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There was a sense of anticipation in the air that Alex doesn't like one damned bit. It feels too familiar to her, too similar to the way that the world felt after Coralee and Warren, after they'd learned about the Axis Mundae. It had been days since she'd seen Strand, it feels like and Alex missed him. After their fight when she'd gotten back from Turkey, things had been better. Or at least they'd seem better to Alex once he'd gotten his anger out of his system, once he'd used Coralee's name and the nature of his relationship with her as a blunt weapon that was swung whenever the two of them had become too close.

But the thing of it was that Alex hadn't done anything this time. There'd been no fights, nothing that had caused him to pick up his toys and stomp off home as he had so many times before. There was nothing wrong other than the fact that Richard was gone. Her calls were sent to voicemail, her texts and emails went unanswered and even calling Ruby wasn't helpful in the slightest. Not that it ever really was when Alex needed to deal with his broad punk wall of an assistant.

So, she just tried to continue on as normal, as if he was just taking a break outside the room. Throwing herself into her work is second nature for Alex, but Nic had decreed that the studio needed to be empty by ten in order for Alex to get some sleep. It never worked for her of course--Alex just took the work home and spread it on her coffee table. A fresh brewed cup of coffee from her french press had been made and Alex was still sitting on the floor with her back to her couch as she went over everything that she had with a pen in her hand and a heavily filled notebook at her side.

Granted, due to the fact that she was home, Alex was wearing comfortable pajamas: an old and well-loved pnws shirt that had been hers since she’d been an intern (complete with a hole on the collar) and a pair of old boxer shorts that had never belonged to anyone but her—they fit her too well for that. With the heavy makeup that Alex normally wore to hide the dark circle under her eyes, they’re prominent and so is the smattering of freckles across her face. Her hair is still damp from the shower, and tied up into a messy bun at the base of her neck. With Nic gone in Russia and all of her friends having been pushed away due to work, Alex wasn’t expecting company. She definitely wasn’t expecting Richard considering she always went to his father’s house or came to the studio. Oh, she knows he knows where she lives (Alex has pointed out her apartment building more than once) but him coming to her seems entirely laughable at this point.

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He can feel those emotions. Maybe he's always picked up on those emotions, why she was good to be around, why she was intriguing. He stares at her and folds his hands before...

"I know the Deva group set up my speaking engagement. And that Warren will be there." Coralee was like a brick wall and he wondered just how far behind he was, in managing this ability. He deflates a little, "I really hate to be a bother but I really could use that cup of tea Alex. Please."

Watching Richard deflate is hard, and her concern doesn’t need to be psychic to be felt when she looks at him. Giving his arm a tentative squeeze, Alex just gets up from the couch. “It shouldn’t take long for the water to heat up. I had just made coffee.” In her French press of course because Alex Reagan is a coffee snob always.

But she does have some tea, most of it’s supposed to be to help her sleep but she’s got a little collection. Not as much as the one for him that lives in her desk drawer at work, but enough of one that she’s able to find a box of English breakfast. Putting the tea into a mug that she’d not been allowed to bring to work because it says ‘fuck you before my coffee’ and has a picture of a ghost on it. It had been a birthday present from Amalia and is Alex’s second favorite mug. Her first favorite is the size of a soup can and holds basically three cups. It’s the one that’s already on the table.

Alex’s concern for him is a running theme as she goes about making his tea the way that he likes it and she knows that he hasn’t eaten because he doesn’t when he’s stressed out. So after a minute she grabs one of the brownies from her fridge (there’s not much in there honestly: milk, juice, wine, take out containers and mustard. Alex doesn’t cook) and adds that to the top of the mug of tea still within its plastic container.

That done, Alex just hands it to him and sits down next to him again, close enough that their knees almost brush.

His mind is on other things, wholly on Coralee and her declaration she would remove Alex if needed when she puts the tea and brownie down in front of him, brushing against him electric and he stares at it blankly because what is he supposed to do oh he's supposed to eat. Right. That was a thing normal people did.

Just say it.

He swallows. He's told her everything. Maybe it was time for no secrets. It really was.

"Coralee reached out to contact me. To warn me about Warren and she confirmed...something that I've been thinking of since you and I started working together.

Since you found out about my sister." He breathes, "Something I began to suspect that she confirmed about the pseudoscientific bullshit my father put me through as a child."

For a long moment Alex just stares at him, and she tilts her head a bit as she does so. Her hand automatically presses forward, resting against his arm once more because she knows that's the only touch that he allows her to do and Alex is definitely a toucher. Especially when someone is as bothered as he is. The touch has gotten her through many interviews, because touch reminds people that they aren't alone.

Alex has never wanted to remind anyone that they were not alone as much as she wanted to do so to Richard Strand. But professionalism, her journalism and Strand himself only made it so that this was allowed. And even then, it had been new before he'd gone away for the first time and only since the night that Coralee had kidnapped them in order to save them from Warren.

It's on the tip of her tongue to say that Cheryl had been the one to reach out to Alex, that she'd been the one who was insistent upon being on the podcast. But she doesn't, not yet anyway. Instead Alex just listens with a frown, fighting the urge to automatically be angry at Coralee. Its not a new one: it's been there for two years.

Alex Reagan is normally a woman of many questions upon questions, but right now she settles for one: "What is it?"

"When she disappeared and I tried to go to the woods to find her." Rational. Calm. Accept it. This is natural. Don't treat it as some gift, that's your father. It's nothing to be worshiped or wrong. It's human. It's just like someone who is good at math or athletic like Braun was always talking about.

How he knew Braun was a fraud.

"When I tried to use the abilities that I used to help me find Bobby Mames...it wasn't that I couldn't use them. It was that she blocked me. Because she has the same abilities that I do. That Charlie does."

He stares at Alex, unflinching, uncompromising, before taking a long sip of the tea and peeling off a corner of the brownie.

"Because she's psychic and Charlie is because I also have a latent psychic ability."

That he knew nothing about. But he was always am an who could fake it til he made it. Who could rely on reason and facts. This was now just a part of him. Accept it and move on. A biological action. No less natural then breathing.

Edited 2020-04-12 04:43 (UTC)

Alex just watches him for a moment, still in the aftermath of the bomb that he had just dropped into her lap. She's not sure how to respond to it. But her return look is unflinching too. Alex doesn't scream or point her finger or demand a million dollars for proof of the supernatural when it's come out of his mouth.

But while she's silent, Alex's thoughts aren't, and if she hadn't learned to keep them off of her face, then she definitely wouldn't ever learn to be able to keep someone who had the abilities Richard did out of her head. That bitch. I knew it was someone who was probably blocking him, but I thought it was Warren. That bitch how could she hurt him like that? God, that fucking woman didn't even have the guts to tell him and then disappear. But the most important thought that was running under all of them was: God, I hate her so much.

Taking a deep breath, Alex speaks and her words are more calm and less chaotic than the ones that are working in her mind. "So you've been blocking it unconsciously? All this time?" It makes sense to her really, burying things deep and presenting a stone facade is one of the things that Richard Strand did best. She suspects that it was his way of asserting control over it. It doesn't surprise her.

"Does Charlie know that she has it? Does she use it?" There's a question that Alex thinks but doesn't speak because she can't help it. Is that one of the reasons that you'd been estranged for so long? That you couldn't accept it and she can?

"Don't...Don't hate her. Try not to hate her." But it could be something that he responds to just because it's the right thing to say, "I think that...I think that Coralee has her...reasons but her reasons are hers and they are no longer mine. We..."

He brushes it away, "She taught Charlie how to manage her ability. And so her skills are very well developed."

Despite everything there is a brief flicker of emotion, of a smile, and it's gone again, "She can take care of herself. She'll be all right I think. What concerns me now is the two of us and whatever Warren has planned for...me."

Warren is not going to do it. Admitting this skill makes him feel stronger and whatever happens he can take him on. He'll kill him.

And you will come to the door. And you will open it.

To spare Alex? To spare the planet? Absolutely. For all of humanity terrors, he loves them.

Alex's eyes go wide behind her glasses, because that wasn't something that she said aloud and she knows it. When she realizes how he knew it, Alex's cheeks just automatically go pink and she lowers her head for a moment, counting like she always has to when she's angry or upset. It's not that so much at this moment, it's more Alex trying to clear her brain out for the rest of this conversation.

But there's one persistent thought that just rushes through her head for all of Alex's attempts to stop it: Does this mean he knows that I love him? She doesn't know if she wants an answer to that question. She doesn't know if there is even an answer to it.

So, instead she focuses on something else and just asks: "If Coralee taught Charlie does that mean that Charlie knew that Coralee wasn't dead? All this time?" It's a question that hurts her, because it's so easy for her to imagine how much it could possibly hurt him.

Alex is steadfastly ignoring the statement about them being an us and Warren for the moment. It seems like two separate topics almost.

"Yes."

He stares at nothing, "It's her business. I don't blame her. I was emotionally distant and when you are a child... I don't blame her. She was rightfully angry with me about a number of things and ultimately it's between her and I."

His features harden, but he stares at his hands and flexes them.

"Besides I don't know the extent of her skills. We each have different abilities. Hers extends more towards ghosts and understanding people mine extends to finding things and seeing ghosts and demons. The ghosts and demons part comes with the package. As does hearing another individual's thoughts."

He can't look at her at that part, instead pinching the bridge of his nose, "I've known about this for years Alex. I've just never embraced it."

Alex's frown is hurt, and sad and she just sits back a bit, using the hand that had been on his arm in order to take a long sip of her coffee. White Alex drinks, she's counting in an attempt to get her anger under control. Alex doesn't get angry very often honestly, not like this. It's not hot and burning and pain below it. But now it is, and Alex just sets her cup down. When she's angry she needs movement. The floor below her bare feet grounds her, and does the way that her hands move when she does.

"All this time. All this time." Alex begins, because she can't help it. "You've known that you had these abilities. All this time we looked into cases that you'd said weren't connected but they were and you knew that. I don't understand how you could just believe and not say anything. Know and not say anything." He voice is sharper than she wants it to be, and there's a threat of tears within as there always is when Alex is this upset.

"I don't know what to say, Richard." And it's true she doesn't. "I don't know what you want me to say. I don't know how we come back from the fact that I always suspected that you were psychic, since I learned about Bobby and since you went looking for Coralee but I'd assumed you'd buried it like a trauma. But you knew."

There's a pause, and the hurt is more visceral within it now. "Did you read my thoughts? Did you know how much I was falling apart last year and just didn't say anything when I wasn't sleeping and was chanting the name of demons in my sleep?" Did you not know how bad I was? Her thoughts keep going even if her words don't. Did you know how worried and scared I was for you? Do you know that I thought all of this was my fault and I've been blaming myself for it for so long?" And then there were two finally thoughts, and both of them hurt: Did you realize I thought I was losing you and it was driving me insane?

And then finally as quietly and as sadly as Alex Reagan can make her mind: Do you know I love you and have for such a long time?

Edited (html fail) 2020-04-12 17:22 (UTC)

"You're not-I don't think I'm explaining it well." He rubs at his temple because he can feel her hurt and anger and it's making his head hurt, "It's not that I-"

He's floundering, and for the first time she might see him unable to speak, "It's not that I knew It's not that I was...I knew but I didn't want to believe it. It was pseudo-science and it scared me." He pauses, "And my father would beat me whenever I questioned it but it also made no sense. I've always been reasonable, I've always been rational and I buried it. I refused to believe it."

He wants to stutter and stammer, "...Alex, I should have been there for my daughter and I should have told you. I'm sorry I didn't. And I..."

He doesn't pull her but he does reach for her hands, "I thought I could...will it away. And I am so sorry."

And this is not the time for that. She has indirectly confessed that she loves him.

Alex had known that Howard Strand was a monster, Cheryl had told her that Richard had gotten 'the strap' when he saw the Tall Man when he was seven. But she'd not realized how pervasive it had been how-- many times he'd done that. How it had been every time Richard had questioned it. Alex knows about conditioning, she knows that Richard has always had a will that's like that of a force of nature. It was one that an equal and opposition force of nature had needed to come in and break down--like Alex herself was when she was armed with her show.

She knows that he's struggling. Alex can see it in every part of him, and she just frowns, concern for him darkening her doe eyes behind her glasses, setting the line of her mouth in it. When he reaches for her hands, Alex stops, and she gives him one of them, wrapping her fingers around his own. But if there's one thing that Alex Reagan has always been, it's a mix of belief and hope, and right now she draws upon that strength to do something that she'd never done before even if she'd considered doing it many times in the past. Her empty hand just reaches up and cups his cheek gently and carefully, as if she was worried that she'd startle him into bolting away again.

And she was worried about that, because Richard was the sort who would bolt, who had bolted from her in the past. She's believing that this is a moment of change and a turning point for them, so that maybe it was creating the space enough for Alex to do this. Alex doesn't say that she loves him, she doesn't kiss him. Instead what Alex does is just try and comfort him with her thumb moving in gentle soothing circles against his cheekbone.

"It's okay, Richard." Her voice is soft. "We'll... We'll figure it out. We always do. Somehow."

She's a lure. He can hear his wife's voice in his head and he closes his eyes before looking at her with love. Genuine love. He's fallen into this. Maybe he was meant to.

His hand moves to stroke her hair, "I know."

His bright blue gaze meets hers, "...And. I know. Alex. I know. I know. and I..."

He moves to lean against her across the table, "...I'm not good at this."

For a moment, Alex isn't sure what he's saying, and the confusion clouds her face, making her frown. There's a bit of willful ignorance there, because well... how could there not be after so long when there'd been those moments between them that Alex would have sworn that he could have read her mind. But then again, now there's this moment and she just says softly: "oh."

There's another pause before she drags the sound of it out: "Ooooh." For a moment, she doesn't know what else to say. The secret that she'd kept so close to her heart for so long is finally out and now she's just doesn't know what to do especially considering that she didn't actually say it, that she didn't speak the words aloud in the normal way like she would have with everyone (anyone) else other than him.

So, she does, her voice is low as she leans forward again. It's not the storytelling voice that she'd use for the show, or the normal conversational tone that she'd been using. So, she whispers it softly: "I love you, Richard Strand."

He can still hear Coralee practically taunting him with this is a lure, she's a lure and Warren will use her to hurt you...

It solidifies something. That he has to sacrifice himself. That he can't let Warren take any of them and Tiamat...Tiamat.

The smell of the water and thunder is strong. Join with me and save her. Join with me and open the door and you can be with her forever, she'll be safe. I've waited for you Richard, for so very long...

He pulls her into a kiss. It's gentle and tentative and he holds her tightly then, across the table, elbow of his suit dragging into his brownie.

"...I love you too Alex Reagan."

There. It's out in the open. Professional ethics be damned. It's like there's a click in his head.

There's a new voice too. Take her with you. This will be fun.

"...I need a drink." Fuck he should have brought up the scotch, "And I think...we should...order Chinese. No. Sushi. I want sushi."

Alex doesn't know (can't know) what's going on inside of his head. She doesn't know about the voice of the goddess or whatever this other voice is or Coralee or anything else. But what she does know is that she loves him, and that he loves her and finally finally they've gotten out of their own ways to admit that. She kisses kisses him back with gentleness, but there's nothing tentative about it. Alex Reagan has always let her heart lead her rather than her head and this is just another case of it. She's not worried about ethics or anything else.

For the first time in a long time, not even the end of the world. Because Alex believes in him, and she believes that the two of them together can stop whatever Warren has planning, because they're a good team and she's too stubborn to let the world end now that they've finally gotten this piece of it sorted out.

Alex just kisses him once more before she draws back with a grin. "I don't have scotch, but I do have wine. Or vodka if you want something hard. Do you want the normal for sushi?" Because of course she's got a sushi place in her favorites on grubhub and she's got what his order is down and has for ages. Pulling out her phone from her pocket, she opens it up, leaning her head against his shoulder for a second as she does so.

It's so simple. It's so adorable.

"I have cheap scotch in the car, but I'll take wine." He leaned against her hair, kissing her hair, "For now."

He strokes her hair. He was always doing that. Coralee's hair was always so soft. Alex's is too - he missed being able to do this. Try not to think ahead. Try not to plan in advance. Try not to...Try not to do that Richard just be in the moment.

"...We do make a good team." He runs the other hand through his own hair and pulls away, "I'm moving to the couch. My back hurts."

Edited 2020-04-13 00:56 (UTC)

Alex just beams up at him, her eyes alight as she just grins with practically her whole body. Is she tempted to take him just down into her bedroom? Of course she is. She's a grown ass woman who knows what she wants, and she wants him. And she's wanted him since the moment where she'd walked into his office, god all those years ago. But for now, Alex just lets him good and pads into the kitchen, placing their normal order as she does so. She doesn't want him to make the decision to have sex with her when he's soaked with scotch, which is why Alex is glad that he'd picked the wine.

She's got a good bottle of red that she'd been saving for a special occasion in the rack on her counter, and if anything qualifies as a special occasion, Alex muses, the night where Richard Strand said that he loved her back definitely is one of them. Using her electric corkscrew (Alex drinks a fair amount of wine and it's way easier than trying to find to find the manual one when she's already had part of a bottle) Alex opens the bottle and then comes back into the living room, holding two glasses by the stems in one hand, and the bottle in the other. "I hope a Cabernet Sauvignon is okay? It's local, I grabbed it from the farmer's market actually." Because even though Alex isn't a wine snob like he is she knows that the wines from Washington are on the up and up.

Be in the moment.

Tiamat hisses in his head and Richard Strand closes his eyes and smiles, "I...am going to get you some very good wine as a gift." He smiles, "But this is perfect. Local and perfect."

He inhales, "Normally though wine is for events." his shirt is still buttoned, sweat beading at his collar and temple. Moving to her couch he slumps, realizing the couch is...really terrible.

"I'm also buying you a new couch." He squirms, "This is - is this my college couch? It could be that old."

It's so weird. The age difference - and briefly. Looking up at her he swallows.

"Alex I don't want to be a burden to you. It doesn't bother you? I'm almost 60."

Sitting next to him on the couch, resting on one knee so that she's facing him while she sits and Alex just takes a sip of her wine with a little bit of a laugh. "Well, this wine is just normally for when I need wine." A pause, and Alex shrugs. "As for the couch, it's not really like I normally spend a lot of time here, Richard. I'm pretty sure I've spent almost twice the amount of time in your living room than mine."

Which isn't a lie, because Alex definitely has been more on his couch than hers, and normally when she works late it's in her bedroom. But that's not here or there.

But then she just shakes her head quickly. "Your age never would bother me, Richard. I don't fall in love with someone's age. I fall in love with who a person is. I always have." Even if her type has definitely normally been older partners. Even Amalia is older than Alex is, even if the distance between their ages is smaller. But she was still a graduate student when Alex was a sophomore so. "I love you, and I don't care about anything else."

He feels...wild. Crazy. Like he could do anything. Like he's capable of anything and Coralee and Charlie and Tiamat fade from his mind as he puts out an arm. Good God what does this say about me?

"You deserve...good things though. Nice things." He pauses, "That's insulting I'm sorry your taste is fine. I'm just...crotchety. I guess. That's how Charlie would put it."

Alex just leans in without thinking about it, balancing on her knees while she does so. She just shakes her head for a moment before she reaches out with one hand, brushing it along his cheek again. "Hey, it's okay Richard. Listen you've had a rough day. Anyone would consider any part of this a rough day." Which is probably an understatement given well, what he'd told her, what she knows now and what he does as well.

"And when we back from Geneva you can insult my taste all you want. I won't mind. I mean, I've had the same couch since I was an intern anyway." A pause, and Alex is just going to go with the idea of them beating all of this and then coming home to a normal life. Because that's what she needs to have hope for. That it's not something they've done and that can't be stopped. But she'd put money on the two of them together. Always. Especially now that they're being honest with one another finally.

Even if she doesn't know about the rest of it. And then she just leans in and kisses him slowly, lightly, but lingeringly. It's a very Alex sort of kiss all told. Something that she wants to practice until it's made perfect with him.

Later, much later, he will acknowledge that he is still, despite everything, a manipulative piece of shit because he feels protective and fatherly towards her - and there is always a sense of lesser and more in those situations. He is more sure of himself then she is, and she is...a good person but it's hard to turn off that protective mode.

To see her as a romantic partner. Especially with the stigma it carried. She's young enough to be my daughter, she's young enough to be one of my students... Fuck it. As long as you acknowledge it you can take care of it Richard.

It was hard not to admit it was a little intriguing. A little wild, stoking the flames in his mind. The fire in his loins.

Cupping her cheek, he kisses her back, practiced kisses, commanding ones, one hand sliding down her back before he...pulls back and breathes.

"...I don't know if I have the stamina for that yet." He laughed weakly, "I'm sorry. I really am verging on drunk. I was hoping to quiet the thoughts of others. Speaking of which, the delivery boy is downstairs."

Edited 2020-04-13 02:02 (UTC)

Alex just colors quickly, and shakes her head with a laugh because that... "Yeah, I wasn't going to suggest that we just start having wild sex on my really uncomfortable couch, Richard." She's reassured, but she does sit back on her bare heels. "I was just kissing you. I'm definitely not inclined to have sex with you for the first time when I've got an empty stomach and knowing you," Alex just gestures to him quickly, because if there's one thing that she's seen more than a few times it's how he forgets to eat when he gets involved with things. Especially when his mental state isn't the best and it wasn't when he showed up here. "You probably haven't eaten either."

And it probably went without saying that she doesn't sleep with people who might be too drunk to actually consent to sleeping with her, because that's not Alex's style by any means. She wants people who want her because they want her, and not because the amount of liquor within their bloodstream tells them that it's what they want.

"Stay here, I'll grab it." Alex just raises onto her feet and toes herself into her ballet flats. Flipping he bolt so that she doesn't end up looking herself out, she can't help but to give him a broad and teasing grin: "if I was intent on seducing you, Richard. You'd definitely know it. I'll be right back." And then her feet just thundered down the steps behind her.

She doesn't know anything about him, beyond the basics. Beyond his most intimate details and dark secrets. But the rest of it? He has kept it hidden.

When she returns with the sushi he ignores the curl in his stomach that she found out all the wrong stuff before the right stuff in his mind."

"Favorite color, Favorite Movie, and Favorite...Item."

He spreads a hand over her apartment, smiling.