Sometime Around Midnight
This is a Kaitson Drabble set in the interim between S1 and the upcoming S2 of Think on Their Sins!
CW for: unspecified drugging of a character with intent to assault them and disorientation of drugged character
The lights flashed in every color of the rainbow, bouncing and arcing into the dark off of the sparkling bodies crowding the dance floor. Kaitlyn Jacobs swayed in time to the music in the middle of the throng, strands of her golden hair sticking to the sweat that rolled down the open back of the dark green couture dress Andrei had gifted her. The droplets rolled across the heat of her skin and trailed over the fingers of the other model whose hands had settled on her hips.
She had liked how tall he was. How long and gentle his fingers were. The dark curly mop of his hair. His bright blue eyes. His sharp smile. His deep throaty laugh.
Kaitlyn couldn't really remember the man's name. Honestly hadn't really cared to learn it and tossed it out of her memory banks as soon as he'd given it to her. She knew who she was pretending he was. It was pathetic and embarrassing that she was being like this, but Kaitlyn had gotten so good at compartmentalizing things, especially now that everyone at MI6 had been instructed to scatter to the winds. It was safer to stay apart. It was better not to think about him. He didn't think about her anyway.
…but a girl could dream, couldn't she?
Besides, why think about things beyond her control when Kaitlyn had a loud, overstimulating, raging party to wipe the entirety of her brain clean?
She had to admit that it was a bloody excellent after party. Everyone was riding high on the excitement of a show well received. People had really taken to Andrei's designs. He had received a standing ovation and Kaitlyn had noted a few more business cards being exchanged than at the last show. It was good to see him getting recognition after all they had been through in their lives.
Rafael had been a little salty that Andrei had gone somewhere other than Projeckt for the celebration, but she'd appreciated that Andrei had been insistent that Kaitlyn should be celebrating too, not put back to work.
And oh boy had she been celebrating. Somewhere distantly in the back of her brain Kaitlyn had some sort of tally of the amount of shots she had taken, the rounds of champagne she'd drunk. Everyone had been calling her name, congratulating her on being the star behind the star, wanting to lift a toast to the hometown hero. But when the faux-Jason pressed his lips to her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her waist to pull her closer, even that information fled into the ether.
"This whole thing is dying down. Let's get one more drink and get out of here, hmm?" He whispered, teeth brushing suggestively against her earlobe. "Have our own little party just the two of us."
A pain flashed through the girl's chest. It would be easy, to go with him. To pretend a little longer. To have one or two more drinks, tip herself over the edge and fully drown herself in the lie. But even though it was easy, even though it would maybe help plaster over the wound in her heart that even after all this time had yet to scab over—it still felt like one betrayal too far to go off in the night with his doppelganger.
"Hmmm, while that does sound lovely, darling, I have a shoot in the morning. Perhaps another time." She turned in his arms, wrapping her own around his neck and smiling sweetly. "I will take that drink, though. One last nightcap before we say our goodbyes for the night, eh?" Kaitlyn pressed a kiss to his cheek and pulled away. "I'll have another Campari spritz. Just need to use the ladies and I'll be right back."
Kaitlyn took a deep breath or two as she walked from the dance floor and went to grab her purse from the table where Andrei sat with some other models.
"Ah, I see you and Jayce are getting along pretty well…" Andrei grinned up at her. "I had a suspicion you would. You're very particular about your type, Fi."
She snorted once. Of fucking course his name was Jayce. She was a goddamned walking caricature. Come see the girl who has never been able to get over an unattainable crush!
"Yea, well, he's barking up the wrong tree, Drei. He's pretty to look at and a great dancer but I'm not interested."
"Oh, has mister tall, dark, and brooding finally opened his eyes to see who's in front of him?"
"What? No, Andrei! I—I don't even know what or who you're talking about!"
Andrei threw his head back and laughed. "Okay, whatever you want to say, babe. I saw you with him at Projeckt that night and I've seen you in the throes of a crush before. You're real sunk." He clicked his tongue as Kaitlyn opened her mouth to argue further. "Come on, you at least have to admit that your choices for boy-toys have had a pretty narrow range in the last few years! Even I can see they all look like—"
"All look like what?" Jayce said with a smile, holding two tall glasses filled to the brim with a Campari spritz that glowed a bright neon orange under the blacklight. He held one out to Kaitlyn and tilted his head to the side. "I will be crushed if the next words weren't going to be devastatingly handsome."
Kaitlyn smiled sheepishly and took the glass from his hand, tipping it back with a practiced air and pouring half the bitter liquid down her throat in one fell sweep.
"Of course. Our dear Ffion is quite the fancy lady, didn't you know? She has terribly high standards." Andrei said with a quirk of his eyebrow. It was still truly shocking that somehow the trigger-happy agents of MI6 were less troublesome than a group of fashion models.
At that Kaitlyn drained the rest of the glass and set it down with a definitive clink before smiling at the assembly in front of her.
"And as the duchess of this ragamuffin crew, I am certainly off for bed. As I stated before I became the hot topic of discussion, I have an early morning shoot and at least 80% of all this is the product of always getting enough beauty sleep."
Jayce's gaze flickered from the table to Kaitlyn and back again. With one fluid move he grabbed a leather jacket from the booth and tossed it over his shoulder, putting his hand on the small of Kaitlyn's back. "Well then let me escort you out to a cab, then, my lady. Make sure you get home safe."
She stiffened for a minute at the touch. She supposed this was maybe his way of flirting. Maybe he really was just going to make sure she got in a cab and maybe he was making sure she'd take his number or something.
Kaitlyn gave another strained smile, took a moment to say her goodbyes and assurances to contact them all about the photo shoot next week, collected her clutch, and allowed Jayce to gently push her forward. Her brow furrowed a little as his hand slipped from her back to grip her hip. Hadn't she told Jayce she had an early morning tomorrow and that she wasn't going home with him? What was he up to here?
Whatever. I'm sure he's harmless.
But moments after that thought crossed her mind, suddenly…
And without even the fucking courtesy of a warning…
The world tilted on its head.
Kaitlyn threw a hand out to steady herself against the hallway wall but couldn't quite reach it. She stumbled over her own feet and distantly felt Jayce pulling her bruisingly closer and saying… something? About models and their stilettos? And dragged her out the front door of the club and past the bouncer towards the line of…. taxis??
Everything sounded muffled like she had suddenly been plunged into a deep dark well.
Her vision was blurry. Her hands were sweaty. Her heart was pounding double-time against her ribcage.
Something was very, very wrong.
"Ah, yeah, mate. These models, right? So skinny, they can barely hold their liquor. Yea, gonna get her home safe, I promise."
No—No, I said I wasn't going with you…
But Kaitlyn couldn't get her mouth to form the words. Her tongue felt like sand in her mouth and it was hard to even bring the thoughts to the surface of her mind.
Oh God… Oh God, the fucking drink. No… No no no…
She fumbled at her clutch, attempting to open it as some far-off part of her mind felt the man's hand push underneath the open back of her dress, trailing over her sticky-cold-hot skin to brush against her breast. Kaitlyn couldn't even manage to let out more than a small sad whine which only elicited a laugh from the prick.
I have to get out of here I have to get out of here I am in danger I don't know where to go where can I even go oh god what do i do fuck fuck fuck
Finally she got the clutch open and managed to circle her fingers around the handle of the small silencer pistol MI6 issued to every quartermaster—just in case.
"Get the fuck-k away from me…" She garbled, dropping the clutch to the ground and training the gun on Jayce as he let her go for just a moment to open a cab door. "Don't… Don't fuckin' bloody touch me…" Her hands trembled where they both wrapped around the handle of the gun and it was hard to focus on the bastard in front of her but she was determined enough to do what needed to be done if she had to.
"Woah! Woah, easy now duchess. You're drunk, I'm trying to help you. Just get in the cab. Come with me. I'll get you home safe. You like me. You asked me to get you home."
"I never fuckin' said that. I didn't—fuck…" A wave of nausea came over her and Kaitlyn grimaced. She didn't have time for this.
Kaitlyn very slowly slipped out of her heels and shakily grabbed the cell phone out of her clutch, trying her best to keep the gun pointed straight.
"Come on Ffion… I see how you look at me. You've been eye-fucking me since we met. Don't be a fucking bitch and chicken out now. Get in the fucking cab."
Now, Kaitlyn had never been the best shot of MI6, but it didn't really matter in the moment. Something angry flared behind the woman's eyes and she tilted the pistol downward and fired. She had been planning on taking out his kneecap but with the drugs coursing through her system, Kaitlyn's aim wasn't the greatest.
Unfortunately for Jayce this meant she took out a slightly more prized portion of his anatomy.
"FUCK! YOU FUCKING GODDAMN CUNT BITCH!"
Kaitlyn didn't wait around to see what the bastard was going to do next. She took off barefoot down the street with no real clue of where even she was heading as long as it wasn't here.
"Okay okay okay. Focus, Fi. Focus. What cross streets are we on? Where can we go?" She muttered under her breath, trying to keep the words going, her mind working as she felt her limbs get heavier and heavier.
The ice and snow bit at the soles of her feet. The cold wind chafed at her cheeks, burning the sweat pouring off of her in rivers. She couldn't do this for much longer. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as she ran, trying her best to read the street signs but feeling more and more panic rising within her.
"Oh god… Oh jesus fuck… Fuck what am I gonna do… I'm so fucking scared… Fuck… how did I let this happen I was so stupid I didn't even know him that well he just looked like Jason and I was blind and stupid and just….. fuck!!!"
Yet, even as Kaitlyn muttered more and more obscenities at herself under her breath, a street sign caught on her memory. She paused in front of it, swaying slightly on unsteady feet. This was Jason's street. Her eyes focused along the row of townhouses and for a moment or two had a very dangerous thought.
Quartermasters weren't really supposed to know exactly where their 00 Agents lived. M and Bill kept that information fairly close-lipped. It was for their safety, of course, and Kaitlyn knew that. It was best if one found themselves in an interrogation to have no way to provide such details even if you very very much wanted to. But Q knew a lot of pathways to get to information that weren't technically against policy and even he kept the address of Marcie and Jackie's flat in his back pocket in case of emergencies.
And this situation was certainly escalating very quickly towards emergency.
Kaitlyn dashed down the street, counting house numbers under her breath, looking in windows for lights on as she prayed to a god she hadn't believed in since the death of her parents that Jason was actually home.
A small cry of relief fell from her lips as she pulled herself up the steps of 414 Talbot Road and saw a single light shining in the window and the sound of violin wafting from inside.
"Jason? Jason, please…" She croaked as she pounded on the door with the butt of the gun.
It felt like hours, like days, like a millennia that Kaitlyn stood there, head spinning in ever-narrowing circles as adrenaline leaked out of the soles of her feet and Jason didn't appear.
"God, Jason, please… Please let me in… Please, Jason, I need you… I'm just… I'm so scared…"
"K? What in the devil are you doing here—"
She barely had a second to sob before Jason did what he did best and immediately assessed the situation fully with nothing more than a single look. It was always so goddamn infuriating when on a mission together but for once it was a relief to not have to explain herself to him.
Jason's touch was gentle as he unwrapped her fingers from their vice-like grip around her pistol and drew her over the threshold of his home. She didn't even have a chance for her heart to flutter at the way his brow furrowed in what Kaitlyn later told herself to be barely contained anger while the hand not holding hers brushed against her sweat-drenched face and hair.
"What happened, Ffion? Tell me everything you can remember."
"I don't… I don't know…" She sighed, leaning against his touch, into his supporting arms as her body became more and more leaden. It was getting hard to stay upright. To keep her eyes open. "It was an after party… For the fashion show… I wish you could have gone… I looked so goddamn sexy… You would have lost your mind…"
"K, you are always beautiful. I don't need to attend a fashion show to know that. Your features are very attractively symmetrical."
His voice was a calm, cool stream she followed further into the rooms of the townhouse. Kaitlyn wished she could lie in it for hours. It seemed so nice and soothing. Perhaps he'd let her stay forever. Unlikely since he disliked her immensely, but wait, wasn't he asking something of her?
"Don't be dull, K. Stay with me." Jason laid her very carefully upon a plush velvet couch. It was impeccably posh. Who did his decorating? They had a dreadfully keen eye. "Come now… What happened at the party? Who was there with you?"
Kaitlyn's head felt like it was moving through jelly as she turned to look into the bright blue eyes that haunted her daydreams. A bright but sad smile traced its way across her lips as she used all of her energy to place a hand gently on his cheek, brushing her thumb back and forth against his cheekbone.
"Oh, Andrei was there, some of the girls… I danced with Jayce most of the night, though."
Kaitlyn hardly even registered that Jason was still holding her free hand or the way that the other ever so slightly clenched in the fabric of his robe.
"Jayce?"
"Mmhm…. He looks just like you, you know… I thought it was a bad cosmic joke on me at first, but I guess it was a good karmic punishment instead." Her eyes began to well up with tears again, her face crumpling as she pulled her hands from Jason's grasp to wrap around her waist.
"Um… Jayce wanted me to go home with him…" She whispered through a choked throat, concentrating hard on remembering and telling Jason what had happened. "I didn't want to, and I tried to be nice. I said I had a shoot in the morning and I wanted to be rested. I—I said I would have one last drink with him, though, and left to get my purse—"
Jason stood quickly from the place where he had been kneeling next to her and began to pace back and forth along the rug. "And you drank what he handed you without thinking twice?!"
Kaitlyn felt her blood running cold and boiling hot at the same time as righteous anger blazed its way through her heart. "I know it was stupid of me, Jason, you don't need to rub it in my face! It was a party with people I knew. I thought it was safe. I was wrong. I don't need you to lecture me. You don't have that kind of standing in my life. You're not my boyfriend, you're barely even my friend most of the time."
"I'm not—!" He took a deep breath and went back to sit beside her and took one of her hands once more. "I—apologize." Now it was Kaitlyn's turn for her brow to furrow. She could not remember the last time he had said those words to anyone, let alone her of all people. "You are correct. None of this is your fault, and I am not trying to lecture you, K. I am simply… attempting to collect the facts."
He stood once more and shrugged out of his robe. Jason paused for a moment seeming to make a choice of his own, before placing it gently over Kaitlyn's shoulders, wrapping her in his comforting scent.
"Now, if you are feeling up to it… What can you tell me about how you felt after consuming the drink?"
Kaitlyn, buoyed by the warmth of his robe surrounding her and the strange prize of receiving an actual apology from Jason Walters of all people, went on to recount for him the remainder harrowing journey that led her to his door that night.
At one point Jason had brought out tea for the two of them, pressing a cup into her hands and saying something about an herbal remedy that would help alleviate the worst of the drug's symptoms until she felt well enough to see a doctor in the morning for a full examination.
"And you are certain that this… Jayce did not take any… uh, liberties with you?" He asked casually and carefully, his gaze flickering over Kaitlyn's face with something oddly like concern.
She nodded slowly, considering the question as she stirred the honey into her tea and watched it dissolve. "He… tried. I wasn't fully in my faculties but luckily our MI6 training was good for something. I managed to mostly keep my wits about me and he did not get much further than being… overly handsy." Kaitlyn lifted the teacup to her lips and took a long sip before continuing.
"Plus, I mean, I also did shoot his dick off before he got me alone anywhere, so that certainly helped."
Jason snorted into his own teacup and leaned his head towards Kaitlyn as a small bow of 'well played.' If she was not very careful, Kaitlyn wondered if one could become too giddy over the amount of compliments one received. Instead, the two of them sat in companionable silence for a while, sipping on their tea as Kaitlyn slowly began to feel herself settle back into her body.
"One thing I still have not quite been able to deduce, K." Jason said after some time, setting down his teacup and looking directly in her eyes. "Why did you come here of all places? You could have gone to an urgent care centre and they would have been able to help you far better than I…"
Kaitlyn felt a flush came over her face as she looked down at the teacup, tracing the handle with a finger and lifting it most of the way to her mouth before speaking.
"I was terrified, Jason. I was so certain I was going to die frozen on the streets. And in that moment, when I was trying to decide who I needed by my side, who I trusted more than anyone else…" She took a sip of tea and shrugged her shoulders. "You were the only person I wanted."
@quillington / @margueritedemarigny
