The influx of people was a good thing and a bad thing. Claire knew no one from home would come, no one she knew came to Atlantis and she accepted that. She was keeping a close eye on any of her patients and people that were coming in they might know. The future kids arriving in the mix had her making notes about who was connected to whom, who she should check in with over the next couple of days.
It was going to be a busy December.
As she was writing a couple of notes down she heard an alert directed at her. ”Duke Crocker has arrived please come to meet him at Intake” Blinking Claire couldn’t believe it. “Duke?” She spoke out loud to herself and laughed softly. Of all the people to come to Atlantis from Haven, of course, it’d be Duke.
It didn’t take her long to get from her office to the intake where she saw Duke trying to argue with one of the intake agents. “You could just ask me your questions unless of course, you want to get arrested.” She teased as she couldn’t help but grin.
As soon as he’d woken up in who the hell knew where Duke’s mind began to go into overdrive. He’d just been standing in the middle of the room telling Nathan that he needed to kill him. Kill him to keep the Troubles from spilling out from him and infecting person after person in Haven. Now he was in some office with a person he’d never seen before telling him he was in a place called Atlantis and that someone would be there to meet him soon.
Like hell, they would.
“Listen, I don’t care how many times you say someone will be here, I’m letting myself out,” he declared. This place was seriously trippy, and at least when the Troubles screwed up Haven into alternate realities or people forgot who he was, he at least knew who they were. But then he heard someone call his name, and he whipped around. As soon as he saw her, Duke’s eyes went wide and he was speechless for one of the few times in his life. What the…
“Claire?” She looked exactly the same as the last time he’d seen her. Only the last time he’d seen her, she hadn’t exactly been herself. Duke strode over to the doc and gave her a look over, making sure she was alright, and then pulled her into a tight hug. This could be a trick, and the person he was hugging might not even actually be the real Claire, but he didn’t care. He was just so glad to see her.
He was still holding tight onto her when he said, “Please tell me you know what the hell kind of Trouble I woke up in?”
“Duke, I know I’m your favorite shrink, but you gotta let a girl breathe!” She got out after hugging him back for a little while. She was a little surprised by the massive hug, but she knew how strange Atlantis could be, especially when dealing with Troubles was your day to day life.
“It’s not a trouble,” she said with a small smile quickly adding. “Seriously, not a trouble. I got here right before the bolt gun killer was going to, ya know,” she made a slashing gesture at her neck. “So, don’t worry, I’m not the crazy ass killer, I’m really me. But, I have been here for two years. It was one way to cheat death.” Claire smiled.
“Want to get out of the intake office and see it?”
He didn’t immediately let her go, but finally after a moment longer, Duke pulled away from Claire and frowned at her words. Not a trouble. He looked at her skeptically, unsure if he believed her at first, but then she mentioned the Bolt Gun Killer. Arla. How could she know about that unless this was…. well, whatever the hell this place was.
“So, you… know about that. Do you know wh-- wait. Two years?” He couldn’t help it, he laughed. He shook his head and ran his hands back over his hair but then paused briefly. One way to cheat death. Yeah. Was this supposed to be his cheat sheet too?
“What exactly am I gonna see when we leave here?” He asked but was already starting to follow her out of the office. “Flying pigs? Unicorns and talking cats?”
“I know I got killed, and things got a lot more complicated after I died.” She decided to answer the question he stopped asking first. Claire had read up on everyone, at least until the series finale, which brought up something she’d have to ask Duke about too. “Yup, two years.” She confirmed.
Laughing she nodded. “There is a pegasus stable and lessons on Wednesday, and you might see a talking dragon, people from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel’s things, there are a lot of things you might not expect.” She said as she nodded towards the door.
Once they were away from the crowd, she looked up to ask the question she needed to know. “So, what was happening before you arrived?”
Complicated. Yeah. The Bolt Gun Killer turned out to be Audrey’s daughter-in-law, the barn showed up, and Duke jumped into an interdimensional portal only to wake up six months later in Boston. That didn’t even include the shit that went down later with Audrey’s disappearance, William, Croatoan, and all the Troubles in between.
Duke just shook his head at her explanation and was pretty sure the doc had gone insane. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and flying ponies. Yeah, right. Claire was supposed to be the stable one out of all of them.
“Ah,” he scratched the back of his neck. He wasn’t sure how to answer her question. “A family reunion? Audrey found out where she came from and was able to meet mom, dad, and an old boyfriend too. The Troubles had gotten out of hand as they tend to do, and I… well, I was trying to figure out how to handle the ones still inside of me.” It was a very tame way to explain it which basically meant it was a load of bullshit, but he didn’t want to put any of Haven’s current troubles on Claire. No pun intended.
Glancing over at him she was sceptical of how off the cuff his response was. She had a lot of questions, especially about Audrey’s family she really wanted to know more but Audrey wasn’t the one here, Duke was, and she wanted to make sure he was okay.
“Troubles stuck inside you?” She asked. “And don’t even think of giving me half an answer, if I have to I’ll make you watch the show with me to get the answers.” She wasn’t completely serious with her threat, but she kept a serious expression.
It was starting to sink in how much Claire didn’t know. She hadn’t known about the barn, Mara, or any of the shit over the last couple of years. She didn’t know about Wade and how not only did Duke have the Troubles he’d destroyed by killing people with them but every single Trouble any Crocker had ever killed after Audrey reactivated him.
He did a double-take, though, when she mentioned the show. “You mean they have it here to watch? Hell no,” he said with an adamant shake of his head. “I lived it once and that’s enough.” Now he wasn’t sure how much she knew and didn’t know. “It’s a long story, as most Haven stories are, but you know my family’s Trouble? The Crocker curse? Well, I got rid of it for a while, but in order to keep people alive, Audrey gave it back to me.” He noticed her look. “Yeah, that’s a thing she was able to do.”
Duke’s expression made Claire laugh. “Yes, they have anything you could possibly want to watch here. Including Haven.” She smiled softly, almost sadly thinking about living through it. That made her wish she’d actually surprised, been there for everyone, figured out the mysteries. She rarely let herself think about her patients back home but she did wonder how they did without her.
“Wait, you got rid of it, but it came back to keep people alive?” That sounded a lot more complicated.
No, Duke definitely didn’t want to watch himself on television. Even more so, he didn’t want to watch everything else that went down from Audrey and Nathan to Jennifer dying all over again to seeing his inevitable death that he’d just escaped.
“Yeah,” he said and didn’t elaborate at first. “For a while, Audrey disappeared into the Barn. When she got out, she wasn’t alone. There was this guy - William - who knew Audrey as who she was in her first life. Mara was her name.” Duke wasn’t planning to talk much about Mara either all things considered. “Years ago, he and Mara created the Troubles, and he was going around handing them out or activating them in people who hadn’t been triggered yet. One was… especially cruel. So, Audrey was pushed into giving me back my curse so I could end it. When it came back, I didn’t just take in that trouble or the ones I’d ended but all of the troubles any Crocker had ever ended.” He shook his head and took a breath. “So, clearly things got much better.”
“That explains so much!” Claire shouldn’t be that excited about it, but even hearing about who Audrey really was to start and some of the challenges she faced it all clicked into place. “Now I really wish Audrey was here too.” She did miss her best friend.
“So, are all the Troubles still in you now?” That sounded potentially dangerous and Claire wanted to make sure Duke was okay too. She could almost see all that he’d been through. “If you do, there are probably people here that can help.”
“Yeah,” he said, glancing away briefly. “They’re still in here.” Thankfully, no more had slipped out from his eyes again like they had been back in the room with Nathan, Audrey, and the others. Duke knew how to fix what was wrong with him, but he wasn’t sure what would happen if he did it here instead of home. Would the effect be the same?
“So, where do you get a good drink around here,” he asked her, deflecting a bit. “I know no where is going to be as good as the Gull, but there’s gotta be something in this place, yeah?”
Claire nodded deciding right now wasn’t the time to ask a million questions about if he wanted them out, did he want her to get people in Atlantis to start trying to figure it out. Claire knew Duke, she knew he would hate to feel like a guinea pig, but she also knew he’d do anything to make things safe if needed. The weird paradox of Duke Crocker.
“Well, some might make better mixed drinks,” she teased. “Kidding!” The Gull had a home feeling that she didn’t feel in some of the other places here. “Come on, I know just the place.” She smiled nudging him slightly before leading him in the right direction.