Title: Just Another Day in Paradise
Author: Jadzibelle
Rating: Gen
Wordcount: 1276
“Wow,” Duke said, blinking.
“Is that-”
“Yeah,” he said, already reaching for his phone. “Yeah, that, that definitely is.”
“I- what- why-”
“It’s Haven,” Duke said, the words laden with too-familiar meaning. Because really, that was all the explanation anyone could really need. Or offer. The phone rang once, before Nathan’s familiar gruff growl- not as hostile as it would have been, even a few weeks ago- asked him what he needed. “Uh, hey, yeah. I’d like to report a body, you- may want to get down here. Now. You and Audrey. And, y’know. Whichever of your cops don’t ask too many questions.”
“...Tell me you didn’t-”
“Jesus, Nate, no, not those kinds of questions,” Duke replied, not sure if he should be irked or reassured- he’d thought they were past the whole ‘random accusations of murder’ thing, really, after the mess with Lester and the misunderstanding after what had happened to Geoff and the whole regrettable discussion after Hansen, but that had at least sounded less like a ‘do I get to arrest you’ and more like a ‘do I have to arrest you’, and those were very, very different questions in the complex balance that was their relationship. “Haven questions.”
Nathan sighed, and even over the phone Duke could tell just how much eyebrow he was putting into the scowl audible in the sound.
“Tell me where you are.”
“Down near- y’know what, off of the coast road, six miles south of town, just- drive until you see Evi, she’ll be waiting.”
“Oh, that’s fair,” Evi muttered, and Duke scowled at her.
“If you’d rather stay here with the body-” he started, because honestly, he’d be just as happy making the hike back to the road.
“No, no, I- you stay, I’ll walk back up,” Evi said, and Duke turned his attention back to his phone.
“Evi will be waiting,” he repeated, so that Nathan knew the matter was settled.
“We’ll be there in twenty,” Nathan said, and hung up.
“What is wrong with this town,” Evi commented, shaking her head. “And since when do you call things in?”
“Since shit like this started turning up on the beach,” Duke said, motioning, and he tilted his head back toward the road. “Be careful.”
“...Right,” Evi said, lips pursing, and Duke reconsidered the wisdom of sending her off on her own- but someone should stay there, and someone needed to flag Nathan down, and there were only the two of them. It sucked, but it would have to do.
And better to have Evi headed back toward the road than stationary and isolated.
Evi didn’t say anything else, just headed back up the trail, and Duke took a few steps back, trying not to step on anything that might be important for Nathan and Audrey to look at.
So much for taking a day off and doing something normal.
***
Nathan slowed when he spotted Evi, standing impatiently by the side of the road in a windbreaker and hiking boots; a quick check to make sure there wasn’t any oncoming traffic, and he swung around and parked on the shoulder.
Audrey was out of the truck before he was, greeting Evi with a polite and unconvincing smile.
“Evi,” she said, managing to make it sound like a greeting, “going to walk us back?”
“Oh, no,” Evi replied, shaking her head. “I think I’m just going to start heading back. Tell Duke I’ll wait for him at home-” Audrey tensed, just slightly, at that, and Nathan wasn’t sure he could blame her, “-and he can make it up to me then.”
“Sure,” Audrey said, her expression going carefully bland. “Just- what are we looking for, here?”
“Follow the left fork of the trail a mile and a half,” Evi said. “Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body.”
“Great. Thanks,” Audrey said, and Evi shook her head.
“Good luck,” she said, and she started back up the road.
Nathan circled around to Audrey’s side, and considered the path.
“Least it’s a nice day,” he observed, as Audrey frowned at the trail.
“Because you can tell?” she asked, the question a little sharp.
“Don’t need to,” he replied, a hint of reproach in his tone. “Small town small talk, heard how nice it is from six people so far.”
“...Right,” Audrey said, and she looked down, some of the tension in her shoulders shifting. “Sorry.”
“‘S fine,” he said, shrugging. Audrey got tense around Evi; Nathan didn’t exactly blame her. He wasn’t particularly impressed by her choosing to leave instead of at least waiting for them to send Duke back up- she’d sounded like she was taking this whole thing personally, and Nathan was at least pretty sure none of this was Duke’s fault.
Not that he had any intention of getting involved in Duke’s marital issues.
“C’mon,” he said, motioning to the trail. “Let’s just get this done.”
Audrey nodded, and started down the path; she glanced over at him after a moment, and tilted her head, expression pensive. “Do you really think he found-”
“I hope not,” Nathan said, but he doubted even Duke would make up something like this.
***
Duke was waiting, as promised, just past the bridge. He looked anxious, shifting from foot to foot, and he looked up as soon as he heard them coming- Audrey saw the moment he realized it was just the two of them, saw the alarm enter his expression, and she held up a hand before he could ask.
“Evi said she was going to head back into town,” she said, and Duke’s expression went pinched for an instant, before it leveled out into a marginally annoyed frown. “Said she’d meet you back at the Rouge. She’s fine.”
“Yeah, this- definitely wasn’t in the plan for today,” Duke said, shrugging, and Audrey paused deliberately, hesitating over a patch of uneven ground. It wasn’t actually difficult enough to really give her pause, but the moment of visible uncertainty was enough to make Duke reach out and offer a hand. She curled her fingers around his wrist and used him to aid her balance as she stepped closer, flicking a warm smile up at him as she did, and the furrow between his brows evened out.
“Never is,” Nathan grunted, taking a wider step and scowling at the path. “Where’s-”
“Right here,” Duke said, pushing a clump of branches back, and clearing the view, and Audrey felt her breath catch in her throat; a tingle of alarm and disbelief swept over her, and her hand went to her gun out of instinct.
“Wow,” she said, after a moment, and Nathan scowled more fiercely, stepping around her to get closer.
“Yeah,” Duke said. “Like I said... Haven questions.”
“You’re not kidding,” Audrey said, taking a cautious step forward in Nathan’s wake. “That’s-”
“Yeah,” Duke said.
“Had a report... two, three months back,” Nathan said. “Thought it was somebody seeing things- thought it might’a been Jackie’s Trouble.”
“This... is definitely not any kind of illusion,” Audrey said, pushing down the pang of distress that rose up at the reminder of what had happened with Jackie and Ian. “I, I can see this, so it’s got to be here.”
“We’re, we’re still thinking Trouble, though, right?” Duke asked, with a wide, uneasy smile. “This- somebody made it, or- or turned into it? We don’t actually- Bigfoot isn’t real, right?”
“...Right,” Audrey said, considering the hulking, furry figure sprawled inelegantly over almost ten feet of trail. It could almost have looked human- if not for the size, and the fur, and the strange shape to the hands and over-large feet. “Totally not real.”
“Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body.”
Nathan pushed on the breaks the moment he saw Duke standing near the bridge. Coming to a stop, he surveyed the surrounding area and couldn’t see anything. He wound the window down and sticked out his head. “Where is it then?”
“Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body,” Duke explained with wide gestures of his arms.
“You didn’t stay with it?”
“Hey, you asked me to help you find a body, not to babysit it. Believe it or not, I wasn’t too keen on sticking around a beheaded body.” Duke fumbled with his fingers and Nathan couldn’t help a little smirk despite the situation. For the fact that Duke had fired a gun on multiple occasions without even the slightest flinch, he was pretty squeamish when it came to dead bodies. “And it’s not like it would just jump up and run away, right?” Duke’s voice was dripped with sarcasm.
Nathan just sighed. Before he could explain the situation though, he was interrupted, “Don’t say you lost him again? He’s playing dead for the entire day. He’s smart.” Nathan closed his eyes, took a deep breath and reminded himself that he needed to stay calm.
“Who was that?” Duke wanted to know and stepped a little closer to the car. His eyes widened when he saw where the voice came from.
“Duke, meet Larry,” Nathan said and pointed to the seat next to himself. “The head to your body.” The really annoying head. Nathan had wished more than one time this day that their problem was reversed. That they had the body in custody and the head on the loose. It would definitely be a lot quieter in his car then. The head of Larry didn’t seem to get tired of pointing out every single mistake Nathan did. Over and over and over again.
“So you mean this body-?” Duke pointed across the river.
Nathan nodded. “Is still pretty much alive and on the run since this morning. We are trying to catch it.”
“So when you called me and said you needed help with searching for a body without a head, you meant a walking body without a head?”
Nathan nodded once more. “Exactly.”
Duke shook his head. “Would have been good to specify that, Nate.”
To be honest Nathan wasn’t so sure anymore what his exact words to Duke had been but he thought he had mentioned this particular detail. And if he hadn’t, it didn’t matter now. They still needed to find the body.
“Did I mention that I won the athletic tournament at high school every year? We really should get going.”
Nathan rolled his eyes at Larry’s annoying words. “You heard him, Duke. Hop in.”
“Hell no!” Duke tilted his head to be able to look past Nathan and watched Larry’s head suspiciously. “I’m not getting in a car with this thing.”
“Hey!” Larry protested instantly.
“Please, Duke.” The words were over his lips before Nathan even realized saying them. He didn’t plead, especially not in front of Duke. So he tried to play it down as fast as possible. A lot quieter as before he whispered, “He is driving me crazy. I could use some company at the moment. Even yours.”
Duke crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at Nathan with a piercing glance. It felt like hours until he finally answered, “Okay, let me in.” He gestured Nathan to get out of the car so he could climb into the back.
When he passed Nathan, he whispered, “You owe me something.”
Nathan smiled fondly. “You’ll get a drink tonight. Thanks!”
As soon as everyone was seated, Nathan started the car and drove in the direction of the bridge. Immediately Duke leaned forward to Nathan’s left side. “So, how does the body know where to go when it has no eyes?”
For the @havencrew prompt: “Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body.”
Set late in the series, in some kind of alternative timeline.
--
“Over the bridge, take a right, there's the body.”
Charlotte nodded an acknowledgement to Stan and grabbed her bag from the car. As she followed his directions she kept a lookout for Duke, who was hopefully waiting there for her. She checked her bag as she went; this would be the first major test of their theory that they could use aether for good, and she was nervous.
If it worked, Jess’s continued insistence that they regard the Troubles as powerful and useful magic would have paid off. If it didn't work? Well, then at best the Troubles would have claimed another body and they would be no further forward in their attempts to find a solution. At worst - well at worst, who knew? Anything could happen if she'd got it wrong.
It had been a good idea though and Charlotte had spent long hours talking to Jess, Duke and Audrey about it, followed by long hours in the lab trying to make it work. Nathan thought they were being reckless, he thought they were taking the theory too far and he was worried they would end up making things worse. She had to admit he had a point, but then he wasn't so worried that he was actually try to stop them, so maybe he thought she had a point too.
Her thoughts wandered as she walked along the path, and she found herself thinking about the relationships between the people she’d had those conversations with. She wasn't sure what to make of the four of them; Jess, Nathan, Audrey and Duke. Their relationship together was somehow indefinable, to her at least. Sometimes they seemed like four intersecting couples, sometimes they seemed like two overlapping triads; it was confusing. But they seemed to be happy so she left them to it.
She was glad she’d met Dwight, though he didn't like this idea they were about to try out either - he didn't think it was worth the risk. But she did, and so did Duke, and so here they were. And there was Duke, stood over a clearly dead man, glassy eyes staring up at the sky.
Charlotte handed Duke their first batch of processed aether. Hopefully, it was altered enough that he would be able to use it without putting himself at risk, but not altered so much that it had lost all of its power. Hopefully, the unaltered aether already in his blood would help him channel the power of the stuff she handed to him.
Duke looked at it for a moment before smearing it on his palm. It seemed to Charlotte that he was nervous too, but she didn't know what she could say that hadn't already been said many times before. He took a big breath in, closed his eyes, and pressed his hand to the dead man's chest.
Charlotte wasn't sure who was more surprised when the formerly dead body started breathing. A moment later the recent corpse sat up, startled. Charlotte tried to calm him and check him over. They walked him back over the bridge and Stan called for an ambulance - he seemed to be OK, but it made sense to get him checked out properly.
Then Charlotte and Duke stood and looked at each other, stunned. She fired a few questions at him, watching him closely to see if he really was unaffected. He seemed to be and she wasn't sure what good an ambulance would do him if he wasn't. They'd already agreed that she would take some more samples of his blood to check for any differences in the traces of aether she'd found before.
So there was more work to do, and she knew the others would have questions. But they could put this down as a good day. And if they could use some of the power of the aether to their benefit, then maybe they had a chance afterall.
“Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body.”
Our fics for the week are:
Haven Crew Fic #2, by @beyondtriumvirate
Duke Crocker, Nathan Wuornos, Duke x Nathan
HCW2- Body Drop, by @grey-haven
Dwight Hendrickson, McHugh, Gen, Grief/Grieving
What do you think the Troubles are?, by @cookiedoughmeagain
Charlotte Cross, Duke Crocker, Audrey x Duke x Jess x Nathan
Just Another Day in Paradise, by @fiore-della-valle
Audrey Parker, Duke Crocker, Evi Ryan, Nathan Wuornos, Duke x Evi
Remember: you can continue to post fics for this prompt to the fic tag, where they can be easily searched. The next prompt will post on Monday, May 1st, but the Roundup will be delayed until May 15th instead of the 8th, as your mod will be traveling the week of the 8th.
“Over the bridge, take a right, there’s the body.”
The tag:
hcw2bodydrop
Remember to use this tag within the first 5 tags on your fic post, so that we can find it for the Fic Roundup! Posts made within the first week will be included in the Roundup- after that, if you wish to post a response, please use the appropriate tag so that readers can search for it among similar stories.
For this prompt, please have responses posted by Monday, April 24th to be included in this Roundup!
