Life/Eureka fic: "Shreds of Genius" 1/? PG-13
Title: Shreds of genius.
Fandom: Life, Eureka.
Author: Keenir.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: season 1 of both shows, scattered bits and pieces of s2 of Eureka. {definitely 2.01}
Summary: Phi Metsenger, a criminal having made her escape from Eureka, has landed in L.A. with Jo and Carter on her tail…looks like it’s up to Crews and Reese to save the day - and potentially the universe.
“That’s zen, isn’t it?” ;)
-------------------------------------------
Location: Eureka township
Henry and a dozen others had already been through, and none of them could offer an answer to his question. Nathan Stark sighed, looking around at the testing range; he could see why Carter would call it an empty room - that was essentially what it was - a lab left empty so tests could be carried out within it.
And the most recent person to use this room, was also the woman Carter and Lupo had been about to arrest. Dr. Phi Metsenger had waited here, on a chair which was likewise gone now, waiting for them to show - at which point she’d done something to trigger the gasket-sized device she’d invented…
And the three of them vanished, becoming not there in the space of a nanosecond (as the high-speed security cameras attested).
“What is it, Fargo?” Stark asked, suspecting who’d just arrived and was waiting behind him.
“We can’t find anything,” Fargo said. “We’re still looking, but we still aren’t any closer to determining just what Dr. Metsenger built, much less to what it does, and -”
Shutting out that droning and potentially endless voice, Stark pulled out his cellphone, speed-dialed #49, and “Afternoon,” … “Where?” … “I expect a report,” and hung up. To Fargo, Henry and Allison (who’d just arrived), “It’s a teleportation machine.”
“Really?”
“Are you sure?” Allison asked.
“According to Deputy Lupo,” Nathan said, “she and Carter are in Los Angeles.”
~~~~~~~~
L.A.:
In Dani Reese’s experience, there was a correlation to these things. That is to say that the longer Crews was silent, the more profound a statement that would trip out from his lips.
Thing is, though, that Crews was being awfully quiet for an awfully long time. Keep this up, and you’ll probably end the universe with a word. That was possible, wasn’t it, for a non-god to do? Or is that Buddhism? Or is he going to think of something so profound that it’s corny? No, that was cosmology. Which made sense, though, if everything was connected like Crews said. After all, cycles of creation were found in Buddhism, too, as well as Navaho belief and -
“Detective Crews?” Officer Phelps asked, over by a wooden schoolchair that’d been hand-hurled at some point. “Are you awake?”
“As a man, yes,” answered Charlie Crews. “As an insect, no.”
Great. Either Kafka or Chinese poetry. More connections. “Find anything?” Dani asked. Pretty sure this is a simple hit-and-run. Though the corpse was rather tightly-compacted for peace of mind.
“No flaws.”
What? “Not counting the three rounds this coyote did with a trash compactor.” Or we’re looking for the world’s largest cricket bat.
“Not a trash compactor,” Charlie Crews said. “Come here.”
“Crews -”
“If I’m wrong -”
“You’ll be quiet all day?” It may be noon already, but I won’t turn that down.
She could almost see the smile form on his face. “I was going to better the offer.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Phelps said.
You don’t know him, Dani thought to herself, not like I do, and crouched alongside Charlie.
“What do you see?” Crews asked.
The obvious answer - ‘a dead dog’ was too obvious, so she discounted it. “I see a body that’s been squashed flat.”
“And.”
So help me if this turns into another ‘that’s zen, isn’t it?,’ Crews. “I see evidence the bones’re fused together.” Hell of a powerful hit! “And…” an oddity drawing her attention, “the fur is standing on end.”
“Is it? I only noticed the fur was clean.”
‘Only’? “So what compacts a coyote, without flattening its pelt?” And then gives it a bath?
“Don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Phelps asked.
“That’s right,” Crews said, him and Dani standing up.
“But you’re Detective Crews!”
“I am. And I don’t know.”
“Oh,” disappointed. “Is there anything else, sir?” He’d pulled over because he’d seen Crews’ car pulled over, Reese and Crews looking at a body he couldn’t make out until he’d gotten closer.
“Nope.”
Once Phelps was gone, Crews asked, “Think he’ll realize we’re here off the clock?”
“Probably not,” Dani said. “Not unless he starts asking who authorized an investigation into an animal death.” And I read too much hero worship in him for that.
“No one. We just pulled over.”
“We know that, Crews.” He doesn’t.
“True. But the facts don’t change because of that.”
I suppose it’s better than ‘truth is truth.’ “And what’s what happened, is; like that?”
“That’s zen, isn’t it?”
“Let’s not start that again,” Dani groaned.
Crews nodded and said, “Shomā dust dārid beravim qahve bekhorim?”
“Sure, Crews, I’d love some -” and froze. “Coffee,” giving him a wary look. “You did just ask that, right?”
“Yup.”
“Pretty good,” though Crews, it’s ‘shomā dust dārin berim qahve bekhorim?’ Not…what you just said. Dani shook her head; she didn’t know anybody who talked like that. Just then, her cellphone rang. “Reese,” she said, answering it.
It was Charlie’s accountant. “Could the two of you hurry over? There was a woman here, and -”
Another one? “We’ll be right there,” though Dani wasn’t sure how much he’d heard, given the sound of a door being kicked open. He left the door ajar? Hanging up, she looked at Crews and said, “Well, looks like we’re going to your place,” and smiled at the look on his face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Crews went inside first, the front door still open and still on its hinges, Reese right behind him.
There was no need to check elsewhere, not when Earley’s “HELP!” sounded from the kitchen.
Maybe it’s just the acoustics, Dani felt, but that sounds suspiciously like he’s not getting any air through his nose.
Given the layout of Crews’ home, it was nearly impossible to sneak up on Ted’s assailant. But they managed. Whipping her gun to a targeting stance as she and Charlie spun into the kitchen doorway, Dani shouted “Hold it -
“Jo?”
“Dani?” Jo asked from where she crouched with a fluid ease, knee pressing Earley’s spine.
“What?” Ted asked.
“Huh,” Charlie said. “Say, Ted, did you offer our guest any orange juice?”
“She threw me to the floor before I could offer, actually.”
“Would you,” Crews asked Jo, “like some orange juice?”
Dani said, “Get off him, Jo.”
“Okay,” Jo said, entirely too cheery for Ted’s taste. As Jo stood, she yanked him to his feet while slapping cuffs on him. “Been a while.”
“Yeah. You?”
“Work.”
“Same here.”
“So, looks like my mom wins.”
Lowering her gun a bit, “What? You think - no, no, no, this’ Crews, my partner.”
“Hi,” Crews said, sparing one hand to wave.
“Hi,” Jo said. “Well, this is California.”
Crews was about to say ‘yes, it is,’ when he heard Dani make a sound he was certain he’d never heard from her before.
“What’re you doing here, Jo?” Dani asked. She’d used warmer tones, Crews thought, when talking to murder suspects.
“Following a trail,” Jo said, her voice still conversational and easy. “That’s what brought us here - and when we arrived, she was talking to him,” giving a light push to Earley’s shoulders.
Ted was looking at the linoleum between his feet.
“You can uncuff him now,” Crews said, his voice without the friendliness suggested by his choice of words. Dani suspected it had to do with the treatment Ted was getting.
“And you would be …?” Jo asked.
“Detective Charlie Crews. You’ve probably heard of me.”
“Nope.”
“Finally.”
“Excuse me?”
“Everyone else’s heard of me. But you haven’t.”
“Yeah.”
“That makes you unique.”
Dani rolled her eyes.
“Special,” Crews said.
Jo’s eyes narrowed, and she twisted one of Earley’s wrists.
“I’m gonna take a guess here,” a newly-returned Jack said at the kitchen’s door to outside, “that that wasn’t a good choice of words.” Seeing Reese go for her gun, “Whoa, hold up!” raising one hand and the other going for his gun.
“Who’re you?” Reese asked.
“Sheriff Jack Carter. Now why don’t we all holster our sidearms and produce our badges?”
When everyone was reluctant to do so, Jo took the opportunity to say to Jack, “I was starting to think you collapsed while in pursuit.”
“Oh believe me, Jo, I was seriously tempted to.”
“Maybe you did,” Crews said.
“What?”
“Maybe you did collapse while running after…”
“Phi Metsenger,” Jo reluctantly supplied.
“And now what?” Dani asked, almost laughing. “He’s astrally-projecting?”
“Mebbe,” Charlie said.
That’s definitely not zen.
Jack was getting worried. “I thought the docs said that stuff didn’t have any other side effects last week.”
“They’re being sarcastic,” Jo said.
“Mebbe,” Crews said.
“’Maybe’?” Jack repeated.
“Carter?” Jo said.
“Yeah?”
“Hush.”
And in that one word, “She sounds like you, Reese,” Crews said.
Yeah the whole say-it-one-more-time-and-I’ll-shoot-you. “You sure?” Dani asked.
“Yeah, it’s definitely there.”
“Now that we’ve all had a nice conversation, you think you can let Ted go?”
Jo let go, then unlocked the cuffs. “Don’t think about running.”
“I never do,” Ted said.
Slowly, with infinite care and attention on everybody else, the four of them produced their badges.
“There,” Jack said, “that wasn’t so (bad/hard).”
“Took the words,” Charlie said, “right out of my mouth.”
“Scary thought,” Dani said.
“I’d be hurt if -”
“I know.”
“Know what?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Crews asked.
“That’s right. Nothing.”
“Nothing,” Jo said, “doesn’t exist.”
Dani groaned silently.
“Are you sure?” Crews asked.
Dani grinned, figuring Crews would lay the smackdown on Jo.
“Positive,” Lupo said.
“But we have a word for it. We can talk about it.”
“We can talk about pink elephants. Doesn’t mean they’re real.”
“We don’t talk about pink elephants. Or white ones.” Looking over to his partner, “Have we ever talked about elephants, Reese?”
“No,” Dani said.
“Can we put our guns down now?” Carter asked.
“Sure,” Crews said.
“Lemmee see your badge,” Dani told Carter, who came over and - once her gun was holstered - handed his badge to Reese. Wait a minute! There was an extra flap to this - on one side, a normal sheriff’s badge, perfectly appropriate for a township like Jo’s. On the other… “Department of Defense?” Dani asked.
“Yeah,” Carter said, awkward. The second badge was a necessity, as you never knew when a government official would make a surprise visit. The first badge was just as much of a necessity, as you also didn’t know when a lost motorist would stop in Eureka, only that they would and did. “They’re both real.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“What gave you that idea?”
“I’ve got a daughter: I know all about disbelieving tones of voice.”
“Good for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Two.
tbc.
Fandom: Life, Eureka.
Author: Keenir.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: season 1 of both shows, scattered bits and pieces of s2 of Eureka. {definitely 2.01}
Summary: Phi Metsenger, a criminal having made her escape from Eureka, has landed in L.A. with Jo and Carter on her tail…looks like it’s up to Crews and Reese to save the day - and potentially the universe.
“That’s zen, isn’t it?” ;)
-------------------------------------------
Location: Eureka township
Henry and a dozen others had already been through, and none of them could offer an answer to his question. Nathan Stark sighed, looking around at the testing range; he could see why Carter would call it an empty room - that was essentially what it was - a lab left empty so tests could be carried out within it.
And the most recent person to use this room, was also the woman Carter and Lupo had been about to arrest. Dr. Phi Metsenger had waited here, on a chair which was likewise gone now, waiting for them to show - at which point she’d done something to trigger the gasket-sized device she’d invented…
And the three of them vanished, becoming not there in the space of a nanosecond (as the high-speed security cameras attested).
“What is it, Fargo?” Stark asked, suspecting who’d just arrived and was waiting behind him.
“We can’t find anything,” Fargo said. “We’re still looking, but we still aren’t any closer to determining just what Dr. Metsenger built, much less to what it does, and -”
Shutting out that droning and potentially endless voice, Stark pulled out his cellphone, speed-dialed #49, and “Afternoon,” … “Where?” … “I expect a report,” and hung up. To Fargo, Henry and Allison (who’d just arrived), “It’s a teleportation machine.”
“Really?”
“Are you sure?” Allison asked.
“According to Deputy Lupo,” Nathan said, “she and Carter are in Los Angeles.”
~~~~~~~~
L.A.:
In Dani Reese’s experience, there was a correlation to these things. That is to say that the longer Crews was silent, the more profound a statement that would trip out from his lips.
Thing is, though, that Crews was being awfully quiet for an awfully long time. Keep this up, and you’ll probably end the universe with a word. That was possible, wasn’t it, for a non-god to do? Or is that Buddhism? Or is he going to think of something so profound that it’s corny? No, that was cosmology. Which made sense, though, if everything was connected like Crews said. After all, cycles of creation were found in Buddhism, too, as well as Navaho belief and -
“Detective Crews?” Officer Phelps asked, over by a wooden schoolchair that’d been hand-hurled at some point. “Are you awake?”
“As a man, yes,” answered Charlie Crews. “As an insect, no.”
Great. Either Kafka or Chinese poetry. More connections. “Find anything?” Dani asked. Pretty sure this is a simple hit-and-run. Though the corpse was rather tightly-compacted for peace of mind.
“No flaws.”
What? “Not counting the three rounds this coyote did with a trash compactor.” Or we’re looking for the world’s largest cricket bat.
“Not a trash compactor,” Charlie Crews said. “Come here.”
“Crews -”
“If I’m wrong -”
“You’ll be quiet all day?” It may be noon already, but I won’t turn that down.
She could almost see the smile form on his face. “I was going to better the offer.”
“Sounds easy enough,” Phelps said.
You don’t know him, Dani thought to herself, not like I do, and crouched alongside Charlie.
“What do you see?” Crews asked.
The obvious answer - ‘a dead dog’ was too obvious, so she discounted it. “I see a body that’s been squashed flat.”
“And.”
So help me if this turns into another ‘that’s zen, isn’t it?,’ Crews. “I see evidence the bones’re fused together.” Hell of a powerful hit! “And…” an oddity drawing her attention, “the fur is standing on end.”
“Is it? I only noticed the fur was clean.”
‘Only’? “So what compacts a coyote, without flattening its pelt?” And then gives it a bath?
“Don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Phelps asked.
“That’s right,” Crews said, him and Dani standing up.
“But you’re Detective Crews!”
“I am. And I don’t know.”
“Oh,” disappointed. “Is there anything else, sir?” He’d pulled over because he’d seen Crews’ car pulled over, Reese and Crews looking at a body he couldn’t make out until he’d gotten closer.
“Nope.”
Once Phelps was gone, Crews asked, “Think he’ll realize we’re here off the clock?”
“Probably not,” Dani said. “Not unless he starts asking who authorized an investigation into an animal death.” And I read too much hero worship in him for that.
“No one. We just pulled over.”
“We know that, Crews.” He doesn’t.
“True. But the facts don’t change because of that.”
I suppose it’s better than ‘truth is truth.’ “And what’s what happened, is; like that?”
“That’s zen, isn’t it?”
“Let’s not start that again,” Dani groaned.
Crews nodded and said, “Shomā dust dārid beravim qahve bekhorim?”
“Sure, Crews, I’d love some -” and froze. “Coffee,” giving him a wary look. “You did just ask that, right?”
“Yup.”
“Pretty good,” though Crews, it’s ‘shomā dust dārin berim qahve bekhorim?’ Not…what you just said. Dani shook her head; she didn’t know anybody who talked like that. Just then, her cellphone rang. “Reese,” she said, answering it.
It was Charlie’s accountant. “Could the two of you hurry over? There was a woman here, and -”
Another one? “We’ll be right there,” though Dani wasn’t sure how much he’d heard, given the sound of a door being kicked open. He left the door ajar? Hanging up, she looked at Crews and said, “Well, looks like we’re going to your place,” and smiled at the look on his face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Crews went inside first, the front door still open and still on its hinges, Reese right behind him.
There was no need to check elsewhere, not when Earley’s “HELP!” sounded from the kitchen.
Maybe it’s just the acoustics, Dani felt, but that sounds suspiciously like he’s not getting any air through his nose.
Given the layout of Crews’ home, it was nearly impossible to sneak up on Ted’s assailant. But they managed. Whipping her gun to a targeting stance as she and Charlie spun into the kitchen doorway, Dani shouted “Hold it -
“Jo?”
“Dani?” Jo asked from where she crouched with a fluid ease, knee pressing Earley’s spine.
“What?” Ted asked.
“Huh,” Charlie said. “Say, Ted, did you offer our guest any orange juice?”
“She threw me to the floor before I could offer, actually.”
“Would you,” Crews asked Jo, “like some orange juice?”
Dani said, “Get off him, Jo.”
“Okay,” Jo said, entirely too cheery for Ted’s taste. As Jo stood, she yanked him to his feet while slapping cuffs on him. “Been a while.”
“Yeah. You?”
“Work.”
“Same here.”
“So, looks like my mom wins.”
Lowering her gun a bit, “What? You think - no, no, no, this’ Crews, my partner.”
“Hi,” Crews said, sparing one hand to wave.
“Hi,” Jo said. “Well, this is California.”
Crews was about to say ‘yes, it is,’ when he heard Dani make a sound he was certain he’d never heard from her before.
“What’re you doing here, Jo?” Dani asked. She’d used warmer tones, Crews thought, when talking to murder suspects.
“Following a trail,” Jo said, her voice still conversational and easy. “That’s what brought us here - and when we arrived, she was talking to him,” giving a light push to Earley’s shoulders.
Ted was looking at the linoleum between his feet.
“You can uncuff him now,” Crews said, his voice without the friendliness suggested by his choice of words. Dani suspected it had to do with the treatment Ted was getting.
“And you would be …?” Jo asked.
“Detective Charlie Crews. You’ve probably heard of me.”
“Nope.”
“Finally.”
“Excuse me?”
“Everyone else’s heard of me. But you haven’t.”
“Yeah.”
“That makes you unique.”
Dani rolled her eyes.
“Special,” Crews said.
Jo’s eyes narrowed, and she twisted one of Earley’s wrists.
“I’m gonna take a guess here,” a newly-returned Jack said at the kitchen’s door to outside, “that that wasn’t a good choice of words.” Seeing Reese go for her gun, “Whoa, hold up!” raising one hand and the other going for his gun.
“Who’re you?” Reese asked.
“Sheriff Jack Carter. Now why don’t we all holster our sidearms and produce our badges?”
When everyone was reluctant to do so, Jo took the opportunity to say to Jack, “I was starting to think you collapsed while in pursuit.”
“Oh believe me, Jo, I was seriously tempted to.”
“Maybe you did,” Crews said.
“What?”
“Maybe you did collapse while running after…”
“Phi Metsenger,” Jo reluctantly supplied.
“And now what?” Dani asked, almost laughing. “He’s astrally-projecting?”
“Mebbe,” Charlie said.
That’s definitely not zen.
Jack was getting worried. “I thought the docs said that stuff didn’t have any other side effects last week.”
“They’re being sarcastic,” Jo said.
“Mebbe,” Crews said.
“’Maybe’?” Jack repeated.
“Carter?” Jo said.
“Yeah?”
“Hush.”
And in that one word, “She sounds like you, Reese,” Crews said.
Yeah the whole say-it-one-more-time-and-I’ll-shoot-you. “You sure?” Dani asked.
“Yeah, it’s definitely there.”
“Now that we’ve all had a nice conversation, you think you can let Ted go?”
Jo let go, then unlocked the cuffs. “Don’t think about running.”
“I never do,” Ted said.
Slowly, with infinite care and attention on everybody else, the four of them produced their badges.
“There,” Jack said, “that wasn’t so (bad/hard).”
“Took the words,” Charlie said, “right out of my mouth.”
“Scary thought,” Dani said.
“I’d be hurt if -”
“I know.”
“Know what?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Crews asked.
“That’s right. Nothing.”
“Nothing,” Jo said, “doesn’t exist.”
Dani groaned silently.
“Are you sure?” Crews asked.
Dani grinned, figuring Crews would lay the smackdown on Jo.
“Positive,” Lupo said.
“But we have a word for it. We can talk about it.”
“We can talk about pink elephants. Doesn’t mean they’re real.”
“We don’t talk about pink elephants. Or white ones.” Looking over to his partner, “Have we ever talked about elephants, Reese?”
“No,” Dani said.
“Can we put our guns down now?” Carter asked.
“Sure,” Crews said.
“Lemmee see your badge,” Dani told Carter, who came over and - once her gun was holstered - handed his badge to Reese. Wait a minute! There was an extra flap to this - on one side, a normal sheriff’s badge, perfectly appropriate for a township like Jo’s. On the other… “Department of Defense?” Dani asked.
“Yeah,” Carter said, awkward. The second badge was a necessity, as you never knew when a government official would make a surprise visit. The first badge was just as much of a necessity, as you also didn’t know when a lost motorist would stop in Eureka, only that they would and did. “They’re both real.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“What gave you that idea?”
“I’ve got a daughter: I know all about disbelieving tones of voice.”
“Good for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Part Two.
tbc.