Regret and Recrimination (Riley, Cobalt)

Of all the things Cobalt expected Josh to call him about—even in emergency—the suspicion of Sean’s suicide was the last on the list. Josh had been absolutely incoherent on the phone, talking rapidly and in circles and generally making no damn sense. It scared him. It had taken little persuasion to get Josh to come over to his house and when the older man had hung up, Cobalt had instantly dialed Riley’s number. The landscaper was the one more equipped to handle feelings of the three of them, and right now, Cobalt didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Whatever was happening right now sounded bad.

By the time Josh actually got to the house, he had calmed down considerably and was finally able to articulate what he had been trying to say over the phone: that Sean was missing and may or may not be killing himself right now. When Josh proclaimed this, Cobalt exchanged an alarmed look with Riley. The message Josh played back for them contained only four words: “Thanks for everything, Slim.” Cobalt recognized the nickname from a moment months ago in the woods. He didn’t ask for clarification.

But something about this didn’t make any sense, and sitting still was making him antsy, so he stood up from the couch and slowly paced the floor, shadows rolling around his ankles. Something wasn’t right at all. Sean was far too self-assured and relatively centered to just kill himself. And if he did indeed get to that point, he cared far too much about Josh to do it without providing the other man some kind of explanation beyond four words. Something else was going on. Cobalt frowned.

Josh’s words pulled him back into the present. He looked at his friend. “Josh, this isn’t your fault.” He said sharply, willing the other man to actually listen to him, “Whatever ends up happening, it is not your fault. You’ve been nothing but a good friend to Sean; none of this is because of you.” He glanced over at Riley for support. Riley was far better at this than he was; Cobalt always seemed to get angry.

But now to actually solving the problem. They couldn’t get ahold of Sean, so what was the next best thing? “…Have you called the police?” He asked, feeling strange, backwards déjà vu. If they were going to have to go searching around in the woods on Sean’s behalf, Cobalt was going to be very irritated.

Josh grimaced, glancing up at his two friends. "I know that," He informed them before contradicting himself with, "but I should have been able to tell and stop him. He was upset over the summer, right after I moved, and then lately....I mean....." He sighed, trying to formulate his thoughts into coherence. "You remember the twins....?" He directed this question to Cobalt; Riley had never heard the real story, and neither men had heard about any of the rest of events. Well, if Sean was dead then secrecy didn't matter, so they might as well know now. "They said....they said they were part of a terrorist group. They've been menacing the school, or, I don't know, that's what I gathered, Sean didn't tell me too much, but he was worried about them and...." okay, this wasn't clarifying quite as much as he'd hoped. "Back in January something happened with them. I don't know what, but he was distraught over it. I could never get anything coherent out of him, I think they must have threatened him. But he was depressed about the whole thing and....I'm just worried."

He took a fortifying breath as he shook his head. "No, I...I haven't. Yet." Actually, calling the police sounded like an excellent idea. They might tell him it hadn't been long enough to report Sean missing, but if he gave them all the facts then surely they would agree that the voice mail was troubling? It would be better to look for him now, while there was still a chance he was alive. He punched 911, fumbling his phone in his impatience. "I hope they can find him quickly...."

Riley kept quiet as Josh continued to blame himself unnecessarily. It was unnecessary mostly because blaming yourself for something that was beyond your control didn't make a lick of sense. Riley was pretty sure in the length of time from when Josh moved to Pilot Ridge till now, Sean must have been the person Josh spent more time with what with Sean being Josh's shuttle most of the time. And for some reason, Riley was pretty sure Sean would have kept a very tight lid on things were he really unhappy because Sean wouldn't do anything to make Josh unhappy, would he?

Which brought his thoughts around full circle. Sean wouldn't have killed himself. It just wouldn't make sense for the older man to do something that he knew would hurt his best friend. But the next piece of news coming from his friend had Riley confused. Especially with Cobalt's look that Riley thought said: 'Not now', the landscape artist knew he was missing something. The words 'terrorist', 'menacing' and 'threatening' gave Riley the chills. Those thriller fiction novels he loved reading in his spare time was giving him way too many conspiracy theory ideas already, even though he didn't know the full story.

Would Sean have tried to set things straight with these terrorist twins? Was that message a last note should he disappear before they met up again? Sean wasn't an idiot, Riley didn't think. He wouldn't do what Riley thought he was doing now, was he?

As Josh called the police, Riley turned to look at Cobalt in surprise when the shadow manipulator asked him what they should do. "Do you think he ... he went after those twins? I ... I can't see how we can find him now. He could be anywhere by now." Riley whispered out of Josh's earshot.

Cobalt nodded, frowning slightly. He believed Josh; so they were terrorists. Dammit, something was going on here. He wanted to think about this further, but suddenly, Josh was getting himself all riled up by rattling off the different ways Sean could be killing himself right now. Somehow, Cobalt didn’t think that was going to help. He limped over across the room to sit next to Josh and put a firm hand on his shoulder. “Josh, quit it.” He tried to keep his voice as calm as possible, “You’re going to make yourself sick or something. Worrying about the worst case scenarios isn’t going to help anyone, okay?”

Cobalt watched Josh wander off a ways to talk to the police, listening to Riley’s concerns about Sean with a frown. Finally, he sighed, “I don’t…No. No, he didn’t.” Cobalt looked at Riley thoughtfully before continuing, “Sean wouldn’t do that. It’s irresponsible—not to mention illegal—and he knows that by himself he wouldn’t be able to do any good.” He was going to continue when Josh threw the phone across the room and shouted, making Cobalt jump. “Josh…” Cobalt stood up to face his friend, “Let’s calm down. If you wanna go running around Pilot Ridge in the dark, then we will. But let’s at least be smart about it.”

Cobalt hesitated, “I…honestly don’t think Sean is going off and killing himself. I think he’s doing something else.” He stopped and sighed aggravatedly, trying to figure out why he thought what he did. “Okay. Think of what we know. There was an attack on someone over at the school. Months later, there was an attack on Josh. Ostensibly, judging by the reaction of Sean when I was with him, they were by the same people, or at least affiliated with the same group. Who are terrorists. They don’t like… humans. And they…I don’t know what they want, but I can hazard a guess. It’s been a threat to Hammel, though. And—god I don’t know.” Cobalt growled frustratedly, “I don’t know. But I think, Josh, that Sean is doing something with that. Not killing himself.” Cobalt glanced over at Riley, “…But just in case, it might be better to know if there are certain spots that are more favored for that kind of stuff.”

"But what else would he be doing?" Josh snapped in frustration. Neither Riley nor Cobalt seemed to share his concern. He knew they weren't callous enough to allow a depressed man to off himself, but they didn't really seem to understand the situation. "Why would he be doing something with the terrorists? They hate him, they wouldn't listen to him if he tried to talk to them. He wouldn't fight them, so what would he do? And why would he call and leave this...this....message?" He gestured vaguely in the direction of his phone. "It doesn't make sense."

He cast his eyes to the floor at Riley's realization, "Ahhh...well....yes, yes, that was when....and Cobalt knew because he was....he and Sean were the ones who...." He trailed off. Not something he wanted to relive. "Anyway, it doesn't matter! Sean matters! If he's killing himself..." He buried his face in his hands. They didn't get it. Approaching the terrorists would be idiotic, particularly when they had mind control powers. And military training and absolutely no qualms about violence, for that matter.

"There's not....a cliff or....the lake? What about the lake?" Of course, nobody in Pilot Ridge committed suicide. The only crime seemed to be MSAD related. "Listen, the terrorists are terrible, I know that. But Sean would know better than to confront them, they would kill him in a heart beat." Then again, if he was suicidal...."Do you think we should look for him? The police won't, not yet, but...maybe he was right, maybe they are being bought." He considered this unhappily. "....I hope they aren't, I hope they'll be on the look out for him."

Josh and Cobalt snapping did nothing to appease Riley's worry for Josh and, in extension, for Sean. He truly wanted to calm his friends down. It didn't do much good for them to be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Josh's questions rang true enough but Riley couldn't help but think this was Sean they were talking about. If the telepath had his way, he would negotiate with a traffic light to turn green if he thought that was possible.

The way both his friends avoided his question made Riley uneasy and upset. But he did understand that this wasn't the time and place to be demanding anything from the two who were clearly stressed out about this. Cobalt's 'no comment' statement was something Riley would have expected from Sean - the man was a vault but he didn't expect it to come from Cobalt. Not that the shadow manipulator was gabby or anything but Riley had expected a bit of closure from Cobalt at least.

Damn it, Sean... Riley only shook his head when Josh asked about cliffs and lakes. He was pretty sure nothing he could say would make the lawyer any less worried about his best friend. When Cobalt started speaking about the local police, Riley looked up at him with a slightly surprised look. He personally didn't think the local police force were under qualified. He knew a few of them who took their job rather seriously. Like Officer Burton who helped Mrs. Perry find that boy who kept stealing from her.

Riley scooted a bit to the side to accommodate Cobalt and looked to Josh to see if he was going to do what Cobalt suggested. "Maybe he just went out and forgot his phone or something...maybe he'll come home and try to call you back?" The second eldest in the group suggested meekly. Riley got up and placed a hand on Josh's shoulder. "Maybe you should sit down...pacing isn't helping..." his voice trailed off slightly, not knowing what Josh would do or say.

Cobalt could tell what Riley was thinking, and it stung a little bit. Riley trusted him as a friend to not do stuff like this, and Cobalt wasn’t doing a particularly good job earning that trust. He resolved that once this was all over, he would tell Riley everything. Because he could trust Riley with this, and he figured a show of good faith was the least Riley deserved. Just not right now, not in the middle of a particularly baffling crisis. He just hoped Riley would understand.

Voicemail after voicemail, Cobalt started getting more and more suspicious. Where the hell was everyone? Granted, there were still completely mundane explanations, but it was just… weird. Everyone in Sean’s acquaintance was irritatingly not available…

Eyes widening slightly, Cobalt fumbled for his own cell phone, punching in Morgan’s number with an irrational feeling of dread curling up inside him. He waited as the phone rang once, twice, three times…

And then went to voicemail.

Okay. Okay, that was a little scary. Cobalt’s hands trembled slightly as he shut his phone and pocketed it. He let out a deep, steadying breath, trying to keep his features calm. He glanced up at Josh; Cobalt couldn’t be the one freaking out for once. Josh was the one who needed calming down. Cobalt would get to the bottom of this later.

“I don’t blame you,” Cobalt said, unusually quiet as Josh proclaimed his dislike for Sean’s cryptic tendencies, “I would be sick of that crap if I were you.” His cell phone was heavy in his pocket. Whatever Sean was up to, if it involved Morgan in any way…

Cobalt shook his head slightly, “Look, I know this isn’t what you wanna hear right now, Josh. But we can’t just go wandering about looking for him. We won’t do any good and with our luck, he’ll probably call needing some kind of help and we’ll be all the way on the other side of town. The best thing for you to do is stay put, and be ready if he needs you.” At least, that sounded like good advice to Cobalt. “I… think I still have tea, and an abundance of coffee, if you guys want, you can stay here until we hear any news.” He looked at Josh, not wanting him to be by himself. He wasn’t at his most rational, and if nothing else, Riley was a relatively calming presence. Cobalt could just offer coffee, but he supposed it would have to do. Cobalt glanced at Riley, silently asking him to stay, because Cobalt didn’t have any damned idea how to keep things calm.