RP:I Know How You Solve Problems

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Summary: Hudson storms into Mayor Uma Abelin's office to demand an explanation for his wife's arrest. Uma was just as blindsided as he was, and has no further information because she's barred from the case files due to the obvious conflict of interest. That said, she tearfully agrees to do what she can to help, but wonders what the cost to all of them will be in the end.

Cenril Mayor's Office

Uma is pacing in her office when Hudson forces his way into it.

Her assistant clatters behind him. "Mayor Abelin, I tried--"

Uma braces herself against her desk, as if she were about to face a gale. "It's fine, Out," she says to her assistant, whose mouth hangs open like a fish's before she collects herself and turns to obey. She closes the door behind her.

Uma has never seen Hudson so angry. He prowls closer to the desk, snorting with casual menace when he reads the headline printed on the paper there: Socialite Alvina Landon Arrested for Spreading Lycanthropy.

Hudson could keep some things out of the press by making threats, but this story had been leaked too broadly and was too big not to print. It had also not been run by him, because the very fact of his wife's arrest sent a strong signal: he was weak.

"Did you know--" the words are like a serrated knife.

"Of course I didn't know! I fired the Major who ordered her arrest as soon as I heard." Uma hates how pinched her voice sounds.

"You what?" Hudson's face is a mask of furious incredulity. "Because that doesn't look obvious?"

"What do you want me to do, Hudson?" Uma, rounding the desk, snaps like a rubber band. "How about, why is your wife being arrested? How about, where's MY heads up on this?"

"Don't talk to me like that."

Uma snorts, folding her arms across her chest. "The guards' office isn't letting me access her file." A leaden silence expands between them. "Because 'Alvina and I are friends.'"

Hudson snorts. "I'm sure that's what they're worried about. You shouldn't have dismissed the Major."

Uma gesticulates between them. "There's a whole sleeper cell part of the guard that hates THIS apparently. And they hate ME." Her voice is suddenly fragile. "I'm only trying to make things safe and good here. And things ARE safe and good here. And I thought you paid them!"

"I DO pay them."

"Well, what the hell are they arresting your pregnant wife for?" the words are streaked in tears. "Did she really bite someone and turn them into a werewolf? Why would Alvina? I mean, how ..?"

Hudson looks at her but doesn't answer.

"For Sven's sake, Hudson ..." She sinks on the corner of the desk like a melted candle. She wipes her eyes with her sleeve. "Who is doing this? The Jane Doe she bit?"

"No, I don't think so." A beat. "I don't know. Maybe but I don't know, I doubt it," he amends his answer, his voice scraping his own frustration. "For a while now, someone has been trying to target me by messing with my wife. I think it's that person."

"For a while now," breathes Uma. "Hudson, Alvina can't go to jail." Pregnant pause. "I can't go to jail."

"No one said you--"

"Of course you're going to say that!" Uma screams at him. She lowers her voice as she continues, "But in my shoes, you would think it! You're a criminal, we are literally just, I don't know, COLLUDING here!" She covers her mouth with her hands, stifling a sob.

"Stop it," Hudson hisses at her.

"I mean, what?" she laughs bitterly through her tears, "are you going to kill me when I can't help you anymore?"

"Stop it."

"It's a question I ask myself a lot, Hudson. I know how you solve problems."

Hudson's face becomes stone. "If you're threatening to snitch--"

"Oh, I'm not threatening to snitch," the words roll out in a bleak chuckle. "I'm in it to win it, whatever 'it' is, Hudson." She inhales noisily through her nose, wiping her face again. "I think you should go," she says shakily, "we shouldn't be making it easier for whomever these people are. I'll do what I can. I hate this, very much."

"I'm not going to kill you," says Hudson, taking a step back.

Uma stifles another laugh at how offended he sounds. "I really hope not. I'm really loyal and it would be just bloody stupid for Marco to lose both of his parents." She sniffles noisily again. "Please just go."