Work Text:
It wasn’t just about the hookups.
Which were great, of course, and happened not infrequently, but Tim’s relationship with Sasha was more than a casual ‘friends with benefits’ situation.
Somewhere in the awkward aftermath of their first hookup, Tim realized that maybe he liked Sasha more than he thought he did, and stuttered his way through asking her on a proper date. She let him down well enough, and it’s not as if he could fault her reasoning.
Sasha was aromantic and had no interest in dating, not in the way most people considered such a partnership. But at the same time, she liked having Tim around, and as long as he wasn’t weird about it, it wasn’t as if they couldn’t go on traditional couple dates or spend copious amounts of time together. They even talked about getting an flat together once Sasha seriously considered looking for a job outside of the Archives - that way they had no excuse not to continue their own type of relationship when distance got the better of them.
It was agreed early on that if Tim wanted to date or shag other people, he was more than welcome to, on one condition: he didn’t forget that Sasha was there first.
*
But as Sasha walked toward him, Tim remembered none of this. He remembered crushing on her, hard, and that time they hooked up one late night in the Archives, but nothing more. They were friends and coworkers, and that was it.
However, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
“Any plans for the weekend?” Sasha asked, leaning against Tim’s desk with a cheery smile on her face.
“Oh, not really. Might go out with some friends for a drink or two. Or three. What about you?”
“I’m meeting my boyfriend.”
I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Tell me all about him.” Tim leaned forward and rested his head on his hands while smiling jokingly. “I need to know if I have to kill him.”
“Tim,” Sasha groaned, still smiling, and rolled her eyes. “His name is Tom and he’s lovely.”
“How long have you been dating?” He asked in a leading manner, his voice lilting as he poked and prodded. “Come on, come on, spill it.”
“Not too terrible long. We’re still in the getting to know each other stage. Here, look.” Sasha pulled out her phone and flipped through some photos of her and Tom. They looked happy together, even if the pictures seemed moderately forced. Some people just didn’t photograph well.
“You look real cute together,” Tim admitted, and Sasha beamed.
“He’s so sweet, and super romantic too.” After a short pause, she changed the subject. “Alright, I really do have to get these reports to Jon, so I’ll see you on Monday?”
“Yeah, sounds good. Have a good weekend! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”
“There’s not a lot on that list,” Sasha joked, and Tim laughed.
“All the same.”
“Fair enough.”
As Sasha walked away and Tim thought over the conversation, wondering when he would get to meet Tom and threaten that if he ever hurt Sasha, the usual. But then the last few words stuck in his head.
He’s so romantic.
There was a quick flash of a bouquet of flowers and the telltale roll of Sasha’s eyes, despite a firmness in her expression.
And then, as quickly as the moment appeared in Tim’s mind, it was gone again, but it left him with a weird, heavy weight in his gut.
“You okay?”
Tim broke from his reverie and looked up at Martin as he stepped into the room, concern on his features.
“Uh, yeah. Just… not quite déjà vu, but something like that.”
“Need some tea?” He offered. “I was just about to make myself a cup.”
With a heavy sigh, Tim replied, “Yeah, I think I’ll take you up on that.”
*
A week or two later, Tim found himself beside from Sasha with nothing but mindless paperwork sorting to do. Jon hadn’t assigned them any follow-ups and Elias was busy in a meeting, so there was nothing to fill the time but filing.
Ever since Sasha had told Tim about her relationship with her boyfriend, Tom, something had made him uneasy about it all, but he couldn’t quite place it.
It didn’t seem like jealousy. It felt closer to dread.
Jealousy would’ve been easier to handle. Who wouldn’t be jealous of someone dating Sasha? She was clever and funny and incredible in every way – but still that heaviness welled up in his chest every time she was around.
“So… how are things going between you and the boyfriend?” He asked, trying to push down the weight inside of him. Despite it all, he really did want Sasha to be happy.
“Oh! They’re great! Really, really good,” she replied, even though she didn’t look up from her stapling. “He always brings me flowers; my flat is practically overflowing.”
Another flash of a bouquet coursed through Tim’s mind. He couldn’t remember why, but he knew Sasha didn’t like receiving flowers, not from someone close to her; there was an expectation attached to them, and it made her face scrunch up…
“I didn’t think you liked flowers,” he pondered aloud, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Of course, I like flowers!” Sasha insisted. “What girl doesn’t like receiving flowers from her boyfriend?”
At that, Tim turned to Sasha.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But this whole thing with Tom… it just feels weird. Wrong, kind of.”
Sasha set her stapler down, hard. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s just, it doesn’t seem like you. And you tell me everything, yet you’ve never mentioned this guy until recently? It just… something doesn’t sit right.”
“You know, Tim, here’s the thing: I don’t tell you everything. I don’t have to. It’s not like we’re together, I don’t owe you any explanation for my actions.”
With ire in her eyes, Sasha pushed past Tim and left the room, slamming the door behind her. Tim couldn’t help but reach out as she stepped by, but he didn’t go after her.
She was right, after all – they weren’t together, were they? Maybe... but no. They were just colleagues, work friends, and work friends hardly counted as real friends.
Wandering back to his desk, Tim tried to formulate an apology in his mind, but it all felt insincere. That anxiety in his chest just wouldn’t go away, and it felt wrong to say sorry for something that still worried him.
Instead, he decided to aggressively sort the paperwork on his desk. There were a lot of apartment listings, and he couldn’t remember why. He liked his house and had no desire to move. There must have been a reason, maybe someone he wanted to move for?
But when he still couldn’t remember, he tossed them in the recycle bin, and got back to work.
*
What was that thing? It had looked like Sasha, but it was… wrong. It was all stretched out and the features were distorted.
And now, Tim didn’t even know where he was, and Martin was nowhere to be seen. And so, with a strange, twisted, melodious laughter echoing down the corridor, Tim decided to keep moving. Martin had to be close by.
Instead, Tim rounded a corner and saw the thing that once took the shape of Sasha James, distended, turn and look at him.
“What are you?” Tim asked breathlessly, trying to wrap his head around it all.
Right before his eyes, the creature shrunk and pulled itself together, taking the face it had so recently worn, even if the features still weren’t quite right.
“Oh, Tim? It’s just me, Sasha. What’s going on?”
But it wasn’t Sasha.
Tim charged forward, ready to bash his fists against this imposter, ready to release the weight in his chest that had been there for so long now.
“You are not her!”
But before he could get too close, the being hit him with a backhand that stretched out far from its body and sent him cascading backwards. Tim skidded along the floor and bashed his head against the wall.
For a brief moment, there was another flash of a bouquet, and a face that looked nothing like the one before him.
That face in his memory… that was Sasha. Not this thing.
Tim stood up and let the fury inside of him run free. He raced toward the creature again, and got up every time it sent him flying away. His body ached, but he wouldn’t stop.
“Give her back!” He screamed from where he lay on the floor, blood trickling down the back of his skull. “Where is she? Where is Sasha? Tell me!”
The being laughed, that off-putting cackle that sent shivers up Tim’s spine.
“Sasha is gone. She’s dead.” As if it could see the despair in Tim’s soul, it added, “It hurt a lot too. I’m sure you could’ve helped her. After all, she saved you, and then you weren’t there for her. What a shame, really.”
The sadness and grief threatened to consume Tim for a moment, but he channeled them into one last attack, one last chance to show this monster that it would pay for what it had done.
In a flash, the thing that was once Sasha was gone, and Tim thudded into the wall before him. The musical laughter faded away into the distance.
With his strength gone, Tim slumped to his knees and the tears came pouring out. Sasha was gone, and had been for ages, yet he hadn’t even noticed. How could he not have noticed? How could he have forgotten her?
“Tim? Tim, what happened?”
Martin knelt next to Tim and put a hand around his shoulders.
“Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
“I found the thing. The stretched out thing that pretended to be Sasha.”
“Did you… get it? Is it still out there?”
“It got away.”
“Let me try and stop the bleeding.”
Tim batted Martin’s hand away before he could even get close to the gash in the back of Tim’s head.
“I’m fine. We have to keep going. Come on.”
Tim stood and started to walk down the hallway. With a sigh, Martin trotted after him.
First Danny, and now Sasha, lost to those monsters who pretended to be people.
Fists clenched and jaw set, Tim swore that they wouldn’t take anyone else from him. And he would make them pay, if it was the last thing he ever did.