Kevin & Darcy | Debriefing
Jan. 19th, 2022 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsKevin gives Darcy a few days to settle back in to life and work before bringing her in for debriefing.
Content Warning: Mention of mental manipulation and adult/underage sex.
"This is probably going to be a conversation that requires drinks," Darcy announced as she entered Kevin's office, shutting the door with a firm click. "Possibly crying and a hug, too. We'll see." She graced him with a small smile as she took a seat on the couch, pulling a throw pillow into her lap as she settled into the corner and tucked her feet under. "I still don't remember everything, and Dr. Stearne said not to push memory chasing too hard. They'll come back or they won't. The debilitating headaches when I do push... a final fuck you from her to me, I guess."
"We'll take it slow. I know that Colbert already talked to you and we're certain there aren't any hidden traps left behind in your head." Kevin went over to his drinks cabinet. He'd booked the follow-up with Darcy shortly after she returned, but after she'd seen the others for a reason. It was his call if she was ready for the field again and he'd taken both Marie-Ange and Stearne's feedback seriously as he considered it. After a few minutes, he passed over a cold vodka martini with a twist for her and sat back with his own in a chair by the desk.
"So, walk me through what you remember as happening."
"From the morning of the.. fight, I guess?" Darcy's lips were pinched as she took a long sip of her martini before setting it down. "You know I'd been having the headaches. I'd been having trouble sleeping too, and the pieces... sorta crashed together over that weekend? Remembering some things that didn't make sense, connecting a few dots. So knowing something was up, I decided to talk to her before the procedure she had planned for the day. I didn't think it'd be a big deal, maybe we'd argue a little, but I wasn't expecting... well. I was expecting my coldly reasonable girlfriend to logic me, not decide it was too much effort to keep playing games and attack me."
She picked the martini up and took another sip, setting it back down to curl her hands into the pillow in her lap. "It's a damn good thing I told Doug where I was going that morning, but in hindsight I could've used backup that wasn't vulnerable to her pheromones. But I went down there, we had a very minor argument about her blowing me off lately, and then she asked me to make a cup of tea. She'd. This is part speculation, part what we found in my mind after, but there were several phrases she had hooked into my mind. That one made me docile, open to suggestions and alternate memories. Fucking terrifying, she rewrote hours and hours at a time some days and-" Darcy broke off abruptly, pinching her lips together tightly and blinking away furious tears. "It didn't take right. I don't know if my brain was trying to fight back or she wasn't really pushing for it, but it didn't work right. I burned myself, and I guess she realized I was fighting it? So she pushed harder, and my mind tried to drop into a place where it definitely would not be in that sort of situation, and I broke it. Maybe I should've played along, but I was so furious that she'd been fucking with my brain that I just.. blew it open."
"Why do you think she chose you specifically for this?" Kevin said, not unkindly, but with the same tone he used to interrogate any of her intel assessments she brought to him.
"I was there, I think. And I knew enough to draw some connections and ask uncomfortable questions, but not enough to make all the connections that someone who has known her longer could have. She also knew that Doug and I basically agreed to not talk about her other than whatever might be necessary, and knew the rest of the mansion well enough to know they wouldn't pry because they didn't want to know unless it was already an issue, and then that they'd point fingers first and get around to the questions eventually, maybe. And well. She wasn't wrong about that, was she? Nobody wanted to know, nobody asked.. and now a bunch of people need to know." Darcy shrugged lightly, gripping the pillow to her chest.
"I.. I'm not sure how much of this was planned, and how much of it was adapting to the fact that I didn't let her push me away. Goodness knows she tried, until about midsummer. I'd like to think the sexual component wasn't planned out, but..." Darcy spread her hands slightly. "After telling me I was just a tool, that she'd gifted Doug to me like.. some sort of treat, a reward for a clever pet." A shaky hand let go of the pillow long enough for her to finish off the martini. "I have no idea what she's capable of doing with full thought, if she thinks it's fine to just casually take advantage of people sexually because it's convenient. Because they're there and an easy distraction from unwanted questions." She buried her face in the pillow, glad she'd decided to skip out on the makeup since she knew this conversation was happening. Her voice was muffled but understandable as she continued. "That's why," she said. "That's why I didn't want to see him, why I didn't want him to know where I was. Because she might have been lying, but she might have been telling the truth, too. Better to be cautious."
"So when she was using you, what specifically did she need?" Kevin said. "I know it wasn't just as a sexual partner. How did she make use of you past that?" He likely should have asked about the rest, but her personal relationship with Doug and the others was hers, and none of his business until it impacted on his investigation.
"Mostly lying about location. She'd been going to physio, but once she'd gotten the best range of motion she could, she asked me to keep those appointments in and take her to some alternate therapy. I didn't see the harm in it--I figured it was more along the lines of that meditation retr--oh just fuck me, I bet that's where all of this shit started." Darcy let out a groan, pushing the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Fuckity fuck, fuck me, I knew I--wait, fuck, I did and--" she trailed off as another piece she'd been missing slotted into place.
This conversation needed more drinks, or maybe a comforting pint of Ben & Jerry's and a sad movie, but Darcy also needed to stay sober, regardless of how tempting it was to just get shitfaced and forget. She'd already forgotten enough, she didn't need to go down that road. "It was inconvenient, if I was asking her the hard questions. So... she made sure I didn't. Put me under, fill my head with stuff I'd look into that we'd already discounted, keep the trail away from Madripoor and... fuck. When we went to Nepal, she told me about this guy that'd basically helped her out in the before? And then later, I remember her saying the name when I came down, but.. I think that might've been the starting point." She let her head thunk against the back of the couch. "She was always cagey about what she'd done in Madripoor. I mean, she gave me a list of places to research, and I did, but that was when she started getting fussy about answering my questions. Changing the subject. Abruptly cutting off conversations when I'd come down, including one where his name was mentioned. And that.. that trip's also where I started letting her use her powers on me occasionally. Just to deal with the massive jet lag, at first."
"Why didn't you ever think to talk to anyone else?" Kevin said, holding his hand up. "I know she was controlling, but she didn't have every avenue blocked. You never thought to talk to a doctor? Or any of us about your headaches? Your therapy with her alone?"
"I. did. all. of. that. Everything I told you I would after the Baltimore debrief. The first time," Darcy sighed, rubbing her temples. "The first time she offered to use her powers to ease some of my anxiety and insomnia, she warned me that it was addictive, and that I needed to talk to someone. She'd be a stopgap until I could get in. And I made a note to do it, but I kept forgetting, or it didn't seem like a big deal. And when I finally did call, they couldn't get me in until after the first of the year." She felt like she was right on the edge of figuring something out, and struggled not to push it. "Not that it mattered by then, because she started actively avoiding me about then. Too busy with her friend from physio."
"Don't get angry with me. Because it didn't happen properly. So why?"
Darcy flapped her hand at him, impatient. "I'm not angry at you, Boss, it's just really fucking hard for me to talk about, okay?" She let out a sigh, hugging the pillow tightly to her chest. "I didn't hide my headaches. Amanda even got me some of the tea blend that Marie-Ange uses when she overdoes it. I started keeping track of them in my phone, because I knew it was the first thing medical or a psych would ask about and I wanted to skip the "keep record for a month and come back" bit. But I couldn't pin down a common food or scent or other trigger, and they weren't happening when I actually asked La--her to help out, so I didn't connect the possibility until later. Until it was too late, maybe. There was a... week or so before we moved to the brownstone, I went to her. Hadn't seen her in over a week. She was cold, dismissive, angry that I'd acted on a text she mistakenly sent to me instead of Nate. And.. oh gross, ew, fuck, she--" Darcy's face took on a pale green tinge, and she flung herself at the wastebasket near his desk, just barely getting over it before heaving.
"Well, not the normal reaction to one of my martinis but I can't ding you for that." He said mildly as she was sick into the can. He poured her a tall glass of water, and waited for the heaving to stop before helping her up and back on to the couch and placing the drink in her hands. "Sip slowly."
Darcy laughed weakly as she took a sip of the water. "Wasn't your martini," she croaked out between sips. "Just a few arguments I remember us having. I met him over video, y'know. Nate. Adorable kid. Well, teen, maybe all of 16, 17. I thought it was great she was helping him with... whatever he was in physio for. I didn't pry, wasn't my business. Warned her though, that it looked like he had a puppy crush, and that she needed to be careful not to encourage him. She kinda brushed me off. Few weeks later I dropped in and overheard them talking about actually having sex, and we had a bit of a blow-up about it. Maybe I shouldn't throw stones about morals, but ugh. There are plenty of adults to fuck, c'mon. Think he might've been related to Essex, since that's who we think she disappeared with. But I'm not sure why he'd let an adult.. maybe for the blackmail? I can only speculate, and I'd rather not."
"You're sure the name was Nate?" Kevin said. "According to the files, Essex had a son. Adam. He was killed in a car accident in the early 90s when he was 2, along with his wife. Based on every incident report, all of the points where Essex got involved in the mansion involved gains for him in his obsession to bring his son back to life. The challenge we've been having isn't why Laurie did what she did. It's 'why would Essex get involved'? What does he get out of helping Laurie? If this Nate is his son or some kind of next step in the experiment to bring him back, maybe something to do with Laurie's powers specifically are the reason she was courted."
"Nickname, maybe? She definitely introduced him as Nate, though. I didn't... the hooks we found in my mind. The one she seemed to use most just made me open to suggestions, but the second one.. there's some places that are just blank around the use of them. If I heard something she.. they... definitely didn't want to remember? She probably just erased it, rather than taking the risk that I might remember at a particularly bad time. For all the things I can and will fault her for, she's not a stupid woman."
"There's no proof, but it makes more sense than her just randomly being recruited." Kevin rubbed the point of his chin. "If he could manipulate her into something beyond just fixing her arm as a goal, it would explain why she was willing to take the steps she did."
"She cast a really wide net looking for information and help," Darcy agreed. "Would've been easy for him to hear something and insert himself if he thought she could be useful. Hate the steps she took, though. She didn't have to lie to me. Didn't have to fuck with my head. I would've kept my mouth shut about her medical shit, as long as nobody else here was in harm's way. Would've quietly asked you to verify the information she was giving me after I'd read about him in the files, of course, but. No need for a bullhorn or pointing fingers. She's an adult, she can be a weird-ass medical experiment if she wants. I would've just wanted to make sure what was happening wouldn't blow up on us or more vulnerable mutants." Her fingers tugged at her hair in frustration as she stared at the floor.
"People who instinctively know they are doing something wrong resort to different tactics." Kevin said. "She knew she was making a mistake, deep down. That's why she hid it."
"Maybe." Darcy wasn't so sure the other woman would consider any of her actions apart from not being successful a mistake. "Nothing matters to her so much as getting what she wants, and she'll craft any narrative she wants to try and frame herself as the victim or the hero so that it settles right. I saw that bullshit she dropped before she left." She bit her lip harshly, swallowing down everything she wanted to say about that particular post. The fucking villain. Darcy wanted to scream in rage every time she thought about it. "This is more about her absolutely appalling lack of ethics and massive ego than it is about mistakes and wrong-doing. She couldn't adjust to a new life, couldn't accept that she'd have to adjust to not being perfectly whole. I know you saw some of the stuff she had me look into. And sure, she rejected the options that would've basically had her disappeared into a sketchy government lab somewhere, but that's just self-preservation. She still considered them."
She curled back into the corner of the couch, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I need to be about 200% more alcohol by pound than I am to not hate every part of this conversation. No--don't make me another drink--anyways, you were asking about the ways she used me? I guess the other big thing is doing her makeup. She.. I'd forgotten I was covering her nails and skin up until Jean did the walkthrough with me. Well, not forgotten, exactly. Not to question it, to see it as normal." Her voice was mocking as she quoted from one of the recovered memories. "You know I don't like image inducers, Darcy."
"As I said, there's people we can never protect against playing us. And based on all this, while I can see some points you could have talked to us, there were no glaring mistakes. She went after you inhouse and we're all vulnerable to that."
"I do owe you an apology for not telling you I was letting her use her powers on me. And I probably should have talked to you about her side trip to Madripoor." She wasn't sure which 'us' Kevin was referring to, but assumed he meant the rest of the team and fought to keep her face neutral. Talk to people that--when it came to Collins, particularly--were more prone to throw a fit and immediately and loudly accuse the woman of going beyond the worst? Or tell Darcy they didn't want to hear anything about her and turn away? Perhaps the ones that would barely even talk to her about work-related topics? Absolutely not. Darcy had taken the hint. They had barely asked, and certainly never for details, so she hadn't felt the need to elaborate. "Since I'd already done the research for the places I knew she was looking at, I didn't think it was a big deal. The worst of it was immediately discarded, and the ones I knew she was visiting were.. long shots, at best. Perhaps a middle measure, until tech caught up, but nothing immediate. And I did flag the sketchiest of it for further looks. Otherwise, I'm not sure where else I could have said something."
"Look, in this shop, at the end of the day, the buck stops with Colbert and in your case specifically, me. When something seems unnecessarily secret, or convoluted, or just off, one of us should be a conversation. Even if it turns out to be nothing. Same as when you're in the field. Same with any piece of intel on that you have a feeling but you're not sure if you can prove." Kevin clarified. "I'm not saying it would have changed anything. But her using her powers on you, starting to look in places like Madripoor... those are minor alarms that might have rung. So that's your takeaway, kid. You are part of a team. Like it or not, the people you answer to also bear some responsibility towards you. And we can't help with what we don't know."
Kevin leaned back in his chair. "Officially, this is the end of the analysis. Both Marie-Ange and I agree that even in optimal conditions, catching Laurie before all this happened is unlikely at best. You made some missteps, but nothing that represents a failure in your training or your professional approach. So we've cleared you back fully. I'd like to keep you out of the field for a few weeks - partially because you've lost time and training there, and partially because I want you to help clear the backlog we've got internally. But past that, your ticket is clean."
Darcy nodded along with Kevin's words. Staying out of the field a few weeks made sense, as did working to clear any jams her sudden absence had caused. "And unofficially?"
"Unofficially, we keep training. Teaching. So next time, we make the odds of seeing the next Collins coming that much better."
"Pretty sure that's more a lifetime objective for me. Learning something new every day while I work to stay competent or better in the rest. And hopefully the shielding can help catch any unwanted future attempts at intrusion. Anything else?"
"Unless there's anything you want to talk about, I think we're done."
Content Warning: Mention of mental manipulation and adult/underage sex.
"This is probably going to be a conversation that requires drinks," Darcy announced as she entered Kevin's office, shutting the door with a firm click. "Possibly crying and a hug, too. We'll see." She graced him with a small smile as she took a seat on the couch, pulling a throw pillow into her lap as she settled into the corner and tucked her feet under. "I still don't remember everything, and Dr. Stearne said not to push memory chasing too hard. They'll come back or they won't. The debilitating headaches when I do push... a final fuck you from her to me, I guess."
"We'll take it slow. I know that Colbert already talked to you and we're certain there aren't any hidden traps left behind in your head." Kevin went over to his drinks cabinet. He'd booked the follow-up with Darcy shortly after she returned, but after she'd seen the others for a reason. It was his call if she was ready for the field again and he'd taken both Marie-Ange and Stearne's feedback seriously as he considered it. After a few minutes, he passed over a cold vodka martini with a twist for her and sat back with his own in a chair by the desk.
"So, walk me through what you remember as happening."
"From the morning of the.. fight, I guess?" Darcy's lips were pinched as she took a long sip of her martini before setting it down. "You know I'd been having the headaches. I'd been having trouble sleeping too, and the pieces... sorta crashed together over that weekend? Remembering some things that didn't make sense, connecting a few dots. So knowing something was up, I decided to talk to her before the procedure she had planned for the day. I didn't think it'd be a big deal, maybe we'd argue a little, but I wasn't expecting... well. I was expecting my coldly reasonable girlfriend to logic me, not decide it was too much effort to keep playing games and attack me."
She picked the martini up and took another sip, setting it back down to curl her hands into the pillow in her lap. "It's a damn good thing I told Doug where I was going that morning, but in hindsight I could've used backup that wasn't vulnerable to her pheromones. But I went down there, we had a very minor argument about her blowing me off lately, and then she asked me to make a cup of tea. She'd. This is part speculation, part what we found in my mind after, but there were several phrases she had hooked into my mind. That one made me docile, open to suggestions and alternate memories. Fucking terrifying, she rewrote hours and hours at a time some days and-" Darcy broke off abruptly, pinching her lips together tightly and blinking away furious tears. "It didn't take right. I don't know if my brain was trying to fight back or she wasn't really pushing for it, but it didn't work right. I burned myself, and I guess she realized I was fighting it? So she pushed harder, and my mind tried to drop into a place where it definitely would not be in that sort of situation, and I broke it. Maybe I should've played along, but I was so furious that she'd been fucking with my brain that I just.. blew it open."
"Why do you think she chose you specifically for this?" Kevin said, not unkindly, but with the same tone he used to interrogate any of her intel assessments she brought to him.
"I was there, I think. And I knew enough to draw some connections and ask uncomfortable questions, but not enough to make all the connections that someone who has known her longer could have. She also knew that Doug and I basically agreed to not talk about her other than whatever might be necessary, and knew the rest of the mansion well enough to know they wouldn't pry because they didn't want to know unless it was already an issue, and then that they'd point fingers first and get around to the questions eventually, maybe. And well. She wasn't wrong about that, was she? Nobody wanted to know, nobody asked.. and now a bunch of people need to know." Darcy shrugged lightly, gripping the pillow to her chest.
"I.. I'm not sure how much of this was planned, and how much of it was adapting to the fact that I didn't let her push me away. Goodness knows she tried, until about midsummer. I'd like to think the sexual component wasn't planned out, but..." Darcy spread her hands slightly. "After telling me I was just a tool, that she'd gifted Doug to me like.. some sort of treat, a reward for a clever pet." A shaky hand let go of the pillow long enough for her to finish off the martini. "I have no idea what she's capable of doing with full thought, if she thinks it's fine to just casually take advantage of people sexually because it's convenient. Because they're there and an easy distraction from unwanted questions." She buried her face in the pillow, glad she'd decided to skip out on the makeup since she knew this conversation was happening. Her voice was muffled but understandable as she continued. "That's why," she said. "That's why I didn't want to see him, why I didn't want him to know where I was. Because she might have been lying, but she might have been telling the truth, too. Better to be cautious."
"So when she was using you, what specifically did she need?" Kevin said. "I know it wasn't just as a sexual partner. How did she make use of you past that?" He likely should have asked about the rest, but her personal relationship with Doug and the others was hers, and none of his business until it impacted on his investigation.
"Mostly lying about location. She'd been going to physio, but once she'd gotten the best range of motion she could, she asked me to keep those appointments in and take her to some alternate therapy. I didn't see the harm in it--I figured it was more along the lines of that meditation retr--oh just fuck me, I bet that's where all of this shit started." Darcy let out a groan, pushing the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Fuckity fuck, fuck me, I knew I--wait, fuck, I did and--" she trailed off as another piece she'd been missing slotted into place.
This conversation needed more drinks, or maybe a comforting pint of Ben & Jerry's and a sad movie, but Darcy also needed to stay sober, regardless of how tempting it was to just get shitfaced and forget. She'd already forgotten enough, she didn't need to go down that road. "It was inconvenient, if I was asking her the hard questions. So... she made sure I didn't. Put me under, fill my head with stuff I'd look into that we'd already discounted, keep the trail away from Madripoor and... fuck. When we went to Nepal, she told me about this guy that'd basically helped her out in the before? And then later, I remember her saying the name when I came down, but.. I think that might've been the starting point." She let her head thunk against the back of the couch. "She was always cagey about what she'd done in Madripoor. I mean, she gave me a list of places to research, and I did, but that was when she started getting fussy about answering my questions. Changing the subject. Abruptly cutting off conversations when I'd come down, including one where his name was mentioned. And that.. that trip's also where I started letting her use her powers on me occasionally. Just to deal with the massive jet lag, at first."
"Why didn't you ever think to talk to anyone else?" Kevin said, holding his hand up. "I know she was controlling, but she didn't have every avenue blocked. You never thought to talk to a doctor? Or any of us about your headaches? Your therapy with her alone?"
"I. did. all. of. that. Everything I told you I would after the Baltimore debrief. The first time," Darcy sighed, rubbing her temples. "The first time she offered to use her powers to ease some of my anxiety and insomnia, she warned me that it was addictive, and that I needed to talk to someone. She'd be a stopgap until I could get in. And I made a note to do it, but I kept forgetting, or it didn't seem like a big deal. And when I finally did call, they couldn't get me in until after the first of the year." She felt like she was right on the edge of figuring something out, and struggled not to push it. "Not that it mattered by then, because she started actively avoiding me about then. Too busy with her friend from physio."
"Don't get angry with me. Because it didn't happen properly. So why?"
Darcy flapped her hand at him, impatient. "I'm not angry at you, Boss, it's just really fucking hard for me to talk about, okay?" She let out a sigh, hugging the pillow tightly to her chest. "I didn't hide my headaches. Amanda even got me some of the tea blend that Marie-Ange uses when she overdoes it. I started keeping track of them in my phone, because I knew it was the first thing medical or a psych would ask about and I wanted to skip the "keep record for a month and come back" bit. But I couldn't pin down a common food or scent or other trigger, and they weren't happening when I actually asked La--her to help out, so I didn't connect the possibility until later. Until it was too late, maybe. There was a... week or so before we moved to the brownstone, I went to her. Hadn't seen her in over a week. She was cold, dismissive, angry that I'd acted on a text she mistakenly sent to me instead of Nate. And.. oh gross, ew, fuck, she--" Darcy's face took on a pale green tinge, and she flung herself at the wastebasket near his desk, just barely getting over it before heaving.
"Well, not the normal reaction to one of my martinis but I can't ding you for that." He said mildly as she was sick into the can. He poured her a tall glass of water, and waited for the heaving to stop before helping her up and back on to the couch and placing the drink in her hands. "Sip slowly."
Darcy laughed weakly as she took a sip of the water. "Wasn't your martini," she croaked out between sips. "Just a few arguments I remember us having. I met him over video, y'know. Nate. Adorable kid. Well, teen, maybe all of 16, 17. I thought it was great she was helping him with... whatever he was in physio for. I didn't pry, wasn't my business. Warned her though, that it looked like he had a puppy crush, and that she needed to be careful not to encourage him. She kinda brushed me off. Few weeks later I dropped in and overheard them talking about actually having sex, and we had a bit of a blow-up about it. Maybe I shouldn't throw stones about morals, but ugh. There are plenty of adults to fuck, c'mon. Think he might've been related to Essex, since that's who we think she disappeared with. But I'm not sure why he'd let an adult.. maybe for the blackmail? I can only speculate, and I'd rather not."
"You're sure the name was Nate?" Kevin said. "According to the files, Essex had a son. Adam. He was killed in a car accident in the early 90s when he was 2, along with his wife. Based on every incident report, all of the points where Essex got involved in the mansion involved gains for him in his obsession to bring his son back to life. The challenge we've been having isn't why Laurie did what she did. It's 'why would Essex get involved'? What does he get out of helping Laurie? If this Nate is his son or some kind of next step in the experiment to bring him back, maybe something to do with Laurie's powers specifically are the reason she was courted."
"Nickname, maybe? She definitely introduced him as Nate, though. I didn't... the hooks we found in my mind. The one she seemed to use most just made me open to suggestions, but the second one.. there's some places that are just blank around the use of them. If I heard something she.. they... definitely didn't want to remember? She probably just erased it, rather than taking the risk that I might remember at a particularly bad time. For all the things I can and will fault her for, she's not a stupid woman."
"There's no proof, but it makes more sense than her just randomly being recruited." Kevin rubbed the point of his chin. "If he could manipulate her into something beyond just fixing her arm as a goal, it would explain why she was willing to take the steps she did."
"She cast a really wide net looking for information and help," Darcy agreed. "Would've been easy for him to hear something and insert himself if he thought she could be useful. Hate the steps she took, though. She didn't have to lie to me. Didn't have to fuck with my head. I would've kept my mouth shut about her medical shit, as long as nobody else here was in harm's way. Would've quietly asked you to verify the information she was giving me after I'd read about him in the files, of course, but. No need for a bullhorn or pointing fingers. She's an adult, she can be a weird-ass medical experiment if she wants. I would've just wanted to make sure what was happening wouldn't blow up on us or more vulnerable mutants." Her fingers tugged at her hair in frustration as she stared at the floor.
"People who instinctively know they are doing something wrong resort to different tactics." Kevin said. "She knew she was making a mistake, deep down. That's why she hid it."
"Maybe." Darcy wasn't so sure the other woman would consider any of her actions apart from not being successful a mistake. "Nothing matters to her so much as getting what she wants, and she'll craft any narrative she wants to try and frame herself as the victim or the hero so that it settles right. I saw that bullshit she dropped before she left." She bit her lip harshly, swallowing down everything she wanted to say about that particular post. The fucking villain. Darcy wanted to scream in rage every time she thought about it. "This is more about her absolutely appalling lack of ethics and massive ego than it is about mistakes and wrong-doing. She couldn't adjust to a new life, couldn't accept that she'd have to adjust to not being perfectly whole. I know you saw some of the stuff she had me look into. And sure, she rejected the options that would've basically had her disappeared into a sketchy government lab somewhere, but that's just self-preservation. She still considered them."
She curled back into the corner of the couch, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I need to be about 200% more alcohol by pound than I am to not hate every part of this conversation. No--don't make me another drink--anyways, you were asking about the ways she used me? I guess the other big thing is doing her makeup. She.. I'd forgotten I was covering her nails and skin up until Jean did the walkthrough with me. Well, not forgotten, exactly. Not to question it, to see it as normal." Her voice was mocking as she quoted from one of the recovered memories. "You know I don't like image inducers, Darcy."
"As I said, there's people we can never protect against playing us. And based on all this, while I can see some points you could have talked to us, there were no glaring mistakes. She went after you inhouse and we're all vulnerable to that."
"I do owe you an apology for not telling you I was letting her use her powers on me. And I probably should have talked to you about her side trip to Madripoor." She wasn't sure which 'us' Kevin was referring to, but assumed he meant the rest of the team and fought to keep her face neutral. Talk to people that--when it came to Collins, particularly--were more prone to throw a fit and immediately and loudly accuse the woman of going beyond the worst? Or tell Darcy they didn't want to hear anything about her and turn away? Perhaps the ones that would barely even talk to her about work-related topics? Absolutely not. Darcy had taken the hint. They had barely asked, and certainly never for details, so she hadn't felt the need to elaborate. "Since I'd already done the research for the places I knew she was looking at, I didn't think it was a big deal. The worst of it was immediately discarded, and the ones I knew she was visiting were.. long shots, at best. Perhaps a middle measure, until tech caught up, but nothing immediate. And I did flag the sketchiest of it for further looks. Otherwise, I'm not sure where else I could have said something."
"Look, in this shop, at the end of the day, the buck stops with Colbert and in your case specifically, me. When something seems unnecessarily secret, or convoluted, or just off, one of us should be a conversation. Even if it turns out to be nothing. Same as when you're in the field. Same with any piece of intel on that you have a feeling but you're not sure if you can prove." Kevin clarified. "I'm not saying it would have changed anything. But her using her powers on you, starting to look in places like Madripoor... those are minor alarms that might have rung. So that's your takeaway, kid. You are part of a team. Like it or not, the people you answer to also bear some responsibility towards you. And we can't help with what we don't know."
Kevin leaned back in his chair. "Officially, this is the end of the analysis. Both Marie-Ange and I agree that even in optimal conditions, catching Laurie before all this happened is unlikely at best. You made some missteps, but nothing that represents a failure in your training or your professional approach. So we've cleared you back fully. I'd like to keep you out of the field for a few weeks - partially because you've lost time and training there, and partially because I want you to help clear the backlog we've got internally. But past that, your ticket is clean."
Darcy nodded along with Kevin's words. Staying out of the field a few weeks made sense, as did working to clear any jams her sudden absence had caused. "And unofficially?"
"Unofficially, we keep training. Teaching. So next time, we make the odds of seeing the next Collins coming that much better."
"Pretty sure that's more a lifetime objective for me. Learning something new every day while I work to stay competent or better in the rest. And hopefully the shielding can help catch any unwanted future attempts at intrusion. Anything else?"
"Unless there's anything you want to talk about, I think we're done."
