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Logan shifted uncomfortably in the seat of the van, painfully aware of the person next to him. He’d been on joint assignments before, of course, but it didn’t mean that he liked having to share his space with another Handler any more than he had to. Not that Kevin was a bad guy, or anything; despite his odd sense of humour, Logan probably got along with him best out of all the other Handlers. While this could have been due to the strange compatibility of their individual personalities, it was much more likely that it was an inevitability borne of their being thrown together so often; the combination of their respective Actives seemed to be a very popular one.
‘How’s Havok been doing?’ Logan asked gruffly when the impatience of waiting for the Assignment to end got to be too much for even him to bear.
Havok’s handler, Kevin, looked up at that, a smirk clearly visible on his face.
‘You just asking or do you really want to know?’ he asked.
Logan scowled, causing the other man to laugh. It was an odd little laugh, more akin to that of a cackling witch than of a grown man, as Logan was all too willing to tell him every time they came together.
‘He’s fine,’ Kevin said cheerily, either assuming or just not caring whether Logan was indeed interested. ‘He’s healthy and happy and content, just like always. Just like all of them. I mean – they’re Dolls. These guys aren’t exactly hard to look after, you know.’
Logan let out a non-committal grunt at that. Maybe it was because of Charles, or maybe it was just him, but ‘easy’ wasn’t a word that he would have used to describe this gig.
Perhaps the other Handler sensed this for he relented after a minute.
‘Havok’s good,’ he said, nodding to himself. ‘No problems or weird Clients, if that’s what you’re asking.’
Logan let out a snort.
‘Dunno about that,’ he muttered. ‘I’d say that all our Clients are a pretty screwed-up bunch, if you’d ask me.’
Kevin grinned at that.
‘I guess you’re right,’ he said with a laugh. He nodded over at the house they were surveying, the one into which both of their Actives had disappeared. ‘What do you reckon the one in there’s like?’
Logan tilted his head thoughtfully, one of his hands toying with an unlit cigar.
‘Lady by the name of Johnson, McCoy said,’ he mused, before shrugging carelessly. ‘Probably some delusional old broad who wanted to have two pretty young things fightin’ over her.’ He paused, before adding as if in an afterthought, ‘And then a threesome.’
Kevin let out a high-pitched bark of laughter. ‘Amazing. You could be a profiler for the Feds,’ he joked.
Logan grunted humourlessly.
‘Dunno ‘bout that, bub,’ he said gruffly, ‘It ain’t too difficult. These assignments don’t really stray far from the basics, if you get me.’
Kevin nodded. ‘Can’t beat the basics,’ he said wryly, before giving a mock shudder. ‘All the same, rather them than me. At least the Dolls can forget about it later.’
But Logan shook his head.
‘Doesn’t make it any better,’ he said grimly, glaring at the house with thinly-veiled dislike. ‘Can’t say if it makes it worse or not, but it sure as hell doesn’t make it better.’
Kevin nodded contritely at that, and for a moment they sank into a sort of silence. Kevin, however, was never one to be quiet for long.
‘Have you noticed they’ve beefed up security?’ he casually asked Logan after a moment. ‘They’ve brought more guards in from somewhere or the other and they’ve been installing more cameras. Did you notice?’
As Logan would have had to have been a very poor member of the security team to have not noticed, he said nothing and merely gave Kevin an unimpressed look.
‘Yeah,’ Kevin said, ignoring Logan’s expression, ‘Victor Creed came and talked to us about it. Well. I say “talked about it”. He actually just came in and told us that they were bringing more guys in and that he had better not hear us whining about it. Was very particular about it, too. “Mr Sydney,” he says, “There’ll be no whining from you about this.” Not a lot a guy can say to that.’
Logan smirked. He had been on the receiving end of more than one of Creed’s talks. He couldn’t say that he had any real love for the Dollhouse Head of Security, but Logan couldn’t deny that the man was annoyingly competent.
‘I thought it was just a temporary thing, at first,’ Kevin was saying, his nasally voice strangely soothing to Logan’s ears, ‘I mean, I only thought it would last for one or two days, to coincide with Shaw’s visit and everything, but-’
He was cut off by Logan suddenly swinging around and fixing him with a sharp look.
‘What did you say?’ Logan growled, his eyes narrowed and his teeth bared.
Kevin stared at him in surprise.
‘I – Shaw,’ he said slowly, ‘I thought that the security was for Shaw.’
‘When was Shaw here?’ Logan demanded, ‘How long ago?’
‘Just – I don’t know – what? Two days ago?’
Logan let out a growl and Kevin eyed him curiously.
‘What’s got you all riled up? Shaw owe you money or something?’ he joked even as he scrutinised Logan’s face intently.
‘Or something,’ Logan grunted, feeling angry and unhappy. Two days ago. Charlie had had an appointment two days ago, one that had lasted for over twenty-four hours and where Logan hadn’t been allowed to monitor the proceedings as was normal protocol. He had suspected at the time, naturally – of course he had, he wasn’t stupid, whatever anyone said – but to have it confirmed …
Kevin shifted in his seat and Logan belatedly realised that he had been growling angrily under his breath. He quickly came to and composed himself, trying to avoid Sydney’s curious gaze.
‘What was he here for?’ he asked gruffly, trying to pull Kevin’s attention away from himself.
Kevin cast him an odd look but he willingly went along with it and started saying something about the quarterly check and general overview that Shaw came in to do every few months.
‘And of course, he makes sure that there’s nothing going on that shouldn’t be going on,’ Kevin continued knowledgably, glancing up at Logan when the other man let out a derisive snort. ‘I know, what’s he going to find that Miss Frost won’t have already, right? But you’d be surprised.’ He gave Logan a significant look. ‘The last time something major happened it was Shaw who rooted it out. Oh yeah,’ he said with a smug look as Logan glanced up, ‘Now you’re interested, aren’t you?’
‘What happened?’ Logan asked, intrigued in spite of himself.
Kevin grinned and sidled closer in his seat.
‘Let’s see,’ he said, a thoughtful look on his face. ‘I was in charge of Pyro at the time – they gave him to Drake shortly after that, I believe; something about compatibility, I think they said-’
‘Get on with it,’ Logan grumbled. The number of Actives that passed through Kevin’s hands was almost legendary. He had even been nicknamed ‘Morph’ due to the way that one of his Active morphed into another by the time of the Dollhouse’s annual review; at least, that’s why Logan had always assumed he’d got the nickname. He’d never really bothered to ask.
‘Right. So anyway – there was a lot of confusion and I was only really just starting out back then so no one would really tell me what was going on, but whatever it was, it was definitely messed up. I mean, there was definitely something freaky going on.’
Logan waited for Kevin to continue.
‘…And?’ he asked impatiently when the other showed no signs of continuing.
Kevin looked pleased by Logan’s interest.
‘And it ended with a whole bunch of people being sacked,’ he said with apparent relish. ‘And then it came out that it was one of the Doctors who was at the head of it all, and that his screwing around had led to some epically messed up shit.’ He gave Logan a meaningful look.
Logan stared back, unimpressed.
‘Epically … messed up … shit,’ he repeated slowly. He let out a sigh and rubbed his head. ‘Jesus, Morph, could you maybe be a little more specific?’
Kevin smirked.
‘Sorry, that’s all I have. The details are way above my pay-grade,’ he said, smirk widening at Logan’s irritated growl. ‘But hey, if you really wanna know more, ask McCoy. He was there the whole time. In fact, he was one of the few people who came out on top from that shitfest.’
Logan was silent for a moment.
‘McCoy?’ he repeated slowly, ‘The Programmer?’
‘The one and only,’ Kevin said cheerfully.
Logan subsided into silence, the wrinkle on his forehead the only sign that his mind was still focused on Kevin’s words.
Just then, the timer on the van’s dashboard went off, breaking Logan out of his reverie and signalling that their Client’s time was up. Eager to return Charlie to the safety of his protection, Logan quickly shook away all other thoughts and sat up in his seat.
‘Come on, Morph,’ he said, clapping a powerful hand on the man’s shoulder, causing him to wince. ‘We’d better get moving. It’s time to pick up the kids.’
Kevin grimaced and rubbed at his shoulder.
‘Coming, dear,’ he said with a sigh, before following Logan out of the van.