Chapter Text
Lucy
I left on my 18th birthday. After I had to beg for my job back from Jacobs after the Wythburn Mill incident when I was 16, I’d been counting the days, hours, minutes until I became a legal adult and could flee to London. That day finally came last week and I was able to leave behind the string of broken bodies, alcoholic adults, and abusive parents that had laid claim to my body, mind, and soul for 18 years.
I wasn’t free, but I was out.
I’d been in London for six days, staying in one of the DEPRAC shelters while I tried to find a more permanent job with an agency. This was how I found myself on a job with this fucking prat that would not leave me alone.
You see, DEPRAC provides shelter for people with Talent as long as you agree to go on odd jobs for them. Which was fine by me. Anything was still better than being in the north. Plus, it gave me time to meet other people and try to find my way into a job.
Tonight, I was in a mansion with some agents from Rotwell and a few other agencies whose names I didn’t remember. Introductions had been fleeting at best, identifying us only by our Talent - the reason we were here. Our purpose. This mansion had been a turn of the century house of horrors, with a doctor conducting experiments on those labeled Insane or Feebleminded. There were too many Visitors here for any one agency to handle so DEPRAC had called in whoever was available.
I had been placed on a Rotwell team with a Seer and another Listener. And it was this Listener, Sebastian, that would not leave me the fuck alone. I just wanted to finish this job and get out, but he insisted on flirting with me, touching me, distracting me from the job at hand. I’d asked him to stop and he ignored me.
He was going to get us killed and I was ready to run him through with my rapier when I saw the sun begin to rise. The night was gone and the job was over. We’d be back tomorrow night though, ready to do battle again. We’d be back here every night until all the Sources were properly taken care of.
Which means I’d have to see fucking Sebastian again.
As I was packing up my bag, getting ready to head out, I saw Sebastian heading towards me. I was tired, irritated, and had absolutely no desire to ever see him again, but I couldn’t pick a fight since I would have to see him again - tomorrow and for as long as DEPRAC needed us.
Trying not to panic, I pulled on my agent training and tried to figure out a plan. Looking around for an escape, I realized that even if I made it outside, there was nowhere for me to go where he couldn’t catch up with me.
Running was out, fighting was out (I couldn’t risk losing my space at the shelter), which left… improvising.
I looked around at my options. In a corner not too far from where I was huddled, I saw two men who seemed to be about my age conversing. One was tall and lanky, wearing an obnoxiously long coat and seemed to have an air of a flirt about him. The other was wearing glasses and seemed to be hunched in on himself. But it was clear they were partners or good friends, given the easy way they talked to each other.
Not letting myself get second thoughts (after all, isn’t don’t hesitate one of our core mottos as agents?), I picked up my bag and jogged over to them. And prayed this would work.
I looked at the taller one, who up close was far more attractive than I realized, and whispered to him please just play along .
Louder, so that Sebastian could hear me from where he was still walking towards us, could hear me, I said “Hey love, you all ready to head back home?”
This man, bless him, didn’t miss a beat. “Almost, darling. Just need to pack up a few more things.” He looked over my shoulder and nodded towards Sebastian in what could’ve been a friendly greeting but had an edge to it that held a warning to back off.
When Sebastian had left, I thanked the man who had saved my arse, and made to leave. He reached out and lightly grabbed my wrist, stopping me.
“Hey, are you ok?”
For the first time, I felt slightly embarrassed about the situation - making this stranger rescue me like I was some damsel in distress from an old fairy tale. “Yes, thank you for helping me. Sebastian just wouldn’t leave me alone. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.” I shrugged like it didn’t bug me. I saw a muscle twitch in this man’s jaw.
“Do you want me to talk to him?”
His emphasis on the word talk told me that he had anything but talking in mind. But I shook my head. “No, thank you, really it’s ok. Just one of those things, you know?”
The look on his face indicated that yes he did and no that didn’t make it OK. But he acquiesced.
Finally, the other man spoke up for the first time. To my embarrassment, I had completely forgotten he was there. “At least share our cab. We can drop you wherever you need to be.”
I hesitated only a moment before nodding and thanking them. It would be nice, just in case Sebastian was still outside.
They dropped me a block or so away from the shelter. They had been nice to me, but they were still two strangers and I didn’t want them to know where I was staying. It was only later that I realized that I hadn’t gotten their names.
Lockwood
She’d only been out of the cab for about 30 seconds before George turned to him with a look on his face that usually preceded one of my headaches. I buried my head in my hands, bracing for whatever he was about to throw at me.
“So I assume we’re going back to that job tomorrow? Despite telling Barnes he could have us for only one day?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I lied. George had been my best friend and partner for far too long. I hated the fact that I was so transparent to him. He gave a far too self-satisfied smirk and made a note to reschedule tomorrow’s job.
I wish I would’ve asked her name. She caught me off guard. No one catches me off guard. She was beautiful, of course, but so were lots of women (and everyone else on the gender spectrum for that matter). No… there was something else about her that immediately captivated me.
Then she asked me to “play along” and called me love . It did something to my dead heart that I had absolutely no intention of looking deeper into. Instead, I’d do what I always did and brush it off with a photo-ready smile and externally pretend that it didn’t matter. Because it didn’t.
But there was something about her that required me to go back tomorrow. I didn’t even have her name. We shared a cab for fuck’s sake, and I couldn’t even get it together enough to introduce ourselves or ask her name.
“One more day. Just because I thought I saw a valuable relic there that maybe we could get to Flo.” It was a bad excuse even to my own ears and George didn’t bother dignifying it with a response. Thankfully, George let it drop after this. He’d gotten his victory, making me admit that she’d somehow crawled under my skin enough for us to change our plans and willingly give DEPRAC and Barnes another day, and he wouldn’t risk my ire by continuing to poke at it.
The next day, I didn’t see her before we had to start searching for Sources with the team I was working with. Tonight was easy. We’d apparently gotten the bulk of the Sources yesterday and it was significantly less hectic tonight. We wrapped up our job earlier than expected after clearing out the wing we were assigned to.
Unfortunately, that meant that we had finished before everyone else. I knew she was there because I saw the bag that she had been carrying yesterday beside some of the Rotwell bags. If this was any other night, we’d simply pack up and head home, but I wanted the chance to see her again.
George shot me a knowing look and told me that he was going to visit Flo. For the next hour or so, I tried to make myself appear busy. I didn’t want it to seem like I was waiting around for someone (which is exactly what I was doing), just in case she or someone else spotted me. Finally, I saw her emerge from a hallway. She had an irritated scowl on her face and I noticed splotches of expolasm on her shirt. Behind her, Sebastian was clearly trying to get her attention.
She hadn’t seemed to see me, and now had her back to me while she gathered up her things. When I saw Sebastian once again coming up to her, and the way that her entire posture stiffened, I took a chance and hoped she wouldn’t kick me in the shin (or elsewhere) for it.
I came up behind her and smoothly slid an arm around her waist while pressing a light peck to her cheek. She looked up at me and I saw a look of recognition. I felt her relax just a fraction and noticed a light dusting of pink on her cheeks.
Interesting .
“Hey, love, are you about ready to head home?” I turned then, pretending I was seeing Sebastian for the first time that night. “Oh hello again. Everything go well in your wing tonight?”
Sebastian grunted something in reply but I didn’t bother paying attention to what it was. I grabbed her hand and we headed out to where the night cabs were waiting.
“Do you want to ride with me again? George, the other one I was with yesterday, is already gone so it would just be you and me. I’m happy to just pay for a cab to take you wherever you’d like to go if you’re not comfortable riding alone with me. Which I’d completely understand, of course. No hard feelings.” I was babbling. I don’t babble.
She smiled, the first real smile I’d seen from her, and my breath hitched. “We can share. No point in taking two.”
I nodded and opened the door to the closest cab for us to slide in. After giving the driver the intersection for where we’d dropped her off yesterday, I relaxed into the seat next to her - and then realized I had absolutely no idea where to go from here. Luckily, she opened the conversation.
“Thank you, again, for rescuing me. Luckily, that was the end of the job so hopefully I won’t see him again. Or if I do, I probably won’t be on the same team as him again. I’m hoping I can just avoid him from now on.”
I nodded. “Happy to help. I apologize on behalf of my fellow men. Some of us just weren’t taught proper manners.”
She laughed at this. A genuine, happy laugh. It made her even more beautiful.
I was so fucked.
We dropped her off at the same corner and I realized I still didn’t know her name. As she walked away, I rolled down the window and asked her.
She shot me a smile over her shoulder and yelled out “Lucy” before the cab pulled away.
Lucy . It was a beautiful name.