WHO: Audrey Parker and Duke Crocker WHEN: January 10th evening and then into January 11th WHERE: Duke’s apartment WHAT: Audrey discovers some truths about herself and obviously it’s Duke’s fault TRIGGERS: Nothing serious. Maybe bad language
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Audrey knew she shouldn’t have done it. She told herself not to, but the voice inside her head that was itching to know more about who she really was, was strong. Strong enough for her to find the information that Duke said was out there. Audrey made the mistake of starting to read it while having a beer and the beers seemed to just continue until she couldn’t read anymore.
She wasn’t sure how late it was or how, exactly, she got there since she definitely hadn’t driven, but she was standing in front of Duke’s apartment. She went to knock on the door a few times, but they were more like bangs. “Duke!”
Duke had been in the middle of eating some food he’d gotten delivered when he heard the knocking, shortly followed by the sound of Audrey’s voice. He got up, eyebrows raised. His mind noted it could be something dangerous. Things happened all the time. That thought in mind, he sped up, moving to open the door. “Something wrong?” He looked her over, looking for the sign of injury, but found none.
He waited briefly before stepping back. She could come in or not. Given she smelled vaguely of alcohol, he figured her coming in could at least end with her getting some sleep before leaving in the morning.
“Yes.” She looked at him with a slight glare that she felt should have explained everything. After a slight pause, she walked into his place, but didn’t sit. Instead she stopped in the middle of the room before turning around with a slight frown on her accusatory face. She lifted up a finger. “Before you tell me I told you so…” Audrey realized she had no follow up to that and paused, bringing her arm back down and shaking her head, the frown more prominent now with a slight furrow of her brow. “Why didn’t you tell me about Mara?”
Duke watched her walk in, shutting the door once she was inside. He wasn’t entirely sure what she was glaring about or what it was that she seemed upset about. It wasn’t until she said Mara’s name that he realized exactly what happened. “Ah.” He wasn’t sure how to explain his feelings about Mara. “I mean...there was a lot of information to go through and I figured I’d have more time.” Or well, he didn’t actually want to talk to her about Mara. “Plus, she basically fucks me over and turns me into a weapon I didn’t want to be, so there’s that.”
“No -” She looked at him, angry, though not really angry at him. She was just angry in general. It wasn’t exactly fair to find out that you were actually some psychotic bitch who caused the Troubles to begin with. “I fuck you over, you mean. I caused the Troubles. And then I come back and kill a bunch of innocent people, put everyone I love in danger, and then -” She gestured to him. “With you -” She shook her head and then brought her hand up to rub her forehead. “How can you even stand there and look at me?”
Duke looked at her steadily for a moment. “No. You didn’t do any of those things. She did. You share a face, but you’re not the same person. She’s manipulative and insane.” He ran his fingers through his hair. There were a lot of things that upset him, things he’d had to do, things that felt like they’d been chosen for him. Audrey had a way to save lives and that way was him and she used him to save lives. And sure, part of him felt that deep down, so deep that he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to separate himself from the life that started after the first day he’d had to kill someone and use his Trouble in that way.
“I don’t know Mara yet. Never been up against her. But I know not to trust her if I ever see her. You’re Audrey Parker. You’re not her.”
Audrey wasn’t so sure and the doubt on her face was evident as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “But she’s in me, isn’t she? Right now?” Mara was who she originally was. Audrey had been working so hard to find out who the ‘real’ her was and now that she had, she wasn’t sure the reveal was worth it. What was worse was she had only read about what happened. She knew she could watch it, but the idea of watching Mara use people, use Duke like she had - Her eyes went to his momentarily in a brief moment of weakness and Audrey Parker looked scared. Maybe it was the alcohol, but it was harder to keep her screen up right now.
She blinked, and it was there again. “What if something happens and I become her, Duke? What if I wake up tomorrow and I’m no longer the me I know right now? What if I wake up and I’m Mara and I pretend to be Audrey?” There were a lot of ‘what if’s’ and what Audrey hated the most was she could be putting not just Duke, but all of Tumbleweed in dangers. What if she became Mara and gave people new Troubles? The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt people.
Duke had considered it, the possibility. The Audrey from before had already done all that, had been made to stay Audrey Parker. It was possible she could become Mara, wake Mara up. “We’ll figure it out if something happens. There are people with magic and I will find a way to tell if you’re you or you’re her. I knew that you were you and not Lexie and I apparently figured out that you weren’t you and were Mara pretending to be you before. Sure, you’d have the internet to help you, but I think I could still figure it out.”
He felt the surge to get closer, which was a thing he never seemed to know how to figure out how to deal with. They’d had a moment, sure, but in the end, she’d backed out. He forced his expression neutral and leaned casually against the wall. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen. No use spending all your waking hours worried about what might happen. I mean, I kind of know that’s what we’ve been doing at home, too, but you heard how that turned out for us.”
She stared at him for a long moment in silence, her eyes searching his eyes for a moment like she was about to say or do something. Her chest even rose in an exhale to promise speech, but then she seemed to suddenly abandon what she was going to say. Instead, she slumped down on the nearest chair and leaned on her knees. She held her head for a moment, partially because all that alcohol was coming back to bite her in the ass, but also because she still had no real idea how to process everything. Duke was the only one she could talk to about it, too. She couldn’t go to Nathan. She couldn’t talk to Vince or Dave who might actually have some insights. She couldn’t even talk to Dwight.
She ran her hands through her hair then looked up at Duke while she sat there. “I’m sorry.” Audrey needed to say that to him, despite his protests otherwise. Then she exhaled softly. “Promise me if I do turn into her, you won’t let anyone get hurt? Even if it means you have to take me out somehow.”
This was an all too familiar conversation. He had a flashback to Audrey, eyes pleading, asking him to kill her so she wouldn’t hurt anyone as a zombie. The memory of shooting her, of watching her die still rang through him sometimes. He looked away from her then, breathing out slowly. “You have a really bad habit of asking me to do things I don’t want to do,” he said quietly, taking in another breath and letting it out. He hated the feeling surging through him in that moment.
“I’m not-” he started, sighing as his shoulders slumped. “I don’t…” He frowned, turning around. “Do you ever think about how it’s going to affect me when you ask me to do things like that? Even if it means you have to take me out somehow.” The words repeated back. “Sure, you’re fine, but I’m the one that has to live with it.”
Audrey blinked, momentary confusion crossing over them, but then the confusion faded away. She knew it wasn’t an easy thing to ask him to do - to ask anyone to do. Still, she hadn’t quite expected his reaction. She frowned deeply as she stared at him as if trying to figure something out.
“Duke…” She stood as she spoke and took two steps before she paused. What was she even going to say? Did she want to rescind the request? No. She didn’t want to be the one to wreak havoc. Still, she could tell, at least right now, the request hadn’t been a good thing to ask. Audrey couldn’t tell if the headache starting to pound in her head was from the alcohol or the feeling she suddenly had at Duke’s words.
Her mouth opened, but she couldn’t seem to find words. He was right, but she stood by what she asked him to do. She would have asked the same of Nathan. “... I don’t want to hurt you.” Maybe it was lame, but it was the only thing she could think of saying.
His brow furrowed. He hated this feeling. He hated knowing that he’d do what Audrey asked because she did. Because the alternative was to let someone else handle a situation he didn’t know he could trust anyone to handle. Because that was how things always went. He pinched the bridge of his nose, expression cloudy as he turned around. “Yeah…” He bit back the sharper things he could have said because he saw the look on her face. “Look. I...might turn into something I’m not. So I get it. I don’t want to hurt anyone either. I’m already…” He wanted to say a monster, but he just gestured vaguely instead. “And I’ve already had to kill you once here. It’s just…”
He ran his fingers through his hair and he mentally cut himself off, not letting himself finish his thought. “You should probably get some sleep.” Is what he said instead of anything about the Troubled people he’d killed. Both because he’d chosen it and because they’d just run into knives on him. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
Somehow it was always more complicated with Duke and she didn't know why. Even before they found out what his dad wanted of him. Even before the whole thing with the Rev. As she stood there, she wasn't sure what to say, exactly. That he had killed her once here was news to her and something she would need to unpack, but her muddled brain couldn't quite do it now. At least she knew better than to ask him about it at the moment.
"... I'll take the couch. This is your place. It's only fair." Somehow Audrey always seemed to need to be contrary, even when she wasn't trying to be.
He went to the kitchen grabbing some water and some medicine and setting it on the coffee table. “Just in case you need it in the morning. Though, you should probably drink some water before you sleep. There’s more in the sink if you need it.” He probably wouldn’t sleep if he was in his room. If Audrey was asleep, he might just slip out to the Rouge. It would give him space without making him unreachable at the same time.
He started toward his room, pausing just before going in. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Mara and I’m sorry I snapped.”
She didn’t think going to sleep was going to be easy considering she was still miffed at Duke and worried about Mara, but the amount of alcohol she had within her lulled her to sleep almost instantly. For the most part it was a dreamless sleep, though there was something about black ooze at one point that lingered on her memory. The morning came with sunlight and a large headache.
Audrey groaned from the couch and covered her head. She did not want to be awake right now if it meant dealing with this headache. “How much did I actually drink last night?” She murmured it to herself before her mind connected to where she was - Dukes. She sighed and slowly came up to sit, looking around. There was water and pills on the coffee table and she reached for both thankfully, taking two Tylenol and then downing half the water. She really hoped the pain medication would kick in quickly.
“Duke?” She called out a little weakly before she rocked up onto her feel slowly and ran a hand through her hair. Her mind was a little fuzzy about last night, but at least she woke up on the couch and still in her clothes - a good sign.
Having still been upset, Duke had gone to the Rouge the night before, but he only stayed long enough for a couple drinks and an interesting run in with a girl he’d met in the markets. Upon getting back, he checked to see that Audrey hadn’t mysteriously gotten up and left. Then he showered and passed out in his bed.
The sound of Audrey’s voice wasn’t really enough to wake him completely, but he started to stir from his sleep. He groaned when he looked at the time. He didn’t move from the bed immediately, not really wanting to face the start of the day and not sure he really wanted to talk to Audrey yet. He still felt the request that she’d made settling in his mind and he still hated the knowledge that he would do as she requested despite what it meant for himself.
After a few moments, he got up, pulling on a pair of jeans and a shirt, starting to button it up as he left the room. “How’s the head?” He glanced over and turned to go into the kitchen. He was going to need coffee and breakfast to deal with anything right now.
“Terrible.” She frowned a little as she rubbed her temples with her thumb and ring finger of her right hand. “I really shouldn’t have drank that much last night…” She followed him after a moment, hovering by the entrance to the kitchen so she wasn’t in the way as she watched him. “No offense, but you look like you had a rough night too.” Which felt odd to Audrey. Her brow furrowed a little and this time it wasn’t because of her headache. “Didn’t you go to bed last night?”
Duke didn’t turn around, but he could feel her watching him. He didn’t want to mention that it was slightly unsettling, but it also wasn’t the weirdest thing. “You probably shouldn’t have,” he agreed. “But that has stopped no one before.” It had never really stopped him except he needed to get back without any incident or anyone following him. He’d installed cameras on the ship, though, so that he could monitor things when he wasn’t there.
“Not till late. I went to the Rouge, got some drinks, met an interesting woman, and came back here. I got some sleep after I showered.” He opened the fridge and glanced at Audrey. “Any breakfast preferences before I just make eggs?”
“Sounds like you had a more interesting night than I did.” And she had found out she was originally a psychotic woman who did and was going to do terrible things. She leaned against the counter, her headache suddenly a little worse. “I want to ask how interesting the woman was, but I think I can guess the answer.” She was a little jealous that Duke seemed to be fairing better than her this morning, but she knew that Duke had a little more practice in that department.
“Eggs are fine.” Any food seemed fine right now, though she hoped the eggs would remedy her headache. Her arms wrapped loosely around her abdomen as she watched him move about the kitchen. “Hey Duke - … last night’s a little fuzzy, but I think I remember the jist of it. But - are we okay?”
He hadn’t technically meant to tell her about the girl, but he had anyway. “If you know me, you can definitely guess the answer.” He made sure to smirk when he delivered the line, glancing over his shoulder to look at her before going back to gathering the eggs. He made sure he had enough for two people to eat. Then he grabbed bread to make toast. It wasn’t going to be anything fancy, but it would be food that was easy to get down. Maybe not up to hangover food standards, but he wasn’t really that important to him in the moment.
“We’re…” Here he would have lied and said yes, but for some reason, he couldn’t just say a simple lie until he got through it. “I don’t know, Audrey. I’m not okay with being asked to kill you, but I know I’ll do it anyway because you asked me to, so I can’t say yes.” He stared very intently at the eggs as he cooked them. They didn’t really need that kind of attention, but he didn’t want to see the look on Audrey’s face either. “I don’t want to get good at killing people.” His expression gave away more than enough about what he felt on that, but he hoped Audrey wouldn’t get close enough to see that the idea of his future terrified him.
Audrey’s furrowed brow deepened. She could deal with Duke’s smirk and his mention of the woman - that didn’t really surprise her all too much. Haven had been a small town, but Duke practically had the world with his ability to portal so he had a lot of chances to meet interesting women. It was the other stuff he said. It was too… real. She was used to having to read between the lines with Duke. He spoke a lot through jokes and misdirections. The confusion coupled with how bad she suddenly felt for her request of him and it led to a deeper, more throbbing headache.
“Duke…” She took a few steps toward him, staring at his back while he worked on the eggs. “Are you…” It seemed a bit ridiculous to ask him if he was okay, since he just said he wasn’t. Something was off, though. “I’m sorry.” Audrey wanted to reach out, but she didn’t. Instead she stayed in place a foot or two away from him. “I asked you because I trust you over anyone else…but it’s not like I asked you to hurt you on purpose. I asked you to prevent myself from hurting you.” Normally she would have stopped there, but her mouth seemed intent on continuing. “If I hurt you, I could never forgive myself.”
Duke was fairly certain that he could feel Audrey even though she was a good foot or so away from him. He felt his muscles tense at that before forcing himself to relax. He needed to at least keep up the charade of being cool and collected. The usual Duke facade of false relaxation. Where he could pretend he was fine when he wasn’t. He’d gotten good at it. Especially given the way his life had changed since Audrey showed up in Haven again.
Turning off the stove, Duke carefully turned around. “You asked me just like you asked me to kill that Troubled man in the forest that was taking his children’s organs. Just like the other times that people have come to me to get killed to save their family from their Trouble. You’re not going to hurt me, Audrey. The only person who’s going to hurt me is Mara and I’m wise to her bullshit so she’s not going to hurt me again. Without anything that she could use to Trouble people, she’s not going to hurt anyone else, either. And I’ll find a way to bring you back.” He had to because he didn’t want to kill Audrey. “If I can’t - and only if I can’t - I’ll kill you. But don’t think it’s not going to mean something or like I’m gonna walk out of it any more okay than I would anything else. Cause it’s still going to hurt me. It’s just gonna be a different way. So you’re not protecting me from getting hurt.” He knew it was unfair because he knew eventually Nathan was going to have to kill him to keep everyone from getting hurt, but he also knew that it didn’t mean Nathan wasn’t going to be hurt, too.
The more he spoke, the more she seemed to have trouble keeping the upset look from her face. Audrey was normally pretty good at keeping her emotions in check when she wanted them to be, but being stoic in front of Duke at that moment felt like a lie to him and somehow, that wouldn’t stand. And so her eyebrows lifted a little and her eyes went a little wide like they usually did when she was really, truly listening to someone. Listening and feeling empathy. She knew he was right about a lot of things. It was a little harder for her because she hadn’t asked those things of him yet. To her, she would never ask Duke to do something like that, but if it was for the greater good… maybe she would.
“Dammit, Duke.” She said it on an exhale and reached out to hug him.
Duke hated the look on her face. He hated how sad she seemed in that moment, how concerned. He didn’t mean to be the one that did that. He hated being as open as he was, but he figured it was best to clear the air and get everything out there since there was something that seemed to make him tell the truth when asked direct questions.
Letting out a breath, he didn’t try to avoid Audrey’s hug. It didn’t really fix everything he was feeling about things, but he also wasn’t sure he was sorry about it either. “Anything else you wanted to clear up?” He asked the question before thinking about it, which prompted a, “Fuck.” once he’d said it. “Nevermind.” Cause maybe that would keep her from having to answer.
The question hit her and despite his rescinding the question, she felt compelled to answer. She let the hug linger for a moment, giving him a squeeze before she pulled back. “Actually… yeah. There’s a few, actually, though not all of them are about Mara. Like, are you really okay here? You’ve been here for four months and yeah, there was another version of me for a while, but, it couldn’t have been easy?” She paused. She had really wanted to stop there. Even her expression seemed to say ‘okay now, mouth, stop moving’ but it didn’t. She shook her head. “And how could you sleep with her?” She paused. “Okay, that one’s about Mara. Sorry.”
Duke cursed himself for asking. He cursed himself even more once she actually asked. “It’s not ideal, but it’s almost like being home.” He looked off to the side. “Like there’s weird things like zombies attacking us and the Christmas movies with us in them…” He really didn’t want to have mentioned that and he cursed himself again. “But it’s easier to do things that I want to do, so I’ve dealt with worse.”
The other part about Mara made him shrug. “I dunno. I haven’t slept with her yet. The best I can tell is that she’s got your face and probably she found some way to make me forget she was the spawn of Satan.” He kept his gaze on the ceiling after the last part and put a little more distance between them. He hoped she didn’t ask for any sort of clarification because he didn’t want to explain himself in the slightest.
She mouthed the words ‘Christmas movies’ like a question, but she didn’t have a lot of time to process it and definitely needed to go back to that answer at some point. There were Christmas movies? Duke was in one? She definitely wanted to see that if that was true, though she had a hard time picturing it.
Her thoughts were jarred by Duke’s other words. She looked at him look up at the ceiling. It was a little hard to process, but the question that came out was more automatic than meant to actually be asked. “... you want to sleep with me?” Like Duke, she regretted asking since she was starting to get the sense you had to answer when being asked something. Audrey bit back the question why and simply stared at him.
Duke groaned when she spoke. “Yeah. The thought’s crossed my mind before. We almost did once, but you said you didn’t have enough time to fix our friendship if we fucked it up, so we didn’t. Have a feeling Nate might’ve had something to do with it, too, but I don’t know and you wouldn’t know because you’re not there yet.” He was considering walking out of the conversation altogether, but he hadn’t so far. But it was sounding like a better option with each moment. “I think we’re probably in dangerous conversation waters right now and it might be a good time for us to avoid these waters.” Because he definitely wanted to avoid them. “So all in favor of not talking about this say aye.” He allowed a pause before saying, “Aye.”
“Sorry.” Was her first reaction to the whole thing, but she had to admit she was interested in what he had to say. From her perspective, Nathan had just admitted that he had feelings for her. She was still trying to understand her own and it didn’t help that, at the time, Audrey was struggling to figure out what was real for her and what was the other Audrey’s feelings. That Duke might have feelings for her too made things even more complicated and Audrey brought a hand to her face, rubbing her temple a little. “And here I thought being stuck in a different dimension was going to be easier.”
She looked at Duke with a bit of an apologetic expression. She got his need not to talk about it. “We don’t need to talk about this right now… but if it bothers you, we shouldn’t avoid it forever.” She briefly wondered if that constituted a question. The thing was, now that Duke had said all that stuff, Audrey wasn’t going to let it go. It would play on her mind for a while until she came to some conclusion that sat well with her.
“But I do need to ask about the Christmas movie thing.”
Duke was glad that nothing was actually framed as a question, so he could at least avoid it for now. “We don’t have to talk about it ever, actually.” Because he didn’t want to talk about it. He knew how things ended. Nathan and Audrey were...together. It wasn’t like both of them didn’t realize that the other person was in love with Audrey Parker, but Duke wasn’t really the type to talk about the fact that he hadn’t been chosen. He wasn’t mad about it. He was happy for Nathan and Audrey, happy that they at least had that, but it didn’t mean that his feelings disappeared. It was just not something he talked about or ever wanted to talk about.
“We absolutely do not need to talk about that, so you should absolutely not. I am going to leave this conversation and the eggs I had every intention of eating if we have to ask anymore questions about things I don’t want to talk about anymore. And I need coffee.”
“Fine.” She didn’t sound happy about it, but she most definitely wasn’t going to drop either subject. Audrey just wasn’t going to bring it up right now. She looked at him a little defiantly, but then as if conceding to his request, she pulled out a chair and sat down. She was sure there was a way to look up the Christmas movie thing. She’d find out about it one way or another.
“There’s something weird about the way we’re talking, isn’t there? Is it the portal or something else? You said this place sometimes does stuff that feels like the Troubles.” Although she was being affected and that was unnerving. This was the first time that ever happened to her. Audrey paused and opened her mouth, a question poised there, but then she closed it.
Duke let out a small sigh of relief. He was really tired of the personal questions. He didn’t want to talk about himself anymore. He preferred it when there was some mystery to him and he could just be who he was and have people wonder exactly what that was.
He put eggs on two plates and got them both coffee. If Audrey searched through his DVR, she would find the episode, but Duke was fully against telling her that. Mostly because he sincerely didn’t want Audrey to see him as a single parent swept up in a weird Holiday romance. Sitting down, he glanced up at Audrey, annoyed about the questions thing, but also glad he didn’t have a real answer to give. “Yeah. It’s weird. Like being forced to tell the truth anytime someone asks a question. It’s probably the portal, but I can’t say for sure.”
The question that had been on the tip of her tongue spilled out without her being able to stop it. “If we have to tell the truth, I’m surprised you haven’t asked me any questions.” The statement was out there and then Audrey suddenly realized how maybe that wasn’t a great idea. It was true though, considering everything. She was sure Duke had questions and now she realized he might even have more.
As she sat there the cop part of her mind started to think and she got that expression she normally did while she was thinking like the FBI woman she had memories of. “... If you asked me questions about myself, would I answer the way the real Audrey Parker would, or would I answer the real truth?”
Duke looked at Audrey, arching an eyebrow. He took a sip of coffee, refusing to be entirely decaffeinated if they were going to have this conversation. “I don’t know how you’d answer. I can try some questions if that’s what you want, but I’m not sure all the questions I have are ones I want to ask.” Mostly because the very idea of her answering him and it being not what he wanted to hear was as bad as having to hear her ask him questions he didn’t want to answer. “Plus, I’ve just suffered through a lot of questions I didn’t want to answer, so I know what it’s like.”
Still, he took in a breath and let it out before taking another sip of coffee. “Do you want me to ask you questions?”
Audrey’s palms pressed against the cup of coffee and let the heat from within warm her up. “...yeah, I do.” Maybe it was the fact she, herself, had questions and she doubted she could simply sit there and ask herself questions to find the answer, but she did. Maybe she felt a little guilty for asking Duke all those questions and she wanted to feel even. Whatever the case, there it was. “Besides… I trust you.”
Duke studied her face for a moment. He wasn’t sure what to ask her, but he’d start with simple things. “What’s the earliest thing you remember?” He was sure that Audrey would know the difference between what Audrey knew and what the others knew. What Mara knew. He let that one settle in for a brief moment before he said, “And what’s your name?” Like he didn’t already know that one.
She exhaled a breath she hadn’t known she was holding in. It seemed to her he had chosen some simple questions and for that she was grateful. “My first real memory is showing up in Haven. I came to deal with a murder case.” Audrey actually looked surprised, though she knew that was the answer. She had memories of course of growing up as a ward of the state and the things that had happened to the real Audrey Parker, but she knew now those were all fake memories. Still, to hear her said it outloud with such conviction was nice. When she opened her mouth again and she answered with “Audrey Parker” the look of relief was evident. She closed her eyes and it looked as if she were trying to decide to smile or not. Audrey had been worried another name would come out - a name that had caused her headache this morning.
Duke gave her a hint of a smile before shoveling some eggs in his mouth. He was just grateful for the change in subject. When things weren’t on him, it was so much easier. Also, he was glad that Audrey was okay. It was, perhaps, him going easy on her, but it was him going easy on himself at the same time. If he kept things to strictly Audrey, then he didn’t have to know anything he didn’t want to know. “See? That wasn’t so bad.” He drank more of his coffee. “Anything else you want me to ask about? Cause I feel like we covered at least one of the more important things.”
"Yes." He had asked the question, after all. "...but it guess it's probably not that important." She abandoned her coffee to try the eggs out. After swallowing she gave Duke a playful smile. "You know, these aren't half bad. Maybe you should consider having the Gull serve breakfast." She sent him a look as she ate some more, her spirits having been lifted a little by the Revelations Duke had helped to bring about.
"...thanks, Duke." Despite everything, she still regarded him fondly, her head tilted ever-so-slightly. "I know I can kind of be a pain in the ass sometimes. But I'm really glad that if I'm stuck here, you're here with me." Her smile quirked a little as she lifted up her mug. "See? And you didn't even need to ask me a question for that."
He rolled his eyes. “They already have JJ’s. I don’t think I need to add to it. I’ll stick with something they don’t have around here. Reasonable seafood.” They were fairly landlocked and he knew the kind of things he wanted. Having traveled some, he knew some things about foods that he wouldn’t have if he’d stayed in Haven.
“You’re always a pain in the ass,” he said, side stepping the gratitude entirely. “It doesn’t mean you told the truth, though. You could have lied. But I’m not going to argue about it too much. Mostly because I’m exhausted by the idea of asking questions now.”
Audrey wanted to say that she didn’t lie, but that wasn’t true. She lied to protect people and she lied to herself. She was happy that Duke seemed to have relaxed a little. “If this is affecting the rest of the town, it’s going to make being a police officer a little easier. Anyone committing a crime is going to have to admit it.” She couldn’t help but think about that benefit first. “But then talking to anyone else might be a pain…”
She paused. “...You know what I should ask you - No, never mind.” She gave him a bit of a mischievous smile before her lips disappeared as she took a sip of coffee. Audrey couldn’t help but challenge him a little, even if she hadn’t followed through. It did cross her mind for a moment to ask him about the Rev. She always wanted to know if he was happy. She stared at him over the mug with a curious gaze.
Duke breathed out something close to a laugh when she went on about how easy it would be to catch criminals now that they were all telling the truth. He sipped his coffee, trying to hide the hint of a smile on his face. “You would think of that as a benefit first.”
When she started on about questions again, though, Duke stilled. “Why are you tempting fate? No one wants to answer questions when they’re forced to.” It was a well known fact. True, he probably never would have admitted to any of what she’d gotten him to admit to without the truth, but she hadn’t just stared at him and left the room, so maybe she wasn’t exactly upset that he now not-so-secretly had feelings. That didn’t mean anything was going to happen.
“Maybe because fate’s basically thrown me curveball after curveball and I’m so used to it now it doesn’t even register?” She put down her mug on the table and spun it a little so the handle faced his. She looked at the mug thoughtful for a moment. “And maybe because I’m not actually worried about what you’d have to say. I trust you. And even if you said something that upset me, I don’t think we’d stop talking to each other.”
She paused, closed her eyes for a moment, then sighed. “Okay, so the truth thing is definitely a little much.” Audrey had meant to say the first part, but not the second part.
Duke had to smile at the last part. “Yeah. It’s a little much.” He was quiet for a moment before he said. “Fine. What do you want to ask me?”
Audrey stared at Duke for a moment. Her eyes softened and her lips pressed together as she considered the question she had already thought to ask. It was there on the top of her tongue and for a moment as she inhaled and then exhaled, it looked like she was going to ask what was on her mind. But she got cold feet.
Taking a page from the Duke Crocker handbook of avoidance, Audrey cleared her throat, shifted in her seat just slightly, and went with a question that was much more safe. "Have you ever gone commando while working a case with Nathan or I?" She pressed her lips in a smile in hopes to make it seem like that had been the question all along.
Audrey’s question got an arched eyebrow and something resembling a smirk, but he took another sip of coffee. “Yes.” It wasn’t something he was ashamed of. They’d done a lot of cases together and he just so happened to like going commando. He was just glad that hadn’t been the case when he stripped on the boat. It was enough to be in his underwear for that. Worth it, but strange all the same.
“Why? Have you been thinking about this for a long time?”
"Yeah, actually." The words came out quickly do to the front she had been putting up where she had been pretending to be more cocky than not. When the words left her she paused, the scrunched her nose as she closed her eyes briefly. "Okay so that bit me in the ass didn't it?" Audrey was not generally a blusher, but for the briefest of moments it was there with the feeling of being sheepish, but she washed it away with a sip of her coffee.
Duke laughed at that. “Oh, it definitely bit you in the ass.” But he wasn’t complaining about that. Mostly because now he had that. He was still avoiding anything more than a passing fancy since that was much further from where he felt comfortable at that time. “Was the question worth it, though?” It was half serious, half teasing.
“No,” She rolled her eyes, but there was a smile there on her face too. “Because you’re so going to use this against me for a while and not let me live that down.” Audrey shook her head and then suddenly laughed. Her hand went up to her face as she rubbed her eyes for a moment. “God, this is so ridiculous. I mean, at least it’s only with questions. Can you imagine if we all ended up just speaking the truth all the time without being prompted?” That was a rhetorical question and she suddenly wondered if he’d feel compelled to answer a question that was obvious to both of them. “And I’m really going to have to start to pick and choose how I talk… at least with the Troubles I was immune.”
Duke grinned. “Well, at least you know better than to ask me whether or not I’m wearing underwear around you again.” And he probably was going to tease her about it for a while. It was too good of an opportunity not to. “I can imagine it and I don’t like the thought process. Things would have been a lot more awkward.” But he smiled slightly again. “Now you know how we feel on a regular basis. So welcome to it.” He leaned back, eyes narrowing slightly. “Still thinking about whether or not I’m going commando?” Because he couldn’t let it go yet.
There were two things that gave it away before Audrey felt compelled to answer him. The first was the slight widening of her eyes, but the second one was much more obvious. Her gaze dipped to where his lap would be, though it was covered by the table they were sitting at. It was a quick dip, but Audrey knew that Duke was perceptive. “Right now it’s all I can sort of think about, actually, so yeah.”
Audrey winced and then sent him a look that wasn’t actually angry, but definitely laced with embarrassment. “Oh that is so not fair, Duke Crocker.” She held his gaze and then found herself upping the ante. “What if I told you I had no bra on?”
Duke chuckled at that. “You’re the one that started it, Audrey Parker. Plus, you asked way more personal questions than I did, so I feel like you only have yourself to blame.” He studied her face for a moment before his gaze dropped. “Well, I’d say you were telling the truth, but I already knew you didn’t have a bra on last night, so I’m not actually surprised.” He shrugged slightly, looking back up at her face. “And to answer the question you’re clearly avoiding asking, I’m not.” He winked at her, fully back to himself in that moment before standing up and getting himself another coffee.
It wasn’t fair how easy Duke could do that. Audrey liked to think she could hold her own, but the whole ‘being affected’ by the strangeness was really throwing her off. Not to mention she did, in fact, have burning questions she wanted to ask, but she respected Duke enough not to ask them. She silently cursed herself for not thinking about putting on a bra before going out last night as Duke stood up to get more coffee. She was sure he did it partially on purpose because she totally let her gaze fall on his ass when he turned around. It wasn’t the first time she’d checked out his backside before, but now she knew he was not wearing any underwear and it seemed to make the staring feel different. She did manage not to be staring when he turned back around, leaning back in the chair and clearing her throat a little.
Duke was glad that he was finally able to exist in this situation without a constant state of dread and discomfort. “You need more coffee?” Because that was a safe question and not actually teasing.
“Yes please.” That one was easy one to answer and the distraction was nice, too. She held out her mug and tried to think about how to phrase what she wanted to say next so it wasn’t a question. “Keeping the whole question thing in mind… making plans for the rest of the day is going to be hard… And if it extends longer than today - Well, not really sure what I’m going to do.” There were questions there, veiled in statements. She was trying to be respectful - see Duke?
He took her mug from her, pouring coffee into it and passing it back. Duke considered her words for a moment. “I’d say we should turn it into a drinking game, but we’d probably die.” He shrugged before sitting back down, moving to rest the ankle of his right leg on his left knee. “So I guess we’ll have to see. If we need to know if it’s still on, we can ask each other a question and see if the compulsion to tell the truth is still there.” The only downside to that plan was that they’d probably have to ask things that neither of them wanted to respond to. He frowned. “Which will probably be annoying as fuck.”
“I could always just ask you about past flings.” She smirked toward him as she placed her palms back over the mug. She wasn’t sure if those were things that Duke would mind answering truthfully or not. Audrey managed to bite back the comment they could always just ask each other if they were commando and then checking because she didn’t really mean it. “You know… this is like an extended version of truth or dare, but without any of the dare parts and you can’t make your truth sound more interesting.” Audrey had memories of doing that as a kid. She knew they weren’t her memories, but still.
Duke looked at Audrey for a long moment. “I feel like you know a good portion about my past flings. Well, not all of them because you only remember so much.” He tried to think back on flings he had previously and which ones matched up with her memories. It was a lot of sorting. “Ask a question of your choosing in the morning tomorrow. If I can lie, then I’ll know.” He knew he was putting himself out there, but there wasn’t really another way. “Or we can take turns. That going to work for you?”
“Yeah. That’s that’s a good plan, actually. And I’d rather test it out with someone I trust than someone on the street.” At least if she said something she’d regret, it wouldn’t cost her her job, Hopefully it wouldn’t cost her their friendship either. “We’ll take turns, though. It’s only fair. And I promise not to be cruel.” Would she go easy on him? That would remain to be seen, but she definitely wouldn’t be cruel.