thehonorablebat | Clone AU (Wrong Doing) (Reply)

“I can’t believe he did that.” Central paced back and forth between the couches.

“Who? Hell Raiser or Johnny?” Weir didn’t look up from reading the engineering report.

“Bo-No, Johnny. I can’t believe Johnny did that. I wouldn’t have even dreamed of something like that at his age,” Central said.

“Really? You can’t think of any reason you would have broken the rules,” Weir asked.

Central stopped pacing, he exhaled a heavy breath.

“Alright one reason,” he said.

“What was his name?” Weir signed off on the report and opened another.

“Bill,” Central said

“May I ask how many boyfriends you’ve had whose name is some derivative of William?”

Central started pacing again.

“Johnny would do a lot for love,” he said knowingly, ignoring Weir’s question.

“Are you saying my clone is a bad influence?” The Commander let an amused grin spread across his face.

“I can’t believe we did that.” John held his head in his hands.

“Weir can take his court martial and shove it up his-”

“William, please!”

He looked to his right, the sight made his anger ebb away. William unfolded his arms and wrapped one across John’s shoulder, pulling him in close.

“I don’t want to be kicked off the Avenger,” John rasped. Others might have taken to calling him Jack, but to William he would always be John.

“You won’t be.” If that sounded like a promise that was because it was. He didn’t know how he would accomplish getting John off the hook, but he would think of something. He always did.

William carded fingers through John’s hair and hummed a tune. Just something he once heard playing in the Commander’s office, the song had stuck with him.

“A confession?” Weir raised a brow at him.

“I signed it, see.” He pointed at his signature. “No one coursed me.”

The Commander picked up the tablet and read over the text.

“Yes, I see. Very open and shut. I can stop gathering evidence. You’ve saved me quite a bit of trouble, Corporal,” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

“You do realize, of course, that Captain Ford will skin you alive when he finds out about this.” Weir sipped his coffee.

William’s face turned bright red.

“Yes, sir.”

“He’s going to be furious,” Weir said.

“Yes, sir.”

Weir tossed the tablet across the desk, it landed just in front of William.

“Erase that and go back to your cell,” he said.

“Sir?”

“I’ll never hear the end of it if I accept that, so I’m doing us both a favor,” The Commander said.

“But-”

“You’re dismissed, Corporal.”

“Tell them I’m the one who stole the Skyranger! Say it was all me!”

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” John clenched his hands into fists.

“They only have proof one of us was there,” William reasoned. “Just say it was me.”

“No!”

“Why not?” William jumped to his feet.

“It would be a lie, for one thing." John looked away.

“So?”

“And I won’t abandon you like that,” John said.

“You’re not, I’m asking you to do this,” William said. “This way you can stay.”

John stared at him.

“You really think I love the Avenger more than you?”

William’s breath caught in his throat.

“I-I-don’t-I-”

John walked over to him, placing his hands on William’s shoulders.

“Whatever happens, I want to face it with you,” he said.

William kissed him.

He did not even consider thanking the Commander for his intervention, and he certainly didn’t thank him for not kicking them off the ship.

The smell of grease wasn’t going to come out for weeks.

In light of the fact their intentions were good and they had saved lives, Weir just turned them over to Firebrand. He decided if there was any wounded party in this, it was her.

By the end of the first day into their punishment, they both collapsed onto their bed.

But instead of sleeping, William lay on his stomach in the bunk he shared with John and stared at the little data chip in his hand. John slept on, oblivious.

A month ago he had begun receiving messages from someone. They weren’t Resistance, William could tell that right away. The person used codes he learned in the ADVENT Academy.

A week and a half ago he got a message asking to meet him right then and there. It couldn’t wait, they said. the problem being the Avenger wasn’t anywhere near the location.

He wished John hadn’t gotten involved, but what’s done is done. At least he didn’t know the truth. He just knew what William had told the Commander during their interrogation. He said he intercepted a coded message from an ADVENT informant and wanted to see if he could deal with the situation himself. Youthful bravado.

He didn’t know if the informant passing messages to him started the fire or if someone else had done it. It didn’t matter. The cover worked.

Now if only he could find a device unconnected to the Avenger’s network, so he could read what they gave him without tipping anyone off.