DH Fic: An Imaginary Werewolf in the Dollhouse (Dominic)

[ozmissage]

Alright guys, this is the last of the Halloween fics. I was hoping to do a couple of the extra prompts, but sadly I’m not going to have the time this weekend (and I desperately want to go play over at thethequillstation.) Thank you all for leaving such awesome prompts and for putting up with the fic spamming this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!
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Title: An Imaginary Werewolf in the Dollhouse
Characters/Pairing: Dominic, shades of Dominic/Adelle
Rating: PG-13
Words: 1,244
Warnings: Violence. Mild language.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Summary: His first sip of coffee barely has time to pass his lips before the screaming starts.
A/N: Written fordemonqueen666 who asked for Dominic/Adelle and “werewolf”.

If there’s an upside to working for the Dollhouse it’s that the mornings are usually quiet. They begin with a briefing with Ms. Dewitt where he’ll listen as she runs down a list of the day’s agenda; the engagements, the meetings and he’ll nod and make note in the back of his mind of things to report back to his supervisors at the NSA.

Then she’ll dismiss him coolly, but never unkindly, in a way that only she can manage and he’ll be sent off to patrol the house; a job that is mostly dull unless you get your jollies from watching a bunch of brain-dead twenty-something’s eating pancakes.

Of course the morning after Halloween has to be different. He shouldn’t have been surprised really. His first sip of coffee barely has time to pass his lips before the screaming starts.

“Mr. Dominic!”

Adelle’s voice is sharp and urgent and there’s something in her tone that causes his body to tense. The last time he heard that lilt in her voice he found himself walking into a bloodbath. He drops his mug without thinking and ignores the shards of glass as he draws his gun and moves quickly towards the direction of the chaos.

He braces himself for the worst. Best case scenario another one of the dolls has developed a fun new obsession with knives. His money’s on Echo.

He rounds the corner and finds himself staring at every handler in the house surrounding one doll cowering in the corner. He hears a low, guttural sound and arches an eyebrow. Make that one doll cowering in the corner and growling like an animal. He spots Topher hovering at the edge of the crowd with a pained expression on his face.

“Topher, what the hell am I looking at?” he snaps.

Topher jumps at the sound of Dominic’s voice; when he turns Dominic notes that he’s wearing his guilty, puppy face. That means he’s done something incredibly stupid.

“Victor kind of thinks he’s a werewolf and he may or may not be planning on eating us all like tiny, little breakfast sandwiches...”

Dominic feels his jaw clench.

“And why does Victor think he’s a werewolf?”

Topher shrugs and shoves his hands into his pockets.

“Because I programmed him to…it was for the engagement. Werewolf fantasy, you know? That’s a thing apparently. He wasn’t supposed to actually wolf out though, it was supposed to be more of a guilty man-pain followed by wacky animal sex engagement, but then werewolf-Victor saw the moon and well…here we are. It wasn’t even full, you know? I made sure that the assignment wasn’t for the full moon for exactly this reason…”

“Topher?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

Topher opens his mouth to say something that Dominic can only assume would have been an attempt at a witty comeback, but Dominic finds himself distracted by a sudden movement at the front of the group. Adelle has managed to push her way past her employees and is now crouching in front of a snarling Victor. Dominic feels his stomach drop.

“Get out of the way,” he hisses to the person in front him. The crowd parts to let him pass. He keeps his gun drawn and trains it on Victor. He doesn’t want to have to shoot the guy, but he knows if he makes one move towards Adelle he’s going to drop him like the animal that he thinks he is.

“Victor, sweetheart? Would you like a treatment?”

Victor snarls, and if this situation wasn’t so thoroughly fucked up Dominic would admire Topher’s attention to detail.

“Mrs. Dewitt, you need to back away from the doll.”

Dominic is surprised by the hint of panic in his voice. He hopes Adelle doesn’t hear it. She doesn’t turn around to look at him when she speaks.

“Put the gun away, Mr. Dominic,” she says sharply.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Ma’am. Victor here looks like he’s about two seconds away from tearing you to shreds and you hired me to make sure things like that don’t happen.”

“Funny I thought I hired you so that you would do what I say,” she counters.

Adelle slowly moves towards Victor and tentatively reaches out a hand. Victor bares his teeth.

Dominic sees what’s about to happen a moment before it does. Victor lunges for Adelle and Dominic snatches her quickly out of the line of fire. He’s barely aware of shoving her to the side when Victor slams into him.

The force of the impact causes him to lose his grip on his gun. It skids across the floor, out of his reach and he curses under his breath. It quickly becomes apparent that Topher gave Victor more than a delusion. The guy is far more agile than he should be. If Victor doesn’t kill him, Dominic vows to make Topher pay for this later.

Dominic struggles to free one arm and when he does he lashes out hard. His fist makes contact with the side of Victor’s face and then he feels teeth sinking into his hand.

“Son of a bitch!” he exclaims.

Then Victor whimpers sharply and collapses heavily on top of Dominic. He looks up to find Adelle breathing heavily, holding his gun upside down in her hand. He thought he could see a bit of blood dripping from the hilt. He pushes Victor off of him and two handlers quickly scoop him up. Dominic watches as they carry Victor off with Topher hot on their heels.

Adelle clears her throat and Dominic turns to find her extending a hand to help him up.

“Thank you,” Dominic says sincerely.

A slight smile creeps across Adelle’s lips as she pulls him to his feet.

“It’s the least I could do after you so daringly shoved me out of the line of fire,” she says.

“I was just doing my job.”

Adelle arches her eyebrows, but doesn’t argue. Dominic’s hand is throbbing and he can’t help but wince at the pain. He tries not to look shocked when Adelle reaches out and gently takes his injured hand in her own. She holds it up, close to her face to examine the damage and makes a tutting sound with her tongue.

“That’s quite a bite, Mr. Dominic. You should go upstairs and have Dr. Saunders take a look at it for you.”

Dominic nods and pulls his hand out of her grasp. He’s not used to her touching him. He flexes his fingers and smiles.

“Yes, Ma’am. So, how authentic do you think Topher’s programming was? Any chance I need to worry about developing a taste for raw meat?”

“Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that, but I’ll have the staff stock up on silver bullets just in case.”

Dominic laughs and for a moment he can almost imagine that they’re just two friends sharing a joke, but then the Adelle’s expression returns to it’s normal reserve and she’s back to being his fake boss and he’s back to being the guy that’s going to bring her company crashing down around her.

“Get that seen about,” she says briskly. “I want you in my office in half an hour; there’s a potential client coming in and I need you there when he shows up.”

Dominic nods. “Yes, ma’am.”

He groans as he heads for the stairs and wonders if he has time to beat the hell out of Topher before the meeting.