I'm Longing For Love and the Logical

[worktodo]

Who: Albert (worktodo) and Harry (likewatson)
Where: The Justice Farm in Saffron City!
When: Tuesday, June 4
Summary: End-of-canon spoilers means it's time for a talk.
Rating: PG
Log:

[So Cooper's come and gone.

It seems like it's always one of them, those three-day bursts of time that end up halfway into dreams and the other half far too tangible to be anything but reality. Coop says it was him once, a long time ago; the last time around it was Harry stumbling his way in — first by chance for that brief string of days, and then shortly thereafter, for good. This time, it was Cooper's turn to drop in and say hello from the other side of the universe, and that means Albert's not entirely sure what that means, if he'll be back or he won't, or what he might be coming back as if he ever does.

(Or worse — if he's not the one who wanders his way in, because Albert remembers seeing dead Laura Palmer those days, too, and he's not really in the market to spend some lengthy quality time with a girl he once autopsied.)

But Coop came and went, and when he came he brought along an SOS with him. He sent up the flags and waved down Albert, because Albert is the one who needed to hear it. Albert's always the one who needs to hear it, because Albert is the one everybody counts on to get things done, and they do get done. This time isn't going to be any different.

It's just going to be terrifying as hell.

The network is glitching and broken, and who knows what kind of Star Trek technology went into building them and therefore who knows what might've wrecked them the way it did, but the fact of the matter is the tricorders are useless, and Harry's making some kind of racket in the front room.

They've all been quiet and withdrawn since Coop vanished like the ghost he is again.

This time, it's Albert's turn to make the first move.]

Hey.

[He cuts through the kitchen from the lab, retrieving a lukewarm mug of coffee on the way and leaning against the doorjamb that leads into the front room once he arrives.]

You know a girl named Annie Blackburn?

Comments

[likewatson]

[And there's Harry, wrestling with a large piece of antlered taxidermy as Rosie looks on, unamused. She knows she should be helping, but she's been giving him the stink eye this whole time. It's entirely possible she has some moral objections about all this.

She will, however, prevent Harry from dropping it on his foot, which is what he almost does when he hears Albert's voice.

It's not that he's been avoiding Albert. They just haven't really talked. Which isn't so out of the ordinary, really, but Harry had been meaning to say something and... didn't. So now he turns a curious look Albert's way, eyebrows raised.]

Yeah. She's Norma's sister. Coop told me about... [He trails off, unsure of how to finish that sentence.]

[worktodo]

He talked to you, too.

[He'd known that already; it sort of went without saying, from what he'd said about making the rounds and trying to give closure to all the people he knew and missed. Of course he found his way to Harry.

The real question is, how much of what Albert's got to say did Harry hear already.]

About what?

[likewatson]

[About what sure is the question. Even Harry's still not clear on it — the way Cooper made it sound, the distance in time between what Harry last remembers and what Cooper last remembers isn't all that far. He can't wrap his head around how that's possible. Any of it.

But it was a warning, and it came from Cooper, so there's no way Harry can disregard any of it.]

About Annie. Windom Earle. BOB. He said —

[He rubs at his bicep, suddenly unwilling to meet Albert's gaze directly.]

He told me BOB's still around, and that I need to keep an eye on Annie.

[worktodo]

[He almost laughs (not a nice one, but a laugh) at the remark of "BOB's still around", because it's entirely possible that Coop put it exactly that way, without ever adding in the specifics he gave to Albert because Albert is the one who always demands to know the specifics in the first place. Leave it to Cooper to worry about how Harry might take the bad news and pull his punches, rather than getting across what's necessary to solve the problem.

He doesn't know if that's what Cooper did. Maybe Harry's the one censoring himself now. But either way, they all know it's Albert's job to drag out the point, even if it comes out like an infection, kicking and screaming and taking a little bit of all of them along with it as it goes.]

He tell you where to look for the bastard? Where we're gonna find him, when we finally get back to make good use of that warning?

[likewatson]

The Lodge. He was... vague. On the details, I mean.

[Which translates to "he was vague about all of it." And maybe Harry just didn't ask the right questions, maybe he wasn't thinking straight, but there's a lot he knows he doesn't know.

Harry gestures for Rosie to set the head down, which she does. He then steps over to the couch, flops into a sitting position, and runs his hands through his hair.]

He didn't give me any instructions. Just said to keep my eyes open, stick with my intuition.

[worktodo]

He told me everything.

[Or, well, Albert guessed a fair amount of it, but that's because that's what Albert does: getting to the bottom of things. And besides, it's Cooper, and that means it's not like it's hard, not in those moments when it really matters.]

As much as I needed to know, at least. Maybe as much as I needed to figure out the rest on my own.

[likewatson]

[Harry's not surprised. He's glad, actually — if one of them had to get the full story, it's better that it's Albert.

And if Cooper didn't tell him everything, he probably had good reason not to.

So he's not sure whether he should ask or not. Instead, he fixes Albert with a curious look, waiting for him to continue.]

[worktodo]

[And for once, Albert locks up.

It's strange to not have the words — actually, no, that's a deceptive way of framing it. He's got the words, you better believe that. He's got all of them. More than he wants, but all the ones he needs. And that's kind of the problem, is because he's got them all and they're inside him and so long as he's keeping them bottled up in there, stewing and simmering, he can handle it and it's okay.

It's letting them out that's the problem, because things get more real when you say them out loud and don't lace them in with short businesslike statements and a healthy helping of vitriol. It's Albert's job to be professional and clinical and that's what Cooper's counting on him for, and he's got to do it. He can't make it personal. Not even when it's Cooper himself, he can't make it personal or they're all sunk.

Which is great, except that it is personal, and trying to force a square peg through a round hole is always a butchering process.]

BOB's not in the Lodge, Harry.

[Or, well, maybe he is, but that's not the part of the story that matters here, that explains why this is excruciating.]

He's in Cooper.

[likewatson]

[The way Harry's brow furrows makes it look like he has no idea what Albert just said. Like he's suddenly listening to another language, which he might as well be, because what he just heard makes no sense. BOB was in Leland; Leland died. BOB either escaped or went down with him, and maybe it was too naive of Harry to hope for the latter, especially with all Cooper had said —

But.

He swallows past the lump that's just formed in his throat.

BOB was in Leland.

BOB killed Laura.

BOB kills. So if Bob's in Cooper...

Harry remains silent, waiting again. Not for an explanation, but for Albert to say he was just kidding, ha ha, never mind. Got you, Harry! You should see the look on your face! Like you were about to cry!]

[worktodo]

[Don't crack, Albert. Don't lose it, Albert. You have a job, Albert.

There's still work to do, Albert.

Sentimentality just gets in the way, Albert. You can't let your feelings get in the way, Albert. You can't think too hard about all those dead girls and their families and the ruined lives and the shattered homes and the wasted futures and the terror they must've endured in the minutes and moments before they died, choked and burned, stabbed and shot, beaten to death with a hammer, heads cracked against a wall, so scared and to think how much worse it'd be if the body doing it to them wore the face of the kindest, most understanding man in the world—]

Damn him.

[He doesn't mean BOB, no matter how it sounds. No, he means Cooper, because damn him for not waiting, damn him for going in alone, damn him for throwing himself in the line of fire again and again and again while they all had to reel back from the fallout of his damn fool mistakes.

His voice wavers this time, but doesn't crack. Albert doesn't crack. That's why Cooper trusted him with this.]

He's in Coop, Harry.

[likewatson]

[It's weird.

Harry can't imagine, can't even begin to picture BOB's features on Cooper's face. That smile he'd heard about. The hungry twinkle in his eyes.

But when he looks at Albert — it's all there, the image crystal clear. And what's weird is that for a moment, Harry is less upset for Cooper than he is for Albert. As much as his own heart hurts, Albert's must hurt ten times more. And Cooper is Cooper, right? So he's not entirely unequipped for whatever must be going on. Even Harry has experience with that dark presence in the woods.

What does Albert have?

...well. He has Harry, right now. So Harry needs to check back into reality and be there.]

What do we do?

[worktodo]

[He almost laughs, but he doesn't. Which is good, because it would've been one of those humorless, heartbreaking ones, anyway.]

Hell if I know.

[Except that no, he does know. Of course he knows, and that's why Cooper told him and not Harry. Because they both knew Albert would know.

How could he do this? How could you possibly be so stupid, Coop?]

We stop him. That's what we do. Find him, hunt him down, save some girls, maybe don't get there in time for others. We put him down with as few people hurt in the process as possible.

[Three of those people being Cooper, and Harry, and Albert.]

[likewatson]

[And then Harry shifts gears.

He was upset, bordering on heartbroken. But it's always so much easier to get angry.

That's not what Harry meant when he asked what do we do? because he knows, deep down, what to do. Or where to start, at least. He's not that inept. What he meant was how. How are they going to do anything when they're here and Cooper's not? When Coop's further away than either of them could have imagined?

Harry throws his arms out in a gesture that indicates not only the whole room, but the whole damn world.]

How?

[worktodo]

[And Albert —

...doesn't get angry.

What a reversal of roles that is, maybe, from the day he met Harry and earned himself the threat of a punch in the teeth and subsequently, the threat ultimately acted upon. Of course Harry gets angry, but Albert is supposed to push back, to provoke it, to escalate it. Albert comes on hostile like the Sherman to everyone else's Atlanta, and even laid-back Harry loses his cool before long.

But it just seems so pointless, getting mad. Harry's demanding answers he doesn't have, Coop's begging help he doesn't even know if he can offer, all eyes are on him and he's been spiraling in on himself for days now, looking for a place to start when there's no Cooper to dance on the volcano for them and lead the way to the right answer.

He needs a smoke. Needs it like he needed it back on the day when he first started, when the senior agent saw the green behind his gills and passed him a half-empty pack and told him it'd help, even though he knew every one would knock a little more time off his own life if he did.

All that damn time holding Coop's head above water, and the one time he goes under, Albert's not there to get him back up in time.

Dammit, Cooper.]

We don't forget.

[He sets his mug aside so he can scrub at his eyes, pinching at the bridge of his nose with two fingers.]

What the hell else can we do.

[likewatson]

[That's not enough. Cooper did so much for Twin Peaks, could have saved them all —

Harry sits back suddenly, like someone just kicked him in the chest. The force of the blow comes courtesy of remembering that this thought, at one point, seriously crossed his mind: Things were just fine until you rolled into town, Agent Cooper.

He doesn't have it in him to be mad. Not anymore. His energy's gone, vanished into thin air just like Coop.]

Albert...

[Now Harry's voice is the one wavering and not cracking. He doesn't know why he's calling Albert, or if he's trying to sound sympathetic, or if he's just saying something for the sake of not letting silence take over.

But there it is.]

[worktodo]

He's always been a damn martyr.

[He says it quietly, under his breath, like maybe he didn't mean to say it out loud at all. He shakes his head, like if he shakes it enough this whole damn mess will clear out and never have existed at all.]

He told me how it goes. Sometime after we get back, how it plays out. I'm not there, and he doesn't let you tag along.

[It's worse, somehow, Harry's predicament over his. Distance kept Albert from intervening, apparently, but Cooper was the one who prevented Harry. And if that's not a slap in the face, a twist of the knife, then what is?]

We're not supposed to worry about changing that. Our job is what happens next.

[likewatson]

[What happens next?

So if Harry ever gets back home, and if he remembers this conversation once he's there, he's going to have to force himself to live through whatever the hell happens and then take action?

He's going to have to lose Cooper.

That's what this boils down to. That's what he's hearing.



There are some distances Harry can't cross, like the impossible gap separating him and Albert from Coop. But there are only a few feet between him and Albert and the living room floor is a very solid thing and he needs something to ground him right now, no, really, right now —

So he's up and on his feet and almost toe-to-toe with Albert in the space of a few heartbeats. He sets his hands on Albert's shoulders, squeezes.]

We'll get him out.

[worktodo]

[Will they? Of course they will. They have to. That's why Cooper came to Albert — to make sure it got done, and got done right. That's his job. He caught Josie Packard with nothing to go on but carpet fibers; he'll solve this one, too.

It's really just a question of how much it's going to hurt while he does.]

Yeah. And if we could save that girl while we're at it, well, that'd just be peachy keen, too.

[He says, muffled, as the supportive hands quickly become a hug.]

[likewatson]

[Scared as Harry is, he has all the faith in the world that this is something Albert can handle. Rather, something Albert can handle with support from Harry and everyone else who gives a damn about Coop. And Harry will be there, just like he is now.]

It'll be okay.

[He clutches Albert a little closer. Harry doesn't believe for one second that anything's going to be okay when they actually get back, but for now? He has to believe that. What else is there?]