FIC: [Haven] CLOCKWORK, Chapter 5 (Audrey/Duke/Nathan, R)

[roseveare]

PART 2

5.

There'd been plenty of weird Troubles, but nothing had prepared Nathan for this. He looked at his hands again, saw metal and delicate mechanical joints where skin and flesh and bone should be. He didn't feel it, though, and not-feeling it, he felt not much different in himself from how he usually... didn't feel.

"Jesus Christ, Nathan," Duke hissed at him, for the third time now, in the back of the patrol car.

At least he wasn't cuffed again. The officer had sort of ‘invited' their co-operation, given that Nathan looked like a machine and Duke was sporting a very obvious bullet scrape on his arm, and Audrey was... wearing a corset. Nathan had thought about taking a stand and stating that as Haven's Chief of Police, he wanted their co-operation, and definitely not a cell or an interview room, but too many questions would result.

Even if he could carry off the 'it's a costume' excuse, he hadn't any proof of his real identity, and trying to contact Haven Police Department for verification wasn't really an option at the moment.

Duke seemed almost to be more shocked by the transformation than Nathan himself was, but Nathan held to the fact that he wasn't recoiling away.

"I'm trying not to think about it," he muttered.

Audrey, on Duke's other side, caught the words and eyed him intently. She kept looking at both of them like she doubted their sanity. It was all the more a blow... more than realising how much they had been changed and how much he, physically, had been changed... to know that the one person they relied upon to keep everything together when a Trouble turned the world upside-down had lost her memory, and all knowledge of how to help them along with it.

Audrey's memory had already been under siege. Now it was gone, who was she? Nathan wondered. She'd taken the name Audrey Parker because she'd found her ID, but without Audrey's specific memories, was she as much Lucy? As much any of the other women who'd come before her? Her profile as she turned back to gaze out of the window at the normal Maine countryside they were passing through looked oddly hopeful, as if she saw more in this world that she recognised than the other one.

That had to have been an extremely confusing situation to wake up to.

Thinking back over their time together in the other world, Nathan decided she must have recognised and trusted both of them on some level, despite her memory loss and their different guises.

"I nearly killed you," Duke said. A small noise made Nathan look down, and discover Duke's fingers curled around his arm. "I thought you were just some lifeless, worthless machine."

"I could have killed you, too," Nathan said. He wasn't thrilled, when he thought about it, that he'd been kept prisoner by Duke on the airship. But then, something in him had prevented him from resisting too hard, from fighting with deadly force. "And you didn't. Neither of us did. We both knew on some deeper level that we shouldn't."

"And then there was Audrey. Thank God for Audrey." Duke nodded, though he was still pale. Now they'd stopped moving, running, panicking, Nathan had to wonder how much of the pallor could be attributed to the damage taken in the crash. How badly were they hurt? He'd thought at least that Audrey had landed well, but his own body had taken a severe battering twice over, and he wasn't sure how that would translate back to a form composed of flesh and blood. Duke had taken the brunt of the crash, and they hadn't had chance to assess his injury tally.

"I think I did know," Duke said, "but it was weird. It's like I hated you, really hated you. I know I don't like cops, but this story that was pasted over me... It felt so real at the time. It still feels pretty real now."

Nathan nodded. "Yeah."

"It's like remembering double."

It was a good summation. Looking back, Nathan could remember his human childhood, scuffed knees mostly felt rather than unfelt, the unfelt broken bone, and Garland a comforting father turning into a distant one by degrees. But he also had the memories of an automaton assigned to Garland Wuornos to learn his humanity, a distant and respectful relationship. His heart ached -- psychosomatic now more than ever.

In the front of the patrol car, the officer made a point of turning up the radio.

"This, though--" Duke covertly rapped his knuckles against Nathan's arm plate. "I mean, what the fuck even? How is this going to work out when the Trouble ends?" His fingers picked at the bandaging over the broken plate. "Is this a broken arm? What about the rest? You were fucking rattling as we crossed the field."

"I'll repair it," Nathan said. "With a toolkit."

Being able to remember both lives at least meant he would be able to repair himself, if he was able to get hold of the tools to do so. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference, but while he was under this Trouble's influence, with a form that could be repaired, he should definitely try. He should have thought to take the tools from the Cape Rouge. "Just as big a question for you: we're out of the Trouble's influence. Why am I still like this? If I can remember, why isn't my body normal?"

Duke frowned. "I don't know, but given the state it's in, I'd say just as well it isn't. We need to get that toolkit, stat. Maybe it's something to do with Audrey dragging you through, but it could be it needs longer for the reversal to take effect or we're still too close within range. If we're lucky, it's the sort of one-time transformation that holds its own ontological inertia, you're stable as you are, and the Trouble itself will have to be reversed to put you back."

Nathan nodded grimly. "That sounds like a plan, either way." It might not be just his luck to end up like this, he reminded himself. What had happened to his fellow officers? Had Stan and Rafferty, being lower ranked, fared even worse? There had been enough other automata, though, to make him wonder if the rest were originally people at all, or just background detail for this strange world that had been created by the Trouble. There was definitely at least some of that going on, because Haven PD hadn't been that big, and the sprawling city-state of Heppa had a far larger population than Haven.

"Yeah," Duke agreed softly. His dark eyes had gone all warm and liquid, and apparently he was intent on pinning Nathan's gaze, even if that was composed right now of nothing but glass. "We're fixing this. Don't you doubt it."

Out of sight of the officer up front, down in the negligible gap between their adjacent thighs, Duke curled his hand around Nathan's broken metal hand, entwining their fingers.

Audrey was looking at them very oddly.

"What's got into the two of you? One moment you can barely be kept from fighting, and now the whispering and..." Her eyes ticked down to their hands.

Duke and Nathan exchanged glances. Well, this was going to be different. Usually it was up to Audrey to explain the reality of the situation to the two of them. Nathan had no idea how things would work out, this way around.

"It's complicated," Duke said. "We'll explain later." With a jerk of his head toward the officer in the front of the car, he offered out his other hand to Audrey, but she sank back warily and shook her head.

She didn't remember loving them. She had kept them together and kept them from killing each other, but she didn't consciously remember what they all meant to one another, the way Nathan and Duke now did.

Duke sighed, and Nathan squeezed his hand, very careful to keep the pressure light.

This was going to be far too complicated to whisper in bite-sized hints across the back of a patrol car.

Even if the police officer seemed to really like hip hop.

***

It was an interview room, and not a cell, and they'd been given coffee. Nathan frowned at his cup and didn't drink. He was fairly sure he couldn't drink, and he'd have to sneak some of his coffee into Duke's cup, out of sight of the camera, once Duke had chance to drink enough himself.

Audrey had been led away by a female officer to find her some real clothes and also, no doubt, to question her about what had happened without himself and Duke around to influence her responses.

"We're not under arrest," Nathan said to the very jittery Duke, keeping his voice low. "They only want to find out what happened to us. When three people--" two people, strictly "--show up looking like this, the police are going to ask questions." If they were any good at being police.

"I know we're not under arrest," Duke shot back. "I am familiar with all kinds of being picked up by the police, at least half of that courtesy of you." He gulped his coffee and twitched. Then he leaned in closer. "One phone call, Nathan. I have two IDs I can access right now with cash reserves vrtually on-hand. We can get some decent clothes, check into a hotel and get cleaned up, hire a car, and figure out what the hell we're going to do about this Trouble."

"Put Haven back," Nathan asserted, nodding. "But we need to let this situation play out first, or we'll only risk raising suspicion."

"Audrey needs a hospital," Duke said. "She can't remember. She always remembers. She must have... hit her head like in some crazy amnesia movie thing? Does memory loss really happen like that?"

"I'm pretty sure it's more serious if it happens in real life. The police should make sure she's provided with medical attention..."

"She needs scans. I guess, at least, we know she can get scans," Duke said. "You... I don't even know what to say." He spread his hands, indicating Nathan's body.

"Yeah. I know," Nathan said again grimly. "Toolkit."

"Tin Man." As Nathan narrowed his eyes, Duke quickly added, "I swear, that isn't even funny. I'm as horrified about this as you. Probably more," he added, reflectively.

"Well, like I said, I'm trying not to think about it, so don't you either."

"Which is such a reasonable reaction it's not reasonable," Duke emphasized. "Nate, your brain is a machine. It's wound up by a key."

Nathan couldn't help but wonder if Duke was right. If he'd be more worried about Audrey, for example, if he had a real body to experience physical anxiety reactions, even if he still wouldn't feel them. Everything seemed... even. Flat. Unusually so.

But he only said, "Keep it down," and looked worriedly to where the camera was. They probably weren't actually being watched. This was a small station, smaller than Haven's, and Cawbrook was a much smaller town. If they had a parking violation at the same time as this, they were probably stretched and thus focusing all their attention on Audrey while they left himself and Duke to rattle.

Cawbrook did have a medical centre, if Nathan remembered rightly, so the facilities were there to get Audrey checked out once the immediate problem was sorted. That was if Cawbrook PD didn't drive her there themselves. Duke could probably use some attention, too.

"I have no idea how they are buying the 'costume' explanation for one single second," Duke said.

"Same reason anyone explains any Trouble off as something rational," Nathan muttered. "No-one wants to know."

"Fucking Haven," Duke said. "I wonder if anyone's even noticed the great big invisible wall. Around, what, sixty miles of Maine coastline? More? The crazy has really outdone itself this time."

Nathan grimaced and shook his head, having no answer. "It's good that you have resources," he settled for. "Even if they are crooked."

"We'd be sunk without my crooked resources." Duke clanked his cup down and said, "Give me your coffee, appliance boy."

"At least we have a pretty good idea whose Trouble this is." Nathan frowned as he handed across the cup. "How we're going to find him and make him stop it is another matter."

"Beating the snot out of him sounds good as a starting point," Duke said darkly. "Though I guess it doesn't have to be him. Could be another of his fantasy-Victoriana obsessed friends."

"Pretty sure it's Malcove." The last time they'd met, the guy had called him a 'rulebook obsessed clockwork drone'. Nathan hadn't wanted to shut down his plans for a damned steampunk convention, even though something being good for tourism was a mixed blessing when the tourists were unknowingly throwing themselves in the path of whatever the Trouble of the moment was. He'd just wanted all the health and safety and public liability documentation in order, which it hadn't been. "Called me a tinpot dictator and spat in my face," he added reluctantly, kind of knowing what he was going to get from Duke.

"Well, you could've let it go. I was looking to pick up a decent profit from catering for his damn convention."

"This isn't my fault!" Nathan snapped. "Don't you think the insurance documentation matters, in Haven of all places?"

"Insurance does not cover the Cape Rouge in the middle of a field miles out of Haven, and I do not even know--" He took a deep breath and Nathan could practically hear him internally counting. "Insurance does not cover this." He huffed a sigh and placed his hand on Nathan's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Nate."

"I'm sorry about the Rouge." Though now that he thought back to it, they'd been flying in an airship transformed from Duke's boat??? "It sucks."

"It does suck. But there's no way that frame was light enough to fly based on the laws of physics in the normal world, so it's no wonder it started to come down when it got near the edge of the Trouble's influence."

"There's no way a perfectly functioning clockwork man obeys the laws of normal science, either." Nathan spread his hands again, turning them over, watching the mechanisms of the fingers move. "By that logic, I shouldn't be okay like this. Do you think maybe I'm going to just... stop?"

"What if it's your humanity maintaining it?" Duke suggested. "Like... I don't know. Life force. Soul. Aura. Energy field."

Nathan snorted his opinion of the New Age meander.

"Okay, but I do think that probably the sooner we get back inside the Trouble, the better." Duke's face froze halfway through another gulp of Nathan's coffee and he choked, managing just about to swallow the mouthful down rather than spray. "Wait. What if we forget again?"

"What?" Nathan asked, confused.

"When we go back. What if we're... you know, the airship privateer and the clockwork cop again? Likely, I'd think, even. We didn't remember being ourselves until we broke out of the Trouble. There's no reason to think stepping back in will do anything but put us right back under its influence."

Nathan was very much afraid Duke had the right of it. "It doesn't matter. Audrey remembers. She doesn't remember the real world, but Troubles don't affect her, so no matter what, she'll remember what we tell her now."

"It's going to be a fun conversation," Duke said glumly. "Talk about tables turned. But when she's back to normal, she's going to love it."

"We might remember, anyway," Nathan said, hoping fervently.

The door clicked softly open behind them, and they both turned as the police officer from earlier stuck his head around the door. Nathan took a step back out of Duke's space, and the officer snorted. "You boys don't fret. Got a nephew wired that way, s'okay with me. Partner's a damn good cook. Didn't miss the hand-holding in the car, either."

Nathan and Duke exchanged careful glances. "Uh, thanks," said Duke. "Does this resounding rainbow accolade mean we're free to go?"

"Door was never locked. Just getting the facts from your girl. Sister, huh? Figure you'll want to get checked out at the medical centre all three of you 'fore you go make arrangements to try retrieve your vehicle. Pretty lucky walking away intact from any kind of air crash. I'm still trying to get in touch with the landowners, but you can go. Miss Parker gave me a contact number. Better know where you'll be staying, though."

"Can you recommend somewhere?" Nathan asked, hearing his voice come out rather hoarsely, gears or no gears. He wondered how Audrey had explained the bullet wound in Duke's arm.

"Pickwick Hotel is just a shake up the road, can drop you there after the medical centre."

"Then we'll be there," Duke said, smiling winningly and making an expansive trust-me gesture.

It still always amazed Nathan that that seemed to work on people. He would have snorted, despite the situation, but discovered that didn't work without actual functioning nostrils. It left him oddly dismayed for a moment.

Out in the corridor, Audrey was standing in a clean white T-shirt and blue PD exercise pants, restlessly jogging from foot to foot. Her face cleared a bit when she sighted them both, and she made a false start to dart forward, then caught herself and headed over more soberly.

"Audrey." Nathan held out his hand and she let him take her arm and draw her in. Of the three of them, she did not understand this world in her current state. If she'd said anything out of place...

"I'm okay," she said. She looked at Duke. "They said it was probably hunters who shot at you, at your plane. A few stray bullets. Nobody around here would have intended to shoot us down. But they're going to try find out who it was."

"That's great," Duke said, carefully. He looked at Nathan, the confusion hovering visibly in his eyes. He hushed his voice right down and dared ask, "Audrey, do you remember?"

She made a quick shake of her head and slid her eyes to one side. Nathan followed and found a calendar on the wall: airplane pictures. Yes, they have planes here. Whatever damage her memory had taken, her mind was still as quick as ever.

Duke huffed out what was left of his breath. "Okay. Can I... make a phone call?" he asked the police officer nervously. Possibly fake nerves, Nathan thought, watching the performance cynically. "You remember I get a phone call, right?"

"You're not under arrest, Duke."

"You can still make the phone call, kid," the officer assured him, with a slap on the shoulder, and pointed at a phone in the corridor. He eyed Nathan critically while Duke went over there. "You going to wear that gear all day?"

"Uh, no," Nathan stuttered. "But it's... glued in place. I should -- I should go to the hotel first. To get rid of it. I'd hate to alarm anyone at the hospital."

"Thought you were some kind of an alien robot when I first laid eyes on you," the officer guffawed.

Audrey echoed his laugh, doing better than Nathan, who'd frozen. "Oh, he worked on it for weeks. It's such a shame it got all scuffed up in the crash."

"Still, like wearing a suit of armour, right? Might've saved your hide." The officer thumped Nathan's shoulder and did a double-take when the gesture elicited a rather too hollow clang, and his stare picked up a more intent, puzzled cast again.

Duke returned, forehead creased but the set of his mouth satisfied. "I need to make a stop at the bank. Then I can cover the hotel and medical. Okay?"

The officer nodded, too distracted by his unease with Nathan to be much perturbed by the suggestion. "Best get going," he said after a nerve-racking pause. He dragged his eyes and hand away from Nathan's shoulder and whatever he thought he'd felt and seen.

Relieved, Nathan fell in behind Audrey and Duke, as far from the other police officer as possible.

He didn't trust the legality of Duke's resources, but it seemed he had no choice in this instance. Certainly it seemed like he could barely dare to risk showing himself in public, let alone do much to affect their fortunes.

***