Who: Thomas, Max, Audrey and Luke What: Audrey provides transportation services. Where: Aubade, then Bathos, then Sparke's lab, and finally back to Bathos. When: During/after the Aubade hostage situation. Also after this and this. Warnings: None.
Audrey made her decision just before she told Thomas she would come to get him. She knew it would be a breach of his trust in her, and that it would make him angry, but she’d felt so useless and displaced lately that it would hardly make it any worse. It was more important for Thomas to make it out of this than for her to win his approval.
The front door to Aubade had a star on it about four seconds before Audrey walked through, it, looking for Thomas. There was a black void behind her, and she stayed in the doorway, holding it open. “Ready?”
The most frightening thing about Thomas just then was not his expression or the demands that were still echoing somewhere on the comms; it was his attire. He was in a white business shirt, his tie loose over both shoulders, the slacks without crease. No cape, and no mask. He did not answer, striding forward instead. Behind him, the curtains were closed, but the flashes of photography were still occasionally visible against the expensive drape. Thomas brushed past Audrey’s shoulder, not hard, just intent. “Quickly. They will move against him.”
Audrey bit back the pang of guilt, and she took Thomas’s hand with her smaller one. “Don’t let go,” she told him, and stepped out into subspace, shutting the door behind them. It disappeared a moment later. Audrey tugged Thomas along and began jogging for the next door, somewhere a ways ahead. She found herself wishing for her skates, but there was no time to pull them out now.
It was a short run before the next door appeared in view. She skidded up to it, pulling the door open and pushing Thomas through before he could do much more than be surprised that he was in Max’s Bathos apartment, not the Aubade lobby. “I have to take Max to the paper,” she explained, pulling the door shut behind her as she stepped into the room. “It’ll only be a minute. You’ll watch Amanda?”
Max knew he was going to be livid, but that didn’t mean she was looking forward to it. She handed him the baby, who was squirmy and screaming at the top of her lungs, the constant noise of the people camping out on the fire escapes around them and knocking on the windows and doors eradicating any chance for her to sleep. “I texted you,” she said, “but you didn’t answer. I’m picking up Arakkis and going to the hospital to cover the dead reporter story. He was one of ours, and the Chief is-” She shook her head, realizing she was over explaining and he was just going to argue. “Luke is fine. He checked in. Keep away from the windows. Audrey?” she asked, nodding toward where the door had been.
The second Thomas realized this was the wrong place, Thomas made a quick turn, and he would have grabbed Audrey by the arm, but she was already coming through after him and the door was solid closed. Thomas was far too much of a father--instinctual, somewhere deeper than blood, to drop Amanda, even when when he realized exactly what was happening. He shifted the baby in his arms, preventing her from diving into open air, and simultaneously took a hard step to one side, blocking Max’s access to Audrey. “Stop.” Hard, narrowed eyes. “I can’t stay.”
“There is no way in hell Arakkis is going to make it out of that hospital in one piece if he goes in on his own,” Max said motioning to the bulletproof vest in her hand, and it was true, even if her concern was greater for Thomas going into Aubade than Arakkis into the hospital. “Corbinian and Rorschach are making plans to storm the Aubade lobby, Audrey is bringing Luke back here once she drops me at the truck.” She paused for only one second, long enough to kiss Amanda’s head and his lips before moving aside. “Audrey, let’s go.”
He blocked her again. “I need to get back to the Aubade lobby or people will die. Right now, Max.” He shifted Amanda expertly into the curve of one arm and reached out to stop her.
Max pulled the comm out of her ear, and she handed it to him. Rorschach and Corbinian could be heard arguing, even with the comm in the air, and she looked at him plainly. “I need to go, and you can’t go back to fucking Aubade, Thomas. Corbinian can’t be killed, and the shooter isn’t after him. He’ll be fine. You wouldn’t be,” she said carefully. “I don’t want to leave Amanda with Audrey, not with people trying to break in the windows all day long.”
Thomas had a comm in his ear, one of the small pink invisible ones. He just shook his head when she offered hers. “You’re right, he isn’t. He needs to see me, or he’ll kill someone or be killed. The police were already moving, Max. I need to go.”
“He will shoot you on sight, and we both know it. He isn’t going to hurt anyone that isn’t you,” Max insisted, tucking the comm back in her ear and nodding to Audrey. She was counting on him realizing they had no idea how Audrey’s subspace doors would affect an infant and not following. Said infant had stopped screaming, lulled by Thomas’ presence, and she was trying to devour his tie. “Audrey will be back in a second with Luke.”
Audrey reached back, and the front door had a star on it again. "It won't take long," she assured him, trying not to look as guilty as she felt for betraying his trust. She pulled the door open, and she took Max's hand, stepping backwards through it. "Seriously, like five minutes and I'll be back with Luke." Audrey moved to close the door, hoping that Thomas wouldn't risk trying to grab hold of her - she had no idea whether Amanda would be able to come along for the ride, and that wasn't something she felt like testing.
Max let Audrey take her hand, and she pulled the tie from between Amanda’s chubby fingers, using it to pull Thomas close enough to press a kiss to his jaw. “Sorry,” she whispered, heartfelt, and then she followed Audrey through the door.
Thomas would have pulled Max back, but the baby took hold of his sleeve and he couldn’t in time. He was angry, beyond angry, with both of them, because he just wasn’t stupid enough not to realize he had been outmaneuvered. He had to stay with Amanda, and they all knew it, and he knew with absolute certainty that his failure to be where he needed to be was going to cost someone else dearly. He turned as the portal door closed behind Max, and he went through to the bland, serious living room to find the television, his daughter against his chest.
Audrey dropped Max off at her truck, trying not to let the ache in her chest at the expression on Thomas’s face stick with her too closely. She wished she could linger a while in subspace - she always felt safer there than anywhere else, queen of her own kingdom, a place nobody else could go and no one had access to without her - but she had to face Thomas again whether she liked it or not. It only took her a few minutes through subspace to get to the white door that led into the Sparke Industries lab. She’d never been there, but the description of it had been good enough to make sure her door appeared where it was supposed to. A door appeared in the middle of the lab door, and Audrey poked her head out of it a few seconds later. “Luke?”
Luke had already informed Bly that someone was on their way to pick him up, and because Bly was Bly he didn’t ask too many questions and went to tinker with Sparke’s equipment elsewhere in the lab. Besides, they’d both seen what was happening on the news. When Audrey’s door appeared he slid off the stool he’d been sitting on, half-impressed despite the circumstances. “Hey,” he greeted, moving forward and pausing just outside the doorway after she stuck her head out. Luke didn’t even need to ask if Thomas was angry, because he knew he would be, but after what happened at Monarch’s press conference there was no doubt in his mind that the man in Aubade’s lobby only wanted one thing and it didn’t involve talking. “Lead the way.”
Audrey extended her hand to him. "He's going to be pissed when we get there," she said, smiling faintly so that he wouldn't be too worried, but feeling as if she ought to prepare him. "He didn't look happy when Max and I left. But he's watching Amanda, so I think that will keep him from trying to get over to Aubade. The police can only let that guy shout at them for so long before they do something." She hoped, at least. "Don't let go of my hand," she advised, and then pulled him through the door. It swung shut behind them, and it was gone, leaving them in a vast black space with no horizon. It wasn't dark, both of them easily visible to themselves and each other, despite the fact that there was no apparent source of light. The blackness beneath their feet was featureless, and had something of the texture underfoot of concrete.
“Better that than dead,” he said grimly. Luke was already bracing himself for the inevitable, but he’d experienced Thomas’ anger before. “Hopefully you’re right. Even if he does try something, well, between the two of us we should be able to stop him.” Hopefully it wouldn’t get that far, though. Luke thought it was unlikely that the standoff would end with both involved parties unscathed, but he didn’t voice that suspicion as he took Audrey’s hand and stepped through the door. The black nothingness he was faced with surprised him, even more so when he realized he could still see even without a light source in sight. “Huh.” He glanced down as they walked, finding it strange that it felt like he was walking on something but it looked the complete opposite. “How do you know where you’re going in here?”
"I don't think he'll try to get by us with Amanda there," Audrey said, a little troubled at the thought but still hopeful. She had to be. "He wouldn't leave her behind with the reporters trying to get in the windows. And even if he did get out, there's no way he could make it into Aubade without the police stopping him."
She looked over at him. "Oh, I don't have to," she said. "All I have to do is be thinking of my destination, and I get there. If I'm not thinking of one I could walk forever in here and never get anywhere at all. It should only take about five minutes, though."
Luke realized that she had a good point – Thomas wouldn’t leave Amanda in the midst of all this madness, even if she wouldn’t be alone. It felt a little underhanded but necessary all the same. “That’s true,” he agreed. “He’ll get over the anger eventually. Besides, if it was one of us he’d do the same thing we are.”
He raised his eyebrows, though it was out of interest rather than skepticism. “That’s pretty cool. So you could go anywhere, then?” It definitely cut down on travel time. Hanging around even without a destination didn’t sound too bad, especially during those ‘I just want to be alone’ moments. Asking if Audrey ever came to this weird in-between space just to get away seemed a little personal, though.
“As long as I can picture it,” she said. “I mean, it’s best if I know the place. If I get a good description it’s usually alright, but I have ended up in the wrong building before.” She smiled a little. “It wasn’t fun, particularly for the people trying to figure out how a girl with pink hair got into their closet.” She did sometimes stay in subspace on her own, when she wanted to escape, when she wanted to run. She was trying to do that less these days, but that didn’t mean it never still happened. Sometimes it was comforting to go somewhere she knew no one could follow.
Luke tried to hold back his laughter, but a small chuckle escaped when he tried to imagine Audrey in all her pink-haired glory sticking her head out of some poor unsuspecting person’s closet. “I guess that’d be one of the downsides. Still, compared to what you could’ve gotten it’s a pretty useful ability.” There was no indication of how close or far they were from their destination, but he assumed a door would appear. “Let me guess – if I let go of your hand, something bad would happen?” He highly doubted they were holding hands just for the hell of it, and it wasn’t as though they were walking in thick darkness.
She squeezed his hand in hers unthinking, as if saying he would let go meant he actually would. "Not horrible, but not fun," she said. "I met a guy, a Creation, my first week here, and we were walking through subspace? And I let go of his hand. He disappeared. I ended up finding out later that he fell into a tree about halfway between the place we'd left from and the place I was going." She smiled at him. "So if you let go, who knows where you'll fall out. Better hold on tight."
The door appeared out of nowhere - there was no horizon for it to appear over, after all, so it was just suddenly there ahead of them. Audrey walked up to it, taking a breath. "Ready to face a pissed off Thomas Brandon?"
“Oh.” He pulled a face. Falling into a tree didn’t sound like much fun, but falling without a tree to break the fall was an even worse thought. “Definitely not worth the risk. This is me, holding on tight.” Luke gave her hand a squeeze and grinned, though his smile faltered a moment later when the door appeared. Somehow he doubted Thomas would have calmed down between the time he was dropped off at Bathos and now, but a guy could hope. Still, he knew that Audrey had done the right thing by refusing to take him to the shooter.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He gave her a look before pulling open the door, and after a moment of hesitation stepped through and into the apartment.
Neither Thomas nor Amanda was in the bedroom. A voice, a male voice, spoke into the murmuring silence from the crowd below, and after a moment the rhythm of it made it clear that the owner of the voice spoke through speakers and not through air. The living room was mostly clear, and Thomas sat at the edge of an armchair, the bundle of Amanda still in his arms, his tie still wound in her little hand. She was quiet, though, as Thomas was quiet, watching the television and the aftermath of pushing police and reporters trying to get shots of the ambulance. His expression was beyond grim and into blank. He looked up at the sound of their steps.
Audrey walked into the room, looking from Thomas to Amanda safe and sound to the TV. The reporters had disappeared from the windows, where they had earlier been banging and trying to take pictures. Judging by what she was seeing on the TV, they'd all gone across town to cover what had happened at the Aubade. "They got him?" she asked, tentatively.
Luke followed behind Audrey, gaze going to the TV for a long moment before it moved to Thomas and Amanda. The expression on his face said more than words could, and even with the news in the background Luke had a sinking feeling that the standoff hadn’t ended well. He moved around Audrey to get a better look at the TV, but didn’t add anything to her question. Not yet.
“Yes; he is down.” Thomas didn’t stand, staying very still, chest barely rising and Amanda not even twitching at the low tone of his voice against her small ear. Thomas looked from Audrey to Luke, taking him in to make sure he wasn’t injured. The lines around his eyes tightened; he was angry, anger without direction. “I need to go back to Aubade. They will be breaking down the door soon.”
Audrey didn't know what to do, how to react to Thomas' quiet rage. So instead of trying to step in the way of it, she moved toward him, motioning for him to hand her Amanda. She didn't say what she was thinking - that mentioning the shooter's death had made her think back to the man getting his brains blown out at Monarch, which she'd managed to keep at bay for the past hour or so. That it made her glad and sick at once, sick at death, glad Thomas hadn't been the one to die. That she was sorry.
It was the outcome Luke had been expecting, even if it wasn’t the one he’d hoped for. He’d always known the aftermath of the article would come with violence but experiencing it and expecting it were two very different things. He understood Thomas’ quiet anger, yet at the same time there was something saddening about the way people were reacting. “The police will make sure that doesn’t happen.” He shook his head. “You can’t go back there right now.”
Thomas shook his head. “The police will want to talk to me, I’m sure. While no law says so, I am responsible for this.” He stood up to his full height, expanding slowly, somehow not less with the baby in his arms. He shook his head again at Audrey. “You need to take me back.” He took a step toward Luke and tipped his head slightly. “Can you watch her?” Thomas was angry, but not at either of them, and while his expression screamed tension, he kept his voice down.
“That’s bull--” He started furiously but caught himself just in time, pausing to find a more tactful way of getting his point across. “None of this is your fault. People are capable of making their own choices and you have nothing to do with that.” Luke couldn’t help worrying that if Thomas did return to Aubade he’d turn himself in or something similarly stupid. He had wanted to meet with the shooter, after all. “If the police want to talk to you then they can do it later and somewhere that’s not Aubade. They have their hands full right now anyway.” It might have been a useless effort but Luke wasn’t going to budge that easily. Hopefully Audrey wouldn’t either.
Unlike some people, Thomas would not throw his child at people to make them stay put. He was strongly tempted, however. “Ultimately, this would not have happened without my actions. It was only a matter of time before this happened. I hoped that it wouldn’t, but... but it did.” He sighed. “Please watch Amanda. There wasn’t an exit from the apartment and they know it. It will look very suspicious that I managed to get out, and I need this to confuse them about the Bat later.”
Luke was fully prepared to argue before he realized Thomas had a point. Explaining how he’d gotten out of an apartment that was locked down would be tricky, and the fact that he’d even left in the first place wouldn’t look good. That combined with the realization that he couldn’t follow along because someone needed to watch Amanda was frustrating to say the least. “Fine. I’ll watch her. But you’re still wrong,” he added with a frown. “People are responsible for their own actions, not you.” He moved forward so Thomas could hand him Amanda, and even though he hadn’t held her often he had a pretty solid idea of how. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?”
Audrey wasn’t sure at all that she should take him back to a place where there were police, but he did absolutely have a point. If he disappeared from the apartment, it would make the whole point of him being there the entire time and not doing anything bat-like moot. “I’ll take you back,” she said, after thinking it through. She turned to Luke. “I’ll be back here after I drop him off, though.” She paused, turning to Thomas. “Unless it would be better for you to have a witness to tell the police you were there the whole time?” She didn’t want to leave Thomas on his own to be interrogated by police.
"No. You don't need to be involved," Thomas told Audrey, clearly already several steps ahead in his mind's eye. He was, however, careful as he transferred Amanda to Luke, positioning the younger man's hands with gentle certainty. "She'll nap for a little while yet. You can put her down on her back if she stays asleep." He put a strong hand on Luke's shoulder in thanks. "I never do anything stupid," he said, relenting enough to smile before nodding at the door.