FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (damnfinec0ffee) wrote in freedomtownic, @ 2020-12-02 18:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | dale cooper (damnfinec0ffee), laura palmer (_thediaryof) |
Who: Dale Cooper; introducing Laura Palmer
Where: Outside the Black Lodge; Twin Peaks
When: Immediately following this post
What: Laura Palmer arrives
Rating: PG-13 (mention of drugs and abuse)
Status: Closed; Complete
On the surface, Laura Palmer had an idyllic life. She had parents who loved her. She had a best friend and a cousin who looked out for her. She contributed to the community. She was voted Prom Queen. But under the surface her life was less than idyllic. She'd been abused from the moment that she'd hit puberty and while she tried to be good a part of her also wanted to be bad. She presented herself as an angel, but more often than not she was anything but. She did drugs. She was promiscuous. She was falling apart. When she finally thought that she had the courage to confront her abuser, to confront BOB... she ran. She hid.
When Laura tried to look at him again, to see him without the mask... she was blinded by a bright white light. She shielded her eyes and in a brief instant found herself in the woods. Familiar, but she couldn't say how she came to be there. She blinked and stood from her prone position, still dressed in a blue plaid dress and dark overcoat. "What...?" She mumbled as she stumbled around in the dark. Her mind was playing tricks on her. Or BOB was. She immediately lost her footing and retched.
As Dale had announced, he was doing his best to discover if The Black Lodge (and more specifically, BOB) had managed to come to Galador with Twin Peaks. He'd have given anything right now to have Major Briggs here to throw theories and ideas at. That man had a deep connection to the Lodge that was unsettling at times, but invaluable.
He'd been around the woods three times now, a nagging feeling in his gut that he was missing something. Or that he needed to be there in that moment. A few minutes after roaming a little further than the "entrance" to the lodge, he heard the sound of someone vomiting, and rushed back.
A young woman was on the ground. He'd never seen her before... yet somehow, he felt like he'd known her his entire life. He carefully approached her,brow furrowed. He was about to ask her if she was alright... before it hit him. Where he'd had this feeling before. How he knew her. She looked different. Possibly from one of the many varied realities that people came here from. But instead of the park, where everyone else appears.... this girl appeared right on the entrance to the Black Lodge. There was no doubt who this was.
"Laura?" Dale asked, nearing her with caution. "Laura Palmer?"
Laura gave Dale a startled look, like a deer caught in headlights, and staggered a few steps away from him in surprise. She thought that she was alone but... she never really was alone, was she? She blinked and wiped at her mouth with the sleeve of her overcoat, giving him a puzzled look. She had the strangest feeling of déjà vu. She knew this man. When it finally dawned on her where she'd recognized Dale from, her face relaxed and a tranquility came over her. "Are we in a dream?" She asked softly.
"If we are... it's one I never want to wake from." He said softly, taking off his suitcoat and wrapping it around her shoulders, slowly helping her to her feet. So many thoughts flooded his mind: were Laura and BOB really this connected, that one couldn't seem to appear without the other? Was this destiny's way of giving him a real chance to save this young woman? If he could, would saving one version of her matter, knowing that there could be infinite other versions out there? "I know this is going to be a lot for you to take in, but... you're on another world, Laura. My name is Dale Cooper, and on this world I work for an organization called SHIELD. And... I'm fairly certain my purpose for being here is to protect you."
Laura accepted his kindness. Without ever having physically met this man before... she knew him. She knew his face. And when he told her his name, she nodded. Cooper, she thought. Yes, that sounded right. She gave him a faint smile after she'd listened to his words. "Protect me?" A part of her wanted to laugh uproariously, but she was tired. So tired. "What a nice thought."
"I won't let him hurt you anymore." He said, not wanting to say the name. He didn't know if Laura even knew BOB by name, or if she did, what kind of reaction hearing the name might have. "That crazed man. With the long, dirty hair. He won't hurt you again."
She reached up and caressed his cheek. What a sweet, kind man, to think that he could protect her. To think that he could save her from BOB. She had to have dreamed Cooper up, that was the only explanation for this. She was sure that she would die that night. Maybe she had. Or maybe she was so coked-up that she was hallucinating. A huge, deranged smile spread across her face. That seemed more likely. "...Beware of BOB."
He felt a frown forming. Clearly, the drugs were one of the more unfortunate constants with this poor girl. "Let's get you someplace safe." He said, helping her maintain her balance so that he could walk her back to his car. "And I promise you... a safe place is something that does exist here."
"You know what I wish," she started to say as she held onto his arm. Her feet were starting to feel like they were in cement shoes and her eyelids started to droop. "I wish that I had a different name. Laura Palmer... Maybe I could distance myself from her. From him." She smiled. "I like this dream."
He almost took her to the hospital then... until it hit him that she wasn't overdosing, so all they'd do anyway is clean her up. "You'll like it even more once we get this stuff out of your system, Laura." This was so surreal to him. He was talking to the girl who's murder had taken over his life for over a year.
Laura almost joked that the cocaine was what kept her sane, but she bit her tongue. She didn't want him to think less of her. How weird was that? To worry about the man that she'd only dreamed about--to worry about his thoughts over her own. She always worried about other people's perception of her over her own self worth. God forbid they realized what she really thought about. She gave him a weak smile and muttered "Coop" before exhaustion finally overtook her and she collapsed in his arms.