Chapter Text
Dirk wakes up to the overwhelming feeling that something is very wrong.
Which is to say that he wakes up like this most days; being attuned to the universe and all its faults has its downsides, has mostly downsides, and one of those downsides is the ever present awareness that something is not right, which every so often, when he’s unable to tune it out, is accompanied by an overwhelming need to fix it.
Having said that, today is not actually today yet. Rather it’s just gone four in the morning, the world around him is quiet and dark, and yet still he wakes up so suddenly he manages to fall out of bed with the shock of it. The sound is enough to wake Todd it would seem, as a few moments later he sits up and looks around with some confusion, before groaning and moving to peer over the side of the bed.
“Dirk?” His voice is thick with sleep, some confusion, and more than enough warning that there had better be a good reason for his sleep being so rudely interrupted. Dirk knows well enough by now that a just-woken-up Todd is not the best at dealing with things outside the realms of his accepted and understood perception of reality, and so Dirk decides it might be best not to drop anything too alarming on him right now.
“Hello Todd! Lovely morning!”
Todd's brow furrows, looking him over where he's sprawled on the floor before he glances over at the clock on the side table.
"It's the middle of the night," he states, yawning as he wipes a hand over the back of his eyes. "You okay?"
There's a tumultuous feeling in his gut growing stronger by the second, a cacophony building in the back of his head that's getting louder and louder and louder, like the pressure of it might make him explode, like if he tried to put voice to what exactly it was all he'd end up doing is screaming and screaming and screaming and yet-
"Fine, Todd. I'm fine I just... fell. Out of bed. Like people do. People do do that don't they? It's not- well, of course they do that would make sense, it is rather high. I'm just going to..." he pushes himself up off the floor, taking a few steps back from where Todd is watching him, the confusion on his face spreading through suspicion to concern.
"Dirk," he repeats, and dammit he sounds clearer now, like he's waking up and the time that Dirk has to get away with anything is growing shorter by the second. "What's going on?"
He pauses, fidgeting his fingers together as he tries to work out what to tell him. How to tell him. Todd is... wonderful, perfect even, and he's made his stance on sticking around for even the strangest things rather clear, but that doesn't mean he has the ability to understand Dirk's ability, anymore than Dirk himself can explain it. It's frustrating at the best of times, and downright distressing at the worst.
"Nothing. Nothing is going on. Everything is... fine. I just-" he sighs, shoulders dropping as he shakes his head, rubbing his hands over his face. It's been there for days now, the feeling. Coming and going and usually remaining little more than a niggling sensation in the back of his head that he's able to brush off as long as he doesn't think about it. It's going back to that now, he can feel it pulling away, retreating to the corner of his mind where he's quite happy to let it sit as long as it doesn't bother him too much, but when it had woken him up it was more like he'd just stuck his finger in a plug socket. A sudden jolt right through his being, the echoing inhuman sound in his head he could only think of as a scream still ringing in his ears when he was unceremoniously dumped into the land of the living, the metallic tang of iron on the back of his tongue. It's like he's trying to play scrabble in a language he's never seen if he thinks too hard about trying to understand it. He asks, although he already knows the answer, small and uncertain like he's not sure what else to say.
"Did you feel something?"
Todd softens at that, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, finally giving in to the fact that he's awake now, and likely will be for some time.
"What kind of something?"
Dirk watches him back, the look on Todd's face is more familiar than ever now, and although he knows it means Todd knows this isn't going to be something he'll be able to understand it's just as comforting to Dirk. He listens, and even if there's no way for him to ever feel the universe the way Dirk does, even if it's not real to him, he tries. And he believes him, if Dirk lets him.
"It's like..." he shakes his head, looking for the words. "Like a... something sudden, something... not right. More not right than the normal amount of not right. Like- Like something happened."
Todd frowns, and Dirk can see him trying to parse the information. Trying to pick his next words carefully. "Did- did something happen?"
Dirk shrugs, moving to sit down next to him now the worst of it has passed. It just leaves him feeling tired more than anything. "I don't have the first idea. If it did then not here, clearly. If not then- then I don't know what it was. I've felt- things before, all the time, even. But not- never like that."
Todd doesn't say anything for a moment, just turns towards him, taking one of Dirk's hands between his own. It's nice. Their relationship is still settling in, but Dirk hopes he never stops finding it nice.
"Right. But... if nothing's happened here then there's nothing you can do, right? I mean, does it... does it want you to go somewhere? Do something?"
He frowns, doing his best to focus on the feeling even though he knows all too well that rarely helps him out. "No. I don't think so it was more like... it was almost like it was in pain."
"The universe?"
"Yes. Just- just for a second but it felt- not good?"
"Are you... are you hurt or-?" His voice takes on an edge of worry that almost makes Dirk feel bad in his hurry to correct him.
"No! Well, a little. From the falling. But not- I wasn't in pain I just... felt it. Sorry. It's..."
Todd shakes his head, an attempt at reassurance. "I think- maybe, if there's nothing... I mean if it doesn't seem to want you to do anything then... maybe you should just try sleeping again? I mean. We can't do anything now, right? And if there is something wrong I'm sure it'll... come up in some other way. Somewhere. Right?"
There are many times Dirk considers Todd's more straightforward approach a little inadequate when it comes to dealing with universal anomalies. And yet now, like he is so many times whether Dirk would like to admit it or not, he happens to be right about the situation at hand. Dirk doesn't tell him this of course, instead he just sighs heavily and leans into him, warm and solid against the chill of the early morning.
"It could have at least waited until a reasonable time to wake me up," he grumbles.
"Yeah well," Todd moves, nudging Dirk along with him until he's maneuvered them both back under the blankets, letting Dirk curl up against his side in a mirrored reversal of their usual sleeping habits. "When the universe starts being reasonable, we'll be out of a job."
Dirk smiles at that, Todd's gentle grumbling about the state of affairs a sure sign that everything is not quite as bad as Dirk had first thought. He's not convinced he'll be able to sleep much, but at least like this nothing feels as urgently panicked as he had upon waking, and if something is wrong Todd is right that it will crop up sooner or later. He's not looking forward to that, but at least for now the moment has passed, and he's quite content to lay here instead, listening to the steady, gentle sound of Todd's breathing as it slows, the fingers combing through his hair growing heavier and slower with every pass.
It feels, for a moment, like he could just as easily have imagined the whole thing.
Dirk, though he doesn’t know it yet, should know better by now.
***
Life at the agency is a steady ebb and flow for the most part, something which Todd had honestly been surprised by when they first settled into it. They had plenty of false starts of course, plenty of cases that Dirk would deem boring or ordinary, not holistic enough to warrant his skills but sometimes intriguing, or upsetting, or the client was willing to pay them enough for them to take them on anyway. Dirk it would seem is particularly fond of cases involving missing cats, he claims it's where his career as a detective began and so he owes it to anyone who comes to them with these cases to take them on. Todd has noticed that once they find said cat, it often takes Dirk an hour or more to actually call the owner. Found cats leave their office a lot more fussed than they otherwise had been.
It's been slow recently though, a lot of days spent sat around tossing poorly crafted paper airplanes back and forth, debating the quality of local coffee shops, and politely informing many a caller than no, they are not the pizza place they are looking for. The breaks are welcomed, especially when they follow a particularly heavy case, but it's times like these; Dirk leaning back so far on his chair he's in danger of falling off it, Todd trying to work out how much Dirk would complain if he startled him into doing just that, Farah scratching away at something she refuses to share in a notebook, when a knock on the door is more than welcome.
Dirk, teetering on the edge as he was, startles enough to end up on the wrong side of gravity, and finds himself crashing to the floor with a yelp. Todd feels bad for laughing before anything else, but a glance at Farah tells him he's not the only one.
"That," Dirk huffs, as he extracts himself from the tangle of limbs and chair legs, "was completely uncalled for!"
"You okay?" Todd asks, amusement clear in his voice as Dirk rights himself, sure that he is but just worried enough to ask anyway.
Dirk narrows his eyes at his tone, suspicious. And okay, maybe Todd is mocking him a little, but if he will lean back on his chair like that...
"Fine, thank you Todd." He sniffs, making his way through from the back of the office to what Dirk had dubbed the 'informal interview area' where Farah has already invited their client in. Todd thinks the area is just an excuse to have sofas in the office, but given that he's often found sprawled out over them himself he's not complaining.
"This is Sarah," Farah says, gesturing towards the woman. She's tall, in her mid thirties with a cropped brown haircut that seems to have been ruffled out of its careful styling by whatever it is that's brought her here. The tear tracks are still visible on her cheeks, and she looks like she may start sobbing at any moment. Farah has already handed her a box of tissues and settled her into a chair. "She says her brother is... missing?"
"Gone," Sarah corrects. "He's... vanished. Just- completely disappeared and I don't-" she shakes her head. "It's not like him, I don't care what they say, he wouldn't just disappear like that."
"What who say?" Dirk interjects, taking a seat on the sofa opposite her, clearly intrigued by something. Todd thinks back to the night before, the first indication of universal interference they'd had in quite some time, and wonders if it's at all connected. Well, he reminds himself, everything is connected, something that he tries rather hard to stop himself thinking about whenever he starts before he ends up in a mental tangle of universal inconsistency. "Sorry," Dirk continues waving his hand apologetically. "I'm Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective," he gestures to the sign as he says it, and Todd tries not to let himself feel too overwhelmed with affection at the sight of him being so proud of himself. "And this is Todd, my assistant!"
Todd finds himself a little flustered by the fond look that accompanies those words, but like always he manages to swallow it down and vaguely wave a notebook in her direction. "I'm uh, gonna be taking notes? He talks, so..." he shrugs, but it seems to satisfy her as she gives them both a watery smile and clutches onto the glass of water Farah hands to her as she joins them on the sofa.
"So!" Dirk continues, bright as anything. "Your brother has vanished?"
"Yes," she nods, sniffling a little and sipping at her water. "Two days ago. I always go to see him on Thursdays, he can get... down. Sometimes. I like to check in on him. But this time when I went he just... wasn't there."
"Is that unusual?" Todd asks, trying his best not to turn it into an interrogation. "I mean... he couldn't have just gone off somewhere for a bit?"
"Well that's what I thought at first! I thought maybe... maybe he was getting better, maybe he'd forgotten it was Thursday, maybe he'd just gone out to get some milk but- I let myself in. I thought I'd wait for him and I went to make myself some coffee, and that's- that's when I noticed his keys were on the table. The door was locked, but his keys were right there! Like he'd... forgotten them or something but-" she swallows, shaking her head. "I'm- I'm not, I don't believe in... you know. Ghosts. The paranormal. All that kind of thing. I don't, but... it felt wrong in there. Like... like if someone had moved everything in there just an inch to the left. Not... completely wrong but-"
"Not completely right?" Dirk asks. He's leaning in now, clearly engaged, and Todd wonders if he's feeling something. There’s something different in the way he engages with holistic things that isn’t entirely present when he’s engaging with more ordinary things, or at least Todd thinks so. He’s started to associate it both with excitement at the idea of a new case, and dread for what fresh hell will be unleashed upon them this time.
"Exactly. Everything was... right where he left it. He hadn't taken any clothes, any money. The plates were still drip-drying from where he'd washed them! It wasn't like he'd gone it was... it was more like he'd never been there." Her breath is shaky as she reaches for her bag, fishing something out. "I tried- I tried calling his phone when I couldn't find it... but it just- made some strange kind of crackling, screeching sound. I've never heard anything like it. Just- listen." She pulls the phone from her bag, dialling the number swiftly and placing it down on the coffee table.
It rings for a few moments, the standard dial tone, and for a moment it feels like they're all holding their breath before the call connects like someone's picking up. The speakers shriek with static, immediately filling the room with a piercing white noise that seems to be all kinds of sounds all mashed together to create one awful cacophony of feedback. Todd grits his teeth, Dirk covers his ears, and it's not long before Farah reaches out to hang up the call. The silence that falls on the room leaves their ears ringing.
"What was that?" Todd asks, staring at the phone like it might come to life any second. "That was-"
"I don't know," Sarah shakes her head. "It happens every time. I can call other people just fine but... someone picked up, right? Something- something answered that phone."
"It- It certainly seems that way," Farah agrees. "I don't- Did you go to the police at all?"
Sarah scoffs. "Yeah, they searched the whole house. They said there wasn't anything suspicious, that he's clearly just left and they'll keep a look out for him but they're not- they're not looking because he's a grown man who can leave without telling me if he likes. They-" she sips at her water again, trying to calm herself. "They didn't listen when I told him that Henry isn't like that, he wouldn't just do that, and even then, who... who leaves without their clothes or their money? How on earth did he lock the door if he left his keys? They said his phone must be damaged but- but someone picked that up and I don't-" her voice catches, burying her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. "He didn't leave, I know he didn't, but even if he did they should at least look for him and- and then I saw your advert so I thought... Why not? I’ve never- I’ve never done anything like this before but it said… it said you ‘find the whole person?’ I don’t know what that means but- I need someone to look for him. I don’t know how to do that.”
“Well,” Dirk smiles, probably a little more cheerful than he should be given the circumstances. “You’ve certainly come to the right place! This doesn’t even sound like the strangest case we’ve had, I’m sure we’ll be able to find your brother.”
“Dirk,” Farah warns, likely attempting to remind him of the conversation they’d had about promising things they don’t know if they can deliver. Dirk rolls his eyes.
“We’ll do our best to find your brother,” he corrects, “although I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end! These things tend to!”
Sarah looks from Dirk to Farah like she’s seeking reassurance, which Farah does her best to give her. “It might be a good idea if you gave us some details? I have some forms you can fill out so we know how to contact you. Dirk is…” she casts a glance over to where Dirk is already chattering excitedly to Todd. “He’s not too good with the details but, he does mean it. We’ll try our best.”
It seems to be enough, and Sarah nods as she rummages through her bag for a pen. “Thank you,” she tells them. “I- I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Oh, that’s alright, nobody does!” Dirk assures her. “Or, well, in general I mean. Not with the- I know what I’m doing when it comes to- I’m a very good detective.”
Todd snorts, and Dirk manages to look offended even past the wide-eyed way he’s attempting to reassure their client. “I- yeah, yeah he is. It’s…” he hurries to correct himself, not wanting her to worry any more than she already has. “He’s uh, unconventional? But I mean, if the cops aren’t helping that’s… probably a good thing, right?”
Farah sighs, soft but enough to be noticeable. “Maybe you two could go and start doing some research? Go and check out the address?” she asks, knowing full well it’s unlikely but wanting them out of the room anyway. Todd nods, thankful for the excuse to leave as he takes Dirk’s arm to drag him with him just in case he protests.
“Sure! That sounds… we’ll meet you there?” He tears the piece of paper with the address on out of the notebook, and grabs Dirk’s jacket off the hook by the door before he can say anything.
“Nice to meet you!” Dirk calls to them as Todd shoves him unceremoniously out of the door. He takes a moment once it’s closed behind them to right himself, straightening out his shirt and casting Todd a sideways glare. “Honestly Todd, is that really any way to act in front of our guest?”
“If you want her to think that you’re any good at your job, then yes.”
For a moment Dirk just holds his glare, before he shrugs his shoulders and takes his jacket when Todd holds it out to him.
“Well, I suppose if she won’t be convinced by words, we’ll just have to prove it won’t we?” He grins, reaching out to take Todd’s hand and pull him along like he always does. “Come on, I’ve got a good feeling about this one!”
Todd doesn’t trust Dirks ‘good feelings’, but he certainly hopes he’s right.
***
When they arrive at the house, things seem deceptively normal.
It's a standard two up two down, a little well worn and uncared for but clearly not falling into any state of disrepair. The most uncomfortable thing about it is the strange looking garden gnome perched next to the door that Todd side-eyes as they make their way up the driveway. By all accounts it's the kind of place you wouldn't even look twice at on a street like this.
Dirk stares at the house for a moment, considering, before he hums thoughtfully and declares the house, "suspicious."
Todd takes a break from side eyeing the gnome to side eye him instead. "What's suspicious?"
"This house," he forges ahead, leaving Todd to traipse after him with a sigh. "It looks normal."
Todd rolls his eyes in place of comment, knowing by now that trying to argue with Dirk on things like this will only lead them both in circles and be helpful to exactly nobody. He's relieved when Farah and Sarah appear, joining them at the door just in time to stop Dirk breaking in. Todd had watched him testing the windows, and he's rather glad he doesn't have to try and talk him out of it.
"Found anything?" Farah asks as Sarah digs out her keys.
"Not yet. I'm guessing the weirder stuff is inside?"
"Oh I do hope so!" Dirk smiles at Sarah as she unlocks the door, bouncing on his feet like an overeager puppy. "Outside has proven to be a total loss."
"Well-" Sarah never manages to finish what she was going to say, if only because Dirk makes it clear he's not really listening by beelining his way into the house as soon as the door is open, Farah giving her apologies as she chases after him, trying to give some warning about walking into unknown danger without a hint of caution.
"Don't worry about him," Todd reassures her when Sarah looks at him, bewildered. "He's... Doing something. It'll make sense in the end you kind of just have to go with it."
"Is he always so..." she trails off, closing the door behind them and looking up at the ceiling where they can hear Dirk and Farah in the room above.
"Yeah," Todd agrees, offering her a small smile. "You get used to it. Eventually."
She eyes him sceptically for a moment, before drawing a breath to right herself and nodding. "Well, I don't really have many other options so I hope you're right."
Perhaps the loud thud from upstairs isn't exactly reassuring, but the excited, "Todd!" that follows certainly makes him feel better.
Farah is waiting for them at the top of the stairs, face pinched in concern and looking a little ill for lack of a better word. It's an expression he recognises, one which means she's just seen something she doesn't want to accept, and before he has chance to question it Dirk is rushing over and grabbing him by the wrist to pull him across the landing.
"You are not going to believe what we just found!" He says, pulling them over to an inconspicuous looking closet set into the wall between the bedroom and the bathroom.
"It's... a closet?"
"Well, yes, obviously Todd. The question isn't as to what it is, more as to what it's doing here." He grins, the expression on his face telling Todd that he's missing something entirely as he glances between Dirk and the painted wooden door.
"Because... that's where they built it? Dirk, I don't know what you're-"
"That- Where- That wasn't here before." Sarah is standing transfixed, staring at the door like she can't quite believe what she's seeing, colour draining from her face as her voice shakes with the realisation. "Where- what is it?"
"Aha! Isn't that the question? You're good at this, by the way. That's exactly the sort of thinking we need to solve this kind of mystery! The trouble is of course, that I have absolutely no idea. Any thoughts?"
"I..." She takes a step closer, appearing almost hypnotised by the presence of the door. "It- This isn't- I mean, it's... it looks like..."
"It looks like what?"
Todd shouldn't have favourite things, not when it comes to the unexplainable, not when it comes to dealing with people who have exhausted all their options and have come to them in a fit of desperation, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't like watching Dirk when he'd finally hit on something. It's the first step in watching the impossible unfold in front of them, and despite his initial resistance to the lesser understood facets of the universe, there are times when he finds himself almost looking forward to them.
"There was a closet here, when it was my parents house. They filled it in years ago and- there had been some kind of damp problem? We used to keep laundry in there it wasn't- it wasn't anything but- how on earth would that be here? You can't- you can't undo that."
"Well, not ordinarily, no." Dirk agrees. "But I think we can all agree that whatever is going on here isn't quite congruent with what we would expect from a linear progression of space and time."
Sarah laughs, and she looks more startled by the fact that she'd made the sound at all than anything that had caused it. "Are- I'm sorry, are you saying that this is... some kind of- time travelling closet?"
"Well..." Dirk backtracks, just a little. "We can't really know what it is without opening it, can we?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Todd asks, taking a step closer unthinkingly like he's readying himself to step between Dirk and the closet if he has to. "I mean- if we don't know what it is or where it came from it seems... we don't know what could be in there!"
"Well we won't know unless we look, will we Todd?" Dirk scoffs, like his concern is entirely unfounded. "What else do you propose we do? Just... leave it there? We're here to solve a disappearance, I think a sudden reappearance of a thing is a pretty important clue, don't you?"
His face is doing that thing where he's simultaneously smug because he knows he's right, and pleading with Todd to agree with him just for the benefit of hearing he is. It is, in Todd's opinion, the most frustrating expression in the world.
"Fine, fine- maybe you have a point. But you can't just open it without some kind of back-up! It shouldn't even be here, I think that's a pretty good reason to worry."
Dirk stares at him for a moment, unwilling to concede that maybe Todd also has a point, before he sighs heavily. "Farah. Would you do me the great honour of defending me from this closet door that Todd appears to think is going to attempt to eat me or something similarly horrific?"
"Okay, I never said it was going to eat you you're just-"
"Todd has a point. You don't know what's in there, I'm not so sure it's a good idea," she's been eyeing the door warily herself, holding onto her gun just in case.
"Ha! See? Thank you!" Todd declares, smug himself now he's got his own back up. "Opening unknown time-travelling doors? Not a good idea."
"I'm sorry,” Dirk scoffs, affronted. “But wasn't it you who, not so long ago, threw us through a bed into an alternate dimension?"
"Wh- I only did that after you fell down a slide and almost got us killed by a nightmare houseI!"
"I never asked you to follow me down the slide! In fact,I very specifically remember telling you not to follow me. Which, as my assistant, seems to contradict the whole point of being my assistant."
Todd narrows his eyes at that, doing his best not to raise his voice too much but suspecting it’s a fight he’s already lost. "Okay, well as your boyfriend, I think I'm allowed to be concerned about the possibility of you disappearing through a- time warp door!"
For a moment, Dirk doesn't say a word. Instead he just stares at Todd for the longest moment. He’s starting to worry he’s said something wrong before Dirk, in a voice that’s both confused and hopeful asks, "boyfriend?"
Todd feels his face flush with colour that isn't just down to their arguing, immediately fumbling over his thoughts to try and find a way to counter the fact that yes, he had just said that. "I- I mean. We don't- we don't have to call it that it's just- you know. We haven't really talked about it and it seems like- there are- we could call it anything really I'm not- I'm not picky it's just-"
He's cut off when the air around them suddenly explodes into a screaming void of white noise.
Sarah, seemingly tired of their bickering, had taken it upon herself to open the door. How she’d gotten there without someone noticing Todd has no idea, but for a split second before the terror ensues, he almost feels relieved at the interruption.
When the sound hits him it feels like his insides are being turned out. It's the same noise from before, but hearing it through the phone's speakers is nothing compared to the all encompassing sound that rattles through them like it's trying to turn his brain to liquid and rattle his bones to dust. It screeches in his head, some unholy, otherworldly sound that every cell in his body seems to agree is not made for human ears.
Todd manages to pry his eyes open, looking for the others as he tries to find his bearings, they seem to be in a similar state but he only catches a glimpse of them before his attention is pulled back to the closet, or at least, where the closet used to be.
The door is flung open, and behind it lies a gaping maw of nothing but empty, inky, darkness. Or perhaps, he thinks as he stares at it, every colour all at once, swirling and tumbling into and over each other and stretching on and on until he's not sure if what he's looking at is nothing or everything, only that his head is starting to hurt at the sight of it, and that somehow it's starting to feel less like the shrieking feedback it's giving off is no longer filling up the room around him, but coming from him.
He only realises he'd been screaming when Farah pulls him back with enough force to make him stumble and look away.
"What..." he can't hear his own voice over the sound around them, Farah's mouth is moving but he can't make out her voice either and instead just lets her drag him forward, barely managing to get his feet to cooperate as they make their way down the stairs, miraculously not tripping over each other until they trip out of the door and land on the front lawn.
As soon as they get out of the house the noise stops.
Outside is just blue sky and birds, the sound of cars going by like nothing has happened. Todd can feel the grass underneath him as he pants for breath, trying to work out what the hell just happened but his head is far too scrambled to put any of it together in any way that matters.
He registers, faintly, the sound of his name being called, soft and worried as Dirk's fretting hands flitter over him like they had the first time Todd had had an attack and he hadn't known what to do. It's strangely reassuring, even if he can see the worry on Dirk's face and he can't quite work out what he's saying. Instead he finds himself staring at the house, standing there innocent as anything, like there was never anything wrong with it in the first place. It shouldn't make sense, it doesn't make sense, and then- just as he's starting to think the universe will never make any sense of anything- the house disappears entirely.
Finally content that this is the only course of action it could have taken that would in fact make sense, Todd lets himself fall back onto the grass and, despite his desire to reassure Dirk that he's absolutely fine, promptly passes out on the front lawn.