Puzzles

By TheLostMaximoff

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. It's been a while since I last visited Q so R/R.

He wonders about her. He wonders about everything because it's his nature to question. So Vic wonders about her, about the beautiful and deadly Huntress whose heart he seems to have captured with his "eccentric charm". Of course she'd call it something else. He's often heard her mumble such things about insanity being contagious. Sometimes, Vic wonders who is the most unbalanced between them. He doesn't voice those questions.

He wonders what she was like as a child, living in a world where all was not as it seemed. He wonders if she ever questioned what her father did for a living. Vic Sage can't pretend to know what it's like to live in blissful ignorance, to accept everything at face value. So he wonders about what Helena Bertinelli was like before the murders and the training and the sometimes all-consuming need for vengeance. Vic wonders if she wore her hair in pigtails. He wonders if she liked playing with dolls. He wonders if she was popular and had lots of friends at school. Again, the Question doesn't give voice to those ponderings and musings.

Vic wonders about all these things but he wonders about one particular thing most of all. He wonders just what exactly stopped her from killing Steven Mandragora. As is usually the case, this question leads to other questions. Vic wonders if he had anything to do with it and secretly hopes he did because he has delusions of grandeur and feels the need to believe he matters in this vast, wide world. He wonders if she sees things his way now, sees that the world is merely a giant puzzle made up of interlocking parts. Removing a piece of the puzzle leaves the entire picture incomplete. He wonders if she's learned that now but again the Question hesitates to voice such theories.

He's always searching for the truth, for the answers to all these questions. Vic wants to believe in Helena. He wants to believe she is as he sees her but therein lies the great paradox. The Question isn't a man who is satisfied with things being what they seem. The Question isn't a man satisfied with appearances and maybe he's a little scared he won't like what he sees concerning Huntress. He's searched her eyes time and again even after they've made love. His curiosity outweighs his fear and sometimes Victor Sage wishes he could just be satisfied that he has her at all.

"Why didn't you kill him?" whispers Question in the stillness of the night. Huntress blinks for a few seconds, lost in a daze of sleep and confusion.

"Who?" she asks sleepily, because she really doesn't see it necessary to talk about anything involving the man who murdered her parents. She knows he's been dying to ask because Helena Bertinelli has figured out this faceless enigma called "the Question".

"Mandragora," replies Vic quietly.

"I am so not talking about this," states Helena as she rolls over to look at him, "Go to sleep." She can see it in his eyes. He wants to know because knowing helps make him make sense out of this world. Huntress has lived long enough to know that some questions never get answered and sometimes the world just never makes sense.

"Please," whispers Vic, "I just . . ."

"Want to know," finishes Helena, "Some things aren't worth knowing, Q."

"You are," assures Question.

"I realized that's not what I wanted," explains Huntress. She knows it won't be good enough for him. Rarely any answer is good enough for the Question.

"What do you want?" asks Vic.

"Justice," replies Helena, "His life wasn't worth taking and I wasn't going to do it in front of his son." She can tell he's not really satisfied with this answer. He opens his mouth to speak but she shushes him with a finger to his lips. He knows she's capable of being much more forceful. He's figured her out though. Underneath all the anger and fury is a woman who needs to be loved. He knows that she has figured him out too, figured out that underneath all the questions and theories is a cynical man who desperately wants something to finally believe in. He loves her and she believes in him.

"Asking all these questions can't change the past, Vic," reminds Helena, "The truth is that I love you. That's what matters." She knows him too well. She knows that he's become a man who is more intent on the questions than the answers. The Question loves to ask why but Huntress has been asking that all her life and has never received a real answer.

"I suppose so," replies Question as he kisses her fingertip. They've figured each other out. Both of them pride themselves on being mysterious enigmas. Both of them ask the questions and never really find the answers. They were puzzles with missing pieces, incomplete until they met each other. Neither of them questions why it happened. They're both just happy to be complete and are content to stop wondering.