Imperium

Chapter 5: Helpless

The sound of the faucet running feels oddly soothing to Colin as he rinses the plates from dinner before he carefully sets them in the dishwasher, then grabbing another plate and repeating the process as Lucian does the same beside him.

The files Lucian had found on Fritz have started to upload to Colin's mind and it shouldn't be too long before they have some hopefully helpful information against him. But Fritz is probably the last thing on his mind at the moment. After dinner when Edith went back to bed without a word, Colin fears he may have upset her once again.

Lucian notices too. As they do the dishes together, Lucian keeps his eye on Colin as if he's trying to piece together what's running through his metal head, and it's probably about more than just his and Connor's curiosity when it comes to the SRL.

Once the silence reaches the point where it becomes awkward, Lucian sighs and sets a dampened dishrag on the counter, turning to face Colin. "Can I ask you something, Colin?" he asks, making Colin glance at him and raise a curious brow.

"I don't see the harm. What is it?"

Lucian nods his head in the direction of the spare room and keeps his curious eyes on the SRL. "Why didn't you tell Edith about what happened with Fritz yesterday morning?" he asks and Colin sighs.

He had a feeling this would be brought up at some point, but he was expecting it to be from Edith herself and accompanied by a handful of annoyed and pissed-off comments about how he has once again let her down and proved himself to be someone she believes she can't trust. But maybe Lucian will actually hear him out on his reasoning.

"I was going to tell her, but... After I got back from the incident was when I found out she was pregnant. I didn't really feel like throwing in the fact that the Imperium not only knows we're here, but also that they are actively hunting me down. She's scared enough as it is," he explains and places a cup in the dishwasher.

Lucian purses his lips and cocks his head to the side as he examines him. "So... Would you have told her if not for the baby?" he asks.

Colin shrugs. "I'm not sure. I mean, the baby only adds to the... 'issues' she's going through right now. Her emotions are her greatest threat right now, so adding fear and paranoia on top of her grief, anger, and overall depression would probably have only done more harm than good," he states. Lucian bites his tongue and nods slowly, trying to avert his attention back to the sink, but Colin notices him trying to hold something back. "What is it?" he asks.

Lucian sighs and looks at him again. "Excuse me for saying this, but... I don't really feel like that's your decision to make here," he says.

That gets Colin to stop what he's doing and turn his full attention onto the man. "What do you mean? It's my fault we ended up in this whole mess so I just don't want to make things any worse for her," he tries to justify his actions, despite knowing deep down that his methods clearly haven't been working to make matters easier for Edith.

Lucian shrugs with a single nod. "I know you're just trying to help, and it's good that you're trying to protect her, but something Connor and I have had to work through was the fact that I may be a cop, but that doesn't mean I'm stronger than him. Yeah, I protected him yesterday morning against Fritz, but that was only because he truly needed to be helped. If I had showed up to see that Connor had Fritz in a headlock, I wouldn't step in to deal with Fritz myself because I know he can manage on his own," he explains, seeing how Colin tries to consider what he says but not quite understanding his meaning.

"So... You're saying I shouldn't protect her?"

Lucian sighs. "That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying that maybe the reason she's so upset with you 'just trying to protect her' is because you're essentially treating her like she's helpless. And I can look at that woman and tell that she's not," he says.