Abigail Needs You

Participants:

abby_icon.gif niki_icon.gif

Scene Title Abigail Needs You
Synopsis After a cryptic message is received, Niki leaves the island to help an old friend.
Date June 12, 2009

Apartment of Abby Beauchamp


Abigail needs you.

That was the entire message.

Abigail needs you.

No callback number, no email address, no nothing. If there was one soul who Niki would actually consider a friend — a real friend — it would be Abby. The thought that something has happened to her — well, concerns Niki.

You don't need to be going off the island. There's no one out there for you.

Jessica.

"I'm going. Deal with it."

Making her way off the island was no small feat. A favor here and a favor there and she found herself where she needed to be. Her face tucked deep inside the hood of her sweatshirt, she finds herself on public transportation. As dirty as she's is, no one really messes with her. In fact, no one sits anywhere near her as the bus moves along the city streets until it reaches Niki's stop. In moments of solitude, you don't often concern yourself with how you look or smell because there's no one else around to see — yet she found herself oddly embarrassed at the looks that were tossed her way, and how no one sat near her.

Soon she's standing in front of the door as she raises her hand to knock. Her hand stays there for a long time — several eternities in the mind of Niki Sanders as she looks from side to side as she's almost certain someone will call the police on her — her looking all scruffy and definitely out of place here.

Finally, her knuckles find the wood of the door, as they rap upon it several times. She tries to hide herself deeper inside the hood of that jacket.

In case Deckard came home again, Abigail was leaving her room still to Claire for the cheerleader to occupy and had taken up residence on her couch. Because that's how proper hostess's were. So the knock on her door was something that pulled her out of her dream and shoveled her away from green eyes, terror, conversation with god in which she was denied entrance to heaven. The usual for Abby. All of it cut short though at the sharp knocks. She doesn't holler like she normally would, plead for the person on the other side of the door to hold on.

Deckard probably didn't find the key in his pocket, or some such thing. Either that or he's too proud to use it. Something. "Just a moment Flint" She calls out when closer, throwing locks and neglecting to look out the peephole. If she had, she would have seen Niki and probably done it much faster. As it is, when the door does finally open, Abigail's there in blue flannel PJ's, little white and cream colored sheep cavorting in thier still scenes across her body, blonde hair in a braid and hanging down her back as she peers at the person who's hunkered in on herself. "Hello?"

The first thought that crosses Niki's mind is — seriously, how much trouble could Abby be in pajamas like those? Phone-dude is playing tricks on her.

I told you.

Shut up, Jessica.

She reaches up — at least thankful that Abby hasn't screamed out in terror — and pulls back the hood. The smile given as the 'mostly-blond' woman stands there is really only a half smile, a touch of apology for disturbing her out of her sleep. She rocks back and forth on the heels of her worn sneakers.

"Abby."

Niki.

If Abigail was the fainty dainty given to the habit of vapors type of southern genteel woman, she'd be doing that. But she's not. She's instead the kind of woman when faced with someone who was long gone, taken by evil government forces while searching for her friend in the pits of hell, nearly leaps to envelope the woman in a hug, tighter than anything Teo has even been given. "Oh Gracious Lord, Niki. You're alive!"

Niki might be bowled over if Abby wasn't clinging to her so tightly. Her dirty hands move up and wrap around the other woman's frame and gives her a solid hug. "Hey." she says again. After a long moment, Niki pulls back and looks at Abby curiously. "I'm alive. But.. are /you/ okay?" A hand move up to scratch behind her neck as Niki tries to figure out that cryptic message on the phone. There's still a touch of embarrassment to the woman as she tries to get to the bottom of this all.

"You're more than alive" Abigail fires back, the languidity of sleep leaving her, replaced by the adrenaline of seeing Niki alive and well. Dirty, but alive and well. "Inside! Quick. You can ask all the questions you want, just come inside. Not too loud though, Claire's conked out on my bed and lord help me, I don't wanna have to explain you. Jessica's laying low right now?" code word for 'are you in charge right now?'

Stepping inside so Abby can close the door, Niki responds. "We've come to an arrangement." Sorta. Her voice is a whisper at learning that Claire is in the apartment. She stands, afraid to sit. She's so dirty. She pulls that cell phone out of her hand. "Someone gave me this and I've been getting these strange text messages. I am not sure what's going on, but someone is messing with me, I think." She holds it up as that last text is still displayed.

Abigail needs you.

"Any idea what this is all about? I came all the way from Staten when I got it." Which should explain her current physical state. "I was afraid something bad had happened to you." Abby does have a knack for getting herself into trouble.

Abigail looks to the message on Niki's cell once the door is locked and they're both inside. "Wireless maybe?" The context of the message though. It's written all over Abby's face. There is something wrong, plain to see when the blue eyed blonde looks to the other blue eye'd blonde. "You don't know who sent you this? It wasn't an italian guy?"

"Italian guy?" Niki shakes her head, tucking the phone back into her pocket. It has never rang. Just text messages. "I got it from Tamara."

Kookie Tamara.

Jessica is ignored as Niki continues. "She spotted me on the riverfront and brought me the phone and said someonee wanted to talk to me. Since then, I've been getting these text messages. I got this one today."

"What's going on, and who's the Italian guy? Are you in trouble?"

It's not really trouble. Tamara though. That would.. figure. "Niki…" Abigail frowns, a glance to the phone as it's tucked away. "Niki… I can't heal anymore. My ability, someone took it, gave it to someone else and left me with nothing. Maybe.. that's what they're referring to? Because right now, that's the only thing. I mean, they got me away from Staten, you can see that. Italian guy is Teo, you've talked to him on the phone, or well.. Jessica has" Niki's never talked to him.

Niki can't stop the wince that comes when Abby tells her of her lost ability. "I don't understand. How does it just stop like that?" Since coming back from the future, there has been some memory-bleed on the part of the trio of personalities that make up the woman. Not everything, mind you — but there is some. Teo doesn't seem to be part of that, so she'll have to address that with Jessica another time. A question more important comes to her mind. If Abby can lose her ability — are there others losing theirs? Will she lose hers? "What happened?"

She's considering just writing an essay and passing it over. The downside to not hanging a sign that says "God took it away" and getting it over with all at once. Abigail sighs, then gestures to the kitchen. She's up, might as well have something to drink, like tea, while explaining. And she does. About being at work, off duty. About heading out the back door and Deckard coming out after her to talk. Then Tyler Case and his stammered apology as he was leaving that meant very little to his wounded parties. Of her now three weeks without being able to heal a wound.

She even tells Niki about one Amato Salucci, who she healed before this all went down, of his request for absolution at her hands, and subsequent completion of the man's hand. By this time, water has boiled, and tea made while Abigail has been increasingly getting near tears in relaying what's happened. It's Niki. It's her friend, despite how others consider the woman.

Niki doesn't have 'friends'. Not typically. Only two that she can really count, and the women in tears before her is one of them. It's one of the very rare moments that she allows herself to get close — to anyone. The tea kettle whistles as she listens to the story that seems to never stop, same with the tears. Niki bites at her lip as she feels herself becoming angry just listening to it. Anger will do her no good at the moment. Not yet. She can even feel Jessica tugging at her wanting out. She'll deal with this — and not in the way that Niki would prefer. She reaches up and wipes at her nose with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. "I'm really sorry, Abby." She knows what that ability meant to her.

'Everyone's sorry" Abigail summarily points out, doing very much the same with her own sleeve, wiping at her own nose. tears = runny nose. One hand closed around the tea mug. "Lord, Niki, you.. you are a sight for sore eyes. I think your friend in the phone is right, I do need you" even as she sniffles and tilts her head to the right, dab at her eyes with a non-nose wiped section of her sleeve. "Not cried much. Just in front of Flint that night, and then another night. Sometimes at night. Everyone's so busy fighting the good fight and .. saving the world. But i'm blubbering here and you're standing there looking like something that the cut drug in. I don't have another bed, but I can give you the couch and offer you a shower to clean up" She'll just dig out more blankets and camp on the floor to sleep.

"Abby."

Niki sniffles as she takes a mug for herself and takes a drink of the warm tea. Not that it's been cold out, but just because the weather is warm, doesn't mean the conditions aren't chilly. The offer is tempting. Very tempting. "I am not sure I'm ready to be back." As she sips tea, Niki relays her stay in Moab, her trip to the future, and her near brush with a Jessica/Gina-free life as they were working towards splitting the trio before she was sucked back to the present. Finally her recent stay at Staten in less than stellar conditions, is explained as she sits at the dining table where she knows she won't leave a bad smell. "I don't really have a job or anything, Abby. I've been eating from the soup van on Staten. I can't go back to the Company. I'm not even sure they can know I'm here. I don't know what else I can do."

'You'd have your job still at Old Lucy's Niki. There's people that can help you" her own hands wrapped around a second cup of tea as she listened to Niki's tale. No one had really told her much of what had happened to the people who had poofed into the future. future versions of themselves. Of course there were. But then Staten Island and the soup Vans. "I know someone who can change your face is you want, he can make you look like someone else, for a short amount of time, or long. Doesn't matters. I know people, the Ferryman, remember. They can help you. Better than some.. abandoned building on Staten Island. I got told that something's happened there, going to happen there and people need to get off it" There's worry in her own damp eyes. This wasn't the first time she was offering to help Niki.

The temptation is there. Back to her old life. Or starting a new one. New face. But. Niki chews on her lip as she listens to Abby. "I know there's something big going down. I don't know what, or whose side I should be on. I'd almost prefer to find some place, hide out until it's all over and done with. What if I pick the wrong side? I just don't know, Abby."

You just want to sit back and let the others do the work. We can make a difference here. Let me out to play, Niki.

You'll make it worse. You always do.

The pause as the two personalities confer is very brief, maybe even unnoticible except for the far off look that flickers across Niki's face. Conflicted blue eyes fall upon Abby, as well as hesitation as Niki finally decides. "I'll stay — if I'm not going to be an imposition. I /could/ stand for a shower. Maybe even get my hair done. But I won't take your couch. You've already given up your bed. We'll — I'll crash on the floor. It's fine." A resigned smile is offers to her friend as Niki reluctantly decides to stick around.

"I swear, I'm gonna just make this a ferryman safehouse and squish as many people in as I can" Abby shakes her head. "Niki, if you choose the wrong side, then you choose the wrong side. You make your bed, and you sleep in it. You do the best you can with what you have. And if you mess up" Abby shrugs, putting her cup down. "I know a hairdresser. I can even get him to make a housecall. He owes me. I healed his daughter and gave her tarantuala back a leg. He's really good. Flamboyant and little funny between the sheets I'm pretty sure, but he's good"

"I'm not going to hug you again until after I clean up." Niki smiles as she wipes her nose again on her sleeve. "I don't have any clothes." Everything she had, she left on Staten. Not that she had much to begin with. She will need a job. "You're sure I can work at Lucy's?" She finishes her mug of tea and walks over to set the cup into the sink, turning back to look at Abby as she leans up against the counter.

"Isabelle's back to living up top of it. I'm sure that with a change of your hair color Niki, and some make up, it could be done. We can see about the Ferryman giving you some fake ID. It's like witness protection, only for evolved people!" She's helping. In her own way. She can't wick away her hurts, but she can do this.

Niki walks over and places her hand on Abby's shoulder. "Ability or not. Evolved or not. You are always helping others, Abby. You don't need a power for that." The smile she gives her friend is genuine. Probably the first real one in a very long time. It curls up into a smirk, so how about a towel and I'll clean up?" It isn't just Abigail who needs Niki. It seems that Niki needs Abigail as well. Who really is that on the other end of that phone?


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