The Universe's Mixer

"I put your mail on your desk for you," Andrea told him. Lindsey, still half-asleep, just nodded as he made his way to the Mr. Coffee.

Lindsey didn't realize that he rarely received paper mail. Most things here were done via email, or in-person visits. Actual letters... as he poured the coffee, Lindsey started to realize that was a very rare thing. There weren't even a lot of government agencies here of the kind that just sent you things by default.

Coffee in hand, Lindsey went into his office, took off his coat, and sat down at his desk.

Sure enough, there was mail. There were two pieces of it. One was a bunch of pizza coupons for a new place that opened down the street. The other was a very official looking white envelope with a return address of CITY COURT on the side.

Lindsey took a quick sip of the coffee and tore the letter open with a pen.

He scanned it quickly, eyes dancing over the page to grasp why he was getting this and what in the Hell it was before processing the finer points.

Words stood out, right and left. IN THE MATTER OF THE CITY VS. RIVER TAM and NEW EVIDENCE and DINAH LANCE and PAMELA EISELY, AKA POISON IVY...

It was then that he got the most important part of the letter.

DISMISSED ALL CHARGES.

"Holy shit!" he yelled.

"Sugar, you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah... Andrea....I, uh, I gotta go out for a little while."

He sipped more of the coffee, grabbed the letter, and picked his coat back up. He smiled at Andrea and headed out the door, making a beeline for the hotel where he knew River Tam was staying. He'd been there a time or two to visit her about the case, so nobody kicked up a fuss about him heading up to her rooms now, and the front desk man actually waved at him and said good morning as Lindsey passed.

He knocked on the door, still smiling a little bit. He hoped River was here. Or Hannibal, even Hannibal. Or better yet, both of them.

Dinah hadn't given much thought to Poison Ivy lately. The botanist turned eco-terrorist seemed to have disappeared from the City ages ago. After the phone call she received from Lindsey, it would seem that Ivy had left destruction in her wake. She would need to speak to Lindsey's client to be certain, but it certainly sounded like Ivy's M.O. The victim had been cutting down a tree near the park when River had killed him.

Dinah regretted the man's death, but she also didn't want to see someone go down for a crime that she'd committed under Ivy's influence. She would hate to see two lives ruined because of Ivy's skewed morals.

She'd had Lindsey arrange the meeting and at the scheduled time, made her way to the hotel that River was supposed to be staying in. She checked in with the front desk and got directions to the room in question. Once she got the approval, she headed upstairs and knocked on the door.

Dinah was a good friend. Fred couldn't remember her, but Fred could tell she was a good friend. There was something nice about knowing she had more than one good friend in the City looking out for her. She hadn't expected that, not ever. It was nice to have a friend, and it was wonderful that her friends both wanted the best for her.

In this case, her friend had gotten her outside. She needed to be outside or at least out of the hospital room. She sighed softly as she settled on the bench; the sun was bright and warm. She was in normal clothes again, and she was even enjoying a coffee. A yummy danish and a cup of coffee. Sure, it may seem like she was an old lady the way she liked her danish and coffee, but she wasn't going to apologize for it.

The sun made her too happy to care. So did the coffee and danish. Of course, she was a little concerned that there might be a shooter out there looking for her, but she could forget that for now. Or at least for the moment.

(This takes place AFTER this entry.)

Wash walked slowly along his ever-changing trek. He smiled and nodded to the Greys (as he'd come to call them) that he recognized from other parts of The City. Most people, he found, did not arrive un-expectedly. Those who ran small shops, grocery stores, who were walking on streets as if just to provide aesthetic rather than having a purpose to be there weren't from another universe. They were here, just here. And speaking with them about anything too deep could be infuriating.

Add to that, the Greys seemed to have no distinct personality, to him. That's not to say they weren't nice. But the nicety didn't seem genuine. Or they were very static in their emotional state. They were two dimensional characters that seemed only to have a ghost of a life and sparse, if any, back story.

But they did tend to have a memory of him. So he stayed genial with them. As long as they stayed away from sucking his brains out, he was alright with their existence, mostly. Though he found they creeped him out more than a little.

Wash held a bag of groceries in his hand and let the plastic sack swing listlessly as he passed buy a broad building that he only paid attention to enough to avoid running into. He rubbed his eyes, red from too little sleep, and was about to clear the corner when a poster, quite literally (and he would swear up and down that it had) attacked him.

The thick paper smacked him in the face rendering him blind for a second as he grappled with the formerly stapled banner with a curse of annoyance.

He held it out at arms length and squinted at it. It was some fancy ballet flyer. Little girl on the front, it looked. Very familiar looking little girl at that. She was dressed mighty pretty and seemed quite sane in the picture. Nah, couldn't be River then.

But emblazoned at the top was "River Tam".

"Wo bu shin wo dah yan jing!," Wash said. And he DIDN'T believe his eyes. He especially didn't believe them when he looked up at the wall the poster had come from and found more tiny Rivers dancing on the front of them.

Following the row of posters to a side door he put a tentative hand up to it. It was ajar. He pushed it gently and peeked inside. His hand was still gripping the first poster he saw, plastic bag of fruit around his wrist, and blue eyes wide eyed at the backstage area he was suddenly inhabiting, he walked softly following music from behind the closed curtain in front of him.

He pushed aside the thick velvety curtain on stage left and peeked to who was dancing there, eyes blinking.

Hannibal had taken River from the jail and gotten good food into her, made sure that she ate until she couldn't manage to do it anymore. From there, they had gone by her apartment, and his room at the Bates Motel to gather up things that they both thought they might want close at hand. Hannibal had found a very nice suite at a very nice hotel and gotten them set up inside. He doted on River and made sure she wanted for nothing.

After getting her cleaned up with the shower and then insisting that she also take a nice long soak in the giant spa tub, Hannibal had needed to leave. It was an interruption that he didn't want to have, but was necessary. He needed to at least make an appearance at the gala for Carmen's opening night. He had convinced River to take a sedative and sleep, and he would be back before she woke. With the happenings of Erik that night, he had managed to keep his promise and woken her to inform her of the surgery and to give her instructions to continue the sedatives and sleep more, leaving her a bottle by the side of the bed.

He had let her sleep on and off for a couple of days, waking her to make sure that she ate and bathed. Plying her with the richest foods that he could find, buying her exotic scented oils and bubbles for her baths. Spoiling her as much as he could, knowing that once they finally got down to business, it would be an unhappy task, and wanting her to have as much downtime as possible before she had to face the truth.

Now, with Erik's needs behind him, Hannibal returned to the suite once again. It was time, he knew, to help River with her needs. He had not supplied her with more sedatives in the past 12 hours, wanting her sleep to be more natural and her head to be clear when she woke. In his hands he carried a gourmet breakfast, which he began to set out at the nice little dining table that their suit contained.

He would let these things happen as River dictated them, but they would happen today. He didn't think it wise to let it linger any longer.

"River?" He called quietly as he placed the silverware.

Hannibal had finally managed to track down the location of his beloved. He had thought to use Lestat and the vampire's powers and his connection to himself and River in order to do it. In the end, however, he discovered he didn't need to be quite so sneaky about it. He managed to discover the whereabouts of the girl who held his heart by simply listening to the conversation of an officer in the waiting room of the emergency department.

The two cops were there because one of them had food poisoning, but they did not stop talking about the strange girl they had in the holding cell. They spoke of the language the girl used, the way she moved. Hannibal knew without asking any questions that they had to be speaking of River. When they discussed - in hushed tones that the cannibal could hear quite easily - the crime she was accused of, he was more than certain.

Hannibal excused himself from work and made his way immediately to the police station. River had been here too long already, and far too long without him visiting. He was irritated, and he let it show in his tone and the way that he spoke. His words were far too long for the average person, let alone a City citizen. His distaste colored them. His displeasure bit at the officer behind the desk at check in.

"It sure took you long enough to get here." Another cop appeared and raised an eyebrow as Hannibal filled in his information on the sign in sheet.

"What do you mean?" The young doctor looked up, pausing in his writing to lay the full effect of his red eyes on the man who'd spoke.

"She told us to call you a while ago." The pair exchanged glances.

Now Hannibal was more than irritated. He was outright angry. The incompetence he was witnessing was enough to make him want to kill these two where they stood. Instead, he made a mental note of the names on their badges. Perhaps he would see to them later.

"I assure you both that if I had received any phone call about this situation, I would have arrived here with as much haste as I did today once I learned her whereabouts. The fact that I did not speaks to the inability of this outfit to follow through. The very least that you can be assured of is that I will be giving your names to your superior."

And maybe they would see the business end of a blade at some point in the future, when Hannibal could be assured that he would not be connected to their deaths or disappearances. He finished filling out his required paperwork and was led to the cell which held his girlfriend. Hannibal waited for the escorting officer to leave before moving closer to the bars. He hated seeing her like this, caged. And he felt horribly for not finding her sooner.

River hadn't had too many visitors. Jesse'd been the best one, though.

River'd gotten to leave the cell. No one knew that but her and Jesse. And she hadn't had to hide from him, either. She hadn't had to stop being what she was. River and Jesse had talked telepathically for a while, and it made her feel like the pressure outside and the pressure inside were equalizing. It made her feel normal again, to be herself, to tell him things without speaking.

She knew she was waiting for the investigation to push forward, and it hadn't been that long exactly that she'd been here. She also knew that the agents would not release her except into a hospital. They talked about it a lot. All the time. The cops and agents were not sure she wasn't insane, that she wasn't a danger to others or herself. River did not like that, but she figured it would be worked out.

Hannibal would not stand for this.

She was surprised when one of the guards opened the door just after lunch, though. This wasn't Hannibal. She knew that before the guard said anything, and before the door even opened fully.

"You have a visitor," the guard said.

River arched an eyebrow.

Though River more or less gave herself over to the agents who came to arrest her, her mind did not give her any peace.

Not on the ride to their facility.

Not when they processed her.

Not when they started to ask her questions, not when she kept silent.

Her thoughts were a jumbled mess she had no control of, even if she was struggling to remember Harry Dresden's lessons on how to be in control. And despite John Coffey's help, River sounded more like her old self than she had in quite some time.

The men had handcuffed her because she'd hit one of the agents, and River was not making any attempt to free herself from the cuffs. Her mind was racing, yet that destructive point where she saw only red had somehow been replaced with something like disbelief. No one had seen her. She knew this. There had been only her and the man and the tree.

No one had been there.

No one could have known.

It was not long before she began saying these things aloud, and also peppering her speech with things that no one would understand--except possibly Simon or Hannibal. She'd told them, with a very cold expression, to contact Dr. Hannibal Lecter when they'd asked if she had a lawyer, or if they should call her family.

They'd put her in a room with a big lock on the door, and men guarding it. She was free to pace and babble, which is what she was doing, boots hardly making any noise on the floor.

When she lapsed into Mandarin, River heard the man at the door ask if there was anyone in the building that spoke Chinese. She'd stopped pacing to glare.

She could escape, if she wanted to hurt a lot of people. But River did not want to do that, despite her anger, and despite how close she was to that line where she lost herself entirely.

A few agents came in, left food, told her Hannibal'd been called, a message left. When the door opened, River was never surprised.

Someone always had something to say. And it was a big building.

At Veronica's request, Lois had run the sketch of the murder suspect in the paper. She had also taken it upon herself to do a little bit of digging on her own. She had taken to showing the picture at some of the local establishments-coffee houses, bars, anywhere that a woman who looked to be in her early to mid 20s might frequent.

Someone had to know the girl, didn't they?

Was it a little bit dangerous to be on the trail of a suspected murderer? Perhaps. But Lois had certainly pulled similar stunts. And besides, it was an attempt to keep her mind off the fact that a lot of people were missing and she hadn't been able to get ahold of Ollie just yet to confirm that he was still in the City.

She was investigating the missing people as well, but that seemed to be hitting a lot more dead ends. In fact, there was... nothing to go on. The only thing that the victims had in common was that they were all imports from the City. Besides that, nothing tied them together and there was no way to know if they had simply been used up and sent back or what. Though previous history would indicate that people didn't get sent back in droves. Not like this.

Lois had her head full of both cases as she stopped in yet another coffee shop to show the sketch to the waitstaff. The murder that was so close to being solved that it felt like it was on the tip of her tongue and the disappearances that were maddeningly mysterious both tied up her thoughts enough that there was little room for anything else at the moment. This was always how she was when she was hot on the trail of a story or two. After all, there was a reason that she had been compared to a pitbull on a pantleg on more than one occasion.

Hannibal had no idea how River felt about this new way of the City, but he had discovered something and wanted to share it with her. He thought that it would make her smile and it could also be something that they would share for a long while though his vast and very capable memory. They could build a room of their own in his Mind Palace, visit it whenever they wanted.

First things first, he had to find her.

He decided that this time, he would just go to her apartment and wait, instead of trying other locations and leaving them. She would have to be back here eventually. He didn't even go inside, but sat on the stoop. That way he could grab her as soon as she appeared, before she got a chance to say hello to neighbors or decide to go get food before hand.

It didn't penetrate Jensen's brain that there was something different about the City right away. He stopped to get a ginormous cup of coffee and a bag of powdered donuts without the street changing while he was in the shop, but it wasn't until he'd crossed three intersections that he realized nothing had changed randomly. Period. At all. When it finally did sink in he stopped in place to look around...it might have been better if he hadn't stopped in the middle of the road, but he knew the cars with the blaring horns would swerve around him.

"....whoa.."

That was when he decided to test this out. He pulled up a City map on the laptop he was carrying, plotted out a route to the City library then implemented it. When he got to his destination without having to replot his course even once he stood looking at the stairs to the entrance and burst out laughing.

"This is so awesome!"

He was out of coffee. OH DEAR GOD HE WAS OUT OF COFFEE! This was a national emergency...if the City could be called a nation. Was it? It existed on its own so far as Jensen could tell so maybe it was a nation unto itself. But if that was true why elect a mayor? Why not a president or prime minister? If it wasn't its own country then to what nation did the City hold allegiance?

These thoughts ran at a rabbit's pace through his head as he made his way down the street to find a nearby store that would supply him with coffee both immediate and a bag or seven of ground beans for his lab. They really didn't want to see what would happen if he didn't have his stimulant.

It was quite a thing to come home to something so sweet.

River hadn't seen Hannibal in quite some time. It just hadn't worked out, beyond a quick hello. She didn't expect flowers, or a poem, or anything. She had missed him, though. Especially with Simon gone.

She'd killed someone.

Harry was trying to help her learn to control her...

So much had changed.

River smiled broadly, picking the flowers up in her arms and smelling them. She rushed to put them in water, resolved to go find Hannibal. The City might be smart, but it was not smarter than River Tam. She could find him.

She was back out the door in a flash, listening for his mind. If Hannibal did not want to be found, he would not be. But River could at least get an idea of where he was and what he was doing.

Once she had it, she half-bounced down the stairs in her building to the front door, then out it. It wasn't that late yet. There was still some light in the sky.

She knew where the park should be, and went toward it, running, boots covering immense amounts of sidewalk. Dark hair flew out behind her. River wasn't running just to get to see Hannibal faster, but because she thought that The City would move the park to keep them apart. She was trying to outrun it.

The park didn't move, much. Two blocks. And River sighed out her breath, pushing her hair out of her face, and continuing at a normal pace into it.

She found him easily enough, standing there, watching the now-setting sun. It was a nice spot, part-garden, with a few benches. River hadn't realized exactly how much she'd missed Hannibal until he was standing there, not busy, not without time to talk to her.

Without saying anything, she walked over to him and took his hand.

While Harry Dresden was certainly good for River, he wasn't a replacement for Simon.

River was glad Simon was gone, so that he could have a better life. But that didn't mean there weren't days where she got up and cried because he wasn't there, and because she might never see him again. She'd decided to treat it like a death. That was the most rational way of coping.

So she went to the hospital to claim Simon's things, and pack up whatever he'd left. She could give the relevant medical things to Hannibal, and save whatever needed saving.

His name plate was still on his door. River touched it and smiled, and had a hospital staff member let her into his office.

She spent an hour moving papers around into piles before someone else showed up. River looked up, hair half in her face, at the person that'd arrived, the person who was watching. The corners of her mouth went up in a very small smile.

"Hello," she said.

Taking his dog for a walk, Harry decided, was a nice, normal activity. He needed normal right now. After that adventure at Arkham, he didn't want to think about the repercussions, about the Joker's fate, or about the fragile mind of the boy they had fought to recover. He wasn't home safe yet, not by any means, but the part Harry could help with was over. The rest would have to be between Jake and Dinah.

Murphy wasn't around when he got up. After a quick lunch of Spagettios and a sandwich, Harry found Mouse waiting at the front door, lead in his mouth. "Alright," Harry said, letting himself laugh. "Wherever you want to go, Dogzilla."

Alright, maybe he wasn't taking Mouse for a walk as much as Mouse was taking him for a walk.

They ended up at the park. It had been a while since Harry had been there, but he found a tennis ball in his pocket and tossed it for Mouse. The big dog went after it, and it seemed like it would be ( a nice, normal day after all. )

After leaving the garden, the effect Ivy had lingered with River.

She felt strange. Strange was the correct word, and she knew that, even with her clouded head. But she also liked Ivy. And she wanted to make her happy. And she agreed with her basic principles-- Earth that Was needed to be better taken care of. It could never be so well taken care of that River's reality, the future, never took place, but there was no reason to allow trash to collect on the ground, either.

She was halfway home when she encountered a middle-aged man in white coveralls and a hat. There was a notice, nailed to a tree. The tree was going to be cut down. The man had a truck that made a lot of noise. The notice said this was happening today.

River scowled. All reason left her, and Ivy's influence pushed her over the edge.

"Stop."

She said it as a command, not a request. The man in the coveralls said he couldn't, the tree had to be removed to make room for the building expansion behind it. Said he was sorry. River tilted her head, eyebrows furrowed, hearing the words and not at all liking them. Her bag of dance shoes and clothes was carefully set aside like a precious jewel. Dark eyes lighted on the nametag on the man in the coveralls.

His name was Rick.

River kicked Rick, first in the neck, knocking the wind from him, then in the stomach, until he doubled over. Rick did not fight back, just put his hands up and blinked a lot, hoping the psychotic little girl would leave him alone.

She did not.

When River finally left Rick alone, he was not breathing. Her knuckles were covered both in her blood and in his. And in the back of her mind, River wished she'd had a knife, or something that would have...

The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Someone was there.

Jake had discovered a newfound affinity for noodles. (Especially noodles combined with some kind of fish in a milky sauce.) Hence why he was trying out the Chinese restaurant that had mysteriously appeared at the corner of the park as he was walking home. The waitresses were very pleasant and didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that a cat was treating himself to shrimp low mein (with a side of Half&Half creamer for a beverage.)

Spread out across the table were blueprint plans of his ship. Yes, he was still trying to determine if he could make his ship fly again. Of course, he wasn't so naive as to think that it was broken. Certainly there was something that The City was doing itself to prevent his ship from breaking atmosphere and flying off into space. But he was curious about the particle physics and quantum theories surrounding space travel. Perhaps he could find some sort of gap in The City's hold on his ship? Maybe he could find some kind of loophole that would allow him to escape?

Not that he wanted to escape entirely. He did enjoy The City. But he wanted to know that he could leave. He wanted to know that one day he would be reunited with his people or with his old friends. And, of course, he would take Lucy-Belle with him. Provided that she wanted to go. But he couldn't imagine her not wanting to go. She had friends and family back on Earth, after all. And even though the two of them had each other now, she might still be lonely for her companions.

On a scratch piece of paper, a hovering pencil drew out some formulas. Jake's collar glowed as the pencil wrote across the length of the paper. He had considerably nice handwriting for a telekinetic cat. Some of the algorithms were in his own language, but anyone with knowledge and experience in mathematics would be able to see what he was trying to do.

It was a science thing.

Mmm, creamer. Slurp, slurp.

Ivy's ventures out into the City had certainly turned up some interesting meetings. She apparently had more enemies to contend with, and even some familiar enemies. It didn't bother her all that much, however. She'd faced the Canary before, and even the whispered rumors of the Batman didn't phase her.

This City was in dire need of care, and Ivy seemed the only one who cared enough to give that. Charlie certainly had potential, but she would have to see him again and see if she could motivate him to help with her cause.

Today, Ivy was staying a little closer to the new home that she'd claimed. She'd ventured out of the garden in the middle of the park and was instead tending to some of the trees on the outskirts. They were mired with litter and cigarette butts. Her eyes narrowed at each blight on what might have been a picture perfect landscape.

They would pay for this. She would find ways to make the citizens of this poor excuse for a habitat sorry that they had ever turned their backs on Mother Nature.

Something was wrong.

River sat in her apartment, eyebrows furrowed, feeling... lost. Something was missing, something important.

After the wish, after the masquerade, River had felt somewhat strange. She didn't remember much of her actual wish. She knew she'd seen Simon, but she couldn't remember the details.

Like they hadn't mattered.

And she had not seen Simon since.

Then, all at once, she knew what was really wrong. And she began to cry, quietly at first, then louder and into sobs.

There were people and entities she would overhear, routinely. People she was close to, without really meaning to. Lestat. Hannibal. The Ballet Master. Simon. She could feel them, knew they were there, or working, or nearby. One was missing--not hurt, not shutting her out, just... missing.

River covered her mouth with her hand. She had really gotten that wish, after all, hadn't she?

"You're gone."

Then, all at once, the crying stopped. He'd be better off without her, even if she was sad. Simon could have a real life without ever having to worry about her.

River smiled.

River eyed the piece of paper cautiously.

The instructions were too complex, she thought. This would be an easy thing to do.

Eyebrow arched, standing in the women's lounge outside the bathroom, bent over a counter, River made the last fold. The thing was complete.

It was an origami version of Serenity. River smiled at it.

The instructions urged her to think of what she truly wanted. Looking at the ship, thinking of how things had been with her brother, River wished.

Silently, in Mandarin.

She smiled.

_______________

Later that day, April Fool's Day, River went to the hospital, hoping to grab Hannibal for lunch. She was cheerful, and she couldn't really explain why. She just felt... better. She grinned as she opened the doorway to the hallway that held Hannibal's office, hitting it with both arms out so it swung.