Penelope Clearwater (clearly_copper) wrote in whatprice, @ 2009-10-26 13:22:00 |
|
|||
Current mood: | weird |
Entry tags: | !completed, krishnan shashidhar, penelope clearwater |
Who: Penny & Shashi
When: Sunday, 25 October 2009
Where:Pier Museum, Southend-on-Sea
What: Shashi makes an offer to Penny about collaboration
Rating: PG
Status: Log, Complete
Looking for all the world like a student in a grey hoodie, jeans, and trainers, Shashi waited on a bench outside the Pier Museum for Penny. His hands were clammy and his stomach felt fucking awful, but there wasn't any going back now; of that he was certain.
No one knew about his little meeting with Public Enemy Number One, he was sure of that. He was, as far as he could tell, still relatively within the good graces of everyone at MI7. But he'd become antsier and he knew it. He couldn't put this off any longer, not when his own anxiety might betray him.
Betray ... god, Shauri was going to hate him. So were the others. He wondered how long he'd survive after this was all over. Would it be a car crash? A chance bump on the Tube platform? No, no, it wouldn't ... it couldn't. If this worked, nothing like that would happen to Shashi. Or to anyone magical, or anyone who'd ever cared about anyone magical. And that was right. Wasn't it?
He bounced his heels restlessly on the ground.
If she were to be honest, Penelope was partially worried that this was a trap. Charlie's response had calmed her fears a bit, but she still wasn't taking chances. All's fair in love and war, and this situation certainly qualified as one of those. After all, hadn't Shashi mentioned that they shouldn't see each other because it was too dangerous? But maybe the fact that this meeting was in Southend was a testament to the fact that it wasn't a trap. However, her attempt to be careful meant she'd given Charlie the heads up and details of the meeting as well as Gus. She had plans with Gus for later in the evening so if she didn't show up or contact him with the prearranged phrases, he'd know something went sour.
Just before one o'clock, Penny made her way over to the Pier Museum and spotted Shashi sitting on the bench. She'd come straight from church and her outfit reflected that - boots, a long skirt and a fashionable sweater topped with a light coat to keep away the fall chill. Her one risky action had been tucking her wand into a pocket in her skirt, just in case she needed to get away quickly. She was fairly certain Charlie or one of his men was somewhere about keeping an eye on things, but she wasn't going to concern herself about that.
Smiling at Shashi, she sat down beside him.
"Hey. Are you alright?"
He looked over at her with an expression of deep, unfeigned relief. "Better now," he said, with a lopsided grin. "Let's go in, aye? I got us tickets already."
There was something about Shashi's grin that was always contagious and Penelope's own smile widened.
"Lead the way."
Shashi made small talk as they went inside and into the first gallery. As he'd expected, there weren't many visitors to the pier on a chilly October Sunday, so they practically had the place to themselves. He waited until he was confident that they were alone and that their voices wouldn't carry too much, and then said, quietly, "I can't do—do my job, anymore. I can't get behind how they're doing it. If you really work for the people you say you do ... I want to help."
Penelope couldn't do more than just squeeze Shashi's hand at first as she struggled to find her voice.
"I.. are you certain? How can I be sure you're not playing me?" she asked quietly, hating having to voice such a suggestion, but knowing she had to, no matter what her personal feeling at this moment.
"I trust you, Shashi, probably more than I should, and I want to believe you, but I have to be careful too."
"I know." He squeezed her hand back. "I ... I don't know how I can prove myself. I can tell you that I had a chance to bag the number one bloke my bosses want and didn't take it. But if you don't know the fellow, that's only gonna get you so far." He sighed. "How much d'you know about what ... what my organisation does?"
"More than enough to get me killed or worse," Penelope answered in a whisper, refusing to let go of Shashi's hand. So, Shashi had seen Charlie and hadn't done anything. And Charlie apparently hadn't done anything to Shashi. Which made her feel like shit in her reluctance to trust Charlie on this matter.
"I.. Is there somewhere we can sit? I think there's stuff I ought to tell you."
"Looks like -- yeah, over here." There was a small room a short distance away where an educational film about the Pier was run every twenty minutes. As these places usually were at museums, it was empty. Shashi grabbed a seat in the corner as far from the door as possible, but which still allowed a view of people coming into the room.
As the dry-as-dust film narration rolled on, Shashi said, "All right. Fire away."
Penelope couldn't help taking Shashi's hand and intertwining their fingers as she looked at them. It was easier to focus on hands than on shashi's face.
"The thing is. I'm sort of heading up the investigation of your work and trying to take it down through legal means. But the investigation's getting bigger and so I've gotten an NGO involved now as well as some politicians."
She paused, to allow Shashi to take that all in.
He nodded. "I was kind of hoping you'd say something like that," he said. "'Cos this shit is big, and ... well ... there are parts of it that are kind of unbelievable. Which I why I was wondering what you knew." He glanced at her. "You ever see the X-Files?"
Penelope nodded.
"Yeah, my best friend is a huge scifi geek. He makes sure I've seen everything. Including all the new Who and Torchwood and such."
Shashi chuckled. "Aye, well ... we're a bit like Torchwood. Only without the shagging and the stark raving incompetence."
"Canary Wharf or Cardiff?" Penelope asked. "Because I see you more as the Cardiff type, but the stuff I've seen evidence of.. It's like Canary Wharf.. how do you survive?"
"Didn't realise it was going to be Canary Wharf when I walked into it," he said. "There's still a lot I don't know. Not sure I want to know. But I reckon I ought to—and just from what I do know, I can't just let it keep going like this."
Penelope squeezed Shashi's hand.
"That's incredibly brave of you. The people that the organization is capturing and killing. They're just regular people like you and me. Shashi... if you really want to know... I'm one of those people."
Shashi did a double-take and stared at Penny, his mouth slightly agape. "You—you're—" He lowered his voice even more to a whisper. "—magic?"
Penelope nodded, staring down at her skirt nervously.
"Once I knew who you were, I thought it was best if you didn't know.."
"Well..." he said, after a silence in which the narrator solemnly intoned information about the destruction by fire of the Pier in 2005, "...at least I don't have to worry about trying to explain what we do and you thinking I'm barmy."
"It gets worse. Or more complicated. The organisation's number one bloke - was the guy I was dating until recently. My boss doesn't know. I don't want him involved in case this job to go public and bring down the organisation blows up in our face. I'm prepared for that. My family isn't like me. I guess that's part of the reason I stayed in the public sector, so to speak. I think there's a way to resolve all this without violence. Or rather, I can't give up on that yet," Penelope said quietly before sighing.
"So, now my main afterhours gig is gather evidence on MI7 so that with the aid of some politicians and NGOs, we can present to people who can pressure your bossses to shut down - either that or go totally public with it."
Shashi absorbed most of what Penny said, but he was stuck on the first part of her answer and needed to loosen the gears on that before he could tackle the rest. "...your bloke. Redheaded fellow? Leather jacket?"
Penelope nodded.
"That's him. Not my bloke anymore. Well, I don't know. It's complicated."
"Right," Shashi said, deciding quickly to let that one go for now. "So, this thing you're working on. You got contacts, then? Evidence?"
"The simple answer is yes. But we can always use more evidence and testimonies. I can't disclose what we have or how we got it, you understand," Penelope said, much preferring to talk about the Project Liberty as she called it in her head versus talking about the wreckage of her relationship.
"But the basic process is you give your testimony - mostlikely to me and maybe someone else - we record that for posterity - in case something should happen before any further action is taken. If there's any questions we think you might be able to help answer, we ask them. The NGO we're partnering with is now conducting its own investigation, but they've allowed us use of a safe house, which we keep surveillance on."
Penelope sighed before squeezing Shashi's hand again and looking him in the eyes earnestly.
"I can't guarantee either your safety or our success, but I honestly believe it's an important cause worth doing everything for."
He was quiet for a minute, reaching over to hold her hand between both of his.
"I studied politics at uni," he said finally. "Did papers on human rights and child soldiers and NGOs. Might've gone that way if I hadn't got recruited by my brother and then by ... by them." He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and let it out slowly. "My sister was ... one of you. She died, in your war, in the 1990s. Thought I might be able to find out what happened to her, who killed her. And then I found it was all a lot more complicated than I thought." He felt his throat closing up but forced himself to continue, his hold on Penny's hand tightening. "I've done some things I'm not proud of. Thought it was the right thing. Not so sure now. And ... I reckon there's things happening, things I don't want happening. I think we've been going about this all wrong. So I—I want to help. I'll help. I'll do whatever it takes, Penny."
Penny let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding.
"We're incredibly grateful for that. I'm incredibly grateful for that. I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. I.. I didn't know. It must have been terrible not knowing what happened," she said, the sincerity in her voice unmistakable.
"It doesn't make me that different from you. We're all just humans."
"Aye," Shashi said gloomily. "But you try convincing some of my superiors of that. And I'll be straight with you—some of the stories I hear, they make magic folk sound like a fucking third-world banana republic. But it doesn't excuse the way we've been allowed to act."
"I think there's good and bad people on both sides. The war your sister died in, some of the people who committed crimes, didn't get justice. They "reformed". And now they're trying to rebuild our world, along with other people. I've heard stories of things on both sides that are very atrocious and make me sick, but then you know I'm an idealist. I hid from the last war in the public world. I'd gone to uni and I just stayed there. I was a prime target during that war. My mother died.. it was a car accident. I.. I never wanted anyone to ask any questions to find out if that was the truth. I accepted it because I didn't want the war to touch me. If the truth is different, I don't want to know."
She bit her lower lip.
"I just can't stand people dying."
Shashi put his arm around Penny's shoulders. "I don't want any more people to die either."
The film stopped and the lights came up briefly, so that anyone who wanted could enter or leave. A pair of parents with two restive children came in and sat down in the front row, well away from Shashi and Penny; the mother glanced at them, but apart from a raised eyebrow, didn't react. The lights went down again, and the film started over.
"So what do we do now?" he asked, as the narration for the film began.
"We come up with a plan," Penelope whispered. "But maybe we should do this elsewhere?"
He nodded. "Let's keep walking. C'mon."
More people had filtered into the museum, so Shashi decided it would be better if they went walking outside. The Pier was still closed off, but they could walk along the mostly deserted seaside and not be overheard. The only problem was that it was fairly chilly, but, Shashi reflected, at least it was dry.
"So you'll need a statement from me, aye? And as much evidence as I can gather?"
It reminded Penny of the walks she and Charlie had taken on similar seashores and she felt a lump rise in her throat.
"Yes. But your safety is paramount. So don't go getting yourself killed just to get some evidence," Penelope said softly.
"Are you going to keep working for them or are you going to pull out of the organisation?"
"Quitting's ... not looked kindly upon," he said. "It'd look weird if I quit, especially at this point." He sighed. "I can get you arrest reports. Evidence of some of the things that have happened to people in custody. Beyond that I've not got clearance."
"If you want to get out, we can help," Penelope said. "Just know the offer's there. Like I said, don't stress too much about the evidence. You're more use to us alive. Plus, I prefer you alive."
She bit her lip.
"Is it safe for you to be at your current flat?"
"I prefer being alive," he said, grinning wryly. "Far as I know, it's safe. The less I shake up my routine, the safer I am, probably. If I do anything weird, they're gonna notice."
Penelope nodded, trying to stay focused on the business part of all this.
"Is the email we've been exchanging secure? What's the safest way for me to contact you?"
Shashi dug into his pocket and pulled out a pair of mobile phones. "Pay-as-you-go mobiles. Set 'em up under different identities and everything. Here, take one. You can email me, but be careful what you say in it. Calling's better if you've got something specific."
Penelope smiled.
"Secret ops can always be counted on to take care of everything," Penelope said with a smile as she glanced at the mobile before tucking it in her purse.
"Do they have any reason to suspect you or have you followed?"
"Nah," he said, mostly confident that he was telling the truth. "Had a bit of an incident a month or so back that I thought was gonna get me in enormous trouble, but I seem to be okay still. But I wasn't followed here." Of that, he was absolutely certain. They'd have to have a tracker of his caliber or better to have followed him to Southend-on-Sea, and he knew those were few and far between. And wouldn't be used on him, not at this point.
Penelope nodded as she slipped her hand through Shashi's and squeezed, just wanting to hold on to him. Alright, so maybe part of her wanted to do more than just hold on to his hand. She couldn't ignore the fact that Shashi seemed to be emerging as her knight in shining armor in her mind.
"That's good. I want things to stay that way. Especially now that I don't have to worry about you trying to kill me."
"You never did," he said softly. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and, without stopping to think too long about it, leaned over to kiss the top of her head.
That was Penelope's go ahead cue and she wrapped her arms tightly around Shashi and hugged him close.
"This is the best present you could have ever given me."
He'd been trying so damn hard to resist. He'd been so good. Especially all that time when he knew she was someone else's girl. But now she was hugging him, and ... He brushed his fingers against her jaw and tilted her head up so he could look at her eyes. "Penny—" he began, and stopped, at a loss for words.
Penny looked up at him nervously, biting her lip. She wanted to kiss him. After all, she wasn't with anyone and he was one of the good guys now.
"Yeah?" she asked quietly.
Still no words. Well ... fine. He bent his head and kissed her.
Penelope closed her eyes as she melted into the kiss momentarily before pulling back. She desperately hoped it wasn't Charlie who was watching.
"Maybe should save that for somewhere else," she said, resting her head against her chest. To say she was confused would be an understatement.
There was a moment of panic when she pulled back where Shashi was terrified that he'd done something awfully wrong ... and then she spoke, and he relaxed. "I—yeah. Sorry. I just ... I've been ... wanting to do that for a long time." He stroked her hair and sighed.
"Me too," she said with a sigh. "It's just... complicated..."
It started out as a quiet snort, then a chuckle, and before long it turned into an outright gigglefit that Shashi simply couldn't stop. "It—it is that," he managed to gasp out. When he got it under something like control, he added, "Sorry. Sorry. I'm not laughing at you. It just ... well, it is."
It soon became evident that Shashi's laugh was just as contagious as his smile and Penelope soon found herself with a case of the giggles.
"Do I get extra points for understatement of the year?"
"Aye, you do," Shashi replied. Without letting go of Penny, he twisted his arm around to look at his watch. "We should probably be getting back. Probably shouldn't take the same train, though, just to be safe. And I won't be going straight back to London in any case."
"That's good. Yeah, I have a 'check-in' dinner with my best friend. You understand of course. Be in touch, though?" Penelope said with a hopeful look.
"Course I will. And not just for this thing." He patted the pocket with the phone in it. "When ... when all this is over, maybe we should. You know. Go somewhere. Something fun." It was a hopelessly optimistic thing to say; he didn't even know, at this point, if there would be an over. But he had to believe there would.
"Maybe before then, even," Penelope offered with a hopeful smile before returning briefly to business. "Listen, would you be alright meeting another one of our sources? Or do you think that would be too much of a liability?"
"I don't think I see a problem, necessarily," Shashi said thoughtfully. "Long as you're sure they're trusted and all."
"I'd trust them with my life. And the feeling is mutual. I just think that it may be beneficial," Penelope said thoughtfully, wondering what Father Hughes would think of the matter.
"All right then," Shashi said. "Ring me when you're ready for it. And when it's time for me to ... whatever. Testify."
"And should I ring you about other stuff? Or should I wait for you to ring me? Or should we put that on hold?" Penelope asked.
He grinned. "Call me anytime. Seriously."