"Darcy." Woah. Woooahh woah woah. Back the panic truck up. Severus puts his hands over hers in a kneejerk movement to try and get her to let go, startled. "I performed a tracking spell. You need to explain to me what's going on."
But she's a communications liaison for Shepard, and he immediately has a sinking feeling about what she's going to say.
The panic truck did not come with reverse as a standard feature, Severus. Sorry. It can, however, be shifted into neutral and left to idle at a steady level of panic!
"It's Kate. Kate Bishop. She's on Perugia, and she sent me a message. Me! I'm not even her liaison!" Which Darcy is taking as confirmation that this is serious shit. She maybe should have bothered to ask the other liaisons if they'd received similar messages, but this happened to catch Darcy while she was away from the group. Annnnnd, as evidenced, she promptly boarded the train to panic station. She reaches first into one coat pocket, then the other before she finally locates her communicator and plays the now-familiar message for Severus. When the recording cuts off, she's left staring up at him, eyes round with pleading. "Can you find her?"
"Forward that message to Claire Bennet," Severus tells her calmly. His expression while listening was grim, but he is not fit to be a passenger on the panic bus. Thankfully. "Tell her I told you to. She'll know how to proceed for right now."
He doesn't add anything about Nathan or communications; he's not sure if Claire and Darcy even know each other outside being liaisons, and family is their business. But Claire's the liaison for that fireteam.
"Kate is a professional and so is everyone else with her. This is why field experience was required of volunteers. We have a responsibility to them to remain composed." So chill out.
"You didn't answer my question!" Darcy doesn't stamp her foot, but the extra emphasis on the last syllable really implies it. "Can you find her?"
It's a struggle to tear her eyes away from Severus after she makes her demands, and pay attention to her communicator so she can forward that message on to Claire, but she manages. The effort it takes, however minimal it is at her level of technological experience, helps to force her to slow down and calm herself a bit. She takes a deep breath, and once she's sent the message on to Claire (yes, they've met), looks sheepish as she turns her attention back to the wizard whose help she's seeking.
"Look at me. There is a reason I'm on Comms and not on one of the teams out there. I am the last person someone would come to for help." So she says. "If she's asking me, it's because something's gone seriously wrong, and she must have exhausted all other options." Certainly it isn't because she's a friend, or resourceful or anything like that.
Severus does not reprimand Darcy-- but only because doing so would derail the current crisis. He is frowning sharply at her when she looks back up, though. He will not be shouted at.
"I am already aware of the communications blackout all teams are experiencing," he tells her. Of course he is. He made the magic mirrors they carry, Shepard is primed to expect his Patronus in an emergency, he's familiar enough with William's presence to find him in a heartbeat if he's anywhere the ship's interference will permit it. He's in this venture up to his neck.
Darcy's shoulder slump when he tells her the plain truth. Her hope isn't crushed entirely, but it's been left in a few smaller pieces. The floor and her shoes are stared at for a long time, and she just listens to the sound of her own breathing amid the other ambient sounds that come along with this part of the ship.
"It wasn't like this last mission," she says finally, voice quiet. "Nobody called to me for help. They left, the radios started getting shitty, but nobody panicked, and everyone came back." Well, Darcy panicked. But in other company, in a much less animated fashion, and she was distracted by things that were scarier. The it could always be worse scenario. She's worried that this is one of those now.
"They were all aware. The potential for terrible things in this place is one of the biggest motivating factors for this project in the first place. It is the worst result, but it is not an unexpected result."
Harsh, but realistic. Severus is of course concerned for them, but wringing his hands won't help.
"Kate's message will be filtered through the communications department to see if her transmission's point of origin can be found. We will further assess our options when that's done."
The fact that he can sit there and talk like that... Darcy's instinct is to get mad at him for being so calm, because it makes her feel like an idiot for freaking out, and why shouldn't he be freaking out too? Freaking out is a totally legitimate response to this shit, isn't it?
But he's not, and Darcy is smart enough to realize that it helps. It helps a lot. But it also leaves her not knowing what to say, and so she nods, and stands there feeling dumb and awkward. Is she supposed to just turn on her heel and march back off to base now to catch up with the other liaisons?
No. What she does is reach out to wrap her arms around Severus' torso, side of her face pressed against his chest, in an embrace that's more serves to anchor her than it is anything terribly intimate. Apart from the fact that an embrace is by its very nature rather intimate. "I am really scared, and I don't know what to do but stand here useless. But you seem to know exactly what to do, even when there's nothing you can do. And all I want to do is cry, except I really don't want to start crying right now." All of this uttered in one breath, pace picking up all the way through, until the last few words are all kind of one compound one.
Suddenly Darcy is attached to his front. Severus freezes, arms raised - away from her, as if he's in danger of being sniped by some kind of anti-nerd-contact SWAT team hiding on a mountain ridge a hundred yards away and this is some kind of bizarroworld sting.
"It's fine," he says stiffly, and forces himself to lower one hand to her shoulder, which he pats it awkwardly.
Merlin's fucking beard, Severus. It's like you've never been hugged by a distraught woman before. Just go with it.
Or don't, because Darcy is perceptive enough to recognize that he's actually doing quite the opposite of what she would do if their roles were reversed, and so she's quick to extract herself again. If not quite swift enough. (Or never having begun at all?)
"I better go," she says. Making the decision to leave her own. Not that she thinks he'd make her leave, but she's actually starting to feel bad about inflicting herself upon him now, even above and beyond the hard knot of dread in her stomach. "Thanks. For... you know." Telling her to do something that actually makes sense, rather than screaming like a banshee in the hall and demanding miracles.
He relaxes somewhat when she pulls away. There's no trace of revulsion in the way he reacts to her, just confusion. Severus understands that she's not trying to get closer to him to stick a knife in, but he doesn't have anything else to supplement that with. (He also isn't having any kind of hyped up adrenaline reaction because he isn't afraid.)
"You should go to the communications center and see if anything else comes up," he tells her, evenly. "I can walk you down there if you like."
Severus sounds perfectly fine about doing that. Maybe Darcy will piece together that he doesn't like being touched without warning one of these days.
Ohhhh no. No, no, no. The last time Darcy let Severus walk her some distance while she was riding an adrenaline high, all she could think about was kissing him, and that was terrible. The not actually kissing him part, that is. Maybe someday she'll come to the realization that her reactions to these kinds of situations are not remotely universal. But before she'll figure out the problem is her technique, she's going to paint in too-broad strokes and assume the problem with her touching him suddenly is her, full stop.
"It's okay. I can get there myself." But then she pauses, uncertain. "I mean, unless you'd feel better walking me there." It's a little unfair to just flounce after that display, isn't it? What if he's actually concerned that she'll just go grab the next hapless person in her path/rolodex? "I know I'm kind of a mess, and I wouldn't be surprised if you don't feel like taking my word that I'll make it there in one piece, without a meltdown of some sort." That much is at least said with the lilt that accompanies her usual wit. She's poking fun at herself again, so she can't be too bad off, can she?
Businesslike. Severus looks over his shoulder and motions at his office-- a book inside closes, then the door shuts. He pulls out his own communications device and sends someone a message before setting out, making sure the lab doors open for her and close behind them.
You can't escape, Darcy. Be careful what you wish for.
"You know that I'm a schoolteacher," he says-- not really a question, but like he's confirming with her before proceeding with something else.
There is a hot for teacher joke there that he's set himself up for so expertly, if only he even knew. Why must so much popular culture be lost on decent-looking wizards?
She watches with interest at the casual display of magic, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the office before the door shuts, and she turns her attention back. "I think I may have overheard that," Darcy confirms. Her dismay about this situation is already on its way to being short-lived. As long as they manage to keep conversation up, maybe she'll manage to keep her mind from wandering too much. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
Severus walks briskly, keeping his comms device in hand. The situation is one, despite his desire to make sure Darcy is okay, that he knows he needs to monitor at all times now. Until it's settled - he needs to.
"My society is very small. There is only one all-wizarding village in the United Kingdom." For reference. "A war began when I was a child. It's only come to a stalemate in the last few years. This may be why I am less inclined to panic."
"I watched aliens pour into New York City," not to one up, and she's assuming she at least has a passing knowledge of the existence of a major American city, "in an attempt to conquer the human race." On television, but still. That's as close as she needed to be, even if she and Jane should totally have been closer, thank you very much. "And I've helped fight back space elves who wanted to drag the entire universe into darkness." Not as effectively as her colleagues, but still. "But I didn't really panic then."
She frowns, and a realization dawns on her, quietly. "I guess I don't really get as freaked out when I feel like I can do something. That's why I signed up to help in the first place."
Realizing then that her tact may have left something to be desired, she darts a look over quickly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like the bit part I've played in the story of the near demises of my world is anything compared to what you went through on a daily basis. That had to be terrible." Especially if it's made him what she sees now.
Edited (whoops i forgot that button inserts brackets too i pay attention) 2014-06-21 10:18 (UTC)
"It's fine." He's not dismissive of her condolences about the war, he just doesn't really have any use for that kind of sentiment. Especially from a muggle. Even one who's been through all that-- which, while interesting, is also something he doesn't have use (or time) to sift through at the moment. "You do have a use. We need to be able to try and find out when the transmissions came through and how they were able to connect in the midst of what's otherwise been a complete blackout."
Tech things that Severus has no knowledge of. He's frustrated by his uselessness, but it can't be helped at this point. "I understand that being isolated here makes people feel anxious and helpless, but it's just a feeling."
"Everybody I knew from my world is gone," Darcy says, punctuating the fact that, yes, she does feel exceptionally isolated. "I recognizes faces of a few others, but I don't know them." Her throat feels tight suddenly in tandem with a thought that she gives voice to.
"Jane would know what to do. She's the smartest person I've ever met in my life. She's a genius." Her eyes sting, and she blinks a few times in rapid succession, but she manages to keep from getting too wrapped up in the sudden unexpected emotion, and avoids shedding tears. "It's the stupidest thing, but I thought she was at my pod when I woke up after the jump this time. You don't think I'm losing it, do you?"
The last thing Severus wants to think about is people from home. While it is a remote comfort to know that the war does, someday, actually end, he never feels entirely at ease about it. He assumes it's because he's just not there himself. (In reality it's because he will die before then, and never actually know.) Idiots, and young women who deserve better than this awful prison.
I thought she was at my pod when I woke up prompts him to think of his own feelings, and what Potter said, and Lupin's text before--
"Shit."
Severus stops walking.
He turns away from Darcy, wand in hand, and makes a graceful movement with it, saying "Expecto Patronum" quietly. Two silver deer appear through swirls of silver light. "Kate Bishop, Remus Lupin," he commands them, and immediately they both turn away and bound away, unhindered by physical constructs.
In the exact same direction. Completely in time with each other.
"What? What did I say?" At first, she's worried about having caused some offense, especially once he turns away from her. Casting that spell, however, brings her to believe that this may not be about her.
"Whoa!" Darcy dances back a step as the deer appear like mercury ghosts, only to dart away - presumably in the direction that the two named can be found. "That was awesome! What did you just do?"
"Tested something." He sounds irritable. He looks it, too, hands on his hips for a moment, barely keeping himself from pacing with restless energy. "I think we're going to start finding out more than just the fireteams are missing."
Merlin fucking damnit. Severus does pace for a moment, back and forth in the hallway like a caged animal, before turning and setting off again towards the lifts. "Something is wrong." He pulls his communications device out and texts someone, frowning.
His pacing is watched, apprehensively at first, then with a slow frown. "You know," she begins dryly as she falls in step behind him, matching his pace even if she has to take about a step and a half for each of his long strides, "I totally dig on your man-of-few-words thing, but I'd love it right now if you would elaborate for me."
Because, really. Really. He went from that pillar of calm, to something that resembles what she's actually feeling. Some of that comfort is starting to ebb away. "Of course something's wrong." That is literally the entire reason why they are even walking together right now. Literally. The entire reason.
"Not like that," he says, jabbing the lift button with an index finger. "We expected something like this eventually with the reconnaissance teams. It's nothing short of a miracle that it didn't happen on the first venture." Unkind, perhaps, but true.
The doors open and Severus steps inside, waiting until Darcy's joined him before he hits the button for the correct floor. "But a dozen people have spoken to me about odd feelings at the jump and I have reason to believe someone not a part of a recon team has gone missing. Looking for someone who isn't here, I suspect."
Something occurs to him. He doesn't like it. Is Kate the sort of person who would want anyone to follow her down there? Or is something using her to lure them.
"Someone like Jane." While this is definitely not a soothing thought, Darcy's at least able to trade panic for a brand of concern that's at least more serene. She restless in the lift, but she avoids the urge to pace about. Something about moving around in an elevator has always made her nervous.
She chews on the inside of her lip for a moment before gathering her thoughts enough to speak up again. "Do you think those transmissions were fake?" She doesn't, but she's willing to listen to the theory if he thinks it likely.
"Perhaps not. But tampered with, or made under duress, I do believe." Kate sounded nothing like herself-- and in mere hours he will see more messages, and pick out the one repeating, uncanny line, and his belief will be solidified. "Something about Kate asking us to come to her - you and Claire, specifically - doesn't sit right with me."
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But she's a communications liaison for Shepard, and he immediately has a sinking feeling about what she's going to say.
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"It's Kate. Kate Bishop. She's on Perugia, and she sent me a message. Me! I'm not even her liaison!" Which Darcy is taking as confirmation that this is serious shit. She maybe should have bothered to ask the other liaisons if they'd received similar messages, but this happened to catch Darcy while she was away from the group. Annnnnd, as evidenced, she promptly boarded the train to panic station. She reaches first into one coat pocket, then the other before she finally locates her communicator and plays the now-familiar message for Severus. When the recording cuts off, she's left staring up at him, eyes round with pleading. "Can you find her?"
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He doesn't add anything about Nathan or communications; he's not sure if Claire and Darcy even know each other outside being liaisons, and family is their business. But Claire's the liaison for that fireteam.
"Kate is a professional and so is everyone else with her. This is why field experience was required of volunteers. We have a responsibility to them to remain composed." So chill out.
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It's a struggle to tear her eyes away from Severus after she makes her demands, and pay attention to her communicator so she can forward that message on to Claire, but she manages. The effort it takes, however minimal it is at her level of technological experience, helps to force her to slow down and calm herself a bit. She takes a deep breath, and once she's sent the message on to Claire (yes, they've met), looks sheepish as she turns her attention back to the wizard whose help she's seeking.
"Look at me. There is a reason I'm on Comms and not on one of the teams out there. I am the last person someone would come to for help." So she says. "If she's asking me, it's because something's gone seriously wrong, and she must have exhausted all other options." Certainly it isn't because she's a friend, or resourceful or anything like that.
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"I am already aware of the communications blackout all teams are experiencing," he tells her. Of course he is. He made the magic mirrors they carry, Shepard is primed to expect his Patronus in an emergency, he's familiar enough with William's presence to find him in a heartbeat if he's anywhere the ship's interference will permit it. He's in this venture up to his neck.
"I cannot locate any of them."
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"It wasn't like this last mission," she says finally, voice quiet. "Nobody called to me for help. They left, the radios started getting shitty, but nobody panicked, and everyone came back." Well, Darcy panicked. But in other company, in a much less animated fashion, and she was distracted by things that were scarier. The it could always be worse scenario. She's worried that this is one of those now.
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Harsh, but realistic. Severus is of course concerned for them, but wringing his hands won't help.
"Kate's message will be filtered through the communications department to see if her transmission's point of origin can be found. We will further assess our options when that's done."
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But he's not, and Darcy is smart enough to realize that it helps. It helps a lot. But it also leaves her not knowing what to say, and so she nods, and stands there feeling dumb and awkward. Is she supposed to just turn on her heel and march back off to base now to catch up with the other liaisons?
No. What she does is reach out to wrap her arms around Severus' torso, side of her face pressed against his chest, in an embrace that's more serves to anchor her than it is anything terribly intimate. Apart from the fact that an embrace is by its very nature rather intimate. "I am really scared, and I don't know what to do but stand here useless. But you seem to know exactly what to do, even when there's nothing you can do. And all I want to do is cry, except I really don't want to start crying right now." All of this uttered in one breath, pace picking up all the way through, until the last few words are all kind of one compound one.
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at
is happening.
Suddenly Darcy is attached to his front. Severus freezes, arms raised - away from her, as if he's in danger of being sniped by some kind of anti-nerd-contact SWAT team hiding on a mountain ridge a hundred yards away and this is some kind of bizarroworld sting.
"It's fine," he says stiffly, and forces himself to lower one hand to her shoulder, which he pats it awkwardly.
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Or don't, because Darcy is perceptive enough to recognize that he's actually doing quite the opposite of what she would do if their roles were reversed, and so she's quick to extract herself again. If not quite swift enough. (Or never having begun at all?)
"I better go," she says. Making the decision to leave her own. Not that she thinks he'd make her leave, but she's actually starting to feel bad about inflicting herself upon him now, even above and beyond the hard knot of dread in her stomach. "Thanks. For... you know." Telling her to do something that actually makes sense, rather than screaming like a banshee in the hall and demanding miracles.
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"You should go to the communications center and see if anything else comes up," he tells her, evenly. "I can walk you down there if you like."
Severus sounds perfectly fine about doing that. Maybe Darcy will piece together that he doesn't like being touched without warning one of these days.
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"It's okay. I can get there myself." But then she pauses, uncertain. "I mean, unless you'd feel better walking me there." It's a little unfair to just flounce after that display, isn't it? What if he's actually concerned that she'll just go grab the next hapless person in her path/rolodex? "I know I'm kind of a mess, and I wouldn't be surprised if you don't feel like taking my word that I'll make it there in one piece, without a meltdown of some sort." That much is at least said with the lilt that accompanies her usual wit. She's poking fun at herself again, so she can't be too bad off, can she?
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Businesslike. Severus looks over his shoulder and motions at his office-- a book inside closes, then the door shuts. He pulls out his own communications device and sends someone a message before setting out, making sure the lab doors open for her and close behind them.
You can't escape, Darcy. Be careful what you wish for.
"You know that I'm a schoolteacher," he says-- not really a question, but like he's confirming with her before proceeding with something else.
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She watches with interest at the casual display of magic, craning her neck to catch a glimpse of the office before the door shuts, and she turns her attention back. "I think I may have overheard that," Darcy confirms. Her dismay about this situation is already on its way to being short-lived. As long as they manage to keep conversation up, maybe she'll manage to keep her mind from wandering too much. Hopefully. Fingers crossed.
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Severus walks briskly, keeping his comms device in hand. The situation is one, despite his desire to make sure Darcy is okay, that he knows he needs to monitor at all times now. Until it's settled - he needs to.
"My society is very small. There is only one all-wizarding village in the United Kingdom." For reference. "A war began when I was a child. It's only come to a stalemate in the last few years. This may be why I am less inclined to panic."
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"I watched aliens pour into New York City," not to one up, and she's assuming she at least has a passing knowledge of the existence of a major American city, "in an attempt to conquer the human race." On television, but still. That's as close as she needed to be, even if she and Jane should totally have been closer, thank you very much. "And I've helped fight back space elves who wanted to drag the entire universe into darkness." Not as effectively as her colleagues, but still. "But I didn't really panic then."
She frowns, and a realization dawns on her, quietly. "I guess I don't really get as freaked out when I feel like I can do something. That's why I signed up to help in the first place."
Realizing then that her tact may have left something to be desired, she darts a look over quickly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like the bit part I've played in the story of the near demises of my world is anything compared to what you went through on a daily basis. That had to be terrible." Especially if it's made him what she sees now.
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Tech things that Severus has no knowledge of. He's frustrated by his uselessness, but it can't be helped at this point. "I understand that being isolated here makes people feel anxious and helpless, but it's just a feeling."
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"Jane would know what to do. She's the smartest person I've ever met in my life. She's a genius." Her eyes sting, and she blinks a few times in rapid succession, but she manages to keep from getting too wrapped up in the sudden unexpected emotion, and avoids shedding tears. "It's the stupidest thing, but I thought she was at my pod when I woke up after the jump this time. You don't think I'm losing it, do you?"
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I thought she was at my pod when I woke up prompts him to think of his own feelings, and what Potter said, and Lupin's text before--
"Shit."
Severus stops walking.
He turns away from Darcy, wand in hand, and makes a graceful movement with it, saying "Expecto Patronum" quietly. Two silver deer appear through swirls of silver light. "Kate Bishop, Remus Lupin," he commands them, and immediately they both turn away and bound away, unhindered by physical constructs.
In the exact same direction. Completely in time with each other.
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"Whoa!" Darcy dances back a step as the deer appear like mercury ghosts, only to dart away - presumably in the direction that the two named can be found. "That was awesome! What did you just do?"
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Merlin fucking damnit. Severus does pace for a moment, back and forth in the hallway like a caged animal, before turning and setting off again towards the lifts. "Something is wrong." He pulls his communications device out and texts someone, frowning.
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Because, really. Really. He went from that pillar of calm, to something that resembles what she's actually feeling. Some of that comfort is starting to ebb away. "Of course something's wrong." That is literally the entire reason why they are even walking together right now. Literally. The entire reason.
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The doors open and Severus steps inside, waiting until Darcy's joined him before he hits the button for the correct floor. "But a dozen people have spoken to me about odd feelings at the jump and I have reason to believe someone not a part of a recon team has gone missing. Looking for someone who isn't here, I suspect."
Something occurs to him. He doesn't like it. Is Kate the sort of person who would want anyone to follow her down there? Or is something using her to lure them.
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She chews on the inside of her lip for a moment before gathering her thoughts enough to speak up again. "Do you think those transmissions were fake?" She doesn't, but she's willing to listen to the theory if he thinks it likely.
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"Perhaps not. But tampered with, or made under duress, I do believe." Kate sounded nothing like herself-- and in mere hours he will see more messages, and pick out the one repeating, uncanny line, and his belief will be solidified. "Something about Kate asking us to come to her - you and Claire, specifically - doesn't sit right with me."
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