(no subject)
Heart and soul, I fell in love with you
Heart and soul, the way a fool would do
“I thought you hated that song,” Charlie says from somewhere over Michael’s shoulder as he hums and taps out one half of the piano duet. Little Emily Strong had just vanished, the second half of the duet falling silent.
Another day, another case, another voice at his ear gone and another round of wondering just how long he had till he completely lost it. 'It' being his mind, his badge, his career right along with everything he’s ever worked for.
“Oh, no-no-no, ‘hate’ is far too kind a word, my friend, but she wouldn’t leave me alone until I played it with her.” Michael spins around on the piano bench and finally faces the other man, his former partner - his currently dead former partner who was helping himself to a glass of bourbon.
“The girl?”
“The girl,” Raines confirms, blinking lazily with a slow and equally lazy nod of his head.
He’d told Charlie all about the case, just like he had with the one before it, the one before that one and the one that no doubt would land in his lap tomorrow or next week.
She was only ten - murdered, molested and left out in the open when that sicko was done with her. He can’t blame the little girl’s dad for taking justice into his own hands, killing the guy in cold blood. An eye for an eye. That’s how it went, right?
Emily’s father wasn’t a violent guy, Raines could tell that much. The guy was just pushed. Everyone has a breaking point, and that was his. Someone took his daughter away from him, took his world, violated her...
So Mr Strong stuck a knife in the guy’s eye.
Michael’s not one to cheer on vigilantes, but if it had been his daughter, he’s not so sure he wouldn’t have done the same.
“Eye for an eye,” he mutters, reaching for his glass on the top of the piano and draining its contents quickly, pulling a face as the liquid burns a trail down his throat, warming his insides, then pulling himself to his feet.
Bed sounded good now, before he had to get up and do this all over again tomorrow morning. “I’ll leave you to your drink. Gotta get up early tomorrow. If I miss the worm Daniel gets cranky.” He grabs his blazer and tie off the couch before starting upstairs, hoping this wasn’t going to be another sleepless night spent staring up at his ceiling.
Pushing the door open, he steps into his room, or what should have been his room, but definitely wasn’t. He didn’t even own a pool table. Glancing back through the door he had just come from, he doesn’t see his second floor hallway, just a closet that looked a lot like one that had been at a summer camp he’d gone to as a kid, but without all the glitter speckled glue crusted to the floor due to a swarm of overzealous children on stick-some-macaroni-on-a-wooden-box day.
“Not noooow,” he whines, dropping his hands to his sides in a huff and hanging his head in defeat. He closes his eyes tightly, hoping it will do away with the current hallucination and bring his bedroom back.
It doesn't work.
Off to his side, he hears the first few notes of Heart and Soul start up and quickly looks incredulously over at the jukebox the music seems to be coming from.
“Ha-ha-ahahahha....” Apparently his subconscious was feeling annoyingly cheeky tonight. “God, I hate this song...”
And my life.
Because you held me tight
And stole a kiss in the night
[Spoilers as to who done it for episode 1x06 behind the cut. Raines slips from canon immediately after this and as he's no stranger to hallucinations, he'll likely think your pup is all a part of this one. Charlie is part of the package deal, so if he starts talking to someone, it has nothing to do with that plot, it's just Raines. ST and LT, yes and yes]