Of Partnerships and Problem-Solving

[CanaryCry]

Once, Evelyn had been an anonymous entity, operating solo as The Informant and passing along information to those who would pay to get it. Now, she found herself at the beck and call of a legitimate agency, with consistent work on a sometimes inconsistent schedule. Odd hours suited her just fine, though. Everything that had changed had let her get Luca free, and keep him at her side - and it wasn't as if they had managed to get him sleeping on a regular schedule yet besides. Whether he stayed with Shiver or with her, nights were always a difficult time.

Progress was slow-going, but she had known it would be from the beginning. It was very early in the morning, before most were up and about, and they were working on small, mostly controlled social interactions. After demonstrating what should happen at the register many times, she had sent Luca in on his own to get her a tea and himself a hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich - she refused to buy him coffee in hopes it would help him to sleep later on if he avoided caffeine now. She stood just outside the coffee shop, in view of the windows and with a purple and black parasol blocking the morning sun, where Luca could see her if he needed to come out and ask for help.

When he eventually emerged from the quiet shop successful, it was just ahead of an intern she had seen once or twice around the office, a young man who carried two full trays of coffee and a bag no doubt full of bagels or pastries. Evelyn gave him a little wave as he passed by with his burden.

"Good morning, Colin," she said softly, in the interest of being polite, but with her attention shifting back to Luca without any further attempts at actual conversation. "Next time, we'll work on holding the door for people with full hands, hm?"

Luca blinked, glancing back at the door and then at Colin passing by as if he hadn't noticed the man exiting behind him, and had the grace, at least, to look a bit sheepish when he nodded. "Sorry. . ."

"It's all right." She patted his arm gently and took her cup from him. "You did well. Let's have a seat outside so you can eat."

She had only just selected the table furthest from the door when her Insight told her to turn, and she looked down the street just in time to see a woman run full tilt into Colin's side. It knocked the trays of coffee from his hands and spilled everything on the ground, and the panic with which the woman grabbed him by the front of his uniform after told her something was very wrong.

". . . Let's go, Luca," she said softly, gesturing for him to follow her. "I think Colin might need a hand."

He only looked at her for a moment, confused, but obediently set down the food and drink he'd ordered and followed after her as she walked away. When they got to the two on the ground still, Luca stayed back a step while Evelyn closed her parasol, tucked it under her arm for safe keeping, and knelt carefully down next to them.

"Are you all right?" She asked, looking at the frantic woman rather than Colin for now and reaching out to rest a comforting hand on her arm. "Take a few slow breaths for me. Why were you running?"

Something was wrong, she just couldn't tell what yet.

 

[dokjacore]

Colin figured he should've considered himself lucky, being able to get an internship with a big-shot agency as a previously workless college student. He wasn't all that ecstatic about it, though -- his pay was low and he found himself running around far more than he'd like, flitting around fulfilling people's requests like he was the main character in a game that consisted purely of fetch quests, filing away paperwork he barely understood.

He wasn't too much of a fan of the life of a detective. Always something to do, to look for; if they weren't trying to figure out a case, they were patrolling, or they were filling out paperwork, or they were busy trying to look all gruff and intimidating with a cigar in their mouth. It was no wonder why they had an open role for an intern, then, with all they had to do; he might not have liked it, but his parents told him that a job with a big agency would look good on his resume, so he took it.

Coffee was probably one of the easier jobs he'd been assigned. All he had to do was remember orders and hand them out, and if he wanted, he could take a bit longer than needed and no one would bat an eye at his loss. It was nice, being able to stay around and start up a conversation with the barista a little bit. They never minded as long as he didn't have a line behind him, seemingly delighted at a chance to unwind from their jobs. The current one seemed especially stressed, seemingly as new to her job as he was to his; in these small moments between work, he got to chat with someone who could relate to his struggles and help calm her down. It helped him feel a little less bad about being stuck in a job related to probably one of the most hectic departments known to man since she seemed to find it admirable.

This time, though, Colin didn't have much time to loiter. As he'd settled down to chat in the nearly empty shop, waiting for the barista to come back with his order, he noted the approach of two people. One came to idle outside as the other entered, the familiar jingle of the bell playing with the gentle open of the door. Glancing behind him to see whether it was one of the regulars he'd sometimes talk to when the barista was busy, he instead found the tall figure of a young man who often accompanied one of the agents of SPIN.

Ah, shit.

His gaze traveled a few centimeters over to the window, discovering the familiar parasol of that same higher-up, and then back to the man. His name escaped him at the moment, but he knew that he was always by the side of either that lady or some even taller guy -- Shiver, he knew, if only because that name was so incredibly strange. Either way, these were people in the company, which meant that he couldn't loiter this time around. Had to look good to the higher-ups, after all.

He attempted to give the man a quick "hello", but he either ignored him or didn't seem to hear, going straight to the barista and asking for a tea, a hot chocolate, and a breakfast sandwich. Why he and the lady didn't just ask Colin to get it for them was beyond him -- this was what he was paid for, after all. Maybe they thought it was a small mercy, but he just felt minorly annoyed. Wasn't like it would make things any harder for him with a few more items. Still, he sighed and waited for his items.

The two orders were filled out at around the same time, meaning Colin had to politely shimmy past the man in order to grab his tray and bag. He didn't seem to acknowledge Colin, thankfully, just turning and booking it towards the door with his order in hand. Colin, himself, offered the barista a sheepish smile while gesturing towards the window with the bag in hand, hoping they got the hint that he wasn't able to chat today, before he turned and followed out the door, having to dash a bit to catch it with his shoulder as it almost closed on him.

Huffing out a sigh, he made his way out, trying his damndest not to make eye contact with the higher-up as he walked on by. It was unavoidable when she said "hello", though (she remembered his name, somehow), so he paused to give her a polite smile and a "good morning, miss" in return.

He quickly looked away as she didn't seem intent on holding the conversation, instead speaking to the man (was he her son? she looked a bit young to be his mother, but he'd seen stranger and it would explain why he was always by her side) and lightly chastising him. The man offered Colin a quiet "sorry", which he nodded and smiled to in return, immediately looking directly in front of him and walking as fast as he could without seeming strange for it in order to get as far away as he could from his awkward situation, somewhat thrown off his rhythm from the whole situation. he supposed he probably should get used to being interrupted by higher-ups, but --

He suddenly became aware of someone running nearby, away from some large group somewhere far, far benaeth a nearby building. He wasn't particularly concerned with that group, more worried about the fact that this person was going directly towards him at a very high speed. Startled and not quick enough to move out of the way, he attempted to set down the tray, but --

THUD!

He was tackled in the side, full-weight, onto the floor. Her hands quickly balled up in his uniform shirt, her words coming out too quick for him to decipher, green eyes flicking all over his face and expression desperately screaming help, help.

"W-Woah, hey, settle down --" He settled his hands on her shoulders, trying desperately to ground himself from the tackle, feeling like his brain was still rattling in his skull. "What's -- What happened? Slow down, please --"

Her gaze whipped away from him, settling on the lady from earlier who -- shit, she was way closer than where she was before. The woman seemed equally startled, if not more judging by the way her arm lashed out, attempting to claw the woman off of her -- no, no, literally claw, her fingers had grown clawed edges that he was certain were not there before if judging by the untattered state of his shirt -- before she recognized the other woman's words and stopped in her tracks. Her hands fell, settling down on the agent's shoulders before they fell to her floor, a choked sound escaping from her throat before it eventually turned to full sobs.

Colin laid back on his hands, staring blankly at the woman as she cried, too rattled to comfort her. It was only after a few moments that he began to register the tattered state of her -- she wore a ragged shirt and an equally ragged pair of cargo pants, along with a pair of fingerless gloves; underneath her right glove was a layer of bandages that wrapped all the way from her palm to a bit below her wrist, a layer of bandages that she had clearly bled though -- shit, she was bleeding a lot. She needed -- where was the medical attention?

"H-Hey," He finally said aloud, trying to get the agent's attention. "Hey, she's bleeding. Her hand, it's --"

"No." The woman suddenly wheezed out. She straightened again, grabbing onto the agent by the collar, presumably to get her attention despite the fact she most certainly already had it. "I - I came, it -- they were chasing me, they got her, she's going to -- you need to come quick, they know I'm here, they know I'm telling you, you need to see --"

She suddenly looked up past her, seemed to see something, and then froze.

"It's him," She whispered.

 

[CanaryCry]

Evelyn was careful, backing off a bit when the woman turned to her with a panic gone violent and only leaning closer again when it was safe. She could all but feel Luca bristling behind her, ready as always to snap to her defense, but held a hand up in his direction to forestall any sort of retaliation. She was fine, she could handle it, he didn't need to do anything right now. As used to the gesture as he was, jumping too quickly to stop anyone from touching her, he took the order and stayed still.

"Yes, thank you, Colin," Evelyn murmured softly, not wanting to dismiss him entirely but capable of identifying the sight of blood on the hands that were reaching for her without any outside input. Gently, she rested a hand over the fingers clinging desperately to her clothes. "It's all right, take a deep breath and tell me what happened."

Clearly the woman was hurt - and beyond hurt, she was terrified of something. She'd been running, and the panic in her eyes gave Evelyn little bursts of images. Locked doors, faceless guards, blood, misery. It was enough to tell her that before the woman had thrown her entire body weight into Colin as she fled she had been kept somewhere. Hurt somewhere.

Its him.

Evelyn looked back over her shoulder, confused, in time to see Luca flinch. He was frowning at first, lost and staring uncomfortably at the woman in front of them that looked on with such terror. And then, suddenly, his expression twisted into something fearful and he took two slow, hesitant steps backwards, fingers curling around his own wrist in a way that Evelyn knew meant he was thinking of handcuffs.

He recognized her, but barely. There were so many faces, and he went to That Place so infrequently and under such tight control he hardly remembered any of it. More than truly knowing her, he recognized the numbers stitched into the torn sleeve of her shirt. He didn't want to go back. He never got to think for himself in that place.

"It's all right," Evelyn urged again, making the quick decision to focus on the panicked woman and figure out Luca after, keeping her voice calm and steady. "It's all right, no one's going to hurt you. Is someone following you? Did someone hurt you?" She glanced, once, in Luca's general direction, brow furrowed in a worried sort of confusion. "Do you recognize him?"

What if this woman was someone from his past? She had thought when Luca was captive that each time he left the house they would hide his face, dress him up like the fuzzy security videos she had seen - a full face helmet, a leather jacket, heavy boots, hide his size and his identity, make him look intimidating without attracting too much attention. But perhaps she had been wrong. It was still difficult dragging any details out of him, even with the skilled and sympathetic therapist Evelyn had vetted for him. He had only been with her for months, and before that held captive and used for years. She and Shiver knew a lot, but not everything.

Luca was shaking his head, backing up just a couple more steps before coming to a stop as if leashed, fingernails digging into the skin of his own wrist. He couldn't leave Evelyn's side but he couldn't come any closer. He wouldn't go back to where it was always loud and the air tasted like sweat and copper. No one could make him get back in the cage and tell his Shadow to strike with such force it almost cleaved bodies in two. He wasn't covered then, and it never felt like the blood washed off all the way. All he wanted was to cover his ears and close his eyes and make it all go away.