Chapter Text
ONE
Ethan was feeling good. He had the day off but had still gotten up early, gone for a run, taken a shower and done the crossword puzzle while waiting for his eggs to boil.
So far, if his day had been a commercial, it would have been for an expensive men’s cologne. Well, if Juliet had been there to give him bedroom eyes as he went on his run, it would have been.
(Unfortunately, she wasn’t, having canceled last minute on him last night in favor of some big case.)
His plan for the day was less exciting though. He had decided it was time to start sorting through the junk in his garage. He wasn’t sure how in just two years of living in his house, he’d managed to fill it to the point of not being able to park his shiny black Tesla (which he’d gotten mostly because both his neighbors each had one) in there.
Juliet had said she would help him clean out the garage any time he wanted but honestly, she’d looked just a little too eager to do it. He wondered if it was her generally tidy nature loving the idea of sorting or just a chance to snoop that had gotten her so interested.
Not that he was hiding anything. But he wanted her to keep thinking he was great and he worried failure to keep his things in order would be a minus in her book. He was also somewhat sure he had pictures of his ex, an embarrassingly large collection of baseball cards and possibly a few notebooks from a summer of thinking he wanted to be a singer.
(This had of course never amounted to anything, as he knew being a doctor or lawyer or engineer was what was expected of him.)
So Ethan figured he’d pre-clean the garage and then once he was okay with Juliet seeing it, he could have her over and pretend it had never been any worse as they cleaned it together…
His phone rang.
Frowning he checked the number. It was unknown. That wasn’t totally abnormal. He got lots of calls, mostly work-related. But he was off duty today.
Still, because he would rather work than get started on the garage, he picked it up.
“Shah.”
“Great, doc,” a familiar voice said, “I was worried I had the wrong number. You home?”
Magnum. Thomas Magnum was calling him. That was odd.
“Yes,” he said quickly, “Is Juliet alright?”
Because that was the only reason he could see for the other man to call him. They weren’t exactly friends.
“Sort of. I’ll be at your place in two and I’ll explain,” Magnum said and then, without any other kind of information, hung up.
How Juliet managed to work with him Ethan didn’t quite understand. Abrupt and unreliable and surly. At least around Ethan. There was also something else. Ethan wasn’t sure what, but he knew he wasn’t a fan of Thomas Magnum.
But he had to pretend to be, because he was important to Juliet. Hopefully, he’d see whatever she saw in him and be able to befriend him. Otherwise, he wasn’t sure how this thing with him and Juliet would work, unless she was willing to do something other than being a PI.
Which he actually thought sounded quite good. She’d been a programmer back in London. She might want to get back to that… yeah. As cool as her PI job was, it wasn’t really conducive to what he saw for their future.
90 seconds later the tires of the Ferrari squealed to a stop outside his house, the red masterpiece of an automobile narrowly missing his Tesla.
“We’re here,” Magnum said, clearly to Juliet. “Now you can open the door.”
Juliet did, jumping out and looking excitedly around. “I know this place.”
Magnum followed her out of the car as Ethan himself headed down to meet them.
“Yes!” Magnum said, nodding to her. "You do!"
“This is Ethan’s place.” She poked Magnum in the chest. “He’s my boyfriend.”
“That’s right,” Magnum said as Ethan reached the pair.
“Ethan!” Juliet grinned and almost jumped into his arms.
“Juliet,” he said, happy to see her even though something was clearly not right with her. “Thomas.”
“Ethan, good, you’re free today right?” he said, checking his Rolex watch. Ethan had been debating getting a Rolex for quite some time and only last week he had. He’d been planning on wearing it for the first time last night when he took Juliet for dinner.
“Yes?” he said, just as Juliet licked his neck.
“You see we had this little incident and Juliet may have just accidentally inhaled a little bit of ecstasy.” The man at least had the decency to look sheepish. “We’re right in the middle of a case and if I take her to the ER we’ll be there for hours and I think she’s fine, but if she’s not, you’re a doctor, so you can watch her, can’t you?”
“I don’t need watching,” Juliet said, turning around and almost leaning against Ethan as she gave Magnum a dirty look. “I’m a grown woman.”
“I know,” Magnum said, “But you were annoyed we had to do this case and you’d miss your weekend with Ethan. Remember?”
“No I wasn’t,” she said, stepping towards Magnum. “I want to make apple pie.”
“Well, I’m sure Ethan has some apples,” Magnum said, giving Ethan a quick apologetic look. “Or if you’re really lucky he has apple Jell-O!”
“What about the case?” she said, sounding more like herself. “You need me.”
“I’ll be alright-”
“No, you won’t. You’re utterly useless without me! You even admitted it!”
“I never did-”
“So did-”
“Um guys,” Ethan said, feeling a little annoyed at being ignored. “I’m not really sure-”
“ Shuush ,” Juliet said, putting her whole hand behind her and up towards his face. “Not now.”
Magnum chuckled. “Stay with Ethan, Higgy. Make some pie. I’ll survive.”
She gave a sigh and he began to walk away. As he did, she took two steps after him. “Promise?”
“Promise what?” He turned back to her.
“That you’ll be alright!”
He nodded. “I promise. Okay. Now just enjoy your trip. Doc, you got my number so call me if she needs anything.”
“We’ll be fine,” he assured Magnum. Because honestly, he was the doctor. What did Magnum think he and Juliet might possibly need him for? “Come on Jules, let’s go inside.”
“No.” She pulled away from him when he tried to start herding her towards his house.
Instead, she watched Magnum get in the Ferrari and drive off.
Watched until his car turned the corner and he disappeared from view.
“Okay,” she said, turning to him. Then she broke into a huge smile. “You got shiny hair!”
“I do,” he agreed, because he was very pleased with his hair. It really was one of his best features. “Shall we go inside?”
“We shall,” she said, immediately jumping forward, almost skipping. “I’m going to teach you how to do a somersault. Do you know how to do a handstand? I bet I could teach you that too.”
Ethan swallowed, kind of wishing he was cleaning his garage.
“I’m hungry,” she told him a few minutes later. He’d managed to convince her that doing gymnastics while high was not the way to go. “We should make grilled cheese. Magnum loves grilled cheese.”
“Magnum isn’t here,” he told her, offering her a bottle of water. “And I don’t have any bread.”
“That’s sad,” she said, taking the water and promptly sitting down on the floor next to his kitchen island. “I love how the wood looks with the light hitting it like this.”
She touched his kitchen island’s base.
“Yes,” he said, squatting down. “Do you want to maybe try to lie down for a bit?”
“No thank you,” she said, her eyes sliding across his face and then over to the kitchen door. “Ethan?”
“Yes?”
“We’re alone right?”
“Yes,” he said again.
“You sure?” she asked, her hand reaching to grab his wrist in an almost painful grip.
“Completely.”
She nodded but still said, “Could you call Magnum and tell him Richard is here and he needs to come meet him.”
“Who is Richard?”
“My fiancé,” she said, still looking at the spot over by the door. “He doesn't look good though.”
Ethan, while knowing hallucinations were not uncommon for someone on ecstasy, was disturbed by the idea that she was seeing someone else there with them in the kitchen.
Not just anyone else either.
A man named Richard who she’d apparently been engaged to at one point.
“There is no one there Juliet,” he told her firmly.
“Richard had a dog growing up. Magnum did too. And a mouse,” she said, finally looking away from the spot and meeting Ethan’s eyes. “Did you?”
"What?"
"Have a dog?"
“I didn’t,” he said, happier with this topic. “My best friend did though.”
“What kind? Did you have a Doberman? I have two. They’re called Zeus and Apollo. I love them. They're my good lads." She said it all very quickly and like he'd never met her before. Like they were perfect strangers. "What was it called?”
“Huh?”
“Your friend's dog!”
He couldn’t remember. But she clearly wanted a name so he said the first one that came to mind, “Buster.”
“Magnum had a rat named Roberto. I think me and Magnum should get a puppy together,” she said, sounding almost like herself. Except for the idea. “A baby sister for the lads. We could call her Artemis. She was the goddess of the hunt in Greek mythology, you know?”
Why would she and Magnum get a dog together? If anyone should be getting a dog together it was him and Juliet. Like a test run for a baby. Except Ethan didn’t really want a dog. He liked dogs well enough when he saw them on the street, but they were messy, expensive and needed a lot of care.
“What about me and you? We could get a puppy,” he said because even if he didn’t want a dog, he sure as heck didn’t like the idea of her wanting one with Magnum.
She made a face.
“No?”
She shook her head. “We don’t live together.”
“Neither do you and Magnum,” he pointed out.
“Well, no,” she agreed, patting his cheek. “But almost. I see him every day and every night and I know him.”
“And you don’t know me?”
She shrugged. “I guess.”
“I feel like I know you.”
That made her giggle and hold up her fingers to show a small amount. “This much.”
What did she mean? That he didn’t even really know her? But he did. He hadn’t known her financés name was Richard but he had figured there had been someone in her past. What else was there? She’d told him about her life in England, deciding she needed a change and coming to Hawaii. He knew her.
"Ohh fun!" She jumped up, excitement suddenly grabbing her again.
“What?” he looked up at her.
“We can go buy bread and then make grilled cheese.” She bit her lip. “We should get cheese too. Magnum only likes American cheese! The yellow kind! It’s disgusting. I know! We should make grilled cheese with good cheese for him. Magnum loves grilled cheese.”
Ethan wondered how many times she’d said ‘ Magnum ’ in the last five minutes. Frankly, it was beginning to annoy him. And worry him.
Ecstasy to a large part just took the filter off your brain and flooded it with happy fun thoughts. It was a tad bit concerning that high Juliet’s brain seemed to be going in circles back to Magnum.
“Jules?” he said as he stood.
She stared at the water bottle she was still holding, “Yes?”
“Would you tell me about Magnum?”
“Sure.” She beamed at him. “Anything."
“How about, what's the thing you like most about him?”
Scrunching her mouth and nose together she said, “I don’t know.”
“No?” That was a relief.
“I can’t just pick one thing,” she said then let go of the water bottle which landed on the floor an inch from his foot.
“Juliet!" That could have broken his toe!
"Maybe two things," she said, still on the Magnum thing. "Can I pick more than two things?
"Yes, however many things you want,” he said, sighing, and picking up the water bottle and putting it on the counter.
“Well,” she said, seeming to really think about it. “I like how good he is.” She nodded. “He tries and he tries. That’s really annoying but I like it. He’s stupid but so smart and always makes me feel better and thinks about people and I love when he looks at me and I know he knows what I’m thinking. And when he tries to fix things and listens to me and how much he cares and-”
“I got it,” Ethan said, stopping her and turning away to head into the living room. “Magnum is fantastic.”
“Yes!” she agreed, clearly not hearing him trying to be sarcastic. “He is. We don’t tell him that though because he’d get a big head. But he really is the best. Did I tell you about the time he found the girl’s cat? When he saved me from drowning? Oh I want shrimp! Can we put shrimp on the grilled cheese?”
“We’re not making grilled cheese,” he said, louder than he’d intended.
“Oh,” she said, stepping back and wrapping her hands around herself. “Ethan, are we really alone?”
“Yes!”
Her eyes went around the room and he saw her breathing get faster. And faster. She closed her eyes and began to mutter, “ not real, not real, not real.”
“What are you seeing?” he asked gently, feeling bad for having snapped at her. This was not the time to let his emotions get in the way of helping her.
Even if that did seem rather pointless now. Seeing as Thomas Magnum was apparently, according to Juliet, the most amazing guy in the world. Not exactly what you wanted to hear from the girl you were almost in love with. But then again, Ethan wasn't one to give up just because of some small obstacles.
“I know they’re not real,” she told him in a whisper, her eyes still closed. “I know they’re not.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. “It’s fine. Just breathe.”
She peeked quickly then pressed her eyes shut again. “Not real.”
“Exactly. Think of something nice,” he said, even though he’d never actually coached anyone through a bad trip before. “Remember when we went to the beach.”
“Yes. Beach. Last week when we were running I fell and you made fun of me but then you realized my hand was hurt and you made it better,” she whispered, clearly knowing something about how to paint a memory for herself.
Only this was not a beach run she’d shared with him.
Yet another Magnum moment floating into her head he suspected. Great.
“Yes,” he said even though it hadn’t been him. Because she needed to calm down.
She took another deep breath. Looked around.
For a moment he thought she was fine but then her eyes caught on something beyond his left shoulder and she began backing away.
Then she turned and ran, clearly at least somewhat aware of where she was because she managed to get to the only room in the house with a door that locked.
The bathroom.
Even though he tried to stop her, she was too quick and she got the door closed and locked before he could stop her.
“Juliet! Open this door!”
But she wasn’t responding. Instead, she was yelling and sounding like she was trashing his bathroom. Fantastic.
“Open up!”
“No!” she yelled and banged at the door. “Go away or I really will kill you!!”
He wondered who she was talking to because he didn’t think it was him. It was some figment of her delusional brain.
For a bit he debated whether to attempt to kick the door in. But it was probably going to be expensive to replace and would surely hurt his foot. His toe had been inches from a water bottle bomb minutes ago; no way was he risking his whole foot! And there wasn’t that much damage she could do in there, was there?
He heard his mirror shatter and felt his pulse rise. Maybe there were a few things. And she might be a danger to herself as well. He’d taken the Hippocratic oath. It was his job to make sure she was safe. Best way to do that would be some way to calm her down.
He tugged his phone out of his pocket because as much as he didn't like it, he had a pretty good idea of who would be best able to do that...