toxicbaes | can you even imagine?

"It's possible. You are here, maybe it made him drop his guard. Made him careless." Love, however fucked up, could do that to a person. Jack stared at the screen and then at Sam, lifting his shoulders. "I don't know him, but we might have just gotten lucky. So to say."

How lucky it was, that was the question. "I suppose we could use gas in his cell to knock him out again and put a gag on him. Then we could at least communicate somewhat."

Not an ideal solution. "He needs his voice to do it, right?"

"I don't know. Once I saw him raise his eyebrows and a guy jumped ... off a bridge." He wasn't sure if that was a true memory or not but he didn't want to find out. "I think I could probably talk to him-- before you do any of that. You can get me out of there and he wouldn't want to hurt me." And if he was here for something, maybe Sam could gauge what it was.

"I can do it."

"Can you get a piss sample?!" Owen yelled from wherever he was and Sam pulled a face, looking at Jack.

"No. No one needs his piss!" Or he fucking well hoped not.

"Why do you need a piss sample?!" And, yes, Jack knew they could get one, but Sam looked put off already, so he didn't elaborate on that right now. He shrugged, looking at Sam. "We're trying to understand his power and power levels. Piss might help."

It at the very least could. "Fine, you can talk to him. If you are certain. But I'll be monitoring and I will knock him out if anything seems funny. I trust you, Sam. I don't trust that psycho."

"It's always good to have a piss sample!"

"Urgh." Well, that was a repulsive thought. Sam sighed and then shook his head, unsure what to do. He had nerves eating his stomach and he felt like he could barf from all of this. It felt so wrong. "Just let me try with him. Maybe I can help him." Wait. No. Wrong wording. He sighed. "Help him to help us." Whatever.

He took his gun off and set it aside before he started down the stairs and towards the cells. Owen popped his head up and winced. "Bad idea. Never let a bloke talk to his ex."

"Are you volunteering yourself, Owen? Go over and talk to him. You might be his type, skinny white boy." Well, there wasn't actually that much consistency with who Barty seemed to target, but Bill did bear a resemblance to Sam, so that was enough to joke about.

Jack watched the screen, where Barty looked away from the camera to the door. Could he hear something? Probably. Although Jack was wondering how much telepathy the man might have as part of his power, if any. "Did you find anything useful yet with the blood sample, Owen?"

"Fuck off." Owen remarked as he sat down to watch. "The blood work takes time, I'll know in about 2 hours." Until then, he may as well watch this mess with Jack. "You got a plan to get him out?"

Sam headed down into the basement and put in the code, pushing the door open and letting it close behind him. He saw Barty in his cage and immediately felt his stomach sink. "You're not this easy of a target. I know you. What's the game?"

"If anything strange happens, I've got the gas ready to release. Then we can get Sam out." Jack didn't think it was a great plan, but it was the best they could do right now. "I have faith in Sam."

Barty watched Sam as he walked closer, looking him up and down. Then he shrugged and pulled his sleeve up. The ink was mostly faded, but it was where Sam had written. "I didn't hurt anyone. I promised."

So he was keeping to his promise. "How did you expect me to fend them off, your team? They're persistent."

"I'm glad you didn't hurt them. I was impressed. You could have. You could have also escaped within the boundaries I set you. Self defence. Non-violent." There was no reason that Barty couldn't tell them all to just leave. He had seen him do it before. No, this was a trap but he didn't know what sort. He frowned at Barty, wishing he could understand what the game was.

"If you're here, you want to be here. Why would you want to be here?" He was trying to think back on their conversation. "It's not about me. You already talked to me without them. So what's the catch?"

"Look at us, Sam. We're getting a second talk." Was that not worth something? Not his freedom, obviously, or the knowledge that these fuckers must have taken his blood. But it was worth something. "I even got to meet your friends. I liked the Welsh boy in the suit. Very dapper."

He appreciated a sense of style more than most.

"Did you keep an eye on it? I let Bill go, just like you wanted." Clearly he was on his best behaviour.

"I noticed. I'm really happy that you did that." He was, he wasn't just lying. Though it did cause Jack to be able to catch the boy and get him to reveal Barty's location. Maybe he should have thought that one through better. "He's safe now, he's in a halfway house in Cardiff." Last time he checked. "See, you can be a good person."

He just tried to skip passed the Ianto thing, he didn't need Jack to get pissed off and try to storm in here or something. He did love to play the swooshy hero. "Are you going to keep your promise about not making me do things while I'm talking to you?"

"Hm. Don't know if Bill would agree." Bill had been devastated over being sent away, he knew that. At least he had set him up with a bank account and a nice sum in it first. Here was hoping Bill would figure out how to use his card, he seemed baffled with that concept.

Barty gave a nod, holding his hands up to show his innocence. "I'm not giving you any orders. I just follow your instructions."

"Then tell me why you're here. Cause they think it's a lucky break but I think it's something else. You're playing a game, aren't you? You--" Sam paused and then frowned, looking at Barty for a moment before it twigged for him. Wait, no, was that it?

"You knew we were looking into the twin stuff. When we talked before, in the park. I didn't think but how did you even know that? You know we're looking into your kind - the ones who were in labs." And Barty wasn't here because he was defeated, he was here because he wanted something. He wanted something they knew. "What do we know that you don't, huh?"

"I've missed this. You just free associating as you work on a case. Do you remember doing that with your head in my lap while I played with your hair?" So many happy memories. For him, anyway. His brilliant detective.

Of course, it should probably annoy him more when the case Sam was working on was him. "Do you know something I don't know?" Good question. He was eager to find out. "I didn't even know there were more of my kind. In labs." He had thought they might have given up after they'd escaped.

"Yeah, I remember." He remembered the first few times it happened, it was nice to have someone who cared and loved him, even in his work mode. Then it all took that same horrible turn. It went from loving to a means of control. Barty used to make him lie in his lap and stay there after fights until he had 'cooled down' enough to not be irrational and do anything stupid. Controlling prick.

"There's a lot of issues with labs, even today. Though I can give out that information." But that was definitely what was interesting him. "Unfortunately, our kind will never be free of these issues but we can try to help. You could try too. You could help.

"Is that what they want? For me to help with protecting people like us?" Barty shook his head with a slight smile, showing his disbelief. He knew what people wanted from him. "I know you aren't that naive."

Sam had to know better than that. But he would want to do the right thing, the good thing, which somehow had to also work to the letter of the law. Annoying and also limited. Impossible, even. There was no such thing as justice, especially not for anyone outside the norm.

"Can I ask you again, Sam? What do you want for me?"

"Not everyone wants to protect us but this organisation wants to." The boss had powers, he had powers and they had helped so many people. No, nothing was perfect and he hated that but he had to work in the system he had to make it better for anyone like them. Anyone like Barty.

"It's not about what I want. It doesn't matter what I want from you. That's not what we're here for." He just wanted Barty to have never been caught, frankly. "We have to do our best, in the system we're in, to help others. And you could do that. If you just let us help you, you could help us in return."

"Uh-huh." Barty was neither convinced nor impressed. "I'll only talk to you, darling. And I'll only talk when I feel like it."

Simple set of rules, Barty thought. "And if I talk to anyone else, they might end up not liking it. So hopefully I won't have to." Didn't seem like the worst deal, overall. His eyes drifted to the camera, thoughtful.

"What did you do to my Bill?"

"Bill isn't yours. And he's fine. He spoke with my boss already, he was happy to help." He wasn't. He cried when he realised Jack had talked him into so many loops that he gave up Barty's location. He felt bad for Bill, they wanted to get him back to London but he'd run off first chance they had. He was probably somewhere in Cardiff still.

"Well, for the most part. He's... he's a trouble lad. I'm sure he'll be fine, he's just sensitive." It was complicated and he didn't need Barty judging him for doing his job.

"You said he can be my friend. Bill wouldn't mind me saying it. Stop projecting." Not everyone was repulsed by the idea of being associated with him. Barty's brows furrowed, because he could tell when Sam was lying. Of course he could, Sam was a terrible liar. "You don't still have him."

He sure hoped so. "He'd have been more fine if your group hadn't interfered. You told me to let him go. I didn't know you wanted me to let him go so he can be used."

"That's not-- I didn't know, I--" Fuck. Jack was watching too and while he knew that Sam deeply disapproved, he wasn't about to run his boss down. "It wasn't a decision I was part of and I was unaware but Bill ran off first chance he got before we could help him. I wanted to get him back to London, free of charge."

It didn't get to happen. Bill had cursed them all out, cried, yelled, broken a few light fixtures and once he was let out to get some air, he took off running. "And I'm not projecting, just don't call people 'my'. It hits a wrong note." And yeah, rubbed him the wrong way.

"Some things are simply true. However wrong they sound to your ear, Sam." Barty moved closer to the edge of the cell, until he couldn't move any closer to him. He licked his lips with a quick flick of tongue, looking at Sam. This feeling inside, he could never help it when he looked at him. He wanted to love and be loved in return. Why was that so wrong?

"You are my Achilles heel."

The way that he looked at him, the way their eyes locked and how he licked his lips, it just sent that horrible shudder deep into him. Sometimes being with Barty was nice, special, like a lovely dream and sometimes, it was like an all consuming nightmare. The fact that he could be both was what made it so horrifying. He looked at him and felt himself leave his own body for a few moments as he just tried to ground himself.

"I shouldn't be." His eye twitched. "There's that my again. I hate it. Stop saying things like that. I'm not yours in any sense."

"You can't make me not feel for you. Trust me, I can't make myself either." Barty shook his head and then, suddenly, realised something. "I didn't mean that!"

There was some franticness now as he tried to explain, hands on the walls of the cell. "I didn't mean it. You don't have to trust me!" He rubbed his face, cursing. "Fuck, fuck, fuck! I didn't-- This doesn't count! You ca-- Fuck!"

He turned away and paced a few steps before turning back, looking as calm as possible. "I didn't mean that. I'm sorry."

"Oh, you never fucking mean anything, do you?" Sam snapped as he came closer and glared at Barty, unable to remove the horrible feeling that came over him. One wrong sentence and he'd end up his bitch all over again. And then what? "If you fucking cared, if you felt anything for me, you'd want to help. You'd help me sort this mess out!"

And yeah, he gestured at Barty because he was a fucking mess. "Tell me how to stop you, let me stop you and then maybe, just maybe, you can be a fucking person because you're not a person right now! You're a fucking monster!" He didn't mean to lose control either, he was just too on edge and maybe he wasn't mentally ready for this. He was crying and he didn't know why, all he wanted to do was fucking hit Barty until he just stopped. Stopped forever. Until he could be fucking normal.

Barty stepped back until he hit the wall, wrapping his arms around himself. He hadn't meant it and he'd apologised. Sam didn't want to give him a chance. Just called him names again. The only person he'd ever loved. He wanted Sam to stop crying. He wanted Sam to be happy. He wanted to stop feeling like crying himself.

He was angry too, like Sam. Angry and sad and unable to think of anything good to say. Anything that might not cause more trouble. "I don't know."

Now, that was the truth. "I don't bloody know."

He stared at the ground and hated a lot. "I didn't mean it."

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manonmars - 2023-09-14 16:42 (UTC) - Expand