{spn/dollhouse} promises were never made to be kept 1/5
Title: Promises Were Never Made to be Kept 1/5
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Supernatural/Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Dean Winchester, Echo, Alpha, Adelle DeWitt, Boyd Langton, Castiel, Bobby Singer, Crowley, Samuel Campbell
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and company, while Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company. The title comes from "Emotional Rescue" by The Rolling Stones.
Notes: The story changes POV quite a bit and at times, some characters are dealing with the same events at the same time. Written for the 2012 sncross_bigbang.
Summary: Set at the end of Supernatural Season Five, Dean becomes an active and embroiled in the plots at the LA Dollhouse while Castiel and Crowley search for purgatory.
Word Count: 2739/16207
There's something about the luxurious office that makes him angry. It could be the red accent wall, the bar with it's lovely crystal decanters and expensive alcohol mocking him, the fact that his hostess is serving him green tea, or just the fact that he's now in league with an angel. Whatever it is, Crowley isn't really certain why he's angry, he just knows that he needs to reign his anger in. He can't afford to get angry today.
"This is highly unusual."
Crowley resists the urge to roll his eyes or sigh at the woman sitting across from him. He's not really sure how she qualifies this particular situation as highly unusual when she deals in the unusual on a daily basis. He takes a sip of the green tea and ignores the temptation to walk over to the bar and drown himself in whatever she has there. Despite her elegance and luxurious office, it's still a brothel and he can't believe that she's questioning the ethics of this transaction.
Especially since what she does every day is far more unethical than what he's currently asking her to do. If demons could somehow manage to digitize themselves, Crowley thinks that possession would become imprinting. It'd be so much easier with the pesky issues of souls and exorcisms being a thing of the past. It seems far more effective than trying to find some tiny crack to wiggle one's self into someone. And she sits across from him, looking prim and proper questioning what he's proposing.
Still he doesn't say any of this out loud, he doesn't reveal that he knows far more about the whole operation than he should know. A deal is a deal. He nods at her while ignoring the fact that he could easily go to any of the other houses to get the job done far easier than convincing her of why she should agree.
"I understand but the circumstances themselves are rather unusual," Crowley finally replies as he sets the cup down on the table between them.
To be honest (and he does his best to avoid being honest as much as possible as it's not good in his line of work), the circumstances are beyond unusual. Again it's not something he can really divulge in but how often can one find a demon and an angel working towards the same goal? Perhaps in light of recent events, that's not the best way to start. It would be more appropriate to ask how often can one find an angel and a demon working to prevent another tedious war between Heaven and Hell? And although Crowley doesn't agree with Castiel's methods, Crowley's far more dedicated in maintaining the status quo than most demons are. Part of it has to do with the fact that if he and Castiel are successful, Castiel can take Heaven and he'll take Hell.
Again this is nothing that he can actually tell Adelle DeWitt about so he aims for a tale that's tragic and sincere since he needs to convince her that this is something that she wants to buy into. He figures that with her bleeding heart, a sob story is the best route to go in order to obtain his goals. The fact that he needs to convince her is something that he's not quite familiar with. He's a crossroad demon, the king of the crossroads and not just any crossroad demon. it's never been a challenge for him to get people to sign over their souls to him for some crappy dream. In fact they come crawling and begging to him. The fact that there's nothing that he can use to manipulate Adelle into doing what he wants and signing over her soul to boot is rather infuriating.
Yet as she purses her lips and crosses her legs, Crowley realizes that this going to be a tough sell. So he begins to tell her a very sanitized story about Dean and Sam Winchester and their co-dependency, names omitted along with ghosts and ghoulies. He's relieved when she betrays how the story starts to affect her. It's a slight tell, when her body shifts ever so slightly and he knows he has her. The rest is easy and before long, Dean Winchester will be nothing more than a blank canvas for Adelle and her programmers to imprint with someone else's dreams. Crowley's tempted to keep tabs on this woman, if only to convince her into his line of work somewhere down the road. And if he focuses on Adelle instead of the guilt he feels for betraying Dean Winchester, a hunter who scares the monsters, well then that's his little secret, isn't it?
* * *
"I don't like him."
Dominic's voice is flat and his words are to the point. He's standing in her office staring out the window at the Los Angeles skyline. Although Adelle DeWitt doubts that he's actually seeing the skyline. She sighs as she rubs her temples. Adelle's starting to think that her right-hand man and head of security doesn't like much of anything in the wake of Alpha's composite event. She's fairly certain that if she allows Dominic to have his way, he'd shut them down after putting all of the actives in the Attic for safe-keeping. The fact that he seems to see shades of Alpha in everything is beginning to get worrisome.
"I understand that the circumstances in which he came to the house are slightly unusual,' Adelle calmly says.
Before she can continue, Dominic barks out a harsh laugh as he turns to face her. She narrows his eyes at him and waits until she's certain that she has his full attention before she continues to speak. If he wasn't so indispensable to her, she'd consider having Topher program a few traits out of him, starting with his paranoia.
"However both Topher and Ivy have assured me that there is nothing to be concerned about. He is simply what he appears to be: a young man who has become catatonic due to a personal tragedy."
"The back story doesn't check out and my sources at the FBI have gone silent when it comes to this young man," Dominic says. "Furthermore, I can't find any record of him in any database."
"Sierra's back story didn't check out but you had no reservations about her," Adelle points out, her voice flat and emotionless.
The only time he's seen Dominic this resistant was when Echo was still Caroline and their orders were to turn her into an active. Adelle sits straighter in her chair, crossing her ankles as she stares at Dominic. Truth be told, she's growing rather weary of Dominic and his habit of seeing shades of Alpha and sabotage where ever he casts his gaze.
"Sierra was an entirely different story," Dominic replies. "And I seem to remember that we both had qualms about her as well."
He mercifully leaves out the fact that they were ordered to take Sierra in and were not given a choice. Adelle gracefully stands up and glides over to the drinks cabinet. Ever since Alpha, she's been finding herself indulging more and more. She pours herself a glass of vodka, diluting it with water only for appearances. There are things that she can't even trust Dominic with, not now. She drains half of the glass before she feels that she can face him again without betraying anything.
"Regardless of how you feel," Adelle says, emphasizing the word feel, "I can see no reason to not proceed with Michael Smith becoming an active. And unless you can provide me with concrete evidence proving that he's unfit, the subject is closed and will remain so Mr. Dominic."
Deep down, she's very much aware that she shouldn't reject Dominic's instincts, that she shouldn't widen the gulf between them but twelve hours ago, Judith had given her a fax from Tucson. The instruction had been clear and she has nothing that will allow her to disobey a direct order. As it is, both she and Dominic are on precarious ground (even if he doesn't seem to recognize that fact) in the wake of the whole mess that Alpha created. Even now, months later. It doesn't help that Alpha has remained elusive.
"Fine," Dominic coldly replies. "I'll inform Topher to proceed and I'll assign a handler to him."
"Do that," Adelle tiredly states.
She wonders how much longer she'll be able to trust him. How much longer until Laurence Dominic is a liability instead of an asset. He may comply now but Adelle can see the rebellion starting to coalesce within him in the stiff way that he marches out of her office. Alpha's composite event has scarred them all in so many ways, not all of those scars are visible to the eye. She drains the remainder of the vodka in her glass before she pours herself another tumbler full of vodka this time without water to dilute it. She doesn't have any more clients today and she doesn't feel like making her way home tonight. The perks of her position means that there's a short elevator ride upwards and a luxurious executive suite in her immediate future.
Adelle moves back to her desk and sinks down in the leather seat. Michael Smith's file is sitting on her desk and she desultory flips through the pages, idly reading the reports from Dr. Saunders and Topher. There's no magical loop hole that will allow her to disobey Tucson, that will allow her to follow Dominic's instincts.
Finally she pulls up his computer file and types in his new name. Michael Smith is no more and Romeo is born.
* * *
No matter how busy he is, Boyd Langton somehow still manages to make the time to read over the reports. He finds that there is more to this Michael Smith than what meets the eye. The fact that he was brought in by an FBI agent that is on Rossum's payroll (a fact that neither DeWitt nor Dominic know about) and who was acting rather out of character is something that bothers Boyd. The fact that every time that he ties to access the FBI database with Smith's fingerprints, he hits a dead end is another troubling issue. And then there's the fact that his basic blood work shows the same compounds, the same anomaly that both Echo and Alpha possess. None of it adds up as it should, especially with the sparse history that they were given about Michael Smith.
He reads the basic biography on the copy of the file that's currently sitting on DeWitt's desk:
Michael John Smith born January 24, 1980 in Broken Bow, Nebraska to parents John and Ellen Smith A younger brother by the name of Henry William Smith born in 1982.. Father died in a house fire in 1984 and Mother in a car accident in 2000. After death of mother, both brothers moved briefly to Florida for the younger to attend school, after a year though the two had become nomadic, moving from town to town taking on small jobs here there. May 2010 the younger brother was killed in a motel fire in Lawrence, Kansas. Michael Smith fell into a catatonic state shortly afterwards.
There are holes in the biography and despite the fact that Boyd's gone over the meager events, he can't find any evidence of any of the main events actually happening. He wants to run further tests but he can't do so without Dominic getting suspicious. As it is, the man is already highly skeptical of everything. Boyd sighs again as he realizes that Dominic is quickly becoming a problem that only the Attic will solve. It's not something that he wants to do because Dominic has served Rossum well, despite the fact that he's an NSA plant. Yet Boyd can't ignore the fact that Dominic has tried to kill Echo at least once that Boyd knows about. And Boyd is uncertain of the extent of Dominic's hold over Adelle.
With another disgruntled sigh, Boyd decides that he'll have to decide on Dominic's fate at a later time, instead he'll see what he can find out about their new active with what little information they do have. He doubts that Smith's fingerprints will get him anywhere, even if he sets Alpha on the task. However the odd tattoo on his chest may yield something. Boyd decides to take the matter home. Although he has the clearance to ensure that his activities on the work terminal that he shares with two other handlers will remain private, the fact that does remain is that he needs to tread carefully in order to not show his hand before he's ready to do so. It wouldn't do to have Dominic sniffing too closely around him, especially since Boyd isn't ready to make any rash decisions.
* * *
It takes five hours for Boyd to discover the obscure meaning of the symbol tattooed to Smith's chest. And then he's left feeling even more confused than he was before. Instead of yielding any answers, the tattoo has only provided him with more questions and dead ends. He's tempted to take Smith's hard drive and imprint someone with it. But after reading the scans, Boyd knows that it won't help him. Smith's identity has been blocked somehow. He's surprised that Topher hadn't come to the conclusion that Smith had already been wiped when the younger man had been preparing Smith. Yet Boyd knows that whatever it is that has suppressed who Smith really is, is something very different, something that Topher has probably never experienced. Simply put, someone or something has blocked Smith's true identity. Topher will never be able to wipe it and store it on a some hard drive since it's completely inaccessible. Boyd doesn't even think that Alpha in his genius could break through that wall.
Only a select few have access to that kind of technology and Boyd knows that it's not espionage since he has control of those individuals. In fact the more that he stares at the read out, the more he becomes certain that only one person might have been able to do what has been done. And that person is locked up tightly in the Attic. Boyd find himself wishing that Clyde wasn't in the Attic and that he could trust the real Clyde to let him still be around. However, he quickly pushes those feelings of nostalgia away and focuses again on the tattoo. It's supposed to prevent demonic possession. As Boyd closes his laptop, his mind is full of theories and questions. Although he holds little value for the occult, there are things that even science can't answer. Yet demonic possession seems a little too over the top, he might be able to swallow the idea of ghosts but angels and demons seem a little too far-fetched.
In the end it's the need to know that inspires him. He opens a drawer in his desk and pills out a nondescript cell phone. Boyd hits one button and it automatically dials a number. After selecting the appropriate options, he records a message. It's brief and too the point. He gives Alpha the orders to get to the bottom of this Michael Smith. When his task is complete, he hangs up and a minute late the phone beeps to indicate that there's a new message on it and, of course, on the clone of the phone that Alpha owns. Boyd turns the phone off and puts it back in the drawer and then he starts to prepare the fax that will ensure that Adelle won't decide to inter Michael Smith into the Attic should Topher decide that there's something off with the wipe or if Dominic should decide to be pushy.
He only has a few more hours before he has to report back to the house for an early morning engagement of Echo's. However his work is nowhere near finished for the evening. It's fatigue that makes him decide to grant Dominic a longer reprieve. Boyd has ensured that he will succeed Dominic should the need arise but he's not quite ready for that step at this moment. He needs to strengthen the bond that he has with Echo. So he decides to wait until Dominic forces his hand before he acts.
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Supernatural/Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Dean Winchester, Echo, Alpha, Adelle DeWitt, Boyd Langton, Castiel, Bobby Singer, Crowley, Samuel Campbell
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and company, while Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company. The title comes from "Emotional Rescue" by The Rolling Stones.
Notes: The story changes POV quite a bit and at times, some characters are dealing with the same events at the same time. Written for the 2012 sncross_bigbang.
Summary: Set at the end of Supernatural Season Five, Dean becomes an active and embroiled in the plots at the LA Dollhouse while Castiel and Crowley search for purgatory.
Word Count: 2739/16207
There's something about the luxurious office that makes him angry. It could be the red accent wall, the bar with it's lovely crystal decanters and expensive alcohol mocking him, the fact that his hostess is serving him green tea, or just the fact that he's now in league with an angel. Whatever it is, Crowley isn't really certain why he's angry, he just knows that he needs to reign his anger in. He can't afford to get angry today.
"This is highly unusual."
Crowley resists the urge to roll his eyes or sigh at the woman sitting across from him. He's not really sure how she qualifies this particular situation as highly unusual when she deals in the unusual on a daily basis. He takes a sip of the green tea and ignores the temptation to walk over to the bar and drown himself in whatever she has there. Despite her elegance and luxurious office, it's still a brothel and he can't believe that she's questioning the ethics of this transaction.
Especially since what she does every day is far more unethical than what he's currently asking her to do. If demons could somehow manage to digitize themselves, Crowley thinks that possession would become imprinting. It'd be so much easier with the pesky issues of souls and exorcisms being a thing of the past. It seems far more effective than trying to find some tiny crack to wiggle one's self into someone. And she sits across from him, looking prim and proper questioning what he's proposing.
Still he doesn't say any of this out loud, he doesn't reveal that he knows far more about the whole operation than he should know. A deal is a deal. He nods at her while ignoring the fact that he could easily go to any of the other houses to get the job done far easier than convincing her of why she should agree.
"I understand but the circumstances themselves are rather unusual," Crowley finally replies as he sets the cup down on the table between them.
To be honest (and he does his best to avoid being honest as much as possible as it's not good in his line of work), the circumstances are beyond unusual. Again it's not something he can really divulge in but how often can one find a demon and an angel working towards the same goal? Perhaps in light of recent events, that's not the best way to start. It would be more appropriate to ask how often can one find an angel and a demon working to prevent another tedious war between Heaven and Hell? And although Crowley doesn't agree with Castiel's methods, Crowley's far more dedicated in maintaining the status quo than most demons are. Part of it has to do with the fact that if he and Castiel are successful, Castiel can take Heaven and he'll take Hell.
Again this is nothing that he can actually tell Adelle DeWitt about so he aims for a tale that's tragic and sincere since he needs to convince her that this is something that she wants to buy into. He figures that with her bleeding heart, a sob story is the best route to go in order to obtain his goals. The fact that he needs to convince her is something that he's not quite familiar with. He's a crossroad demon, the king of the crossroads and not just any crossroad demon. it's never been a challenge for him to get people to sign over their souls to him for some crappy dream. In fact they come crawling and begging to him. The fact that there's nothing that he can use to manipulate Adelle into doing what he wants and signing over her soul to boot is rather infuriating.
Yet as she purses her lips and crosses her legs, Crowley realizes that this going to be a tough sell. So he begins to tell her a very sanitized story about Dean and Sam Winchester and their co-dependency, names omitted along with ghosts and ghoulies. He's relieved when she betrays how the story starts to affect her. It's a slight tell, when her body shifts ever so slightly and he knows he has her. The rest is easy and before long, Dean Winchester will be nothing more than a blank canvas for Adelle and her programmers to imprint with someone else's dreams. Crowley's tempted to keep tabs on this woman, if only to convince her into his line of work somewhere down the road. And if he focuses on Adelle instead of the guilt he feels for betraying Dean Winchester, a hunter who scares the monsters, well then that's his little secret, isn't it?
* * *
"I don't like him."
Dominic's voice is flat and his words are to the point. He's standing in her office staring out the window at the Los Angeles skyline. Although Adelle DeWitt doubts that he's actually seeing the skyline. She sighs as she rubs her temples. Adelle's starting to think that her right-hand man and head of security doesn't like much of anything in the wake of Alpha's composite event. She's fairly certain that if she allows Dominic to have his way, he'd shut them down after putting all of the actives in the Attic for safe-keeping. The fact that he seems to see shades of Alpha in everything is beginning to get worrisome.
"I understand that the circumstances in which he came to the house are slightly unusual,' Adelle calmly says.
Before she can continue, Dominic barks out a harsh laugh as he turns to face her. She narrows his eyes at him and waits until she's certain that she has his full attention before she continues to speak. If he wasn't so indispensable to her, she'd consider having Topher program a few traits out of him, starting with his paranoia.
"However both Topher and Ivy have assured me that there is nothing to be concerned about. He is simply what he appears to be: a young man who has become catatonic due to a personal tragedy."
"The back story doesn't check out and my sources at the FBI have gone silent when it comes to this young man," Dominic says. "Furthermore, I can't find any record of him in any database."
"Sierra's back story didn't check out but you had no reservations about her," Adelle points out, her voice flat and emotionless.
The only time he's seen Dominic this resistant was when Echo was still Caroline and their orders were to turn her into an active. Adelle sits straighter in her chair, crossing her ankles as she stares at Dominic. Truth be told, she's growing rather weary of Dominic and his habit of seeing shades of Alpha and sabotage where ever he casts his gaze.
"Sierra was an entirely different story," Dominic replies. "And I seem to remember that we both had qualms about her as well."
He mercifully leaves out the fact that they were ordered to take Sierra in and were not given a choice. Adelle gracefully stands up and glides over to the drinks cabinet. Ever since Alpha, she's been finding herself indulging more and more. She pours herself a glass of vodka, diluting it with water only for appearances. There are things that she can't even trust Dominic with, not now. She drains half of the glass before she feels that she can face him again without betraying anything.
"Regardless of how you feel," Adelle says, emphasizing the word feel, "I can see no reason to not proceed with Michael Smith becoming an active. And unless you can provide me with concrete evidence proving that he's unfit, the subject is closed and will remain so Mr. Dominic."
Deep down, she's very much aware that she shouldn't reject Dominic's instincts, that she shouldn't widen the gulf between them but twelve hours ago, Judith had given her a fax from Tucson. The instruction had been clear and she has nothing that will allow her to disobey a direct order. As it is, both she and Dominic are on precarious ground (even if he doesn't seem to recognize that fact) in the wake of the whole mess that Alpha created. Even now, months later. It doesn't help that Alpha has remained elusive.
"Fine," Dominic coldly replies. "I'll inform Topher to proceed and I'll assign a handler to him."
"Do that," Adelle tiredly states.
She wonders how much longer she'll be able to trust him. How much longer until Laurence Dominic is a liability instead of an asset. He may comply now but Adelle can see the rebellion starting to coalesce within him in the stiff way that he marches out of her office. Alpha's composite event has scarred them all in so many ways, not all of those scars are visible to the eye. She drains the remainder of the vodka in her glass before she pours herself another tumbler full of vodka this time without water to dilute it. She doesn't have any more clients today and she doesn't feel like making her way home tonight. The perks of her position means that there's a short elevator ride upwards and a luxurious executive suite in her immediate future.
Adelle moves back to her desk and sinks down in the leather seat. Michael Smith's file is sitting on her desk and she desultory flips through the pages, idly reading the reports from Dr. Saunders and Topher. There's no magical loop hole that will allow her to disobey Tucson, that will allow her to follow Dominic's instincts.
Finally she pulls up his computer file and types in his new name. Michael Smith is no more and Romeo is born.
* * *
No matter how busy he is, Boyd Langton somehow still manages to make the time to read over the reports. He finds that there is more to this Michael Smith than what meets the eye. The fact that he was brought in by an FBI agent that is on Rossum's payroll (a fact that neither DeWitt nor Dominic know about) and who was acting rather out of character is something that bothers Boyd. The fact that every time that he ties to access the FBI database with Smith's fingerprints, he hits a dead end is another troubling issue. And then there's the fact that his basic blood work shows the same compounds, the same anomaly that both Echo and Alpha possess. None of it adds up as it should, especially with the sparse history that they were given about Michael Smith.
He reads the basic biography on the copy of the file that's currently sitting on DeWitt's desk:
Michael John Smith born January 24, 1980 in Broken Bow, Nebraska to parents John and Ellen Smith A younger brother by the name of Henry William Smith born in 1982.. Father died in a house fire in 1984 and Mother in a car accident in 2000. After death of mother, both brothers moved briefly to Florida for the younger to attend school, after a year though the two had become nomadic, moving from town to town taking on small jobs here there. May 2010 the younger brother was killed in a motel fire in Lawrence, Kansas. Michael Smith fell into a catatonic state shortly afterwards.
There are holes in the biography and despite the fact that Boyd's gone over the meager events, he can't find any evidence of any of the main events actually happening. He wants to run further tests but he can't do so without Dominic getting suspicious. As it is, the man is already highly skeptical of everything. Boyd sighs again as he realizes that Dominic is quickly becoming a problem that only the Attic will solve. It's not something that he wants to do because Dominic has served Rossum well, despite the fact that he's an NSA plant. Yet Boyd can't ignore the fact that Dominic has tried to kill Echo at least once that Boyd knows about. And Boyd is uncertain of the extent of Dominic's hold over Adelle.
With another disgruntled sigh, Boyd decides that he'll have to decide on Dominic's fate at a later time, instead he'll see what he can find out about their new active with what little information they do have. He doubts that Smith's fingerprints will get him anywhere, even if he sets Alpha on the task. However the odd tattoo on his chest may yield something. Boyd decides to take the matter home. Although he has the clearance to ensure that his activities on the work terminal that he shares with two other handlers will remain private, the fact that does remain is that he needs to tread carefully in order to not show his hand before he's ready to do so. It wouldn't do to have Dominic sniffing too closely around him, especially since Boyd isn't ready to make any rash decisions.
* * *
It takes five hours for Boyd to discover the obscure meaning of the symbol tattooed to Smith's chest. And then he's left feeling even more confused than he was before. Instead of yielding any answers, the tattoo has only provided him with more questions and dead ends. He's tempted to take Smith's hard drive and imprint someone with it. But after reading the scans, Boyd knows that it won't help him. Smith's identity has been blocked somehow. He's surprised that Topher hadn't come to the conclusion that Smith had already been wiped when the younger man had been preparing Smith. Yet Boyd knows that whatever it is that has suppressed who Smith really is, is something very different, something that Topher has probably never experienced. Simply put, someone or something has blocked Smith's true identity. Topher will never be able to wipe it and store it on a some hard drive since it's completely inaccessible. Boyd doesn't even think that Alpha in his genius could break through that wall.
Only a select few have access to that kind of technology and Boyd knows that it's not espionage since he has control of those individuals. In fact the more that he stares at the read out, the more he becomes certain that only one person might have been able to do what has been done. And that person is locked up tightly in the Attic. Boyd find himself wishing that Clyde wasn't in the Attic and that he could trust the real Clyde to let him still be around. However, he quickly pushes those feelings of nostalgia away and focuses again on the tattoo. It's supposed to prevent demonic possession. As Boyd closes his laptop, his mind is full of theories and questions. Although he holds little value for the occult, there are things that even science can't answer. Yet demonic possession seems a little too over the top, he might be able to swallow the idea of ghosts but angels and demons seem a little too far-fetched.
In the end it's the need to know that inspires him. He opens a drawer in his desk and pills out a nondescript cell phone. Boyd hits one button and it automatically dials a number. After selecting the appropriate options, he records a message. It's brief and too the point. He gives Alpha the orders to get to the bottom of this Michael Smith. When his task is complete, he hangs up and a minute late the phone beeps to indicate that there's a new message on it and, of course, on the clone of the phone that Alpha owns. Boyd turns the phone off and puts it back in the drawer and then he starts to prepare the fax that will ensure that Adelle won't decide to inter Michael Smith into the Attic should Topher decide that there's something off with the wipe or if Dominic should decide to be pushy.
He only has a few more hours before he has to report back to the house for an early morning engagement of Echo's. However his work is nowhere near finished for the evening. It's fatigue that makes him decide to grant Dominic a longer reprieve. Boyd has ensured that he will succeed Dominic should the need arise but he's not quite ready for that step at this moment. He needs to strengthen the bond that he has with Echo. So he decides to wait until Dominic forces his hand before he acts.