mitochondriaaya | Entries tagged with new york au

She loved dawn on the ship. It was a quiet moment most days, with the light creeping slowly up over the bay to drip and pool along the waterfront. The nights she couldn't sleep, and the days when she was getting up early to work out in the ship gym with Dilan, well, she tried to sit up at the bow and watch the dawn.

For the past several months they'd been living on the SS Sojourn; one of the few ships to avoid excessive damage from the ultimate being. The captain and crew had been decimated, but that just made room for the Nimitz crew and captain that had lived. They'd swept in like thunder on the poor hulk left in the bay and had her inspected, rushed the command transfer paperwork, then swept into the area where Dilan and Aya had been living in a CDC isolation tent after the incident.

For a belligerent man who'd been reluctant to marry them, well, the captain of the Nimitz was a good man. He had them ushered into 'military protection', blustered free, and installed in their own cabin in the ship before anyone could so much as say no. Granted, his superiors weren't happy and limited the ship to staying in the bay area so scientists could come aboard for study and appraisal but...they had free run of the ship. It was as much freedom as the crew could give them and certainly more than they would have elsewhere.

The entire crew, to a man, signed forms saying hey were willing to live near the potential mutative effects of one Aya Brea and papered the officials who tried to scare them into ejecting the married couple. She loved them more than a little for that.

It was still isolating though. She was kept away from her city, her job, and her life while people puttered and fretted at her. New York was being fixed without her and that hurt. The ship shrink said that was a rather healthy reaction though so she didn't try to hide the moments when she felt it.

At dawn though she could look out over the water to her old stomping grounds. The Statue of Liberty was being rebuilt and naval wrecks were still being dragged away to ship yards but...dawn was quiet.

Except when it wasn't.

"I figure this whole forward deck might hold most the people you'd want to invite," the captain spoke from behind her.

...."Huh?"

"For the wedding ceremony. Dilan said you guys wanted to do it right. What do you think of the deck here? Maybe day before you're off my ship?"

The Nimitz was a reassuring ship. Large, powerful, full of the people she cared about and then some. It made sense as a base of operations, and Aya was grateful for it. It was solid ground in a world gone crazy on her. Reassuring, solid, and firm.

And they wanted her (and Dilan) on board. She knew it was because they might need people who didn't combust but...it was still reassuring. They were taken straight to the galley once they arrived, and the rest of the once-mobile precinct was present, and eating, almost as voraciously as they were.

Pierce met them in the morning with thermoses full of coffee and more MREs. It had snowed in the night so the city was crusted in icy treachery and slush. Aya had slept well, her head on Dilan's thigh when he was meditating and she was sleeping; touch was reassuring. She barely even whimpered in the night in fact.

After eating and quiet murmurs of 'nothing' and 'no burn zones' Aya got her teeth brushed and her clothing changed. "Today we're going to find Klamp," Aya told her partner and Maeda who'd wandered over. "Only thing I can think of.

Danny...got the look of 'why didn't I go wring his neck earlier?'. "Oh yeah, him. Didn't he evacuate with the rest?"

"His office at the museum should tell us for sure," Aya pointed out.

Like ever other Halloween, the crazies had come out for the weekend, so of course she was late. Late getting off shift. Late getting into costume. Late getting to the party to meet Dilan. At least the precinct boys hadn't gotten pictures this time around, or even a chance to heckle.

Braig had helped her with the costume idea this year (NOT french maid), he'd told her that Dilan was going as a professor. Naturally, she decided on a student. The best way to pull that off was with a uniform of some sort...

She had to leave the full length coat with the hatcheck girl, but that was alright. She'd sprung for the real thing, not fetish wear, that meant she wasn't trying to hide a tiny skirt behind her hands. Now she just had to find Dilan...luckily there was a bit of a balcony where she could just stand and watch for a bit.

Aya gripped Dilan's hand tightly and shifted her gaze from the window to him as they came to a slow stop outside Carnegie Hall. She...really wasn't sure about this. His fever had broken just this morning, and sure, it was nice to go out to the Opera. It would make a wonderful, memorable Christmas Eve...

...but she was still getting over just how sick he'd been. She turned his hand over in her lap and slowly traced her fingertips along his palm, not shifting a muscle even as the doorman looked at them hesitantly. "You up for this? I...tonight feels strange Dilan."

Very strange. now that they were here she wasn't exactly sure what was bothering her more, the odd feeling in the air or worry for Dilan's health.

Hell, she'd even forgotten her shawl.

She'd been good. She'd followed the doctors orders to the letter. Well, the 'sleep' part at any rate. Aya had slept for about four days straight, only waking up to eat, taking in a heavy amount of calories. On the fifth day she was awake and looking around their 'safe house', trying to keep herself occupied by talking to Dilan.

By the sixth day. Well. She was walking circuits of the rooms.

She didn't do well with inactivity. She organized the dvd selection. Then reorganized them once she realized they'd already been in an order. She...thought about cleaning. She couldn't clean better than Dilan though. She cooked?

Finally Aya settled on writing out thoughts on cases she was working, though they were on hold until after the court case that had them in hiding.

At least she didn't have her weight sets handy to get in trouble with?

The problem with being a good cop sometimes was that good cops made enemies. A lot of them, if they tried hard enough. And their team? Well, they'd sent a lot of people to jail. Hell, Aya got bonus enemies by working with the vice guys. There was really no telling, day to day, who had gotten out or who had violent friends on the outside...

It was a perfectly normal afternoon at the precinct. Sure, there'd been the usual influx of threatening letters, and someone had broken into Danny's car the week before but really, that was nothing to worry about. They even got off at a decent hour, six o'clock and Aya was following Danny down the precinct steps.

Nope, normal day in mid-June. The only abnormal thing about it was the '93 Chevie Caprice that turned a corner gunned up to double the speed limit as they were crossing the street. Aya had never liked Chevies. It was all so damn fast, neither one one of them really had time to think...only react. Aya was throwing Danny clear, back at the concrete steps, about the time she felt the bumper crack her knee.

Couldn't think about that. Rolling was a good idea right?

Well, she lived.

The medics told her she was as she came to in the hospital. Cracked knee, hip dislocation, several cracked ribs and a glorious concussion. Well, that was fun. Danny was fit to burst with anger, that weird vein throbbing in his temple. Hell, half the words about throwing old men around and playing tag with speeding cars were going right over her little pain killer hazed head. She waited for a halt in the tirade before she interjected "...so...m'not goin to dinner tonight?"

That made Danny blink. Then the yelling started again at a higher volume. The uniform guarding the door was working real hard to pretend he didn't hear the yelling.

It was reassuring to see so many police around! Except they seemed to be...cordoning off the epicenter and that was really where he needed to be. He'd left his phrase book on the plane, and under question from three earnest officers he really couldn't remember the words for 'scientist' and 'biologic disaster zone'. They turned him away at the barricade.

He felt truly bad about one of the young officers catching on fire then, but even bad luck was lucky for him because he truly did need to be there. It was...very easy to sneak past the officers as they tried to douse their companion. Even for him. He was not a sneaky person, really, despite making it out of Japan.

Nor did he have any idea where he was going. The streets weren't laid out properly...

And was that a corpse? Oh...that was not good...though...it looked very unburned.

Okay...not it. Her. Ah, and she was breathing! Good pulse! Just...unconscious. What to do? This wasn't a safe place, no, not at all. He couldn't tell the police of course, they'd send him away. It took him a few minutes of fretting before he decided he should at least get her indoors. She would rest easier on a bed right? Yes, a bed...

Ah, well, the daily exercises certainly came in handy. She was small, well, mostly small, but he'd never carried a person before. It was awkward enough that he found himself apologizing every few steps. No one answered at the first apartment he found. Nor the second.

Oh...perhaps it'd been evacuated?

It seemed so much easier to kick in doors when it was seen on television. Americans made...very sturdy doors.

Eventually he found a door that had no lock. Or...doorknob. A real hovel. It seemed that it was heated with the large trash can in the middle of the first room. Fire. The second room had a bed though. A ratty nest of a thing but still much better than the pavement outdoors. Well...now...he'd wait? If she woke up she might know where he needed to go! After all, she had a gun! That meant an authority figure!

"Can it Mitchell." Aya growled as she lined up her shot "He's got a a hell of a lot going on, but he'll be here. Which is more than I can say for your newest..."

The rookie grimaced and looked away as another ball sunk smoothly. "You're trying to feed him to the fucking sharks, Aya! If he's as smart as you claim he's three states away!"

"He's survived me so far. You guys are nothing." Aya noted, gliding around the table. She was half tempted to hop a ball at her companion for hitting all her own insecurity buttons...

"...ouch." Mitchell held a hand over his heart, wounded "We ain't detectives, sure, but you get enough of us together and we're scary!"

"Like rabid chihuahuas" she agreed. "I advised him to wear stompy boots."

"Give it up Mitchell!" the peanut gallery decided to chime in from the bar "You annoy her and you'll end up hiding under a table like last time!"

"I lost a contact!" the rookie snapped, though he shifted ever so slightly away from the pool table.

"Awwww, you didn't come out until she threatened to come down after you..."

Aya rolled her eyes and sank another shot, still making a smooth round along the table. She wasn't a perfect pool player, but she was better at ignoring the ribbing than her opponent was. "Anyway, I invited him so I could share something important to me. You guys don't get to spoil that."

"Down time? Oh! Leaning over pool tables! Wait, wait, this has the best bar snacks in town..." the suggestions rolled on like the incoming tide. Once started it was hard to stop the guys.

"My precinct, buckos." Aya flashed a feral grin into the sudden silence "Don't embarrass me or I'll break you."

A young Asian woman glided through the crowd of a high end dance club. She was pretty enough with large brown eyes and a fall of black hair that brushed her hips. Not stunning, her make up was too light, to understated for current high end glamor, but she was pretty enough to smile at. She moved like water, skirting the edges of the crowd and nibbling her lip nervously. Obviously she was looking for someone. Someone who was late, judging by how she glanced at the small watch on her wrist.

She was wearing one of the newer fashions in jewelry though. Winking silver ear wraps that kept her hair from sliding into her eyes and gave the illusion of small points to her ears.

Only those who had been to Aya's home would ever recognize how much the contacts and wig made her into her mother. She didn't like the crowding, but they'd had no choice. Their target only came out of his safe house to come here. On Saturday nights. Luckily he tended to claim the upper balcony for himself and his people, which lowered the probability of civilian casualties. She still didn't like it.

None of them did.

Everyone they had to spare was on this job tonight. The two drinks she took from a passing waiter were blue kool-aid. The waiter was Officer Sere. After that she made her way part way up the stairs, channeling that anger and dislike into shy-appearing nervousness as she scanned the crowd below the stairs.

Outwardly, she was the poor, stood up date a little out of her depth in the swirling noise. Inwardly? Well, she was one of the guardians between the target upstairs and the civilians.

Aya winced and set her coffee back on the dash "Hot ow. Hot." She knew sucking in air to cool her tongue was utterly uncool for a hardened detective but damn it...hot! It didn't help that her partner was making the 'I warned you' face at her.

"Add milk and it cools." Danny pointed out helpfully, smugly sipping his own drink.

"Blasphemy." she muttered, peeling the lid off in the hopes it'd cool faster "Besides, you don't add milk. You add creepy soy stuff and whip and something else that sounds like it might have been cream once."

"Hey, I add milk at the counter, once they make the drink. Need my calcium."

"That's just disturbing. I don't know how I put up with you and your rampant coffee abuse..." she sniffed and leaned back in her seat again to view the upper story of the building they were parked near.

"Well, you put up with me because I don't scare easy and I make your life better." Danny noted with a grin "You brought food right? I don't want Ben to yell at me for eating fast food again..."

"Right, introducing a domineering nine year old into my life has made things so much better. I don't know how to thank you!" Aya rolled her eyes and grinned at her partner. "Yeah, back seat."

"Hey, not just a nine year old! What about Dilan huh? You've been on what, three dates now? Four? Somewhere around there. That was all me."

"All you? As I recall he asked, Danny." Aya snorted and poked her partner "But yeah. You want me to say thanks or something?"

"No, I'm good. I'm just going to be smug." Danny noted with a cheerful grin "You know the guys are going to catch on soon."

"Don't remind me." she sighed "Or better, remind me when the time comes for me not to kill them when they corner Dilan."

"Right, no killing spree at the precinct. We're understaffed as is." he shook a finger chidingly at her. "And they don't get to corner him before I do."

"WHAT?!" she sat up quickly to glare at Danny "You do not! Jesus! The last thing I want anyone to do is poke at this until it goes away!"

"Whoa girl. Whoa!" cup holders were great. They let him set his coffee aside so he could make soothing motions in her direction. Now was not the time for an upset cop. Nope. "I'm not going to chase him off! Just ask a few questions, you know, intentions and all..."

"God Danny, there's nothing dark or sinister. His intentions, apparently, are to date me like a normal person okay? Beyond that? He thinks I'm attractive okay? Usual connotations there alright?"

"...what usual connotations? I mean, no one gets to date my partner just to get in her pants okay? That'd be bad for you, and you know it. You get attached and all, so I just want to ask him if he's sticking around or you know..."

"I don't believe we're actually talking about this...we've had four dates! Four! You don't need to play the dad staying home with a shotgun!"

"Hey, four dates, same person, and how many years since you've actually pulled that off?"

"It's not serious, Danny. It's just nice. Really fucking nice okay? He's a good person and he makes me happy alright?"

"...damn." Not serious his ass. "I'm not going to chase him off. I like you happy." he sighed. "I just worry and someone should talk to him alright? Better me than Ben, or the boys."

"Yeah yeah yeah..." her coffee wasn't quite cool enough to drink, but careful sipping was alright. "Anybody scares him I'm going to put them through a wall." she grumbled.

"Well, yeah. You're good at that." Danny patted her shoulder and picked up his own coffee "But damn, told you so." he snickered.

"You are an ass Danny. You know that right?" she stuck her tongue out her partner, then jerked her head around as a door opened. "Well, it's been fun..."

"Yeah yeah yeah." he laughed, switching on the sirens as their suspect walked past.

It was Thursday. Thursday of the first week of summer (as far as public school was concerned), so Ben had shown up at her house at nine. An hour poking through recipes and the dynamic duo had blitzed the local market for things they didn't have. They were snuggly back in Aya's apartment before eleven.

Ben's role was simple. He tended to cut up veggies for each dish as she needed them, then wander off to play a few games. Aya would wander over to join him while things cooked. It was a comfortable, routine Thursday.

Except this Thursday had Aya excited, and worried, and numerous other bubbly emotions that kept her from settling down too well. "Relax, Aya." the nine year old flopped over the back of the couch grinned "You're just cooking, it's not like it's romantic or anything!"

Aya laughed and tossed a spoon at the boy. Which of course had Ben ducking back behind the cover of the cushions and starting in on the "Aya and Dil-an sittin in a tree..."

"I'm going to give you so much hell when you start dating, Ben." Aya promised, setting aside what she'd been working on to pick up a throw pillow and smack Ben.

Pillow fights were entirely optional on Thursdays.

Threads
Dilan and Aya meet. Complete

Lunch meeting. Complete

Phone calls for follow up dating. Complete

Initial physical and dinner. Complete

Skating in the park. Complete

Aya meets Cat. Complete

Dilan meets Ben. Complete

Dilan runs into undercover Aya. Complete

Bar night with the boys. Complete

Babysitting Cat. In Progress

Halloween! Complete

Policemen's Ball Complete

Dilan gets sick Complete

Aya is in the hospital. Complete

Post injury. Complete

Dilan and HERBS. Complete

Parasite Eve canon

The Opera: Eve's emergence. Complete

The Press Conference Complete

Klamp interview and OMG BEN AT PARK. Event ficlette

Enter Maeda! Complete

Ficlettes

Danny and Aya kinda talk about Dilan.

Wanted

Aya meets The Girls.

Dilan picks Aya up from the gym. Once. Only once.

Movie night with the detectives.

Hair washing!

Dilan volunteers at the precinct.

Pierce and Dilan...ummm. Yeah. Unhappy geek.

Braig handcuffed to a stair railing.

Xehanort and Aya meet.

An actual dress ball. O_o

Aya's cover is blown.

A fight.

Aya offers future job options to make up?

Some kind of social event on Dilan's end?

Chat about project EVE from the sixties.

Pierce, Dilan, and Aya go see Pierce's mom.

PE Canon
~Flaming opera: Combustion and alligator bits.
~Day at the park: Melting people and a lost Aya.
~Maeda: Ducktape.
~Assault on the Precinct: . . .
~Hospital run: creepy hospital shit, near death for Aya involving a jet plane and jumping off a roof.
~Museum: EVE is pregnant. Klamp tries to kill Aya, the boys get to step in on that.
~Military ops: Failed missile run, Aya with a jet plane, the EVE battle, the Ultimate Being battle. Complete with Dilan knocking out Danny, jumping out of a helicopter, and Aya blowing up a cruiser.

Dilan gets Aya away from NY to rest. (Assorted threads?)

Aya's transfer to FBI, she is brought in by Eric Baldwin to the newly formed MIST unit after some tricky, near-blackmail by Eric. Pierce tranfers himself.

Pierce continues follow up on EVE project and gives Dilan a call about files behind the Ansem firewalls.

Pierce gives Dilan another call about Aya coming to arrest Xehanort.

Dilan goes to jail! (assorted threads)
-Dilan gets shivved

MIST HQ relocates to L.A.

PE 2 Canon
~Controlled mitochondrial testing in a highrise mall is interrupted by Aya.
~Fuse and Aya get sent off to the dessert, contact is lost.
~Near abandoned town is attacked by an engineered mitochondrial.
~Neo-Ark is found
~Aya comes back to town, possibly to meet Pierce and Dilan?
~Clone in Neo-Ark is found, as well as information implicated A LOT of high ranking people.
~Satellite strike self-destruct sequence!
~Strings are pulled somewhere and the army steps in to help cleaning out what's left of Neo-Ark.

The pregnancy issue. And marriage stuff.

Marriage!