Title: Silk Screen
Rating: G
Summary: It is Laurie's first time alone in a room with Rorschach, and she admits he makes her nervous.


It’s Laurie’s first time alone in a room with Rorschach, and she admits he makes her nervous. It’s his face. His name is an obvious reference, but she can’t stop looking into it. She can’t stop seeing the past.

They don’t mean for this to happen, them being alone together. He spends most of his time hovering near Nite Owl, and she spends most of her time standing behind Jon, separating herself from the Comedian as far as space can allow. He looks at her funny sometimes, and she wonders what he thinks: maybe that she looks like her mom, maybe that he doesn’t care. Before she ever knew, she never minded. He was kind of funny, a little crazy, but who didn’t feel that way.

Ozymandias, thankfully, never tries to pair them off.

He likes the idea of pairs, of the neat symmetrical order of three teams of two scouring the city. However he always sends out Dr. Manhattan and Comedian on their own, switching it up between the remaining four. Ozymandias who saw himself as the unofficial leader, and no one complains. But now it is Laurie and Rorschach stuck together in a room, waiting. The others aren’t back yet, and after stopping two robberies and a mugging Laurie is tired. She can’t tell with her partner. He never looks directly at her and doesn’t talk much, and when he does it always sounds strained. He is never comfortable with her, and once she asked Nite Owl about it because he seems closest to him, and he just shook his head. Nite Owl named Daniel who is really very nice and took her out to lunch one day when Jon had to work. He said sometimes Rorschach will break into his house and eat his food, and he took to buying large bags of green sugar cubes to keep on his kitchen counter, like feeding a stray puppy that occasionally comes home. But Rorschach as puppy loses its feel upon meeting him. Up close he is intimidating, though physically shorter, especially that he tends to lean forward, and his face shifts over his features. Laurie has watched the face move from across the room, but all she sees is sadness. It makes her hate him, even when she tries hard not to.

“It was quiet tonight,” she says, because standing alone in a room with him needs to be broken up with conversation. It just reminds her that he is not like other people, and his idea of a conversation is far removed from hers. “They shouldn’t be taking this long.”

He hurms, facing away from her, as far away from her as space allows.

“You don’t think they’ve run into trouble?”

There is a shift at the idea of trouble. She can’t tell if it excites him or worries him. She loves trouble, the thrill of it, the way she feels afterward. They’ve stood side by side to face foes before and afterwards were exhilarated, drinking and laughing in Adrian’s flat (except Rorschach, who stands in a corner and sometimes disappears, and Daniel just shrugs, like that’s our Rorschach).

“It’s been too long,” Rorschach finally says, and the clock in the corner ticks towards dawn. He strides forward, and it’s a little forced and quick. She suspects he’s been waiting to leave, any excuse. But after a moment he pauses.

“We’re going after them?” she asked upon realizing. It wasn’t an open invitation, but it was something. More than he usually gives. He gives a single, sullen nod before walking away, and she smiles, running after him.

They find an army of topknots, all fighting over the duo. It was a flurry of movement: Ozymandias was too fast to keep track of, hitting and knocking down topknots with incredible speed, and Nite Owl behind him, swinging weapons between kicks and blows. They’re both bleeding, and one topknot swipes upward before Nite Owl disappeared underneath the mob.

It is in that moment Laurie figures it out. Rorschach leaps from her side, using the fire escape to stop periodically before hitting the ground. The moment he is down he starts forward, ripping aside topknots with the force of pure rage, setting a path aside. Laurie is only a short ways behind him, and she sees it all. His face is an emotionless mask, but she knows. Immediately she is swamped in the action, but now there are four and the battle is quickly won. They can’t tie up this many, but they can lead the cops their way, which they quickly decide to do before the sun completely rose. Daniel laughs as Rorschach helps him to his feet, examining the deep cut spilling into his suit. Ozymandias is picking bullets out of his arm, and Laurie is mostly untouched besides the deep cut on her bare leg but she watches. Rorschach stands only a few inches from Daniel, hands in pockets and masks moving slowly, lucidly taking shapes. He glances at Laurie and says something, something she assumes is degrading towards someone if not her, and there’s a little twitch. After a few minutes they head back, taking rooftops to avoid being seen. Rorschach disappears, and waiting for Jon, Laurie stops Daniel as he leaves.

“You and… Rorschach,” she starts uncomfortably, sweeping her hair back. “You’re the closest to him, right?”

He’s confused. “I guess so. Why?”

He doesn’t know. She nods. “Nothing, I was just curious. Wondered where he went sometimes. There’s Jon.” She smiled at him, waved goodbye, ran towards Jon. He was staring blankly, as he often did, and she always thinks he must be counting molecules or reshaping them in his mind. She waits until they are back at the lab before speaking.

“Jon,” she calls, touching him. It gives her a small tingle, and her skin prickles. It will be a few more years until she is uncomfortable touching him or in his presence. “I’m not wrong in thinking it…”

He stares at her, lifting his head with thought. “Human emotion cannot be measured like human presence,” he says, and he blinks too long, like he forgot he needed to. His hands caress her face, and she smiles, leaning into it. It will be years before she pulls away or do so in the arms of someone else. “But yes. I think imagining Rorschach and Nite Owl together is not far from the truth.”

Laurie will go to sleep happy that night, years before she will wake up mad.

---

Daniel cries into her, his whole body heaving with sadness. It is Rorschach’s death that hurts him the most. It is his remains he cries over, asks to gather up and bury. Laurie always suspected but she knows now, as Ozymandias promises there will be a funeral. She looks through the tears into his eyes, and even if he didn’t know she does, that the man Daniel loved is dead.

She cries with him. It’s the only thing she can do.

---

It was going to be Laurie and Rorschach talking about Daniel, but I couldn't honestly write a situation where they would do that.

Writing Jon is actually kind of fun.