Chapter Text
Todd
The Amboolents, despite it's childish intent, has no medical equipment. What it does have is a back seat, where Farah now lay, and a lot of space in the rear, where Tina and Hobbs are trying not to roll into each other as Todd shuttles them to the Hospital at 100 mph. It also has a siren.
"Where's Dirk?" Farah moans from behind him.
"Still in Wendimoor with Amanda. I think." He passes the mile marker that Hobbbs told him to look out for and glances in the rear-view. "Hobbs, I just passed the marker, where now?"
"Stay in the middle lane. You'll see the signs soon."
Hobbs' voice is as weak as Farah's. They're all chalky-pale, bleeding into the upholstery and paneling, and Todd is definitely coming down from his we-solved-it high. He wonders whether they'll ever be allowed to just enjoy it. He spares another glance in the rear-view. Farah's eyes are drifting closed.
He sees the sign for the Hospital.
"Stay conscious guys, okay? Farah? Tina? You good?"
Tina flashes a thumbs-up, but says nothing. Farah does not respond. Todd floors it, despite the fact that he's already flooring it, and counts the seconds until he rips into the Emergency Drop-Off. He cuts the siren and jumps out of the van, calling for help as he circles to the rear door and opens it. Dragging Tina out as gently as possible, he half-carries her into the Emergency room and yells at the first nurse he sees.
"There's two more people bleeding out in my van!"
He wishes he sounded less crazed.
Somebody takes Tina out of his arms, and they seem to know her name, of course they do, and he leads the nurse back out to the van with his heart pounding painfully in his chest -- when she sees the "Amboolents" she stops long enough to give Todd a very strange look, but calls for stretchers anyways. Todd watches uselessly while strangers load Farah and Hobbs onto them. When he tries to follow them in, the nurse stops him and nods at the van.
"You gotta move that." She says. He stares at her. She stares back. He makes a frustrated noise.
He brings the car into the parking lot and parks across two spaces, not bothering to pay for the space before sprinting back towards the E.R. There is panic rising in his chest, and his brain is spitting sparks down his arms and legs.
"Not now," he tells himself, "not now, not now --"
"Todd?"
He almost runs right past Dirk, who is standing in the E.R door in his yellow jacket, looking confused. Small, brief relief surges in his chest. "Dirk, thank God." He says, or thinks, or both. He half hugs, half drags Dirk towards the interior of the building.
"Alright, Todd, alright --" Dirk stumbles and Todd remembers he's also been shot.
"Fuck, sorry, fuck, you're shot too."
Another nurse has spotted them, she shouts, "One more gunshot victim!", and she's draping Dirk's arm around her shoulder, and Todd's lungs are not doing their job anymore.
"What do you mean another? Where's Farah, Todd?"
Panic. He tries to answer but his lungs are frozen, and his nerves are going haywire. He feels his pockets desperately, hoping for some pills, some cat medication that will keep his brain from trying to kill him, but they're gone. The nurse is trying to put Dirk in a wheelchair but Dirk is peering at Todd with distinct concern. He turns to the nurse.
"Do you know what Parariulitis is?" And to her perplexed expression he advises, "I would suggest that you look it up quickly, because I believe my friend is about to have an attack."
Todd doesn't have time to be grateful, as his lungs, fingers, and toes are frozen solid. He drops to the floor, unable to scream, and reality begins to fade out of his peripherals. He catches a glimpse of Amanda, but she's in a car, no, she's -- a needle finds his abdomen and everything stops.
In his dream he's behind the veil again. All of creation is laid out above him. Unwanting. Unbiased.
The moment consciousness touches him, a million thoughts crowd themselves into his mind -- Farah shot, hospital, where's Amanda, Dirk -- he sits bolt upright with a gasp, hands coming into contact with sticky upholstery as he pushes himself up. A glance around tells him that he's in the back seat of the Amboolents. Through the windshield he can see a long road stretching out in front of them, lit in the orange hue of the streetlights. Dirk's jacket is draped over his shoulders.
"Dirk?"
From the front seat comes a startled noise, and the car veers suddenly as Dirk twists in his seat to peer over his shoulder. Relief is etched plainly over his features. Todd has to grab the headrest in front of him to keep from being thrown onto the floor.
"Eyes on the road!"
With an apologetic sound, Dirk turns forward. "I'm glad you're awake," he says, and he certainly sounds it. "I was beginning to worry."
"What happened?"
"You had an attack, so they sedated you." Dirk glances back again. His hands are ashy pale on the steering wheel in front of him. "They wanted to keep you overnight, but I, uh, convinced them to release you to my custody."
Todd rolls his shoulders, flexes his fingers, checks himself over. He doesn't seem to have incured any lasting injuries from the entire showdown in Wendimoor, which seems far too lucky to be true. Almost executed, sure, but it was a far cry better than being electrocuted. In his opinion.
"Convinced them how?"
"Amanda showed up shortly after you went unconscious, and the Rowdy 3 created a diversion while she and I, ah, reasoned with the nurses." He pauses as Todd climbs between the front seats to join him. "How do you feel?"
"I'm fine," Todd says, though he's still a little shaky. "Where's Amanda now?"
"She said she and the Rowdies had some quote-unquote 'work to do' after she helped me load you in the van, she's very strong by the way, and after she left I had the feeling that we needed to get out of there quite urgently."
"What about Farah?" Todd realizes all at once that they are many, many miles out of Bergsberg. "Wait, Dirk, did you leave her behind?"
Dirk looks uncomfortable and guilty. A gut-wrenching anger fills Todd's chest.
"What was I supposed to do, Todd, storm the entire hospital until I found her? Tear her away from medical attention? Medical attention which she probably needed quite badly, if your reaction is any indication of the severity of her condition, which, by the way, I'm still in the dark on, so, please, spare me the guilt trip. Today has been a long day."
Todd has to agree with him there, so despite the feeling in his chest calling for them to turn around right now and go back for her, he takes a deep breath and steadies himself. When he feels that he'll be able to speak without anger, he tells Dirk what happened.
"She got shot in the stomach and the shoulder."
Dirk's eyes go wide, the light from the streetlights illuminating his expression for only a second at a time. "By who? The Mage was magic, not guns! Not guns in this world, at least. He didn't carry a gun!"
"It's a whole... thing," Todd repeats Farah's words. "I think they all shot each other, like, the Mage made them."
Dirk looks incredibly concerned, and a mean part of Todd thinks 'good'. He buries that part as he realizes Dirk's thigh is wrapped in white gauze and remembers for the second time that Dirk, too, had been shot.
"What about you?" He says. "What about your leg? Are you okay?"
Grimacing, Dirk half-shrugs. "Amanda helped me bandage it, but it's... it's quite painful, actually, and I have been driving on it for... four hours now."
"Oh my god, dude, stop, I can drive," Todd urges, and Dirk looks grateful.
They pull over and swap places, Todd helping Dirk limp around the front of the car to the passenger seat. Up close his face is pale and dirty, and Todd now feels guilty for trying to make him feel guilty. The weight of the events of the day are beginning to settle onto his shoulders, and they're pretty heavy.
Once they're back on the road, they lapse into silence. Todd glances at Dirk and finds him looking out the window, his face pulled into the same sombre expression he'd been wearing lately, full of the existential pain. He tries to think of something to say, but can't find the energy. It doesn't end up mattering, anyways, because within twenty minutes Dirk has fallen asleep with his forehead pressed against the glass. Todd reaches into the back for his jacket and drapes it over him.
"What are you doing?"
Dirk's voice cuts through his reverie. His eyes snap open. It's daytime, and Dirk is standing in front of him, jacketless, weight shifted onto his left leg. Todd hadn't heard him get out of the car.
"I'm trying to shadow walk into Amanda's life," he answers honestly. He's sitting on an old crate in a dusty barnyard. They'd stopped only a few hours before, but Todd hadn't been able to sleep. After parking the Amboolents behind a half-caved barn he'd tried to shut his eyes, but it seemed like an alarm was going off in his mind every time he did, so he'd decided to get out and try to contact Amanda instead. With his brain. It wasn't going well.
"How did you sleep?"
"Terribly," Dirk says. He limps closer and drops down next to Todd. "So, what's next?"
Todd shoots him an uneasy look. He'd been hoping that Dirk would be able to answer precisely that question when he woke up. In the daylight, he's definitely looking a little worse for the wear, the lines of his face drawn into an uncomfortable expression which reminds Todd that he's been going on twelve hours with a bullet wound and no pain killers.
"Well," he says slowly, "unless you have any kind of inkling otherwise, I say we go back for Farah."
He expects Dirk to argue, to point out that Blackwing is more than likely waiting for them, that they couldn't possibly, but instead what he does is nod slowly, evidently thinking. Then he makes a frustrated noise.
"To be honest with you, Todd, I am experiencing a great deal of dread at the thought of returning to Bergsberg, but I don't think it's a psychic type of dread."
There's a lilt to his voice that piques Todd's concern, but, just like the night before, he can't bring himself to address it. It may be selfish, but he wants to pretend everything is okay, or at least sort of okay, for a little while. He wants to pretend that solving the case meant something, that somehow their situation is better than before.
"Just regular dread, then," he says. "That's manageable. I've also got a considerable amount of dread, but --"
"But we can't leave Farah," Dirk finishes for him, sounding equal parts guilty and determined.
Todd stands and extends a hand, which Dirk takes, and leans on Todd all the way back to the car.
Two hours later, they're two thirds of the way back to Bergsberg. Todd is doing 80 in a 60 zone with one eye on the road and another on the rear-view, on the perpetual look out for traffic patrollers. The irony of fleeing Bergsberg only to turn around and rush straight back in isn't lost on him, but the thought of driving away without Farah is too horrible to even consider. After all they'd been through together, she's like... one of his limbs. A part of him.
Another, more pressing issue is making itself gradually clearer as the needle on the gas indicator makes it way rapidly towards the little red 'E'. Francis obviously hadn't been too concernced with gas milage when he conjured up their getaway vehcle, Todd thinks, and when sees a gas station looming in the distance, he's sure that they can't afford to pass it by.
Dirk is curled into himself in the passenger seat, asleep again. His hands are fisted under his chin, his lips pressed into a thin line, his brow furrowed. Todd has been watching his friend's expression become slowly more troubled for the last hour, wondering at what point he should wake him up and relieve him from whatever his mind is showing him. Glad to have a firm reason beyond 'hey, you look grumpy', he reaches out and shakes Dirk's shoulder gently.
"Dirk, hey. Wake up."
Much like Todd's awakening the day before, Dirk sits bolt upright, his hands coming up to bat Todd's arm away.
"It's okay, man," Todd assures him, "it's just me."
"Right," Dirk's voice is scratched with sleep, "yes, car, Todd. Right."
Todd gives him a moment, deciding not to ask what he'd been dreaming about. "Do you have any money? We need to stop for gas."
Dirk gives him a scathing look, which Todd doesn't feel he deserves. "No, Todd, I'm sorry, but they didn't provide me with an allowance at Blackwing, and, if you'll recall, the benefactor of our last case didn't exactly pay us."
Todd scowls, about to reaffirm that they will need gas very soon when Dirk goes 'ah, of course' and begins to wrestle out of his jacket. He tosses it into the back seat and turns to look at it. "Mona, would you mind being a human briefly?"
Todd glances into the rear view and swerves two lanes over as the space that was the jacket morphs into a girl.
"What in the fuck --"
"Todd, this is Mona Wilder, of broke-me-out-of-Blackwing fame, my old friend and, quite conveniently, a shapeshifter. Mona, this is Todd, my best friend and assistant."
"Hi, Todd." Mona's voice is unnecessarily ethereal. "It's nice to finally meet you."
Todd feels significantly less casual about the introduction than he thinks they do. He tries to make himself say hello, but what comes out is: "How long have you been that jacket!?"
Dirk looks affronted, but Mona answers in the same gentle tone. "I have been that jacket for one day."
Before Todd can clarify, Dirk clears his throat. "Mona, I was wondering if you could be a credit card."
Todd uses his hazards to pull over to the side of the road, feeling that the conversation at hand requires his full concentration. Behind him, Mona makes a delighted sound.
"Oh, I've never thought to be a credit card before. What would that be like?"
"Well, you'd have to be... a computer chip, which can access a bank account. Preferably a strangers, preferably a different stranger every time. It would require you to be a little more intelligent than a jacket, I'm afraid, but not exactly conscious."
Todd looks between them as Mona thinks, feeling the familiar bewilderment of keeping up with Dirk's significantly supernatural life. He's having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Dirk had been wearing her.
"Yes, I think I can do that." Mona says, smiling. "It would be a new adventure."
Dirk looks around expectantly, making a face which in Todd's experience means 'there, look, I've solved it'. Todd thinks briefly of arguing, but instead turns his hazards off and drives them the rest of the way to the gas station, where he fills up the tank and takes Mona-the-credit-card out of the back seat where she has transformed again. Nervously, he leaves Dirk in the car and goes to pay. In line he rehearses his getaway, in case Dirk's plan doesn't work, but when he taps Mona against the machine the light is green.
On the way out he spots the pay-as-you-go phones and stops. He grabs five, counting them off in his head, then gets back in line. At the last moment, he grabs some sandwiches from the refrigerated section.
He grins at Dirk as he gets back in the car, thrusting a sandwich at him. "Well Dirk, I hate to tell you, but you're a genius."
Dirk takes the sandwich, looking smug. While unwrapping his own sandwich, Todd tosses Mona-the-credit-card into Dirk's lap, where she almost immediately resumes being Mona-the-jacket. Todd pretends he does not find this creepy, shoves the sandwich into his mouth almost whole, and puts the car back into drive. As the sun reaches its peak in the sky, he pulls them back onto the freeway.
The rest of the drive is uneventful. Todd goes well over the speed limit, but they hardly pass another car the whole time. When they're around half an hour away from the hospital, he glances over at Dirk, who has resumed being uncharacteristically quiet and is staring out the window intently.
Todd opens his mouth to ask if Dirk feels anything wicked this way coming, but instead he finds himself giving a strangled yelp as a big, black truck swerves out of the forest onto the road ahead of them, honking madly. It takes all of five seconds to recognize it as the Rowdie's. When they pull over onto the shoulder, Todd follows suit.
Amanda jumps out of the van, beckoning, and Todd gets out to meet her in the space between their vehicles.
"Blackwing swept the town," she says without preamble. "They were at the hospital, but they didn't take Farah."
"What?"
"I don't know. The guys could smell those slimy fucks all night, but this morning they retreated to this old house in the back country. That rainbow beast showed up last night after you guys left and we spent half the night chasing her around, trying to pick her up before they did."
The bottom of Todd's stomach seems to drop out. He looks over his shoulder at Dirk, who is peering at them out the windshield. "What should we do? If they're waiting for Dirk to come back..."
Amanda looks appropriately sympathetic, chewing her lip and peering past Todd at Dirk, who gives her a short wave. "You may have a few hours at the most. The guys think the house is distracting most of them, but... they want to get out of here."
"You should," Todd says, "Blackwing aren't gonna leave Bergsberg, not now that they've got the Cardenas house, and they're not gonna stop looking. Take this." He pulls one of the burners out of his pocket and presses it into her hand. "I programmed it with my number, and Farah and Dirk's."
Amanda takes the phone and pockets it. "We'll follow you guys to the hospital and keep watch."
"What? No, you should leave --"
"Do you honestly think you can take Blackwing alone?" Amanda scoffs. "Dirk can't even walk properly. You need us, man."
For a few moments Todd searches for a reason to argue with her, and she watches him with eyebrows raised. Finally he sighs, knowing by now not to tell his sister what she can or can't do. She seems to sense her victory and changes topics, nodding at the Amboolents.
"Do you have a mattress in there yet?"
Unable to help himself, Todd snorts. "No, sorry, we're not all living in an 80's grunge porno." He says. She punches him in the shoulder.
"Well, it's a hell of a lot more comfortable than sleeping on the floor. Farah's gonna need somewhere to rest. Dirk said she was shot?"
Todd nods, and Amanda frowns deeply. Resolve steels over him, and he pulls her in for a quick hug. "Okay. We'll lead the way. Stay safe."
"You too, bro." She says, and pulls away.
Todd watches her get back into the van before returning to the Amboolents, where Dirk is waiting expectantly.
"You were right about leaving town," Todd says, and Dirk looks immediately vindicated. "Blackwing swept it overnight. Apparently they know where Farah is but they haven't taken her."
Dirk's brow creases. "Why not?"
"I don't know. But we need to go get her, and then we need to get the hell out of here."
On their way to the hospital, they rob someone's house. Or, Amanda and Todd rob a house while Dirk and the Rowdies keep watch outside. The Rowdies had been very disappointed to be excluded, but Todd was firm about only robbing and no destroying. Though it's hardly the worst thing he's ever done, he still feels extremely guilty as Amanda helps him drag a double mattress out the front door and load it into the back of the Amboolents.
They go back for the couch cushions per Amanda's suggestion, and Todd follows her lead. It seems in her two months on the run she's gathered more than a few skills, and he finds himself equal parts concerned and impressed. She raids the kitchen and the medicine cabinet, finding Percocet, T3, Xanax, and an antipsychotic for hallucination which Todd pockets. In a stroke of brilliance he raids a bedroom dresser and changes into a t-shirt and jeans that he finds there, tossing his old clothes in the back of the van with everything else. He'd love to shower, too, but he figures that's probably pushing his luck, so he and Amanda head back out to the front yard.
When Todd climbs back into the driver's seat, Dirk looks antsy rather than miserable.
"I'm having a feeling," he says before Todd can speak, and then, before Todd can ask, "We need to go to the hospital now, like now-now."
With that, Todd rips the car out of this poor stranger's lawn, back onto the road, and heads to the hospital with Dirk shouting instructions -- mostly unnecessarily -- from the passenger side. They enter the parking lot from the rear-most entrance and park behind a dumpster, though the dumpster doesn't cover the growl of the Rowdies van pulling in behind them, or of Amanda yelling at them as they get out of the car.
"We'll stay out front and watch for the brigade, you guys be quick!"
Todd is half way to the entrance before he realizes that Dirk isn't following him. He looks around, catching sight of his gangly friend limping the other way, towards the back of the hospital, and re-adjusts his trajectory. Though handicapped, Dirk is walking with the determination of a man with a plan -- which is to say, a Dirk with a hunch -- and Todd is immeasurably glad. Can't be a trap, he thinks, if Dirk is walking right into it. Then he suddenly feels anxious again.
As he reaches Dirk he grabs his right arm and drapes it over his shoulders, helping Dirk pick up the pace.
"You're the perfect height for this," Dirk says as they round the corner of the building. Todd doesn't bother to be offended.
Dirk stops abruptly, almost causing Todd to fall over as he pulls him closer to the wall. Within a heartbeat, a door ahead of them opens. A hospital employee steps out, and Todd holds his breath while she uses a loose brick to prop the door open. She steps away from them and lights a cigarette. He glances at Dirk, who makes a 'stay' gesture with his free hand. They wait, the seconds ticking by painfully, then -- the woman's phone rings. She digs it out of her pocket, turning away from the door, momentarily distracted, and Dirk practically throws himself forwards, dragging Todd along with him. They slip into the stairwell while she paces away from them, and Todd breathes a sigh of relief.
Dirk, however, is gazing at the stairs with an averse expression.
"Of course," he says with clear bitterness. "It can't even be a bloody elevator, completely useless..."
He continues muttering as they begin to ascend the stairs together, and Todd lets him get it out of his system. The second floor reads 'Cardiology and Intensive Care', so they keep climbing. The third reads 'Inpatients, Recovery'. Dirk seems to know before they read it.
"Down here."
They slip into the hallway. It's completely deserted. Todd ducks out from under Dirk's arm, leaving him to lean against the wall, and darts up the fluorescent-lit corridor, checking the charts on the doors. Half-way to the end, his heart jumps into his throat as he reads Black, Farah on the chart for room 309.
"This is them," he whisper-yells to Dirk, who staggers forward.
He can hear a nurse approaching as Dirk reaches him, and they fall into the hospital room the way they fall into many things, narrowly avoiding discovery and capture. On the other side, the wide eyes of Farah, Tina, and Hobbs fall onto them. At the sight of them, something bright bursts in Todd's chest, and he forgets momentarily that they're still probably in danger.
"You're okay!" He says, at the same time that Tina is saying "You're alive!" and Farah is saying "What the hell are you doing here?"
Todd rushes forward, hugging both Hobbs and Tina and moving towards Farah before he catches sight of her expression. Though he's not sure what he'd been expecting, rage certainly isn't it.
"What happened to your leg, Dirk?" Hobbs is asking behind him.
Just like he had with Todd, Dirk half-shrugs. He's still leaning against the door, either for security or stability.
"I was shot by a man who once fixed a time machine for me," he says, which Hobbs seems to appreciate, and Todd becomes aware that he hasn't actually asked Dirk what had happened when he returned to Blackwing yet.
"What are you guys doing here?" Farah hisses again, and Dirk looks perplexed.
"We came to rescue you, isn't it obvious?"
"Are you insane?" For some reason, she's speaking directly to Todd. "Blackwing knows I'm here! They could be --"
"Amanda and the Rowdies are outside keeping watch," Todd tries to be soothing, but it doesn't work.
"Oh, great, you brought them, too, why don't we just serve them every bodies head on a platter?"
There's an uncomfortable silence in which Dirk makes a troubled face, and Tina looks between Farah and Todd uncertainly. Todd is speechless, caught between feeling victimized and understanding Farah's point, but mostly wishing she was half as happy to see him as he is to see her.
"I'm glad you guys are okay," Tina says lamely into the tension. It breaks the spell and Todd, remembering the burner in his pocket, digs it out.
"Here, take this," he passes it to her. She takes it. "I've programmed it with all three of our numbers, so we can keep in touch."
An odd expression flickers over her face as she looks down at it.
"Where are you guys gonna go?"
"Far away," Dirk says from the door. "And quickly," he adds with urgency that is clearly intended for Todd.
Farah still looks mad, so Todd raises his eyebrows at her.
"Are you coming or not?" He asks.
"She's coming," Dirk answers for her.
"I'm going to need a wheelchair to get anywhere," she says.
Dirk peers out the small window in the door before pulling it open and limping back into the hall. Todd, not willing to let him out of his sight, rushes out in pursuit. They only go as far as across the hall, where Dirk lets himself into another room, in which an older woman is sleeping. There's a wheelchair there. Dirk takes it. Todd has stopped feeling the impact of coincidence, but this is a little much.
Back in her room, Farah is picking at her I.V, and Todd tries not to flinch as he watches her slowly extracts it from the skin of her hand. Steadied by the wheelchair, Dirk limps over to her, and Todd joins them to help her sit up, help her slip off the edge of the bed and into the wheelchair.
"Bandages," she says, through gritted teeth, and he riffles through the cupboard for gauze, rubbing alcohol, medical tape, and dumps it all into her lap. It's time to leave.
They stop, the three of them surveying Tina and Hobbs. Tina's eyes are full of tears.
"I love you guys," she says, and Todd's heart lurches. For the first time, he considers that they, Tina and Hobbs, are being left behind.
"We love you too," he says, and Dirk nods. "I don't think we'll ever be able to repay you for everything you did for us."
"Don't be silly," Hobbs says. "You don't owe us anything. Just stay safe."
"You can come with us," Dirk blurts. Everyone turns to him. "I can find more wheelchairs. You can come with us."
For a moment, as Tina's face lights up, Todd thinks they will accept. Then Hobbs shakes his head.
"Somebody has to keep an eye on what's going on around here. You guys get going now. We'll talk soon."
With that, Dirk walks them right out of the room and into the elevator. When they get to the lobby, everyone is conveniently looking the other way. There's a pair of crutches leaning against the wall in the waiting room, and as Dirk wheels Farah out the door, Todd grabs them.
Once they load Farah into the van and get back on the road, her anger seems to dissipate. It may just be exhaustion, but she gives Todd a vaguely apologetic look as he hands her the T3s, so he considers the hatchet buried. For now, at least.
They stop in the woods, on one of the many escarpments overlooking Bergsberg, and wait for Amanda. Farah objects weakly, but Dirk tells her everything is fine, and she seems to believe him. By the time the Rowdies and Amanda catch up to them -- which takes longer because, apparently, they stopped for jackets along the way -- Farah is drifting off in the back of the Amboolents.
Saying goodbye to his sister again is hard, but softer for the feeling that it's only goodbye for now, for the feeling that is slowly starting to creep up from his feet, the feeling that they've dodged trouble, they've gotten away with it. As he watches her, her four vampires, and the rainbow beast drive away, he finds that he's not so worried about her.
Dirk, too, seems significantly cheered now that they are leaving Bergsberg. They lean against the hood of the Amboolents, savouring this moment of safety, and Todd can't resist the joke.
"Wow," he says. "So, the rainbow monster, she looked... uhh..."
"Not really my thing, Todd," Dirk says, as if it needs saying. Todd fights a grin.
"You don't think the cave girl from fairyland staying here is gonna --"
"Eventually connect to something in some way that eventually becomes a simply enormous problem? I mean, yes Todd, that's obvious."
For a few minutes, it's like normal. It's a wrap on all the fucked up shit that's been happening to them. It's just him and Dirk, two sane guys doing normal things, so when Dirk asks him if he's okay he says --
"I really am," because it's true. And then he says, "Hey Dirk. You solved the mystery," because he thinks it bears pointing out, because he knows soon reality will descend on them again, and he wants to make sure Dirk takes this moment to appreciate himself.
"Yeah well," Dirk deflects, "it was an easy one."
Todd laughs. "An easy one? Go screw yourself."
"Yeah well, everything is relative."
"Oh is that your new thing?" Todd asks, and Dirk grins, fond. They look out over Bergsberg together. Unbidden, thoughts of Wendimoor come to him. "I wonder what happened to Suzie Borten."
Dirk thinks about it for a moment.
"The train in the sky," he says, and Todd knows it's true. "That's how it was supposed to be. The villain locked away in a train in the sky that just goes round and round forever. Like the drawing."
Todd's not sure he can think of a worse fate for her. It's comforting.
"So, what happened when you went back to Blackwing?" He asks, and Dirk makes a face like he's tasted something sour.
"Not now, Todd. Let's just stand here and watch the sunset, and when Farah wakes up we can all exchange stories of who shot who and why."
Knowing the peace won't last forever, Todd watches the sunset.