milliways_bar | (no subject)

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(OOC: Following this bit of Canonpuncture and breakage ...)

Clarice is hunched up in a chair by the fire, still wearing her sundress. She has not changed clothes. She has not slept. She reads her copy of "Silence of the Lambs" with a kind of desperate attention, but every so often she has to set it down.

[Summary: Clarice is broken, broken, broken. Meg and Angua give her practical advice, she confesses some things to Barry, she ~~therapizes~~ talks to Ron about Harry and being fictional, the Opera Ghost serenades her creepily, and Aziraphael is at a loss for advice.]

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It's scary to hear Barry say it that way.

"

He looks at her, sympathy in his eyes, he hopes.

"And the events in here. Have any happened yet?"

Clarice looks up at him, her eyes brighter than normal. If Clarice were the type to cry, you'd say she was about to.

"All of it," she says. "This all just happened. A month ago, maybe."

"God." And looks at her, and wonders how she dealt with it all. Even with his own experience, this could have eaten him alive. So to speak.

"I'm not sure what to say. But it seems that you went through more Hell than most. And that you survived."

And then he has two thoughts almost out of the blue.

"Goddam rules of the Bar. He and Joker alike should be behind bars.

"In separate jails. I hope and pray they never meet."

Clarice frowns.

"In a lot of ways, I didn't want him in jail," she says. "And in some ways, I still don't."

"It would be for society's good, though. Even if he is a fairly intelligent member of society who did help you.

"Although I would think he'd be like too many of my enemies any not stay in the asylum for long."

"You read what he did," Clarice says bitterly. "How he escaped. That wasn't just 'fairly intelligent,' Barry, it was brilliant. Sick, but brilliant." She takes a deep breath. "The way I see it is that the minute he gets bored with me, or decides he doesn't want what's best for me anymore ... I'm fucked. Pretty much."

"Yeah. I think I get that.

"My enemies used to fixate on me, but not like this. So this is beyond my knowledge." He pauses.

"But that doesn't mean I don't want to help. You've earned help, facing a bastard like him. Like both of them."

"Thanks," Clarice says. "Really. Thank you. I just ...

He hears this and feels so sorry for her. What can you do for someone in such a state? And yet, how can you not try?

"We'll find a way. There are enough good people here that we will. We beat Tim's Other. We can certainly find a way to handle one monster." And despite himself, he smiles.

"First Tim had to die," Clarice points out.

He goes silent, the smile leaving his face. And he thinks some more.

"It would seem that as well as he knows you, you know him fairly well, too. Is there a way you can take advantage of his weakness? As it seems his overarching ego is a weakness."

Clarice smiles ruefully at that.

"There's that," she said. "Earlier on, he ... led me to believe that he could read my mind, or something, instead of just being able to read a book."

"Then he's lost that advantage. And there are things in here that you now know about him that I assume are new."

"A few things," Clarice admits. "Like his original motivations for helping me." She smiles faintly. "I'll read close."

She pauses. "Barry, I'm not sure how much this affects anything you're going to say to me, but ... I was probably going to be taken off this case anyway."

He tries not to make a face.

"Any reason? It would seem that just judging by the book, you got inside his head better than anyone else ever has. And given what kind of danger he poses, at home as well as here, that should count for a lot."

Clarice smiles wryly.

"I was too good at it," she says. "Bigby and I had a talk the other day ... we both agreed I'd acted unprofessionally."

"By getting too involved? I can see that.

"And if your FBI is like mine, they tend to be very by the book on such matters.

"None of which helps stop men like him. But I do have a rather unusual perspective, having been both cop and vigilante. It's always easier without all the rules. Evne if I tried to observe most of them."

Clarice looks embarrassed now.

"By getting too involved ... I meant something a little different."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." Sometimes Barry has trouble seeing past his own experiences.

"He, um, passed me flowers through the bars," Clarice says, which is the least damning way she can put it. "And I didn't stop him."

"oh" He should have seen that coming. He needs to read the book better. Or to read her better.

"Yes, I can see why that would make the bosses a bit upset.

"Do you think such...considerations would get in the way of doing the job? Because if you really think they won't, you should fight the bosses on this." Left unsaid is the opposite.

"That's what I was doing," Clarice said. "Bigby didn't fire me straight off, so I thought I had a chance. And then this hit. If I wasn't fit for the job before, I'm sure not now."

Barry grows a look of true surprise.

"Bigby fired you? I didn't even know he'd hired you.

"That's a shame. Really. Because, even if you really are too close to this case, we need someone with your skills here."

"Well, he hasn't fired me yet," she says, "but he wasn't pleased that I didn't tell him exactly how close to the case I am. I ... I think I have to let him know about this."

She smiles. "Thank you."

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