(7) Sinless Days: The Wife, The Mimic, And The Memories

--- Julie ---

(Hope Mercer loses a fight to an eldritch tentacle monster…) She grumbled for not the first time since her husband had left her to an extremely awkward conversation with two deeply traumatized and isolated teenagers.

A conversation that while she didn’t go into the… intimate details of, she still managed to explain the broad strokes of how her and Mercer weren’t fighting, lots of people did what they did, but it should only be done between consenting people. And if they ever did things themselves and got uncomfortable they were free to say no, and if someone wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer they were both free to kill and eat the person in question.

That conversation was then followed by several others that had assured her that in spite of the numerous cruelties the girls had been subjected to that hadn’t been one of them. (Thank god and the Pale Lady Mercer prays to.)

Unfortunately, it also informed her that the girls had no idea what puberty was and thought most of those changes were because they were Malcontent while ignoring others because they were so used to pissing blood after a fight. (Which is just all kinds of messed up…)

It was after that last conversation that she decided to take the girls out on a shopping trip to buy the various things they needed but had no idea about. Something that had her reluctantly agreeing with Mercer that this was a thing she needed to take care of. (Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have stayed to have the talk with them…)

“Alright, so Scarlet you’re set with the grunge and punk look, right?” She double checked as the temperamental redhead held up what Julie knew was a knock off of her husband’s jacket. (Which is so cute that I’m going to tease Mercer to no end over this.)

“Uh, I guess?” Scarlet frowned, more in confusion than anything since neither teen seemed to know what different ‘styles’ really meant. “I mean these are comfy, I guess?”

“And the fact that those jeans are already torn at the knee means you won’t have to feel bad if they get torn up more.” She nodded, before turning towards Bell. “And how about you? Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes, um, I like the colors.” Bell nodded, with a faint blush as she pulled at white shirt covered in random splashes of paint. “There, uh, there weren’t a lot of colors in the labs.”

“Ah.” She nodded once more, since she couldn’t really think of anything else to say there. (Really wish I’d seen that coming…) “Well, you can wear as many colors as you want now. A, uh, a new color every day even!”

“I’d like that.” Bell admitted with a small smile but joy filled smile that stood in vast contrast to the face and emotions she’d made at Julie’s first offer of a more gothic attire. (Really thought she’d like how it all went with her shadow clone things.)

“Great, then in that case we can-” She paused, tilting her head just a moment before the front door opened and closed.

“I’m back!” Mercer called from the ground floor.

“-go kick Mercer’s ass now!” She finished with a smile as she started marching down the stairs, knowing that tonight he was going to be the one chained to the bed while- She froze as she saw the sheer amount of hurt her husband was wearing.

“So, how’d your girls’ day go?” Mercer asked, moving in a way that told her he was covered in bruises no matter how many of them were hidden by his jacket and clothes.

“Uh, Julie explained… a bunch of stuff to us and then we went to a store and got a bunch of clothes.” Scarlet answered with a nonchalant shrug, not having known them long enough to tell when her or Mercer were acting off, no matter how big of a fan she was turning into.

“That’s good.” Mercer nodded with a grin that shifted in several ways as his eyes looked the three of them over, before pausing on Bell who now that she looked was giving Mercer a concerned look.

(Huh… someone is perceptive…) She’d have to remember that.

“So, how’d your… thing go?” She asked, just barely holding back a frown as she walked up to her husband.

Mercer made a face halfway between a grimace and a smile. “Could’ve been better, but could’ve been a lot worse too.”

All she could do was frown at that before giving him a quick -since she didn’t want to aggravate his injuries- kiss. “Love you.”

Mercer kissed her forehead. “Love you too.”

Remembering that they had observers, Mercer coughed into his hand as he took a step back. “Now then, since you two are going to be living with us for a while we need to establish a… couple of safety rules.”

“What kind of rules?” Scarlet frowned, her eyes narrowing.

“Too fucking many…” She groaned, remembering just how many rules there were when your superhero husband decided to make your house his base of operations.

Mercer gave her a half-hearted glare before rolling his eyes as she raised a single brow. “Okay, yes there are going to be a lot of them, but we’ll only cover them as they become relevant to keeping everyone here, safe, sane, and happy.”

“Today’s rule, sometimes I’ll be bringing back random junk that’s extremely dangerous to mess with, such as this.” Mercer withdrew a glass jar full of (a cloud with eyes?) from behind his back. “This little guy is a Mist Mimic, if set free he’ll shape shift into someone you know and say horrible things to you that you really should ignore.”

She gave Mercer a look and he mouthed later, while the girls were distracted with the monster in a jar.

(‘Damn right, we’ll be talking later. Even if I have to chain you to the bed.’) Admittedly that was the plan before, (but the point stands.)

Now Mercer gave her a look, having picked up a little more than she’d meant there.

“So this… thing is, uh, it’s like my other-selves then?” Bell asked, looking more than a little concerned.

“Uh, that, uh, that depends on how often they try to claw out your eyes?” Mercer admitted, looking a little concerned himself.

“They… haven’t done that in a while.” Bell frowned, despite looking a little more reassured.

(Okay… going to have to remember that too…)

Before she could inquire any further about this new facet of the girls’ trauma, Scarlet instead cut in with the very good question of, “Why are you bringing this thing here?”

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“It’s bait for another, more dangerous, monster. One that I’m going to have to stop by Betty’s before I track down and pick a fight with it.” Mercer explained, hands on his hips as he resisted wincing at his various injuries.

“Surprised you didn’t go see her before coming here.” She admitted, unable to help the concern bleeding into words because while Mercer usually only bothered the back alley doctor for injuries he couldn’t walk off, (the fact that he’s saying he needs to go see her…)

Mercer shook the jar in his hand, uncaring for either the wellbeing or the glare of the creature trapped within it. “She has a rule against me bringing murderous monsters into the clinic.”

She gave her husband a once over, knowing how often he visited Betty’s clinic. “Since when?”

“Ha!” Mercer exaggerated, before rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean. Only things polite enough to not attack other patients are allowed in her clinic.”

“So… you’re leaving that here while you go to the clinic?” She checked, taking the jar so he could leave if he really had to.

“No, I just need a check up before I pick a fight with a Mist Royal. The worst I have right now is a few bruises.” Mercer assured her as he took the jar back before picking up the tv remote and shifting through their streaming services. “I’m just letting you guys know you shouldn’t open the jar or listen to anything it tells you.”

She couldn’t help but blink when she saw what he was putting on. “And why are you putting My Little Pony on?”

“Because creatures of the Mist are empowered by pain and trauma. Things like friendship will starve it.” Mercer explained with a shake of the jar and a smile. “And I want it to suffer. So it gets kid friendly entertainment until it begs me to kill it.”

“Uh, aren’t there… better shows for that?” She found herself asking in morbid curiosity.

“Maybe, but I wanted something the girls might actually watch since we’ve only got the one TV.” Mercer shrugged.

“Fair enough.” She guessed, seeing that Scarlet and Bell were watching the TV with a level of distraction she’d normally only expect from a four year old. (Then again, given how they were probably raised, the concept of TV probably is new and exciting to them…)

She shook her head, getting back on topic. “Either way, uh, you want to talk about…” She gestured to all of him and then the mimic.

Mercer grimaced, and she knew if she was anyone other than his wife, he’d probably wave her off with a ‘I’m fine’. Instead he waved her to follow him out the front door, where he took a seat on the stoop stairs.

“So… a whole bunch of the mimics were infesting Clockworks theater.” Mercer started as she took a seat next to him. “And you know him, he wanted to watch me make art with them.”

“But I’m guessing it got more complicated than just bloodstains on the wall?” She sighed, taking his hand in hers and removing the gauntlet on it.

“Yeah, I knew they were going to be creatures of the mist, but thanks to the nature of Clockwork’s theater the whole thing basically became flashbacks of some of my… lower moments.” Her beloved admitted, sweeping his fingers between hers.

“Lower like Killian, or lower like…” Feeling the apprehension coming off of him, she was fairly sure she knew what he was talking about.

“First it was my mom… the day she… you know.” Mercer continued, making a gesture where his free hand was laying flat before exploding and waving his fingers at himself.

“Did you get flashbacks of… before?” Because she knew that the before of that was something she never wanted him to relive and she’d torture that mimic herself if that’s what it put Mercer through.

Thankfully he just shook his head. “No, no… though mimic mom tried to kill me and said some bullshit that I know is bullshit, like not even tripping on that… though it did remind me of that aphrodisiac garbage… which I’m a little irked about but that’s whatever.”

“Yeah, whatever…” (I really need to ask her if that stuff is addictive and if not where she got it.)

“Mm, hmm, and uh after that I got into a six v one with the Vigils after Vigilance refused to fight me on that fucking night!” Mercer growled, before taking a calming breath. “Bright side I kicked all of their asses!”

“Was there ever any doubt?” She smiled, holding back her real feelings given how she knew even if he’d do it all again, Mercer still had… complicated feelings about that night. “I’m sure it was cathartic to shoot Vigilance and the other Vigils.” (Wish I could’ve seen you shoot Vigilance at the very least.)

“Little bit.” Her own Vigil nodded as he played with her fingers. “Still opened a bunch of stuff and mixed some other stuff up in my head…”

“You want to talk about that?” She offered, not sure if this was what was causing his underlying distress or something else.

“Mm, maybe later… I want to say kicking everyone’s ass helped me deal with it but… I might just be compartmentalizing given what happened next…” Mercer grimaced as he trailed off.

“What happened next?” She asked cautiously as she gripped her husband’s hand in support.

Mercer let go of her hand and leaned back as he looked up at the darkening sky. “Bedlam… the night I killed him…”

She remembered that night, the night he’d come back to her covered in blood after having ghosted her for months. The night where he broke down and told her everything… (But that’s not what this is about…)

Uncaring about the concrete, Mercer layed back on the ground, his eyes locked onto the porch light above. “When I heard his voice I… I sort of just blanked out and… it, it was like I was right back there completely… Everything I did, just the same… and I killed him again and… I came to the same conclusion again…”

She twisted around and put her upper body on his, her chin to Mercer’s chest. “Fuck Vigilance?”

Mercer gave a small chuckle. “Fuck Vigilance… the world needs heroes, but it also needs monsters to take out even worse monsters.”

“You know you’re not a monster, right?” It was something they talked about from time to time, but it was also something she felt needed reiterating. (‘You may be a sinner, but you’re not a monster.’)

Mercer gave her a small grin as he ran his fingers through her hair. “You know I love you, right?”

“Well you did put a ring on it.” She pointed out, holding her hand up to show off the black band on her finger.

“Yeah… that was an even better conclusion than telling V to go fuck himself.” Her husband agreed, showing off the ring made from her name tattooed onto his finger the same way his was on hers.

“Yeah.” She smiled before admitting that she “Really wished you’d figured that out without having to beat a guy to death with your bare hands… or that you’d proposed while not covered in his blood.”

Mercer gave her a look. “You still said yes.”

“You were covered in blood!” She reminded him.

“Bitch, we both know if you were actually scared you’d have stabbed me in the kidney!” Her asshole argued.

She swatted his chest as she sat up, not caring that he winced. “That’s not the point! What girl wants her boyfriend to propose while covered in the blood of a mass murderer!”

“A Slasher.” Mercer argued with (his stupid logic!) “Or one of the murderer’s victims! Like I know you’re not native to the way, but trust me I could’ve had any woman in the Way while covered in Bedlam’s blood.”

“Bullshit.” She couldn’t help but scoff. “We both know you don’t got the game for that!”

“Hey, I got the best girl in the Way to marry me. I think that means I’ve got plenty of game!” Mercer continued to argue with (his stupid logic~)

She gave him a huff of amusement, if only because of the warmth she felt inside. “Fine, you’ve got some game.”

“Thank you.” Mercer nodded, his smug ass feeling vindicated.

Feeling her own warmth beginning to spread, she straddled him. “Speaking of game, I’ve got one we can play~”

“Oh?” Mercer glanced behind her at the currently empty street. “On the porch?”

“You can zip us to the roof if you’re scared~” She smiled, her hands gently measuring where he was too bruised and where he wasn’t quite bruised enough.

Mercer shifted her as he sat up, his eyes narrow. “Oh, we’re playing this game.”

“Amongst others.” She grinned, still in a certain mood as her hands pulled his shirt from his belt and she felt his breath on her lips just before a series of gunshots tore through the air.

“Motherfuckers!” They both cursed with a growl, knowing that they’d have to put this on pause until whatever this was was settled.

“I am going to kill a bitch.” Mercer confessed as she was forced to get off of him.

Returning to her previous seat she asked if he could, “Double tap them for me, will you?”

“For you anything.” Her husband promised as he started down the stairs, grumbling about how he was going to feed this asshole to the girls before suddenly stopping. “Oh, before I forget!”

Mercer rushed back up the stairs and kissed her with a sudden deepness that stole her breath away before pulling back. “Love you.”

She gave him a quick peck back. “Love you too.”