ways_infirmary | (no subject)

Charlie knows where to find him.

It's taken some doing to work up his courage to look for him, though.

He raps lightly on the infirmary door. "Kevin? Got a minute?"

Kevin glances up, startled... but then, he probably shouldn't be surprised that Charlie's the one to come looking.

"Charlie. Of course, come in."

CHarlie puls over a chair and sits near Kevin, and looks around the infirmary, nodding. "I've not spent much time in here. Doctor--um, the young one, Guppy--had a look at my bullet wound a few months back, but . . . yeah. Never spent much time in here."

"Well, that's probably a good thing." He raises his eyebrows at the casual mention of... "Bullet wound?"

Charlie lifts his hair from his forehead to show a healing slash. "Boobytrap."

Kevin leans over to study it briefly.

"Looks to be healing well. On your island?"

"Yeah. My friend Sayid gave me a field whatist--cauterized it with gunpowder."

Kevin winces.

"You do what you can, I guess."

"We have our primitive ways."

He fidgets.

"So Darien's been hiding in our room for the last couple days."

"...ah. I thought he might be, when I didn't see him."

Of course, Kevin hasn't been out in the main bar for longer than to get between the infirmary and his room.

"And he didn't tell me exactly what happened but I understand there was an argument involved, and the words 'fuckup' and 'my brother is never going to speak to me again.'

"So. What happened?"

He looks up sharply.

"He said...? Oh, for... He never listens."

He's frustrated.

"Well, I'm listening, so tell me."

"It's... complicated. And goes back something like twenty years." Beat. "Did he ever tell you about Liz?"

"He's mentioned her a few times. She's the one who taught him to be a thief, yeah?"

"Yeah. And then she cut him loose when he wasn't good enough for her."

Kevin's hated her for twenty years.

"Okay," he prompts. "And . . ."

"And on his last trip home, she came back."

"And this has to do with you fighting how?"

"That's what I'm trying to explain, Charlie. It started when he told me about that. Do you even know how much danger he put himself in, agreeing to work with her again?"

"No--I didn't know he'd agreed to work for her again." He sighs. "Darien doesn't tell me a lot, to be honest. He doesn't want to worry me--of course, the less I know the more I worry."

"He says it was only once. A last job for her retirement. But he also still insists he's a thief, and... Charlie, he has to stay in line while he's working for the Agency."

"Fucking fascists," Charlie mutters, looking away. "A man's job defines him--Darien's not happy with being an agent, of course he still thinks of himself as a thief. But as far as I know he hasn't done anything lately."

"I don't know if he actually went through with the job with Liz. But... please keep an eye on him as far as you can, Charlie. If he gets in more trouble than they think he's worth..."

Charlie gives him a dark look. He's lived through four years that Kevin didn't--his opinion of most government entities has only gotten lower.

"I won't let them."