Chapter Text
Sam wasn't listening, he never did anymore, especially if it involved that fucking Institute.
Alice was sitting in the break room, trying her best not to walk back over to Sam and give him another piece of her mind. Why couldn't he understand that she was just trying to help? She had worked at the OIAR long enough to know what this place did to people, the turnover rate was a testament to that. Alice looked down at her now room temp coffee, she pushed it aside, opting instead to open her phone and see if she had any texts from Luke, or Teddy, or really anyone she could confide in. Her finger stopped on the contact for Elias, she wasn't that low that she needed to vent to her dealer yet, right?
A creak of the break room door drew her away from her thoughts. Alice looked up, hoping vainly that Sam had come to apologize, instead she saw Gwen fidgeting nervously over to the counter.
"Oh, its you." She allowed her irritate to be heard loud and clear in her voice. "What's the high and mighty manager doing down here with us lowly paper pushers." Alice spat.
Gwen flinched. Alice's smug face fell. She had been doing that a lot more hadn't she? While Alice would never say it out loud, she did worry about Gwen, she always had, the girl looked like she was always being pulled taught, just a thread away from falling apart. She still remembered the way she had cried out about Bonzo only a few weeks ago. What was it that Lena had her doing that would effect her so much?
"Can we not do this right now." Gwen sighed as she sat down with her tea. Come to think of it, she was the only one at the office who drank tea. "I just, I just can't right now." Gwen put her head in her hands, a slight tremor to her shoulders.
"Alrighty then." Alice's voice was lacking much of its usual mirth or sarcasm. It felt wrong to be so honest.
They sat in silence for a while, the slight buzzing of the air conditioning and the subtle electric noises of the security cameras above them. Now that she finally got a good look at Gwen Alice noticed a few things. Ever since her promotion Gwen had been looking much worse for ware. Where she used to wear prim proper suits, or at least respectable clothing, she now wore more casual clothes, sweater vests, simple button ups, and slacks. Today however she was wearing a large sweater and khakis. Alice wasn't entirely sure that this was the same Gwen, not just because she would never wear that, but also did Gwen always have such bright eyes?
"Lena was asking about you a few days ago." Alice said to break the awkward silence. "When you hadn't come in on time."
Gwen laughed bitterly. "Did she now. No doubt wondering why I was taking so long." She took a long sip of her tea.
"She sounded genuinely worried." Alice was unsure how to proceed. She was so used to Gwen raising to her taunts and jabs, for her not to was, unsettling to say the least.
Gwen finally looked up from her hands, and Alice almost choked. Her green eyes were so bright, not in a vibrant way, these were no sparkling jewels or stars. Gwen's eyes were deep and sad, they shown like an old light bulb, flickering and unsettling. It only made Alice's concern grow.
"I know we aren't like friends, or whatever," Alice took a deep breath, trying to focus on the conversation and not on the discomfort that came from trying to meet Gwen's stare. "but I worry about you alright? I worry 'bout everyone. Sam and Celia aren't taking my warnings, think my concern is based on jealously and not, ya know concern for their health. Collin has always been a little off, and Lena's not approachable. But you, you always seemed to have your shit together, you come into work, lord knows why you chose a place like this, and then you leave after doing well, you don't ask questions, you just, you just are!" Alice knew she was venting, it had been a long time she had truly vented, Sam had been her go to for a long time, but, well that wasn't possible anymore.
Gwen rubbed her temples before speaking. It was quiet, almost gentle. "I think I understand why you are so against getting involved. Let's say my promotion was not all I thought it was."
"Is that's what got you in such a state? The promotion?" It seemed odd, if anyone was cut out to handle boring manager stuff it was Gwen, and Alice remembered how proud Gwen had been when she had first gotten the position.
Gwen was quiet for a while, looking as if she was puzzling something together in her head. Whatever Alice thought she had been thinking up was not what she got. "Alice, would you like to go and get a drink with me? After-after work I mean." Gwen was fidgeting in her seat like a teenager on their first date.
Objectively, Alice should say no. They had never gotten along, much less be on the level of drinking buddies, but it looked like Gwen really needed this, even if Alice wasn't sure what 'this' was. "Sure, but don't expect me to get you another mocha. That was a one time thing." Alice smiled Gwen's way, and shockingly she grinned back.
"Of course not."
As it turned out Gwen was not entirely incapable of picking a nice place to drink.
It wasn't a bar or pub, instead it was a small cafe, hidden between two larger more modern buildings. It was small, and very old, but it had the coziness that came from older places. It wasn't that busy either, in total Alice saw about seven or eight people at the counter or in the booths.
"Do you want anything?" Gwen asked, her voice sounding calmer now that they were out of the office.
"Uh yeah, I'll have a mocha with two caramel and espresso shots." Gwen nodded and moved to get into line, and Alice noticed something. There was something under Gwen's hair at the nape of her neck, it looked almost like an eye. Now Alice knew it must be a trick of the light of something because there was no way that Gwendolyn Bouchard would have a neck tattoo. Or maybe she would, despite their constant back and forth Alice knew very little about her.
Gwen came back soon after with the drinks, the mocha for Alice, and a chai for herself. She sat down at the table near the outside windows, it had a nice view for a place in central London.
"So how'd you find this place?" Alice quipped lightly, trying to break the tension that seemed to be constantly attached to the other woman.
"A friend," Well that was cryptic wasn't it.
Alice leaned back, fixing Gwen with a flat look. "Didn't think your trust fund Oxford friends would like places like this." Gwen cringed.
"It wasn't one of them." Gwen looked like she wanted to say more, but she faltered, before changing the subject. "I told you I had been promoted yes?" Alice nodded. "Well, Lena has me talking with 'externals' which in the easiest terms are monsters, or at least people who could be considered monsters."
Something dawned on Alice, something about Gwen's breakdown a few weeks ago. "Are you telling me Mr. Bonzo, like the children's show star is a monster?" If she lived any other life Alice may have thought Gwen had thoroughly lost it, but she worked at the OIAR, she had heard worst things.
At the name Bonzo Gwen tensed, her fingers digging in vain against the porcelain teacup. "Yes yes he is. So if Lady Mobury, the woman I had brought into the office." After a pause for breath, she continued. "My latest assignment as to find and recruit the artist Ink5oul. They have appeared a few times in the more recent cases." Alice did remember the name, hadn't they been raiding graveyards or something.
"Wait hold on, when you say 'recruit' what does that mean? Is Lena literally causing the cases we have to file?" It was certainly a different type of evil than Alice was expecting from the British government, but somehow not surprising.
Gwen gulped, her pale throat wobbling as she started up again. "Yes." Well shit. "And I, I think there might be something wrong with me."
"Just one?" Alice joked, it didn't land.
"I'm serious Alice. Ever since I started working with the externals, I've been, I don't know, wrong? Like the world around me is made of glass, and only I can see through everyone perfectly. It's horrible." Alice could see that Gwen had started crying. "What if I end up like them Alice. Ink5oul poured their guts out to me before trying to kill me! They weren't always like that, like, like a monster that kills people with stolen tattoo!" Gwen was full on crying now, her shoulder heaving as she coughed and sniffled.
"Hey hey." Alice reached a hand across the table, feeling Gwen's hand lash out and snap unto to hers like a bear trap. "I'm not sure I understand, can you go over it again, just a little slower?"
Gwen sniffed and let out a soft sigh. "Ink5oul told me that it started slow, a fascination with the power of being noticed, then it moved to a fascination with having power over others, and then with fear. They described it so viscerally Alice, it was horrible. I could feel every bit of pain and terror they had felt as they changed, and the pain they inflicted on others. And, and they were so upset with me when they were done, like I had done something to hurt them. I just, I can't."
"Gwen, Gwen, look at me." Alice squeezed Gwen's hand, trying to give her something else to focus on. "Trust me on this, you are a huge pain the arse, but you aren't a monster. I wouldn't even say we like each other, but I would never call you something like that. and hey," Gwen slowly looked up at her. "I know a thing or two about how terrifying change can be, but you just have to weather the worst parts. And I'll be hear to remind you that are just a normal run of the mill bitch." Alice smiled, a lopsided thing full of care and concern.
Gwen let out a shaky breath. "I don't know why but that did manage to make me feel better."
"I'm just that great deary." That made Gwen laugh, a true honest to god laugh, and if that didn't make Alice's heart melt a little. Finally someone who respecter her opinion and humor. "You never did tell me how you found this place."
Gwen wiped a tear from her eye. "Ah, yes, well. After I made Ink5oul angry they chased me, killing a passerby in the process,"
"Fuck."
"Yes, well, the only reason I made it out was because of a different terrifying thing, a watcher that pushed them away, they left this behind." Gwen pulled out her phone and showed a grainy image of an old tape recorder. Alice tried not to let that night outside the bar flash in her mind. "I ended up running for so long that I barely noticed where I ended up, until I was here. There was only one other customer, an older man, he and I started talking, and well, we became friends."
"You made friends with a stranger at a cafe in the middle of the night?" Gwen just nodded. Alice sighed again. "I've heard weirder things I suppose."
"I think you would like him, he has a very pleasant dry sense of humor." Gwen grinned across the table, the morning sun framing her sandy blond hair and green eyes in a halo of golden light. It made something flutter in Alice's chest, and if that wasn't the most annoying thing possible.
"Maybe I can meet him sometime. Anyway, its been a long night, but thanks for telling me Gwen. I think I understand a little better now. I'll make sure to steer clear of clowns and tattoos in my teasing." Gwen looked taken aback by that.
"Oh, oh thank you. Are you free this weekend?" She blurted out. "Talking was very therapeutic, and, um, nice. If you want, we can hang out back at my place for like drinks or something this weekend. If you are okay with that of course."
Alice thought morosely about how she would not, in fact have anything going on, Luke didn't have a concert and Sam probably wasn't going to want to hang out, so why not. She still could not avoid teasing. "I'll see what my schedule looks like, I'm a very sought after woman." She flashed Gwen a smile before picking up her coffee and heading for the door.
"Of course." Gwen rolled her eyes and followed her to the door.