Who: Annie and Teddy What: Teddy meets his stalker at the time and place specified here. Where: Apartment complex near Hamartia, then the Hamartia. When: around 4pm Warnings: Creepiness. Dark thoughts. Mentions of evil deeds resulting in (NPC) character death. Oh and cussing.
Teddy had no idea what to expect from the mystery person who'd left him what was quite possibly the best present he'd ever received. The handwriting looked female, so he had been thinking of his stalker as such. And he was sure she was stalking him by now. He just wanted to know who the hell she was. None of his exes were this clever. None of them wanted to see him again, either, except maybe his most recent ex Heather... But she was dumb as a box of rocks. No way in hell could she know what truly made him happy. And if she did, she was the type to be affronted and disgusted.
It just didn't make sense. And it still all felt like some kind of giant trap. He'd burned the photo and gift ribbon already, not ever having been very sentimental.
Now he shoved his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and headed down the sidewalk to the apartment complex that matched the address in his stalker's latest correspondence. He had his pocket knife on him, but he really hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Once in the lobby he crossed to the elevator and pressed the up button, since the card had indicated an apartment on one of the upper floors.
Annie had been sitting on the bottom step next to the elevator. She watched as he walked right past him and made a dash for the door the moment he'd pressed the button. "Wait!" She called breathlessly before her stopped it from closing all the way. Stepping inside, she made to press the button, which appeared to be the one he had just done, so, she lowered her hand. She didn't have to do the act. She could have just told him then, but she waited.
The doors slowly closed, doing their long squeal before they finally touched the other end of the opening. Then the elevator jerked in motion, slowly beginning it's ascension. It wasn't until it was somewhere between the fourth and the fifth floor that she pressed the emergency stop bringing their trip to a halt.
She'd been watching him for so long, it felt surreal to have him so close to her. Annie hadn't turned around to look at him just yet. Instead, her fingers curled around the cold railing of the elevator car. The building wasn't that well heated. "So, you didn't like my present?" Even though no negative feelings radiated off the girl in the corner, there was a hint of disappointment in her voice.
Teddy'd been watching the little brunette out of the corner of his eye since she dashed into the elevator, but now she had his full attention. He tilted his head to the side, trying to see her face without much success, but didn't take his hands out of his pockets. He was pretty sure he could overpower her if necessary. So long as she didn't have a weapon.
"What makes you think that?" he asked, his voice as flat as possible. He wasn't happy with the situation, but he didn't want her to know that right away.
"You let her go so quickly. You usually take longer." Annie didn't bother to hide that she'd watched him, but it was obvious that she didn't know why he did what he did. She just assumed he thought it was fun. She had thought she'd done most of the work for him. She turned her head enough to see him over her shoulder, but not enough to expose herself to him. "Was she not to your liking?"
"She was ...perfect," Teddy admitted with a sigh. He leaned up against the wall of the elevator and propped his hands up on the railing. The thought crossed his mind that this girl could be recording his every word. Clearly she had no qualms about spying on him. Which made him wonder just how long she'd been following him around. This wasn't a new thing. He hadn't been in Seattle long enough for that. She had to be from St. Louis. "You're not afraid of me. Why not?"
"Was she?" Annie finally turned around to face him. Her hands were clasped behind her back and she was smiling. The answer had obviously pleased her. "I'm glad you liked her," she said with cheerfully as she took in how he was looking at her. He had every right to do so. Even if he was different than others, he was still human. The question he posed only made her look confused. She regarded him with a cat-like curiosity. "Why would I ever be afraid of you?" She stepped closer to where he leaned against the railing. "Because you hurt people?" She laughed.
"Generally... yeah, that's what does the trick," Teddy said, his brows furrowing at her laugh and demeanor. She looked predatory in his eyes, which didn't phase him. And she wasn't faking her way through this either. He wasn't getting anything off of her and it was beginning to frustrate him. If he didn't have work to look forward to, he'd have been very tempted to hurt her just to see how she reacted.
"I don't think I could ever be afraid of you," her voice was soft, as if she were soothing a child of their fears. "You did something wonderful for me. So, I thought I would do something wonderful for you..." She let the end of the sentence trail off as she looked up at him with a dreamlike expression on her face. "You were upset at first, I know, but I had to make sure I got it right." Despite the enclosed space, she was easily showing that it was not a problem to be trapped in there with him. Even though they'd been in there for a prolonged time, she wasn't displaying any signs of feeling trapped. "You're awfully more relaxed than you were yesterday. Do you feel better now?"
"What did I do for you? I don't even know you. And you seem to know an awful lot about me," Teddy said, his defensiveness finally coming through in his tone of voice and expression. He wasn't a fan of having the tables turned on him, and here he was feeling like a mouse being tossed around by a cat. While he could appreciate the game, he couldn't gain the upper hand if he didn't have more information about his opponent.
"I guess you wouldn't remember me," she said with disappointment in her tone again, even if she didn't feel bad. How she managed to sound like she felt it without actually feeling it could have been a wonder to anyone. "Three years ago, you saved my life." She sounded very pleased with this announcement. "I probably would have died, but you took care of me very well. Everyone told me, 'If it wasn't for Teddy'," It was the first time she'd said his name in front of him, although she didn't use it in a way that meant she was familiar. She wouldn't presume to call him anything other than Mr. Orsini unless he offered her otherwise. "So, I had to learn everything there was to know about you and do something nice. The best gifts are the thoughtful kind after all."
"Huh... most people send thank you cards, if anything," Teddy said, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. He didn't remember her, but it wasn't surprising as over the five or so years he'd been a paramedic he'd helped hundreds of people. If she'd been that close to death she'd probably looked pretty bad at the time anyway. "I'm impressed. And flattered."
He smiled sheepishly and ran a hand through his hair. This was turning awkward for him quickly. She clearly had insane amounts of dedication when she set out to do something. Even something as little as showing her appreciation for what someone had done for her. And she knew at least that he had two strongly opposed sides. The savior and the abuser. Yet here she was, unafraid and self satisfied with what she'd done to thank him. He had no idea what else to say.
"And you toss them out, don't you?" There was no judgment in her tone, it was simply that everyone sent thank you cards. Those were boring and impersonal. Then people just forgot about him. They usually liked to separate themselves from traumatic periods in their lives. Annie had not been traumatized by the event at all.
When he said that he was both impressed and flattered, it was as if her entire face lit up. "Oh! I'm Annie," she extended a hand to him. "I should have introduced myself first, but I was worried I had done something wrong." They were standing a little too close for her to be offering her hand, but she didn't seem to be bothered by the proximity or how awkward it would make the gesture in itself.
Teddy shook her hand, feeling suddenly like he was on some kind of weird ass blind date. He put his hand back on the railing and studied Annie's face. It was funny since she wasn't his sister, but he was happy she was happy. As he tried to think of something else to say, since she already knew who he was and he couldn't reciprocate the introduction, he remembered through the awkwardness that he needed to know something.
"How do you- ...Did you say anything about me to that girl? The girl in the picture," he said, as if she were just that. Just some girl in some picture and not the best and worst night of his life rolled into one human representation. He kept thinking about her, too. Not about how she was doing. But about how much she'd been able to tell the cops, since he assumed she'd file a report. And how he wished he had his own place so he could've kept her tucked away in her own room. That would've solved just about everything. There still would've been the fact that she would've become a missing person, but people went missing every day. She would've been his though, and for more than one night. Until she outlived her usefulness. No one liked broken toys, after all.
"Nothing about you directly or specifically. We talked about you. Well, she talked about you and I listened. She's very descriptive. They all were." If she was not supposed to confess that she'd been following his trail for a while, making a list of things that he did and said, than she was not aware of it. "They were all very helpful in planning this gift for you."
After a moment of thought, she continued. "Amber was different though. I hadn't expected to have to follow up on that one, but you left quite a mess behind you, and I couldn't have you getting in trouble before you received your present." She'd worked on the girl in the warehouse for quite some time. Finding her, isolating her, driving fear and pain into her, preparing her for him. "Usually you're not so sloppy," Annie said with a frown. It was more of an observation.
"Amber?" Teddy thought that sounded right. He hadn't really remembered her name. He'd been too worried about what he didn't want her to remember or the cops to potentially find. "I have a theory about that... the sloppiness. And why I've suddenly been drinking every chance I get. It's entirely not my fault if I'm right. Some..." He stopped talking and stared at Annie. Partly because he had no idea if he could actually trust her and partly because he assumed she was from this side of the portals. But maybe she wasn't. She was so different from anyone he'd ever met on either side of the portal. "At the risk of making you think I'm crazy, let me ask you something. Have you ever gone through a weird portal?"
So he didn't remember her name. She wasn't surprised. He didn't have to remember them, but she did. She remembered all of them, but that was due to research, and people tended to respond to you better if you called them by name. It made them trust you. It showed that you cared. It was one of the little details that carefully wrapped them around her finger.
Annie listened carefully as he began to speculate as to why he was so sloppy. When he stopped himself, she canted her head and waited. When he mentioned portals, she just smiled. "Yes, I have. So that means you're a Creation too. How pleasant."
"So this won't sound crazy to you then. There's a Creation going around Seattle doing shit to make people lose their inhibitions," Teddy said and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't like being a victim, but dammit he'd take it if it meant he didn't really have an out of the blue drinking problem.
He wanted to ask Annie what her power was but refrained. It was personal. He and his siblings had figured their own powers out over the years, save for Ike who probably had some lame ability like being a scrawny asshole his entire life.
"Oh, that guy," she said with a giggle. "I'd love to meet him. He does what I do on a grander scale. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten caught yet considering how messy things get when he's involved." She didn't know if it was an actual he, but it was just easier to refer to him as one. There was more than one reason she wanted to meet him. One was to see what made him tick. Another reason was just to see if he felt bad about anything at all. The idea of breaking him made her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.
"Then again, he seems very childish in his design. Nothing grand ever happens under his influence. I guess it would be depressing." It was an odd way of putting it, but she didn't feel sadness. She just wasn't wired that way. "There's so much potential to be had there..." Again the words were said absently as if she didn't realize how much it bothered him that he'd made the mistake, but her attention soon turned back to him. "Lucky for you, she didn't die, and I was there to sweep her under the rug for you, or in this case off a bridge."
"Off a bridge?" Teddy arched a brow. Maybe she was into causing chaotic mayhem? Because that's certainly what the lack of inhibitions person was into. Teddy didn't mind any of it so long as it wasn't affecting him or his family. But this off a bridge business... "You didn't touch her or anything, did you? Evidence is... it's a fucking bitch is what it is." And while, typically, he wouldn't have given a flying shit about someone else landing in prison in his stead, there was something about this girl that intrigued him.
Annie couldn't help but be pleased with his concern. This was turning out to be a much nicer exchange than she had expected. In fact, she was half-expecting he'd try to knife her once they were alone, but that was a risk she was willing to take. He'd practically given her a second chance at life, what did it matter if he wanted to take it away. "I didn't have to touch her," she said with a blink. "She took care of it all by herself. No one ever investigates a suicide."
"A suicide... and you, what, talked her into it? That's damn clever," Teddy said and actually chuckled a little at his good fortune. Annie was more like a guardian angel to him at that moment than a stalker. Not that he believed in that sort of thing, but the metaphor was fitting. And he couldn't really put into words how amazing it was that she'd repaid him in full for his good deed to her. A life for a life. He looked at Annie like she was the most wonderful thing he'd ever laid eyes on.
Annie couldn't help but be surprised at how well this was all going. Every other time she'd attempted to return a favor for someone in a similar way, she ended up having to kill them in one way or another. Teddy appeared to be genuinely happy with her. His compliments only made her feel happier and happier. "It's not as hard as it looks," she attempted to stay modest. She was actually blushing, which felt awkward, because she'd never had that burning sensation in her cheeks before. He was the first person that ever approved of what she did, or at least this seemed like approval. She wasn't sure how long it would last, but it didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it in the moment.
"Thank you," Teddy said earnestly. And he had the sudden urge to hug her or kiss her or something. It was totally awkward and he felt like he was fifteen years old again and realizing you didn't always have to scare girls into letting you kiss them or touch them. Of course it wasn't always as fun without them being scared.
"Your welcome," Annie said politely. Now it was a little awkward, because they'd run out of things to talk about, or at least she had. She'd never actually had this outcome before, and she wasn't sure what to do. It wasn't that she wanted to kill him or came in here planning on talking him into offing himself, it was just how things usually ran. This was new territory for her, and it showed. "So...you'll be heading to work soon then?"
"Yeah, saving more lives," Teddy said with amusement. It was too ironic given their conversation. He frowned for a second, cursed under his breath, and dug his phone out of his pocket. "Hang on. Have to text my sister. I promised I would."
And he shot off a quick message to Janet to let her know he wasn't dead, and was having a nice time chatting with Annie. Once his phone was back in his pocket he had no idea what to do with his hands again. She was still standing really close, but he didn't mind. It just made the desire to kiss her rear its annoying head again.
"Uh, so yeah. I'm not normally into the whole killing thing, but it was really helpful in this case. ...I don't really have a use for dead bodies is all. Not saying I like people or anything. They're pretty fucking stupid. Generally speaking." He stopped himself before he rambled off on a rant she hadn't asked for. It just felt so easy to talk to her without having to slap on his usual Model Citizen filter.
Annie made no attempt to stop him from texting his sister. There wasn't a need to. Their conversation had been pleasant and he seemed very pleased with everything that she'd done. She wasn't entirely trusting of him just yet, but it didn't make much of a difference. She hadn't factored in his family, but she'd fit that into the picture as well. His family was obviously important with the way he had spazzed for a moment. That was admirable. She could appreciate family, even if she didn't have one.
She watched as he started to ramble, thinking of how she'd never actually observed him doing so before. "They are pretty fucking stupid. People will do most of the work themselves. They're programmed to find something wrong. It's a gift the commercial age. Convince them they're the center of the universe, utterly alone in the center of the universe? People can't take being lonely."
Moving away from where he stood, she undid the emergency stop and the elevator continued it's way up the last three stories. Before the door could open, she pressed it closed and hit the button for the ground floor. "I don't actually live here," she informed him.
"Oh," Teddy said, though given the emergency stop he wasn't terribly surprised. Maybe a little disappointed for reasons he couldn't really pin down. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets just for something to do with them. "You already know where I live." He shrugged. Why was this so damn hard? But he knew the reason already even if he didn't really want to dwell on it. He actually wanted to get to know Annie, but out of genuine interest and curiosity about her. He didn't want to figure her out just so he could break her down. "We should hang out when I'm not about to go to work. Do you like funerals?"
The ride down wasn't as eventful as the ride up had been, but it didn't mean that his question didn't give her reason to pause. She waited until the elevator hit the ground floor and for the door to open. "I've been to several. They're always interesting." She didn't walk away, just waited for him to leave the elevator as well, when they exited the building, he'd find they were both walking in the same direction, and eventually back toward the building he'd come out of. "I live on the seventh floor. I heard you come up the other day." It wasn't hard to hear things through the Hamartia walls, without even having to listen hard for them. "I didn't eavesdrop," she assured him.
Teddy's expression fell at the mention of his trip to the seventh floor. Ike. He was still a sore subject that Teddy didn't want to talk about, especially not with someone he'd just met. Regardless of how well she seemed to know him. It was likely she didn't know much about his family and for the moment that was fine.
"I was just collecting on an old debt," he said simply and left it at that. Unless she meant when he'd picked up Angel last Friday. It could've been either. "Unless you meant last Friday when I took my friend out."
Annie couldn't help but notice that his expression had changed dramatically the moment she had mentioned that she'd heard him up there. It was interesting, and she was about to note it when he said that he was collecting a debt. That meant whatever it was had been finished in his book. There was no reason for her to follow up on that on her own.
"I was busy on Friday." She had been working on cleaning up his mess, not that she mentioned that. Instead, she stopped at the base of the stairs, her hand set upon the railing. "You should come up some time. I make great tea." She enjoyed the variety of them, and the ritual involved in serving it. "We can discuss which funerals to attend," she said brightly. It then occurred to her that she never actually asked him why he enjoyed other people's suffering so much, but she was going to save that for next time.
"Yeah, I like to go on Fridays or Mondays," he said, a smile lighting up his face again as he paused on the bottom step next to her. Of course she'd probably figured that out a long time ago. And how he liked to rotate funeral homes so the directors wouldn't get suspicious about his knowing so many people who died in any given period of time. Then it hit him that there was one funeral he wanted to attend that he wouldn't be able to. "I guess I can't go to Amber's. Her friends would recognize me."
"Might recognize," she corrected him. If what Amber told her was true, then they were too busy getting their drank on to really pay much attention to her. "There was a lot of drinking and flirting on their front too." She hadn't spent much time with college co-eds, but she had spent a lot of time with people like the group the girl had hung out with. They were all about the hook-ups and Amber had been a debbie downer they were attempting to get laid in order to make her stop sucking the life out of the room. "But I guess it's for the best," she said slipping her hand on his.
After giving it a squeeze she let go and skipped up the stairs. He'd find that when he opened his hand, there was a small slip of paper curled up inside with her phone number on it.
Teddy started to call after her as he watched her skip off, but ended up staring up the stairwell with his mouth hanging open. She'd left a note in his hand and he opened it up. A phone number. Her phone number. He started running up the stairs after her, but when he got to the third floor he stopped to check his phone for the time. Dammit! For once he really didn't want to go to work. He wanted to sit around Annie's apartment drinking tea and talking about ...everything. All the things he normally couldn't talk to anyone but his sisters about. But it'd have to wait. For now he had to act like a responsible adult instead of a smitten teenager.