Haven, Maine, Tuesday (Fandom time)
Mar. 2nd, 2021 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
betterthanaplanDuke hid on his boat.
He was self-aware enough to acknowledge that he was definitely hiding, and restless enough that he didn't spend the whole time in bed, though it was tempting. Instead, he read his family journal.
Maybe it was a form of self-punishment. Maybe he was trying to remind himself that some troubles really did require extreme measures to solve them. Maybe he was looking for hints that more of his ancestors had struggled with their fated role in Haven as much as he did.
He found all three.
Some of the troubles in the book were silly, trifling things. The man who was troubled only to speak in gibberish certainly had it rough, don't get him wrong, but it wasn't exactly the level of "life and death" as Nix was. Or the family whose fear turned into toxic fumes, killing a bunch of Duke's fellow third graders before his father had taken that trouble out.
Most of the entries were simple. Business-like. A name, a description of the trouble, and how they died. (Stabbing, mostly. Roy's father had a preference for throwing stars. He'd been active in the 20s, when everything East Asian was all the rage.) A few, like the Crocker who had been active in the cycle of 1875, had reveled in it, writing long, poetic passages about their duty to the town. And some, like Roy, spoke of the look on their victims' faces when the end came. The ones who were grateful, who were glad to die, to spare the town or their families. The ones who were terrified, or surprised, or angry. How hard it was to watch the light fade from their eyes, no matter whether they welcomed their death or not. How sick they felt, that the Crocker trouble took such pleasure in killing.
Once he'd finished, catching up with his father's last entry, skipping over the sickening letter he'd left for Duke ordering him to kill Audrey, Duke went to hunt down a pen, and added his own entries. He didn't have precise dates, the way some of his ancestors did, but he had a year — 2010 — and he had the names and troubles.
Summer, 2010 — Kyle Hopkins. Gravedigger trouble. Summoned the ghosts of those he'd buried, which caused at least two deaths.Suicide by Crocker Threw himself onto my knife to save his unborn child from being troubled. Urged on by the ghost of Reverend Driscoll, who he himself brought back.
Fall, 2010 — Harry Nix.
He stared at Harry's name on the page for a long, long time. Searching for some pithy descriptor, some easy, two or three word phrase that could encompass how horrifying the man's trouble had been.
Fall, 2010 — Harry Nix. Organ farmer.
He stared a while longer, then slapped the book shut.
He needed a drink.
Eventually, he dragged himself into the shower, then headed into town. No one was going to come find him, so he'd have to find them. He needed to figure out what the multiverse had sent him to Haven to do so he could go back home to Fandom. He needed to find something useful to do, to cleanse his mental palate of everything he'd read in his family's book.
He found himself at the police station around noon, and headed for Audrey's office.
"Hey," he said. Audrey was leaning against her desk next to Claire, who flashed him a faintly alarmed look. Duke ignored her — she was apparently ignoring him, or at least his calls, so it was only fair — and just looked at Audrey. "Wanna get some lunch?"
Audrey sighed, even as she gave him a faint smile. She gestured towards the couch that lined the wall next to the door. "Busy, actually."
Duke looked over at the perp of the day. "Ah. I see." It was a young girl, maybe nine years old. She wore her ashy brown hair in a pair of braided pigtails, and was clutching a stuffed bunny. Clearly a hardened criminal requiring the efforts of Haven's finest. "What'd they get you for, kid? Grand Theft Tricycle?"
He settled in next to the girl, but she didn't look up from her bunny. Something had clearly happened to the kid. She had the beginnings of the same thousand yard stare that Octavia tended to get when she was trapped in her own head. It broke Duke's heart to see it on someone so young. He glanced up at Audrey questioningly, but she just shrugged. So he turned his patented Duke Crocker charm up to eleven.
"No . . ." he said, making a show of thinking it over. "No, that can't be right. You seem like a girl who rides a two-wheeler." He turned to Audrey and Claire, adopting a classic, old-timey mobster voice. "I'm telling ya, you got the wrong kid, coppahs."
The kid didn't even crack a smile.
"Ginger didn't do anything wrong," Audrey said gently. "We just want to ask her a couple questions."
And terrify her out of her wits while they did. Duke knew better than anyone how intimidating the Haven police station could be for a kid. He leaned in to talk to Ginger again.
"Yeah, that's what they always tell me, too. But what I wanna know. . . ." He sat up, giving Audrey and Claire a disapproving look. "Is where are my client's crayons? Where are my client's video games? Where is my client's call with Justin Bieber?"
Ginger finally started to smile. It was a tiny thing, but Duke knew he was on the right track. Audrey seemed amused too, looking away as she tried to hide a smile of her own. Claire just looked faintly curious. Duke gave Ginger a knowing look.
"You got rights, kid."
Ginger's eyes went wide, and she finally turned her head to look at something other than her bunny. "I do?"
Duke nodded, careful to keep things light and easy for her. "Yeah. You know what I do when they try to make me talk?" He lifted his hand and leaned in, as though telling her an important secret, though he didn't lower his voice at all. "I imagine them in their underwear."
Ginger giggled. Claire rolled her eyes. Audrey snorted. "Okay."
Which would be when Dr. Lucassi, quite possibly one of the creepiest looking people in all of Haven even when you didn't know he was working as the coroner, stepped into the office.
"Excuse me, Audrey. I got some results for you on that body."
Audrey gestured sharply to Ginger with her head, and Lucassi had the grace to look chagrined.
"If you want me to do that psych profile on Tommy Bowen," Claire said, "I need to hear this."
Duke kept an ear on that conversation, even as he kept telling Ginger in a soft voice all about his wackier adventures dealing with Haven PD. She didn't need to know about Tommy Bowen, the man who showed up impersonating a cop so he could murder young women and steal their body parts. Hell, Duke wished he didn't have to know about Tommy, even if the guy was apparently dead now, blown up in a boat accident while on the run from Nathan and Audrey.
Yeah, sure. Because anything in Haven was quite as simple as "blown up in a boat accident."
"Ginger?" Audrey said, and Duke paused his story and looked up. "I'm going to have you stay with Duke for a minute, all right? He's really funny. You two have the same sense of humor. You'll have a lot of fun." Duke lifted his hand to object — he was here to take her to lunch, not to babysit! — but Audrey just tilted her head and gave him that 'I know you want to help out, friend' look that he had no defense for. "You're a lot of fun!"
She and Claire and Lucassi all stepped out, leaving Duke alone with a traumatized nine year old.
Right. Well then.
"You are pretty funny," Ginger said.
"Yes." Duke nodded firmly, swelling just a little with a burst of unexpected pride. "I am funny."
Maybe there was something to Claire's 'accept compliments at face value' thing, after all.
"You look like a pirate," Ginger said.
Duke flicked her a long glance out of the corner of his eye. "Do you know what my favorite vegetable is?"
Ginger hooked her arm over her chest and curled her lip. "Arrrrrrrrrrtichokes!"
Duke grinned. "You knew that one!"
Ginger nodded, clearly proud of herself. Duke laughed.
"Okay. I got another one for you. . . ."
Ginger, as it turned out, was remarkably good company. Hanging out with her was doing much more to keep Duke from sinking into his own head than lunch with Audrey probably would have.
"So you really live on a boat?" she asked. She found his lifestyle particularly fascinating.
"A boat?" Duke shook his head. "A ship."
Well. The Rouge was a ship. The Sanguine Moon was definitely a boat. But that was kind of a lot to get into with a nine year old.
"All by yourself?" Ginger asked. And before Duke could try to think of how to explain his girlfriend who lived with him then moved to her own boat because she was depressed and he'd kicked her out after finding out she'd engaged in survival cannibalism — Ginger kept talking. "Why don't you have a wife and kids?"
"Ahhhhh, no Mrs. Pirate for me." That was an easy enough question to answer. "Or Mr. Pirate. I do have a little girl, though." He hadn't thought about Jean in awhile, and felt faintly guilty about that. "She lives someplace else." He stared out across the office for a long moment, feeling his mood sink. "I just don't think I was meant to have a family, you know?"
"Me too," Ginger said. Much more matter-of-factly than a nine year old ever should be about family.
Duke frowned at her. "Really?"
Ginger immediately changed the subject. Duke couldn't' blame her; he would have too at her age. Or his age, for that matter. "I'm hungry," she said. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah." Duke nodded and sighed. "But, uh. I think Audrey wants us to stay here."
"Come on." Ginger grinned up at him. "Let's go get some ice cream."
"Get some ice cream?" Duke blinked. Suddenly, he wasn't sure why it mattered that Audrey had asked them to stick around. It was only ice cream, after all. And Ginger was just a kid. She couldn't be in any real trouble. "I do have a soft spot for ice cream," he said slowly. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Ice cream! "And we're pirates. I mean, we're outlaws, right?"
"Yeeeeeah," Ginger said excitedly.
Duke nodded firmly. "Okay, why not?"
"Yes!" Ginger grabbed his hand as she hopped up. Duke hung on and let her steer him up and out of the office.
No one stopped them. Why should they? They were just going for some ice cream.
The ice cream vendor was a lazy piece of crap trying to do Ginger dirty, and Duke would not stand for it.
"What is this? What?" Duke flicked a quick glance at Ginger to see if she was watching. She was a few feet away, her bunny tucked under her arm, watching the crowd with a little smile. Satisfied she was happy where she was, he went back to making sure she got her proper ice cream order. "The young lady asked for a double scoop of rocky road."
"That is a double scoop of rocky road," the vendor insisted.
"No, okay, this is a scoop and a half at best, okay?" Duke brandished the pathetic little cone in the vendor's smug little pimply face. "And what's this?" He pointed to a little orange blob on the side of the sad excuse for a scoop. "Is this peach frogurt mixed in with her ice cream?!"
The vendor was nonplussed. "What are you, the fun uncle?"
Duke scoffed. "She asked for a double scoop of rocky road ice cream, okay?" He waved the cone around again. "This is exactly the type of behavior why she — and I — do not trust the man."
Even when the man in question was . . . clearly just a teenager with a part time job.
. . . No, no sympathy. Ginger deserved to get her ice cream!
"Well she is gone," the vendor said.
"She —" Duke frowned. He glanced back to where Ginger had been standing, but the spot was empty. He dropped the cone, the ice cream mission forgotten. "Ginger?!"
She wasn't anywhere in sight.
"I saw her talking to her dad," the vendor offered.
Duke frowned. "Her dad?" Hadn't her dad run off? That was why she'd been at the police station.
"That was her dad, right?" the vendor asked. "That's why I thought you were the fun uncle?"
This was bad. This was very bad. Audrey had given him one job and he'd utterly failed. Duke dug his phone out and dialed her number, even as he paced away from the ice cream cart, searching the area.
"Ginger! Ginger!"
She was nowhere.
Audrey arrived quickly, Nathan in tow.
"You took her out of the station?!" she said, looking appalled.
Duke grimaced. "She said she was hungry!"
"There's food in the kitchen," Nathan said.
Duke shot him a withering look. "You mean the coffee and slim jims?"
Nathan shrugged. Because of course Nathan thought coffee and slim jims were perfectly fine for a nine year old girl.
"The kid said she wanted some ice cream," Duke said. "I thought —" What had he been thinking? He couldn't remember anymore. She'd said 'ice cream' and he'd just agreed. "— She should have some ice cream." He shrugged, defeated. "Maybe it was her father who took her?"
"Her father." Nathan said it like Duke was an idiot. And maybe he was right. Who couldn't keep an eye on one nine year old? "Who was scary enough to make a member of the guard jump out of a moving vehicle."
"If they're on foot," Audrey said, as always playing the peacemaker between the two of them. "They couldn't have gotten far. Let's just split up."
Duke nodded. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, towards the waterfront. "I'll go this way."
Audrey nodded back. "Keep your cellphone on." Duke turned to go. She wasn't quite as far out of earshot as she seemed to think she was when he heard her say "I never should have left her with Duke."
Fuck. He just couldn't get anything right, today.
At least he found her quickly enough. He'd only made it a few blocks down the waterfront when she came barrelling up at him, clearly freaked out.
"Duke!" she shouted, and flung herself against his torso. Duke grabbed onto her in return, then crouched down so he could get a good look at her.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded quickly, swiping at her eyes and biting her lower lip. Duke wanted to ask her what had happened, why she'd wandered off, but she was clearly already upset, so he just pulled her into another gentle hug.
"Hey. It's okay. You're okay now. I've got you."
"You wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, right Duke?" she said, sounding small.
Duke nodded against the top of her head. "Of course not." And he meant it. Fiercely. More than he thought he had meant anything else in his life. "I've got you, kiddo." He steered her towards a nearby bench. "You want to tell me what happened?"
She shook her head. "I-It's not important," she said. Duke nodded. It wasn't important. What was important was that she was safe and sound now. Whatever had happened before was so unimportant, he felt ridiculous for even asking.
She sniffled a few more times, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her hoodie, then took a deep breath.
"I'm glad you found me."
"I'm glad, too," Duke said.
"I don't want to go back and talk to the lady at the police station."
Duke shook his head. "That's fine. I hate talking to cops."
"Me too." She nodded firmly. "I hate them."
Duke laughed. "You are a kid after my own heart."
"You'll stay with me?" she asked, looking up at him.
"I'll stay with you," he promised. He couldn't think of anything else he wanted to do more. Not even get back to Octavia and Lucifer in Fandom.
His phone rang. He glanced down at it, seeing Audrey's number. Ginger didn't want to talk to Audrey. He glanced over at her.
"Who is it?"
"The cop lady." Duke gave her an apologetic shrug. "If I don't answer, she'll get worried."
Ginger nodded, frowning faintly. "Okay. You should answer then."
Duke answered. "Yello."
"Duke."
"Hey Audrey."
"Hey, have you found her?"
Duke frowned. If he told her that, she'd want to talk to Ginger. But Ginger didn't want to talk to Audrey. He glanced over at Ginger.
"Don't tell her anything," Ginger said.
Duke tried to think of something to say that wasn't telling Audrey anything. What came out was a slow "Uuuuummmmmmmmm."
"Duke, are you okay?" Audrey asked. "Where are you?"
Answering either of those questions was definitely telling Audrey things. Duke pressed his phone to his shoulder and gave Ginger a questioning look.
"Let's just go play!" Ginger said. Which sounded great to Duke.
He lifted the phone to his ear again. "I can't tell you anything."
"Duke, listen to me," Audrey said, voice low and serious. "Ginger is the troubled one, alright? She's dangerous, she can control your mind."
Huh. That might explain a few things. Not that it mattered, because Duke was going to stick by Ginger anyway. And she'd just said they should go play.
"Yeeeah," Duke said, still trying to balance Ginger's instructions with his own impulses. "You know, I gotta go somewhere and play now, so . . ." He could feel Ginger waiting expectantly. "Bye!"
He hung up. That was easy! He looked over at Ginger, who took his hand.
"Come on," she said. "Let's go. I'll show you a good game!"
That sounded great to Duke. He let her tug him to his feet and they headed off to play.
"You're a pirate," Ginger said, and she was right. Duke was. "I'm your pirate princess."
There was plenty of pirate swag around the Grey Gull — "this is our ship! Look! That can be the bridge!" — and it was closed until evening, so it was the perfect place for their game. Duke tied a dish towel around his head as a bandana, as Ginger put an eyepatch and tricornered hat on a paper mache bust of a pirate, then flung herself into one of the seats.
"We've been raided! You need to stop them, Duke!"
Duke slipped his knife from his waistband and brandished it at the enemy. Nobody stole from Captain Duke and got away with it!
"Avast, ye landlubber! You stole me eyepatch!"
Ginger had her arms tucked behind her. Tied behind her? She shouted instructions from the sidelines.
"Take it back," she cried. "Take it back!"
"Ye heard the young lady," Duke growled at the enemy. "I'll be taking me garments back, if ye don't mind."
He flicked the hat off the enemy's head with his blade, then caught the strap of the eyepatch and flung it into the air before the enemy could react.
(It was paper mache, he knew, somewhere in the back of his head. It would never react. But what fun was that?)
He caught the eyepatch with a triumphant cry and yanked it onto his head. Ginger laughed delightedly. The sound filled Duke's chest, making him feel light as air. Indestructible. He spun on the enemy again, knife out and ready, and let out his battle cry!
"Arrrrrr!"
He dodged back from an imaginary blow, and his knife went flying. He grabbed a handy mop instead, snapping it over his knee and lifted its sharp point like the blade of a sword.
"And ye can say hello to Davey Jones, ye lily livered cur!"
He spun and parried and jabbed, then leaped onto the table to continue the battle. He dodged onto another chair, but misjudged, sending it toppling. He landed with a grunt and a crash, knocking over a set of glasses. Something sharp bit into his palm, but he pressed himself up to his feet.
He was indestructible.
There was a shard of glass stuck between his middle and ring fingers on his right hand, but Duke pried it out with another cry, grabbing up his sword again as he continued his battle with the enemy.
"Never fear, me lady! I'll save ya from these scurvy dogs!"
"More enemy pirates, Duke," she cried, leaning forward against her bonds. "They're coming!"
"Stay belowdecks," Duke instructed his princess. "I'll ward off these invaders from the bridge!"
He ran for the stairs to the upper decks, fencing and parrying with the enemy all along the way. He made it to the top of the bridge, a one pirate army against a whole crew of bloody privateers.
"You need to go higher!" Princess Ginger cried. "Be brave, Duke, you've gotta save me! They're attacking!"
Higher. There wasn't much higher than the bridge, but there was the railing. He leaped onto it with both feet, balancing like Errol Flynn as he continued to fight off the invaders. His princess watched from below, delighting in his feats of grace. Even captured, she knew he'd always save her!
There was a rumble from behind him that he couldn't quite parse. He glanced back and turned, still on the railing.
"They're here!" Ginger shouted. And the big blue truck in the parking lot became an enemy ship, bringing in reinforcements.
"Don't let them hurt me!" Ginger cried.
Duke would never. "I'll make them taste me sword!" he shouted, and charged down the railing towards them. "Scallywaaaaags!"
Then his balance failed him. He swung his arms, trying to stay upright, but gravity was a cruel mistress, and she would not be denied.
He plunged from the bridge, slamming roughly into the deck below.
He heard shouting, then silence. He could vaguely see a familiar form leaning over the railing above him, staring down. And then he heard Ginger again.
"Let me go!"
"Ginger stop! You're hurting people. You've hurt Duke."
Duke groaned. He was not so indestructible. His back hurt, and his head. There were hands on him, helping him roll over, and he was too dizzy not to let them.
"I didn't do anything," Ginger insisted. "We were just playing, Duke's fine! You're fine, Duke!"
And he was. He jerked upright. He still had a princess to save, after all.
"Woah, hey!" someone said, the same someone who had helped him roll over. Duke brushed them off.
"I'm fine," he said. The ache in his head, the slow spin of the deck, they were nothing. Duke got to his feet to prove just how fine he was. "I'm totally. . . ."
The deck spun harder, then slipped completely out from under him. Duke toppled. The last thing he was aware of was the crunch of wicker as he slumped over one of the chairs.
Someone was carrying him.
He stumbled along as best he could, not sure why he couldn't get his feet properly underneath him. He was fine, wasn't he? He didn't know why the world was so blurry, or why his stomach felt so sick.
"Easy, Duke," someone said. He recognized that voice. That was the voice of the enemy.
"Let me go." He tried to pull away, but his limbs wouldn't cooperate. What had they done to him?
"Hey. Hey, knock it off!" the enemy said. They set him down somewhere soft, and Duke had to resist the urge to sink into it.
"Where's Ginger?" he demanded instead. "What have you done to her?"
"Ginger's fine. Audrey's talking to her. Do you know where you are, Duke?"
Duke squinted around. There was . . . wood. He could make out that much. The smell of the sea. "Your brig, I presume."
. . . It was a remarkably cozy bridge.
The enemy let out a low sigh.
"Audrey's apartment. You're not a pirate, Duke."
Duke squinted up at him. The enemy grabbed for Duke's patch and he smacked his hand away.
"That's what you think, you foul bilge rat." The room swayed alarmingly, and he leaned against the back of the couch, trying to keep his hardtack down.
What kind of pirate didn't have sea legs? . . . Maybe the enemy was right.
"Duke," the enemy said. He grabbed Duke by the chin and forced him to face him. Duke squinted at him again. "Think you have a concussion. Probably lucky it's just that. Guess we should be glad you're not running out of a moving car or stabbing yourself."
Duke frowned. The room was still swimming, but he spotted a painting behind the enemy, a boat at sea. Hung over a fireplace. He knew that painting. He'd hung it there himself.
This was not a brig.
"Nathan?" he mumbled.
"Yeah." Nathan flicked the eyepatch off Duke's head and tilted his face into the light. Checking his pupils, maybe. "You still think I've stuck you in the brig?"
". . . No." Duke let his eyes fall shut with a groan. "Did I just fall off Audrey's balcony?"
Nathan grunted an affirmative. "Think you can check your own skull?"
"Guess I'll have to," Duke mumbled, lifting his hand. "Not like you could feel any bumps."
"Yeah." Nathan straightened up. "You rest here. I want to check on Audrey."
Duke nodded, then regretted it when the room swam again. "'Course you do. Ginger really did all this, huh?"
"Seems that way."
Duke sighed, leaning back on the couch and closing his eyes. "Poor kid. She must feel like crap."
There was a long moment of silence. Duke wondered if Nathan had left.
"Yeah," he said, voice soft. Duke felt him grip his shoulder, give him a little squeeze. "Get some rest. I'll be back."
Duke listened as he headed back out of the apartment, shutting the door as softly as he could behind him. It was always a little jarring when Nathan was nice to him, but right now he wasn't much in the mood to argue.
It just felt good to know that, on some level, Nathan still cared.
He hung out in Audrey's apartment for a while, just leaning back and letting himself rest. Once the room stopped feeling like it was rocking on a rough sea and his eyes agreed to focus properly together again, he shoved himself to his feet and made his way downstairs to take stock of the damage.
And found Jordan handcuffed to a chair while Audrey and Nathan looked on.
"Uh," Duke said, pointing. "What's going on?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Nathan said. He leaned on the table across from Jordan, glaring. Audrey hovered by the door, while Ginger sat looking small by the bar. The poor kid looked terrified, and she was refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
"So," Duke said, trying to lighten the oppressive mood a little for her sake. "I'm going to guess that you and Jordan are broken up now, then."
Nathan just scowled, glaring harder at Jordan.
Audrey turned to Duke. "We don't have much so far. We know the Guard was trying to relocate Ginger and her dad. And Jordan's tried to kidnap her twice, so far."
"The Guard wants her?" Duke said, his stomach sinking. Audrey nodded faintly.
"They relocate people, remember? People like Ginger. Her father brought her to Haven to help her."
Duke glanced over at Ginger. "She thinks her father just abandoned her."
"Yeah." Audrey sighed, then looked him over. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. . . ." Duke said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. Then had to wonder how much of that was his own reflex, and how much was Ginger's lingering influence. "A little woozy." He looked over at Ginger again, finding it hard not to worry about her. That much, he was pretty sure, was just him. His 'bloody bleeding heart' as Lucifer might put it. Not just Ginger needing someone to care. "I'm doing a hell of a lot better than she is."
Nathan was still trying to interrogate Jordan, but wasn't getting anywhere. Apparently she'd led him on a bit of a wild goose chase while Duke was recovering from his fall.
"You sent me to her uncle to get me out of the way. To make it easier for you to grab Ginger."
Jordan shook her head. "I didn't send you anywhere."
"And you lied about not knowing where her father was," Nathan continued like she hadn't spoken. "The Guard is holding him, right? Were you planning to use the father as bait? We have enough to hold you for a long time. You know what? Don't even answer. I don't need to hear anymore of your lies."
"I can make her tell us." Ginger got up from the bar. Her face was stony. "People do what I say, right? I ask her to tell me, she'll have to say."
"No." Audrey shook her head. "It's too risky."
"The kid just wants to find her dad," Duke pointed out.
"She's just a little girl, okay? I don't want her getting mixed up in all of this. It's dangerous."
Duke shook his head. "Yeah, but you know what's more dangerous? Thinking that her father abandoned her. Trust me." Audrey gave him a measuring look. Duke just stared back. She could believe what she wanted, he knew this was all him. "Look, just let me talk to her."
Audrey kept looking at him, then nodded. "Okay. But be careful."
Duke turned to Ginger, tugging gently on her sleeve to pull her to one side. He crouched down, getting on her level, and she stared at him, eyes wide and sad. Duke kicked himself for not clearing the air immediately.
This kid didn't need that kind of guilt hanging over her.
"Hey," he said. "We're friends, right? Real friends. Not just 'cause you were making me."
Ginger nodded, hope blooming in her eyes. "Yeah."
Duke nodded back. "We're going to let you do this. But if it's not going right, you have to stop. And you have to promise me you'll listen to me."
Ginger swallowed. "I promise."
"Okay." Duke let his hand trail down her back as she turned to Jordan, then stood. Looming behind her like a bodyguard.
If Jordan tried to mess with this kid again, he would kill her himself. Guard or no Guard.
"Tell me where my dad is," Ginger said, her voice as hard as a nine year old's could be.
Jordan shook her head, looking . . . lost. Heartbroken. "Ginger — I —"
"Tell the truth now."
"Tell the truth. . . ." Jordan struggled to resist. Duke was impressed despite himself. He knew how insidious Ginger's trouble could be. Though . . . maybe knowing it even existed helped. "He's . . . on Waterman. The last house on Waterman Lane. It's a Guard safe house. Nathan, don't go. You're gonna get hurt."
"Who's guarding him?" Nathan asked.
"Among others, Kyle Baron. Anyone gets close to that house, he'll shoot to kill."
"Ginger," Nathan said. "Ask her why the guard wanted you."
Ginger nodded. "Why did the guard want me?"
"In case Audrey Parker became difficult," Jordan bit out, still struggling not to obey. "We could use you to control her."
Duke stared, horrified. "Nathan. . . ."
Ginger did not need to be here to hear this. She didn't need to know that there were people out there who would use her like this. It was bad enough knowing that as an adult.
Nathan nodded. "Ginger. Tell her she has to answer my questions now."
"You have to answer his questions," Ginger said. Audrey reached for her hand.
"Okay, Ginger, why don't you go upstairs?"
Duke flicked the kid a little smile. "You did good."
Ginger flashed him a tiny one in return, and then darted out the door. Duke was tempted to follow, but he needed to know what the Guard was up to. What they thought they could get out of Audrey by using a nine year old kid.
Nathan pulled up a chair, sitting down in it backwards as he scowled at Jordan.
"Audrey is immune to the troubles," he said. "Ginger couldn't make her do anything. How was Ginger going to help you?"
Jordan was in tears now, staring at Nathan like her heart was breaking. Duke remembered how she'd looked at him when he'd come back from the dead; she really did love him. Just not enough to keep her from using him. "You're not immune to Ginger, Nathan. If we had Ginger, we'd have you. If we had you . . . we'd be able to control Audrey." She shook her head, her voice tight. "But I really cared about you! I love yo—"
"Why do you want to control Audrey?" Nathan barked. Duke wondered if he'd ever really loved Jordan back. Or if she'd been a means to an end, too.
"Last time around when she was Lucy Ripley, she refused to go into the barn," Jordan said. (Duke wondered what the fuck a barn had to do with everything.) "She ran, almost got away. In case Audrey refused to go in this time. . . . Ginger was going to be our insurance policy."
"What's so important about the barn?" Audrey asked.
"Answer her," Nathan ordered.
"It's not really a barn," Jordan bit out. "It's way more than that. We just know that when she goes inside, both she and it disappear for 27 years. And once they're both gone, the troubles in Haven stop. Haven becomes a haven again. For the troubled, for you and me, Nathan!"
Duke rubbed his hand down his face. There were only a few days left until the meteor storm, when this barn was meant to take Audrey away.
Maybe once that happened, the multiverse would let Duke go.
He felt like a traitor for even thinking that. Then felt like a traitor for not being willing to do anything to get back to Octavia and Lucifer.
"How do you know that?" Nathan asked.
Jordan sighed, resigned now. "The guard has been around for a long time."
"Why didn't you tell me any of that before?"
"Because I knew you'd try to stop it from happening."
"You're right."
Duke nodded. "It's not going to happen." Audrey deserved to get to live her life on her own terms. No matter what else happened, Duke would remain firm about that.
Jordan sobbed. Audrey turned and shuffled a few steps away towards one of the french doors, staring out over the water. Duke watched her go, wanting again to just wrap her up in his arms, carry her off to Fandom where none of this had to matter anymore.
But he knew she'd never agree to leave with him. And he wasn't going to be yet another person trying to get her to do something she didn't want to do.
Nathan hatched a plan. He got the number for the Guardsman on duty at the house on Waterman from Jordan, and had Ginger make a call, ordering the man to drop his gun and go to sleep. Once the coast was clear, the three of them busted in, Duke and Nathan taking care of any other guards while Audrey went and found Ginger's father. He was overjoyed to see his daughter again, and Ginger was so relieved to have him back, to hear him tell her he loved her and that he'd never leave her, that her trouble shut back off. She was back to being just a normal nine year old girl.
If Duke had anything to say about it, she was going to stay that way.
They got pinned down again before they could leave, a man named Kirk Bowers and a few other flunkies Duke didn't recognize arriving with guns. When they threatened to put a bullet in Duke's head, Nathan made them a deal: he'd release Jordan without pressing charges if they let them leave the house and left Ginger and her father alone.
Duke didn't trust the Guard as far as he could throw them, though. So he volunteered to relocate Ginger and her father somewhere no one would be able to find and use them again.
"Don't worry," her dad promised her, as they got ready to head out. "The next place will be safer."
"No more bad guys," Duke agreed, flashing the man a smile. They hadn't had much time to talk, but he'd seen the way the man had held Ginger when they'd reunited. The way Ginger had melted against him. He was one of the good ones.
"And no more pirates?" Ginger asked, looking sad.
"Yeah," Duke agreed, with a sad nod in return. "But you're gonna have your dad there. And you are going to find new pirates to play with. I promise. In fact. . . ." He made a show of looking around, then pulled the eyepatch from their game from his pocket. "I was thinking you could hold onto this for me."
Ginger took it and stared down at it for a long time. " . . . Can you stay with us?"
Duke glanced back at Audrey and Nathan, who were hanging back, looking on. "I think they need me here. Maybe I could come and visit sometime."
"Well," Ginger said, a sly look in her eye. "Maybe. . . you should come with your daughter and a Mrs. Pirate."
Duke looked away with a soft laugh. Octavia would probably like Ginger, at least a little. Lucifer would hate her on principle, though. At least until she was old enough to drink. "Yeah," he said. "Maybe." He nudged her towards his truck. "But right now we gotta go okay?"
Ginger nodded. "Okay." She darted off to join her dad, and Duke got to his feet. He flicked Nathan and Audrey a quick glance.
He wouldn't be gone long. Assuming Fandom didn't snatch him back once Ginger was settled. He didn't think it would, though. He was pretty sure he was stuck here at least through the meteor storm.
He was going to see this out to the bitter end.
[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x10, "Burned". CW for a mind-control trouble!]
He was self-aware enough to acknowledge that he was definitely hiding, and restless enough that he didn't spend the whole time in bed, though it was tempting. Instead, he read his family journal.
Maybe it was a form of self-punishment. Maybe he was trying to remind himself that some troubles really did require extreme measures to solve them. Maybe he was looking for hints that more of his ancestors had struggled with their fated role in Haven as much as he did.
He found all three.
Some of the troubles in the book were silly, trifling things. The man who was troubled only to speak in gibberish certainly had it rough, don't get him wrong, but it wasn't exactly the level of "life and death" as Nix was. Or the family whose fear turned into toxic fumes, killing a bunch of Duke's fellow third graders before his father had taken that trouble out.
Most of the entries were simple. Business-like. A name, a description of the trouble, and how they died. (Stabbing, mostly. Roy's father had a preference for throwing stars. He'd been active in the 20s, when everything East Asian was all the rage.) A few, like the Crocker who had been active in the cycle of 1875, had reveled in it, writing long, poetic passages about their duty to the town. And some, like Roy, spoke of the look on their victims' faces when the end came. The ones who were grateful, who were glad to die, to spare the town or their families. The ones who were terrified, or surprised, or angry. How hard it was to watch the light fade from their eyes, no matter whether they welcomed their death or not. How sick they felt, that the Crocker trouble took such pleasure in killing.
Once he'd finished, catching up with his father's last entry, skipping over the sickening letter he'd left for Duke ordering him to kill Audrey, Duke went to hunt down a pen, and added his own entries. He didn't have precise dates, the way some of his ancestors did, but he had a year — 2010 — and he had the names and troubles.
Summer, 2010 — Kyle Hopkins. Gravedigger trouble. Summoned the ghosts of those he'd buried, which caused at least two deaths.
Fall, 2010 — Harry Nix.
He stared at Harry's name on the page for a long, long time. Searching for some pithy descriptor, some easy, two or three word phrase that could encompass how horrifying the man's trouble had been.
Fall, 2010 — Harry Nix. Organ farmer.
He stared a while longer, then slapped the book shut.
He needed a drink.
Eventually, he dragged himself into the shower, then headed into town. No one was going to come find him, so he'd have to find them. He needed to figure out what the multiverse had sent him to Haven to do so he could go back home to Fandom. He needed to find something useful to do, to cleanse his mental palate of everything he'd read in his family's book.
He found himself at the police station around noon, and headed for Audrey's office.
"Hey," he said. Audrey was leaning against her desk next to Claire, who flashed him a faintly alarmed look. Duke ignored her — she was apparently ignoring him, or at least his calls, so it was only fair — and just looked at Audrey. "Wanna get some lunch?"
Audrey sighed, even as she gave him a faint smile. She gestured towards the couch that lined the wall next to the door. "Busy, actually."
Duke looked over at the perp of the day. "Ah. I see." It was a young girl, maybe nine years old. She wore her ashy brown hair in a pair of braided pigtails, and was clutching a stuffed bunny. Clearly a hardened criminal requiring the efforts of Haven's finest. "What'd they get you for, kid? Grand Theft Tricycle?"
He settled in next to the girl, but she didn't look up from her bunny. Something had clearly happened to the kid. She had the beginnings of the same thousand yard stare that Octavia tended to get when she was trapped in her own head. It broke Duke's heart to see it on someone so young. He glanced up at Audrey questioningly, but she just shrugged. So he turned his patented Duke Crocker charm up to eleven.
"No . . ." he said, making a show of thinking it over. "No, that can't be right. You seem like a girl who rides a two-wheeler." He turned to Audrey and Claire, adopting a classic, old-timey mobster voice. "I'm telling ya, you got the wrong kid, coppahs."
The kid didn't even crack a smile.
"Ginger didn't do anything wrong," Audrey said gently. "We just want to ask her a couple questions."
And terrify her out of her wits while they did. Duke knew better than anyone how intimidating the Haven police station could be for a kid. He leaned in to talk to Ginger again.
"Yeah, that's what they always tell me, too. But what I wanna know. . . ." He sat up, giving Audrey and Claire a disapproving look. "Is where are my client's crayons? Where are my client's video games? Where is my client's call with Justin Bieber?"
Ginger finally started to smile. It was a tiny thing, but Duke knew he was on the right track. Audrey seemed amused too, looking away as she tried to hide a smile of her own. Claire just looked faintly curious. Duke gave Ginger a knowing look.
"You got rights, kid."
Ginger's eyes went wide, and she finally turned her head to look at something other than her bunny. "I do?"
Duke nodded, careful to keep things light and easy for her. "Yeah. You know what I do when they try to make me talk?" He lifted his hand and leaned in, as though telling her an important secret, though he didn't lower his voice at all. "I imagine them in their underwear."
Ginger giggled. Claire rolled her eyes. Audrey snorted. "Okay."
Which would be when Dr. Lucassi, quite possibly one of the creepiest looking people in all of Haven even when you didn't know he was working as the coroner, stepped into the office.
"Excuse me, Audrey. I got some results for you on that body."
Audrey gestured sharply to Ginger with her head, and Lucassi had the grace to look chagrined.
"If you want me to do that psych profile on Tommy Bowen," Claire said, "I need to hear this."
Duke kept an ear on that conversation, even as he kept telling Ginger in a soft voice all about his wackier adventures dealing with Haven PD. She didn't need to know about Tommy Bowen, the man who showed up impersonating a cop so he could murder young women and steal their body parts. Hell, Duke wished he didn't have to know about Tommy, even if the guy was apparently dead now, blown up in a boat accident while on the run from Nathan and Audrey.
Yeah, sure. Because anything in Haven was quite as simple as "blown up in a boat accident."
"Ginger?" Audrey said, and Duke paused his story and looked up. "I'm going to have you stay with Duke for a minute, all right? He's really funny. You two have the same sense of humor. You'll have a lot of fun." Duke lifted his hand to object — he was here to take her to lunch, not to babysit! — but Audrey just tilted her head and gave him that 'I know you want to help out, friend' look that he had no defense for. "You're a lot of fun!"
She and Claire and Lucassi all stepped out, leaving Duke alone with a traumatized nine year old.
Right. Well then.
"You are pretty funny," Ginger said.
"Yes." Duke nodded firmly, swelling just a little with a burst of unexpected pride. "I am funny."
Maybe there was something to Claire's 'accept compliments at face value' thing, after all.
"You look like a pirate," Ginger said.
Duke flicked her a long glance out of the corner of his eye. "Do you know what my favorite vegetable is?"
Ginger hooked her arm over her chest and curled her lip. "Arrrrrrrrrrtichokes!"
Duke grinned. "You knew that one!"
Ginger nodded, clearly proud of herself. Duke laughed.
"Okay. I got another one for you. . . ."
Ginger, as it turned out, was remarkably good company. Hanging out with her was doing much more to keep Duke from sinking into his own head than lunch with Audrey probably would have.
"So you really live on a boat?" she asked. She found his lifestyle particularly fascinating.
"A boat?" Duke shook his head. "A ship."
Well. The Rouge was a ship. The Sanguine Moon was definitely a boat. But that was kind of a lot to get into with a nine year old.
"All by yourself?" Ginger asked. And before Duke could try to think of how to explain his girlfriend who lived with him then moved to her own boat because she was depressed and he'd kicked her out after finding out she'd engaged in survival cannibalism — Ginger kept talking. "Why don't you have a wife and kids?"
"Ahhhhh, no Mrs. Pirate for me." That was an easy enough question to answer. "Or Mr. Pirate. I do have a little girl, though." He hadn't thought about Jean in awhile, and felt faintly guilty about that. "She lives someplace else." He stared out across the office for a long moment, feeling his mood sink. "I just don't think I was meant to have a family, you know?"
"Me too," Ginger said. Much more matter-of-factly than a nine year old ever should be about family.
Duke frowned at her. "Really?"
Ginger immediately changed the subject. Duke couldn't' blame her; he would have too at her age. Or his age, for that matter. "I'm hungry," she said. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah." Duke nodded and sighed. "But, uh. I think Audrey wants us to stay here."
"Come on." Ginger grinned up at him. "Let's go get some ice cream."
"Get some ice cream?" Duke blinked. Suddenly, he wasn't sure why it mattered that Audrey had asked them to stick around. It was only ice cream, after all. And Ginger was just a kid. She couldn't be in any real trouble. "I do have a soft spot for ice cream," he said slowly. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Ice cream! "And we're pirates. I mean, we're outlaws, right?"
"Yeeeeeah," Ginger said excitedly.
Duke nodded firmly. "Okay, why not?"
"Yes!" Ginger grabbed his hand as she hopped up. Duke hung on and let her steer him up and out of the office.
No one stopped them. Why should they? They were just going for some ice cream.
The ice cream vendor was a lazy piece of crap trying to do Ginger dirty, and Duke would not stand for it.
"What is this? What?" Duke flicked a quick glance at Ginger to see if she was watching. She was a few feet away, her bunny tucked under her arm, watching the crowd with a little smile. Satisfied she was happy where she was, he went back to making sure she got her proper ice cream order. "The young lady asked for a double scoop of rocky road."
"That is a double scoop of rocky road," the vendor insisted.
"No, okay, this is a scoop and a half at best, okay?" Duke brandished the pathetic little cone in the vendor's smug little pimply face. "And what's this?" He pointed to a little orange blob on the side of the sad excuse for a scoop. "Is this peach frogurt mixed in with her ice cream?!"
The vendor was nonplussed. "What are you, the fun uncle?"
Duke scoffed. "She asked for a double scoop of rocky road ice cream, okay?" He waved the cone around again. "This is exactly the type of behavior why she — and I — do not trust the man."
Even when the man in question was . . . clearly just a teenager with a part time job.
. . . No, no sympathy. Ginger deserved to get her ice cream!
"Well she is gone," the vendor said.
"She —" Duke frowned. He glanced back to where Ginger had been standing, but the spot was empty. He dropped the cone, the ice cream mission forgotten. "Ginger?!"
She wasn't anywhere in sight.
"I saw her talking to her dad," the vendor offered.
Duke frowned. "Her dad?" Hadn't her dad run off? That was why she'd been at the police station.
"That was her dad, right?" the vendor asked. "That's why I thought you were the fun uncle?"
This was bad. This was very bad. Audrey had given him one job and he'd utterly failed. Duke dug his phone out and dialed her number, even as he paced away from the ice cream cart, searching the area.
"Ginger! Ginger!"
She was nowhere.
Audrey arrived quickly, Nathan in tow.
"You took her out of the station?!" she said, looking appalled.
Duke grimaced. "She said she was hungry!"
"There's food in the kitchen," Nathan said.
Duke shot him a withering look. "You mean the coffee and slim jims?"
Nathan shrugged. Because of course Nathan thought coffee and slim jims were perfectly fine for a nine year old girl.
"The kid said she wanted some ice cream," Duke said. "I thought —" What had he been thinking? He couldn't remember anymore. She'd said 'ice cream' and he'd just agreed. "— She should have some ice cream." He shrugged, defeated. "Maybe it was her father who took her?"
"Her father." Nathan said it like Duke was an idiot. And maybe he was right. Who couldn't keep an eye on one nine year old? "Who was scary enough to make a member of the guard jump out of a moving vehicle."
"If they're on foot," Audrey said, as always playing the peacemaker between the two of them. "They couldn't have gotten far. Let's just split up."
Duke nodded. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, towards the waterfront. "I'll go this way."
Audrey nodded back. "Keep your cellphone on." Duke turned to go. She wasn't quite as far out of earshot as she seemed to think she was when he heard her say "I never should have left her with Duke."
Fuck. He just couldn't get anything right, today.
At least he found her quickly enough. He'd only made it a few blocks down the waterfront when she came barrelling up at him, clearly freaked out.
"Duke!" she shouted, and flung herself against his torso. Duke grabbed onto her in return, then crouched down so he could get a good look at her.
"Are you alright?"
She nodded quickly, swiping at her eyes and biting her lower lip. Duke wanted to ask her what had happened, why she'd wandered off, but she was clearly already upset, so he just pulled her into another gentle hug.
"Hey. It's okay. You're okay now. I've got you."
"You wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, right Duke?" she said, sounding small.
Duke nodded against the top of her head. "Of course not." And he meant it. Fiercely. More than he thought he had meant anything else in his life. "I've got you, kiddo." He steered her towards a nearby bench. "You want to tell me what happened?"
She shook her head. "I-It's not important," she said. Duke nodded. It wasn't important. What was important was that she was safe and sound now. Whatever had happened before was so unimportant, he felt ridiculous for even asking.
She sniffled a few more times, wiping her nose on the sleeve of her hoodie, then took a deep breath.
"I'm glad you found me."
"I'm glad, too," Duke said.
"I don't want to go back and talk to the lady at the police station."
Duke shook his head. "That's fine. I hate talking to cops."
"Me too." She nodded firmly. "I hate them."
Duke laughed. "You are a kid after my own heart."
"You'll stay with me?" she asked, looking up at him.
"I'll stay with you," he promised. He couldn't think of anything else he wanted to do more. Not even get back to Octavia and Lucifer in Fandom.
His phone rang. He glanced down at it, seeing Audrey's number. Ginger didn't want to talk to Audrey. He glanced over at her.
"Who is it?"
"The cop lady." Duke gave her an apologetic shrug. "If I don't answer, she'll get worried."
Ginger nodded, frowning faintly. "Okay. You should answer then."
Duke answered. "Yello."
"Duke."
"Hey Audrey."
"Hey, have you found her?"
Duke frowned. If he told her that, she'd want to talk to Ginger. But Ginger didn't want to talk to Audrey. He glanced over at Ginger.
"Don't tell her anything," Ginger said.
Duke tried to think of something to say that wasn't telling Audrey anything. What came out was a slow "Uuuuummmmmmmmm."
"Duke, are you okay?" Audrey asked. "Where are you?"
Answering either of those questions was definitely telling Audrey things. Duke pressed his phone to his shoulder and gave Ginger a questioning look.
"Let's just go play!" Ginger said. Which sounded great to Duke.
He lifted the phone to his ear again. "I can't tell you anything."
"Duke, listen to me," Audrey said, voice low and serious. "Ginger is the troubled one, alright? She's dangerous, she can control your mind."
Huh. That might explain a few things. Not that it mattered, because Duke was going to stick by Ginger anyway. And she'd just said they should go play.
"Yeeeah," Duke said, still trying to balance Ginger's instructions with his own impulses. "You know, I gotta go somewhere and play now, so . . ." He could feel Ginger waiting expectantly. "Bye!"
He hung up. That was easy! He looked over at Ginger, who took his hand.
"Come on," she said. "Let's go. I'll show you a good game!"
That sounded great to Duke. He let her tug him to his feet and they headed off to play.
"You're a pirate," Ginger said, and she was right. Duke was. "I'm your pirate princess."
There was plenty of pirate swag around the Grey Gull — "this is our ship! Look! That can be the bridge!" — and it was closed until evening, so it was the perfect place for their game. Duke tied a dish towel around his head as a bandana, as Ginger put an eyepatch and tricornered hat on a paper mache bust of a pirate, then flung herself into one of the seats.
"We've been raided! You need to stop them, Duke!"
Duke slipped his knife from his waistband and brandished it at the enemy. Nobody stole from Captain Duke and got away with it!
"Avast, ye landlubber! You stole me eyepatch!"
Ginger had her arms tucked behind her. Tied behind her? She shouted instructions from the sidelines.
"Take it back," she cried. "Take it back!"
"Ye heard the young lady," Duke growled at the enemy. "I'll be taking me garments back, if ye don't mind."
He flicked the hat off the enemy's head with his blade, then caught the strap of the eyepatch and flung it into the air before the enemy could react.
(It was paper mache, he knew, somewhere in the back of his head. It would never react. But what fun was that?)
He caught the eyepatch with a triumphant cry and yanked it onto his head. Ginger laughed delightedly. The sound filled Duke's chest, making him feel light as air. Indestructible. He spun on the enemy again, knife out and ready, and let out his battle cry!
"Arrrrrr!"
He dodged back from an imaginary blow, and his knife went flying. He grabbed a handy mop instead, snapping it over his knee and lifted its sharp point like the blade of a sword.
"And ye can say hello to Davey Jones, ye lily livered cur!"
He spun and parried and jabbed, then leaped onto the table to continue the battle. He dodged onto another chair, but misjudged, sending it toppling. He landed with a grunt and a crash, knocking over a set of glasses. Something sharp bit into his palm, but he pressed himself up to his feet.
He was indestructible.
There was a shard of glass stuck between his middle and ring fingers on his right hand, but Duke pried it out with another cry, grabbing up his sword again as he continued his battle with the enemy.
"Never fear, me lady! I'll save ya from these scurvy dogs!"
"More enemy pirates, Duke," she cried, leaning forward against her bonds. "They're coming!"
"Stay belowdecks," Duke instructed his princess. "I'll ward off these invaders from the bridge!"
He ran for the stairs to the upper decks, fencing and parrying with the enemy all along the way. He made it to the top of the bridge, a one pirate army against a whole crew of bloody privateers.
"You need to go higher!" Princess Ginger cried. "Be brave, Duke, you've gotta save me! They're attacking!"
Higher. There wasn't much higher than the bridge, but there was the railing. He leaped onto it with both feet, balancing like Errol Flynn as he continued to fight off the invaders. His princess watched from below, delighting in his feats of grace. Even captured, she knew he'd always save her!
There was a rumble from behind him that he couldn't quite parse. He glanced back and turned, still on the railing.
"They're here!" Ginger shouted. And the big blue truck in the parking lot became an enemy ship, bringing in reinforcements.
"Don't let them hurt me!" Ginger cried.
Duke would never. "I'll make them taste me sword!" he shouted, and charged down the railing towards them. "Scallywaaaaags!"
Then his balance failed him. He swung his arms, trying to stay upright, but gravity was a cruel mistress, and she would not be denied.
He plunged from the bridge, slamming roughly into the deck below.
He heard shouting, then silence. He could vaguely see a familiar form leaning over the railing above him, staring down. And then he heard Ginger again.
"Let me go!"
"Ginger stop! You're hurting people. You've hurt Duke."
Duke groaned. He was not so indestructible. His back hurt, and his head. There were hands on him, helping him roll over, and he was too dizzy not to let them.
"I didn't do anything," Ginger insisted. "We were just playing, Duke's fine! You're fine, Duke!"
And he was. He jerked upright. He still had a princess to save, after all.
"Woah, hey!" someone said, the same someone who had helped him roll over. Duke brushed them off.
"I'm fine," he said. The ache in his head, the slow spin of the deck, they were nothing. Duke got to his feet to prove just how fine he was. "I'm totally. . . ."
The deck spun harder, then slipped completely out from under him. Duke toppled. The last thing he was aware of was the crunch of wicker as he slumped over one of the chairs.
Someone was carrying him.
He stumbled along as best he could, not sure why he couldn't get his feet properly underneath him. He was fine, wasn't he? He didn't know why the world was so blurry, or why his stomach felt so sick.
"Easy, Duke," someone said. He recognized that voice. That was the voice of the enemy.
"Let me go." He tried to pull away, but his limbs wouldn't cooperate. What had they done to him?
"Hey. Hey, knock it off!" the enemy said. They set him down somewhere soft, and Duke had to resist the urge to sink into it.
"Where's Ginger?" he demanded instead. "What have you done to her?"
"Ginger's fine. Audrey's talking to her. Do you know where you are, Duke?"
Duke squinted around. There was . . . wood. He could make out that much. The smell of the sea. "Your brig, I presume."
. . . It was a remarkably cozy bridge.
The enemy let out a low sigh.
"Audrey's apartment. You're not a pirate, Duke."
Duke squinted up at him. The enemy grabbed for Duke's patch and he smacked his hand away.
"That's what you think, you foul bilge rat." The room swayed alarmingly, and he leaned against the back of the couch, trying to keep his hardtack down.
What kind of pirate didn't have sea legs? . . . Maybe the enemy was right.
"Duke," the enemy said. He grabbed Duke by the chin and forced him to face him. Duke squinted at him again. "Think you have a concussion. Probably lucky it's just that. Guess we should be glad you're not running out of a moving car or stabbing yourself."
Duke frowned. The room was still swimming, but he spotted a painting behind the enemy, a boat at sea. Hung over a fireplace. He knew that painting. He'd hung it there himself.
This was not a brig.
"Nathan?" he mumbled.
"Yeah." Nathan flicked the eyepatch off Duke's head and tilted his face into the light. Checking his pupils, maybe. "You still think I've stuck you in the brig?"
". . . No." Duke let his eyes fall shut with a groan. "Did I just fall off Audrey's balcony?"
Nathan grunted an affirmative. "Think you can check your own skull?"
"Guess I'll have to," Duke mumbled, lifting his hand. "Not like you could feel any bumps."
"Yeah." Nathan straightened up. "You rest here. I want to check on Audrey."
Duke nodded, then regretted it when the room swam again. "'Course you do. Ginger really did all this, huh?"
"Seems that way."
Duke sighed, leaning back on the couch and closing his eyes. "Poor kid. She must feel like crap."
There was a long moment of silence. Duke wondered if Nathan had left.
"Yeah," he said, voice soft. Duke felt him grip his shoulder, give him a little squeeze. "Get some rest. I'll be back."
Duke listened as he headed back out of the apartment, shutting the door as softly as he could behind him. It was always a little jarring when Nathan was nice to him, but right now he wasn't much in the mood to argue.
It just felt good to know that, on some level, Nathan still cared.
He hung out in Audrey's apartment for a while, just leaning back and letting himself rest. Once the room stopped feeling like it was rocking on a rough sea and his eyes agreed to focus properly together again, he shoved himself to his feet and made his way downstairs to take stock of the damage.
And found Jordan handcuffed to a chair while Audrey and Nathan looked on.
"Uh," Duke said, pointing. "What's going on?"
"That's what we're trying to find out," Nathan said. He leaned on the table across from Jordan, glaring. Audrey hovered by the door, while Ginger sat looking small by the bar. The poor kid looked terrified, and she was refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
"So," Duke said, trying to lighten the oppressive mood a little for her sake. "I'm going to guess that you and Jordan are broken up now, then."
Nathan just scowled, glaring harder at Jordan.
Audrey turned to Duke. "We don't have much so far. We know the Guard was trying to relocate Ginger and her dad. And Jordan's tried to kidnap her twice, so far."
"The Guard wants her?" Duke said, his stomach sinking. Audrey nodded faintly.
"They relocate people, remember? People like Ginger. Her father brought her to Haven to help her."
Duke glanced over at Ginger. "She thinks her father just abandoned her."
"Yeah." Audrey sighed, then looked him over. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. . . ." Duke said, with a dismissive wave of his hand. Then had to wonder how much of that was his own reflex, and how much was Ginger's lingering influence. "A little woozy." He looked over at Ginger again, finding it hard not to worry about her. That much, he was pretty sure, was just him. His 'bloody bleeding heart' as Lucifer might put it. Not just Ginger needing someone to care. "I'm doing a hell of a lot better than she is."
Nathan was still trying to interrogate Jordan, but wasn't getting anywhere. Apparently she'd led him on a bit of a wild goose chase while Duke was recovering from his fall.
"You sent me to her uncle to get me out of the way. To make it easier for you to grab Ginger."
Jordan shook her head. "I didn't send you anywhere."
"And you lied about not knowing where her father was," Nathan continued like she hadn't spoken. "The Guard is holding him, right? Were you planning to use the father as bait? We have enough to hold you for a long time. You know what? Don't even answer. I don't need to hear anymore of your lies."
"I can make her tell us." Ginger got up from the bar. Her face was stony. "People do what I say, right? I ask her to tell me, she'll have to say."
"No." Audrey shook her head. "It's too risky."
"The kid just wants to find her dad," Duke pointed out.
"She's just a little girl, okay? I don't want her getting mixed up in all of this. It's dangerous."
Duke shook his head. "Yeah, but you know what's more dangerous? Thinking that her father abandoned her. Trust me." Audrey gave him a measuring look. Duke just stared back. She could believe what she wanted, he knew this was all him. "Look, just let me talk to her."
Audrey kept looking at him, then nodded. "Okay. But be careful."
Duke turned to Ginger, tugging gently on her sleeve to pull her to one side. He crouched down, getting on her level, and she stared at him, eyes wide and sad. Duke kicked himself for not clearing the air immediately.
This kid didn't need that kind of guilt hanging over her.
"Hey," he said. "We're friends, right? Real friends. Not just 'cause you were making me."
Ginger nodded, hope blooming in her eyes. "Yeah."
Duke nodded back. "We're going to let you do this. But if it's not going right, you have to stop. And you have to promise me you'll listen to me."
Ginger swallowed. "I promise."
"Okay." Duke let his hand trail down her back as she turned to Jordan, then stood. Looming behind her like a bodyguard.
If Jordan tried to mess with this kid again, he would kill her himself. Guard or no Guard.
"Tell me where my dad is," Ginger said, her voice as hard as a nine year old's could be.
Jordan shook her head, looking . . . lost. Heartbroken. "Ginger — I —"
"Tell the truth now."
"Tell the truth. . . ." Jordan struggled to resist. Duke was impressed despite himself. He knew how insidious Ginger's trouble could be. Though . . . maybe knowing it even existed helped. "He's . . . on Waterman. The last house on Waterman Lane. It's a Guard safe house. Nathan, don't go. You're gonna get hurt."
"Who's guarding him?" Nathan asked.
"Among others, Kyle Baron. Anyone gets close to that house, he'll shoot to kill."
"Ginger," Nathan said. "Ask her why the guard wanted you."
Ginger nodded. "Why did the guard want me?"
"In case Audrey Parker became difficult," Jordan bit out, still struggling not to obey. "We could use you to control her."
Duke stared, horrified. "Nathan. . . ."
Ginger did not need to be here to hear this. She didn't need to know that there were people out there who would use her like this. It was bad enough knowing that as an adult.
Nathan nodded. "Ginger. Tell her she has to answer my questions now."
"You have to answer his questions," Ginger said. Audrey reached for her hand.
"Okay, Ginger, why don't you go upstairs?"
Duke flicked the kid a little smile. "You did good."
Ginger flashed him a tiny one in return, and then darted out the door. Duke was tempted to follow, but he needed to know what the Guard was up to. What they thought they could get out of Audrey by using a nine year old kid.
Nathan pulled up a chair, sitting down in it backwards as he scowled at Jordan.
"Audrey is immune to the troubles," he said. "Ginger couldn't make her do anything. How was Ginger going to help you?"
Jordan was in tears now, staring at Nathan like her heart was breaking. Duke remembered how she'd looked at him when he'd come back from the dead; she really did love him. Just not enough to keep her from using him. "You're not immune to Ginger, Nathan. If we had Ginger, we'd have you. If we had you . . . we'd be able to control Audrey." She shook her head, her voice tight. "But I really cared about you! I love yo—"
"Why do you want to control Audrey?" Nathan barked. Duke wondered if he'd ever really loved Jordan back. Or if she'd been a means to an end, too.
"Last time around when she was Lucy Ripley, she refused to go into the barn," Jordan said. (Duke wondered what the fuck a barn had to do with everything.) "She ran, almost got away. In case Audrey refused to go in this time. . . . Ginger was going to be our insurance policy."
"What's so important about the barn?" Audrey asked.
"Answer her," Nathan ordered.
"It's not really a barn," Jordan bit out. "It's way more than that. We just know that when she goes inside, both she and it disappear for 27 years. And once they're both gone, the troubles in Haven stop. Haven becomes a haven again. For the troubled, for you and me, Nathan!"
Duke rubbed his hand down his face. There were only a few days left until the meteor storm, when this barn was meant to take Audrey away.
Maybe once that happened, the multiverse would let Duke go.
He felt like a traitor for even thinking that. Then felt like a traitor for not being willing to do anything to get back to Octavia and Lucifer.
"How do you know that?" Nathan asked.
Jordan sighed, resigned now. "The guard has been around for a long time."
"Why didn't you tell me any of that before?"
"Because I knew you'd try to stop it from happening."
"You're right."
Duke nodded. "It's not going to happen." Audrey deserved to get to live her life on her own terms. No matter what else happened, Duke would remain firm about that.
Jordan sobbed. Audrey turned and shuffled a few steps away towards one of the french doors, staring out over the water. Duke watched her go, wanting again to just wrap her up in his arms, carry her off to Fandom where none of this had to matter anymore.
But he knew she'd never agree to leave with him. And he wasn't going to be yet another person trying to get her to do something she didn't want to do.
Nathan hatched a plan. He got the number for the Guardsman on duty at the house on Waterman from Jordan, and had Ginger make a call, ordering the man to drop his gun and go to sleep. Once the coast was clear, the three of them busted in, Duke and Nathan taking care of any other guards while Audrey went and found Ginger's father. He was overjoyed to see his daughter again, and Ginger was so relieved to have him back, to hear him tell her he loved her and that he'd never leave her, that her trouble shut back off. She was back to being just a normal nine year old girl.
If Duke had anything to say about it, she was going to stay that way.
They got pinned down again before they could leave, a man named Kirk Bowers and a few other flunkies Duke didn't recognize arriving with guns. When they threatened to put a bullet in Duke's head, Nathan made them a deal: he'd release Jordan without pressing charges if they let them leave the house and left Ginger and her father alone.
Duke didn't trust the Guard as far as he could throw them, though. So he volunteered to relocate Ginger and her father somewhere no one would be able to find and use them again.
"Don't worry," her dad promised her, as they got ready to head out. "The next place will be safer."
"No more bad guys," Duke agreed, flashing the man a smile. They hadn't had much time to talk, but he'd seen the way the man had held Ginger when they'd reunited. The way Ginger had melted against him. He was one of the good ones.
"And no more pirates?" Ginger asked, looking sad.
"Yeah," Duke agreed, with a sad nod in return. "But you're gonna have your dad there. And you are going to find new pirates to play with. I promise. In fact. . . ." He made a show of looking around, then pulled the eyepatch from their game from his pocket. "I was thinking you could hold onto this for me."
Ginger took it and stared down at it for a long time. " . . . Can you stay with us?"
Duke glanced back at Audrey and Nathan, who were hanging back, looking on. "I think they need me here. Maybe I could come and visit sometime."
"Well," Ginger said, a sly look in her eye. "Maybe. . . you should come with your daughter and a Mrs. Pirate."
Duke looked away with a soft laugh. Octavia would probably like Ginger, at least a little. Lucifer would hate her on principle, though. At least until she was old enough to drink. "Yeah," he said. "Maybe." He nudged her towards his truck. "But right now we gotta go okay?"
Ginger nodded. "Okay." She darted off to join her dad, and Duke got to his feet. He flicked Nathan and Audrey a quick glance.
He wouldn't be gone long. Assuming Fandom didn't snatch him back once Ginger was settled. He didn't think it would, though. He was pretty sure he was stuck here at least through the meteor storm.
He was going to see this out to the bitter end.
[NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Adapted from Haven 3x10, "Burned". CW for a mind-control trouble!]