[log] special delivery [closed]

[devoutish]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, John Watson
Location building 125
Date: evening of 126
Summary: Alfie revives with only a robe, a pair of slippers, and no supplies; Watson comes to the rescue
Warnings: n/a; will edit if anything comes up

Watson is definitely not Alfie's first choice to accept help from - but if the alternative is freezing and making himself sick, he's not going to turn the man away. He gets to the building first, which turns out to not be much of a building at all. At first, he's not even sure he's going to be able to stay... but then he notices the trapdoor.

It's not ideal. Sticking his head down, the first thing he notices is complete lack of light. But he doesn't want to move on - his other alternatives would either be pushing ahead to the entrance building, which he's heard is highly-trafficked, or veering off-course and heading down one of the offshoot tunnels, which he definitely wants to avoid. So he stays.

He sticks to the main basement for now, above the trapdoor. At least he can at least see up here. The place is small, and he can already tell that there aren't any supplies to be gathered, so there's not much to do but sit tight. He lowers himself down onto the floor and focuses on keeping his extremities as warm as possible - blowing on his hands, and vigorously rubbing his slippered feet. And he waits.

Comments

[devoutish]

Sometime in the middle of the night, before John goes into a trance and walks out, he'll be woken by a gentle shake to the shoulder. Good news - Alfie has his voice back! Bad news - he's going to use it to do this.

"Hey, mate - wake up a moment, yeah? We've got to have a little talk. But don't make any sudden movements, all right; you've got something very sharp a centimeter from your neck. Wouldn't want you to cut yourself."

There is indeed the sharp point of a scalpel nearly touching his skin.

[jumpthegun]

Well, he should have known better than to fall asleep next to Alfie. But bodies being how they are... John sighs. He sounds tired rather than frightened. "Are we really doing this?"

His moves aren't sudden. In fact, his moves as he carefully slides his hand into his own pocket and grabs hold of the curved little fruit knife waiting there are very smooth and quiet.

[devoutish]

"It's just a talk, all right; no need to be scared," Alfie says soothingly. He notices John's hand moving, figures he's reaching for a weapon, and presses the scalpel closer - not enough to sting or draw blood, but enough to be felt.

"Right - I wanted to talk about this investigating you're doing. You've got to leave it alone. Yeah? I'm sorry mate, there's just no other way about it."

[jumpthegun]

"Surprised you don't know the difference between fear and annoyance." John does still his hand, though. For now. He doesn't actually need a weapon to fight with Alfie, but it would make things easier. "I'm not investigating anything apart from what's going on in this place.

"Sorry, but I'm not stopping that."

[devoutish]

He brushes off the first comment, because come on John, just let him be patronizing without calling him out on it. "Nah, keep up with that; that's good. You're good at it. But these questions about what happened night before last, yeah, they've got to stop. Don't ask me, don't ask Tifa, don't ask any of the others. You weren't there, and it's got nothing to do with you."

[jumpthegun]

"All right. Are we done now?"

He already has all the information he wants. So. That was easy. Isn't this easy, Alfie?

[devoutish]

"I think so. But that depends more on you, doesn't it? Do you really mean it?" He wants to hear confirmation before he takes the scalpel away - something more than an offhand all right. Sure, Watson could lie. But if he is, Alfie is going to make him do it twice.

[jumpthegun]

"I don't like repeating myself, Mr. Solomons." If Alfie was keeping an eye on the exchange between John and the Joker after the bomb hoax reveal, he might recognize some of the same tone in the man's voice then as now. "I already know what happened. Threatening me isn't going to change it."

[devoutish]

"You do." Oh, that scalpel definitely isn't getting put away now. "All right, then; let's hear what you know."

[jumpthegun]

Well, sure, summary. "House was a git about Duster's heritage. You stepped in. Duster trapped Ecks in a closet. Bit of a back and forth, Ecks got out and hit Duster good enough to get him off, but got stabbed. Tifa came after her and knocked her out - concussion. And then you threatened House with your scalpel and he backed down." John is guessing for that last part, but given the mention of the scalpel and the fact that no one actually died, he figures it's a good assumption.

"Does that about cover it?"

[devoutish]

"Yeah, I'd say it just about does." He doesn't move the scalpel. "But what I don't understand is this, mate. You know I don't appreciate being investigated. You knew none of it involved you. You are very insistent that you are not an enforcer of any sort of law here, so why do you very consistently act like one? I just can't understand it. Help me out here, eh?"

[jumpthegun]

John's mildly frustrated. "Because investigating is what I did, Mr. Solomons." Alfie already knows about Sherlock from that dream... Moriarty. And God help him, he's about to use one of Sherlock's lines. "It's not like a tap. I can't turn it off. But d'you see me talking about locking you or Duster or Ecks up? Clapping you in irons?"

[devoutish]

"Yeah, all right. We're just doing what we did at home, aren't we? You investigated, and I did things like this." He taps the scalpel very lightly against the skin of Watson's neck. "Listen, I understand having a job. I do not actually have anything against you personally. But you are, right now, receiving the natural consequences of your actions."

[jumpthegun]

"Curiosity killed the cat, is it?" He's still just annoyed more than anything - half at himself for being caught unawares, half at Alfie for actually pulling this nonsense.

"So, what now? Because I'd really like to get back to sleep, personally, and threatening me's not going to get you anywhere, mate. This? This isn't scary. This isn't a roadside bomb, people with grenade launchers, or terrorists using women and children as human shields. This isn't being strapped into a vest full of explosives by a psychopath. It isn't trying to solve a virtually impossible puzzle just to save a little boy getting blown to bits by that same psychopath while you listen to that little boy count down from 10. You'll have to do a hell of a lot better if you want to scare me."

[devoutish]

"Oof. Hard life. And as someone who has seen one or two of those things himself, yeah, you're right. This is not that." Tap, tap, tap goes the scalpel. "This is just a discussion, mate, and a bit of a warning. The first of many, eh? I would not be surprised if that were the case." But while he's determined that there are situations in which he'd be perfectly willing to kill or maim Watson, this isn't one of them. Finally, he takes the scalpel away, slipping it back into his bathrobe pocket and giving the other man a hearty clap on the back.

"Right. Glad we had this talk. Now, you should know, I am gonna tell Duster that you know what you know, and he is not gonna take it as well as I have. I certainly don't blame him; the man's having his innermost secrets spread around like gossip, and you're helping that."

[jumpthegun]

"Mm." Alfie gets about halfway through what he's saying before John's hand snaps out. He grabs for Alfie's arm and if he can get it, he'll shift to a crouch and pull sharply, twisting to get the other man's arm up behind his back at a painful angle. He'll put his knee into Alfie's back and reach to pin the man's other hand with his own if that goes well. John may be surprisingly strong for his size.

[devoutish]

Alfie goes down, but he reacts quickly. Grunting in pain when his arm is wrenched, he twists himself around underneath Watson, so they're face-to-face instead of Alfie being face-to-floor. His free hand evades John for a moment, but in the end, it's pinned down. He lets it go limp - he'll wait for the right moment, then try jerking it away.

"What do you imagine is gonna happen here?" Like Watson, Alfie is calm. His eyes are narrowed, calculating, and he doesn't break eye contact.

[jumpthegun]

"Well, y'know? You got your turn. I was feeling left out." John's straddling Alfie's waist to avoid getting kneed or kicked somewhere unfortunate, and he leans most of his weight onto his hands to avoid giving the other man much of a chance to jerk away. It's dark. They have Alfie's tablet for light, and that's about it in the pitch blackness.

"Mr. Solomons, if you ever threaten me like that again, I won't kill you, I'll just dislocate your shoulder and break your arm. And then I'll set it back for you and get you set up with a sling. It'll be a hell of a lot more inconvenient for you than anything else I could do. So. I guess this is me saying, let's finish this tonight before we both get into a position we don't want to be in, hmm?"

[devoutish]

"Dr. Watson, I will not threaten you unless you give me good reason to. This, how this goes has always been up to you." He jerks his pinned wrist, suddenly and hard.

[jumpthegun]

John's wearing gloves, or he'd be digging his nails into Alfie's skin. As it is, he simply lets go and digs the fruit knife out of his pocket. Alfie will find that pressed against his nose, very near his eye, instead of his throat. It's at an angle where knocking John's arm away haphazardly or jostling too much has a very good chance of partially blinding Alfie. "Define: good reason."

[devoutish]

The scalpel is whipped out again almost as quickly, held down at Watson's groin. He doesn't want to move his arm up anywhere near Watson's, especially not fast - he likes having two working eyes.

"We've talked about this more than just this once, mate. I'm sure you can figure it out."

[jumpthegun]

He doesn't flinch, but he's very aware of that scalpel right now. John just keeps his eyes on the other man.

"Let's try this again, then, hmm? I don't consider looking into things when someone's been killed and might be lying to me about how that happened a good reason to threaten me. I especially don't consider it a good reason when I just saved your bloody extremities from frostbite."

[devoutish]

"Your concern over my death touches me, mate. Truly."

Not truly.

"But you may have noticed that I did not ask you to investigate. Now, I am grateful for the clothes here, and the food." That part, actually, is true. "But I was under the impression it was done out of the goodness of your heart. Am I wrong there? It seems you might be saying I was wrong there. Did you do it because you hoped it would put you on some sort of safety list?"

[jumpthegun]

"No. But I expect you not to put a scalpel to my neck in the middle of the night when I'm actively in the process of helping you. You want to try it, wait until you've at least got your things back. That's just common decency and respect, yeah?

"Guess that was expecting too much out of you."

He's assuming Alfie doesn't respect much of anything outside of his personal community - spiritual and cultural - but he doesn't really know the man. That's become abundantly clear in the last several minutes.

[devoutish]

"Well, if we're going to discuss respect, I didn't feel very respected when you ignored my wishes to have it left alone. Think we're about even, yeah?"