Both before and after noon, for valhalla37
Title: Both Before and After Noon
Author: primarycolors92
Recipient: valhalla37
Pairings or Characters: Miles, Daniel, Charlotte, Penny, Richard; Miles/Daniel strong friendship, Charlotte/Daniel, Miles/Richard.
Rating: PG for language
Warnings: None; spoilers for season six.
Prompt: Daniel and Penny sibling!fic. I strayed quite a bit from the heart of the prompt, and for that I apologize. Miles completely ran away with this story.
Summary: By 3:16 on December 16, Penelope Widmore has completely disappeared. A pre-Christmas story of friendships and beginnings. Approximately 2000 words.
Author’s Notes: This story is a mix of canon, sideways!verse canon, and complete AU. Take that as you will, and I hope you enjoy. A thousand thanks to ozmissage for the wonderfully timely and insightful beta. Title comes from the Red Hot Chili Peppers Song “Stadium Arcadium.”
On Thursday, December 16, at 3:14 p.m., Penelope Widmore leaves her apartment to buy milk, breakfast cereal, and coffee grounds. She locks the door before getting on the elevator at 3:15 p.m. She crosses the lobby and exits the building when the timestamp on the security camera reads 15:16 12/16/10.
She does not get in her car. She does not go to the store. Penelope Widmore does not return to her apartment.
*-*-*
Miles Straume is possibly a giant ass. Probably at least a medium sized one.
But really, he had no way of knowing Charlotte’s date with Jim (who’s a whole other kind of asshole, thank you very much) would go so horribly awry. He likes them both, loves them each a bit if he’s feeling honest, and so it’s down to him to make things up to Charlotte.
Fortunately, Charlotte accepts free booze and popcorn as acceptable methods of repayment.
They’re halfway through Die Hard 2: Die Harder with Miles providing colorful commentary and Charlotte nudging her stocking feet against Miles’s thigh every time she wants another beer when Miles’s phone beeps once.
911. Call me. Dan, the texts says, and Miles has half a second to be annoyed at the way Dan always signs his texts (really, it’s not like Miles doesn’t have his number preprogrammed) before the worry kicks in. Charlotte feels his sudden tension against the soles of his feet and goes still.
“Work?” she asks, but Miles is already listening to his phone ring.
“Dan? Dan, you there?”
“Miles, hi,” he says, and Miles wants to strangle him, just a little bit, for sounding so nonchalant. “Miles, are you on a date?”
“What?” Because really, there is nothing else.
“It’s just that, um, I’m outside your apartment right now and, well, if you have someone there I wouldn’t really want to bother you, except that Penny’s gone missing, and is that a woman? Miles, I had no idea you-”
Miles knows, vaguely, that he is making ridiculous faces and Charlotte is staring at him. “Are you spying through my window?” He’s not quite ready to deal with anything else Daniel has just said.
“Yes?” Dan says, like it’s a fucking question, and at that Miles can’t take any more.
He slams the door open, regretting the scrape of the knob against his wall the second it happens. Daniel is standing outside wearing that ridiculous hat he loves so much (so much that Miles hasn’t been able to tell him how truly ridiculous it really is) and looking just like he did in third grade when that bastard Keamy stole his new bike. Except Dan’s scruffier now, and he’s wearing that fucking hat.
“What happened to your sister?” Miles asks as he lets Dan in, stepping back to let him move forward (they’ve been doing variations of the same dance since they were about six, and Miles knows to wait his turn).
“Half-sister,” and with Dan it’s more than pedantic because Dan’s mother is a whole snake’s nest of trouble and Penny’s is long gone. “She’s missing.”
“How long?” Miles asks, and he’s struck with the horrible idea that he chose his vocation solely to better solve Dan’s problems. He is neither drunk nor sober enough to be able to handle this.
“I’m not sure. Since this morning, maybe. We had dinner reservations. She didn’t show, and somebody broke into her apartment. Miles, who is that?” Dan is staring at Charlotte, his cheeks a bit pinker than before. Miles cannot tell if this is better or worse than Charlotte and Jim. He’s a little frightened to find out.
“This is Charlotte Lewis; she works at the museum with my dad. Charlotte, this is Daniel Widmore, an old friend.”
“Charlotte.” Dan says her name like he’s trying it on for size. “It’s really nice to meet you.” Charlotte raises an eyebrow, but it’s blatantly obvious that Daniel has her charmed.
“It’s really nice to meet you too, Daniel Widmore.” They’re smiling at each other like nervous idiots and Miles is worried about retinal damage if he rolls his eyes any harder.
“Have you checked your phone to see if Penny’s left you any messages?”
Daniel’s looking at him like Miles is the genius here, and it goes a long way toward reminding him why Daniel is worth it. It’s probably a combination of the way Daniel waited for him outside dozens of detentions and parent-teacher meetings after Miles broke the noses of dozens of Daniel’s bullies while Dan looked on with eyes that were at once wary and worshipful. Then there was the day when they were fifteen and Miles showed up on Daniel’s doorstep with red eyes and trembling fingers because Miles had just come out to Pierre and surprise has a way of letting the ugly out of people. Daniel had let Miles in without a single word and they had watched all of Miles’s favorite TV shows and Daniel, who has always been straight as an arrow, never looked at Miles a single bit differently the entire night.
Dan’s face falls as he looks at his phone.
“Why do you think someone broke into her flat?” Charlotte’s leaning against the sofa, apparently having decided to make Daniel her business. Miles doesn’t know how worried he should be.
And then Dan stutters a bit before he can answer and Miles is very, very worried.
“Her, uh, her stuff was messed up and, uh, some of her things were, you know, missing.” This perks Miles right up.
“You mean like clothes and a toothbrush?” The look Daniel gives him is truly astounding in its sardonic irritation. Miles is more than a little proud.
“I mean like the gun Penny keeps in the lockbox in her bedroom closet. When I got there the box was open. And empty.” Miles is momentarily overcome with visions of Daniel holding a gun, accidentally shooting himself in the hand or the fucking head, and he just has to make sure.
“You don’t own a gun, right, Dan?” Now Dan’s got his “I’m a prodigy surrounded by idiots” face on; Miles finds it a comforting change from the panic of his earlier text.
“Look, why don’t we go and have a look around? If Miles thinks it’s something really serious, we can call the actual police.” Charlotte takes charge like she didn’t just meet Daniel three minutes ago, and Miles would make fun of her for it if he didn’t still owe her for the disaster date (and Dan’s looking at her the way Miles hasn’t seen since Theresa---maybe not even then---and after only a few minutes, and Miles cannot believe that is a bad thing).
Before they leave the apartment, Miles grabs his badge and gun.
That does not mean he became a cop to take care of Daniel.
*-*-*
When they arrive at Penny’s apartment, number 823, Daniel has fallen silent and pale. The car ride over (the three of them jammed in Dan’s car, the driver of which graciously offered Charlotte the front seat) had been filled with Charlotte’s light chatter, distracting Dan from his worry better than even Miles could have hoped to.
Daniel unlocks the door and then freezes, holding himself perfectly still. “It was kind of a mess in there,” he says, swallowing hard before swinging the door wide open. Miles, who had viewed Penny as his strongest ally in protecting Dan for as long as he could remember, fights back-something. The place is trashed, a complete mess, and even though it’s nothing Miles hasn’t seen a thousand times before, it’s different when the shattered picture frames belong to the only person in the world who could make Dan smile after those assholes vandalized Dan’s locker for the fifth time sophomore year, the woman who could intimidate with a single glance, scaring away in half a second bullies Miles had been fighting off for months. He cannot image how this violation feels to Daniel.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees, Charlotte pressing her hand against Daniel’s elbow. The warmth of the gesture comforts all three of them.
Miles eyes the crime scene for a bit, already deciding that he’ll have to call Jim in (and boy, will that be awkward). “Wanna show me exactly how you found the safe, Dan?”
The two of them are crouching in the closet, Miles trying to determine if the door was forced or opened with the code, when two things happen simultaneously.
The door, which Miles had closed on the way in, swings open and Charlotte shouts.
Gun, Miles thinks, and then it is in his hand and all he’s thinking about is getting his body between Charlotte and the door.
When he gets there, Charlotte and Daniel behind him and his gun cocked and ready, he finally gets a good look at the man standing in the kitchen with both hands in the air, and all Miles can think is-
Jesus Christ, he’s gorgeous.
(Miles knows he’s spoiled, getting to work with Jim everyday, but this man is on a whole other level, and even as Miles is prepared to shoot him he’s admiring the line of his jaw and the perfect width of his shoulders and those eyelashes).
“Miles! Miles, it’s okay, that’s Richard. It’s okay, Miles.” Daniel’s hand hovers over Miles’s shoulder, waiting to land until Miles lowers the gun. “Mr. Alpert works with my mother. Are you looking for Penny?” The man nods, lowering his hands without making any sudden movements.
“My people know she left before anyone broke in here. We lost track of her between the lobby and the parking garage.”
“Lost track of her? Have you been spying on us?” Miles rarely sees Daniel upset like this; it’s an ugly mix of anger and fear but when he looks at Charlotte she’s watching Dan with a kind of fierce compassion.
“Just your sister. We-”
“Half-sister.”
“Right. Just Penelope. Your father put in a special request. Apparently she’s been… seeing someone.” Daniel blinks.
“You’re spying on Penny because she has a new boyfriend?” Incredulity has erased Dan’s fear; once again he’s the genius in a room of morons. Alpert flushes a bit, embarrassed. It’s a good look for him.
“Mr. Widmore was concerned that he wasn’t, ah, the most appropriate choice of partner.”
“Are you saying Penny’s new boyfriend did all,” Daniel gestures at the spilled drawers and broken plates on the floor, “this?”
“Uh, no. That was a random break-in. Apparently there have been quite a few similar cases a few neighborhoods over.” Miles fights the urge to slap himself in the face. Idiot.
“God damn it, I’ve been following those cases for weeks! Jim and I have a bet over whether it’s high school students or twenty-somethings.” To his left Charlotte sours at the mention of Jim, but that fails to matter when Alpert looks straight at him and actually smiles.
“If I were you, I’d try to get out of that bet if you picked the students.”
Miles smiles back. “I picked the twenty-somethings.”
Dan elbows Miles none too gently in the abdomen. “What about Penny? And the safe with the gun? Where is she?”
“Apparently, a man named Desmond Hume booked two adjacent seats for himself and Ms. Widmore on a flight to Guam. A surprise romantic getaway, it seems. As for the gun, one of my men confiscated it under your mother’s request. She felt it was too dangerous an object to have in the home.”
Charlotte lets out of bark of laughter. “Your parents are bloody insane, Dan.” Miles cannot believe Daniel would let Charlotte talk about his parents like that, but Dan just ducks his head and grins.
Alpert allows a noncommittal nod. “I expect you’ll be receiving a phone call from your sister soon, Daniel.”
Miles waits for the correction from Dan, and when it doesn’t come he turns around to see that Dan is far too busy being smiled at by Charlotte to say much of anything. (And, really, since when does Charlotte smile like that at anyone?) Miles fully expects to be made best man.
And if the two of them are too busy giggling about something to notice that Richard slips Miles a piece of paper with his number on it, well then Miles will just consider it an early Christmas present. He’s earned it.
Author: primarycolors92
Recipient: valhalla37
Pairings or Characters: Miles, Daniel, Charlotte, Penny, Richard; Miles/Daniel strong friendship, Charlotte/Daniel, Miles/Richard.
Rating: PG for language
Warnings: None; spoilers for season six.
Prompt: Daniel and Penny sibling!fic. I strayed quite a bit from the heart of the prompt, and for that I apologize. Miles completely ran away with this story.
Summary: By 3:16 on December 16, Penelope Widmore has completely disappeared. A pre-Christmas story of friendships and beginnings. Approximately 2000 words.
Author’s Notes: This story is a mix of canon, sideways!verse canon, and complete AU. Take that as you will, and I hope you enjoy. A thousand thanks to ozmissage for the wonderfully timely and insightful beta. Title comes from the Red Hot Chili Peppers Song “Stadium Arcadium.”
On Thursday, December 16, at 3:14 p.m., Penelope Widmore leaves her apartment to buy milk, breakfast cereal, and coffee grounds. She locks the door before getting on the elevator at 3:15 p.m. She crosses the lobby and exits the building when the timestamp on the security camera reads 15:16 12/16/10.
She does not get in her car. She does not go to the store. Penelope Widmore does not return to her apartment.
*-*-*
Miles Straume is possibly a giant ass. Probably at least a medium sized one.
But really, he had no way of knowing Charlotte’s date with Jim (who’s a whole other kind of asshole, thank you very much) would go so horribly awry. He likes them both, loves them each a bit if he’s feeling honest, and so it’s down to him to make things up to Charlotte.
Fortunately, Charlotte accepts free booze and popcorn as acceptable methods of repayment.
They’re halfway through Die Hard 2: Die Harder with Miles providing colorful commentary and Charlotte nudging her stocking feet against Miles’s thigh every time she wants another beer when Miles’s phone beeps once.
911. Call me. Dan, the texts says, and Miles has half a second to be annoyed at the way Dan always signs his texts (really, it’s not like Miles doesn’t have his number preprogrammed) before the worry kicks in. Charlotte feels his sudden tension against the soles of his feet and goes still.
“Work?” she asks, but Miles is already listening to his phone ring.
“Dan? Dan, you there?”
“Miles, hi,” he says, and Miles wants to strangle him, just a little bit, for sounding so nonchalant. “Miles, are you on a date?”
“What?” Because really, there is nothing else.
“It’s just that, um, I’m outside your apartment right now and, well, if you have someone there I wouldn’t really want to bother you, except that Penny’s gone missing, and is that a woman? Miles, I had no idea you-”
Miles knows, vaguely, that he is making ridiculous faces and Charlotte is staring at him. “Are you spying through my window?” He’s not quite ready to deal with anything else Daniel has just said.
“Yes?” Dan says, like it’s a fucking question, and at that Miles can’t take any more.
He slams the door open, regretting the scrape of the knob against his wall the second it happens. Daniel is standing outside wearing that ridiculous hat he loves so much (so much that Miles hasn’t been able to tell him how truly ridiculous it really is) and looking just like he did in third grade when that bastard Keamy stole his new bike. Except Dan’s scruffier now, and he’s wearing that fucking hat.
“What happened to your sister?” Miles asks as he lets Dan in, stepping back to let him move forward (they’ve been doing variations of the same dance since they were about six, and Miles knows to wait his turn).
“Half-sister,” and with Dan it’s more than pedantic because Dan’s mother is a whole snake’s nest of trouble and Penny’s is long gone. “She’s missing.”
“How long?” Miles asks, and he’s struck with the horrible idea that he chose his vocation solely to better solve Dan’s problems. He is neither drunk nor sober enough to be able to handle this.
“I’m not sure. Since this morning, maybe. We had dinner reservations. She didn’t show, and somebody broke into her apartment. Miles, who is that?” Dan is staring at Charlotte, his cheeks a bit pinker than before. Miles cannot tell if this is better or worse than Charlotte and Jim. He’s a little frightened to find out.
“This is Charlotte Lewis; she works at the museum with my dad. Charlotte, this is Daniel Widmore, an old friend.”
“Charlotte.” Dan says her name like he’s trying it on for size. “It’s really nice to meet you.” Charlotte raises an eyebrow, but it’s blatantly obvious that Daniel has her charmed.
“It’s really nice to meet you too, Daniel Widmore.” They’re smiling at each other like nervous idiots and Miles is worried about retinal damage if he rolls his eyes any harder.
“Have you checked your phone to see if Penny’s left you any messages?”
Daniel’s looking at him like Miles is the genius here, and it goes a long way toward reminding him why Daniel is worth it. It’s probably a combination of the way Daniel waited for him outside dozens of detentions and parent-teacher meetings after Miles broke the noses of dozens of Daniel’s bullies while Dan looked on with eyes that were at once wary and worshipful. Then there was the day when they were fifteen and Miles showed up on Daniel’s doorstep with red eyes and trembling fingers because Miles had just come out to Pierre and surprise has a way of letting the ugly out of people. Daniel had let Miles in without a single word and they had watched all of Miles’s favorite TV shows and Daniel, who has always been straight as an arrow, never looked at Miles a single bit differently the entire night.
Dan’s face falls as he looks at his phone.
“Why do you think someone broke into her flat?” Charlotte’s leaning against the sofa, apparently having decided to make Daniel her business. Miles doesn’t know how worried he should be.
And then Dan stutters a bit before he can answer and Miles is very, very worried.
“Her, uh, her stuff was messed up and, uh, some of her things were, you know, missing.” This perks Miles right up.
“You mean like clothes and a toothbrush?” The look Daniel gives him is truly astounding in its sardonic irritation. Miles is more than a little proud.
“I mean like the gun Penny keeps in the lockbox in her bedroom closet. When I got there the box was open. And empty.” Miles is momentarily overcome with visions of Daniel holding a gun, accidentally shooting himself in the hand or the fucking head, and he just has to make sure.
“You don’t own a gun, right, Dan?” Now Dan’s got his “I’m a prodigy surrounded by idiots” face on; Miles finds it a comforting change from the panic of his earlier text.
“Look, why don’t we go and have a look around? If Miles thinks it’s something really serious, we can call the actual police.” Charlotte takes charge like she didn’t just meet Daniel three minutes ago, and Miles would make fun of her for it if he didn’t still owe her for the disaster date (and Dan’s looking at her the way Miles hasn’t seen since Theresa---maybe not even then---and after only a few minutes, and Miles cannot believe that is a bad thing).
Before they leave the apartment, Miles grabs his badge and gun.
That does not mean he became a cop to take care of Daniel.
*-*-*
When they arrive at Penny’s apartment, number 823, Daniel has fallen silent and pale. The car ride over (the three of them jammed in Dan’s car, the driver of which graciously offered Charlotte the front seat) had been filled with Charlotte’s light chatter, distracting Dan from his worry better than even Miles could have hoped to.
Daniel unlocks the door and then freezes, holding himself perfectly still. “It was kind of a mess in there,” he says, swallowing hard before swinging the door wide open. Miles, who had viewed Penny as his strongest ally in protecting Dan for as long as he could remember, fights back-something. The place is trashed, a complete mess, and even though it’s nothing Miles hasn’t seen a thousand times before, it’s different when the shattered picture frames belong to the only person in the world who could make Dan smile after those assholes vandalized Dan’s locker for the fifth time sophomore year, the woman who could intimidate with a single glance, scaring away in half a second bullies Miles had been fighting off for months. He cannot image how this violation feels to Daniel.
Out of the corner of his eye he sees, Charlotte pressing her hand against Daniel’s elbow. The warmth of the gesture comforts all three of them.
Miles eyes the crime scene for a bit, already deciding that he’ll have to call Jim in (and boy, will that be awkward). “Wanna show me exactly how you found the safe, Dan?”
The two of them are crouching in the closet, Miles trying to determine if the door was forced or opened with the code, when two things happen simultaneously.
The door, which Miles had closed on the way in, swings open and Charlotte shouts.
Gun, Miles thinks, and then it is in his hand and all he’s thinking about is getting his body between Charlotte and the door.
When he gets there, Charlotte and Daniel behind him and his gun cocked and ready, he finally gets a good look at the man standing in the kitchen with both hands in the air, and all Miles can think is-
Jesus Christ, he’s gorgeous.
(Miles knows he’s spoiled, getting to work with Jim everyday, but this man is on a whole other level, and even as Miles is prepared to shoot him he’s admiring the line of his jaw and the perfect width of his shoulders and those eyelashes).
“Miles! Miles, it’s okay, that’s Richard. It’s okay, Miles.” Daniel’s hand hovers over Miles’s shoulder, waiting to land until Miles lowers the gun. “Mr. Alpert works with my mother. Are you looking for Penny?” The man nods, lowering his hands without making any sudden movements.
“My people know she left before anyone broke in here. We lost track of her between the lobby and the parking garage.”
“Lost track of her? Have you been spying on us?” Miles rarely sees Daniel upset like this; it’s an ugly mix of anger and fear but when he looks at Charlotte she’s watching Dan with a kind of fierce compassion.
“Just your sister. We-”
“Half-sister.”
“Right. Just Penelope. Your father put in a special request. Apparently she’s been… seeing someone.” Daniel blinks.
“You’re spying on Penny because she has a new boyfriend?” Incredulity has erased Dan’s fear; once again he’s the genius in a room of morons. Alpert flushes a bit, embarrassed. It’s a good look for him.
“Mr. Widmore was concerned that he wasn’t, ah, the most appropriate choice of partner.”
“Are you saying Penny’s new boyfriend did all,” Daniel gestures at the spilled drawers and broken plates on the floor, “this?”
“Uh, no. That was a random break-in. Apparently there have been quite a few similar cases a few neighborhoods over.” Miles fights the urge to slap himself in the face. Idiot.
“God damn it, I’ve been following those cases for weeks! Jim and I have a bet over whether it’s high school students or twenty-somethings.” To his left Charlotte sours at the mention of Jim, but that fails to matter when Alpert looks straight at him and actually smiles.
“If I were you, I’d try to get out of that bet if you picked the students.”
Miles smiles back. “I picked the twenty-somethings.”
Dan elbows Miles none too gently in the abdomen. “What about Penny? And the safe with the gun? Where is she?”
“Apparently, a man named Desmond Hume booked two adjacent seats for himself and Ms. Widmore on a flight to Guam. A surprise romantic getaway, it seems. As for the gun, one of my men confiscated it under your mother’s request. She felt it was too dangerous an object to have in the home.”
Charlotte lets out of bark of laughter. “Your parents are bloody insane, Dan.” Miles cannot believe Daniel would let Charlotte talk about his parents like that, but Dan just ducks his head and grins.
Alpert allows a noncommittal nod. “I expect you’ll be receiving a phone call from your sister soon, Daniel.”
Miles waits for the correction from Dan, and when it doesn’t come he turns around to see that Dan is far too busy being smiled at by Charlotte to say much of anything. (And, really, since when does Charlotte smile like that at anyone?) Miles fully expects to be made best man.
And if the two of them are too busy giggling about something to notice that Richard slips Miles a piece of paper with his number on it, well then Miles will just consider it an early Christmas present. He’s earned it.