seaoftroubles | Season four preplay: Lay Me Down

1. Duke gets a call from Nathan to say "Duke get your ass back here Wade's activated." -- Also feat. Lucifer and Octavia

2. Duke, Octavia, and Lucifer arrive in Haven, find out only [wild handwaving because Haven is terrible at timelines] number of days has passed even though it's been months for them. Jennifer says she's settling in okay on the Sanguine Moon and is applying for a job at the Haven Herald. Duke is all "uhhhhh. . . . 'kay, that's a choice that I support I guess". Jennifer is adorkably awkward about being nervous for the interview. Wade arrives at the Gull to grab cleaning products and is cagey about the reasons. "Soda spilled in my car." He claims that he understand the trouble is terrible and isn't going to let it take over. Duke tries to talk him through it, but Wade just shoves him off and promises to head out of town. Duke tries to pretend he believes that this trip might be an easy one. Also there is a day-time drunk sleeping on the bench outside the Gull. FOR PLOT REASONS.

3. Later that day, Dwight comes by the marina to tell Duke that the drunk died mysteriously at the police station. Duke remembers Freddie, the drunk, was into watching bear documentaries at the Gull. Dwight asks about Jordan, wonders aloud if Wade's involved. Duke says no way. -- Lucifer and Octavia are welcome to join in or not

4. Duke dreams about trying to talk to Wade about their trouble and getting attacked when he gets a papercut. Wakes up when dream!Wade slashes him with a knife to discover GIANT KNIFE WOUND ON HIS ARM! Octavia has her own injurious dream. Lucifer freaks out/fusses over them.

5. Lucifer tries to insure Duke and Octavia stay awake. Audrey decides to compare Nathan and Duke's activities the day before since they both got hit by the trouble and survived. They make the connection to the Herald and call Dwight -- too late, he gets shot in a dream. We can also have Nathan fill the OT3 in on the non-dream murders at the same time.

6. Duke takes advantage of Dwight being sedated in the hospital to check what he's looking into, finds info on the murder with the broken knife. Puts two and two together and figures out it's Wade. This can happen off screen. He and Lucifer (and maybe Octavia?) head to the local boat rental he knows Wade used and gets access to the boat he used. He follows the GPS along the coast and finds Wade's dumping grounds, including Jordan's remains.

7. While Audrey and Nathan defuse the trouble, Duke, Lucifer, and Octavia go after Wade, stop him from offing a guy at a local bar. Wade goes all high and mighty, Duke yells at him. Wade tries to pull the "brothers" card to keep from being turned in. "You killed all those people, Wade. That's on me now, too." Wade threatens to expose Lexie's secret so the Guard tries to make Audrey kill Nathan. Lucifer knocks Wade out so they can lock him up on the Sanguine Moon.

8. Octavia guards Wade on the Moon while Lucifer and Duke try to figure out where to stick him and arrange their travel back to Fandom. Wade escapes and he and Octavia fight. Octavia is winning until Wade manages to draw blood and gets the upper hand. Enter Duke and Lucifer. Lucifer goes to Octavia to try to staunch her bleeding while Duke takes on Wade? (Since Duke can't interact with Octavia's blood and all. Maybe Wade managed to open her dream wound and it's worse than just a little cut.) Wade throws himself on Duke's knife and dies. The Crocker trouble dies too.

9. Duke wraps Wade's body in a tarp. When Duke reaches for Octavia's wound, she flinches back. Duke internalizes the SHIT out of that even though it's a natural move if they've been used to trying to keep their blood off him. Lucifer suggests they clear out, Duke agrees, so long as he can bury Wade first. He asks them not to tell anyone about the murder. Luce and Tavi are probably like "whatever, we don't want to talk to any of these people anyway."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke let himself be maneuvered without saying anything. His whole body was tense, his hand still shaking. He closed it into a fist, tucking the bloody tip of his finger away.

"He's dead," he said. Blankly.

Pointlessly.

From:

okteiviakom

"Yeah," Octavia breathed.

Also pointlessly.

She was still frozen in place.

From:

my_own_advocate

"I didn't want this," Lucifer said helplessly.

Like it had somehow been up to him at any point.

He didn't loosen his grip on Duke.

From:

betterthanaplan

He did, Duke thought, staring down at his brother's face. He opened his hand again.

The blood was still there. Smeared a bit. Drying.

It was over.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia felt like she was seeing it for the first time.

She blinked. "Is that --" It was. "Oh."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Oh?" Lucifer said, sounding a little panicked.

Why were they oh-ing? Why was Duke staring at his hand like that? Had he gotten cut or was that--

"Oh."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke expected a laugh. That was what he did, after all, smiled and laughed even when things were bad. It should have been bubbling up in his throat.

His throat was empty though. He was empty.

“It’s over,” he said. Voice empty too. “It’s all over.”

From:

okteiviakom

"Your trouble's gone," Octavia muttered, at a loss for anything she really, truly wanted to say.

From:

my_own_advocate

Duke's trouble was gone. And yet. The circumstances.

"Your brother..." Lucifer whispered, as if his heart had broken a little bit.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke looked at Wade’s impossibly still face again.

“We should cover him. Bury him. Then — I guess we go home.”

He was done. Haven had no more use for him.

From:

okteiviakom

"If that's what you want," Octavia said, but it was hardly louder than a whisper.

She would be furious with Haven again, later. Right now, she was... a little numb.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Of course," Lucifer said, with a small nod. "I-- of course."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke slowly pulled away from Lucifer so he could get a tarp. He stopped when he saw Octavia.

“Your arm.”

He reached for her, wanting to check her wound. (He never should have left her alone with Wade. Then she wouldn’t be hurt and Wade wouldn’t be —)

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia flinched away from his reaching hand.

Pure reflex.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer rose to his feet just in time to watch that exchange.

He had no idea what to do with it.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke’s hand froze in the air, then he slowly pulled it back.

Well. At least he didn’t feel empty anymore.

He moved carefully around her instead to get the tarp.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia didn't even manage to put two and two together, there, at least not just yet. Her attention was pulled back down to her arm, blood still slowly seeping from the wound.

"I -- I need to bandage this up."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's eyes flicked from one to the other and back again. "I'll... get the bandages," he said.

But as he moved, he took a deliberate moment to reach out for Duke's shoulder as he tried to pass by.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke would appreciate that gesture later. For now . . . Lucifer wasn’t the one Duke regularly worried about pulling away.

He shoved all of that back and down, though. There was a problem (a body, Wade’s body, he’d just killed his own brother) to deal with right now.

He pulled a tarp from a cabinet and carefully dodged around Octavia and Lucifer again as he went to wrap Wade up in it.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia...

Octavia wanted so badly to help because he shouldn't have been doing that by himself, but couldn't. "I'll find some myself," she told Lucifer, instead. "Help him."

Those last two words were barely more than a whisper.

From:

my_own_advocate

In some ways Lucifer felt like he was always trying to make up for the way Octavia pulled back from Duke. There was something about the way it never worked that made him feel, well--

Never mind.

"I," he managed, looking up at Octavia's eyes. "I'm going to need you for that, too."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke knew, distantly, that they were saying something about him. He couldn’t really worry about that right now. There was Wade. He needed to buried. Somewhere Dwight wouldn’t find him. Wade had fucked up because Duke fucked up; he didn’t deserve Dwight’s . . . revenge? Justice?

Or Nathan’s or Audrey’s.

“We can’t let anyone know about this,” he said aloud. At least half to himself.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia had just enough time to give Lucifer a dumbfounded look - what was he on about, how did he need her help for helping Duke with the tarp? - before Duke spoke again and her attention snapped back to him.

"Okay," she said, nodding.

Guess Wade had been bound to go missing sooner or later, anyway. One way or another.

(But she didn't want to say that.)

From:

my_own_advocate

Because Duke always needed her. Especially whenever she pulled away.

"Right," Lucifer said, and scurried after Duke, trying to compartmentalize the sense that he was the spare away so he could actually be useful.

He sank to his knees and reached out to help with the tarp.

From:

betterthanaplan

“Careful,” Duke said, inanely. Like anything they did would hurt Wade now. “I got it. He deserves —“

What? He’d killed people. Hurt Octavia. He wouldn’t have stopped.

Duke started to miss the numb feeling.

“I got it,” he said again, softly.

He could at least treat his brother right, now. Even if it was too little, too late.