"Judgment": A Dishonored Fanfic

Chapter 5

At precisely 9am, Elaine headed to the dungeon, armed with notebooks both hers and not hers.
Today's mission; to start work on making solid notes about the dead rats and hopefully, the dead weepers as well.
A couple of large wooden tables had been added to the top end of the long, quite narrow room, one for instruments and writing while the other was for autopsy. She set down her books and pencils on the right-most table, arranging them to her liking and adding a wooden chair from a corner, then pulled a clothes peg out of her pocket to clamp onto her nose.
There. All is ready. Let us begin.
After she'd said goodbye to Corvo and Daud last night, she'd spent a little time leafing through some of Galvani's notes on the dead specimens he'd studied and inserting small slips of paper into areas that she would need for today. She went back through them now, making an abridged version, then strode to the first cell of the bunch and donned a pair of soft leather gloves.
Already, her skin did that familiar crawl she'd had a few times over the years, always surfacing right before she was going to do something moderately disgusting.
Stop being such a ninny, she thought to herself. They're dead.
They're stone dead and you're being a fucking idiot.
With determination, she grasped the least bloated specimen out of the four, locked the cell behind her, and set it down gently onto the other wooden table. That gesture was not borne of nerves, she didn't want it to burst like a balloon.
As she was about to pick up her ruler, a knock came at the door and ashamedly, she jumped a little.
"...who is it?" She called.
"It's me, Corvo." He replied. "Can I come in?"
"Yes, but you'll need a mask."
He entered, closing the door behind himself, and walked over to the table. "One step ahead of you there." A white cloth half-mask hid his smile to her. "Samuel found these in storage, handy for painting boats as well as this."
"Does it work?"
"Well enough, yes. Almost all of it."
"Hm. I'll have to get some of those then."
"He's looking for more as we speak. Did you sleep okay?"
"I was a little restless, but yeah, I got a bit. How about you two? I hope he wasn't difficult."
"Far less than expected. He wasn't quite as drunk as we'd first thought either, so we both got a good few hours, I think."
She smiled. "I'm glad. Hopefully he'll have learnt his lesson."
"Doubt it. Give it another year or two." He then cast his eyes onto the second table, the tray of shiny steel instruments, and one of the dead rats. "How goes it?"
"Only just started a bit back. I've made a few notes. Just need to do a few measurements, then I can begin properly."
"...measurements?"
"His notes state that in general, plague rats are quite a bit larger than their non-plagued brothers. He wrote down a sample of regular rat sizes, but I just want to check the plague ones so that I know for myself."
"I see. I guess it's cautious to not trust everything he's done."
"If he had become obsessed over the plague itself, some of his notes could easily be embellished without him realising. I can't base accurate research on that. It's got to be done right."
"Admirable. Do you need any help with anything?"
"No, I reckon that I'm-"
Another knock at the door interrupted her.
"It's me." Another voice said. An unmistakable one.
Corvo sighed. "Come on in."
Daud came into the room, also wearing a painter's mask. "Good old Sam does it again." He smiled, walking towards them. "So, I felt honour-bound to..." He saw the clothes peg, and laughed.
"Thanks." Elaine said sarcastically.
"I was right. God, you look like a prat. Maybe you should just stay like that, huh? Peggy?"
Elaine snatched the small box of masks from him. "Fuck off. And thank you, in that order." She held her breath as she swapped her wooden peg for a mask, and tentatively sniffed a few times. "You're right." She said to Corvo. "Excellent. Thanks."
"Charming." Daud said with a mock-wounded tone.
"I thanked you too."
"Yeah, you did, heh. Ready to butcher the little bastards yet?"
"Just measuring one first." She paused. "While you're here...I'm sure it's not escaped your attention that our living guests haven't woken up yet."
"...y'know, you're quite right. I thought I was missing somethin'. It's not a proper experiment without delightful slobbering noises for background music."
"Very funny. Are you sure you didn't kill them?"
"I bet I know why." Corvo said. "They both took two sleep darts instead of one- we didn't want to take the risk of missing. So, I guess they'll be out for a while longer."
"Okay then, thought I'd ask."
Daud walked over to each cell and looked at all the living bodies. "Chests are rising and falling." He reported. "All's well."
"I'm glad for that."
"I fucking am, too. Not doin' that shit again." He went back over to his two friends. "Did you tell her about the idea yet?"
"What idea?" Elaine asked.
"Guess not." Daud grinned. "We both wondered about a couple of things, actually."
"The first was getting you a sample of the two elixirs in case you wanted to research their properties," Corvo said, "and the second was for us two to drop by the Academy to see if they've got any notes as well. Very reliable source if they do."
He'd taken the decision to tell Elaine about the ideas before Daud could, just in case Daud had decided to add a third of his own.
Elaine pondered. "Hmm...they're good ideas. Some small thing in either of those elixirs might be a cure or deterrent, that could be made more effective if concentrated. And the Academy? Yeah. Their work won't be inflated, unlike Luigi's. I'm assuming that people there are very scholarly?"
"Sure are." Daud said. "Real boring, tedious types."
"Any notes they've made might well have a different take on the situation. Might provide extra perspective- if you're willing to go, of course. You don't have to."
"We've already talked about it," Corvo told her, "and we're more than game. Emily has also offered to read through some of the book collection for you- she's very thorough, despite her age and how avidly she grumbles about reading such things."
Elaine was touched. "I...okay. Thank you."
"The grounds of the Academy are teeming with people until about 7pm, so we will set out then. Shouldn't take long."
"Make sure you take lots of breaks." Daud told her then. "Other brainboxes do loads of that apparently, it's in the job description. Don't want you to fall over from hunger or anythin', okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I'll...definitely take breaks. Thanks."
"There's some lunch going at one. If you're not there, I'll be forced to drag you there." Daud then left the area, to do who-knew-what, and Elaine walked to the other side of the door with Corvo not long afterwards.
"Don't take this the wrong way," Elaine said after they'd removed their masks, "but you're both being...incredibly nice. Even him. Is something the matter?"
Corvo chuckled. "Not at all. You'll remember that yesterday, we did offer to try and assist you?"
"Yeah, you did. I'm fine, though. Honestly."
"You said that too. But, we all still want to do what we can, to try and make this unpleasant stuff a bit easier or faster for you, used to it or not. To tell you the truth, Emily's offer even shocked me. She's not fond of anything that remotely looks like studying, but she came straight out with it. We all care."
"Not just you?"
He smiled. "...not just me."
"Well, I...don't know what to say, other than thank you. Is this still because of the mission yesterday?"
"Possibly, there might be...a little bit of that behind all of our plans, I have to admit. I know, you'll say as we have. It's part and parcel. But still, you've risked a fair bit. So, we owe you."
She laughed quietly. "You don't owe me anything, but since you're insisting, then do whatever you think best."
A silence arose between them.
"Is there...anything else we've not covered?" Corvo asked.
To her eyes, his held a certain sort of look within them. A slight smile touched her. "Well...maybe."
He took a step closer. "Does it require all of us?"
"No, it's not that complex. Only needs you."
"I just so happen to have a minute or two to spare." He took hold of her right hand and rubbed it with his thumb gently, then pulled her closer to him, now a few inches apart.
As before, she could feel her heart start to beat a little faster, knowing what was coming, so she decided to be a tad bold.
By nature, she was not entirely a shrinking violet. So with only the merest hint of a tremor, she raised her right hand and stroked the left side of Corvo's face.
He instantly smiled, grateful for her acceptance, and was glad to be able to kiss her again. He soon did so.
Being with her was like a breath of fresh air to him.
So different. So much more like what he was after. She filled in the gap that was otherwise missing, the thing that he had failed to secure for himself and hold onto.
The thing that he'd thought he'd once had, but could not keep, and was then cruelly taken away from him altogether.
He now knew where it really lay. With Elaine.
Her hands moved to cradle the back of his head as he moved from her lips to her left ear with a breath, then to the slim arch of neck that lay just below it. While a need did start to grow within him, this time it didn't start out like a tidal wave of molten lava. It probably would turn into that after some time, but at that moment it was unrushed. More like a glowing warmth, or the faintest stir of water on top of a calm lake. As his arms encircled her back, he found that comparison intriguing.
He was determined to not rush it too much.
This, was completely, entirely different.
Once his kisses had finally reached the area where her neck joined to the start of her shoulder, he looked at her once more and lay his forehead lightly against hers. She took his face between her hands, now not shaking at all, and he recognised the expression that was infused in hers. She needed, quite simply.
He needed too, and guessed that she could see it.
She then felt the need to say something. "I..." She became unsure of exactly what to say to him, though, so she stopped.
"I don't want to rush you." He said.
"No, you're not, I just...don't know what to say."
"Is it maybe because of him?"
Actually, it hadn't been, but when Corvo brought that up, it crept into Elaine's mind and remained close to the front of her thoughts. "Partly." She said. "A bit."
"I've spoken to him about that, too. Earlier. He's fine with it. There's no resentment there, quite the opposite. But, I do think that it might be best if you and I talk about it properly before you make any kind of decision. Whenever you're able to."
"...that seems wise." She agreed. "I don't mind talking later tonight, if you want. Would, er...get it out of the way?"
He smiled. "It would, yes. If you're sure."
"Yeah. I think you're right on this. Then after that, I can properly look at things, if that makes sense."
Caution. Understandable. "Of course." He said instantly. "I guess that I'd better let you get back to your studies."
"You could...unless you've got another minute to spare?"
He smiled. "Yes. I believe I do."