bakerstreet | winter is a lingering season

Danny exhales a deep breath, trying to decide if the position he landed in was comfortable enough to just remain in for a minute while the stars faded from the corners of his vision.

He tips his head back, peering upside down at Matt when he lands near his head, giving him a lopsided smile just the same. "Oh, yeah, maybe." Because he really couldn't argue it, not that he really agreed because after all that had happened to him already, he didn't suspect a church roof could be the end of him.

It's dusty down here and he jerks with a sneeze, pretty sure nothing was broken because it would be obvious after that. Danny starts to reach his hand up towards Matt to request help up, but that firm frown on his partner's face chances his mind and he moves to roll over and push himself to his feet.

"Well if anyone's lurking around, they're probably gone now." Which was kinda the point, wasn't it?

Edited 2017-01-17 06:20 (UTC)

Matt probably wouldn't helped Danny up.

Probably.

But as Danny moves to push himself up, Matt is busy surveying the church. He takes in the smell of dust and decaying wood, a dampness of the weather seeping through. But it's quiet. Beyond the sound of their breathing, there's nothing else, so Matt is almost certain they're alone.

"I didn't hear anyone run. I don't hear anyone now." Which doesn't mean anything. He's been caught out before, it could happen again. "Are you all right?" he asks, too belatedly.

"They still have a few days before the ownership transfer goes through, maybe the snow storm's keeping them at home." He dusts off casually, still standing under the small hole left in the roof, streaming in moonlight and falling snow.

Danny turns his gaze towards Matt at the question, or at least in the direction he thinks his partner went because except for the new skylight and what little outside light filters through the stained glass, the church is quiet and very dark. "I-- yes." He decides Matt's in no mood to tease, so he just bobs his head instead.

"What do you think? Should we set up shop just in case?"

That just gets a hum. Matt's far into the church - as far as the small church goes. On the outside, and the inside, it's nothing much. But it's location makes it an important pawn in turf wars, so there's no telling what's gone on in it. Or what's still going on.

"Probably." They could be wrong. Maybe the church has already played out its usefulness, but that seems unlikely. Property is always a hot commodity in New York City. "There's no attic," obviously, as Danny's fall proved, "so there's probably a cellar. Somewhere they used for stage. We should check it out."

"Yeah, hang on for a minute, I can't--" He couldn't see, which sounds like a lame excuse to give to a blind man, so he snaps his mouth shut instead, kind of hoping Matt had just wandered in far enough not to really care what Danny's answer would be.

He takes a minute to at least let his eyes adjust to the low light, mapping out the walls and the path between decrepit pews, it was a church so they at least had to have candles somewhere, right? The place hopefully hadn't been completely ransacked.

Oh, don't think Matt doesn't know what Danny was about to say. It actually makes his mouth quirk up, but he's glad Danny can't see it. Let the other man sweat it out a bit more.

Matt's moving by Danny again, figuring the door to the basement is likely behind or near the altar. "Over here. I'll go down first." The dark won't bother him, and he'll know sooner than Danny if someone's lurking down there to strike.

He does his best just the same, careful enough not to trip himself up as he crosses the room, poking around a few places before he finally gives up and summons up enough chi through his fingers to give off enough light for him to see by.

Danny turns just in time to see Matt disappear down near the alter and he moves to follow, squinting down into the darkness before going after him. It's definitely musty down there, but the all old places smell about the same to him.

"This is right about the point in a horror movie where the monster jumps out." He stage whispers, mostly for his own amusement since his friend is apparently in a mood tonight.

"I never saw a horror movie."

The stairs creak under their weight, and Matt reaches back instinctively to help ease Danny down them. He might be in a mood, but he'd like to keep his partner in tact. There's nothing more embarrassing than getting injured from an accident versus a fight.

His head tilts, because there's definitely been some sort of activity down here. Under the dankness, Matt can smell cigarettes, and cheap alcohol. His boot knocks into something heavy and he bends over, almost laughing at the coincidence of finding a flashlight. Almost.

"Either someone left this behind, or they plan on coming back," he says, pressing it into Danny's chest. It's lucky, really. Matt can make out the edges of things, but Danny being able to see them will be a bigger help.

He doesn't say anything, just let's Matt help guide him, trying to adjust to the stretch of pale light, trying to decide if he should exert the energy to extend it before Matt taps the flashlight to his chest.

"Might just be squatters." He thumbs the switch to the flash light, then clicks it off and on for a moment when nothing happens, before giving it a firm shake to rattle the battery around. It works in the movies?

And apparently in real life too, because the next time he flips it, it works, and he quickly sweeps the small room. "Looks like it used to be a wine cellar?" He clears the rest of the stairs down to go poke around. "Table, chairs, open safe." Danny crouches by it. "Empty. News papers on the floor are over two weeks old." He scans the rest of the area, it looked just like a makeshift meeting spot.

"Must be."

He lets Danny take charge, listening to the descriptions. Matt moves to feel along the table and slips off a glove, so his fingers can skim the surface.

"Is there anything important in the papers? Are they open on similar stories, is anything marked?"

"Looks like mostly sports pages, events and scores, couple names circled." He crouches to read them. "Um... horses I think?" He peels up one of the papers, the pages having obviously gotten wet and then dried hard again. "Some writing in the margins but I can't read Russian."

He stands again. "Gambling stash out?"

"Sounds like it."

It makes sense. They wouldn't linger too long in one place, avoiding police and people they might owe money to. Matt puts his glove back on. "I don't think we need to stick around. Let's get out of here."

Danny's already trying to figure out how they're going to get back to that opening in the roof since the doors are all chained from the outside. Not that a door can really hold him, but he doesn't need to add anymore damage to a building that he's probably going to end up secretly footing the bill to restore anyway.

The rafters might hold, but even those seem a little dubious.

"Do you want me to boost you back there?"

In theory, there's got to be a way to get in and out that isn't a hole in the roof. How did the squatters get in? Matt presses his mouth into a line and tries to listen for the sound of wind coming through - but all he hears is the wind howling above the roof.

There's probably a window that's unlocked. Better to go to the roof.

"I'm fine." Because isn't Matt always fine? He steps on a pew and reaches up to the support beams. Finding one that feels more sound than the others, but when he pulls himself up, with the intention of swinging up to get through, it cracks under the pressure and he drops back to his feet.

"Fine. Get over here."

Danny stands, watching him with a hard frown. Secure in the fact that Matt can't hear the frown, so he doesn't have to try so hard to hide it.

When his partner's attempt to scramble back up fail he finally steps over, moving around the debris left behind from his graceful entry, though instead of offering Matt a way up, he reaches to take his hand.

"Hey." he lets his voice soften, running his hand up the thick fabric of the other man's sleeve. "Come on man, you've been like this all night."

Matt's head tilts a little, turned in the direction of Danny's voice. He's glad that the mask covers most of his face, that all Danny can see is the lower half, because expressions are harder to read that way. Or so Matt's been told.

He doesn't want to say that it's hard to try and rebuild things with Danny. They'd had their moments, sure, but it's not the same. Matt is pretty sure that things won't ever quite be the same, and that's his fault, but that doesn't mean he likes to face it.

"It's nothing." Sometimes people just have bad days. Hopefully Danny leaves it at that.

Danny doesn't just let things go though, which is more than half the reason they're still partners despite everything, even though no, it isn't quite the same. No amount of tape or glue in the world was really going to fix what had been broken.

He sets his jaw and peers upward again, at the falling snow and night sky. "Did I do something?" Not that he wants to push, but sometimes it takes a little.

"No." And that's the truth, at least. Danny's never done anything. But this isn't really a good time to say it's not you, it's me.

But the pointlessness of the outing also doesn't make Matt feel that great. He thinks about other things he could be doing, thinks about what made him come out here. The answer, is of course, Danny. Matt realizes he's not really doing anything to help. The worse he is, the bigger that rift between them is going to get.

"I'm not having a good day." Work is pretty shitty right now. At least Matt has that to use as an excuse.

He finally nods slowly, making a soft sound in the back of his throat before he moves to shift his stance and offer his hands out, fingers laced together so Matt has a place to put his boot. He doesn't quite have the strength Luke does for this sort of thing, but he can probably get Matt back to that hole in the roof with little trouble.

All right, then. Matt chalks that up to another loss and that doesn't do anything to improve his mood.

He presses a hand to Danny's shoulder for balance, and, yes, he's heavier but this way he can help Danny up after. Anyway, he doesn't need a big boost. The lift he gets is enough to let him get his grip on the edge of the hole, and, fortunately, it's strong enough that he can pull himself through, messing up the fine layer of snow. Matt turns around to reach down, offering his hand to help pull his partner out.

"I lost a big case," he explains, because Danny likes that, right? He likes when Matt opens up. "I was too arrogant. I can't get it out of my head."

He lingers for a moment, even while Matt waits with his hand down for him, and it's enough of a distance that he has to back up a few steps to give himself some leverage to jump and catch his friend's hand, pulling himself up to grip the rafter so he can bat Matt go and climb up the rest of the way on his own.

"I didn't know you were working on a big case." He finally says, sitting on the edge of the opening where there's a sturdy support beam, not minding in the least that it leaves him sitting in the snow.

"I'm a lawyer. I figured you probably didn't want to hear about it every time I had a new client." Sometimes he tells Danny, especially if it requires a little night work, but for the most part it doesn't seem important.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm pushing for an appeal but who knows how long that can take."

"Aw Matty it does matter, I've had you out with me all week cleaning this up-- you could have been working on your case. I didn't even think." This time he can't hide the frown in his voice.

He shouldn't have pestered him so much to come along. "Sorry man, I got this-- you gotta focus on the important stuff." Like his real life, for one, the one he'd tried so hard to salvage and now Danny was going to ruin it for him all over again.

"It wasn't because of this," Matt says, quick to say it because he can hear it in Danny's voice and regret only suits one of them. "I thought I had it in the bag. They found a loophole that I didn't think they would. That's my fault."

Matt tries to crack a smile. He doesn't want Danny to feel upset. "This is good. It gives me something else to focus on."

He doesn't really believe that humoring smile, but Matt's just as good at pretending as he is, so Danny doesn't say anything about it, just curls his fingers in the snow and lets his legs hang down from the jagged opening in the roof.

"Tell me at least, so I don't distract you." He feels like he asks this too much, always wheedling at Matt to open up to him, to ask him for help or tell him when things were wrong. Though he could always kind of tell Matt was reluctant to do so.

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