Bloody Hands, Clean Feet

Participants:

bryan_icon.gif odessa_icon.gif

Scene Title Bloody Hands, Clean Feet
Synopsis Suspicions abound when Doctor Knutson calls Agent Buckley for help.
Date October 7, 2008

Calvary Cemetery


"Buckley, it's Knutson. I have a situation." Odessa's crouched with her phone on the ground, on speaker, as she wipes her bloody hands on the grass. "Uhm… Calvary Cemetery. I think I can keep things quiet until you get here, but you might want to hurry. And, ah, don't tell the Bishop?" She snaps the phone closed before the agent can argue with her and slides it into the left pocket of her sweater dress.

"You won't miss this, will you?" Odessa lifts her knees to dislodge the heels of her lime green shoes from the soft ground. Lightly, she steps around the corpse of the agent she was musing to. The top of his skull has been gently put back into place, but there's a bloody, tell-tale line, and it doesn't sit quite right. She frowns at her handiwork. "Can't fix the dead," she laments before grabbing a tuft of hair and peeling the crown away to toss it aside. She rolls the corpse over and checks the pockets, retrieving a wallet. "Jackpot." Now, it's time to play the waiting game.

Bryan Buckley isn't the fastest agent in The Company's vast arsenal, but he isn't exactly slow either. He gets to the cemetery when he gets there, giving the doctor plenty of time to do any preparation she may need to. He did, at least, take a Company car so he wouldn't have to try and hail a cab.

It doesn't take long to find her, his flashlight sweeping the dark rows of headstones and grass that's slowly browning in the colder air. Bryan is dressed in his brown leather jacket over today's sportcoat and turtleneck, and his boots crunch on the ground as he nears Odessa. His flashlight fixes on her chest rather than any body. "What's going on?" he asks tersely, eyebrows already furrowed with his harsh and impatient demeanor that has been usual as of late.

"Guy's dead." Odessa nudges the body onto its back again with her foot. "I didn't want everyone to freak out. I mean, I'm fine." And, clearly, the only one they would have been worried about would be her. Not her escort. She's the doctor. She's important!

The beam of the flashlight is immediately aimed downward, and the breath that Bryan sucks into his lungs is nearly audible. "Christ, Odessa," he sighs, using the doctor's first name rather than her title — a rare occasion. "You got your numbers mixed up. Blakely is with disposal. Buckley is with 'dispatch.'" Sighing like an exasperated parent, Bryan steps closer to better examine the corpse. That slice is unmistakable.

His first thoughts are of betrayal. Bryan clenches his jaw when he looks at the doctor again, his eyes wide with restrained fury for a moment before he harnesses them. "Why the hell did you come here, anyway? You don't know anyone here." Does she?

"But I don't like Blakely." Odessa shrugs. She looks confused when he asks her why she picked this place. "I've never seen it before. I wanted to see a real cemetery. It's a little surreal, seeing where all the bodies end up, isn't it?" She's entirely unapologetic for the damage her little detour caused. "I just wanted to see it… I didn't think He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named would show up." This is what happens when you let your doctor have access to the works of J.K. Rowling.

Bryan rolls his eyes as he pulls his own phone from his pocket and finds the right number. The conversation he has when the other end picks up is concise and just as terse as ever. "Clean-up level 4, Code Double-G, Calvary Cem." He nods and grunts an acknowledgment of the acknowledgment before he snaps the phone shut and returns it to his pocket. "They'll be here soon, Wiz-Kid," he says as he reaches out for the doctor's hand. "Why come back to the body, though? What if he had waited for you here, hm? You're smarter than that."

Odessa smiles faintly. "Why would he come back? He killed a Company man. He'd be begging to be caught if he just stood around and hoped someone else would show up alone. And besides, I can take care of myself." But she just can't stop her shoes from sinking into the ground. She takes Bryan's hand finally, using it to steady herself as she pulls her shoes up once again.

Now there's something odd. Bryan halts, his hand still holding Odessa's in the air. He stares at her shoes as she pulls the heels out of the moist, bacteria sodden dirt. "Show me your feet," he demands plainly as he tightens his grip ever-so-slightly on the doctor's hand.

"What?" Odessa raises a brow and holds one leg out, carefully balancing even as the other foot remains firmly planted. More firmly as the shoe sinks in like a stake. "Do you like them?" The lime green doesn't really match the heather grey, but it does add some colour.

"Your feet, Knutson," Bryan repeats himself, his expression growing cold. "Not your shoes. Your feet."

Odessa shifts carefully and slips one shoe off, holding her foot up. She's careful not to let it touch the ground. It's cold, after all. "What are you looking for?"

This was certainly not what Bryan expected. His grip grows firmer still, and the lines of his frown deepen as he looks between Odessa's foot and her face. "What really happened here, Doctor?" he asks, a knowing, suspicious lilt in his voice that smacks of his frustration with…well, the world at this point in time. Odessa is just the cherry on top at this point.

The doctor slips her foot back into her discarded shoe and stares quizzically at Bryan. "I didn't need to run." Logic dictates to Odessa that he must assume she kicked her shoes off and ran away. "He just came out of nowhere. My escort didn't even have the time to react. I just wanted to see the cemetery." Her gaze turns down to the ground and she actually looks… regretful? "I didn't intend for anyone to die."

"Then there was a reason he didn't get rid of you, if you didn't run." Bryan isn't happy, and it's clear. Still, questioning isn't his forte. "You know I'd hate to put you in a room with Salonga against your will, so why don't you just tell me, hm?" He gives Odessa's hand a slight tug in an effort to pull her closer and begin leading her to the car.

"I said I didn't need to run. That doesn't mean I didn't get away." Candor has never been one of Odessa's qualities when it comes to the question of her abilities. She gets dragged along willingly enough. "Be honest with me, Bryan…" Now, she digs her heels into the dirt. "If I go back with you, are they ever going to let me see the outside world again?"

Bryan's eyes soften the slightest bit, as if the stone were melting on top of liquid flames, when he looks Odessa in the face again. "I can't promise you anything like that, Odessa. But I can promise you Adam, as soon as we get Elle back." As soon as Sylar is finished with what he obviously wants from the regenerator. "If I have to bite him again and again in order to bring him to you, Adam will be put back in that little box."


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October 7th: The Power of a Name

Previously in this storyline…
Quiet as the...


Next in this storyline…

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October 8th: A Possible Lead
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