House of Wolves: Reflection

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Mark finds Wanda paying her respects to Arthur Harkness and they discuss their next steps.



The house was a modest one near the Cambridge campus but Wanda still fidgeted in her new clothes in the entry way. She'd never been invited to a professor's house before and she'd only known Professor Harkness for two months - the invitation had been completely unexpected.

The woman terrified her and Wanda was grudgingly curving some of her more "unseemly" (the professor's words, not hers) behavior under the oversight of Harkness.

Voices carried in from the kitchen and she strained to listen, unashamedly eavesdropping.

"...don't usually bring strays home, Aggie," a man rumbled and Wanda stiffened in outrage, wondering exactly how long it would take her to walk back to her dorm room.

"Don't give me that look, Arthur," Agatha snapped, slamming something heavy down. "I'm interested in her abilities and in keeping her in check. She's not some substitute for..." She trailed off. "She's just not. There's a good girl, somewhere under that wild streak, and I endeavor to make sure she does not bring our school down around her ears."

Someone chuckled and then the door swung open, causing Wanda to jump back with a look of guilt on her face. A large man stood grinning from the warmth of the kitchen and he was as inviting and friendly looking as Agatha wasn't. "Come on in, Wanda, since you're so keen - I'm Arthur Harkness, it's a pleasure to meet you."

**

Wanda hadn’t been able to find Victor yet to try and convince him to override Agatha’s authority governing the museum and until they had that permission, there was little they could do. Jake had found a hotel close to both the hospital and museum, close enough to get there by car or foot quickly if they needed to. There had been no other attacks in the area and the word was that the place was fairly trashed, leading Wanda to believe that either Agatha, or Hanzi, had been the central targets or perhaps something that Agatha had been keeping safe.

She’d left them having a late dinner in a little café and had crossed the street to the quiet church and graveyard that was behind it. Near enough, again, for them to reach her quickly if something had happened. But she had to come and say her hello’s.

Wanda crouched in front of the carved marble that indicated the final resting place Arthur Harkness and wiped away some of the dust that had collected since Agatha’s last visit.

“Finished eating?” she called back, not bothering to look over her shoulder

"Jake's getting his second round of dessert," Mark answered, stopping a few feet away from Wanda, not wishing to intrude on her paying her respects. "So what's the plan now, boss lady? She's not letting anything up."

“One day he’s going to find a dessert that will try to eat him,” Wanda muttered, standing up with a groan. “Well, as Agatha refuses to even speak to me when I bring up the subject, I’m going another route.” She gave Mark a wry smile. “This is why you keep in good standing with former lovers, my dear, you never quite know when they’ll come in handy. I’ll be seeing Victor in the morning and I guess I shall just try to work Agatha over until then.”

She sounded despondent for a moment, still reeling a little from Agatha’s reactions to her and her offers of help.

"Why's she being so reticent? Something she's ashamed of or something so dangerous she doesn't want you involved?" Or both? "I'd figure she ought to know that that's not going to daunt you. Like, that's all the invitation we need."

"I wish I knew. None of this makes any sense." Wanda led them away from Arthur's grave and to the little bench that was across the way. "I have known Agatha for some time now and nothing seemed to shame her. And if she's trying to protect me, she is doing a lousy job. On top of the fact that she has asked me to look into things for her in the past!"

"Maybe it has something to do with you?" Mark ventured. "S'like those kidnapping dramas where the parents are threatened to not tell the cops or else the kid'll be killed. Maybe whatever it was threatened Agatha not to tell you?" A crappy plot device, but as his life had steadily evolved into one bad literary cliche after another, it seemed a likely conclusion.

That got Wanda thinking and she leaned her head back against the back of the bench and stared up at the darkening sky. "Perhaps," she conceded. "She has always been a bit ... unconventional in our relationship. So it might be her way of attempting to protect me. She is trying to protect something, that is for sure."

"No offense, but if that's what she's doing, she ain't that smart. Covering things up only just delays us a bit and then pisses us off when we find out."

"Well, she just did get attacked by someone, or thing, so she isn't at her best." Wanda snorted. "Then again, she seems to know what she wants as she always has. This time, it is just going against what I need."

"What do you want us to do while you're 'revisiting' old friends?" Mark asked.

"Rest, keep Jake from eating me out of a hotel bill and try and keep Illyana from murdering him." She smiled a little. "I'll be about an hour or so; you probably should cross reference with the folks back home to see if any other museums have been hit. Or anything else looks suspicious pops up."

As soon as she said "cross reference," Esther appeared in Mark's hands like magic. "I can do that. You coming back or do you need a few more minutes here?"

"A few more minutes. There's a surprising amount I need to fill Arthur in on..."