milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Jim has been rather enjoying spending weeks being moody and depressed in his suite, mainly because Sherlock's up there to make sure he's not actually all that moody and depressed. Bloody boyfriends, and their way of making life better. Jim would grump about that if he weren't pleased by it.

He's only in the bar now because his favourite distraction is asleep and anyway, they need food. Jim puts in a large order and, on a whim, asks for a current newspaper from their world. Bar provides an iPad with various headlines, and he scrolls through until he hits upon the news that NASA has discovered a solar system where life might have evolved.

He forgets about the food, and pretty much everything else for a while. Eventually he wanders over to the Window, still reading, and then just sits looking out at the explosions.

(The ice cream he bought will be melting all over the Bar at some point, so if anyone wants free food he's probably not going to object, or even notice.)

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"I was a priest first, and began hunting vampires later," Harman says.

'Yes. That much is obvious, my dear.'

He sips his drink, and doesn't bother trying to hide his smile.

'It rather begs the question of whether you'd be quite so offended about vampires if you weren't.'

"I hope I would be," Harman says. "No matter my spiritual or sacramental state -- I would have felt the same horror at what I saw, when I first encountered them."

He hopes he would be. Actively hopes he'd be this judgemental and closed-off. That's hilarious.

'What did you see, Father? That first time.'

"Monsters who attacked one of my students, and me," Harman says.

'Did the student survive?'

He'll take a wild stab at 'no', but either way it's only a detail.

"She did," Harman says. "But her family didn't, nor did the hut in the favela where she came from."

'Did she join a nunnery?'

Family, hut, meh.

"No, she went on to study in the US," Harman says. "That was what I was tutoring her for in the first place."

'So she knows there are vampires in the world, and has just been left to get on with life?'

Strange, for a secret Vatican-government partnership. They should have recruited her or killed her, if they're so set on secrecy.

"People did keep an eye out for her," Hannibal says. "But not me. I don't know what happened to her afterwards."

Jim shrugs, losing interest in a faceless random.

'It must drive you mad, the vampires around here.'

"It does," Harman confesses. "And to know some people allow them to feed on them, and to be unable to do anything about it."

'But you're not unable to do anything about it.'

He points it out carelessly, because this is obvious.

'You're choosing not to.'

"I'm choosing to keep the rules of this place," Harman says, "rather than, say, reduce Eric Northman and the unpleasant female he brings from his world to red slush, and then get punished for the 'murder' of things dead for centuries."

The air quotes are almost tangible.

'Pam?'

Jim grins, sharp like a knife.

'I like her,' because of course he does. 'Unless you mean Ginger, in which case I share your distaste. But with regard the matter at hand - the sentence for murder here isn't exactly harsh. And how exactly would you reduce them to red slush?'

"Staking, presumably," Harman says. "And who is Ginger?"

Is there another one?

'Mm. Well. Whether you could stake Eric is debatable.'

Jim wrinkles his nose, and makes a vague gesture with his hand.

'She's human. One of the ones that hang out with them, and get fed on, and have generally lost their minds to all the vampire blood they've drank.'

Beat.

'And she makes the worst sandwiches.'

Edited 2017-03-08 00:49 (UTC)

"That sounds awful," Harman says. "What's her name?"

'Ginger. I just said.'

Jim sounds distracted. He's remembering the sandwich, and trying not to gag.

(You don't understand, Pearse. You don't understand.)

"I took it for a description."

'Oh, yeah. No. That's her name.'

He pulls a face, and snaps back to attention. Some things don't bear dwelling on.

'Well, I can see it's all very frustrating for you, Father. You have my deepest sympathy.'

Which doesn't say a lot, given how capable he is of such an emotion.

"Very frustrating," Father Harman agrees.

Jim just watches him, vaguely amused.

Surely he doesn't have to point out the obvious solution to this?

"I have decided to use this place for research, and ignore the problematic aspects," Harman declares.