Will Graham (helpwillgraham) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2014-05-11 01:08:00 |
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Layers of protocol and security measures did not phase her. There were only so many times you could flash your ID, hold out your arms, and state your purposes before one institution felt like another and the lines blurred until it numbed you. Alana had spent a good deal of time here in the last week, even when she didn't come to see Will. She wanted to ensure that he was being treated well, that no one was trying to implant any suggestions in his consciousness. Will's sanity and stability were on par with air and food for things Alana Bloom needed. Though the hallway lit her way brightly, she was reminded of Dr. Chilton and the Baltimore Institute. Nothing was as it seemed, and never more than when you were inside a secret government organization. Even if it was a not-so-secret secret. Alana had good news to carry, but her expression was still as grim as ever. Before she rounded the corner, she glanced down in a last ditch effort to make sure she was presentable -- professional and otherwise -- and that she didn't have coffee breath from her morning routine. The bars were always an unwelcome sight, but she stepped up to them, resting her hands on the cross beams and pulled her features into a smile. "Hello, Will." Being behind bars again had a strange impact on Will. SHIELD’s medical facilities were not at all like the Baltimore Institute. Instead of giving the impression of a haunted asylum from years gone by, with Nurse Ratchets and ghosts around every corner, this facility seemed almost too clean and modern. Instead of manipulative psychiatrists and apparently murderous orderlies there was the nice doctor from Star Trek. The bed was nicer, and the food was several degrees above complete slop. And it was a choice this time. Gone was the lie from Hannibal instead this was a safe haven to hide from what reality might have done to him. But that was of little comfort as he tried to grapple with just what had been done to him. This cell was the closest to isolation he was going to get in a place like New York City. Isolation afforded him the chance to be alone in his thoughts, alone without the constant need to be planning a next step. There was no next step here, no killer to catch. His health was really all there was. Will looked up instinctively when he heard Alana’s voice. He was on his feet before he knew it, the smallest of smiled tugging at the edge of his lips. “Hello, Alana.” Her desire to reach out for him, to pull him to her and whisper that he was safe, that he was playing a game all along came on like a hurricane gust of wind. The bars between them put a stop to it, but the need remained. The chair she usually sat in remained abandoned behind her. The corner of her mouth curved upward as she regarded him. He looked agonized, sure, but not in the same way he did under Chilton's care. "I have some news for you." She allowed her posture to slack, just a little, enough to indicate that she was as comfortable as she was going to get in a prison cell. "About the show." She was smiling. Will could stare at that smile for the rest of his life. Given the circumstances it did more to put him at ease than he would have anticipated. Alana didn’t lie, she never smoothed the truth over to make it more palatable. If there was anyone he could count on to truly be honest with him, even if it was not what he wanted to hear, it was this woman. It was something he admired about her, as intrinsic as that beautiful smile. “You seem in a better mood than it usually puts you in.” His hand wrapped around a bar as he watched her carefully. The show was understandably not something that he had access to here. After all it was sort of the reason he was here. That and the fact that his sanity had been mangled expertly. "You didn't kill Freddie Loundes." That had been the reason he'd put himself in this position, that he thought Hannibal was expertly molding him into the kind of person he wanted him to be. Cold, calculating, always a step ahead, like god. "She's alive. You and Jack are working on taking Hannibal down." That was the good news. The bad would come later, but this, this was the part she'd wanted to tell him as soon as she'd seen it. Her own betrayal and confusion came in dead last at the moment. She was angry, of course, though not as angry as she was sure to be in that space and time. She'd been duped, by everyone around her, and she'd been sleeping with the Chesapeake Ripper. A long, slow breath escaped from Will. His shoulders slumped forward as the aching weight was removed. While there was still a burden, still the twisted nature that Hannibal had begun to grow in him, at the very least he was not so far gone as to become a cold blooded murderer. Self defense was one thing but Freddie? Freddie would have been something else entirely. She would have been his undoing, a step he could never come back from except likely in his own death. “Thank god.” the words seemed choked up in his throat for a moment as he attempted to process it all. There were so many questions, more than she could probably answer. So instead he tried to focus on the matters at hand. A weak smile, he pressed his forehead against the gap in the bars. “I assume you want me to check myself out?” Her instinct urged her off the bars. She shuffled the few steps until she was in front of Will, then placed her hands over his. Alana's fingers were cold, from the air conditioning and anxiety, but they warmed quickly. After a squeeze, she reached one of her hands through the bar to touch the side of his face. "I want you to come back." The rest of the story could wait. It could be dealt with on his own time. This was the important part, and she didn't want bars between them when he got the news of the rest. "I picked out a dog at the shelter, and I need help naming him." When her hand touched his face Will’s eyes closed as he leaned into the touch. It was a comfort that he denied himself and even with her visits, Will missed Alana. Whatever it was they were finally starting out was so new, so fresh and he had felt almost like he had thrown it away by putting himself here. But it was for the best, it was the only way he could think to cope. But right now the relief of Freddie and Alana so close? It was a strangely perfect moment. “You picked out a dog.” Of course she had. It was an easy way to lure him anywhere. His dogs had been his family, they were his family. They were a pack of misfits that had found each other and thrived in the company. “You can’t just have one dog. He’ll need a friend.” Alana leaned forward, easing up onto the balls of her feet to press a kiss to Will's forehead. She dropped her hand back down to his and knotted her fingers over his. She'd needed a companion and had gone over to a shelter to find a dog. She missed having Will's at her house, even if they were a handful. They'd become a part of her family in the short amount of time they had. "We'll talk about a friend, when you get yourself out of here and come home." They were just down the hall from one another, but it was close enough that Alana considered it home for the both of them. A soft, quick breath at the kiss and Will opened his eyes again. Their fingers tangled together, as close as they could be when so fully separated. But unlike before this could be allowed. Unlike before Will could leave at any time. And if he was not quite as mad as he had feared he would become, then he might be comfortable signing that form to let him back in the tower. “You drive a hard bargain.” Will actually managed a smile. It was strange, idyllic in a way that he could never have imagined. “I think I’d like to come home.” |