(no subject)

[tibetanmethod]

Seven forty-five in the morning, when Moiraine Sedai comes to Twin Peaks, and the very first thing Dale Cooper does is drive her to the Bookhouse, funny sound in his engine be damned. Once she's safely asleep in the back room, under the guard of one of the boys, Cooper calls the sheriff's station and tells Lucy that they'll need to get somebody else to make the donut run, and he needs to see Harry, immediately.

Hours pass. Cooper conferences, explains what he knows, tells Harry and Hawk what they'll need.

The small bed is behind a wall dividing the back room into two sections. Cooper sits on the other side of that wall with a book and a cup of coffee to hand. He's begun to get his concentration back; he hasn't had to restart a chapter in several hours.

Comments

[tibetanmethod]

"Harry..."

For a moment Cooper seems to be struggling for words.

"She's lost everything. If she returns to her world, every sacrifice she's made will be undone. Any changes she will have made, any chance for her world not to be destroyed... gone. She can never go back. Ever. What would you do?"

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Harry is a small-town man; never spent any appreciable time outside of Twin Peaks. What Cooper's talking about--not just the town but the whole world--is bigger than he can even comprehend.

When he'd lost just one piece of his life, he'd skated perilously close to the dark, deep waters of despair. Cooper, too, in his own way. Hollowing out, after Annie left. But--

"I don't know, Coop. But it's better to be alive than dead. Maybe not always--" And Lord, that's one grisly lesson the last few months have taught them, isn't it? "--but nearly always. So long as there's still hope."

[tibetanmethod]

"And whether or not there is any is a question I can't answer yet. And maybe not at all."

Cooper casts a glance with overtones of brooding toward the closed door to the back room.

"I don't know, Harry. This -- wasn't something I'd expected."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Cooper didn't always react to the unexpected with fear.

"I think that's a question she has to answer, Coop," Harry says gently.

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper nods. "I don't know that she will." A small, forced smile. "Is the only thing."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"To you or to herself?"

[tibetanmethod]

"To me or anyone else."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"I don't know her as well as you, Coop," Harry says. "But she didn't strike me as a woman with much quit in her. I think if she can't find hope she'll make her own."

"Heck, think about Clarice. She had to start over again in a new world, too. You were worried about her. But she's doing just fine for herself these days." He's not sure if it's a mistake to bring it up--schedules and distance have done a number on what he thought he might have seen between Coop and Clarice once. But what's said is said.

"I know you tend to see the worst case scenarios, Coop. And I know the last year has done a lot to bear out that way of looking at things. But isn't it just possible that Moiraine coming back from almost certain death is a good thing?"

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper takes a sip of coffee (and appears to enjoy it very much).

"Of course you're right, Harry." His eyes are on a copy of Travels With Charley on a tall shelf. "And there's no guarantee she'll stay in Twin Peaks for any real length of time. She'll probably want to go back to Milliways once she's feeling more herself."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"Sure," Harry says. "No shortage of things to do and places to go around there, either."

It strikes Harry that these are the same platitudes and false cheer you hear around sickbeds. Be on your feet in no time, pal. You'll lick this thing.

He sighs. "I better get back to the station, Coop. I'll give you a squawk if we manage to find her a place by the end of the day, all right?"

[tibetanmethod]

"Sounds good, Harry. And -- " He looks at the suitcase. "Thank you. For all of this. It's quite a thing to spring on you."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"Small-town living, Coop. Somebody's always springing something." He chuckles wryly.

"You've pitched in for this town plenty. I don't think we need to keep score anymore."

[tibetanmethod]

Whether or not they need to --

Cooper keeps score. It's a bad habit; he's always behind.

"I'll keep Lucy aware of any developments. Should there be any."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Only the way Cooper counts. "No news is good news, right?"

Harry likes a good cliche. They make a good fallback position.

[tibetanmethod]

"That's the idea," Cooper agrees. "Thanks, Harry."