Chapter Text
No sooner than the bullet enters the evidence baggie does the rain become downpour, a violent gust of wind knocking Cuno onto his back kicking and screaming onto the ice behind Harry. It's been icy and miserable all day, but now the city rains down upon the lot of them with fury. Harry offers the bullet to Kim for safekeeping, but the luitenant shakes his head.
"Keep it. Perhaps we should go inside, Detective? This has been a productive day."
Harry can hardly hear him over the wind as he slips the baggie into his pocket.
"Really? It's only.." He looks to his bare wrist. Did he have a watch? He's pretty sure he had a watch earlier, but he may be wrong. This does not stop him, though,"Myeah o' clock? The night is young!"
He can hear Cunoesse heckling him, though she's cut off as the fence she's latched on to blows over atop her. Defeated, the children scurry away from the scene.
"Whoah, maybe you're right. This seems kind of dangerous."
Kim only nods, and the two squint through the storm and make to retreat to the whirling-in-rags. Theres a patch of ice in their path, and Harry regards it with great suspicion as they approach. Harry psychs himself up and sets down a sturdy step so as not to take a tumble. Or, he tries to. In the end, he's too worked up and puts much too much force behind the action, slipping and fumbling wildly for purchase on solid ground. It's about as futile as his desperate grasp at Kim's sleeve, and he brings the two of them down. He hears Kim cry out and feels his own head make impact with the hard ground. As his vision fades to black, he finds it in himself to feel grateful the children hadn't seen them both eat shit just now.
The nothing that follows is cold and wet for what feels like forever.
It's the kind of quiet that makes you realize how full of sounds the world once was when you thought it was silent.
You are nothing, and you are nowhere, and yet you are vulnerable. An ant shivering and cold at the bottom of the bathtub, the droplet of water hanging from the faucet threatens to swallow you whole. You and the Presence that finds you there both know you are not where you belong. It is the tall mass that owns this figurative basin of porcelain, and as such is so much larger than your feeble mind might comprehend, it could send the flood down upon you and it would be right to do so- for it is big and you are very small. It takes you gently it its palm, though, and lifts you away. How kind. You lay languidly in it's grasp as it places you… somewhere else.
Harry jolts awake on solid concrete as a wave of smelly water crashes over him. This stinks, he's getting a little tired of being cold and wet. He just barely spots the bicyclist that splashed him as they glide past the wall of the alleyway… the alleyway? Harry's anger at the bicyclist drains out of him as he realizes, he is in an alleyway, on solid concrete and not the frozen dirt outside of the Whirling-In-Rags. Already hyperventilating, Harry decides to look around. Unfamiliar makes of cars and busses crawl past a street outside. A woman passes the opposite side of the road with something pressed to her ear- a radio? A phone? Again, the model is entirely unfamiliar. On the verge of a breakdown, Harry turns his back from the street outside and casts his gaze to the heavens, and there he sees it. The metal signage bridging from each wall of the alleyway reads 'Old Fish Market Close', and a row of silver fish swim along underneath the green sign. The first thing that hits him is that he can read the words- at least he is in someplace he can read and speak with locals. The next thing that registers in the corner of his vision is Lieutenant Kitsuragi sprawled unconscious on the ground. Or is that… two Kims?
One can hope, but that isn't actually the case. Feeling dizzy, Harry digs around in his pocket for magnesium. There aren't many tablets left, and he pours the lot of them down his throat. Already he feels much better, and kneels down to pat Kim gently on the shoulder. When he doesn't stir, Harry grabs ahold of the man's shoulders and shakes.
"Oh god- oh god, Kim- Stay with me, god damn it, turn away from the light-"
Harry is on the verge of deploying mouth to mouth, something he is aware of but can't actually remember how to execute, when Kim startles awake.
"Euh- huh, uah..?"
Harry nearly collapses with relief as Kim sits up and squints past his glasses lying askew on his face. Harry watches him set them right again on his nose and glance around.
"Kim, we're so fucking lost."
"Yes… have you figured out where we are?"
"…No. But I saw a woman two minutes ago. Maybe she can tell us."
Kim seems uneasy for a moment, but quickly manages a careful mask of neutrality as he nods. Harry helps him up on his feet and they run out of the alleyway.
The woman he'd seen earlier is roughly two blocks down the road by now, and she appears to be turning off onto a side street, so Harry breaks off into a sprint after her.
"Hey!" He projects his voice as loud as he can and waves his arms above his head to get the woman's attention. It works, and he sees the woman clutch her bag and cast a nervous glance over her shoulder.
"Hey! I have to talk to you!" She seems to say something into her radiophone and picks up her pace to a brisk speedwalk, disappearing around the corner.
Harry stops and places his hands on his hips, looking at the cars still passing by on the street between them. Behind him he sees Kim just catching up, breathing heavily.
"I think I scared her off."
"I think so, detective."
Harry looks around the street and spots it: a newspaper lying on the sidewalk.
"Here we go… Edinburgh… June 1st, 2016?"
"None of that is right. What is that?"
"I'm just reading what it says. You don't know where that is?"
"I have never heard of Edinburgh. And it is the year '51. This is very strange."
"Wow.." Harry folds the paper up and sticks it into his pocket,"So are we in the past, or the future?"
"We are in the present, detective. We are always in the present." He's looking at a parked car on the steet, though, and Harry knows everything seems pretty advanced to him too.
Harry just shrugs and has another look around. There's an elderly man coming their way down the sidewalk, and he seems unsteady as he comes down the hill. The roads are pretty steep in some areas, so Harry approaches him just as the old man trips on a rock and canters forward. He reaches out to catch him, and after a bit of fumbling around they manage to remain upright.
"Oh, bless you, sonny. That could've been a nasty fall." The man holds onto Harry's arm as he helps him the rest of the way down the hill. He gives Harry's bicep a little pat,"Who are you nice boys?"
"I'm a superstar."
"Kim."
"Well, you can call me Simon."
"Hey, do you know where Martinaise is?"
"Eh?" For a second Harry worries he didn't hear him right, and he prepares to yell at him again, but Simon smiles,"Ohh! I'm headed there too."
"You are?" Kim perks up, looking relieved,"Could you give us some directions? It would be a great help, we are lost."
"Oh, yes you are." Simon laughs,"Come on, walk an old man to the train. We're about four hours north."
Kim and Harry share a panicked look behind Simon's back, and they let the old man lead them away.
"Thank you.." Harry scratches his head,"How much are the tickets?"
"Money, money, money. You boys remind me of my Mike, don't worry so much. You help me get there, I will take care of you."
"That is very generous." Kim sends him another look Harry can't quite read, and they keep going. Over the course of their walk to the station Harry learns that Simon is a bit of a thrill seeker- enamored with skydiving and roller coasters and the like. All in all, he's actually a pretty cool dude.
They board the train and settle in for a long ride. Somehow Harry has run out of questions for Simon, who brings a book of crosswords out of his back pocket and gets to work completing them.
"Do you mind if I smoke?" Kim reaches to crack a window open, and pulls his pack of Astras from a pocket in his jacket.
"Ooh! I won't tell." Simon smiles and makes a motion- zipping his lips shut.
"I didn't know you smoke, Kim."
"I have a cigarette every night when I go over my notes. It's something of a ritual."
"I might want to pick up smoking. You have any more of those?"
Kim lights his cigarette,"I apologize, but I only brought one with me. I have exactly one cigarette every night while going over my notes."
"Hm. How did you get so cool, Kim?"
"What, this?" He just barely smiles,"This isn't cool. It's an unnecessary trial of will. And unhealthy."
Simon huffs a short laugh, though when the two glance at him he's got his nose in his book. After a moment's hesitation they carry on debriefing the day of investigation they'd had before their displacement.
During day one of their investigation they had found the hanged man's clothes, explored the doomed commercial area, questioned the Wild Pines representative Joyce Messier and the leader of the dock worker's union Evrart Claire, and gotten Measurehead to take the body down from the tree to do their autopsy where they found the hanged man was not only hung- but shot in the head. Harry takes the bullet out from his pocket and inspects it, and they're able to figure out what kind of gun the bullet was fired from. All in all, a productive day. Until…
"Now, we should discuss the obvious."
Harry nods seriously.
"We are in an unfamiliar city hours from where we were last. There are several inconsistencies with what we know around us, this place is entirely foreign."
"Like the date, and the cars, and the radiophones. But we can still read just fine."
"Yes. It is still unclear how this happened."
"D'you think someone involved with the strike moved us?"
"Perhaps… There has been no evidence pointing towards any possibility, which is frustrating." Harry thinks he might keep going, but he pauses for a long minute. "And… were we only four hours from Martinaise, sir?"
"Hm?" Simon looks up, and Harry just barely catches a mischievous glint in his eyes,"Yes, London. We're almost there, now."
"London?!" Harry stares at him slack jawed and Kim cringes.
"Oh, is that not right? Silly me."
Harry turns to Kim, who pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. He seems to be trying to keep it together. Out of the corner of his eye there's movement, and Harry looks back in time to see Simon crawling out of the window with surprising speed and agility. They both move to stop him but it's too late- the old man gives them a cheeky salute and tumbles out of the window.
Harry sits and stares out the window in shock as Kim drops his cigarette onto the seat and leaps up to look out the window after him. The train is moving too fast, it's too late for anything.
"My god- he's gone!" Kim sways slightly, and for the first time Harry notices a slight slur in his speech. He seems to be trying to hide it, but something is wrong.
"He… he just.." Kim sits back down and blinks hard,"We will need to notify the staff when the train stops, and…"
"He's gone." Harry reaches for his crossword book and investigates. There page the book is open to is unanswered except for three words, 'Enjoy Sky Blue'. He turns the book to show Kim, who squints to read the handwriting. With furrowed brow he makes note of the incident in his own notebook. His cigarette burns out on the seat.
"He had a son, a Mike? Maybe we can find him at the station."
"Maybe."
The rest of the train ride is tense, and they come about as close to understanding the incident as they do to finding Martinaise. When they exit at the London stop the station is oddly empty, and after looking around and finding no one to report to they leave the station. Harry notices him wince as they step back out into the daylight.
"Hey, are you okay, Kim?"
"Me? I am intact."
Harry accepts the answer as truth and they venture out into the streets, which are thankfully bustling with life. The first person they come across is a woman pushing a stroller.
"Excuse me miss, do you know how to get to Martinaise?"
"Sorry mate, never heard of it."
They peek inside the woman's stroller. There is a cat inside.
"May I pet your cat?"
"Oh, she's not friendly."
"Detective, let's move on."
The next group of people ready to give them the time of day are a gang of teens tagging a wall.
"Fellow kids!"
"What is up." Kim stumbles over an empty can as they approach.
"What do you cool cats know about time travel? Strictly hypothetically speaking."
The children giggle amongst themselves, and Harry begins to feel a little self conscious standing around in front of them until what appears to be the ringleader shouts out above the other's amusement.
"Looney toon's looking for the Mag!"
Giggles erupt into laughter, and Harry steps closer to talk to The Ringleader,"What's the Mag?"
"Yeah, go on and take your ouigi board to the Magnus Institute, brother."
The kids are only poking fun at them after that, and the noise seems to bother Kim, so they abandon them to try finding help elsewhere. The next person they meet is gracious enough to direct them to the Magnus Institute.
"It's a bit of a local spot. Everyone's heard of it,"They say,"I don't believe in that stuff. Must be fun work, though. You two take care, yeah?"
Harry expects Kim to protest the relevancy of this lead, but he simply follows along and Harry finds himself feeling excited to see some ghouls.
They enter and Harry gets a weird sensation, like he's being watched from every angle. The building has an open plan and is designed with light neutrals, with a minimalist vibe. And it is nigh unbearably cold- he feels that even though he may be sufficiently clothed, mere fibers do nothing to protect him from being exposed and vulnerable in the middle of this large lobby.
The woman sitting at the front desk holds none of this chill, she waves hello and smiles at them warmly and draws Harry in like a moth to a flame.
"Welcome in! What can I do for you, have you got an appointment?"
"What do you know about time travel?"
"Well, our machine is out of order at the moment, but-" The woman- Rosie Zampano, her nametag reads- cuts herself off when she sees the look on Harry's face,"Kidding, kidding. Have you experienced anything weird, sir?"
"The voices in my head don't know how I got here."
"Ah, you're in the perfect place. The archives team are out for lunch right now, but I can get you an appointment set up to make a statement in…" She does some clicking around on a sleek computer for a moment,"In, hm, an hour?"
"Where are they eating?"
"I don't know sir. Would you like an appointment?"
"Okay."
Kim leans forward onto the desk and Harry finally notices the sweat beading across his forehead.
"Oh, no, is your friend okay?"
"Kim?"
"That doesn't look good. Let me just-" She picks up her radiophone and switches on a light, and holds it up to Kim's eyes. He recoils and represses a little retch.
"He looks concussed. Do you know if he's experienced any head trauma recently?"
"….Oh." Harry feels like the biggest idiot. "Have you- this whole time? The whole time?" Kim makes a miserable little sound and Rosie puts her evil light away.
"You should probably see a doctor and make sure he gets some rest, those are no joke."
"No, yeah, of course, yeah, no, yeah, absolutely."
"See you later?"
"Yeah, for sure, we'll be back."
Harry puts a hand on Kims shoulder and guides them back outside, but he still seems to be doing a great job of pretending to be functioning normally.
"Food?"
"Alright."
Luckily enough, Harry finds a couple crumpled bills he vaguely recognizes as money on the ground on their way to what appears to be a sandwich shop down the road. They split a sandwich, Kim gets a crisp cup of water and Harry gravitates towards whatever the 'charged lemonade' is.
As Harry scarfs down his food and Kim nibbles away at his own, Harry notices a rather tall dark and handsome man stealing glances at them from across the restaurant. After what seems like much internal debate, he comes over to their table and looks Harry over. His gaze lingers on Harry's chest and just as he thinks the underground is so on, he realizes the man has a bit of a haunted look about him as he extends his arm for a handshake Harry accepts.
"I'm Antonio."
"Uh huh."
"You should know- too much caffeine isn't good for heart health." And he leaves them with that, exiting the restaurant without another glance back.
Harry stares down at his lemonade and feels like crying a little, because that felt like a really creative insult but he doesn't feel quite bright enough to understand it.
"Kim am i fat?"
"I do not think he was insinuating so."
"What was that about?"
"I don't know, detective. But you do run everywhere. Perhaps it would be wise to give your heart a rest."
"Yes, Kim." He gets himself a glass of water and they spend the following hour in silent reflection. A few times Kim appears to nod off, which Harry vaguely recalls the concussed are not supposed to do, so he gives his ankle a little nudge under the table.
When they return to the institute two people are talking with Rosie, who waves them over.
"Hey, you two! Glad to see you made it back alright. Sasha and Tim here just got back in, they can show you down to the archives."
Despite Tim's more relaxed demeanor, Harry gets a solid professional handshake from both of them.
"Nice to meet you both. Right this way, please." Sasha turns on her heel and leads them to a stairwell at the back of the lobby and they descend into the basement.
Tim notices Kim hanging onto the handrail and fishes around in his pocket for a little bottle,"Ibuprofen, mate? I think I've got something for nausea in my desk, too."
"Of course you do, Tim." Sasha rolls her eyes as Kim swallows a single painkiller dry.
"What can I say, I'm very conscious of health and wellness."
"Especially on Monday, right?"
"You know me so well, Sash. Speaking of- how long has it been since we've seen Martin?"
"Two weeks? I was planning on hatching operation care package tonight if he doesn't show up."
"Count me in on that. You know Stoker soup is magic."
"Sure thing. Here we are." The archives is a large space, but you wouldn't realize with all the filing cabinets and shelves transforming the office into a cramped labyrinth. From where Harry and Kim stand at the foot of the stairs they can see dozens of loose files just lying around. To put it politely, the department is in a state of disorganization. Sasha catches his eye and sighs.
"Miss Robinson left us quite the project. Sorry about the mess."
Tim moves to a closed door and presses his ear to listen in. Harry picks up on a muffled voice intoning from within and tries to listen as well, though he's not able to piece together the words. The room is decently sound proofed, he realizes. Tim walks away from the door towards one of three desks a few feet away.
"Recording. Y'know, I don't think he ate."
"Well, sorry you two, it'll be a minute before you can go in and do your statement. You can sit out here while you wait."
Kim does sit with Sasha and Tim at the one unoccupied desk in the office. Harry starts to surreptitiously poke around a shelf, and when the assistants either don't notice or don't care he picks a paper up and looks at it without really reading it.
"So.. what do you know about time travel?"
Kim has his head in his hands.
"Oh, I loved 'Back To The Future'."
"Everyone loves 'Back To The Future', Tim, have you read that short story about the butterfly effect? With, er.. the dinosaurs?"
"What are dinosaurs?"
"Want to see one?" Tim wiggles his mouse around on his desk and his computer lights up. Harry watches in fascination as he does something with something and inputs the word dinosaur into something else, and pictures of weird animals appear on the display.
"What the fuck is that?"
"That, my friend, is a t rex."
"Why does it have arms if they're so small?"
"I'm about to rock your world, buddy. Check this out." He does some more typing and finds an image of the t rex next to a very small human silhouette.
"Why is the person so small?"
"No, no, the person is normal. Thats how big the t rex is next to you."
"…I want to go home."
Sasha doesn't take her eyes off of her own work, but she lets out a laugh she'd been holding.
"Relax, there aren't any of these alive anymore. Where are you from, by the way?"
"We were in Martinaise."
"Sounds French."
"I don't… it's in Revachol?" Harry looks to Kim who nods in confirmation. He hears Sasha begin typing rapidly and she finally looks back over to them.
"Are you sure? There aren't a Martinaise or a Revachol anywhere. Anywhere being, the whole world. Both do have a bit of a French ring to it, though."
"What does this mean…" Harry begins to spiral at the implications of this when he notices the archives are perfectly silent.
Tim jumps up and knocks on the door before entering the office. Harry can hear them better now.
"Is that Moira Kelly's statement?"
"Yes. It's, well.. a creative one."
"I'll say. I've got another for you, these guys out here wanted to make a statement if you're done..?"
"Oh! Yes, send them in."
Harry and Kim step inside the office as the man at the desk labels a tape. In a stroke of pure luck, he recognizes a phrase noted in the open file on the desk.
"Enjoy sky blue?"
"What? Oh- Mrs. Kelly's son was a skydiving instructor. She claims the sky 'ate him'."
"Was his name Simon?"
The man squints at him, suspicious. "..No. Who are you?"
"I'm a time traveling super star."
"Right." There's another computer at this desk, and after the archivist messes with it for a moment it makes a pleasant little beep. "Statement of a time traveling super star, regarding… the time travel or the stardom?"
As soon as Harry opens his mouth to answer the computer makes a jarring screeching noise and the archivist hurries to shut it off.
"That.. we've been having some technological issues, I'm sorry about that."
He repeats his introduction onto a tape, and looks expectantly to Harry. "Statement begins."
"Well, we time travelled."
The Archivist doesn't reply to this, and Harry realizes he's waiting for further explanation.
"And then we woke up in the fish market and got on a train with Simon. And he jumped out the window. Then we came here and got lunch and a beautiful man spoke to me."
"Is that all?"
"And Kim has a concussion."
The Archivist fixes him with an annoyed glare,"Thank you for this.. valuable use of my time. We will look into the details and contact you with our findings. Statement Ends."
"Contact me how?"
"It's just a formality, I don't think that will really be necessary for this case."
"Wait- that's it?"
"That's it." He stands up to herd the two out of his office,"Frankly, I think it's clear we have higher priorities than disproving time travel here, and I don't appreciate these pranks. We have real work to do."
"I'm not lying! Kim, tell him."
"He's not lying."
"That man is concussed, neither of you hold any credibility. Get out of my- god, Martin! What- what the hell is- what are these things?"
A large disheveled man- the long fabled Martin- bursts into the office with a crazed look in his eyes and a mason jar filled with writhing white worms in his hands he holds up in the Archivist's face like a cross to a vampire.
"They're real, it was real-"
"Good lord, man, sit down." The archivist all but shoves Harry and Kim out of the office and shuts the door behind them.
Outside of the office Tim and Sasha stare looking concerned.
"Uh.. is he, you know, good?" Harry jerks a thumb at the closed door.
"Don't think so. Boss chewed you up and spit you out in record time, huh?"
"Sorry about Jon. He can be, um.."
"So you don't think I'm crazy?"
"Oh, man, you're off the chain."
"Tim." Despite Sasha's admonishment, Harry can't help but feel a little cool. He's off the chain, he's still got it! He shoots Tim the good old finger guns and is delighted when the fire is returned right back his way.
"Well.." Sasha sets her pen down and stands to guide them back out,"I'm sorry we couldn't do more for you."
"I do wish we could access the resources you have here." Kim starts to follow her out, and runs straight into a finely dressed man about his age.
"On that note," The man smiles and extends a hand to them. Harry's been getting quite a few handshakes today, though this time his grasp is sweaty and weak and he burns with shame. Stupid.
"I heard about your arrival from miss Zampano. Elias Bouchard, I'm the current head to this fine institute."
"That's a nice outfit, sir."
Just as Harry has his eyes on Elias' watch and cuff links he feels a soft elbow to his side and looks over at Kim, who is giving him a stern look. What?
"Why, thank you. Listen- I wanted to personally welcome you. If you'd like to return you may access our resources for your research."
"Thank you, Mr Bouchard, that's very helpful." There's that look again, Harry isn't sure what Kim really thinks about this.
"Of course. Best of luck to you two- and will you let Jon know, please?" The last half of his sentence is directed toward the assistants, who nod.
Just as Harry is about to ask for some money as well, Elias turns on his heel and starts back up the stairs and out of the archives.
"Does he usually welcome the public into your departments?" Sasha shakes her head to answer Kim.
"Actually," Tim frowns,"We're pretty closed off to the public. Except for some students- but they have to go through this whole process and request documents. That was pretty weird."
"Oh.. Why does he want us here?" Harry scratches his beard.
"Why does he do anything?" Sasha sighs and sits back down at her desk,"Maybe he's hidden the secret to time travel down here for you to crack."
"Really?"
"Probably not."
"Oh." Harry looks around, "So, do you have any more statements about this Simon guy?"
"Simon, Simon.." Tim spins in his chair,"There was a Simon in miss Kelly's statement we just recorded. And I've got one kind of… at the bottom of my pile here, i think could be connected. I don't know, I haven't dug into it yet. Why?"
"We met a man named Simon from Edinburgh this morning." Kim takes his notepad from his pocket.
"Edinburgh? That's quite the trip." Sasha had been trying to focus on her workload this whole time, but now they have her complete attention.
"He got us tickets for the train. And then he threw himself out of the window."
"Christ.. that does sound like our spooky Simon, though. This guy threw himself off of a.. what was it, Sash?"
"Are you talking about the cable car one? I don't know if that was Simon, was he mentioned by name? Er, we haven't researched or recorded that one yet. It's in The Pile."
"Speaking of- why do you record them two different ways?"
"Ah, it's really weird." Tim grins as Sasha groans.
"Some of the statements won't record digitally, and we have to use the tapes. It's only specific statements, which is.. really weird, yes. And really frustrating."
"So they're haunted."
Tim and Sasha share a glance, and Sasha shrugs,"I know computers, and there isn't anything wrong with ours."
Harry is gobsmacked by this revelation, of which he completely and wholeheartedly believes. Then another thought wriggles into his mind.
"Wait, wait, if Simon jumped off something in a statement, how did we meet him today?"
"Detective, these are probably not the same people."
"Hm, mhm, probably. Yeah."
"Detective?" Tim furrows his brows,"Are you-"
Just then the door to the office opens and Jon and Martin come back outside. They both seem calmer, though Jon scowls when he sees Harry and Kim.
"What are you two still doing here?"
"Sorry, who are they?"
"Boss! Elias actually just graced us with his presence, said they could come down here to research."
"Ah." Jon smiles tightly,"Isn't that just what we need right now. I'm going to go set up that cot."
Jon disappears into document storage and the assistants crowd around Martin.
"Martin, what happened?"
"Are you alright, man? We were about to come break your door down, swear."
"Well, it's a good thing you never came to check on me," He tries for a smile, but it does nothing to change the exhausted look about him,"Jane Prentiss followed me home after I searched Vittery's building."
"Woah, god!"
"Jane, is that an ex?" Harry coughs, moving to insert himself into the conversation,"I might know a thing or two about that."
The assistants stare at him for a moment too long. Stupid, embarrassing.
"Oh, no, she's.." Martin gets a faraway look in his eyes,"I hadn't met her before. She was in Carlos Vittery's old basement, y'know, I was looking around, and she chased me home. She's full of- of worms, they've burrowed all over her, she's full of those holes, it's awful. And contagious."
"God, Martin, are you sure you're okay? That's horrible. We thought you were sick."
"Yeah, yeah, she didn't get me. Nabbed my phone, though. She's an evil worm monstress, but apparently she can still send text messages."
"Jane Prentiss is a dangerous medical anomaly, it's perfectly natural." Jon emerges from document storage,"Cot's set up. I'm going to speak with Elias about increasing security… among other things."
Jon mean mugs Harry on his way back up out of the archives, and Tim speaks up.
"The cot- are you staying here? You know you can crash over at mine."
"Thanks, Tim. Jon made a good point, though, storage is sealed really well. I think.. I'm going to put the kettle on."
Things settle down after that, and the assistants seem less inclined to answer questions now. Tim hands over a couple of the files they had been discussing earlier, and Harry and Kim spend the remaining few hours of the workday camped out in the corner reading and discussing them, though nothing enlightening comes of it. At some point Jon comes back down, glares at them, and shuts himself into his office.
At five o clock Tim and Sasha leave, and Kim and Harry with them. They stand outside the Institute feeling lost.
"We should probably figure out some sort of shelter."
"Totally.." Harry looks up and down the street. It's too late to ask any more favors from either of the assistants, the doors to the institute are locked behind them, and there are no benches in sight. This doesn't seem like a part of the city that is hobo-cop friendly, but maybe.. "We don't have any more money. D'you think we could find an abandoned place to squat?"
Kim considers this, and seems to come to the same conclusion. "It seems unlikely."
"No harm in looking." They walk around for hours searching and asking around, though in the end they come up empty.
Harry leads them back to the restaurant they'd eaten at and into the alleyway beside it where the dumpsters lie. They don't seem to be locked, so Harry immediately hefts himself over the edge and digs around.
"I was wondering when we would do this again."
"You and me, Kim, we're in sync. There isn't anything good in here, though."
"Come down, Harry. We can set up camp on the ground and sleep in shifts."
Harry hops down and pulls out his RCM commander's jacket, laying it down like a blanket. "You sleep first, I'll keep an eye out."
Kim nods and sits down. He writes in his notebook for a little while before curling up and closing his eyes. It's a painfully uneventful night, but Harry's head is a crowded place and he finds himself spending the next hours contemplating the day's events and red-stringing together crackpot theories in his mind. In the end, he decides to continue entertaining himself while Kim sleeps. He seems like he needs the rest more.