losttheright | (no subject)

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russell clank

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A few days after New Year's, things go back to normal.

Well, for a given value of the word, anyway. There aren't animals roaming the city, out for blood anymore; she can go to and from work without worrying that she's about to get attacked by something. She might even be able to start getting more than a few hours of sleep every night. Actually normal, though, is still the long way off. Her boss is still in the hospital, and though he'll be fine physically, hasn't been taking well emotionally to the loss of his eye. Two out of six city council members are dead. It's going to be a long time before things are functioning the way they used to, and Molly is acutely aware of it, unbelievably fucking exhausted, barely able to wrap her head around everything going on. She can focus on work while she's doing it, but that's about all she can do, or, at least, all she's been able to do before now. Things are starting to settle. The most they can do from here is try to pick up the pieces.

Part of doing so is thinking ahead, now that she can. Both Phyllis and Amit's funerals will be next week, and as much as she can't stand the thought of it, there's not really any way she can get out of being there for both. And with both in such quick succession, no matter how awful she feels for considering it, she probably can't get away with wearing the same dress to both. Being at least pretty sure that it's safe now, she goes to the mall after work with that in mind, trying to ignore the way her stomach turns. She hates funerals, inevitably winds up thinking about what hers must have been like when the subject comes up, which doesn't help matters any when the deaths themselves are so upsetting. Phyllis had a family, kids who'll grow up now without their mother. Amit may have been kind of a douchebag, but he was smart, and five fucking years younger than her. Regardless, no one deserves to go like that anyway.

She's just headed inside, trying to figure out where she should start looking for a dress, when her phone goes off in her pocket, and the message on the screen makes her go pale. Orrin Fillby has been found dead on the floor of his apartment, the side of his neck bitten out by his myna bird the night before. No one thought to look before now. The very idea of it is so fucked up that for a moment all she can do is stand there, stunned, not even realizing that she's frozen in the middle of a shopping mall.

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He's just gotten off another long shift -- but they're all long lately, every single one of them -- when he spots Molly heading into the mall and for a second he thinks about leaving it, just sending her a text to say he'd caught sight of her, but he feels like they haven't really talked in ages, so in the end he goes trailing after her. He expects it to take at least a few minutes of wandering around to find her again, but she's right there, right inside the doors and she's staring down at her phone in a way that immediately puts Russell on guard.

"Hey," he says, his voice pitched low so as not to startle her, but loud enough that he's sure she can hear him over the din of voices in the mall. Something is going on, he's sure of that, but given the last few days and how nuts everything has been, he's not entirely sure he wants to know what. He's got a few injuries of his own and there's a dead raccoon with Animal Services to show for it, because after getting bit, Russell knew he had two options: get the raccoon for testing or get a rabies shot and he doesn't want that shot. So the raccoon is dead and has been tested and Russell's fine, but his hand is still bandaged and he knows just how crazy the past few days have been for everyone.

"Everything okay?" he asks when he finally reaches her side. "You look a little pale."

Anyone else, and Molly might well have been startled by the approach, her nerves shot as it is after the events of the last few days. Instead, at the sound of Russell's voice, she relaxes a little, some of the tension in her shoulders easing as she turns to look up at him. She's still clearly shaken and there's no getting around that fact, but she can't let herself get too weighed down by it now, as easy as it would be to do so. Three people are dead — and a fair few more, probably — and it's important that she keep it together through this. It's easier, somehow, with Russell here, pulling her out of her own head.

"Orrin Fillby died," she says, figuring there's no sense in dancing around the subject, though she keeps her voice low in turn, not wanting other people to hear. "The other council member from the third district. That's half of them in less than a week."

"Jesus," Russell mutters, rubbing his hand over his lower face at that news. Half of them in less than a week. If he had to guess how Orrin Fillby died, he's lean toward some kind of animal given everything that's happened over the past week. And he's pretty sure he'd be right about that. There's no way to connect the animal attacks to one person in particular, one person who might want the council members dead for some reason, but it just seems like too much of a coincidence.

His mind is already working and he's going to have to bring this up to his boss when he gets a chance.

"I'm sorry," he says. "That's shitty. You just found out?"

"Yep," Molly says, mouth pressed into a thin line, and holds up her phone. "Got a text from a coworker. I mean, it's not like I really knew the guy or anything, but..." But this whole situation is still incredibly fucked up, and she thinks Russell will get her meaning. It's not even like the council members are the only people who've died in the last few days, but three out of six on top of her boss's being attacked by that fucking dog is a little unsettling. He'd always seemed like a good guy, too — a little eccentric, but nice.

Mostly, she's just tired of death.

"God, what a weird fucking week."

"But it's still fucked up," Russell says with a nod, because he'd heard a couple of cops at another precinct who'd died, caught in a stampede of zebra and he hadn't known them at all, but it's still incredibly messed up. They were cops, guys just like him, just doing their job, and now they're dead. It's not as many as what Molly's talking about, though, it's not have the police department.

"I got bit by a raccoon," he tells her, holding up his hand. "Which isn't the weirdest thing in the world to have happen, I guess, but when you're receiving a call about a rhino on the loose at the same time, it gets a little weirder. Seems like everything has gone back to normal, though. As normal as this place gets anyway." He hesitates to really call it normal, no matter how much he likes being in Darrow.

"Jesus, a rhino?" Molly asks, pulling a face, though it's hardly the strangest thing she's heard over the last few days. Phyllis Jameson was killed by a moose, after all; she hadn't even known there were moose in Darrow. And what little information she gleaned from the text about Orrin Fillby was pretty disturbing, too. If Russell was bitten by a raccoon, that's a hell of a lot better than all sorts of alternatives she can think of, in the wake of hearing about yet another dead council member and knowing her boss is still in the hospital. That's the only reason she isn't more unsettled by his having said so. "Your hand's okay, though? Nothing too serious?"

"From the zoo, yeah," he says, knowing how crazy it sounds, but the whole week was pretty damn insane. At this point he's prepared to believe just about any story someone tells when it comes to the animals and their weird behaviour over the past little while.

"Yeah, it'll be okay," he tells her, glancing down at his hand. "I got the raccoon and had it tested for rabies to make sure I don't need to get the shot, which I don't, thank Christ. I've heard that son of a bitch hurts a hell of a lot more than getting bit ever could." And he doesn't have rabies, of course, which is also a benefit.

"At least there's that," Molly says with a heavy exhale, shaking her head. The way things have been going here, an outcome like that makes him pretty goddamn lucky, as strange as it is to think so. She still can hardly wrap her head around it, that and the rest of what she knows he must have been dealing with over the past few days, rhinos and whatever else, but at least he's alright. At least that's something to focus on that isn't another fucking death. "You wanna grab something to eat with me, maybe have a beer? I can go dress shopping later." She cracks a small, crooked grin. "Unless you feel like helping me pick one out."

"I mean, I think I'm pretty good at pickin' out dresses, but I gotta say, a beer sounds nice right about now," he answers, flashing her a grin. "It feels like I haven't been able to sit down for weeks."

He's usually pretty busy, but the craziness of the past little while has really worn him down. He can't even begin to imagine how tired Katie is after running herself ragged in the hospital, but so many people had needed medical attention after everything.

"What're you buyin' a dress for?" he asks.

"Funeral next week," Molly says, then immediately corrects herself. "Funerals. There are gonna be three to go to and a lot of the same people at all of them, so I can't turn up wearing the same thing three times in a row. Which sounds so fucking shallow, but..." It's still important that she show up, that she look nice, and she doesn't want to half-ass something so significant. Maybe she wasn't close to any of the deceased council members, but that makes little difference when she's still someone who works for the mayor's office, especially when she doesn't know if he'll be able to make it. "I've still got some time, though."

"Shit, yeah," Russell says, shaking his head. It's not that he's forgotten there's a bunch of dead people, but he didn't know them and he doesn't think Molly was close to any of them, but given her position and given the state of the mayor, it's probably pretty important she go and look professional.

"That's... well, that's gonna be a shitty week, huh?" he asks, figuring there's no way around it. Funerals aren't fun. He's only ever been to two, but he remembers them both well enough and how much he'd hated them at the time. They'd both been for his grandparents, his mother's mom and dad, and even though he'd loved them, sitting through those religious rituals had been strange for him. "I think a beer is definitely a good idea in that case."

"Oh, yeah," Molly says with an emphatic nod, brow raised. "It's gonna suck. I hate funerals, you know? I only ever wind up thinking about my own." There are maybe two people that she could talk about that subject so casually with, and Russell is one of them. He's known about what happened to her, at least in some capacity, since day one, and it's not like he doesn't get it, being here with the awareness that there's nothing else left. It may have come about differently for him, but it's still something they have in common. "And Lee doesn't know about any of that, so... I just gotta try to get through it. Which, yes, means a beer is in order."

"Lee doesn't know," Russell echoes and on some levels, it doesn't surprise him much. It's not like he goes around telling everyone the things he did in Ogden Marsh. But at the same time he'd sort of figured they'd gotten there already. The place they'd have to be to tell each other the deep, dark secrets.

Maybe this one is just too deep. He'd understand that, too.

"Well, you know if you do ever wanna talk about that shit, all you gotta do is call. Katie'll understand." Katie's just about the most understanding person in the world and Russell tries not to take advantage of that, but it's different when it comes to friends and their needs.

"The two of you are the only people who do know," Molly says, with a small, bittersweet sort of smile. "About all of that. Lee... knows a lot of shit about me, he knows about everything that happened with Patrick, but this..." Trailing off, she shrugs, the movement slight, a little helpless. "I don't know how I'd bring that up. Like, what would I even say? 'Oh, by the way, I killed myself back home, but I'm not suicidal, I just wanted to avoid having my life ruined by a scandal'? That's a lot of ground to cover at once."

It's not like she wouldn't tell him, if he asked, but with no reason for him to ask, she's not sure why it would ever come up. That may well be for the best. She doesn't want him to start looking at her like she's dead here, too.

"Yeah," Russell says, falling silent for a moment as he mulls that over. Molly has a good point, it's not like it's the easiest thing to bring up when there's not really any pressing reason to spill the beans. But at the same time, he's always had a tough time keeping secrets from people who are that close to him. Katie and Molly both know pretty much everything there is to know about his life and his past, and he likes to think he would have told them either way, even if he hadn't gotten sick here in Darrow, too.

"Yeah, I get that," he says. "You never know how a person might react, too, and I guess that's the scariest part of all of it, huh? The not knowing."

"Yeah," Molly says on an exhale, the same small, crooked smile staying in place despite the subject at hand. Russell, she knows, wouldn't and doesn't judge her for any of what she's done in the past, and that makes it easier not to get too weighed down by it now, to speak in simple facts instead of dancing around subjects or trying to pretend like things were different than was actually the case. "It's not like all of that speaks very highly of me. I mean... I think he has to have pieced together some of it. When he told me he was married, I told him I'd known for ages like it wasn't any big deal. But me not having a problem sleeping with married guys is just the tip of that iceberg."

Bad shit happens to people, that's what Russell has learned. They make bad, snap decisions or something beyond their control changes their life and all they can do is forgive each other when there's no real malice behind the actions. Molly and Katie have both forgiven him more than he could ever possibly deserve and he hopes Lee would do the same for Molly.

What happened to her isn't the same as what Russell had done. She deserves a hell of a lot more than he does. He hopes Lee knows that.

"I guess... I mean, shit, it's not like he needs to know every last detail if you don't wanna tell him. Our past might inform our decisions, but it's not the only thing that matters."

"No," Molly says, shaking her head, "it isn't. At least, I hope it's not. Otherwise I'm pretty screwed." The last, she says with a crooked grin, not as bothered by the possibility of that as she once was. The longer she's here, though, the further behind her all of that actually seems. All she can do is make the most of what she has now, and nearly four years after the fact, she doesn't think she's done too badly in that regard. She's got an actual life now, the kind she thought she'd never get when she ended everything. "I guess maybe I'll get around to it one day. I think there are things he's the same about, though. Like I said, we'd been together for months before he told me he was married."

"Was married or still is married? I mean, hell, it's not like it matters here, right? Once you're here for a long enough time, you gotta figure yourself more or less broken up, right?"

It has to suck for people who don't want be broken up, people who are still in love with whoever they left behind. Not for the first time, Russell's pretty glad he'd never had a chance to develop a relationship like that. Katie's not the first relationship he's ever had, but she's the first to really mean something to him.

"Yeah, I'd say so," Molly says, shrugging, that not being something that's ever made much difference to her one way or another. "And I guess he was? They were technically still married at home, but they were separated, so... I didn't really ask any more about it than that." Even if that hadn't been the case, it wouldn't have changed very much for her, after all. The important thing for her is knowing where they stand. If he'd turned out to be still committed to his wife, it would have sucked, sure, but she would just have reconsidered what they are to each other. It's not like being with a married man is anything new for her. "He told me I had nothing to worry about, and I'm not worried."

Russell may not know Lee all that well, but what he's learned of the guy he really does like. He seems to care about Molly a lot and Russell doesn't imagine that he'll hurt her and that counts for a hell of a lot where he's concerned.

"Yeah, he seems like a pretty trustworthy guy," he agrees, giving her a gentle nudge with his elbow and a grin. "I mean, hell, if you and Katie forgave me for... for all that shit, then I figure Lee deserves some trust when it comes to someone who's not even here, right?" He doesn't talk about it much, all that happened when he was sick, but sometimes he needs to bring it up. Sometimes he needs to remind himself to always be careful.

"Honestly, I'm pretty sure as long as he doesn't try to kill me, we'll be okay," Molly says with a grin and a shrug, though in spite of the teasing sound of her voice, it isn't too far from the truth. She's never been big on relationships; if anything, when they've happened, she's been the one less serious about them. That isn't the case now, not by a long shot, but the important thing for her is knowing where they stand. Even if he were still committed to his wife, she wouldn't have a problem continuing as they have been, as long as she knew that was the case. She believes Lee that it isn't, though, and she can't pretend that she's not glad for it, when she's never felt about anyone the way she does about him. "So yeah, of course. I couldn't have been with him in the first place if I didn't trust him."

If he were to try something like that, Russell is pretty sure he wouldn't be able to contain himself. Not that he'd really tried all that hard with Bateman, but given that the man had already been dead, there hadn't been a hell of a lot for Russell to do. He had wanted to kill him, though, and if someone else hadn't already gotten there first, he's not sure he would have been able to stop himself.

But Russell's been on high alert with Molly ever since then and he'd been careful about Lee when they had first met. Nothing about the guy suggests he'd ever do something like that and Russell knows he can't just distrust everyone because of that incident.

"I'm glad," he says. "That you got someone like that, someone you can trust."

"God, it's fucking weird, right?" Molly asks with a sudden laugh, a little sharper thane necessary, shaking her head. "I never thought I'd wind up in a relationship like this. Not for another five years at least." She'd always figured she would settle down one day, but not for a long time yet. She certainly hadn't figured she'd be where she is now, nor had she thought, when she first hooked up with Lee, that they would wind up here. There are times she still can't wrap her head around it, but as strange as it's been, she can't pretend she hasn't enjoyed it. Somehow it just makes sense. "But then I guess... All that shit happened, and it kind of changed what I was looking for."

"Yeah," Russell agrees and he's thinking of Bateman a little, but he's also thinking of what had happened back home, how that had sort of changed everything. Before his hometown had been destroyed, Russell had never given much consideration to what he wanted out of life or how he was going to get it. Until then, he'd just been content with going along, doing his job, heading home and watching TV until he fell asleep. He'd been happy, but it hadn't been anything exceptional.

"It's kinda nuts, how sometimes it takes somethin' huge like that to really change the way we're lookin' at things, right?" he asks, shaking his head as he gestures at a restaurant, which seems as good a place as any to grab a beer.