Home for the Holidays, Ch 5 (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Dying Informant; Second Chance)
Title: Home for the Holidays; Chapter 5
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Claim: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (The Dying Informant)
Table: Do-it-Yourself
Prompt: Second Chance
Rating: PG13
Summary: Patty shows up, offering the Informant a way out... but things look worse for the Messenger.
Warnings: seriousness in a light-hearted fandom
Will be cross-posted to my journal, 30_hugs, and the V.I.L.E. Headquarters fanfic forum.
Time was creeping by. And as the Informant kept a vigil over the freezing Messenger (all the while freezing himself), the Techie and the Inspector were approaching the Pennsylvania town in the helicopter.
“I’m worried,” the Techie said.
“I think we all are,” the Inspector assured him.
“No… I mean… I’m worried about them getting caught in this storm,” he said, flinching at the near-zero visibility. “But I’m worried about what’ll happen when they find each other. I mean… they might finish each other off if the cold doesn’t get to them first…”
The Inspector sighed.
“They wouldn’t…” he trailed off. He knew that they would never physically attack each other, even under the most trying of circumstances. But words could often be even more painful than blows. And prior to the Messenger’s disappearance, they had inflicted quite a bit of hurt on each other. Would they still be enemies, even in a blizzard like this?
And what about Patty? She would be around somewhere, and she was the cause of this fiasco. The Inspector had been rather indifferent towards Patty in the past; he knew that she had simply strayed down the wrong path, which resulted in her being a member of V.I.L.E., perhaps not even by her own choice. He just followed orders and arrested her. But he didn’t know what to think of this current situation; it had been a shock to find out about her relationship with his younger colleague, but he hadn’t had the time to process that before the Messenger lost his temper. But the Messenger had only been trying to release the mix of shock and hurt he had felt upon this revelation. It had just been unleashed a lot harsher than he had meant it to in his anger.
And as for the Informant… Well, he couldn’t be fully blamed for what had happened. V.I.L.E’s ways were clever and crafty. Even if Patty had meant him no harm and did in fact care for him, she would have lured him away from ACME all the same, without either of them realizing it.
And what was going to happen once the Informant and the Messenger were found and brought back to ACME? Would the Messenger really tell the Chief about Patty? Whether or not he did, it would most likely be that the two agents, who had once been as close as brothers, would never consider themselves friends again.
And there was every chance in the world that even if he wasn’t reported and thrown out of ACME, the Informant would end up leaving of his own free will. He had threatened to do so before, on more than one occasion. When he had first joined ACME, the Informant had been so put off by the Messenger’s wild and crazy sense of humor that he had vowed to leave in order to save his own sanity. But he had ended up staying after he and the Messenger finally were able to see eye to eye. And the other occasions on which the Informant threatened to leave were usually after his failed missions, brought about by self pity. And, even in those cases, it had been the Messenger who had done his best to convince the Informant to stay. But now the Messenger wanted him to leave, or, at least, it seemed that way on the surface (the Inspector was certain that he didn’t mean it one iota). But with the Messenger apparently taking this view, would the Informant really leave ACME for good?
The Inspector sighed again. It would be up to the Techie to convince the Informant to stay on, and that wasn’t going to be easy-not that it ever was, but it would be far more difficult this time around. Would there be anything that he could say that could undo all that had been done?
******************************
Patty Larceny was stumbling along in the darkness of the mine tunnels. That annoying ACME Messenger had chased her into the hills, where she had fallen into one of the tunnels. And now, she was lost, guided only by her lipstick flashlight. But her entire expression changed when her flashlight beam caught the Informant and the Messenger.
“Hey, it’s you!” she exclaimed, happy to see the Informant again.
“Patty!?” the Informant asked, his eyes wide as he noticed her. He was relieved. “You’re alright!”
“Sure! Just a little cold, but…” She trailed off, noticing the Messenger, and then noticing how cold the Informant was. “What happened to him? And why aren’t you wearing a coat? You’ll freeze!”
“He must’ve collapsed chasing after you…” said the Informant. “And I gave him my coat.”
“Now why would you go and do a thing like that?” she asked, her lips forming into a pout. “You know he hates you; he was ready to turn you in and get you kicked out of ACME. You know he hates me, too; he just keeps trying to break us up.”
“I know…” said the Informant. “But I can’t just leave him…”
“Can’t you?” asked Patty. “Well, at least take your coat back; it’s no good if you freeze, too.”
“I can’t…” the Informant said. “He won’t make it, otherwise…”
The Messenger, in the meantime, slightly helped by the second trenchcoat, was beginning to come to, albeit for a brief moment.
“Is that… Patty!?” he asked himself. “Great… she’ll turn Infy against me again… I’m as good as done for…”
“Well, you aren’t planning on staying here, are you?” he heard Patty ask. “You’re going to freeze, too, if you do.”
The Informant didn’t reply.
“I assume you have help coming?” she asked.
“No; I couldn’t get through,” said the Informant, trying to get his communicator to work. Again, it did not send his message. “We must be too far underground, and the weather isn’t helping, either.”
“Well, that’s no good!” exclaimed Patty. “Get your trenchcoat; we can find our way back to town and we’ll both be saved.”
“But what about him…?” asked the Informant.
“What about him?” she repeated. “Look at him; he’s far too gone as it is! You can’t get help, and there’s no way he’d survive going out there. And he isn’t going to last too much longer here. And even if he did survive, what then? He’d break us up, disgrace you by reporting us to your Chief, and all because you let him do it.”
The Informant fell silent again. Would the Messenger follow through with his promise and really turn him in? But Patty was right about one thing; he may have been too late getting here…
“Or if you’re really that worried, and I have no idea why you would be,” she added. “You can come back to town with me, and we can send someone to get him. Let’s face it; neither of you will pull through if you try to wait this blizzard out. And I want you to stick around.”
She kissed him.
The Messenger had been hearing all of this, and he began to despair, especially when the Informant did not seem to find a reply to Patty’s suggestion of leaving him here.
“Nothing has changed…” he realized. “He’d still choose her over his friends…” But he realized that he had no one to blame but himself. “I drove him to it,” he added to himself. “I refused to understand him… I came down on him too hard… And now I’m going to pay for it…”
There was no point in fighting the lure of the sleep that was once again beckoning to him. The Informant would go with Patty and leave him here. And even if he did send someone to help him, it would be too late.
The Messenger sighed, slipping into unconsciousness again.
The Informant, in the meantime, completely oblivious to the fact that the Messenger had temporarily revived, was still pondering over his options. Maybe the Messenger would have a better chance if they went for help. But how could he leave him now?
“Patty,” he said at last. “Maybe you should go back to town and get help. I’ll stay here with him.”
“What!? Oh, you just don’t get it, do you!?” she asked, furious. “How can you be so nice to him after he tried to turn you against me? I was there in that hospital room; I heard everything!”
“Yeah, but…” the Informant sighed. “He was worried about me, that’s all… He’s like my big brother, Patty.”
“And getting you kicked out of ACME is exactly what a big brother would do…” said Patty, sarcastically.
“I haven’t been treating him any better,” the Informant realized.
“And you don’t have to. You shouldn’t!” Patty insisted. She knew that if the Messenger pulled through, he would either really send the Informant out into the cold, or he would at least turn him against her. And she didn’t want to see either of those things happen.
“What’re you saying!?” the young detective cried. “You aren’t suggesting that I leave him to freeze, are you!?”
“Yes, I am,” said Patty. “There’s nothing else you can do without freezing, too. He’d want you to get out of here… assuming that he still cared about what you thought, and I’m betting that he could care less, especially if he was going to get you to lose your job.”
She pulled the Informant to his feet and began leading him away.
“Come on,” she said. “Show me how you got in; we’ll find our way out and head back to town. And we’ll send someone out here to help him.”
The Informant followed her for a little bit, but found that he couldn’t walk on. He turned back, seeing the older agent lying motionless on the ground. He looked worse than before, even with the Informant’s trenchcoat around him. It was as though he was giving up…
“No!” the Informant cried, running back to his side.
“What are you doing!?” asked Patty, stomping her foot in frustration.
“Something’s wrong…” said the Informant, blinking back the tears in his eyes as he felt for a pulse. He found one, beating steadily and steadily weaker. “What’s going on!?” he cried out. “He was getting better! I thought for sure that my trenchcoat would help!”
“I told you, he’s too far gone…”
“But he wasn’t; he was talking to me just a couple hours ago!” the Informant said, despair now climbing in his voice.
“Look, if you want to help him, you should take my advice,” said Patty. “If we hurry, we can get help from the town.”
The Informant clutched at the Messenger’s wrist as the older man’s pulse grew weaker.
“Patty…” he said. “What would you do if you were in my place?”
“Me? You know I hate him as much as he hates me,” she replied. “I’d leave him there and save myself!”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” said the Informant. “What would you do if you were sitting here, trying to take care of Eartha, and I was telling you that she was too far gone and that you should leave her? After all, she hates me, too-the fact that she threw me off the pier says that much…”
“Well… this… This is different!” said Patty. “At least I know that Eartha and I are friends; you don’t even know if this ex-friend of yours wouldn’t leave you behind! And seeing as though he wants to make your life miserable, I doubt he’d stay behind to help you!”
“What would you do, Patty?” he asked again.
“I… I’d go with you!” she stated.
“Really?” asked the Informant.
“Yes! Without a doubt,” she added.
The Informant glanced at her, and then at the Messenger, who was still slipping away before his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Patty,” he said. “But I don’t think that I can return the favor.”
“But… But… When he asked you who you were going to choose, you said that you’d choose me!” she protested, a tear rolling down her cheek. “You said that… I heard you!”
The Informant got up and walked back to her, drying her tear with his handkerchief.
“I do like you a lot, Patty, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” he said. “But I think I made the wrong choice. And I’d like a second chance to make that choice…” he glanced back at the Messenger. “Assuming that it isn’t too late…”
Patty looked away, trying her hardest not to show how hurt she was.
“I understand,” she said, though she didn’t like it. “So… I guess this is goodbye?”
“This is where it ends,” the Informant agreed, kissing her one last time. “If you don’t hear from me, it means that everything somehow worked out.” He glanced at the unfortunate agent lying a few yards away. “But I don’t think that’ll happen. I’ve ruined everything…”
“Well, if it doesn’t work out…” she said. “You know I’ll be waiting.”
“Thanks. Um… the tunnel I came through if about a few hundred yards that way… It’ll take you right outside, once you climb up.”
“I’ll be fine; I have climbing equipment with me; sometimes you ACME agents chase us into the mountains, so we have to be prepared. I’ll send some help once I make it back to town.”
She hugged him tightly, not believing that she was doing this.
“Oh, by the way…” she said, handing him a wrapped package. “This was the reason why I was in town. I bought it for you; it’s chocolate from the local chocolate shop. You don’t need to keep it if you don’t want to; I’ll understand.” She found it necessary to give him one more kiss. “Goodbye.”
She walked away, looking back several times. The Informant did not move; he watched until she was out of sight.
But when he turned back to his friend, he was startled to see that the older man’s breathing had gone shallow. With a cry, he returned to his friend’s side, feeling again for a pulse.
“What’s wrong, Bro!?” he asked. “You were getting better, and now you’re getting worse than before!” He swallowed hard. “And I’ll bet I’m to blame…”
He wanted a second chance. But it didn’t look as though he would be getting one.
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Claim: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (The Dying Informant)
Table: Do-it-Yourself
Prompt: Second Chance
Rating: PG13
Summary: Patty shows up, offering the Informant a way out... but things look worse for the Messenger.
Warnings: seriousness in a light-hearted fandom
Will be cross-posted to my journal, 30_hugs, and the V.I.L.E. Headquarters fanfic forum.
Time was creeping by. And as the Informant kept a vigil over the freezing Messenger (all the while freezing himself), the Techie and the Inspector were approaching the Pennsylvania town in the helicopter.
“I’m worried,” the Techie said.
“I think we all are,” the Inspector assured him.
“No… I mean… I’m worried about them getting caught in this storm,” he said, flinching at the near-zero visibility. “But I’m worried about what’ll happen when they find each other. I mean… they might finish each other off if the cold doesn’t get to them first…”
The Inspector sighed.
“They wouldn’t…” he trailed off. He knew that they would never physically attack each other, even under the most trying of circumstances. But words could often be even more painful than blows. And prior to the Messenger’s disappearance, they had inflicted quite a bit of hurt on each other. Would they still be enemies, even in a blizzard like this?
And what about Patty? She would be around somewhere, and she was the cause of this fiasco. The Inspector had been rather indifferent towards Patty in the past; he knew that she had simply strayed down the wrong path, which resulted in her being a member of V.I.L.E., perhaps not even by her own choice. He just followed orders and arrested her. But he didn’t know what to think of this current situation; it had been a shock to find out about her relationship with his younger colleague, but he hadn’t had the time to process that before the Messenger lost his temper. But the Messenger had only been trying to release the mix of shock and hurt he had felt upon this revelation. It had just been unleashed a lot harsher than he had meant it to in his anger.
And as for the Informant… Well, he couldn’t be fully blamed for what had happened. V.I.L.E’s ways were clever and crafty. Even if Patty had meant him no harm and did in fact care for him, she would have lured him away from ACME all the same, without either of them realizing it.
And what was going to happen once the Informant and the Messenger were found and brought back to ACME? Would the Messenger really tell the Chief about Patty? Whether or not he did, it would most likely be that the two agents, who had once been as close as brothers, would never consider themselves friends again.
And there was every chance in the world that even if he wasn’t reported and thrown out of ACME, the Informant would end up leaving of his own free will. He had threatened to do so before, on more than one occasion. When he had first joined ACME, the Informant had been so put off by the Messenger’s wild and crazy sense of humor that he had vowed to leave in order to save his own sanity. But he had ended up staying after he and the Messenger finally were able to see eye to eye. And the other occasions on which the Informant threatened to leave were usually after his failed missions, brought about by self pity. And, even in those cases, it had been the Messenger who had done his best to convince the Informant to stay. But now the Messenger wanted him to leave, or, at least, it seemed that way on the surface (the Inspector was certain that he didn’t mean it one iota). But with the Messenger apparently taking this view, would the Informant really leave ACME for good?
The Inspector sighed again. It would be up to the Techie to convince the Informant to stay on, and that wasn’t going to be easy-not that it ever was, but it would be far more difficult this time around. Would there be anything that he could say that could undo all that had been done?
******************************
Patty Larceny was stumbling along in the darkness of the mine tunnels. That annoying ACME Messenger had chased her into the hills, where she had fallen into one of the tunnels. And now, she was lost, guided only by her lipstick flashlight. But her entire expression changed when her flashlight beam caught the Informant and the Messenger.
“Hey, it’s you!” she exclaimed, happy to see the Informant again.
“Patty!?” the Informant asked, his eyes wide as he noticed her. He was relieved. “You’re alright!”
“Sure! Just a little cold, but…” She trailed off, noticing the Messenger, and then noticing how cold the Informant was. “What happened to him? And why aren’t you wearing a coat? You’ll freeze!”
“He must’ve collapsed chasing after you…” said the Informant. “And I gave him my coat.”
“Now why would you go and do a thing like that?” she asked, her lips forming into a pout. “You know he hates you; he was ready to turn you in and get you kicked out of ACME. You know he hates me, too; he just keeps trying to break us up.”
“I know…” said the Informant. “But I can’t just leave him…”
“Can’t you?” asked Patty. “Well, at least take your coat back; it’s no good if you freeze, too.”
“I can’t…” the Informant said. “He won’t make it, otherwise…”
The Messenger, in the meantime, slightly helped by the second trenchcoat, was beginning to come to, albeit for a brief moment.
“Is that… Patty!?” he asked himself. “Great… she’ll turn Infy against me again… I’m as good as done for…”
“Well, you aren’t planning on staying here, are you?” he heard Patty ask. “You’re going to freeze, too, if you do.”
The Informant didn’t reply.
“I assume you have help coming?” she asked.
“No; I couldn’t get through,” said the Informant, trying to get his communicator to work. Again, it did not send his message. “We must be too far underground, and the weather isn’t helping, either.”
“Well, that’s no good!” exclaimed Patty. “Get your trenchcoat; we can find our way back to town and we’ll both be saved.”
“But what about him…?” asked the Informant.
“What about him?” she repeated. “Look at him; he’s far too gone as it is! You can’t get help, and there’s no way he’d survive going out there. And he isn’t going to last too much longer here. And even if he did survive, what then? He’d break us up, disgrace you by reporting us to your Chief, and all because you let him do it.”
The Informant fell silent again. Would the Messenger follow through with his promise and really turn him in? But Patty was right about one thing; he may have been too late getting here…
“Or if you’re really that worried, and I have no idea why you would be,” she added. “You can come back to town with me, and we can send someone to get him. Let’s face it; neither of you will pull through if you try to wait this blizzard out. And I want you to stick around.”
She kissed him.
The Messenger had been hearing all of this, and he began to despair, especially when the Informant did not seem to find a reply to Patty’s suggestion of leaving him here.
“Nothing has changed…” he realized. “He’d still choose her over his friends…” But he realized that he had no one to blame but himself. “I drove him to it,” he added to himself. “I refused to understand him… I came down on him too hard… And now I’m going to pay for it…”
There was no point in fighting the lure of the sleep that was once again beckoning to him. The Informant would go with Patty and leave him here. And even if he did send someone to help him, it would be too late.
The Messenger sighed, slipping into unconsciousness again.
The Informant, in the meantime, completely oblivious to the fact that the Messenger had temporarily revived, was still pondering over his options. Maybe the Messenger would have a better chance if they went for help. But how could he leave him now?
“Patty,” he said at last. “Maybe you should go back to town and get help. I’ll stay here with him.”
“What!? Oh, you just don’t get it, do you!?” she asked, furious. “How can you be so nice to him after he tried to turn you against me? I was there in that hospital room; I heard everything!”
“Yeah, but…” the Informant sighed. “He was worried about me, that’s all… He’s like my big brother, Patty.”
“And getting you kicked out of ACME is exactly what a big brother would do…” said Patty, sarcastically.
“I haven’t been treating him any better,” the Informant realized.
“And you don’t have to. You shouldn’t!” Patty insisted. She knew that if the Messenger pulled through, he would either really send the Informant out into the cold, or he would at least turn him against her. And she didn’t want to see either of those things happen.
“What’re you saying!?” the young detective cried. “You aren’t suggesting that I leave him to freeze, are you!?”
“Yes, I am,” said Patty. “There’s nothing else you can do without freezing, too. He’d want you to get out of here… assuming that he still cared about what you thought, and I’m betting that he could care less, especially if he was going to get you to lose your job.”
She pulled the Informant to his feet and began leading him away.
“Come on,” she said. “Show me how you got in; we’ll find our way out and head back to town. And we’ll send someone out here to help him.”
The Informant followed her for a little bit, but found that he couldn’t walk on. He turned back, seeing the older agent lying motionless on the ground. He looked worse than before, even with the Informant’s trenchcoat around him. It was as though he was giving up…
“No!” the Informant cried, running back to his side.
“What are you doing!?” asked Patty, stomping her foot in frustration.
“Something’s wrong…” said the Informant, blinking back the tears in his eyes as he felt for a pulse. He found one, beating steadily and steadily weaker. “What’s going on!?” he cried out. “He was getting better! I thought for sure that my trenchcoat would help!”
“I told you, he’s too far gone…”
“But he wasn’t; he was talking to me just a couple hours ago!” the Informant said, despair now climbing in his voice.
“Look, if you want to help him, you should take my advice,” said Patty. “If we hurry, we can get help from the town.”
The Informant clutched at the Messenger’s wrist as the older man’s pulse grew weaker.
“Patty…” he said. “What would you do if you were in my place?”
“Me? You know I hate him as much as he hates me,” she replied. “I’d leave him there and save myself!”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” said the Informant. “What would you do if you were sitting here, trying to take care of Eartha, and I was telling you that she was too far gone and that you should leave her? After all, she hates me, too-the fact that she threw me off the pier says that much…”
“Well… this… This is different!” said Patty. “At least I know that Eartha and I are friends; you don’t even know if this ex-friend of yours wouldn’t leave you behind! And seeing as though he wants to make your life miserable, I doubt he’d stay behind to help you!”
“What would you do, Patty?” he asked again.
“I… I’d go with you!” she stated.
“Really?” asked the Informant.
“Yes! Without a doubt,” she added.
The Informant glanced at her, and then at the Messenger, who was still slipping away before his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Patty,” he said. “But I don’t think that I can return the favor.”
“But… But… When he asked you who you were going to choose, you said that you’d choose me!” she protested, a tear rolling down her cheek. “You said that… I heard you!”
The Informant got up and walked back to her, drying her tear with his handkerchief.
“I do like you a lot, Patty, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way,” he said. “But I think I made the wrong choice. And I’d like a second chance to make that choice…” he glanced back at the Messenger. “Assuming that it isn’t too late…”
Patty looked away, trying her hardest not to show how hurt she was.
“I understand,” she said, though she didn’t like it. “So… I guess this is goodbye?”
“This is where it ends,” the Informant agreed, kissing her one last time. “If you don’t hear from me, it means that everything somehow worked out.” He glanced at the unfortunate agent lying a few yards away. “But I don’t think that’ll happen. I’ve ruined everything…”
“Well, if it doesn’t work out…” she said. “You know I’ll be waiting.”
“Thanks. Um… the tunnel I came through if about a few hundred yards that way… It’ll take you right outside, once you climb up.”
“I’ll be fine; I have climbing equipment with me; sometimes you ACME agents chase us into the mountains, so we have to be prepared. I’ll send some help once I make it back to town.”
She hugged him tightly, not believing that she was doing this.
“Oh, by the way…” she said, handing him a wrapped package. “This was the reason why I was in town. I bought it for you; it’s chocolate from the local chocolate shop. You don’t need to keep it if you don’t want to; I’ll understand.” She found it necessary to give him one more kiss. “Goodbye.”
She walked away, looking back several times. The Informant did not move; he watched until she was out of sight.
But when he turned back to his friend, he was startled to see that the older man’s breathing had gone shallow. With a cry, he returned to his friend’s side, feeling again for a pulse.
“What’s wrong, Bro!?” he asked. “You were getting better, and now you’re getting worse than before!” He swallowed hard. “And I’ll bet I’m to blame…”
He wanted a second chance. But it didn’t look as though he would be getting one.