psl-land } { you will never be my, you will never be my

[likeababyduck]

The zombie apocalypse is not really made for extroverts.

In a way, it’s the thing that brings Maggie and Sweets together, the needing to connect with someone despite the isolation of the world they live in, and if Sweets is being completely honest, going out to her farmhouse to hang out with her dogs is one of his favorite places to be. Spending time with real people and not having to regulate his life through a computer is pretty much a dream and a much better use of his profession than trying to shrink someone over video chat.

Plus there’s Maggie too.

In fact, Maggie’s pretty damn important.

So much so, that when she mentions having gotten shot in one of their video chats, he requires zero persuasion to make his way up to the farmhouse to take care of her. While he probably should be concerned about the bloody nature of a gunshot wound, he also doesn’t want her to be up there alone either. What he doesn’t anticipate is the entire After the End Times team being present with her, so when he opens the door and is met by both the dogs and the glaring faces of Georgia and Shaun Mason.

“Uh. Hi.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Lance. Sweets? I’m Maggie’s … ” He pauses as he tries to read the room on how to end that sentence. “ … friend.” There’s a pause as he looks up from the dogs for a moment, and then he squints at the woman to Shaun’s left. “… Aren’t you …”

“Don’t worry about it.” So Shaun Mason is ten times scarier in person, good to know. “Stay with the dogs. We’ll be right back.”

“Yes, sir,” he nods and tries not to jump as the front door slams behind them. He contents himself with just the dogs, scolding himself quietly for not having realized that of course her friends would be there, and quietly wondering how Georgia Mason is somehow alive after her very public execution, but that’s a complicated puzzle that he probably shouldn’t try to solve. Not if he wants to make it through this visit alive. So he just hangs out with the dogs, soaking in the silence, until the door slams open again and Shaun has returned, same glare still in place, but he gestures for Sweets to follow him inside.

“Maggie’s confirmed you are who you say you are.”

“Oh, good.” That much is a sigh of relief and he keeps one bulldog tucked under his arm as he makes his way inside. “Not that I was worried that she wouldn’t. We’re totally friends in good standing and all that.”

“Uh-huh.” Shaun doesn’t seem phased by the rambling, but he doesn’t seem endeared by it either, so Sweet just waits until he’s addressed again, which doesn’t take too long in the grand scheme of things. “So. What do you do, Lance?”

“I’m a psychologist.”

He honestly should have known better. The way Shaun almost fumbles is clear enough that that isn’t an answer that the other man is expecting and he scolds himself almost as soon as he says it. Not that he thinks lying would have been a better option, but maybe he should have tried to soften the blow a little. Maybe “works for the FBI” would have been a better play and not completely a lie.

“A psychologist.”

“ … Yeah?” He doesn’t really know how to answer that without sounding nervous but given Shaun’s reactions to things, he’s not really sure how else to phrase it. “Mostly I just work with the FBI, but I do have a few private clients.”

“The FBI?”

“Yeah, I provide counseling services to their agents.” He gives a bit of a half laugh before he continues. “I’m not a profiler or anything, I just make sure their agents can do well in the field.”

“Uh-huh.”

The tone of that phrase will never not be concerning, and he just swallows and continues to follow Shaun through the house, trying not to speak out of turn, because he is fairly certain that it would only dig him into a bigger hole. He’ll answer the questions that are asked of him, and not much else. That’s safer.

“You know, I have to say you’re one of my favorite Irwins. Your style is always the most engaging, you’re always willing to get right into things.”

It’s safer if he manages to actually keep his mouth shut. Clearly he can’t.

“Thanks.” The response is almost droning, as though it’s a compliment he’s not willing to accept at the moment, and that’s fair. Sweets really needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he just walks him to Maggie’s bedroom door, and gestures for him to head in ahead of her. “There you go. If you run into trouble, yell.”

“Oh, trust me. If I run into trouble, you will hear me.” There’s a pause as he realizes how awkward that is and shakes his head before heading inside. “Never mind. Thanks again.” And once he is in, the door closes behind him with a slight slam, and he blinks, before turning to Maggie. “Okay, so … your friends are more than a little terrifying.”

Maggie laughs, and it’s just such a nice thing to see her alive and in one piece and most importantly – not a zombie. “What are you doing here?”

“You mentioned you had gotten shot and I wanted to make sure you weren’t stuck here recovering on you own.” He makes his way over to sit on the edge of her bed with a small smile, before reaching forward to take her hand. “I should have figured that the rest of the staff would be around.”

“They probably won’t be around for long. They’ve still got a story to chase. So your company will be very much appreciated once they’re gone.”

“Good, I’m glad.” He smiles softly. She then inches over, gesturing so that he can sit closer. He takes that opening easily, only pausing to kick off his shoes, before settling in. “So. If I survived Shaun Mason, does that mean I can safely call you my girlfriend in their presence?”

She tips her head to the side confused, before she realizes what he means and laughs. “What did you tell them?”

“That I was your friend,” Sweets sighs, because he knows how wimpy that sounds. “It just didn’t seem like you had told them anything about me so I figured we’d work it out later.”

She laughs again, shaking her head before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his cheek softly. “For future reference, you are absolutely allowed to call yourself my boyfriend.”

He grins a bit at that, leaning in to match her and nodding his agreement. “Good.” He’s wanted to call her his girlfriend for a while. He reaches for the remote from the nightstand and turns his attention back to the TV screen. “So. Now that your friends are chasing their story elsewhere, which horror movie are we going to start this marathon with?”

He’s fairly certain that she wouldn’t want to spend her downtime any other way.

Comments

[talesuntold]

She reaches out to rest a hand on his leg. "I wondered whether you had any lurking cousins or uncles or aunts. It's just me and my parents. Tomorrow you're meeting the entirety of my family. Excluding, of course, the ones you've already met." Her gaze shifts toward the door for a moment. After the End Times is family, as far as Maggie is concerned.

"Give me another week or two to recover at home, and so long as the world doesn't go to hell first I'll come prove Hodgins wrong."

[likeababyduck]

"Not that I know of. But, I was adopted, so who knows. Maybe I have some secret family lurking out there somewhere."

That would be nice, but he's not going out and looking further beyond his birth mother. He is quite happy with the family he's building, particularly with Maggie and those at the Jeffersonian. Found families can be just as good, even if you already have one of your own.

"And I would appreciate that. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the look on his face."

[talesuntold]

Maggie can definitely respect found family. She's frustrated with herself for not knowing all of this sooner, though. It's the sort of thing she shouldn't be stepping on carelessly. Raising a hand to his face, she brushes a thumb over his cheek.

On the more cheerful topic, she asks, "Have you told him who your girlfriend is, or just that I exist? Either way could potentially be amusing."

She generally doesn't like who her family is factoring into anyone's perceptions, but she's confident enough in the way Sweets feels that she's entirely willing to troll his one of his friends. She knows 'Magdalene Garcia. ...yes, those Garcias' sounds much more absurd and unbelievable than 'my girlfriend Maggie.'

[likeababyduck]

"They do know your name is Maggie," he says with a nod. "But not that your last name is Garcia." While he definitely is one to troll, he also isn't one to brag. Besides, name dropping isn't really his style to begin with.

It's just going to add to the way Hodgins' jaw will hit the floor when he meets her.

"I think they'll really like you, though. They're good people."

[talesuntold]

"I figured that would be your approach." She smiles. It does nothing but reinforce why she likes him.

"And I trust your judgement. If you like them, I probably will too. Are any of your friends as intimidating as you found Shaun and Georgia?" Maggie can't resist teasing him a little, even if she knows that her team is just too tightly wound to welcome outsiders easily right now.

[likeababyduck]

"Booth can be, a little bit, but it's not intentional. Just the whole FBI agent ex-ranger thing. He's really a big softie once you get to know him." Booth is often the friend that he can reach the easiest, and he looks up to him a lot. "Dr. Brennan can also be a bit off putting, but that's because she doesn't always consider the emotional approach to things, but she's a good woman."

[talesuntold]

"I don't scare easily. I've spent time around plenty of Irwins, how much more intimidating can an FBI agent be? And you may not have gotten enough time with Georgia to realize it, but she's not so big on shows of emotion. I'll manage." They haven't actually discussed her no longer dead boss yet, though she bets Sweets got a look at her coming in the door.

[likeababyduck]

He did. And he figures that that will come up when it comes up. Whatever story they're looking on, she assumes that Georgia is part of it, and he's never really been one to push with the complications that came with After the End Times.

"Good. They're good people, so I think we'll all get along just fine."

[talesuntold]

Maggie appreciates that about him. But she's braced to tell the truth tomorrow, and it will be so much easier if she can have her boyfriend next to her rather than banishing him from the room. "Lance, I have a request that might be offensive."

She hesitates a second to choose her words, wishing her head weren't muddled by the pain medication. "I might be able to justify trusting you with my life, but I can't put my team's lives in your hands without more precautions. Before I tell you what's going on, I want to ask you a question, and I want to run an extensive background check to make sure you answer honestly. I don't intend to look at any of it unless something relevant turns up."

[likeababyduck]

At first he's confused, because he doesn't know what exactly this is referring to. But he trusts Maggie enough to know that she wouldn't ask this if it wasn't for a good reason, so he nods in agreement before actually using his words.

"Yeah, of course. Whatever you want to know."

[talesuntold]

Maggie folds her hands. There isn't any point dancing around this. "What, if any, connections do you have in the CDC?"

[likeababyduck]

Sweets pauses, considering for a moment, before leaning back against the headboard. "No major ones, just tangentially on occasion. A case here or there. My work is mostly with the FBI, but sometimes I do evaluations for other agencies. I don't remember any CDC doctors off the top of my head though."

If he did, they were mostly one and done cases.

[talesuntold]

Maggie nods, pitching her voice a tiny bit louder to address the house computer. "House, I want a thorough search for connections between Lance Sweets and employees of the Centers for Disease Control. Access all databases." Because Buffy set up Maggie's computer system, which means Maggie definitely still has access to information she shouldn't, even more than a year after the other woman died.

But she doesn't actually wait for that confirmation to come back before she moves her hand to hover just above the bottom of her ribcage. "I was tracked and shot by a CDC strike team."

Hence the concern.

[likeababyduck]

That is a totally understandable and justifiable concern, and Sweets looks appropriately horrified as a result. He knows that every agency has it's dark side, but there's something about the CDC that is supposed to protect them.

"What? That's ... do you want me to call Agent Booth? See what the FBI knows?"

He knows that the government isn't always trustworthy, but Lance trusts Seeley. He knows that Agent Booth is one of the good ones, and he'll be able to help - or at least try.

[talesuntold]

"No." Maggie orders him immediately. "That isn't the worst of it, but it's the only explanation you're getting until I hear back from the house computer. It's bad enough I don't want you mentioning it to a soul outside of this house."

[likeababyduck]

"Okay." He sobers immediately, leaning back against the headboard again as he waits for the computer to announce him clean. He's definitely Worried, that much is certain, but he knows that things like this take patience, and he wants her to be able to get everything out in her own time. "Okay. I won't."

[talesuntold]

Maggie leans sideways just a couple inches so that her shoulder rests against his as they wait. Finally, the house computer speaks up in its eerie mimicry of Maggie's voice, "Lance Sweets has worked with the Centers for Disease Control on an occasional temporary basis. No significant professional contacts. No significant personal contacts. Is this information sufficient or is a more detailed report required?"

She exhales slowly, then answers, "No full report. Wipe all of Lance's personal data unrelated to the Centers for Disease Control. Don't add it to the household backups."

Glancing sideways at Sweets, she says, "I'm sorry. I had to be sure."

[likeababyduck]

"It's okay." He slips one arm around her shoulders to keep her close, before pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "After what you've been through, I don't blame you." Being a target of the CDC is never a good thing, and he is suddenly worried that they're only going to get in deeper from there. If the paper is involved, he's sure it's a story worth pursuing, but he's worried about the well-being of his girlfriend.

[talesuntold]

She sighs at the kiss to her head, the tension in her shoulders lessening slightly. Maggie pulls Sweets down for a quick kiss before she rests her head on his shoulder and reaches for one of his hands. Her voice falters a little when she tells him, "The outbreak that led to the destruction of Oakland a few months back coincided with an arrival at our main office. A CDC scientist who had faked her own death, killing a clone of herself and leaving the body behind. They dropped infected on the roof of the building, Lance. Non-residents who had no business being there in the first places. The whole outbreak was staged to bury a damn story."

Maggie's hand tightens on his. "Dave stayed behind to hold back security measures long enough to let the rest of the team out. When I saw his last broadcast, I cleared out my house guests and hoped they would make it here."

[likeababyduck]

He squeezes her hand in sympathy as she speaks, clearly uncomfortable with the direction that this explanation is going if only because of the kind of danger that they were put in. The CDC is powerful, always has been, especially given the source of the zombies in the first place. But just because an institution has power, doesn't always mean that they can be trusted with it, and no one had been keeping the CDC in check.

"I take it the CDC came with them?"

[talesuntold]

"Came, not so much. Declared the place a loss and wrecked it to stop the dead they let in in the first place is more accurate." It's pretty much guaranteed that Sweets has never heard Maggie sound as exhausted as she does right now. She'll get worse before she gets better.

"The last few months have been so long. And we've left behind more collateral damage than I know how to live with. Thank you for all your calls and messages. They were a sorely needed bright spot."

[likeababyduck]

"I can only imagine." About how long things have been, not about his being a bright spot. He rubs her shoulders gently, before giving her a small, hopefully painless squeeze. "I'll stay as long as you need me to."

[talesuntold]

"I'm not finished, unfortunately. The last couple months have also included multiple field trips to a mad scientist's hidden lair, and my team made a couple of trips to different CDC offices. The mosquitoes carrying the virus that devastated the Gulf Coast were genetically engineered to be large enough for that purpose, and they were released immediately after members of my team broke into the Memphis CDC. A cover up, something to draw all the news coverage away. If the storm hadn't happened just then, they would have wiped out Cuba instead. All those lives, Lance. They were lost because we pried too hard into things that powerful people want hidden."

Maggie shifts so she can bury her face against Sweets' shoulder rather than just resting her head on it. Garcia Pharmaceuticals had offices there. Some of the scientists and executives she's known her whole life were among the dead. And Alaric's family, and some acquaintances, and countless strangers.

[likeababyduck]

Sweets rubs her back gently for a moment, not sure what to say to that and needing time to digest it. That much disregard for human life is ... a lot to process, especially by someone they're supposed to trust, but at the same time he isn't as surprised as she should be.

"No matter what, this isn't your fault. You were following the truth. Their reaction to it was ... incredibly disproportionate."

[talesuntold]

"Alaric says the same thing. That it isn't my fault, but I always knew there was danger in what we were doing, and that those dangers weren't isolated to just us. There's been a blast radius since before Buffy and Georgia died."

He doesn't sound shocked, Maggie can't help but noting even though she doesn't have Lance's face in view. Sweets sounds like he believes her, and he doesn't sound particularly surprised or horrified. He's taking things very calmly. She needed that. She's almost finished now.

Still slightly muffled against his shoulder, Maggie tells him, "The CDC also cloned Georgia, hence the presence of my formerly dead boss. They planned on killing her and releasing a behaviorally conditioned clone in order to manipulate Shaun, since he's... not coped well with her loss. Fortunately, my teammates had broken into that particular CDC before they had a chance, and were there when Georgia blew up the remains of the cloning project. And now everyone's leaving in the morning to finish following this story. I don't know if any of them will make it home."