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[nobasisinfact]

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[nobasisinfact]

Fine. Then 'handle it yourself'. It's clear you weren't going to listen to anything I said anyway.

[11calls]

[Okay. That... hurts. That hurts a lot, and her voice just gets smaller until it's just a sigh when she says:]

Richard.

[nobasisinfact]

What?

[He sounds tired. He's actually rubbing his temples.]

[11calls]

[Alex's voice is just soft and vulnerable sounding:]

We are in this together. And I do love you. Really. I'm honestly not trying to hurt you, and I hope you know that.

[nobasisinfact]

That doesn't change the fact that you didn't actually care about my advice.

[His voice grows quieter.]

Or that you didn't trust me to look into it before you blindly sent it out to an entire network of strangers.

[11calls]

I do care about your advice! And you're forgetting, Richard. I spent months at our house watching Black Tapes all night and going through them how you taught me. I know that this would have just ended up as another one that we can't explain.

But maybe someone else could. Someone who has abilities that we don't. I want this to be something that can easily be explained, Richard. I want it not to be actual demons. I thought that you would want that to and it wouldn't bother you if I did it. Because of getting those answers.

[nobasisinfact]

You don't know because you assumed before acting. The likelihood that a random stranger would know something and share that knowledge in unlikely, and it's insulting to those you do know that you would trust random strangers to them.

You could have made it private, but you didn't. You could have trusted me to at least try to find answers, but you didn't, and any attempts at explaining this fact are met with dismissal. How is that caring about my advice?

[His voice is low and hurt now.]

[11calls]

[For a minute, Alex is speechless. She doesn't know what to say, which is a complete oddity for Alex Reagan. So in the end she just takes a breath and says two words and it's clear that she means them:]

I'm sorry.

[And then a few seconds later she adds:]

I swear, I didn't do it to hurt you, Richard.

[nobasisinfact]

[There's silence on his end for a very long time, almost as if he's hung up, but he hasn't. When he finally speaks, he's sounding calmer, but it's very low as if he's sure she won't even acknowledge his request.]

Will you at least make it private.

[11calls]

[Alex has definitely thought that he hung up, and it's only all the emotion going on that she doesn't do the thing of saying his name in an effort to try and fill dead air like she would on the show.]

Richard, there's no point to it now. It's been up for so long that everyone has seen it.

[nobasisinfact]

It's been up for less than a day.

[The response is instant this time, like a breath out when someone punches you in the gut.]

[11calls]

But it's been...

[Sorry, Richard Alex just got a different message and she's going to freak out a little.]

Oh my god.

[nobasisinfact]

What?

[He's expecting her to try and change the topic because she's making excuses because she doesn't want to take it down or private it or listen to anything he has to say.

After all, she's already said he's not involved in this.]

[11calls]

[Alex's voice is soft, and it's definitely her I am trying to hold it together so I am not freaking out voice. He's heard it enough.]

Richard...

[And then she sends him the lightened screencaps that Skye sent her, showing the demon in all the Cheryl described glory and horror.]

[nobasisinfact]

[There's a very<\i> long pause.]<\small>

It's not real.

[His voice is very calm.]<\small>

[11calls]

[Alex is just going to stare at her device for a very long time, and then stare at the pictures of the demon and then stare at her device again before she just says:]

What?

[nobasisinfact]

It's too much like those from the tapes. Clearly Warren was trying to scare you.

[That is totally what it is and he's not internally freaking out right now.]

[11calls]

[Okay, so this isn't something that Alex wants to talk about with space between them, so ten minutes later, she's knocking at the door of his office. It's clear that this is bothering her from just looking at her. At the moment, Alex is looking far closer to the Alex from last year when her sleep was so messed up than the Alex of late, and she's pale as hell.

But above all that, Alex is worried. And she's more worried about him.]

[nobasisinfact]

[If pressed, Richard would never admit that he has the picture up on his computer, that he's been pouring over details of it to verify that it's not another black tape.

He refuses even to entertain the idea that it's a real demon. Demons aren't real.

Even if the tiny voice in the back of his head, the voice of a far younger and more believing Richie Strand is telling him otherwise; that it looks exactly like what he and Cheryl saw. What app the children seem to have seen.

But that's too convenient, isn't it. It has to be a trick, something Warren did to scare Alex off. He'd heard what their conversation had entailed and, of course, there was Coralee and his father. The fact that they had been kidnapped to bring him to Geneva. And of course, Alex had found her way onto the short list of people he cared about, people he'd do anything to protect. It would make sense for Warren to go after her. It was logical.

The knocking was met with a minimized window before he crossed over to open the door. It was Alex, of course, it was Alex. It wouldn't be anyone but her, an argument over her idiocy in dealing with this or not, it wasn't something he wanted to be closed out of the loop of. She'd already started to do that spectacularly by ignoring anything he had to say already.]

[11calls]

[if there's one thing that alex knows about Richard it's that of course he has the file open on his computer. Of course he's looking at the images from every angle that he possibly could. In many ways he and Alex were the same; only where as he would have dealt with this alone if he could of Alex had sought out the help of others.

But either way of course the two of them were both pouring over every bit of it.

Alex wants to hug him but this isn't the right time for it, not in the middle of the fight so she just does something perhaps equally unexpected]

You were right. I shouldn't have made it public. I'm sorry, Richard.

[nobasisinfact]

[There's no sugar coating or placation. There's no way he would do that at this point. He'd told her to take it down or private it. She'd refused to listen or even discuss it. She'd merely dismissed him as if he didn't matter in all of this, as if he shouldn't care about it or shouldn't be hurt by her actions, by locking him out of this almost entirely.

Part of him wondered if she would have even come to him if something hadn't gone wrong. He doubted she would, which hurt all the more. Not that he would be willing to express or entertain the emotional state. Anger was far more comfortable to deal with. Hurt and a feeling of betrayal were far too deep to manage, especially when the object of those feelings was standing in front of him.]

I know.

[Maybe she felt bad, and maybe she'd apologized, but she never once listened. Never once thought about the fact that he'd been there so, so many times. When he was a child, with Bobbie Mames, and the one she should have known best, with Coralee and everything that had been happening. Still, she'd ignored everything, choosing instead to turn to complete strangers. Even admitting that she was turning to complete strangers instead of him. Believing that they would help her more than he could, more than the network of people that she trusted could.]

You should have listened. For one.

[11calls]

[It said something that this was the first time in three years when the three of them had a fight that Alex was outright apologizing for something she did. To him. On the same day she'd done it. There was still something of the disconnect between fighting with Strand and fighting with Richard because it was easier to fight with Strand when things weren't so personal. Like they were now.

And because they were personal, Alex just counted to ten before she responded, because while Strand would never show hurt, she knew him too well to know that he didn't feel it. After all, that's what things like his armor were for, so that no one would ever know that they'd gotten under his skin, and Alex had. Especially with something like this, especially given what he'd said about not letting him work on it first.

But she also knew him, and she knew how he was and she knew there was no way he was going to admit what was actually on that tape, any more than he would have admitted when they were on his own.

Still, she was going to try, and her voice was little.]

I know. I do know, Richard. I just...

[She took a deep breath and stepped closer, making sure the door was shut and locked behind her. After all, this was a fight for them and not for the rest of the people in the university.]

I was thinking of how much we both wanted answers here, and how we might have been able to find them so that we didn't even...

[Need to entertain going to Geneva, but she can't even get it out. Instead she adds:]

And that we'd have something on Warren.

[nobasisinfact]

[He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, and before he could not, he'd already done it. It was as if no one seemed to think he was capable of making choices. Coralee, and now Alex was doing it. Running to strangers instead of coming to him with things that concerned him.]

You didn't think that might be something we should have discussed?

[There's a pause before he adds.]

Before you chose to discuss this with the entirety of Riverview; without even thinking of asking my thoughts.

[11calls]

[Alex takes a deep breath, because she knows him well enough to know that yes, he's angry, but he's also hurt. And she'd be too if the situations were reversed.

So she just stepped forward closer to him, looking, for Alex Reagan anyway, rather contrite.]

I admit it, alright, I acted in anger by posting it after... And I am sorry. Richard, it's not that I don't want your thoughts, and I definitely wasn't trying to cut you out or anything like that. I should have come to you first I just.

[Alex sighed softly again.]

I thought that it might give us answers, in one way or another. Like if it was a super high tech forgery, or from people whose worlds deal with this sort of thing all the time.

[and then there was time for a little more honesty and she couldn't look at him for a second.]

I know whatever I find you're not going to believe. And I know you don't think I care about your privacy but I do. I just don't think you know how worried I am about losing you to all of this.

[nobasisinfact]

[A part of him wanted to point out that she already had done those things. It wasn't trying, it was. She'd cut him out of the discussion entirely and ran off on her own with the entirety of Riverview.

This was just presenting the evidence, and they both knew it.

Which was what made this so complicated, there was nothing that could be done about the past, no matter how recent it was, and he was already starting to wonder what else she'd done with the people of this place in his absence. How many other Jeffs there were out there that she'd told three years of his life story to. Said that he was this 'key to open the door to Armageddon.'

And yet, he'd forgiven Coralee for what she'd done, hadn't he? And wasn't this similar, almost the same thing. Coralee had stayed away, allowed people to continue to believe he'd killed her, to protect him from Warren. She'd let him spend twenty years fruitlessly searching for her for the same reason. Alex was doing the same thing in her own way. She'd exposed herself and cut him out of the whole discussion. Seeing him now, only when he was angry enough to disappear, only when the 'evidence' was ready to be presented. All in the name of protecting him. Something he'd never once asked anyone to do for him.

He hated it, but there wasn't much that he could do. The same important feeling that he'd felt for years creeping back into his body. He shouldn't have done this again. Shouldn't have allowed himself to have these feelings again.]

I've already answered that worry.

[He crossed his arms over his chest, closing himself off until she finished. He wasn't a part of this, she'd said it herself. Even if, as she said now, she'd done it all for him.]