"Away"

Participants:

colette_icon.gif else_icon.gif rourke_icon.gif

Scene Title "Away"
Synopsis When Colette comes to the Brick House looking for people from the Ferrymen, she delivers harrowing news and receives some of her own.
Date November 8, 2010

Brick House


Operational procedure insists that no vehicles ever be parked in front of the Ferrymen safehouse known as the Brick House.

The truck parked out front today belongs to someone who should know better.

From down the street, the popping sputter of Colette Nichols' battered old dirt bike signals her arrival long before Andy Rourke or Else Kjelstrom could see her coming. From the bed of his battered old brown pickup, Andy loads a heavy duffel bag inside, then turns to the sound of the approaching dirt bike with marked scrutiny, dark brows furrowed and frustration already clear on his face.

Ducking through a hole that looks to have been cut in the chain-link fence surrounding the Brick House, Else Kjelstrom carried a backpack over one shoulder, and on seeing the darkly-dressed courier arriving from down the road, her greeting is one of a fond smile. "Hey!" She proclaims with one hand waving in the air, looking up to where Andy stands in the back of the truck.

Stepping towards the tailgate, Andy watches as Colette's dirtbike rolls to a stop and is parked on the side of the street. When Colette steps off, taking off her helmet and shaking out her hair, Andy's greeting is the clap of his work boots on the asphalt when he lands from the short jump. Expectance is in his expression, Colette is an unwanted visitor.

"Andy! Else!" Hanging her helmet on one handle of the bike, Colette hustles with scuffing footfalls towards the pair. "I need to talk to Meredith, is she ins— " only then does Colette notice the hole cut in the fence, her eyes going wide as she looks back to Andy. "Andy what's— "

"Mer's gone," is his quick interjection, "She an' a couple other people buggered off before dawn." His delivery is flat, a rehearsed line. "We're breakin' down here, too hot in'na city for us. Packin' light an' movin' out, we're just 'bout ready t'leave, so if you'd kindly piss off we'll be outta' your way if you wanna salvage what we didn't take with us."

Giving Andy a look, Else furrows her brows and steps ahead of him, turning her attention on Colette. "They were gone when I got here from Delilah's this morning, but Andy's right. S'not safe here any longer for us, so we're takin' off an' headed upstate. S'what we were doin' in our visions," she notes with a look over to Andy, who has already started to head to the driver's side of the truck.

Else's brows furrow in thought, and Colette takes the opportunity to interject bad news of her own. "Hey," she steps closer, "it— you didn't hear about what happened?" When Else looks back, there's an expression of ignorance painted across her face. Squinting at Colette, she doesn't seem to recognize what the younger girl is talking about.

"Fuck— Fuck." Lifting her hands up into her hair, Colette paces around in a slow circle. "Fuck, Else— Andy!" When she shouts back, Andy throws both of his hands up and turns around, about to shout at her, but the youngest continues her warning. "The— the whole fucking council got attacked! I think some of them died, I overheard Niel and Robin talking about it at Grand Central this morning. They didn't have an exact head count, but I know Bennet's in critical condition, I think they moved him to Gun Hill."

"Oh my God," Else whispers as she covers her mouth, but Andy is quick to snap out of the truck, hauling himself towards Colette with dark eyes wide. "Who— who d— "

"Where's Susan?" Andy sharply asks on his way around the back of the truck, storming over to Colette. "S'she one'f the dead? Tell me what th' fuck 'appened!" Recoiling from Andy's shout, Colette looks up at him with wide eyes and a lump in her throat. Looking askance to Else, who is struck silent by the horrifying revelation, Colette instead slowly shakes her head.

She can't believe she's about to say this. "Susan— she— betrayed everyone. She lured them all out to Staten Island, it— Andy she turned on us all. I— I thought you knew, I thought that's why…" Why he was leaving. Now Colette's brows tense into a furrow, her expression one begging discernment, clarification.

"Fuck," Andy hisses out, not because it's a surprise— well a little— but because it happened sooner than he'd thought. He can still salvage this, though, still put things right. "A'right, okay, so— we need t'get th' fuck outta' here. If she's fuckin' sold us out to the bloody government, than we're as good as dead if we stay here." Andy turns, taking Else by the bicep, "C'mon, we're cuttin' an' fuckin' runnin'."

Jerking her arm away from Andy, Else staggers back a few steps, "Andy, wait!" Her brows lower in frustration, soon turning her dark eyes to Colette. "Do— D'you wanna' come with us? S'a fuckin' long ride out but we'll be good, you can sit bitch b'tween me an' Andy." Clenching his fists together, Andy offers a sharp look to Colette, the last person he wants to have to sit next to on his ride and the last person he wants to take with him where he is going.

"I— can't," and Colette's answer is a huge relief on Andy's part. "I've— I have t'stick around town. There's a lot going on right now, and I gotta' be able t'make sure everybody gets out okay. M'just here t'let you know and check on Meredith, we're running short on senior staff and I think she's next pick for the council. It— we have to…"

"We ain't gotta do shit." Andy sharply corrects Colette, "We're bouncin', so unless you wanna' go an' continue playin' sidekick to the council, I'd say you should fuckin' bugger off too. Ain't gonna' be safe here for us no more, if the council's gone, the fuckin' Ferry's gone. S'over, we're done. Time t'pick up an' start again."

Else's reaction to Andy's hostility is frustration, but admittedly patience as well. "M'sorry, 'Lette. But we can't stay. Ah, here— I was gonna' bring this with me, but maybe you coul' give this t'Delilah when you see her?" Watching Andy storming off for a moment back to the driver's side of the truck, Else then drops to one knee and swings her pack off of her shoulder, letting it hit the asphalt before being unzipped.

When the blonde produces a notebook from within, it's handed out to Colette with a faint smile. "S' like, song lyrics an' notes I'd written. Cat'd asked me t'keep an active journal a'stuff, so I've been doin' that. It's mostly B-sides tha' the Shattered Skies ne'er got t'play. Probably won't ever now, 'specially if we're all fugitives'r what not." Dark brows crease together, but Else manages something of a faint smile when Colette takes the book in hands.

"Y'did a good job'f safeguardin' m'last one, so a'figure there's not much harm in that, yeah?" Colette's lips creep up into a smile at Else's words, and as she curls the notebook into a tube-like shape a shallow nod acknowledge's the precognitive's request. "Chin up an' all that positive shit, a'right? This ain't the end'f the world… not like Andy or th' news is sayin'. We're gonna make it outta' this, gotta."

The next nod Colette gives may not be as enthusiastic, but it is hopeful. "I— I know. I just… I saw a lot've bad things, heard worse when I was collecting all the visions. I can't— I don't want t'just sit around. I've gotta try'n stop some of it from happening, that's why we even found out, so we could undo what was going to happen."

The smile Else gives is a patient one, but it's also one that implies her disagreement. "Maybe," is a diplomatic 'no'. "But I don't really think we're supposed 'tchange stuff, just know it's comin' so we can kinda'… y'know… brace for it?" One of Else's brows rises, hopeful that Colette gets the concept. That she doesn't isn't a surprise, that Else doesn't much mind isn't either.

"C'mon!" Comes from Andy's direction along with a slap of his palm against the door, "We're burnin' fuckin' daylight! You bloody well know what fuckin' traffic's gonna' be like!" Else bristles at Andy's shout, but she knows he's right, traffic on the way north out of New York City is going to be a nightmare.

"It's okay," Colette breathily offers, taking a step in to wrap one arm around Else's shoulders, squeezing her tightly in the embrace as the former singer is shouldering her backpack. "Thanks— by the way, for like— for everything. The party at Cat's, the— just— the everything. You and Andy get the heck outta' here, and when this all blows the fuck over, I'll call you an' you better come on back, a'right?"

"Or you'll haunt me?" Else asks with her lips pursed to the side and one brow raised, fingers wiggling at Colette.

"Yeah," the teen offers with a grimace, "yeah, or I'll haunt'cha." Smiles are fleeting things, and Else's is too. On her way to Andy's truck, the engine rumbles and turns over, steam issuing out of the tailpipe into the crisp autumn air. Colette takes a step back, away, and onto the sidewalk as she retrieves her cell phone from her leather jacket, watching the truck begin to pull away from the curb the moment Else is in the passenger side.

Thumb deftly gliding over the numbers on her touch pad, she sends a quick text out, attention flitting between Andy and Else's departure and her message.

Tasha i'm @ the brick house. I think you're right, not safe. Can you pick me up w/your mom?

Maybe there' still time.


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