#a chapter semi centred on a case was bound to happen

[nancywheelxr]

(our friends set us up on a blind date as a prank because we don’t like each other but neither of us wants to let them win so ) | Part 9:

( part 1 ) ( part 2 ) ( part 3 ) ( part 4 ) ( part 5 ) ( part 6) ( part 7 ) ( part 8 )

There’s something to be said about routines. It’s sort of calming, to ease back into a daily life knowing where all things fit.

Even if said routine might include chasing aliens on security cams or analyzing DNA that should not have that many helixes. Maybe especially then. It certainly makes the uncanny feel ordinarily common.

So what if that guy shines in the sun? Twilight did that ten years ago, get over yourself, dude. It wasn’t even that good of a movie, everyone was just visibly way too creepy stalkerish. Winn snorts, wondering for a fleeting second if Brainy watched the movies or if he even knows what Twilight is.

You know what, he just might drop a reference later to see what the verdict is.

Two DEO agents carry the Edward wannabe away in cuffs, his tail dragging uselessly on the floor and shining bright like a diamond all the way to the cell block. Winn spots Kara coming in behind them, dripping salt water and smelling strongly of rotten fish. He wrinkles his nose at the stench, shuddering, and he’s so busy not throwing up that all his brain registers are dark brown hair and a familiar uniform before jumping to the conclusion– “Nura?” He asks quietly bewildered before pushing his chair as far as he can from them. “Oh, my god, why do you smell like a dying whale threw up on you– Kara, I know I was the one to make that, but you need to burn your suit, cape and all.”

“Oh, come on,” she whines, sniffing at her hair and promptly gagging, “someone had to flush that guy out, it’s not my fault he was rolling in that disgusting mud.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I told you we had the sonar thing for that,” and now that Winn is a safe distance away from Kara and her overwhelming stench, he can focus back on the things around him. Like, for example, the fact that of course, that’s not Nura, even if her uniform looks a lot like hers and even if she has the same warm, smiling eyes and the same shape of her nose. Then, it clicks on his head. Right, the new addition to their team Kara and Brainy are always talking about.

Dreamer.

“No, you did not,” Kara is shooting back sullenly, her cape draped protectively over her arm.

“I did. And so did Brainy. We said, Supergirl, wait, the sonar will bring him out, and then you said no, there’s no time and dove in the ocean after his lair,” Dreamer says, barely holding back her amusement. She trades a conspiratory look with Winn, “we totally had time, the tide won’t rise in like, hours.”

“That sounds like her,” Winn nods sagely.

“Unbelievable,” Kara glares half-heartedly. Her nose scrunches up and her hand flies to her mouth. “Be right back, guys,” she tells them, voice muffled, before jogging out of there.

“You have superspeed, did you know?” He calls after her, laughing as she flips him off.

“Do you think they’d buy it if we tell at Catco that she fell in a dumpster?”

Winn shrugs, thinking back at all those times he and James had cover for Kara over the years. Or, even worse, the times J’onn had to get involved. “Maybe, she told worse excuses before.”

“Oh, of course– you worked with her there! I mean,” she falters, second-guessing her conclusions, “you’re Winn, right?”

“Yup,” he says, cheerfully. It’s nice to be recognized, alright. “The one and only.”

“Sorry, I’m Dreamer. But you probably already knew that, of course.”

“Yeah, the uniform is kind of a giveaway. But it’s very nice to meet you– and cool suit, by the way.”

It reminds him a lot of Nura’s own uniform, enough to see how Dream Girl was inspired by her ancestor when coming up with it. And that’s kind of a trip to think about, if he’s being honest, because Winn met Nura first, got to know her quirks and the love she had for her family, saw how proud she was of carrying this legacy; they became good friends in all those months he spent with the Legion. It’s just so weird– Winn hugged Nura goodbye last year and now here he is meeting her ancestor not even five months later.

“Thanks, it was my mother’s. Oh,” Dreamer lowers her voice, glancing around quickly, “you can call me Nia. Nia Nal. It’s nice to finally meet you too, I heard a lot about you from literally everyone here.”

Of course. Nia Nal. Time travel is so trippy. He can’t imagine how it must be for Brainy, who spent considerably more time with both of them.

“I knew you would be here today,” Nia blurts out after a second of silence. She closes her eyes, huffing, as if annoyed with herself, then amends, “I saw it in a dream, I mean. You know, how that’s my thing? Seeing stuff– and you probably already knew that too.”

Winn grins, before sitting up on his chair on his best The Godfather impression. “I know everything,” he says in a stage whisper because he definitely can’t do voices to save his life.

Nia giggles, sounding more at ease.

“Except how to get your own coffee, it seems,” Brainy says, and man, Winn is happy to see him climbing the steps towards them, two mugs on his hands. He stops by Winn’s chair, giving him a grumpy look before handing over one of the mugs. To Nia, he says, “greetings, Nia Nal. It’s good to have you back sooner than expected.”

“It’s good to be back,” she grins, and Winn isn’t surprised she genuinely means it.

Taking a sip from his coffee, he sighs contentedly. God, he needed the caffeine. “Thanks, and you were going that way anyway,” he notes, looking pointedly at the mug on Brainy’s hands.

The sigh from Brainy is long-suffering at best and he gives Nia a see what I mean? look even as he rests his hands on Winn’s shoulder.

“Hey, I needed this,” Winn defends himself, cradling his mug, “I’m pulling an all-nighter here.”

“Still looking for Alex’s shapeshifter?” Brainy frowns, leaning over his shoulder to study the security videos on the screen. And this close, Winn can smell his cologne and aftershave, and oh, it smells pretty good. He swallows thickly, clearing his throat. Maybe he’ll ask later what brand he uses. Brainy gives no indication if he feels overheated like Winn is feeling where his hands are digging lightly on Winn’s shoulder to keep the chair in place, calmly changing the camera angle every five seconds while the footage plays. “It’s a long shot, but have you tried running facial recognition?”

He clears his throat again. “Yeah, and I found him here,” he maximizes the videos as he speaks, “and followed him all the way down this street, through cameras 2, 5, and 7. See here? That’s our guy in the corner making his way downtown, walking fast until he’s out of shot, and we should see him here now, right? It’s the same street, not even a block away. But nothing, nada. Between cameras 6 and 9, he disappears.”

“Shapeshifted.”

“Yup. He could be literally anyone,” Winn levels them with a suspicious look, “even one of you.”

“Well, count me out, I was out of town until this morning,” Nia raises her hands, playing along, “and then chasing the fish guy in the docks with Kara.”

“So that’s why it smells like rotting fishes in here, the– ” Brainy scrunches up his face, and then makes the same sound J’onn had made when identifying the fish guy’s species. It’s definitely not meant to be said by anything with vocal cords, Winn is not even going to try to replicate that. Kara had tried, it sounded nowhere close. In fact, it sounded like a particularly hoarse kitten drowning. “They are surprisingly filthy for a kind that lives in the ocean.”

Winn and Nia trade another look, silently agreeing to keep calling him fish guy.

“Anyway,” Winn says through a yawn and takes another sip from his coffee before continuing. “Since face recognition has failed me because our serial department store thief is a shapeshifter, I thought, what is the one thing he can’t change?”

“Voice?” guesses Nia.

“Only if he had a stutter. Some species cannot change their irises, though,” ventures Brainy.

“No and no– but that is good to know,” he leans back on his chair to beam up at him, catching the way his lips twitch into an almost-smile. “What not even a shapeshifter can change is his gait– the way he walks. It’s been used for some time now along biometric identification, and sure, it’s still a bit wonky, especially since our guy keeps changing height and build, but,” Winn pulls up the security feed from the last department store robbed, “do you see that? He has a limp, in all the videos. It’s subtle, but it goes a long way to help my program.”

“Wow, okay, I see it now,” Nia comments absently, looking between them.

“It’s not perfect,” Winn scratches the back of his neck, feeling a little self-conscious. “It can only narrow it down to a few dozen possible hits.”

“Because of the aggravated spatial displacement,” Brainy explains as if that would clear everything up for anyone that hasn’t spent the night researching identifying methods.

“Yeah, that. You know, the differences in camera angle, height, speed, all that stuff,” he translates, “which is why I connected it directly with our facial recognition program, told it to discard anyone under 16, and because this guy is only copying people’s face, send an alert only when any remaining suspect has two hits in two different places at the same time.”

“You wrote all this in one night?”

Winn shudders, shaking his head, “god no. A university in Japan already had a pretty good interface, I only tweaked it a bit to run in our servers.”

The hands on his shoulder twitch and Winn looks up inquisitively. But Brainy is watching him again with that odd expression Winn has no idea what to make of, except that it sets off something warm in his chest. It might be pride. It could be pride, he sure is proud of his program. “This is really remarkable,” Brainy finally speaks, quiet as if meant just for Winn to hear.

Winn looks away, mouth strangely dry. “Yeah, thanks,” and the words weren’t supposed to sound so sincere. He claps his hands, hoping to defuse the weird atmosphere that settled in. “So, any questions?”

Nia smiles softly at them before raising her hand, “I have one, actually. Why not under 16 years old?”

“Glad you asked– I looked up all the disguises we know of so far, and they were all male adults, between 20-36 years old, and let’s go with fit for their age. And I mean, that doesn’t have to be necessarily weird, but there were several occasions where say, a kid or an old lady would blend in a lot easier.”

“So you think he has a type?”

“I think he’s a kid,” he licks his lips, setting his now empty mug on the desk. “A stupid scared kid trying to look big and strong. All he stole from the stores were some clothes, food, toys, electronics. In fact, if he hadn’t shapeshifted in front of like ten different cameras, it would have never caught our attention.”

“He needs our help,” she frowns, “not a manhunt.”

His thoughts exactly, but to do that, they have to find him first, and fast, before the press gets wind of this and turns it into something it’s not. People going around paranoid is never a good thing, especially with the air still a little tense. And Winn is sure Alex thinks the same, or she wouldn’t have told him to keep digging, even after the meager leads they had went cold.

“What’s this about a manhunt?”

Winn does not startle, because that would be too undignified a thing to do in front of his fake-boyfriend and a superhero he’s just got to know, so no, of course, he doesn’t startle when Alex materializes out of thin air, looking vaguely harassed and smelling strongly of car fresheners.

He’s going out on a limb here and say she was with the strike team that captured the fish guy.

“We’re avoiding one,” Brainy supplies helpfully.

“Thank you,” Alex says, halfway into a question like she’s not sure she truly wants to know the context. “That’s generally the consensus, but why are we in danger of one?”

She looks at the three of them waiting not so patiently for an answer; it doesn’t have to be a good answer, he thinks, the bar is pretty low lately.

“I have done something amazing,” Winn tells her, gesturing the computer with his program running.

Alex perks up, “you found a lead on the shapeshifter case?”

A deeply betrayed pause. “Why do you have to kill my vibe like this?”

There’s a snort from above him, and Winn doesn’t have to look up to know Brainy is absolutely not as ready to defend his honor as he should be. In fact, he can pretty much imagine the stupid amused grin that he must be wearing. Nia, too, is snickering quietly beside Alex.

“What vibes?”

Kara pipes up, grinning that little grin that really, is more of a smirk because she knows she’s being a little shit. At least the terrible smell is gone, mostly.

“You know what this department needs?” Winn throws his hands up, “bells. All of you.”

She laughs, shrugging innocently, and because she’s Kara Danvers right now and not Supergirl, she turns to Nia, “hey, James called, we have to hurry back to Catco. I can give you a ride if you want?”

“Sure, sure. Just give me a minute to change!” She rushes out, setting off towards the locker room and calling back a goodbye, “it was nice to meet you!”

Alex drums her fingers on the desk once, a quick staccato tapping that tells them her mind is nowhere near. Still, she smiles briefly at Winn. “Hey, good work on the program. Call me if you get any hits. Kara,” she whirls on her sister, “we have to talk about Lena’s gala next week.”

And then they are off to the balcony, talking in low voices.

Winn expects Brainy to leave after that, but instead, he lingers. On the screen, the grainy footage of security cameras plays on a loop. The chair creaks as Winn spins to face him, eyebrows raising when he finds him studying the computers thoughtfully.

“It’s– I’m impressed, that’s all,” the comment is said as off-handed and absent, as anything else. As if yes, that’s all there is, nothing strange to it. As if Winn should not find it so surprising, or pleasing. Brainy’s impressed, that’s all.

“Thanks,” he says, half shrugging on his chair. “We’re still on for dinner tonight?”

“Yes, we can head out after work,” Brainy nods, and leaves for his own desk.

Outside in the balcony, Kara takes off with Nia and Alex waves at them until they’re out of sight.

That’s all.

*

The rain starts when they’re a bit over halfway to Winn’s apartment and maybe walking back wasn’t the smartest idea, even if traffic is a nightmare at this hour. They should have known the dark clouds wouldn’t hold out for the twenty minutes walk.

By the time they actually make it inside the building, Winn thinks he’s never going to be warm again. The water had been freezing, as it always is in the first three months of the year; they definitely haven’t hit the April showers yet.

It’s more on the lines of March freezing baths.

Now, with both of them dripping puddles on his living room, Winn has no choice but shove a set of sweatpants and a hoodie that he thinks might fit Brainy into his hands. “The bathroom is down the hall, there are fresh towels in the cabinets,” he directs, before changing into dry clothes himself and going to the kitchen.

Mac and Cheese are generally very easy to prepare, especially the kind that comes in a box, and Winn has never been more grateful for it. With the rain battering on the roof and the lack of sleep he’s running on, he’s not sure if he would be feeling up for doing anything more complicated than that.

“Winn?”

Brainy is on the doorway, wearing Winn’s old UCLA hoodie and Winn’s old sweatpants that are a little frayed at the hems, and Winn needs a minute to adjust.

Just.

It’s weird, okay?

Give him a break, he’s tired. “Yeah?”

“This,” he holds up a cilinder– oh, “I did not know you kept it.”

Right. The dirt collection. Winn narrows his eyes, “you went snooping,” he accuses jokingly, shrugging off Brainy’s vaguely guilty face. “It’s cool, relax. But yeah, I did. I mean, I threw away the bug first and scanned every inch before bringing it out of the DEO– by the way, jerk move, dude– but it was dirt from the future and it’s not like I knew back then I’d get the chance to see it for myself, so.”

The vaguely guilty expression turns vaguely constipated. “I apologize for that,” he fidgets uncomfortably, “at the time I did not realize I would be crossing boundaries. I was worried about the upcoming fight with Reign and wished to know the outcome. I hoped it would be positive, but… I really hoped it would be positive.”

“Well, Mon-El wouldn’t have stayed behind without it and he was kinda helpful,” Winn concedes, “and it was a long time ago anyway. Apology accepted, as long as you help set the table.”

“Of course. I will put this back where I found it, but– can I ask something first?”

“Go for it, man.”

“Why do you keep it inside a cabinet and not displayed like the others? When I ran a diagnostic on your personality, it seemed something you would be more likely to brag about.”

Well, he’s not wrong on that. Winn would absolutely love to have it where everyone can see, but he also would love not to have a lawsuit opened against him; the DEO’s non-disclosure agreement is tight. “Can’t really tell people that’s from the future, you know? I mean, the DEO is a secret branch, so. It has to stay hidden along the alien dirt.”

There’s a long minute of silence before comes the flat, disbelieving reply. “You have been to other planets.”

“Hey, don’t give me that look– I so did! No, I’m serious, you can ask Kara and Alex, they were there! We had a transmat portal and J’onn couldn’t go and there was this trafficking ring– it was a whole thing! No, you know what, that’s it. Go put the dirt back on the cabinet and help me set the table, ‘cause you’re about to hear the whole unabridged story.”

Brainy smiles drily, “I cannot wait.”

“Chop chop, come on. It all starts, really, with James going just five more minutes like vigilanting around is suddenly the same as saying screw you to your alarm clock–”

As Winn launches into a retelling of that mission from years ago, the first really, where he felt like an actual DEO agent and not just a glorified IT guy, Brainy takes the plates and silverware passed to him, snorting every time he tries to imitate someone’s voice. Not that he notices beyond a passing, background thought, but outside, the rain is finally letting on.