Work Text:
“You asked to see me.” Basira entered Elias' office, keeping a careful distance from him.
“Ah, yes, I did.” Elias smiled. “Have a seat.”
“I’m fine standing.”
“Very well,” Elias pulled a file out of his desk drawer. “I’m sending you to Hyde Park to investigate some disappearances. Just looking around for any suspicious or paranormal activities.”
Basira resisted the urge to roll her eyes. How was this what he was blackmailing her and Daisy for. What was even the point? It wasn’t even that she’d be miserable wandering around a park. She could even invite Daisy.
“Ah,” Elias smirked. “Detective Tonner is a bit busy with… other work.”
Bastard. “Fine. When do I leave?”
“You’ll want to be there when it’s dark, as that seems when most of the disappearances happen.”
“Alright. Is that it?”
“Yes.”
Basira turned around and walked out of the room.
“Good luck, Detective,” Elias called behind her. She clenched her fists. Punching him would probably do more harm than good.
—
Basira brought along a book and a torch to Hyde Park. If she had to be doing Institute work in the middle of the night to avoid getting herself and her partner killed, she’d be doing research on getting them both out every opportunity she had.
It was peaceful on her own. The night air was pleasantly chilly, enough that she wasn’t uncomfortable in her long sleeved t-shirt. She could lose herself in the pages of her book, ignoring the itching feeling of approaching danger, until it was so foggy that she couldn’t make out the words when the book was an inch from her face.
She put the book down. This probably counted as supernatural experiences. Around her where Hyde Park had been just moments before was an endless sea of fog. Basira stood up, grabbing her backpack off the ground and walked where she remembered the path was.
It was lonely on her own. She hadn’t even bothered messaging Daisy to see if she could come. They’d taken to spending more time at each other’s homes when they could, and Basira could see the toll protecting her took on Daisy. She’d show up at Basira’s home with scrapes, bruises and dark shadows under her eyes, glowering and crossing her arms, shoulders tense.
Basira had asked what she could do to help and been brushed off, told that Daisy was fine and to just drop it already. She’d curled up beside Daisy on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and listened to the Archers. They both knew it wasn’t enough.
Basira had replayed the confrontation with Elias in her head enough to know exactly whose faults it were that she and Daisy were stuck working for the Magnus Institute. Elias’, obviously, the conniving bastard; Jon’s, who’d apparently abandoned them to Elias; Basira hadn’t seen him since the confrontation; and Basira’s herself.
If it weren’t for her, Elias would have been dead and this all would have been over .
She clenched her fists. When had wallowing in self pity ever done anything good? She’d find whoever or what ever was causing the fog, and then she’d make it out and it would all be… not okay, but not worse.
She couldn’t make things worse.
To the left of her seemed to be where the fog thickened, which was probably the direction of the causer of the fog.
“If you get into danger Daisy’s going to have to save you,” her mind provided. She shook herself out of it. She was going to be fine, Elias still needed her alive for blackmail, and there was no way that he was going to risk her life on this seemingly irrelevant mission.
She continued forward.
“She’ll have to pick up the pieces when you’re a traumatised mess.” How else was she going to get out ? She didn’t know when the fog ended. If she could persuade the creator of the fog to let her go-
“What are you going to do? Have a nice friendly chat about how it’s mean to trap people in fog?” Or she could threaten them. She could take someone in a fight if it got physical. She wasn’t some helpless damsel who couldn’t handle herself, she was capable goddamnit and she knew that.
The view was completely white. Basira continued forward.
“Or, maybe you should continue,” the voice said, and Basira now was convinced it wasn’t her own thoughts.
“After all,” the voice was coming from outside her head now, from a silhouette barely visible amidst the fog. “If you die, Daisy can kill Elias.” The silhouette moved, tilting their head to one side. “Have you come to die as well, Basira?”
“I want to get out,” Basira responded.
“Why?”
“Daisy’s… I need to be with Daisy.”
The silhouette laughed, a single, mocking ha.
“She doesn’t need you,” the figure moved again. “She’s better off without you, we both know that.”
She didn’t. The silhouette was right, Daisy didn’t need her. Without Basira, Daisy could leave. Flee to one of her numerous safehouses, get away from the constant trauma, get away from it all.
Or would she stay? Basira had given her the option. To quit with her when Basira had left the force, or stay and continue burying more people and things in the forest on a weekly basis. And Daisy had stayed.
Elias had said something else, called her Daisy’s last anchor to humanity.
Basira liked to think of them as each other’s rocks. They protected each other, from the dangers outside and in their minds. They were reliable. They weren’t going to die in a fog domain because some random person decided that misery loved company.
“Yes she does. And I need her.”
Two shots rang out, and the silhouette collapsed onto the ground.
“Basira?” Daisy called.
“I’m here,” Basira responded.
Daisy ran into Basira’s view, as the fog began to clear, holding her shotgun.
“I’ll deal with that,” she said, glancing over at the corpse of the fog causer. They were smaller than Basira had expected, and wore a winter coat. Did they used to get cold often? Did anyone use to laugh at how cold they got even in mild weather?
“Ok,” Basira said, still staring at the corpse of what must have been someone barely in their twenties whose blood now pooled on the ground.
“Go to your flat, I’ll meet you there.”
Basira turned to face Daisy and found an almost soft expression on her face.
“Right, yep.”
—
They listened to some of the first season of What The Ghost that night, and Daisy almost turned orange again, trying to make caramel popcorn.