@taste0fdreams prompted: Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP: sonyarriet Detective AU + Innocent Physical Contact
omg PLEASE i love this! Okay, so.
Harriet’s had a long fucking day. Two prospective clients have turned her down and taken their cases - and more importantly, their money - elsewhere; the lead she’s been following for a week on the Gurtzman case has just turned out to be a dud; and to top it all off, the coffee machine in the office has finally given up the ghost after a decade of faithful service, so she’s not even properly caffeinated. It’s bullshit.
Suffice to say, she’s not excited to hear the soft knocking at the door to her office just as she’s about to call it quits for the day. Frowning, Harriet dumps her half-packed satchel back to the floor under her desk and glances at her phone. She doesn’t have any appointments scheduled and none of her contacts have pinged her.The knocking is a mystery and just this once, Harriet would like something to be straightforward.
She bites back a sigh. “Come in!”
The door opens and a woman walks in; she can’t be much younger than Harriet herself. Her footsteps are soft as she approaches the desk and her brown eyes are wide with apprehension. Harriet belatedly realizes she’s still frowning and hastily schools her expression into something more neutral.
The woman peers at her, sweeping her gaze up and down as if taking stock. A small part of Harriet’s brain hopes she likes what she sees; she ignores it. There’s a beat of silence while the woman appears to steel herself. Then, she speaks.
“You’re Harriet Rhodes?” Her voice is clear and level. She’s meeting Harriet’s gaze head on.
“Only if you have good news,” Harriet mutters under her breath as she makes a show of rearranging the papers on her desk. Louder, she says, “Depends who’s asking.”
The woman lifts her chin slightly. “Detective Rhodes, my name is Sonya Brouer. I might have a case for you. Something big.”
Harriet wants to laugh. “You’re going to have to be a little more original and a lot more specific than that.”
“Sorry.” Sonya shakes her head, having the grace to look slightly abashed. A wisp of blonde hair has escaped her ponytail and bobs around her head while she talks. “I guess you’ve heard that one before.”
“Only countless times,” Harriet agrees but there’s no heat to her words and the woman’s lips curl in a small smile.
She starts again. “You’ve heard of WCKD? The research group?”
Harriet nods. It’s hard to avoid heard about the world’s biggest up and coming private lab, not when it’s at the forefront of medical and pharmaceutical technology and when it gets no bad press. Ever. Harriet makes it her business to familiarize herself with the ebb and flow of public opinion and where WCKD is concerned, there is nothing but praise. To the average consumer, that means it’s a trusted company. To Harriet, that means there’s a lot being swept under the rug.
Still, she’s wary. It’s not the first time she’s been sold a big case only to end up living off of canned tuna for weeks when it turns out to be nothing more than a conspiracy theory.
“I’m a detective, not a journalist. What about them?”
“They have my brother. They’ve taken him.”
Harriet keeps her face carefully neutral while she listens to Sonya’s story. It’s not the hand-wringing over animal testing or unethical work practices she was expecting; although, she reasons, that could also be going on in WCKD along with the kidnapping ring Sonya is convinced is a mainstay of their operation. It goes something like this: Sonya and her twin brother Newt grow up together in a small town called Glade. They move to the city, room together and then separately. Sonya is on her way to meet Newt for their weekly lunch date when she gets a garbled text from him: more a keysmash of random letters than anything coherent. Newt doesn’t show up for lunch; his phone is off; he’s not at his apartment and his work hasn’t seen him since he clocked out.
That was a week ago. Since then, Sonya has looked for Newt everywhere. His apartment is vacant but untouched, as though he’d gotten ready for work and neglected to return. She’s over there daily feeding his cat, Snowball. The only thing she has to go on is the last text he sent her: wckd.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how long a shot this is,” Harriet says when Sonya sits back, posture deflated as if the fight has gone out of her. “Everything you’re postulating hinges on this text, and we don’t even know if it was Newt who sent it, or what it truly means. For all we know, he could be -”
“He’s not dead,” Sonya snaps, and for the first time there’s a spark in her eyes, something sharp and dangerous. It fades as quickly as it came. “I’d know.”
“Okay,” Harriet does not have any siblings. She’ll have to take this woman’s word. She says the next words almost on autopilot, and later, will look back on them in mild horror. “I can’t promise anything, but I can have a cursory look into it. If you meet me here at 10am tomorrow, we can go over my retainer and fees.”
“Thank you,” Sonya’s eyes shine with gratefulness and Harriet thanks whatever gods may be listening for her dark skin, easier to hide the rush of blood to her cheeks.
“Don’t expect miracles,” she warns. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” Sonya agrees and reaches out a hand to shake Harriet’s. Her palm is soft and warm against Harriet’s skin and she can’t quite help the way her heart speeds up in her chest. As the door closes behind Sonya, Harriet rubs her hand self-consciously on her arm. So much for straightforward.