Secrets yay! - Marina, Percy

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

Marina knew that she had to get to Percy before Giles did, or there would be hell to pay. So even while arguing with Giles, she was dialing Percy's number with her other hand. But instead of him picking up it went to his stupid pre-recorded message and Marina swore, pacing her room and waiting for the beep.

"Hi, it's Marina," she said when it went though. "Look, we really need to talk and I hope that the reason this went to voicemail isn't because you're on the phone with Giles right now. Please, just call me back? There's things I need to talk to you about and I need to do it before Giles does because he'll do it bad and there's no way I'll come off looking... god, I don't know, just... call me?"

She hung up and pushed her fingers through her hair, glaring at the computer screen where Giles' words burned.

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[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Percy had been working out on his treadmill and when the phone rang he had been in the shower. He stepped out, naked save for the towel around his hair, and he found the answering machine flashing at him.

The message worried him and immediately he picked up his phone and dialled Marina's number. When she picked up, he spoke quickly, "Jesus, Marina. What's wrong?"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

When Percy called back Marina was in her car and she picked up with one hand, the other on the wheel. "I'm sorry," she said, "I'm not trying to freak you out. I just... we really need to talk. Me and Giles have been arguing half the night and....arugh! He's so infuriating!"

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"O-okay," he said, one hand raised even though she wasn't in the room. "Okay, I'm not freaked out. As long as no one is dying, I'm not freaked out. We can talk, do you want to meet somewhere."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"No one's dying, I promise," Marina said, turning the car. "Let's meet at your place. I'm in the car and about two minutes away. You're there, right?"

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"Oh shit!" Percy hissed when she mentioned she was two minutes away. He dashed towards his bedroom to find clothes. "Er. I mean yes I;m here I'm just...I need to find clothes. I was taking a shower and- why can't I find any trousers! I live here!"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"Uh," Marina said, frowning at the sounds on the other end of the phone, "well, I'm not there yet so... you're okay. I'll talk to you in a minute."

She hung up to let him continue his hunt for trousers, and finished making her way to his place. Once there she knocked on the door, silently rehearsing how she was going to start this.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Percy hadn't even realised she had gone at first since he was muttering about pants and frantically searching for clean clothes of any sort. Eventually he realised he was ranting to no one and hung up the phone, which magically seemed to make clean clothes appear as if from nowhere. Weird.

By the time she knocked, he was dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, though he was barefoot and his hair was still wet. "Hi," he said, pulling the door open a little frantically. "Clothed, tada! Is this a beer conversation?"

giving myself to midnight!

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"Maybe for you," Marina told him as she came inside, "but I need to be sober. You might want to be too, actually." She came in and sat down on the couch and waited for him to join her.

NAUGHTY BUT YAYS

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"Uh. Okay," he said, closing he door and then loping into the living room after her. He sat in a chair opposite her and raised a pale eyebrow skyward. "I'm ready. What's going on? What is my brother doing now?"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"He threatened to tell you the truth about me," Marina said, "and if you have to hear it all, then I don't want it to come from him."

She sighed. "So... okay. My real name isn't Marina Rhodes. My name is Sanclara Etti and I was raised in Haiti. It wasn't a great place to grow up - there's a lot of corruption and crime and death. The government... they don't help people, they only hurt them. When I was fifteen I joined a resistance movement, you could call it. They trained me, they taught me. We weren't professionals but... we did what we had to do to make things better and a lot of the time... that involved violence. I learned how to fire a gun, how to wield a knife, how to wire up a bomb, how to incapacitate someone, how to kill them if I had to. I hurt people. Sometimes because I had to, sometimes because they were bad people, but sometimes there were just innocent people caught in the crossfire. But it was war and I'm not proud."

She looked carefully at Percy, wondering if she should go right on or give him a moment.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

As she was talking, his mobile phone started going off and Percy just knew it was Giles. He picked it up and rejected the call before turning back to Marina because this was deep stuff.

"O-okay. So this is the stuff you were alluding to the other day? And Giles knows about this and for some reason he wants to hold it over your head?"

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

Marina nodded. "There's more," Marina said. "Things that happened here, with Giles, and the man who died." She sat forward on the couch, hands clasped so hard in front of her that they went pale. "One of the other men in the group, his name was Stecher. He was a gun runner and that was useful to us, but he was working both sides. Something must have happened he had to prove himself for, because he handed my mother over to the military. My mother wasn't even involved," Marina said with a shake of her head. "She always wanted me to keep my head down and stay out of all of it. But Stecher turned her in and I never saw her again."

She took a steadying breath. "So me and this other guy, Deacon, we found out how to take this money Stecher had been stealing and we decided to take it and get out of the country. It was a lot of money. Me and Deacon, we went to Miami and he said he'd get rid of the money, try and give it back to groups that might actually help Haiti. And we split up and planned to never see each other again. Then," she added quickly, "I came here and I made a new life away from all that and it all went smooth for a long time. Then Stecher showed up, right there in the dressing room at the theatre, and he wanted the money and he said he had my mother, that she wasn't dead. So I went along with anything he wanted. Deacon was in London too - a coincidence - and Stecher wanted me to ruin him, and then he'd let my mum go. And so I did what Stecher wanted. I let him beat the shit out of me, let him rape me, and then I went to police and told them it was Deacon. He lost his wife over it, lost his family, but I couldn't go through with it. That was when he showed up at Giles place. I told him I couldn't trade Deacon's life for my mother's - I don't even know if he really had her, or if she died in Haiti. Stretcher tried to kill me and we struggled with the knife and I killed him."

Marina's hands hurt and she stopped squeezing them, frowning down at the carpet. "And that's it. That's everything I have. You already heard the rest."

Marina felt completely exhausted, but it was out now and she was glad to have told it as quickly as possible.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

There wasn't much Percy could really do then, besides stare at Marina with his mouth halfway open. He moved to say something and his phone went off again. Annoyed, he picked up up and shut it off, "Fuck off, Giles!" he shouted, tossing it harshly onto the floor.

"Okay, I- I know you said I might want to be sober, but you were wrong." He stood and headed over to his fridge and fished out a beer, flicking the cap off easily and taking a big swig.

"Nope. Not finding answers in the bottle, goddammit. I have no idea what to say, Marina. Absolutely not one fucking clue."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"I didn't expect you to say much," Marina assured him. "I just didn't want Giles to tell any of it." Then she added, not looking at him, "I'm sorry."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"No-" Percy shook his head hard then and though he didn't go back to sit down, he made sure he didn't look away from her. "Marina, you don't have to apologise to me for anything. I'm a white guy from London. There's no way I could ever understand what it's like to live your life, okay? Therefore I have no right to judge it. I mean...I still have no idea what to say, but I don't really think I have a right to say much anyway."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

Marina shrugged. "I don't know much where 'rights' come anywhere into this." She considered if she wanted to tell Percy this next bit but it started happening before she'd really decided. "Giles was trying to get me to keep away from you. Says I'll ruin your life like I ruined his." She still sounded as though she didn't know how sure about this she was. It sounded half-sarcastic, half-concerned.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Well that he certainly had something to say to. "Of all the fucked up, bullshit-" Percy went back to sit on the sofa, but not before retrieving his phone and switching it back on. Quickly he dialled his brother's number and waited for Giles to answer.

"She's told me everything, Giles. And all I got out of it is that you're a manipulative dick. You can stop trying to ring me now." He turned the phone off again before tossing it.

Percy heaved a heavy sigh and he gave Marina a weak smile. "I am a big boy and I am not worried about you ruining my life, nor do I think for a second that you ruined his. He made his choices by himself."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

When Percy told off Giles on the phone, Marina felt such an overwhelming rush of love for him. And then he went and added to that feeling by- instead of making her give any further details or making judgements - saying something mature and not making Giles her fault. And so moment later she had practically launched herself into Percy's arms to hug him tightly, face smooshed into his collarbone.

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Percy was a little shocked by the sudden movement, but he still wrapped his arms around her, laughing into her hair. "I'm so sorry he made you tell me things you didn't want to. That was so unfair of him to do that. I won't tell anyone and I won't sink to his level."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"Thank you," Marina said when she pulled back, looking at him seriously. "I've never told anyone else all of this, but now the only two people who know are brothers." Seemed weird and amusing. Well, amusing if it wasn't things she never wanted to talk about at all. (She felt like Percy might be in shock right now, because his reaction to all of this was surprisingly calm.) "Percy, you couldn't sink to Giles' level even if you tried, in any way."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

Percy smiled at her and he reached out to give her shoulder a tiny squeeze. "Are you- Are you safe now? God. I'm so sorry you had to go through such- I'm so sorry. And then my idiot brother tries to make it worse."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"I'm safe," Marina assured Percy with a nod. Stecher was the only person who could possibly have been looking for her for revenge, so she couldn't imagine any danger from her old life. It needed to stay that way. "And so you're also safe, you can tell your idiot brother that."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"Oh, believe me, I'll be telling my idiot brother several things," Percy grumbled. "I- I can't believe he did this. I mean...I suppose I can, I'm just angry. It's so unfair of him."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

Marina shrugged. "He's Giles," Marina said. "I'm not surprised by anything he does. Once your boyfriend marries someone else during your relationship without even telling you, you don't get shocked by much at all." Marina shook her head. "My god, do you know he's the only man I've ever been involved with? That's pretty pathetic."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"God, yeah...he did do that," Percy sighed at his brother. "Is he? Christ," he said, heaving another sigh. "It's not pathetic though. I can't imagine trusting anyone after that is easy."

[frozenocean.insanejournal.com]

"I don't know about trusting," Marina said, thinking about it. "I have more trouble making friends. I... hmm, I always find myself watching people, trying to decide if they're going to be an ally or an enemy to me, even though I don't need to think like that anymore. It's a hard habit to kill. Which is why I'm so grateful for you, Perce. You always just came across as genuine, right from the beginning."

[yourdisillusion.insanejournal.com]

"I don't know any other way to be," he said with a shrug. "I'm grateful for you too," he said honestly. "I don't have any other friends, really. Just you. Thank you for telling me this and trusting me with it, even if it's hard."