{spn/dollhouse} promises were never made to be kept 2/5
Title: Promises Were Never Made to be Kept 2/5
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Supernatural/Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Dean Winchester, Echo, Alpha, Adelle DeWitt, Boyd Langton, Castiel, Bobby Singer, Crowley, Samuel Campbell
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and company, while Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company. The title comes from "Emotional Rescue" by The Rolling Stones.
Notes: The story changes POV quite a bit and at times, some characters are dealing with the same events at the same time. Written for the 2012 sncross_bigbang.
Summary: Set at the end of Supernatural Season Five, Dean becomes an active and embroiled in the plots at the LA Dollhouse while Castiel and Crowley search for purgatory.
Word Count: 3780/16207
There is something that's not right, yet if pressed he couldn't tell you what it is. It's a queasy sense of unease in the pit of his stomach that has him feeling naked and vulnerable in the chair. He opens his mouth to verbalize it but the words that tumble out are different than what he had wanted to say.
Did I fall asleep?
He looks up expectantly at the young man with a bland smile on his face, all the while there is something clamoring inside of him. This is wrong, so very wrong.
"For a little while."
The words seem to soothe him. They seem to lock that clamoring into a distant and unattainable part of himself. Again words that unfamiliar but that feel right spill out of his lips.
"Should I go?"
"If you'd like."
He slides out of the chair, his lips curved upward in a slight grin. For a moment, he feels like he might collapse. The chair fills him with a sense of unease and revulsion. The blonde man moves closer to him so he somehow manages to propel himself forward. The man smiles at him as he walks towards the door.
"What was that?"
It's a quiet female voice that asks the question. He slows his steps to hear the answer.
"What was what Ivy? Didn't I ask for a juice box?"
The man's voice is different with Ivy, harder and meaner. The answer about the juice box is lost to him as he is greeted by another person with a smile on their lips. This one is a woman with red hair. The colour of her hair is familiar to him but at the same time he has a hard time placing this woman. He's not sure how he's supposed to react so he pastes a fake smile on his face. He feels like he should trust her, like he desperately wants to and needs to but it feels strangely wrong. And that alone makes him not want to trust her but something in him clicks and he can't fight against the trust that seems to flood through him when she smiles back at him.
"Hello Romeo, my name is Lily."
"Hello," Romeo shyly says.
She smiles at him and he follows her despite how wrong everything still feels to him. Everything might feel wrong to him but he can't decipher why it does, much less explain what would feel right in comparison. As he follows her, there's a familiarity of his surroundings that feels off. He's certain he's never been here before, yet he knows the layout. His unease grows as they glide through the open and warm layout. He sees a young woman intently watching him. When he starts to move closer to her, she quickly looks away. He stops and Lily does as well.
"Are you okay Romeo?" Lily asks, her voice soft and gentle but there's something underneath it.
The name is completely wrong and not his. He knows that it's not his name yet he has no idea what his actual name is. There's a sense of dread filling him but he pushes it down. His survival is dependant on fooling this woman with her sweet smile that doesn't reach her shark eyes. He pastes another bright and fake smile on his lips and nods.
"Yes but I am hungry."
Her laughter does nothing to comfort him. It only makes the unease and dread grow more. He's not really hungry but it seems to appease the woman. And he realizes that she somehow wields a certain amount of power over him and he knows that he doesn't like that at all.
"Let's get you good then," Lily says.
She leads him to the dining area and someone else puts a plate of food in front of him. It looks and smells delicious, far better than anything he's used to. But again he can't remember what he used to eat and why it wasn't as good. When he tries, it makes his head hurt. A while later, the young woman from earlier gracefully glides over to his table. She nods at Lily who is not eating but sitting at the same table.
"May I sit here?"
"Of course, Echo," Lily replies. Her voice colder in tone than she talks to him.
Lily stands as Echo sits and another attendant brings her food. Echo smiles at the man before turning her attention to her food.
"I like oatmeal," Echo politely says.
Romeo nods but his attention is focused on the fact that there is a man who is watching over Echo just like Lily seems to watch over him. Lily moves closer to the man while Romeo and Echo listen to their hushed conversation while they eat their food.
"Your active is quite the little welcome wagon Boyd." Despite her pleasant demeanor, Lily's words have a harshness to them. The man, Boyd, gives her a level look.
"Echo's just being friendly, like all the actives are."
"Maybe a little too friendly," Lily states. Her smile turns into a frown. "Maybe she's just a liability waiting to happen."
Romeo wants to defend Echo for some reason. However she gives him a slight shake of her head and looks down at his food before returning her gaze back to his face. He realizes that she's been eating the whole time while he stopped eating, too intent on the conversation. He also realizes that while Lily might have been completely focused on Boyd, Boyd's focus has been on him and Echo. So he starts to eat again, he starts to pretend that everything his fine, that his stomach isn't churning. He doesn't miss the fact that Boyd focuses on Lily.
"I would be careful with your insinuations Lily," Boyd warns.
"Is that a threat?"
"Hardly," Boyd replies with a pleasant smile. "You know how DeWitt expects us to behave though. It's hardly professional to toss about innuendos and gossip."
"It's hardly gossip when Alpha saved your active. Maybe he had a reason for doing so."
"Neither of us were there, now were we?" Boyd says. "I'd be careful about spreading gossip about something that happened prior to our time here in the house. Both Dominic and DeWitt take a rather hard stance about it."
Boyd moves over to their table where he gives Romeo a smile that seems more genuine than any Lily has given him before turning his attention to Echo.
"Are you ready for your treatment?"
"Yes," Echo says as she stands up, her food forgotten. "Goodbye."
"Good day," Romeo says.
Their words are polite but distant. Lily openly glares at Boyd and Echo as they leave, taking the same route that Lily and Romeo had previously taken to arrive here. Romeo resumes eating, acting as if he's not feeling out of sorts, as if the food is making his churning stomach feel worse than it was before. When he's done, Lily guides him through the remainder of the open layout. She shows him where to sleep, where to bathe and where to amuse himself. And he's very aware of the fact that they're always being watched. If not by other people dressed in suits like Lily and Boyd but by cameras.
Lily finally leaves him alone in the art room with another plastic smile on her lips and Romeo tries to draw crude images that have no meaning but fill the paper. Houses and stick figures while he tries to figure out where this sense of dread is coming from. He has no memory beyond awaking up in that chair. And he knows that it's not right. That something is missing. That something very important is missing from his brain.
* * *
While Topher is preparing Echo for her engagement, he replays the scene with Lily in his head. She's a fairly new handler with no previous ties to any of the houses or Rossum. Although he's pleased to see Echo take an interest in Romeo on her own since it'll save him the time and energy of having to guide her to Romeo, Boyd knows that Romeo's handler can easily become problematic, unlike Sierra's and Victor's. Neither Sierra nor Victor are as remarkable as his Echo is, nor do they have the potential that Romeo has. However Echo needs all of the allies that she can get in the house, Boyd needs to ensure that even if anything should happen to him, his plan will stay play out. And at the end of the day, Victor and Sierra have displayed a level of retention that actives technically shouldn't possess. Either Topher's not as thorough as he should be or the way that Adelle DeWitt treats her actives is what sets this house apart.
Boyd is well aware of how the other houses treat the actives. Most are run with the belief that the active has no memory of their tabula rasa state so there is no need to waste money of their care. The actives are fed, exercised and then kept in bleak cells. The LA house is the most progressive and some of the other houses are starting to follow it's model. Largely because it has the highest survival rate post-contract where a house like Washington DC only has a five percent survival rate post-contract. It's something that Clyde would have been worried about and for a moment Boyd misses Clyde again. The real Clyde and not the one that he had created to be his partner in their work. Boyd knows that with the real Clyde, he wouldn't be able to fulfill his work and he suspects that Clyde would have destroyed Rossum and the tech trying to stop Boyd from his work. They had disagreed on what the future held. Boyd knows that their work won't become the panacea to cure all of the modern society's ailments. He knows that instead it will tear it all apart in good time. Their work had been started with good intentions but it's only a matter of time before it leads to Hell instead of Heaven.
And it's not as if Boyd doesn't care about the real people that have given their lives to become actives,. He does but to a certain degree those lives are expendable in the face of the greater good. Just like those lives lost in the LA house during Alpha's composite event. It was unfortunate but a necessary evil to ensure that Echo would be able to handle something similar if Boyd had decided to upgrade her just like he had Alpha. In the end, Echo is the key to saving humanity.
* * *
Dominic is not a patient man. It takes everything in him to listen to Lily Jones' list of complaints about Boyd Langton and his active. Despite his own feelings for the pair, he thinks that this handler is overreacting and he wonders how much of his dislike for Langton and Echo have become apparent to others in the house. It's one thing for Adelle to know of his doubts and distrust but it's something else if everyone else knows.
He finally cuts off Lily's ramblings.
"So what you are saying is that Echo ate her breakfast with Romeo and Langton, correctly, said that it meant nothing?"
"Yes, but..." Lily begins.
"No! There are no buts in this situation. You took a common occurrence and blew it out of proportion. The actives are akin to small children. If there is someone to eat their meals with, they will prefer to do that," Dominic says. "Perhaps I should review your suitability as a handler?"
"There are have been memos asking for us to observer caution and to report unusual occurrences," Lily defensively says.
Dominic impatiently sighs. He can't help but wonder if Adelle feels this way whenever he sees shades of Alpha in her precious Echo. It's not as if he suddenly realizes that Echo isn't Alpha or that she's not a threat because he is firmly convinced that she's nothing more than a ticking time bomb. It's just that he realizes to make Adelle see what he sees, he's going to need concrete evidence, something that she can't deny, to make her see what he sees.
"It's hardly unusual for an active to eat with another active. The tape clearly shows them eating together. If they were plotting something then I would be concerned."
"I want Echo kept away from Romeo."
It comes to him that this might be personal. Lily Jones is of a similar age of Caroline Farrell. He wonders if Lily knows who Echo used to be. He files it away for something to look into at a later time.
"That's not really your call to make," Dominic coldly says. "Neither is it justified. Things shall remain as they currently are."
Lily is clearly disappointed in his decision. He waits until she gets to the door before he speaks again.
"If I discover you interfering with the natural order here, I will have you demoted."
He can tell by the way in which she stiffens that she understands his threat. He doubts that she will be able to resist causing trouble in this matter. She's hardly the first handler to take a dislike to an active. He wonders how altruistic the founders of the technology actually were to believe that by wiping a person, you could change who they were or more importantly how others perceive them to be. At the end of the day, it's not his concern. As long as Lily Jones doesn't try anything rash that could possible jeopardize the house it doesn't matter how she feels about Echo or even Caroline Farrell.
* * *
She manages to open her pod so that she can crawl out of it. Echo knows that this is wrong and if she's caught she'll be in trouble but she can hear Romeo's distress clearly in her pod. She manages with a bit of effort to slide his pod open and she slips in beside him before the glass shuts with a quiet snick locking them inside of his pod. He is disoriented when she touches his shoulder. For a moment or two, he is not Romeo but he's someone else. Someone dangerous.
"Who are you?" Romeo demands.
"I'm Echo, who are you?"
"Dean. Where am I?"
"You're safe," Echo quietly tells him.
She files away his name as she curves her body around his. He relaxes into her and she can feel the quickness of his heartbeat underneath the palm of her hand.
"You're safe Dean," Echo quietly reassures him again.
Later Victor will teach her how to work the pods so that she can keep comforting Romeo at night without the risk of discovery. In fact, it's Victor who will wake her up and take her back to her own pod before it's time for them to wake. For now though, Echo gently holds the other active and murmurs soothing words to him as he drifts off into sleep before she falls asleep as well.
* * *
Boyd is probably the only one who regularly watches the feed from the pods. When he discovers Echo's little secret (and by default Victor's as well) he erases it from the feed. He goes far enough back and erases any compromising video of Victor as well. It's easy enough to doctor the footage so that it appears as if the actives have remained asleep in their individual pods the whole time. Instead he drops a hint to Claire and is pleased when things work out with no one being the wiser as to Echo's nightly activities. There is nothing sexual between her and Romeo (or for Victor and Sierra) as of yet. Instead Echo is bonding with Romeo, something that will serve Boyd well in the future. Despite the questions that he has about Romeo and who he was, Boyd doesn't think that Romeo will become another Alpha. Now all he has to do is to obtain a blood sample from Romeo to see if he is more like Alpha or more like Echo when it comes down to it. If Romeo can hold more than one personality, then Boyd has an insurance policy should anything happen to Echo.
* * *
Alpha watches the unedited feed and growls. He wants to rip the head off of Adelle's pretty new doll for daring to come close to his Echo. Karl whispers all of the ways that he can make this Romeo pay for touching what is his, until Alpha realizes that he can uses this Romeo to his advantage. There are things that Alpha has found out about Romeo or more accurately who he was that may prove beneficial in the future.
* * *
Bobby's lost count of how many dead ends he's hit in trying to find Dean Winchester. It's as if the pig-headed fool fell off of the face of the earth. In their line of work, it's not very hard for a hunter to just disappear. However Bobby suspects that Dean is a dead man so he's taken to searching for John Does and men with the surnames of rock stars from the 1970s. There's been far too many John Does and far too many men with rock star last names cropping up for his tastes. He's called in all of his favours and turned up absolutely squat.
He doesn't want to give up but he's out of options. Bobby has to accept that either Dean is dead (and he hopes that the boy didn't go and do something foolish) or that Dean doesn't want to be found. He knows that if Dean doesn't want to be found, even if the man who's doing the searching is someone who cares about him like a son, then Dean won't be found. Dean's had his own share of secrets and he just hopes that Dean is alive and somewhere safe. It's bad enough that they couldn't save Sam but Bobby doesn't like entertaining the thought that he failed Dean as well.
* * *
It's not unusual for one of Bobby's phones to ring at all hours of the day and night. Hunters get into trouble all of the time. But what is unusual is for this particular phone to be ringing. It's his private house phone line. The only people who have this number aside from Rufus, are either dead, in Hell or MIA. Yet here it is ringing at six in the morning. A quick check of his cell phone shows no missing calls. With some trepidation, Bobby picks up the phone with a gruff hello. It's probably some telemarketer he thinks as he waits for a response. There's a pause that seems unnaturally long as he pours himself a glass of cheap alcohol. He doesn't get a chance to drain the glass dry before the person speaks.
"Is this Bobby Singer?"
"Depends on who's asking," Bobby says.
"This is Paul Ballard with the FBI," Ballard introduces himself.
There's something off in the delivery that Bobby can't quite place. He's not quite sure what it is but he's impersonated enough FBI agents and spoken to enough of the real ones to pick up subtle nuances. Still Bobby decides to go along with it.
"Yes sir, how can I be of assistance?" Bobby asks.
Ballard explains of how he has a case where Bobby has been recommended to him because of his knowledge of obscure symbols. The longer that Ballard speaks the more that Bobby is filled with dread. Ballard is sparse on some of the details but he still supplies Bobby with enough information that Bobby begins to worry that Dean might be dead. Or worse, that Lucifer somehow managed to break free from his cage and Sam's body has been found. Either way, it's not reassuring.
"To better determine the meaning of this tattoo, I'll need to see a picture of it," Bobby calmly says.
If it's one of the boys, he might be able to determine which one it is based on the tattoo. He doesn't bother hoping that it's not either Dean or Sam. Even though he feels ill, he makes a casual comment about how the placement of the symbol can change the whole meaning of it. Bobby's rather proud of himself when he goes so far as to make a joke with the agent. Ballard laughs a little too hard and for a brief moment Bobby wonders if this Ballad is who he says he is. As suddenly as this suspicion comes to him, it's gone and Ballard is asking for Bobby's fax number.
It seems to take forever for the fax to come through and the silence on the phone between the two men seems heavy to Bobby. And then finally his ancient fax machine is finished printing the document and Bobby is filled with trepidation. This one page may just confirm his worst fears. Bobby can hear Ballard's breathing on the phone as he pulls the fax out of the tray.
The picture is just of the tattoo and Bobby knows that it belongs to either Dean or Sam despite the fact that the photo has been carefully cropped. He breathes heavily into the phone as he sinks into his chair. He suspects that it's Dean tattoo because of the size. He'd always known that Dean was a thrice-damned idjit but this just confirms it.
Bobby almost makes the mistake of asking in what condition Dean's body. However he catches himself just before the words come tumbling out and instead he gives Ballard info on it. Somehow he manages to inject some banality into his voice.
"Of course none of this is true but no doubt the owner of this tattoo thought it looked cool or some other such nonsense. Symbols like this are always cropping up like that."
"You've been very informative Mr. Singer, thank you for your time."
The phone goes dead and Bobby sets it down on the desk. He opens the drawer and pulls out the bullet that he's been saving. He's so tired of death yet the thought of checking out seems so very tempting.
* * *
Alpha hangs up the phone. His charade had worked and Bobby Singer had told him a lot more than he had obviously intended with his long pauses and his breathing. And now he has a lead to follow up about this Romeo. The fact that demons might be actually exist doesn't bother him in the least. He's always known that monsters exist.
Author: Aaronlisa
Fandom: Supernatural/Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Dean Winchester, Echo, Alpha, Adelle DeWitt, Boyd Langton, Castiel, Bobby Singer, Crowley, Samuel Campbell
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and company, while Dollhouse belongs to Joss Whedon and company. The title comes from "Emotional Rescue" by The Rolling Stones.
Notes: The story changes POV quite a bit and at times, some characters are dealing with the same events at the same time. Written for the 2012 sncross_bigbang.
Summary: Set at the end of Supernatural Season Five, Dean becomes an active and embroiled in the plots at the LA Dollhouse while Castiel and Crowley search for purgatory.
Word Count: 3780/16207
There is something that's not right, yet if pressed he couldn't tell you what it is. It's a queasy sense of unease in the pit of his stomach that has him feeling naked and vulnerable in the chair. He opens his mouth to verbalize it but the words that tumble out are different than what he had wanted to say.
Did I fall asleep?
He looks up expectantly at the young man with a bland smile on his face, all the while there is something clamoring inside of him. This is wrong, so very wrong.
"For a little while."
The words seem to soothe him. They seem to lock that clamoring into a distant and unattainable part of himself. Again words that unfamiliar but that feel right spill out of his lips.
"Should I go?"
"If you'd like."
He slides out of the chair, his lips curved upward in a slight grin. For a moment, he feels like he might collapse. The chair fills him with a sense of unease and revulsion. The blonde man moves closer to him so he somehow manages to propel himself forward. The man smiles at him as he walks towards the door.
"What was that?"
It's a quiet female voice that asks the question. He slows his steps to hear the answer.
"What was what Ivy? Didn't I ask for a juice box?"
The man's voice is different with Ivy, harder and meaner. The answer about the juice box is lost to him as he is greeted by another person with a smile on their lips. This one is a woman with red hair. The colour of her hair is familiar to him but at the same time he has a hard time placing this woman. He's not sure how he's supposed to react so he pastes a fake smile on his face. He feels like he should trust her, like he desperately wants to and needs to but it feels strangely wrong. And that alone makes him not want to trust her but something in him clicks and he can't fight against the trust that seems to flood through him when she smiles back at him.
"Hello Romeo, my name is Lily."
"Hello," Romeo shyly says.
She smiles at him and he follows her despite how wrong everything still feels to him. Everything might feel wrong to him but he can't decipher why it does, much less explain what would feel right in comparison. As he follows her, there's a familiarity of his surroundings that feels off. He's certain he's never been here before, yet he knows the layout. His unease grows as they glide through the open and warm layout. He sees a young woman intently watching him. When he starts to move closer to her, she quickly looks away. He stops and Lily does as well.
"Are you okay Romeo?" Lily asks, her voice soft and gentle but there's something underneath it.
The name is completely wrong and not his. He knows that it's not his name yet he has no idea what his actual name is. There's a sense of dread filling him but he pushes it down. His survival is dependant on fooling this woman with her sweet smile that doesn't reach her shark eyes. He pastes another bright and fake smile on his lips and nods.
"Yes but I am hungry."
Her laughter does nothing to comfort him. It only makes the unease and dread grow more. He's not really hungry but it seems to appease the woman. And he realizes that she somehow wields a certain amount of power over him and he knows that he doesn't like that at all.
"Let's get you good then," Lily says.
She leads him to the dining area and someone else puts a plate of food in front of him. It looks and smells delicious, far better than anything he's used to. But again he can't remember what he used to eat and why it wasn't as good. When he tries, it makes his head hurt. A while later, the young woman from earlier gracefully glides over to his table. She nods at Lily who is not eating but sitting at the same table.
"May I sit here?"
"Of course, Echo," Lily replies. Her voice colder in tone than she talks to him.
Lily stands as Echo sits and another attendant brings her food. Echo smiles at the man before turning her attention to her food.
"I like oatmeal," Echo politely says.
Romeo nods but his attention is focused on the fact that there is a man who is watching over Echo just like Lily seems to watch over him. Lily moves closer to the man while Romeo and Echo listen to their hushed conversation while they eat their food.
"Your active is quite the little welcome wagon Boyd." Despite her pleasant demeanor, Lily's words have a harshness to them. The man, Boyd, gives her a level look.
"Echo's just being friendly, like all the actives are."
"Maybe a little too friendly," Lily states. Her smile turns into a frown. "Maybe she's just a liability waiting to happen."
Romeo wants to defend Echo for some reason. However she gives him a slight shake of her head and looks down at his food before returning her gaze back to his face. He realizes that she's been eating the whole time while he stopped eating, too intent on the conversation. He also realizes that while Lily might have been completely focused on Boyd, Boyd's focus has been on him and Echo. So he starts to eat again, he starts to pretend that everything his fine, that his stomach isn't churning. He doesn't miss the fact that Boyd focuses on Lily.
"I would be careful with your insinuations Lily," Boyd warns.
"Is that a threat?"
"Hardly," Boyd replies with a pleasant smile. "You know how DeWitt expects us to behave though. It's hardly professional to toss about innuendos and gossip."
"It's hardly gossip when Alpha saved your active. Maybe he had a reason for doing so."
"Neither of us were there, now were we?" Boyd says. "I'd be careful about spreading gossip about something that happened prior to our time here in the house. Both Dominic and DeWitt take a rather hard stance about it."
Boyd moves over to their table where he gives Romeo a smile that seems more genuine than any Lily has given him before turning his attention to Echo.
"Are you ready for your treatment?"
"Yes," Echo says as she stands up, her food forgotten. "Goodbye."
"Good day," Romeo says.
Their words are polite but distant. Lily openly glares at Boyd and Echo as they leave, taking the same route that Lily and Romeo had previously taken to arrive here. Romeo resumes eating, acting as if he's not feeling out of sorts, as if the food is making his churning stomach feel worse than it was before. When he's done, Lily guides him through the remainder of the open layout. She shows him where to sleep, where to bathe and where to amuse himself. And he's very aware of the fact that they're always being watched. If not by other people dressed in suits like Lily and Boyd but by cameras.
Lily finally leaves him alone in the art room with another plastic smile on her lips and Romeo tries to draw crude images that have no meaning but fill the paper. Houses and stick figures while he tries to figure out where this sense of dread is coming from. He has no memory beyond awaking up in that chair. And he knows that it's not right. That something is missing. That something very important is missing from his brain.
* * *
While Topher is preparing Echo for her engagement, he replays the scene with Lily in his head. She's a fairly new handler with no previous ties to any of the houses or Rossum. Although he's pleased to see Echo take an interest in Romeo on her own since it'll save him the time and energy of having to guide her to Romeo, Boyd knows that Romeo's handler can easily become problematic, unlike Sierra's and Victor's. Neither Sierra nor Victor are as remarkable as his Echo is, nor do they have the potential that Romeo has. However Echo needs all of the allies that she can get in the house, Boyd needs to ensure that even if anything should happen to him, his plan will stay play out. And at the end of the day, Victor and Sierra have displayed a level of retention that actives technically shouldn't possess. Either Topher's not as thorough as he should be or the way that Adelle DeWitt treats her actives is what sets this house apart.
Boyd is well aware of how the other houses treat the actives. Most are run with the belief that the active has no memory of their tabula rasa state so there is no need to waste money of their care. The actives are fed, exercised and then kept in bleak cells. The LA house is the most progressive and some of the other houses are starting to follow it's model. Largely because it has the highest survival rate post-contract where a house like Washington DC only has a five percent survival rate post-contract. It's something that Clyde would have been worried about and for a moment Boyd misses Clyde again. The real Clyde and not the one that he had created to be his partner in their work. Boyd knows that with the real Clyde, he wouldn't be able to fulfill his work and he suspects that Clyde would have destroyed Rossum and the tech trying to stop Boyd from his work. They had disagreed on what the future held. Boyd knows that their work won't become the panacea to cure all of the modern society's ailments. He knows that instead it will tear it all apart in good time. Their work had been started with good intentions but it's only a matter of time before it leads to Hell instead of Heaven.
And it's not as if Boyd doesn't care about the real people that have given their lives to become actives,. He does but to a certain degree those lives are expendable in the face of the greater good. Just like those lives lost in the LA house during Alpha's composite event. It was unfortunate but a necessary evil to ensure that Echo would be able to handle something similar if Boyd had decided to upgrade her just like he had Alpha. In the end, Echo is the key to saving humanity.
* * *
Dominic is not a patient man. It takes everything in him to listen to Lily Jones' list of complaints about Boyd Langton and his active. Despite his own feelings for the pair, he thinks that this handler is overreacting and he wonders how much of his dislike for Langton and Echo have become apparent to others in the house. It's one thing for Adelle to know of his doubts and distrust but it's something else if everyone else knows.
He finally cuts off Lily's ramblings.
"So what you are saying is that Echo ate her breakfast with Romeo and Langton, correctly, said that it meant nothing?"
"Yes, but..." Lily begins.
"No! There are no buts in this situation. You took a common occurrence and blew it out of proportion. The actives are akin to small children. If there is someone to eat their meals with, they will prefer to do that," Dominic says. "Perhaps I should review your suitability as a handler?"
"There are have been memos asking for us to observer caution and to report unusual occurrences," Lily defensively says.
Dominic impatiently sighs. He can't help but wonder if Adelle feels this way whenever he sees shades of Alpha in her precious Echo. It's not as if he suddenly realizes that Echo isn't Alpha or that she's not a threat because he is firmly convinced that she's nothing more than a ticking time bomb. It's just that he realizes to make Adelle see what he sees, he's going to need concrete evidence, something that she can't deny, to make her see what he sees.
"It's hardly unusual for an active to eat with another active. The tape clearly shows them eating together. If they were plotting something then I would be concerned."
"I want Echo kept away from Romeo."
It comes to him that this might be personal. Lily Jones is of a similar age of Caroline Farrell. He wonders if Lily knows who Echo used to be. He files it away for something to look into at a later time.
"That's not really your call to make," Dominic coldly says. "Neither is it justified. Things shall remain as they currently are."
Lily is clearly disappointed in his decision. He waits until she gets to the door before he speaks again.
"If I discover you interfering with the natural order here, I will have you demoted."
He can tell by the way in which she stiffens that she understands his threat. He doubts that she will be able to resist causing trouble in this matter. She's hardly the first handler to take a dislike to an active. He wonders how altruistic the founders of the technology actually were to believe that by wiping a person, you could change who they were or more importantly how others perceive them to be. At the end of the day, it's not his concern. As long as Lily Jones doesn't try anything rash that could possible jeopardize the house it doesn't matter how she feels about Echo or even Caroline Farrell.
* * *
She manages to open her pod so that she can crawl out of it. Echo knows that this is wrong and if she's caught she'll be in trouble but she can hear Romeo's distress clearly in her pod. She manages with a bit of effort to slide his pod open and she slips in beside him before the glass shuts with a quiet snick locking them inside of his pod. He is disoriented when she touches his shoulder. For a moment or two, he is not Romeo but he's someone else. Someone dangerous.
"Who are you?" Romeo demands.
"I'm Echo, who are you?"
"Dean. Where am I?"
"You're safe," Echo quietly tells him.
She files away his name as she curves her body around his. He relaxes into her and she can feel the quickness of his heartbeat underneath the palm of her hand.
"You're safe Dean," Echo quietly reassures him again.
Later Victor will teach her how to work the pods so that she can keep comforting Romeo at night without the risk of discovery. In fact, it's Victor who will wake her up and take her back to her own pod before it's time for them to wake. For now though, Echo gently holds the other active and murmurs soothing words to him as he drifts off into sleep before she falls asleep as well.
* * *
Boyd is probably the only one who regularly watches the feed from the pods. When he discovers Echo's little secret (and by default Victor's as well) he erases it from the feed. He goes far enough back and erases any compromising video of Victor as well. It's easy enough to doctor the footage so that it appears as if the actives have remained asleep in their individual pods the whole time. Instead he drops a hint to Claire and is pleased when things work out with no one being the wiser as to Echo's nightly activities. There is nothing sexual between her and Romeo (or for Victor and Sierra) as of yet. Instead Echo is bonding with Romeo, something that will serve Boyd well in the future. Despite the questions that he has about Romeo and who he was, Boyd doesn't think that Romeo will become another Alpha. Now all he has to do is to obtain a blood sample from Romeo to see if he is more like Alpha or more like Echo when it comes down to it. If Romeo can hold more than one personality, then Boyd has an insurance policy should anything happen to Echo.
* * *
Alpha watches the unedited feed and growls. He wants to rip the head off of Adelle's pretty new doll for daring to come close to his Echo. Karl whispers all of the ways that he can make this Romeo pay for touching what is his, until Alpha realizes that he can uses this Romeo to his advantage. There are things that Alpha has found out about Romeo or more accurately who he was that may prove beneficial in the future.
* * *
Bobby's lost count of how many dead ends he's hit in trying to find Dean Winchester. It's as if the pig-headed fool fell off of the face of the earth. In their line of work, it's not very hard for a hunter to just disappear. However Bobby suspects that Dean is a dead man so he's taken to searching for John Does and men with the surnames of rock stars from the 1970s. There's been far too many John Does and far too many men with rock star last names cropping up for his tastes. He's called in all of his favours and turned up absolutely squat.
He doesn't want to give up but he's out of options. Bobby has to accept that either Dean is dead (and he hopes that the boy didn't go and do something foolish) or that Dean doesn't want to be found. He knows that if Dean doesn't want to be found, even if the man who's doing the searching is someone who cares about him like a son, then Dean won't be found. Dean's had his own share of secrets and he just hopes that Dean is alive and somewhere safe. It's bad enough that they couldn't save Sam but Bobby doesn't like entertaining the thought that he failed Dean as well.
* * *
It's not unusual for one of Bobby's phones to ring at all hours of the day and night. Hunters get into trouble all of the time. But what is unusual is for this particular phone to be ringing. It's his private house phone line. The only people who have this number aside from Rufus, are either dead, in Hell or MIA. Yet here it is ringing at six in the morning. A quick check of his cell phone shows no missing calls. With some trepidation, Bobby picks up the phone with a gruff hello. It's probably some telemarketer he thinks as he waits for a response. There's a pause that seems unnaturally long as he pours himself a glass of cheap alcohol. He doesn't get a chance to drain the glass dry before the person speaks.
"Is this Bobby Singer?"
"Depends on who's asking," Bobby says.
"This is Paul Ballard with the FBI," Ballard introduces himself.
There's something off in the delivery that Bobby can't quite place. He's not quite sure what it is but he's impersonated enough FBI agents and spoken to enough of the real ones to pick up subtle nuances. Still Bobby decides to go along with it.
"Yes sir, how can I be of assistance?" Bobby asks.
Ballard explains of how he has a case where Bobby has been recommended to him because of his knowledge of obscure symbols. The longer that Ballard speaks the more that Bobby is filled with dread. Ballard is sparse on some of the details but he still supplies Bobby with enough information that Bobby begins to worry that Dean might be dead. Or worse, that Lucifer somehow managed to break free from his cage and Sam's body has been found. Either way, it's not reassuring.
"To better determine the meaning of this tattoo, I'll need to see a picture of it," Bobby calmly says.
If it's one of the boys, he might be able to determine which one it is based on the tattoo. He doesn't bother hoping that it's not either Dean or Sam. Even though he feels ill, he makes a casual comment about how the placement of the symbol can change the whole meaning of it. Bobby's rather proud of himself when he goes so far as to make a joke with the agent. Ballard laughs a little too hard and for a brief moment Bobby wonders if this Ballad is who he says he is. As suddenly as this suspicion comes to him, it's gone and Ballard is asking for Bobby's fax number.
It seems to take forever for the fax to come through and the silence on the phone between the two men seems heavy to Bobby. And then finally his ancient fax machine is finished printing the document and Bobby is filled with trepidation. This one page may just confirm his worst fears. Bobby can hear Ballard's breathing on the phone as he pulls the fax out of the tray.
The picture is just of the tattoo and Bobby knows that it belongs to either Dean or Sam despite the fact that the photo has been carefully cropped. He breathes heavily into the phone as he sinks into his chair. He suspects that it's Dean tattoo because of the size. He'd always known that Dean was a thrice-damned idjit but this just confirms it.
Bobby almost makes the mistake of asking in what condition Dean's body. However he catches himself just before the words come tumbling out and instead he gives Ballard info on it. Somehow he manages to inject some banality into his voice.
"Of course none of this is true but no doubt the owner of this tattoo thought it looked cool or some other such nonsense. Symbols like this are always cropping up like that."
"You've been very informative Mr. Singer, thank you for your time."
The phone goes dead and Bobby sets it down on the desk. He opens the drawer and pulls out the bullet that he's been saving. He's so tired of death yet the thought of checking out seems so very tempting.
* * *
Alpha hangs up the phone. His charade had worked and Bobby Singer had told him a lot more than he had obviously intended with his long pauses and his breathing. And now he has a lead to follow up about this Romeo. The fact that demons might be actually exist doesn't bother him in the least. He's always known that monsters exist.