black_sluggard (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
black_sluggard) wrote2012-03-27 12:40 pm
black_sluggard) wrote2012-03-27 12:40 pm
Entry tags:
(Fic) Black Edelweiss: Interlude 11
Title: Black Edelweiss
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 1,905
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 10 // MAIN // NEXT: Interlude 12
Konrad & Charles—Queens, New York; August 1968
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" Charles asked.
It took Konrad several moments to pull his attention away from the bustling activity surrounding them. He was having enough trouble trying to piece together what happened in his own head, let alone answer that same question for anyone else. His thoughts were too scattered for him to focus—on anything really—and the setting seriously wasn't helping.
"I—" Konrad took a slow, steadying breath, shutting his eyes against the harsh, bleaching lights. "Can it wait until I'm not standing half-naked in the middle of a hospital?"
Not that Charles Deveaux wasn't very good at what he did, but unnoticed or not Konrad felt horrifically exposed. It was more than just the fact that, at that moment, he was dressed in nothing more than a stolen lab coat which barely reached mid-thigh. His nerves felt...raw. Like his skin had been removed and there was nothing between him and the rest of the world. He blamed it on the smell of disinfectant. That smell seemed to push its way past all his usual efforts to keep himself contained, tugging painfully at the loose threads of memory that threatened to unravel his composure. Normally Konrad would shove those memories back into the dark parts of his subconscious, but things were confused right now, off balance. It was taking him much longer to return to any kind of equilibrium, and for now that left him open to things creeping up on him out of the hidden places they were normally kept.
Really, it was all Konrad could do at that moment not to give in to blind, ruthless panic.
Charles seemed to sense that, either conventionally or in his own unique way. Konrad had difficulty interpreting the soft noise he made, but whatever it signified it clearly wasn't an argument, and the younger man led him slowly out of the building. It was dark outside, and Konrad realized he had no idea of the hour. In any case, though summer was getting late the air was still warm in spite of the breeze that tickled the backs of his calves. Closing his eyes Konrad took a deep breath letting the sounds of the city seep in and fill him. He let them anchor him reassuringly in the proper place and time, and when an ambulance came screaming into the receiving bay Konrad managed not to jump or flinch. He followed Charles to the car, not wanting to watch the paramedics unload their damaged cargo.
Still, though the anxiety was beginning to pass, once he had slid into the passenger seat and shut the door behind him several moments rolled past before he realized the car wasn't starting. Konrad turned to find Charles staring at him expectantly.
"I thought you couldn't die?" Charles asked finally when Konrad's blank stare was all that answered his own.
"Well I didn't, obviously," Konrad said, affecting an indifference that he in no way felt.
Charles gave him a long look. At first Konrad thought he was merely unappreciative of the observation, but what he saw in the other man's eyes was more focused, searching.
"What?" Konrad finally asked, unnerved by the scrutiny.
"Just tell me this wasn't..." Charles trailed off, uncertainly.
"Wasn't what?" Konrad asked.
A beat passed before Konrad managed to decode the seriousness and concern in the other man's expression and come up with the answer on his own.
"Wait," Konrad said, feeling a little stunned as it dawned on him. "You think I tried to kill myself."
Charles shifted in his seat
"Look," Charles said, turning to stare out the windshield, "I don't like prying in on friends, but sometimes I can't help what I see or hear. And I know—"
Charles bit off the end of his sentence, seeming to think over his choice of words.
"I know you're not as content with your situation as Adam is," he finally said.
Konrad looked away. The telepath's observation was both critically understated and impossible for him to refute. However, as unhappy as Konrad so often was with his situation, as Charles had put it, his displeasure at present stemmed from having had yet another life which he had come to enjoy taken away from him. Though he may not have achieved the goals with which he had begun that life, in spite of the ugliness and the danger he had encountered on the job Konrad had felt more at home—more at peace—during his time as Officer Richard Conway than he ever had as the family man, Dorian Gray. Konrad would never have chosen to end that prematurely.
Staring at the same empty space outside the car, Konrad briefly debated whether he should try to explain this latest...misadventure. He supposed he owed Charles that much for his help, and there was little enough for him to lose at this point.
"It was a bank robbery," Konrad finally supplied, letting his head fall back against the seat. "They had hostages. One of them was woman. Young. Dark hair, dark eyes, real pretty."
He paused, hesitating before he released a sigh, dropping one final pertinent detail.
"And she was pregnant," he added quietly.
In the back of his mind, he could almost hear Adam sniggering, and Konrad was glad the other immortal wasn't there to hear it. Honestly, the story couldn't have sounded more contrived if he actually had made it up. Beside him, Konrad heard Charles echo his sigh, leaning against the steering wheel and rubbing his eyes.
"Jesus."
"I had to, alright?" Konrad said briskly, plowing quickly ahead through his account. "It was a long shot they'd even take the trade, but the gunman was sweating, and I could tell he didn't want her on the end of his gun any more than I did."
When he dared a glance at Charles, Konrad realized he was so used to Adam's scorn that he was almost surprised when the telepath merely nodded his head. Konrad paused, taking a deep breath and dragging his fingers through his hair. He felt them snag on the blood which had dried at the back of his head, turning soft almost-curls into crusted, gummy tangles.
"Shit..." Konrad breathed, realizing, "I don't even know how it went down after I—"
"After you died," Charles interjected, his voice calm but not absent a certain horror.
"I guess," Konrad allowed after a moment. It wasn't like he could call it anything else. "I just can't understand why it took me so long to recover. It's never taken that long..."
Of course, he had never been shot in the head before. Carding through the gory mess at the back of his head, his fingers touched the spot, now fully healed, where the bullet had entered his brain.
"You make it sound like you die a lot," Charles said uneasily.
Konrad let his hand drop to his thigh. Things were still scrambled in his head—so literally that his stomach churned at the thought. He took a shaky breath before mustering an answer.
"It's been a while," Konrad admitted, as if it mattered, "but let's just say there's more to my fear of hospitals than unwanted questions."
And now he had fresh new fodder for his existing nightmares...
Stuck trying to make any sense of what had happened, Konrad thought it was like he had just been switched off until the bullet had been removed. Once that chore had been done he seemed to have come to as quickly as normal—so much as the word ever applied to him—though he had definitely been...confused. In fact Konrad had knocked out the coroner as soon as he had woken. And he had felt bad about that from the moment he had come to his senses, but for a few terrifying moments Konrad had thought he was back there—back in Poland, and still subject to Mengele's frightful ministrations.
As if his entire life between then and now had been nothing more than another of the safe illusions he had used to conjure in his head...
Konrad had always made a point to keep Adam's current contact information memorized in case—well, in case any strange emergency like this ever popped up. Unfortunately, the last Konrad had heard the other immortal was in Los Angeles. Thankfully however, after Charles and Kaito had tracked him down following their brief encounter during the riots, Konrad had had the foresight to add their company's number to his mental roster as well. Fortunately for him, Charles had still been in New York, and the young man's ability had been perfectly suited for digging Konrad out of the mess he had found himself in.
Unfortunately, it was well suited to digging out other things as well.
"Christ..."
From the look on his face, Charles must have seen or felt some of the things that had gone through his head upon waking—the memory of a faded memory of Konrad's deepest hell. Though Konrad had only the loosest understanding of what the man's ability allowed him to experience, he figured Charles couldn't have seen far past what he had suffered. Otherwise, Konrad was sure, there would be less sympathy in his horrified expression than disgust.
Silence settled in for a long moment, and while Konrad might have been content to let it stay, a thought occurred to which forced him to break it.
"I think—" Konrad paused a moment, considering his phrasing. "I think it might be best if this thing stays between us."
Charles looked at him, his expression turning apprehensive in a way that made no sense unless the telepath knew what was in Konrad's mind already.
If Adam was aware that they suffered a weakness like the one that had left Konrad incapacitated then he had kept the information to himself because he wasn't comfortable with anyone else knowing it. If Adam didn't know, Konrad couldn't imagine him being happy of the discovery. When it came down to it, Konrad didn't think he needed to worry that Adam would do anything to him in order to keep that secret safe, but for Charles, or Angela, or Kaito—especially Kaito—it might be a very different story.
He would think of something else to tell Adam, Konrad decided. They were all good kids, and the last thing he wanted was to put any of them at risk.
As far as he went, Konrad supposed Adam may have had fair motivation in keeping that weakness hidden. After all, Charles hadn't been entirely wrong. In fact, had he been handed this new information any other way Konrad could think of several times in his life when he might have been tempted to make use of it. It was different learning of it the way he had, however, and Konrad realized with a small sting of surprise just how afraid he had been. Surprise not because he had felt fear—there were plenty of things in this world that terrified him—but because he had been, for the first time in decades, afraid for his life.
If he were ever offered the chance to grow old and die, Konrad still thought he would take it in a heartbeat, but as far as suicide was concerned... No. His long life wasn't a hardship to him because he wanted to die.
It was a hardship because he wanted a chance to really live.
And once more the bell had rung on the closing of a life, leaving Konrad to contemplate the beginning of a new one. Yet perhaps his next life needn't be subject to the same limited expiration date.
"So, that company of yours," Konrad asked. "Does your offer still stand?"
Sitting up straight in his seat, Charles nodded.
"Of course, Richard."
"Konrad," he corrected.
"Pardon?"
"My name," Konrad said. "My real name."
It felt so strange saying it after so many years—it had been decades since anyone but Adam had called him by his name.
"Konrad Reichardt."
PREV: Interlude 10 // MAIN // NEXT: Interlude 12
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 1,905
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Interlude 10 // MAIN // NEXT: Interlude 12
Konrad & Charles—Queens, New York; August 1968
"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" Charles asked.
It took Konrad several moments to pull his attention away from the bustling activity surrounding them. He was having enough trouble trying to piece together what happened in his own head, let alone answer that same question for anyone else. His thoughts were too scattered for him to focus—on anything really—and the setting seriously wasn't helping.
"I—" Konrad took a slow, steadying breath, shutting his eyes against the harsh, bleaching lights. "Can it wait until I'm not standing half-naked in the middle of a hospital?"
Not that Charles Deveaux wasn't very good at what he did, but unnoticed or not Konrad felt horrifically exposed. It was more than just the fact that, at that moment, he was dressed in nothing more than a stolen lab coat which barely reached mid-thigh. His nerves felt...raw. Like his skin had been removed and there was nothing between him and the rest of the world. He blamed it on the smell of disinfectant. That smell seemed to push its way past all his usual efforts to keep himself contained, tugging painfully at the loose threads of memory that threatened to unravel his composure. Normally Konrad would shove those memories back into the dark parts of his subconscious, but things were confused right now, off balance. It was taking him much longer to return to any kind of equilibrium, and for now that left him open to things creeping up on him out of the hidden places they were normally kept.
Really, it was all Konrad could do at that moment not to give in to blind, ruthless panic.
Charles seemed to sense that, either conventionally or in his own unique way. Konrad had difficulty interpreting the soft noise he made, but whatever it signified it clearly wasn't an argument, and the younger man led him slowly out of the building. It was dark outside, and Konrad realized he had no idea of the hour. In any case, though summer was getting late the air was still warm in spite of the breeze that tickled the backs of his calves. Closing his eyes Konrad took a deep breath letting the sounds of the city seep in and fill him. He let them anchor him reassuringly in the proper place and time, and when an ambulance came screaming into the receiving bay Konrad managed not to jump or flinch. He followed Charles to the car, not wanting to watch the paramedics unload their damaged cargo.
Still, though the anxiety was beginning to pass, once he had slid into the passenger seat and shut the door behind him several moments rolled past before he realized the car wasn't starting. Konrad turned to find Charles staring at him expectantly.
"I thought you couldn't die?" Charles asked finally when Konrad's blank stare was all that answered his own.
"Well I didn't, obviously," Konrad said, affecting an indifference that he in no way felt.
Charles gave him a long look. At first Konrad thought he was merely unappreciative of the observation, but what he saw in the other man's eyes was more focused, searching.
"What?" Konrad finally asked, unnerved by the scrutiny.
"Just tell me this wasn't..." Charles trailed off, uncertainly.
"Wasn't what?" Konrad asked.
A beat passed before Konrad managed to decode the seriousness and concern in the other man's expression and come up with the answer on his own.
"Wait," Konrad said, feeling a little stunned as it dawned on him. "You think I tried to kill myself."
Charles shifted in his seat
"Look," Charles said, turning to stare out the windshield, "I don't like prying in on friends, but sometimes I can't help what I see or hear. And I know—"
Charles bit off the end of his sentence, seeming to think over his choice of words.
"I know you're not as content with your situation as Adam is," he finally said.
Konrad looked away. The telepath's observation was both critically understated and impossible for him to refute. However, as unhappy as Konrad so often was with his situation, as Charles had put it, his displeasure at present stemmed from having had yet another life which he had come to enjoy taken away from him. Though he may not have achieved the goals with which he had begun that life, in spite of the ugliness and the danger he had encountered on the job Konrad had felt more at home—more at peace—during his time as Officer Richard Conway than he ever had as the family man, Dorian Gray. Konrad would never have chosen to end that prematurely.
Staring at the same empty space outside the car, Konrad briefly debated whether he should try to explain this latest...misadventure. He supposed he owed Charles that much for his help, and there was little enough for him to lose at this point.
"It was a bank robbery," Konrad finally supplied, letting his head fall back against the seat. "They had hostages. One of them was woman. Young. Dark hair, dark eyes, real pretty."
He paused, hesitating before he released a sigh, dropping one final pertinent detail.
"And she was pregnant," he added quietly.
In the back of his mind, he could almost hear Adam sniggering, and Konrad was glad the other immortal wasn't there to hear it. Honestly, the story couldn't have sounded more contrived if he actually had made it up. Beside him, Konrad heard Charles echo his sigh, leaning against the steering wheel and rubbing his eyes.
"Jesus."
"I had to, alright?" Konrad said briskly, plowing quickly ahead through his account. "It was a long shot they'd even take the trade, but the gunman was sweating, and I could tell he didn't want her on the end of his gun any more than I did."
When he dared a glance at Charles, Konrad realized he was so used to Adam's scorn that he was almost surprised when the telepath merely nodded his head. Konrad paused, taking a deep breath and dragging his fingers through his hair. He felt them snag on the blood which had dried at the back of his head, turning soft almost-curls into crusted, gummy tangles.
"Shit..." Konrad breathed, realizing, "I don't even know how it went down after I—"
"After you died," Charles interjected, his voice calm but not absent a certain horror.
"I guess," Konrad allowed after a moment. It wasn't like he could call it anything else. "I just can't understand why it took me so long to recover. It's never taken that long..."
Of course, he had never been shot in the head before. Carding through the gory mess at the back of his head, his fingers touched the spot, now fully healed, where the bullet had entered his brain.
"You make it sound like you die a lot," Charles said uneasily.
Konrad let his hand drop to his thigh. Things were still scrambled in his head—so literally that his stomach churned at the thought. He took a shaky breath before mustering an answer.
"It's been a while," Konrad admitted, as if it mattered, "but let's just say there's more to my fear of hospitals than unwanted questions."
And now he had fresh new fodder for his existing nightmares...
Stuck trying to make any sense of what had happened, Konrad thought it was like he had just been switched off until the bullet had been removed. Once that chore had been done he seemed to have come to as quickly as normal—so much as the word ever applied to him—though he had definitely been...confused. In fact Konrad had knocked out the coroner as soon as he had woken. And he had felt bad about that from the moment he had come to his senses, but for a few terrifying moments Konrad had thought he was back there—back in Poland, and still subject to Mengele's frightful ministrations.
As if his entire life between then and now had been nothing more than another of the safe illusions he had used to conjure in his head...
Konrad had always made a point to keep Adam's current contact information memorized in case—well, in case any strange emergency like this ever popped up. Unfortunately, the last Konrad had heard the other immortal was in Los Angeles. Thankfully however, after Charles and Kaito had tracked him down following their brief encounter during the riots, Konrad had had the foresight to add their company's number to his mental roster as well. Fortunately for him, Charles had still been in New York, and the young man's ability had been perfectly suited for digging Konrad out of the mess he had found himself in.
Unfortunately, it was well suited to digging out other things as well.
"Christ..."
From the look on his face, Charles must have seen or felt some of the things that had gone through his head upon waking—the memory of a faded memory of Konrad's deepest hell. Though Konrad had only the loosest understanding of what the man's ability allowed him to experience, he figured Charles couldn't have seen far past what he had suffered. Otherwise, Konrad was sure, there would be less sympathy in his horrified expression than disgust.
Silence settled in for a long moment, and while Konrad might have been content to let it stay, a thought occurred to which forced him to break it.
"I think—" Konrad paused a moment, considering his phrasing. "I think it might be best if this thing stays between us."
Charles looked at him, his expression turning apprehensive in a way that made no sense unless the telepath knew what was in Konrad's mind already.
If Adam was aware that they suffered a weakness like the one that had left Konrad incapacitated then he had kept the information to himself because he wasn't comfortable with anyone else knowing it. If Adam didn't know, Konrad couldn't imagine him being happy of the discovery. When it came down to it, Konrad didn't think he needed to worry that Adam would do anything to him in order to keep that secret safe, but for Charles, or Angela, or Kaito—especially Kaito—it might be a very different story.
He would think of something else to tell Adam, Konrad decided. They were all good kids, and the last thing he wanted was to put any of them at risk.
As far as he went, Konrad supposed Adam may have had fair motivation in keeping that weakness hidden. After all, Charles hadn't been entirely wrong. In fact, had he been handed this new information any other way Konrad could think of several times in his life when he might have been tempted to make use of it. It was different learning of it the way he had, however, and Konrad realized with a small sting of surprise just how afraid he had been. Surprise not because he had felt fear—there were plenty of things in this world that terrified him—but because he had been, for the first time in decades, afraid for his life.
If he were ever offered the chance to grow old and die, Konrad still thought he would take it in a heartbeat, but as far as suicide was concerned... No. His long life wasn't a hardship to him because he wanted to die.
It was a hardship because he wanted a chance to really live.
And once more the bell had rung on the closing of a life, leaving Konrad to contemplate the beginning of a new one. Yet perhaps his next life needn't be subject to the same limited expiration date.
"So, that company of yours," Konrad asked. "Does your offer still stand?"
Sitting up straight in his seat, Charles nodded.
"Of course, Richard."
"Konrad," he corrected.
"Pardon?"
"My name," Konrad said. "My real name."
It felt so strange saying it after so many years—it had been decades since anyone but Adam had called him by his name.
"Konrad Reichardt."
PREV: Interlude 10 // MAIN // NEXT: Interlude 12
no subject
Damn. Shot in the head. That's gotta HURT. It really reminds me of The Revenant, that I linked you.
*sobs* I wanna know what happens to Ryan! And Peter in his head, for that matter. But mostly Ryan. :P
no subject
Only one or two more interludes before I go back into the action and we see how the interview goes...
no subject
no subject
(And see what happens with Beckett and Castle, too.)
no subject
(And Alexis. I can see her kicking it with Claire. Which we haven't heard of, so far, I think.)
no subject
Claire's already had a few mentions for being the catalyst for exposing specials, and for being Bennet's daughter. She does make an appearance eventually, though. Sort of...
And yeah, Alexis should get some time in in part three, and she's going to show up in a few of the future!ludes.
no subject
Oh, yeah, that's what I meant. I didn't remember her showing up.
I believe future Alexis is going to kick major ass. She's already starting in canon. We're reaching that stage when Castle is either gonna go in depression because "OMG, my daughter is a little woman. She doesn't even need my anymore." or explode in happiness and pride and say "Look at her. She's been raising me all that time!!"
no subject
no subject