nr established
She could not have destroyed him more completely if she'd killed him, rather than his relationship with Nick.
"What have you done..."
As soon as the fog lifts, and his mind is once again his own - not the plaything of Adalind's devious spell - Sean knows that he is done for. Even after all of the unrest of the past two months, the fights and the lies and the not-so-unfounded accusations... there was a hope that he and Nick could work through the more superficial of their problems. He would find a way to break Adalind's curse. He would resume his plan to reveal himself to Nick in stages. Nick would forgive how much Sean had kept from him when he saw how much Sean had done for him as recompense... How well Sean had protected - or tried to protect him.
That hope is gone now. Adalind's laugh is bright and triumphant as she rises from the bed, not bothering to cover herself as Sean sits ups and tugs a sheet over his own nakedness.
"Me, Sean?" she teases. "If you recall... it was you who did most of the work." Her eyes twinkle, with mirth and malice. "Thanks for that, by the way."
"The spell-"
"Oh, yes, the spell! I suppose I'd better get dressed," she says, making no move to do so. "Wouldn't want you to get all worked up again. That didn't break the spell, you understand. Just... satisfied it for a little bit."
He could say something rude to that.
Actually, he could come off of this bed and beat the life out of her. But neither of those things would undo the damage that Adalind has surely done.
"If you think that this is going to get you the key-" Oh, he will kill her if she tries to blackmail him for the key again, this time with threats to tell Nick about their 'tryst'.
---
He thought he would be angry.
That's the first thought in Nick's head. He thought that, by the time Sean faced him, the anger would come, but it still hasn't.
Oh, he knows that it will. Anger so white hot, and vicious, that it would terrify him if Nick could feel terror at this moment. Instead, he just feels numb. So much has changed these last two years... So much has happened- And the one person he depended on the most, throughout it all, to be there for him at the end of the day... To have that person taken away from him-
That's how Nick feels. As though he's lost the Sean he thought he knew. (He supposes he has to feel that way, or else acknowledge that "his" Sean never existed.) The bastard that steps out of Sean's SUV and walks around, into the highbeams that illuminate the dark clearing where they've come to meet, isn't the man that woke Nick up yesterday morning. He's the one who killed that man.
"Nick, I know how this must look-"
"How long?" Nick asks. It isn't what he meant to say. His words sound breathy - and weak - but he can't control any of those things. "How long have you known about me?"
Nick thought he'd be angry... He hoped he'd be angry. Because then he could stand up to the Sean who looks at him now as if nothing's different (although it is... everything is different) and not give away how much he's hurting beneath the numbness.
Sean's face is blank. Careful. He sounds sorry as he says, "Since the beginning."
Nick closes his eyes. He's pretty sure there's nothing for him to give; Sean has to know what he's done here.
"Nikki-"
"Don't." The word is thick, and elusive, in Nick's mouth. It comes out faint, and shaky, as if Nick's breath is chasing it past his lips, but Nick opens his eyes and says again, "Don't..." louder when Sean moves as if to take a step towards him.
"Nick, we can talk about this."
"Oh?" Nick asks pleasantly, a bite in his smile and in his tone. "And what would you like me to say? Should I congratulate you? You have the key... I assume that's what you wanted out of me. Well-played, Captain."
"It's not like that."