Jan 06, 2009 16:02
What a singularly delightful evening he'd had. It was dampened, of course, by two things, but those were small things and he supposed he could overlook them for now. First was that his powers had still not returned. If he truly were on punishment as he thought, though, he couldn't very well expect those to come back. Second was that the little
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methos,
s.t.,
meche,
kagura,
edward elric,
batman,
tsubaki,
kaiji,
anise,
skuld,
teisel,
melissa,
blitzwing,
tony castaway,
ken amada,
wolfram,
indiana jones,
kaku,
allen,
seiya,
demyx,
matsuda,
zex,
zelnick,
shinichi,
hikaru,
lugnut,
brainiac 5,
mikami,
the flash,
subzero,
xellos,
usopp,
eileen,
yohji,
elena (ffvii),
akihiko,
fwiffo,
yuffie,
fox,
sync,
ayumu,
honey,
farfarello,
shiki,
masaru,
yukari,
tyki,
kratos,
haseo,
rubedo,
citan,
tony stark,
shito,
homura,
senna,
adelheid,
siegfried,
kaito,
hanatarou,
chidori,
sora,
evangeline,
luffy,
renamon,
claude,
keman,
kristoph,
haruno sakura,
superboy,
hokuto,
edgeworth,
zexion,
joshua,
javert,
harry osborn,
dean winchester,
hughes,
grell,
ren,
hanekoma,
argilla,
guy,
kvothe,
kio,
armand,
hinamori momo,
mitsuru,
depth charge,
reid,
claus,
soubi,
vlad,
allelujah,
wesker,
frey,
valyn,
tokito,
fai,
captain america,
leon magnus,
sheena,
yue,
schuldig,
sasuke,
aidou,
beatrix,
falis,
ophelia,
rangiku,
gin,
scar (tlk),
subaru,
sanzo
Easing himself upright Harry glanced across to the other bed where Forte appeared to be still asleep. Glaring irritably at the cast on his arm he fidgeted impatiently. He couldn't even sketch or do anything really to entertain himself while he waited for breakfast.
After who knew how long trying and failing to find a position that didn't send pain shooting up his leg, a nurse finally came to check on them. Smiling cheerfully when she saw he was awake, she spent a few minutes fussing over the dressings on his leg and shoulder. Satisfied that everything there was fine she proceeded to elevate herself several levels in his eyes when she then produced a couple of painkillers for him.
Quickly accepting the pills Harry grimaced as he was forced to swallow them dry but it was better than nothing. Still speaking in a hushed tone the nurse said, “Just wait a minute while I go fetch a wheelchair for you.”
That was not a humiliation he was prepared to suffer twice. Harry quickly reached out and caught her arm before she could leave. “That's not necessary. I feel much better now, I'm sure I could manage on crutches.” He didn't expect her to buy that. It didn't make sense for anyone to be feeling better already considering the extent of his injuries.
“I don't know.” She hesitated, watching him carefully. “Well, alright. I'll let you give it a try Mr Osborn, but if you have too much trouble let me know and we'll get you a chair again, OK?” Nodding decisively she turned and bustled out of the room.
Harry was left sitting there, feeling more than a little off balance. That had been way too easy. There was no way she'd bought his excuse that easily. But a few moments later the nurse returned carrying a crutch for him. Taking it from her, Harry eased forward on the bed watching the nurse all the while. She might be expecting him to fall on his face so she could laugh and then stick him back in a chair.
Determinedly getting to his feet and wincing as he accidentally put weight on his injured leg, Harry stood and glared defiantly at the nurse. All she did was smile say, “All right Mr Osborn?” And led him out into the hallway. It wasn't worth thinking too much about so Harry limped slowly along after her.
The cafeteria was rapidly filling up as he entered. Following the nurse to the serving bench where he had a healthy breakfast of eggs, fruit and dry toast put on his tray with a complete disregard for anything he actually asked for, Harry tried to locate Logan within the room. No sign of him again. He was beginning to doubt that that had really been the other man on the bulletin board yesterday.
When he tried to get the nurse to set his tray down at an empty table she decided to drop herself back down to a complete waste of space. "You spend too much time alone Mr Osborn, it's not good for you. You need to learn to make friends."
Looking around the room she led him over to an occupied table and plonked his tray down across from the occupant. Apparently satisfied with ruining his morning she bustled happily off leaving him stuck there if he wanted to actually eat this morning.
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Harry eased himself down onto the seat and arranged the crutch beside him. The nurse hadn't been quite stupid enough to get him food that needed two hands to eat but it was still going to be awkward. More to the point he'd rather not humiliate himself in front of a stranger by trying.
Ignoring his meal for now Harry glanced across at his companion. "Hey, I'm Harry." He didn't think he'd seen this guy around before but that didn't mean much, the only people he did see were the ones he didn't want to.
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"Brian," Dean said, an eyebrow raised despite his own injuries. "Rough night?"
The second thing he'd noticed besides the kid's limp was his face: one half of it was heavily scarred, like he'd gone sticking his head into a fire. Whatever happened, it was mostly healed over. He wondered if it'd happened here or somewhere else. He didn't look away from Two-Face's scar, like he'd been caught red-handed, instead looking him in the eyes: sucked to be him, but Dean had seen a lot worse shit in his life happen to people and he'd been years past the point of being shocked anymore.
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Scowling Harry snarled at the other man "What the hell are you staring at?" Stupid, stupid way to phrase it. He knew exactly what Brian found so morbidly fascinating. Most people here had either been too polite to stare at his face or were more tactful about it, like Claire. Back in New York after the fight with Peter, he'd managed to avoid almost everyone except his staff, who'd known enough to avoid being caught staring. But he hated to think what it would've been like if he had been seen out in public. The rumour-mill would've had even more fun with that than they did after the scene he made slapping Peter at that party.
Worst thing was, there was no way he could get away from Brian either. Walking was difficult enough that he didn't want to try unless he had to. And moving his tray would be impossible with his arm broken so he really was stuck.
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Obviously it was a sore subject. He would've been surprised if it wasn't, but Dean wasn't known for being the most tactful of people and while he was hardly crossed out by one scar - whether it was on Harry's face or somewhere else - he wasn't really in the mood to get bitched at. Dean speared one of the pigs in a blanket, chewing on it as he regarded Harry: so far he hadn't been able to figure out the pattern, if there was one, of who got selected for Landels. Obviously demons had something to do with it, but if they were picking people, they were doing it randomly. As far as he could tell, he had nothing in common with Two-Face here aside from both of them being unlucky bastards.
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Looking back down at his tray Harry grabbed one of the pieces of fruit and began to eat determined to ignore his companion. Hopefully Brian would get the hint and shut up, he wasn't in the mood for this. Unfortunately he was being watched again. Great. "What is it?" He asked with a sigh.
It suddenly occured to him to wonder if Brian could have recognised him? According to Peter he was supposed to be dead. Harry hadn't thought about it before, no one besides Logan had recognised him or his family's name but it was possible there were people here who knew he'd died. Brian hadn't acted like Harry was at all familiar but- No, now he was being paranoid. The guy was still just put off by seeing the effects of a grenade on a human.
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"Nothin'," Dean said. It just now occurred to him he should probably back off and apologize, although honestly, he didn't think he'd done anything worth apologizing for. "Look, man, sorry. Shitty conversation starter. I'm new," he added, falling back on the whole tried and true newbie excuse. "Still adjusting."
He told himself to try to act like he really cared more, like Sam: that kind of thing came naturally to his little brother, but obviously it wasn't up his alley because if it wasn't this job, it was the next, and it was impossible to invest yourself in every single person you met. Dean needed to work on that, he guessed. If he was gonna get around and get some info from the other unlucky bastards here, he'd need to start investing himself. Dean popped the rest of his pig in a blanket into his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully - it was loads better than some of the dives he'd had to eat in and this was the guy with the iron stomach talkin'. If there was anything he should be thankful for, at least he'd gotten kidnapped to a place that didn't have crappy food.
Dean took a swig of his water, taking a second to figure out a different way to approach Harry. "Is it normal for the nurses to patch us up every night?" he asked, nodded at the bandages on his arms.
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"It's-" Not fine. It was nowhere near being fine but that wasn't Brian's fault. Besides he was apparently new but had already managed to get himself pretty beat up. "I'm not used to people staring."
That sounded pathetic but it was true. The part of him that did it's best to sound like his father when Norman wasn't around himself told him that he should thank Brian, he was going to have to get used to being stared at eventually. Ignoring that cheerful prospect he watched Brian continue to eat, at least someone was enjoying themselves. Harry should follow suit but he couldn't be bothered to do more than pick at the meal right now.
His temper hadn't dissuaded Brian from making conversation. That was a good thing Harry reminded himself. With Peter missing (and still keeping secrets) and maybe Logan gone too he needed someone he could rely on for back up until he was back on his feet. And that wasn't going to happen if he argued with everyone he met.
"As far as I can tell it is. They never say anything, no matter what happens. I can't tell if they're in on it or just really well paid and playing dumb." Maybe they were supposed to be grateful for the help - Harry himself wouldn't be alive now if they hadn't patched him up - but it just felt like they were being mocked.
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Dean focused on this new information. He'd been wondering about that, too, the fact that Hello Nurse didn't seem too surprised that her "charge" was waking up with new injuries. Okay, so he hadn't asked her point-blank about it, but her silence spoke for itself.
"Just a matter of gettin' them to talk," Dean said with a lop-sided grin. It was amazing what you'd blurt out when someone got down on you and he was pretty sure he could coax something out of Hello Nurse sooner or later. Assuming, of course, she wasn't some kind of demon. Which...would be awkward. Hell, he was pretty open about just about anything, but he drew the line at gross demon sex. No friggen' thanks.
He paused and then, thinking about what he'd posted about on the bulletin board, leaned forward, all humor dropped. His face was dead serious.
"By the way, you haven't seen a really tall young guy around? About six four?" he asked, raising a hand so that it was over his head. "Brown hair, brown eyes."
He didn't have much hope Harry saw anything - not to be a dick, but he'd probably see even less with that crapped-out eye - but it couldn't hurt to ask around anyway. If Sammy was here, someone would've seen him at some point.
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"And I'm not sure the staff are even around at night." He might have read something on the bulletin board that said they were but Harry himself had never seen any of the staff about after dark so he couldn't say.
Harry eyed Brian warily as he suddenly went serious. He wasn't interested in getting involved with someone else's problems, he had enough of his own right now. But he could still answer the question. It wasn't as if anyone was going to be asking him to help look for someone, except for by keeping an eye out for them. Of course Norman had to choose that moment to speak up and point out that that was all Harry could do. It wasn't like one eye was much use any more, which was entirely his fault for screwing up the formula on the performance enhancer. Norman had designed it to assist the body's capacity to heal and it should have had no problems with something so minor. Harry always managed to screw up even the most basic of tasks.
Fists clenched against the edge of the table, Harry forced his attention back to his current (living) companion. "No, I haven't seen anyone like that. Is he a friend of yours?" If he was it was a safe bet he was important to Brian, the way he was acting. He wasn't going to like what Harry had to say next.
"If he was here he might not be any more. I don't know what happens but sometimes people just disappear. A... friend of mine vanished just a few days ago." Had it really been so little time since he last saw Peter? It felt like so much longer. It was amazing how fast he could go from being certain his friend was really being honest with him for once to wondering just how many more secrets Peter had been keeping from him.
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Dean didn't feel much better when Harry confirmed what he'd suspected, closing his eyes for a second and trying to keep his cool. Once was shitty enough but twice? A guy could only go through this so many times before he flipped; Dean was pretty sure he was well-past that point but somehow he kept going. People here pulled vanishing acts too, just like all those "special" people when Yellow-Eyes was nabbing them off streets and out of diners. Dean's expression softened just a little: he knew what it felt like to be in Harry's shoes (except for the whole Two-Face thing, but aside from that) and how it killed you not to know where that someone went, other than knowing they'd up and vanished into thin air. But if he went missing like Sammy had, then there should've been signs that bastard Yellow-Eyes had come knocking: probably a lot of dead bodies and some sulfur, for starters.
"My friend disappeared before this, once," Dean said, not really wanting to get too specific but knowing he'd have to give Harry something if he was gonna get anything back. "I was in the car waiting for him in the parking lot. Look away for two seconds and when I looked up again, he wasn't in the diner anymore. When I went inside, everyone was dead and there was this weird yellow powder-stuff all over the place. Smelled like rotten eggs. Don't suppose you saw anything like that?"
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Whatever had happened there was nothing he could do and as Norman reminded him, he wouldn't get anywhere if he continued to let himself get caught up in every sad little sob story he heard. He still wished he could say something reassuring, especially when it came to talking about Peter's disappearance.
"I wasn't with Peter when he disappeared. I don't know if anyone was." But people just vanishing from crowded rooms leaving everyone else dead didn't sound like the sort of thing that would be kept quiet. Surely if something like that happened someone would've talked or people would have been looking for their friends who died. Even the head doctor wouldn't be able to stop people noticing a group all disappearing at once. "But I think someone would've mentioned finding a pile of corpses."
It had to be the strangest story he'd heard so far - why piles of bodies and rotten egg smell? Then there was the part about this friend having vanished without any explanation before. For all he knew that was what happened when people were kidnapped for this place but you'd think someone would start to notice. "How'd you get him back?" Unless Brian had been looking for him when he was brought here.
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Harry was right about one thing, Dean thought as he pushed his plate away from him. If Peter vanished like Sam, eventually someone would've noticed...unless he was alone when he was taken and then there might not even be bodies to discover within a few messy, smelly days.
"My friend?" Dean repeated. His eyes flicked up to fix on Harry and while he had on a sardonic smile and a casual shrug, the look in his eyes was haunted. Things were fixed, but it was something he'd knew he'd be having nightmares about...for whatever remained of his year, at least. "Another friend of mine tracked him down," he didn't mention he'd gotten whammied with some weird psychic vision about a bell with a tree on it, "and we found him in this town out in the middle of nowhere."
Only to see him get stabbed right in front of him, not even within a minute of finding Sammy again. Dean could feel that sick feeling making itself an ugly knot in his stomach; suddenly polishing off his plate didn't seem like a good idea as breakfast churned in protest. He didn't think telling Harry all this was going to much matter, but getting a tiny bit of it off his chest - it was nowhere near the real story - made him feel a little, not much, better. Dean occupied himself with downing his glass of water, finding himself wishing it was whiskey or something with kick.
"Anyway, I was in the car with him after we got back and then I woke up here," Dean said lightly, waving his hand dismissively. "I thought the same thing might've happened to us with the whole magic-disappearin' act."
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He was understandably skeptical about the sequence of events. If it weren't for the mention of people suddenly dying he might think it was a prank or a normal kidnapping but everyone in the building being killed just didn't make any sense. And Brian had said he was waiting out the front of the building so whatever killed them had to have done so very quickly and quietly to prevent Brian from noticing and anyone from escaping.
"Did you find out what the hell happened? It could be related. Makes about as much sense as anything else as far as I can tell." It was possible Brian was just plain crazy and his story was so much bull. But in his experience when your best friend since high school turns out to be a spider-power costumed vigilante and you end up fighting a huge sand creature and a guy possessed by some sort of alien, well the definition of crazy became a lot more complicated. Hell, even if he was crazy it didn't automatically mean Brian was making things up.
He missed the days when things had been simple. When it had been him and Peter just trying to get through school without flunking or getting beaten up. Now he was trying to figure out whether he should ask if Brian's friend could have been involved in his own disappearance (Harry's best friend had thrown a grenade at his face, it seemed entirely possible) while ignoring his father's presence.
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"I'm workin' on that," was all Dean would say, all cocky smiles. Even if he was stuck in a place he thought might be the same thing's piece of work, he needed to be more sure before he started gossiping like a chick about the hunting business. "That's why I'm askin' around, seein' if anyone else had the same signs like the diner."
Whoever Harry was, he was no hunter - Dean could see, even beat to hell as he was, that the guy could probably handle things from just the way he held himself, but he hadn't reacted to the mention of signs, otherwise they'd have been trying to talk about demonic omens or whatever. Still, even if he wasn't a hunter, there was some badass in there: Dean couldn't imagine getting half your face melted off and still sitting there (relatively) calmly like Harry was without being that much of a badass. And he was asking all the questions that were important, with "are they related" at the top.
He wasn't that bad a guy, Dean admitted, all things considered. Too bad he wasn't a hunter, they could've worked together.
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"Good luck with that. I've never heard anyone else talking about what happened before they arrived here but it's not something I've been asking about." That wasn't the least bit encouraging but Brian didn't seem like the kind of guy who needed someone else's support. He was cocky enough about the whole thing it wouldn't matter what Harry said, he'd just keep going. It was reassuring to see that sort of confidence.
Harry turned back to his tray which was still mostly untouched figuring he should try and get something down. Eating left handed was still difficult but he could cope. After a minute he commented "You seem to be taking this pretty calmly. Your friend disappearing and everything. I'd expect most people to freak out, especially over finding an entire diner massacred."
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