girlsolo | [For Druitt, Will] Jan 14th: there's gonna be a hand to wipe that smile off your face

Well, that's something Will didn't expect to see: Kate and Druitt. And Kate seems pretty damn pissed. He's not sure what's going on, but he figures he better find out. "Hey," he says, eyes flicking between Kate and Druitt. There's a weird vibe there he can't put his finger on. "What's the problem?"

It's on the tip of Kate's tongue to snap Nothing! and tell Will to get lost. Him being more pissed at Druitt's only going to cause more trouble between him and Magnus. But it's Will. She scowls but backs down from Druitt enough to talk to Will. "Friend of a friend is missing and he was with her last night," she tells him. "He's got her earring, her bloody handkerchief, scratches on his arm, and he's lying about something."

Not that that means anything about Joan, if she's being fair. He's always lying about something. So's she. Will's like the only person she knows who doesn't. Well, and Declan.

He takes all this in while he's studying the both of them, but mostly Druitt, taking in their body language and anything else that might give him more information than he's currently getting. When Kate finishes, he looks at Druitt and says, "Is that true?" Not that he doubts Kate, of course, but if Druitt has an explanation for something that currently looks pretty bad, he wants to hear it.

"All but her implication are true," John said without a hint of worry. Kate was hell bent on blaming him for this and nothing would change that. He doubted even if Joan showed up suddenly and explained that she had just been relaxing by the ocean for the last several hours would convince Kate that he had nothing to do with her disappearance.

"Joan is a friend. We went for a stroll yesterday and that evening had tea in a cafe. She had slipped on the ice outside and scratched my arm. The earring must have come off during and fallen into my pocket."

"Can I see your arm?" Will asks. There's a difference in scratches and cuts made in self-defense and the kind of scratches that come from a fall like Druitt's describing; he's seen these kinds of things hundreds of times when he worked in forsenics. It won't be conclusive, but it'll be enough for Will to have an idea who needs to be involved next.

Edited 2012-01-23 04:14 (UTC)

"Of course, I have nothing to hide," John said, rolling back his sleeve. He carefully undid the bandages from his arm, showing them to Will. The cuts weren't too serious, but they were more than just minor scratches, having been deep enough to draw blood.

"As I said, I received them when she fell and grabbed on to me."

Will studies Druitt's arm and does a little mental calculating. Depending on Joan's size and strength, it could go either way with wound depth, but from the angle... they look more like they were inflicted by someone pulling him towards her, not trying to push him away. The direction's wrong.

Still, Will's not going to make any assumptions yet. He doesn't think there's any such thing as too careful where Druitt's concerned. "And the handkerchief?"

"Here," he said, handing Will the folded up handkerchief from his pocket. It still had the blood on it, he had yet to find a place to get it laundered properly. He wasn't sure what Will was hoping to see, John wouldn't be so foolish as to keep such an item on his person if he had killed anyone, not even to throw off suspicion.

"I hope that satisfies your suspicions."

Kate's already exhausted with this. Between Archie just letting him go and him upsetting Auggie, she's on edge and impatient. Plus, the longer Will has to stand here and do this the more it's going to hurt him and Magnus. There's no way any of this is going to work out well, and she wanted to keep him out of it. Of all people, she'd wanted to keep Will out of it.

She glares at Druitt and steps closer to Will. "He's trying to help you," she says, the knife's edge in her tone just flaying. "Don't you get it? Just give him the fucking earring and stop making a production out of this. You're the one who claims to want to hurry and go find Joan."

This feels wrong, to Will, somehow. He's not totally convinced Druitt's innocent, something's not sitting right with him, but it's not enough to make him think anyone else is in danger, it's not enough that would get someone arrested back home. "Hey, hey," he says, looking back and forth between Druitt and Kate, a hand on her arm saying hey, back off a little for now. "I think maybe the best thing to do right now is look for Joan. Let's find her, make sure she's okay, and then we can go from there."

"How intriguing, the very thing I was attempting to do and suggest we carry on with," John said, giving Kate a rather smug look. He knew that Will wasn't siding with him but it certainly felt close enough to that for him to at least get some satisfaction over it.

"I hope that we find her safely, because I would hate to find out someone's delay caused Joan hard. Of course, you would probably be more upset that it meant I wasn't a killer, wouldn't you Kate? I bet you're actually hoping Joan is dead."

"You know that's not what she wants, Druitt," Will says, tightening his hand on Kate's arm before she gets the chance to stab Druitt in the face, because he knows that kind of talk is just like throwing gasoline on a fire for her. "Let's just all behave like grownups here, okay, and do what's best for Joan."

Kate gives Will a look like really? and rolls her eyes. Maybe it's the island or maybe it's Declan, but she's not even rising to the bait on that one. "Yeah. You're right. That's exactly what I want. Joan to be dead. My friends to be miserable. Magnus to be heartbroken. All so I get the satisfaction of watching them lock you up forever."

Okay, maybe rising a little, but she's more scathingly sarcastic than pissed. She is pissed, no mistake, and Druitt's cruising for it, but she's not going haul off and punch him in front of Will. It's just putting him in a bad position. The less he knows, the less he has to explain to Magnus.

"Come on, Will. Let's go find Declan. He can help us search." She jerks her chin sharply at Druitt and adds a calm, "If you find her, please let one of us know." There. See. She can use her words.

John just smiled at Kate as she spoke, resisting the urge to picture what she would look like with her throat slit. As pleasant as that may be, it wasn't a road he was going to walk down even as a fantasy for people he hated.

"I will be sure that you are one of the first who knows," he said to her before turning to Will. "And I look forward to discussing all this at our next session, Dr. Zimmerman."

"That's probably a good idea," Will says, hoping like hell that that next session would be conducted in the psych office instead of inside an IPD cell. "We'll talk then." Just because he doesn't trust him doesn't mean he hopes he's guilty--mostly because it means maybe this Joan person is okay, and second because it would tear Magnus up to know Druitt was up to his old ways, and third, because as much as he hates the guy, Will would actually like for him to finally be okay.

"Kate, let's go."

UGH. That sets Kate off all over again, worse than before. Her fists clench at her sides, and then one slips up into her pocket to wrap around her knife. The truth is, she doesn't think he did it. There's something off, Druitt's off, but he hasn't slipped at all. He's hardly even raised his voice at her.

But that... making Will do his therapy. Kate grits her teeth and shakes her head like a punch-stung fighter as they move off "Damn I hate that guy."

John had decided that searching the caves was the perfect way to relieve his frustration over the situation. A friend of his was missing and all Kate and others could focus on was the fact that they thought he had something to do with it. That wouldn't help Joan and it would do nothing but annoy him.

He needed to be by himself, to focus on finding Joan and putting the annoyance that was Kate Freelander out of his mind. At least Will had been reasonable about it all, even if it had possibly killed the man to do so.

The sooner Joan was found, the better off they all would be.

Kate convinces Will she's fine and heads back to the Compound to go search the caves. Just like the day Magnus went missing, she coordinates, telling him to go find Declan and get Declan to search out toward dinosaur territory. One of the best things about Will is that he's not an ego-driven dick and when she's talking sense, he listens.

Yeah, she's trolling Druitt a little to do it, but she doesn't like the idea of him alone in the caves. Whether she thinks he did anything or not, it's just not safe. Not like she cares if he takes a fall or dies in a cave-in not safe. Just if Joan's lost in the caves, first, Kate knows them like the back of her hand. Second, if Joan's there and pisses Druitt off somehow, it's too easy for him to kill her down there since they've already pretty much cleared him. Third, if anyone else (Auggie, Annie, IPD, the kids) is down there and Kate's provoked the hell out of him, they could be a target.

She's not actively looking for Druitt or trailing him. Just listening and moving through the caves in search of the places she knows that someone could take a bad fall.

John eventually became aware that he wasn't alone in the caves and it didn't take very long to realize just who it was. He could have probably guessed rather easily who it was, but it was good to have visual confirmation.

"You just cannot leave it alone, can you?" John called out to Kate. "Is it because it would drive Helen even farther away from me if I was responsible, or because you need someone here with a darker past than yourself to feel good about yourself?"

"Actually, it's because I've spent a lot of time in these caves and I can search them faster than dinosaur territory," Kate says and the words might be acid for how she spits them out.

She's so not in the mood for this right now. She did the right thing and let him go so she could search for Joan. But her mood is like a goddamned tinderbox. Doing the right thing has a shorter life expectancy than the fuses on most of the explosives she's set.

"And I'm not interested in relying on you to do it."

"Yes, of course, you have shown nothing but an altruistic agenda since this all began and have not pursued a personal agenda at all," he said.

He probably should have let it go and just went on his way searching for Joan. But she had continually harassed him so far, including bringing others in to harass him and he was not going to let that go by without some sort of retaliation. John was not unwilling to pay for what he had done, but he would not take unwarranted abuse.

"Yeah, and you've been the model of the perfect citizen." Kate's fucking annoyed as it is. It's not like it ever takes much to rile her up. "My personal agenda is to make damned sure you didn't murder Joan."

She closes in on him, eyes blazing. "But if you wanna know, yeah. I'd be thrilled to see your creepy ass behind bars. At least Will wouldn't have to do your therapy anymore and Magnus could stop feeling guilty for not saving you."

"Thank you, I appreciate that you at least acknowledge that I have been a model citizen so far," he said, giving her a polite smile. Just because he was furious at her didn't mean he had to let her know it.

"I have not pulled a knife on anyone while here nor have I committed any crimes. Can you say the same? And Will is always welcome to refuse treatment and what is between Helen and I is just that, between Helen and I. Of course, I understand her taking you in is a direct result of my actions, but that gives you no right to think you understand our situation at all."

"Will can't refuse treatment, you fucking fuck, and don't pretend you don't know it!" Kate snarls, patience lost and body coiling for a strike. The rest of it's bullshit and she couldn't care less but that...

He knows. He totally knows that Will can't deny him treatment without upsetting Magnus or going against everything that matters to him and so he has to sit and listen to Druitt tell him god fucking knows what about his life with Helen and--

"It's not the parasite that made you a monster. It's that you don't even fucking care." The last word coincides with her launching herself at him. She doesn't want to kill him. She just wants him to shut the hell up.

"I trust him to do what is best for everyone, if you don't have that kind of faith in your friends, that is your problem," he said, not quite growling back at her.

When she launched herself at him, there was no more time to talk as he grabbed at her arms, wanting to make sure that she couldn't pull a knife on him. He was furious and all he wanted was for Kate to stop. He wasn't thinking more than just reacting. This wasn't a fight for his life or a calculated kill, this was brawling because he was angry and attacked and wanted this all to end.

He grabs her wrists and Kate doesn't fucking care. She's not trying to knife the bastard. If she was, he'd be bleeding already. She kicks out with both legs, twists one hand away and after that she's too pissed to catalog moves.

The fight is pure instinct. Roll, twist, strike, roll, punch, knee, roll again. Sometimes he's on top, sometimes she is. It's the same kind of fight she has in training with Declan, except that they're both actually landing the blows.

It has nothing to do with trying to beat information out of him, or really even with Will specifically at this point. She just...she hates him, she hates this place, she hates the uncertainty, she hates that Auggie's friend is missing, she hates that Magnus cries over her feelings for him (that Magnus cries at all), that Declan spent all of December in mourning for James, that Will got drunk over his feelings (he never gets drunk), that people she got stupid and sloppy enough to let herself care about are hurt and there's nothing she can do about it.

Maybe she hates more than anything that when she's trying so hard to be good, he makes her want to chuck it all, for a few hours, and arrange for something really really bad. Like Constantine bad. She's not that girl anymore, but he makes her want to be.

None of his blows were deadly and even with all his rage, his heart wasn't in it. John may have wanted her dead, but he didn't want to kill her. He was angry, perhaps even furious, but the longer they fought the more he realized that it was up to him as to whether or not he wanted to kill her. And he didn't. There was no fighting the urge, no having to hold himself back. No redirecting.

John had to laugh. There was no other way he could express himself, express the joy that he felt. John had felt clean since coming here, but he had never truly been tested, not like this.

"Stop," he said, chuckling as he pushed Kate away. "Stop, this is... this is madness. What are we hoping to prove? As much as I hate you, I'm not going to kill you. I don't even think I want to. You cannot imagine how wonderful it feels to hate without the desire or real urge to kill."

It takes a few seconds to recognize the sound because she's never heard it before. Weirdly, it doesn't sound creepy and maniacal like she would've thought. Just relieved. It kind of sounds like she feels right now, like everything black and angry in her just poured out and got wiped away.

She hurts like a bitch and she still hates this asshole, but it's a different kind of hate now. One that lets her sit up, hiding a wince, and lick the blood off her lip. "Glad we're clear on the hating part."

Kate curls herself around her knees for a minute and then pushes up to her feet. She doesn't have to, but she's going to anyway, offer a hand down to help him up. "Because I do, hate you. Don't see that changing any time soon. But I don't want to kill you. I don't even really want you dead. That's not going to help anything. I just want the people I care about to stop hurting because of you."

She frowns at him, long and hard, and then shakes her head (and wishes she hadn't because her face hurts). "Will's a lot smarter about this shit than I am, but I'm pretty sure that means I have to stop making it harder for them and you. What it doesn't mean is that I'm gonna stop watching you. I don't think you killed her. I don't think you're gonna snap and kill someone else. But that's not a chance I can take. We clear on that?"

John wiped away the blood from a split lip and took the offered hand up. What Kate was saying was probably the most sensible thing he'd heard from her since arriving on the island. To her credit, it was probably in reaction to the most transparent he had been to her ever. He doubted that he would ever truly like Kate, but perhaps he didn't have to see her as an antagonist.

"I wouldn't want you to stop watching me," he admitted. "For the same reason I asked Will to be my therapist despite how difficult it is for him... no one is going to look harder for signs of any returning madness than he is. As much as it genuinely pains me to cause someone Helen loves so much pain, there is no one else on this island I trust to do the job. Considering all it has cost me, it cannot come as a great surprise that I do not wish to return to what I was."

Kate's lips start to draw back in a little feral smile (a smile, and a honest one, just not a nice one), and she hisses under her breath before jamming her wrist against her lip to stop the bleeding she forgot about.

"If you're saying you trust me not to let you kill someone, I think I'm touched." Her tone says not at all, but there's a flicker of respect in it anyway. It matches the way she keeps making herself a target so if he does go off, it's her he goes after.

Her gaze narrows a little and she thinks about it. In a lot of ways, he's right. He's the reason she's with Magnus in the first place, and maybe that's part of why she hates him as much as she does, but it's also why he's her responsibility. "It's kind of my job, and if I can't do anything else for her and Will, at least I can do this."

It doesn't make it any less shitty, what he's doing to Will, but if she looks at it like that, like she and Will are doing their jobs, then it feels like home again. Like she has to tolerate him but she doesn't have to like him and it's the same for Will.

"That is precisely what I am saying," John said, glad that they had cleared that up. As long as he was able to recognize that she was merely doing her job and not necessarily making it completely personal, he supposed he could be begrudgingly grateful for it. He didn't like her, but he could respect her and perhaps give her the benefit of the doubt.

"And you have my admiration and respect for looking out for your family."

Right up until he says family, Kate's prepared to scoff and tell him he's pushing it. But that word, it pings hard for her. Him saying it knocks the cap off another pressure valve, releasing something pent up. As long as he realizes, like her or not, that they are her family and she's not going anywhere, there's something to work from.

Instead of running her mouth for once, she nods. For almost thirty seconds, she chews on a thought. She hates it, but in the end, she's going to do it. For Will's sake, for her family she'll ask.

"Like I said, I get why it has to be Will. And why it has to be me. But it still sucks for him because he takes doctor-patient confidentiality seriously and he can't just blow off steam. Cut him a little slack? Tell him it's okay if he needs to talk to me. Magnus tells me most stuff anyway and he's still going to protect your secrets. It'll just be easier for him, if there's someone he can talk to who isn't going to defend you if he's feeling stung." Yeah and here's the hard part, because he's probably going to fucking say no, but she still has to say it. She lifts her head and meets his gaze and tacks on an entirely genuine, "Please?"

"I will let him know that he's welcome to talk to you about such things, so long as you give me your word you will keep them confidential," John said. He wasn't entirely comfortable with that and he probably would censor himself even more, but doing Kate a favor would go a long way and he imagined that it was difficult for her to ask him. Especially to say please.

It has to be the day that it's funny, him asking for her word. She doesn't smirk, though, just nods. She's a liar, but she doesn't give her word because she won't break it. So if she does give it... "Yeah, okay. As long as no one's life is in danger, it's Sanctuary business and it stays that way."

"I believe I can live with that, so long as it stays between you and Will and no further unless you feel someone's life is in danger," John said with a nod. If someone's life was in danger, he absolutely wanted her to tell others about it so that a death could be prevented. He also didn't want her blabbing anything to Helen either. He didn't think she would, but she had said "Sanctuary business" and John wanted it clear that she wasn't to confide these things in Helen.

"And I don't mean to be rude, but I do consider Joan a friend and would very much like to continue searching for her."

"Right. 'Perish forbid' we should be rude after all this." Kate smirks, but it's lost it's sharpest edges. She's tired and Joan's still lost and if it's not his fault, she's still wasted too many hours chasing him when she should've been looking for Joan.

Quickly, she rattles off the places in the caves she knows where someone might get lost or hurt. "I'll go out toward dinosaur territory."

"Try not to get killed while in that area?" John said, smiling politely to her before she headed off. She had given him a good idea of where to start searching and would cut down on his time.

"It would be a terrible inconvenience if you died while in the midst of accusing me of murder."

[For Druitt, Will] Jan 14th: there's gonna be a hand to wipe that smile off your face

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