Influence [Alpha/Whiskey, All Ages]
Title: Influence
Author: lil_kaylee_frye
Pairings/Characters: Alpha/Whiskey, Blevins
Rating: All Ages
Word Count: 805
Disclaimer: I do not own Dollhouse, it is all Joss's.
Author's Note: Part of the 'Bad Romance' series.
Try as he might, Blevins simply couldn't understand it.
He stood in the security offices of the Dollhouse, examining the CCTV tapes that had dutifully recorded Alpha and Whiskey's first dual engagement. His teeth gnawed at his thumbnail anxiously the more he watched, he seemingly unable to tear his gaze from the scene he had already played spectator to at least three times before.
The brief he and Alvarez had received made the engagement seem effortless, something even a juvenile Handler could manage to control - trust Alpha and his new 'friend', Whiskey, to destroy the apparent simplicity of it, though. Their client - who had evidently been watching too many Western smuggler films - desired two Actives to help him carry out an equally staged bank heist; it had all been going smoothly, that is until Alpha had felt it appropriate to shoot their client in the kneecaps. Their client had been formally apologized to by DeWitt, as well as compensated greatly to ensure that, in his understandable anger regarding what happened, he didn't breathe a word to the authorities of the Dollhouse's existence.
Blevins winced as he reached the point in the tape reel which depicted the engagement's disastrous turn of events, the gunshots echoing through the room ominously, one after the other. By doing this, by acting drastically outside of the engagement's set parameter, Alpha had effectively put himself and Blevins on the radar, encouraging DeWitt and Dominic, as well as other higher ups in Rossum, to keep an unsettlingly closer eye on them both and should things continue the way they were… it would be the Attic, with absolutely no room for discussion or pleas for mercy, for that matter.
"Why did you do it, Alpha?" Blevins thought out loud in his frustration, as he watched the video image of their client roll around on the floor in pain, clutching at his wounded legs, tears of excruciating agony trickling down his cheeks, anguished screams ripping through his throat.
"Whiskey did not like him," a calm, even voice answered what Blevins had assumed to be a rhetorical question.
The Handler whipped around in the direction the voice had sounded from, to see Alpha standing in the doorway. He was dressed in standard Active wear, as opposed to the cowboy-esque clothing (complete with hat, boots and a bandana tied around his neck) he had worn for the engagement, this change of attire indicating that he had recently been wiped, but that only succeeded in making his reply all the more worrying to hear.
"What did you say?" Blevins demanded sharply, biting at his other thumbnail, the previous one now only had a small strip of enamel topping it - the product of his thoroughly shattered nerves.
"Whiskey did not like him. I didn't, either. He was irritating. He was not his best," Alpha explained in the same serene, casual tone, gazing at his Handler blankly as Blevins stared at him in mingled shock and horror.
When Blevins, too surprised to say anything else on the matter, didn't reply, the strawberry blond-haired Doll merely shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, evidently unperturbed by the situation, before he turned, placidly, and walked off, tranquillity practically emanating from him.
Blevins watched, wide-eyed, as his Active departed his presence. His gaze flickered back to the CCTV tape just in time to see the smile shared between the Imprinted Alpha and Whiskey following the shooting. Whiskey's beam was one of gratitude, while Alpha's was one of a desperation to please, to gain the approval which he desired, and was, apparently, receiving from his female companion. Heart pounding erratically in his chest at Alpha's unwanted new development, Blevins looked at the other monitors that encompassed an entire wall of the security office, these ones displaying more present times as they each depicted the Actives milling blissfully about their habitat.
He found the one that showed Alpha. Blevins watched intently as his Active strode confidently through the Dollhouse, barely giving any of the other Dolls any regard, that is until he saw Whiskey sitting on a cushion near the water feature in the foyer, intently examining a picture book, which she had open on her lap. Blevins noted how Alpha, feeling no need to ask for any form of permission, instinctively sat down, cross-legged, beside her, pretending to read the picture book from over her shoulder, although his eyes were trained on the female Doll. Whiskey greeted the strawberry blond-haired Active with a smile and moved the book over slightly so he could see it better. Alpha grinned at her courteous gesture, but still his gaze remained focused on her. If this was how close they had become in the short span of only a month…
Yes, Blevins thought as he regarded the uncomfortably friendly interaction between the two Dolls, she was definitely a problem.