by pebble/scifipony
Fandom: The Finder
Characters: Leo Knox, Walter Sherman, Isabel Zambada, Willa Monday
Words: 1,923
Tags: Friendship, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst
Warnings: Mental health issues; Obsessive behavior; Self-destructive behavior
Author's Notes: Originally posted to SquidgeWorld on Oct 26, 2024. Written for the Octoberfics challenge on tumblr.
Leo had never considered the task of looking after Walter to be a burden.
The man was the closest thing he had to a family at this point. Leo had lost the last remaining legal family he had with the death of his wife and daughter. And Walter had lost his own family the minute they’d decided he was too much of a burden to remain in their lives and that it was easier to tuck him away in some mental institution. So now they had each other.
And, in general, it seemed to work pretty well. Walter continued to go on his treasure hunts and Leo made sure he stayed alive and sane enough to do so. It worked well enough.
Most of the time.
Leo would gladly take a bullet to protect his best friend. Tangible threats, he could handle. But he couldn’t protect Walter from his own mind.
And that’s where the real issue was. Because, over the years, Leo had quickly learned that Walter was really his own worst enemy. The man would face off against murderers and mobsters without blinking an eye, or chase down leads that had gone cold years ago as if it was the simplest thing in the world… but using any shred of common sense or self-preservation seemed beyond his capabilities.
Walter was generally pretty good at looking after himself even in the midst of a hunt. He’d still eat when he was hungry enough to eat, get a good night’s rest whenever feasible, and return to home base if he acquired an injury that demanded medical care.
The problem was when he would become seized with a particularly strong finding compulsion. Maybe it was because a case was dragging on longer than Walter deemed acceptable, or involving a search that hit a little too close to home. Or maybe it was simply Walter’s brain being as unpredictable as ever. In any case, the result was always devastating.
He’d traipse all over Southern Florida, doggedly chasing down clues that only he seemed to actually see. Never stopping or even slowing down, constantly moving from one lead to the next. Relentlessly driven forward by the soul-consuming need to find.
And all Leo could do was watch. Well, that and try his best to steer Walter away from the more dangerous paths his compulsion tried to force him down.
He’d lost track of how many times he’d walked out onto the patio at night — long after the last customers left and the bar was locked up — to find his friend still obsessively working away at some diorama or pacing endless circles over the stone tiles.
“You need rest, Walter,” Leo chastised him one night, even though he knew his words weren’t being heard.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Walter immediately dismissed. “Hey, Leo, how do you feel about a nighttime boat ride?”
So, of course, they took a nighttime boat ride. One that ended with a dead body floating off the coast of Key Largo. They were picked up by the Coast Guard not long after that and Leo had to pull a lot of strings to get them home by dawn. Walter remained as unbothered as ever, immediately diving into his next lead as soon as they were safely back at Ends of the Earth.
“You were arrested last night?” Isabel asked incredulously, apparently having heard of their midnight escapade through the law enforcement grape vine.
“We were detained,” Leo corrected her.
“This is getting ridiculous,” she said, and it was easy to see the genuine concern lurking beneath her shield of frustration.
“Walter knows what he’s doing.”
“He found a dead body, Leo.”
“Yes, he did.”
And that was all that could really be said about the matter. They both knew Walter was going to find that body regardless of any attempts at intervention on their part. It’s what he does.
Leo wasn’t entirely sure how a dead accountant eighty miles away could tie into their current missing necklace dilemma, but he trusted that Walter knew what the connection was. His main concern lay in the fact that this case now apparently involved murder. Which meant that Walter would inevitably end up facing down a murderer before this matter was over. In a way, though, he almost found that revelation to be a relief. At least now there was a tangible danger to protect Walter from.
Walter trudged into the bar around midmorning a few days after their fateful boat ride. The shadows under his eyes and twitchiness in his overall demeanor were clear signs to Leo that the man needed a good long sleep. Making that actually happen was asking the impossible, though.
“I need a shovel and snorkeling gear,” he announced, as if that was a perfectly normal request.
For Walter, it really wasn’t too unusual and so Leo didn’t bat an eye as he responded, “What’s wrong with the shovels in the toolshed?”
“I need one of those little compact folding shovels.”
“I have one of those.”
“You like that one. I need a shovel you wouldn’t mind losing.”
And, really, the fact that Walter had actually stopped to consider Leo’s feelings on the matter, as well as the potential consequences of his actions, felt like a huge improvement. Which is why he didn’t grill him on why the shovel was needed in the first place. When it came to caring for Walter, he knew it was important to choose his battles wisely.
The idea of letting a very sleep deprived Walter go snorkeling somewhere alone was concerning, though, so Leo once again volunteered to drive.
They ended up back on the mainland. Again.
The haphazard nature of the hunt so far would probably have seeded doubts in anyone else. But Leo trusted that Walter always had a reason for each of his seemingly random decisions. Maybe not always a reason that would make sense to anyone other than Walter himself, but a reason nonetheless. It would undoubtedly all lead them to the missing necklace… eventually.
“Turn left here,” Walter instructed, after they’d been wandering the Everglades for hours. “Pull the car over.”
He retrieved the shovel and snorkeling gear from the trunk and trudged on foot into the marsh. Leo dutifully followed. He spent the next several hours wading through swamp water and carefully guiding Walter away from any sinkholes that he kept almost stepping in. Walter, for his part, spent the entire time prowling in seemingly random circles through the rough terrain. He went diving a few times and dug more holes than Leo could count.
The sun was getting low, but he knew better than to try herding Walter back to the car before he was ready.
He did wish he’d brought his gun, though. Leo didn’t like the looks of the area they were in. With no buildings in sight and not even any other cars on the narrow backroad they’d been driving, it seemed the prime spot for getting murdered.
Or, apparently, for hiding a body.
“Aha! Knew you would be here,” Walter said, and Leo could only hope he wasn’t actually addressing the dead body he’d dug up.
“Please tell me we aren’t about to get arrested again,” Leo said flatly.
Walter grinned. He reached into the hole and plucked a muddy object from beside the corpse. Holding it up, he shone a flashlight on it, illuminating the sparkling array of diamonds lining it.
“So, why murder two people if they weren’t even going to keep the necklace?” Leo mused out loud.
“It was for revenge, not money,” Walter shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I found the necklace.”
And, by pure accident, the murderer as well. They hadn’t even had time to celebrate the win before the culprit was showing up, waving a gun threateningly at them. Leo would have been more upset that Walter hadn’t warned him about the possibility of a killer showing up, but he was too busy tackling the guy before he could shoot Walter in the head.
A quick phone call to the local police had the situation finally wrapping up for good. Isabel showed up as well, looking both aggravated at her boyfriend almost dying again and relieved that the whole matter could be put to rest now. (At least until the next time Walter latched onto something to find. But neither of them had the emotional energy left to think about that yet.)
By the time the last of the sunlight was fading, they had finished giving their statements to the police and were gathered in front of the station with their client and her family.
The young woman was so relieved to have the mystery of her aunt’s disappearance solved that she barely even cared about the return of the necklace. Walter did care, though, so Leo discreetly motioned for her to accept the massive piece of jewelry regardless. She hugged them both in thanks, as did a few of her other relatives.
Walter’s energy started flagging towards the end of the meeting. Leo noticed immediately and offered a round of polite farewells before ushering his friend to the car.
They pulled up in front of Ends of the Earth a few hours after dark had settled. Walter muttered something incoherent as he stumbled out of the car. With a bittersweet smile, Leo caught him by the elbow and helped guide him the rest of the way inside.
“We did good,” Walter mumbled around a yawn as he flopped onto his bed — still fully clothed and with sneakers drenched in muddy swamp water. “Knew we’d find it.”
“Yes, you did,” Leo said neutrally.
He pulled the wet sneakers off his friend’s feet and dropped them beside the bed. A soft snore was already drifting up from the bed as Leo pulled a blanket over the lanky form sprawled across it. He paused for a brief moment to take in the sight of Walter finally at rest. Sighing, Leo flicked off the light and retreated from the room.
The next day, Willa pouted her way into Leo’s office. “He’s still sleeping, Leo! I have plans this afternoon; Walter was supposed to watch the bar for me.”
“You can still make your plans,” Leo assured her without glancing up from his bookkeeping.
“It’s almost noon right now. Why can’t I just go wake him up?”
Leo shook his head. “Let him sleep. I’ll watch the bar this afternoon.”
Willa made a grumbled remark about how Walter was always getting out of actual work, but she must have been at least somewhat satiated by the compromise because she left without further argument.
“You know you’re spoiling him,” she called over her shoulder as she disappeared through the door.
Leo smiled.
She was probably right. Then again, if covering Walter’s shift allowed the man to catch up on some badly needed sleep, it was a sacrifice Leo was more than happy to make.
Taking care of Walter wasn’t easy. Trying to walk the thin line between supporting and enabling was nearly impossible. And Leo was slowly learning to accept the fact that there were some things he simply couldn’t protect his friend from. He would do anything to keep Walter safe, but he couldn’t keep him safe from the demons in his own head.
So maybe he did tend to spoil Walter a little. That was okay.
Because, if Leo couldn’t protect Walter from himself, the very least he could do was be around to help pick up the pieces once the dust had settled.
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