been on the beach that day. Because she'd seen it happen. She'd seen the last things the Colorado Kid saw.

("Say a guy like me, who can't feel anything, meets a woman and discovers he can feel her touch," Nathan said. "Sounds . . . seems like fate, doesn't it?" "Yeah," Duke said, shrugging. "But I heard that Jess lady left you anyway, right? Which is sad. But it's not fate." Nathan sighed. "Forget it.")

"Do you want to hear about my vision?" Vanessa asked. "From that day, the day the Colorado Kid died?"

"Yeah," Audrey said. And had to stop herself from adding "of course". "Yeah, if you can tell me, yeah." Finally, someone was offering to just tell her something!

"There was a — hand. Coming right at me. At his face. It was a . . . pale arm. A man's arm. With a — a tattoo of some kind, inside the forearm." Vanessa shook her head. "I'm sorry. That's all I remember."

"Well, that's great," Audrey said. She even meant it. Mostly. "That's more than I had five minutes ago."

("Life is random," Duke said, trying to make his point. "Now, we try to convince ourselves that this little movie we call life has a plot. But it's not a movie." "Yes it is," Nathan said, standing. "That's exactly what it is. Parker! Get in here! We've got something!")

The visions Vanessa had seen of the coming disaster were all at an outdoor screening of a war movie. They all rushed out to Dockside Green, a little park where the local high school kids liked to show old movies for the town. A little park that was about to get hit by a very angry pyrokinetic.

They split up to try and find their suspect, the boy Matt West who'd been at all three locations so far. They were determined to get everyone to scatter without giving the boy a chance to escape.

("Duke," Nathan said. "Come with me. You're tall and loud." Duke frowned. "That was almost a compliment.")

The last thing Haven needed was a troubled teenager with anger issues. Especially one that had just been ruthlessly rebuffed by his local crush.

Flames burst from the ground in front of the movie screen in a tall column. The moviegoers panicked, and located and grabbed Matt in the ensuing chaos. She tried to talk him down, explaining that his anger was what was making the explosions happen — but she didn't anticipate his broad grin.

"This is awesome!"

"No, Matt," Audrey said. "You have a choice. All right? This is not awesome! This is murder!"

"Oh yeah?" Matt snarled at her. "Prove that in court. Leave me alone!"

Audrey yanked back as the air between them heated up. Vanessa moved to catch him as he ran, and he set off another explosion, right in front of her. She flew back through the air with a scream.

"Vanessa!" Duke ran in and pulled her back by her long coat, laying her down on one of the abandoned picnic blankets so he could tend to her wounds as Nathan and Audrey confronted Matt.

They were burns. Not blood. Which meant they wouldn't set off his trouble, he hoped — but also that there wasn't much he knew how to do in the middle of a field with no access to cool, clean water. "Vanessa." He patted her cheek, trying to keep her conscious. "Come on."

He'd just been doing this. Yesterday, with Audrey. And only a few days ago, he was trying to rescue Lucifer's nephew, and nearly got torn apart by an army of demons.

Both of them were fine, though. Audrey was being Audrey, talking down a trouble, and baby Charlie was with his mom and dad back in LA. He hadn't saved Lucifer from Hell, but no one could tell Lucifer to do or not do something when he had his mind made up. That was the exception that proved the rule. Duke could save Vanessa too. He could.

He couldn't let himself think anything else.

"Matt, stop this," Nathan ordered. He and Audrey had their guns out. "We will shoot!"

"No you won't!" Matt crowed, and heated up their guns, forcing them to drop them. Audrey decided to take a different tack.

"Look at you, Mr. Big Bad Guy now," she said, full 'mean girl' voice in play. "Talking smack to the cops like he's all tough?" She imitated his voice, throwing his taunts back at him as she rolled her eyes. "You actually think that we're afraid of you?"

"You should be!" He set off another explosion.

Audrey didn't even look back. "Oh yeah, right. That's supposed to scare us, right? 'Cause you're all big and powerful?" She scoffed. "You know, whatever." She turned her back on him. "Come on, Nathan. I don't have time for this lame-ass bad guy."

"Hey!" Matt yelled. "Hey, you can't walk away from me! You don't go until I say so!"

"You sure about this," Nathan asked, as they walked slowly away.

Audrey nodded. "Trust me."

"SCREW YOU!" Matt shouted, his voice breaking. "YOU CAN'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, I'LL BURN YOUR ASS!"

Audrey raised her hand in an L above her head without looking back.

Matt gave one last, furious scream.

And exploded in a ball of fire.

Nathan glanced back, then looked at Audrey, his eyes wide. "He's gone."

Audrey didn't look. "I killed him?"

". . . No," Nathan said. "You saved everyone else."

On the ground, Vanessa was fading. Even as sirens announced the paramedics were close. There was blood oozing from her mouth in a slow drip, which Duke carefully avoided, but otherwise, he hadn't let her go.

"Hey," he said. Softly. Desperately. "Hey, you hear that? They're coming for you. You're gonna be just fine."

"I'm not," Vanessa panted. "It's — it's okay. I don't want to live with this gift."

Duke sucked in a sharp breath. He could end this. For her and her whole family. Her blood was right there.

He refused to.

"You don't get to just give up," he said. "There is no fate."

"Yeah, Duke," she whispered. "There is. Do you want to know what I saw about you?"

She tugged his head down before he could answer, and whispered in his ear.

And died.

He laid her back down, too shocked to speak. It wasn't true. It wouldn't come true. There was no fate; she couldn't have actually seen how he was going to die. Right?

. . .

Right?

[GUESS WHO'S DONE SPAMMING YOUR FLISTS! Text above adapted from 1x10, "The Hand You're Dealt", and posted early due to timezone differences/boredom. Octavia's adventures in Haven to be played out in the comments!]

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From:

betterthanaplan

In which Octavia avoids the whole "Colorado Kid" issue and bums around town on her own.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia was avoiding a whole lot of things. The Colorado Kid issue, the way Duke was around Audrey, the fact that she and Duke seemed to have named their kid after his old babysitter...

Yeah, she was running away without actually running away, what of it? Didn't really even have a plan, either. It wasn't a huge town, and so, she was just... walking. While, okay, flicking through the contacts on her phone. Flicking between Gloria and Claire, trying to make up her mind.

Duke wasn't the only one who could use a friendly face.

From:

seaoftroubles

Jordan was doing much the same, killing time before she headed to the Gun and Rose for her shift. She flicked an assessing glance over the new girl. She hadn't heard of any new recruits matching this one's description, but it wouldn't be the first time someone had slipped into Haven just based on reputation alone. . . .

(Or, you know, maybe this was just a tourist with an edgy fashion sense. Jordan had always found it prudent not to assume the best, though.)

She offered the woman a nod. If she decided to engage, maybe she'd even do something nuts like offer her directions, as well.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia had looked up from her phone just in time to end up making eye contact with the other woman. And, something about her sparked -- something, in the back of Octavia's mind, and it showed, faintly. Like a flicker of wary curiosity.

She nodded back, that little bro nod she hadn't quite been able to shake even over the years.

From:

seaoftroubles

Well, that was interesting. Jordan walked past her, turning as she went to keep the woman in sight.

"Help you find something?"

From:

okteiviakom

"Yeah," Octavia said, not stopping to second-guess herself, "I'm trying to find Doctor... Callahan's office?"

That was a lie, yes. (Except for the second's pause as she tried to remember Claire's last name.) She couldn't have entirely even explained why she'd gone for one.

Maybe part of it was the sudden desire to pretend she was normal.

From:

seaoftroubles

"Really." Jordan's eyebrows bounced up. Chalk one up in the 'new troubled person' category. "You a, uh, friend? Patient?"

From:

okteiviakom

"I'm pretty new to therapy," Octavia rasped, "but isn't that supposed to be kind of confidential?"

Was that a joke? Hard to say, really.