Ding

Participants:

sf_asami2_icon.gif sf_kaylee2_icon.gif

Scene Title Ding
Synopsis Kaylee awakens from a fugue at the end of a workweek to find one nightmare… then another still, after Asami arrives.
Date February 26, 2021

<Ding>
<Thump>

Brows furrow with annoyance as sound pushes into her peaceful, relaxing, silence. A feeling she rarely feels anymore.

<Ding>
<Thump>

So Kaylee tries hard to ignore the sound and to find that relaxed feeling of Zen again. However, that sound was rather insistent that she pays attention to it. Even worse, she’s starting to notice light, harsh and bright, just beyond her eyelids.

So much for peace.

<Ding>
<Thump>

Fine! A frustrated sigh escapes Kaylee at the inconvenience. She really didn’t want to leave the comfort of — Wait — Eyes flutter open and then widen in sudden awareness. She was still standing in the middle of the Foundation’s entry.

Taking a sharp breath of shock, Kaylee was horrified to think that she had zoned out in the middle of the entrance. It was well after hours, but that didn’t matter. What if someone had step through the — ?

<Ding>
<Thump>

The doors of the elevator try closing yet again, but come to a sudden stop and slowly slide open. When they do, Kaylee doesn’t notice as the mirrored surface of the elevator walls were smeared in what could only be blood.

So. Much. Blood.

Kaylee stared in horror at the gruesome scene, at least until her own reflection caught her attention through the blood . At first, that same look of horror is reflected back, but then it changes and Valerie stares back with a predatory look in her eye and a smug smirk on those red painted lips. She was proud of what happened. Here, let her show you. Her eyes lower to look at the ground, to draw Kaylee’s attention down, just as the elevator doors try to close again….

<Ding>
<Thump>

Kaylee feels a cold icy finger of fear slide down her back, as the sounds finally truly register…. Something was keeping those doors from closing and Kaylee was almost too scared to look. Deep down she knew what was waiting for her and looking down did confirm it.

<Ding>
<Thump>

Bodies.

People who worked for her.

Taking a step back, the back of her foot connects with another and a strangled scream escapes her before she can stop it. Whipping around to look behind her, she finds two more. Hands fly up to clamp over her mouth to stop another scream… but before they reach, she finds they are both covered in the thick ruby fluid. Her breath trembles and catches as a thin drooling line of blood slowly rolls down her wrist to lazily drip off her elbow.

She watches it the whole way, unable to take her eyes off of the droplet.

<Ding>
<Thump>

“Oh god… oh god…” Kaylee’s voice is breathless and edged with panic. She flees into the waiting room, only to find Claire, her receptionist, face down on the floor. The woman’s arm rests on the counter. “What…?” What happened?” Kaylee whines out softly.

The only thing Kaylee could remember was standing at the elevator finally ready to head home for the day, having finished up pressing paperwork, when Bob had turned towards her with eyes of gold.

Now they were all dead and she’d done it.

With a strangled sob, Kaylee flees for her office where she locks herself in. Sliding to sit on the floor, she does the first thing she could think of… text Asami.

911. My Office.


Director's Office

Petrelli Foundation Headquarters

Just before midnight


Asami doesn't knock or wait for permission. Whatever happened was urgent, so she walks through the door to Kaylee's office as soon as she arrives to it. She narrows her eyes to adjust to the difference in light, then they widen upon seeing Kaylee there.

"Oh my god," she breathes out, her stomach sinking. She takes one step closer, then another.

"What happened?" Asami asks in an urgent rush, her eyes filled with fear. Not of Kaylee, but for her.

It had felt like time had slowed to a crawl while Kaylee waited, each tick of the clock slowing even further if she listened to it. She huddled there on the floor, watching the door, arms curled tightly around her legs.

Now relief washed over her, but holds up hands to keep Asami back so she doesn’t get blood on her.

“I-I-I didn’t mean to, I-I-I didn’t….” Taking a few deep breaths and blinking at threatening tears, Kaylee finally uses the one name to explain her bloodied and tattered appearance. “Valerie,” she drops the name with a plea in her voice.

Only once that name passes her lips does she find the words…

“I-I-I woke up in front of the elevators,” Kaylee stammers out. “An-an-and there was blood everywhere. Valerie killed them all.” She looked completely horrified at what the woman in her head did. “I didn’t know what to do, so I called you. What do I do Asami? There’s cameras everywhere… what if they come after me.”

A sob escapes when Kaylee adds, “Those poor people, I didn’t mean to. Claire had just had a baby girl.”

God, look at all the blood. Asami's glad, now, she took the burner phone. But she looks freshly bewildered, not that it's an easy distinction to make with how upset Kaylee is.

"Hey-hey-hey—" Soothing, she lifts her hands and closes the distance. Asami chases Kaylee's gaze with her own, placing her hands on her shoulders. Her own heart is hammering in her chest and it takes effort to not let Kaylee's panicked thoughts infect her own, but she manages to ask calmly, "Where are they, Kaylee? What did Valerie do with the bodies?"

It's a perfectly serious question.

Kaylee looks perfectly confused at the question.

“How could you miss them?!?” Kaylee asks, half shouting her bewilderment, tears washing away blood on her cheeks. “They were all over the lobby floor.” She could feel anger starting to boil up, if she was messing with her. This wasn’t the time for it. This was serious!

“You…” Blue eyes cut away towards the door, Kaylee confusion deepening even more. “You… didn’t pass them?” she asks in a small quiet voice when she looks back up at Asami, worry edging in. If she wasn’t still covered in blood and a few other things she doesn’t want to think about, Kaylee would start to wonder if she was crazy.

Asami's eyes flicker in confusion of her own when Kaylee asks her how she's not seen. She slips her hands off her friend's shoulder, sliding the steps back to the office door. She pushes it outward and open to be sure for herself, too, swinging the door open to reveal…

A dark hallway. But not one darkened with blood or slumped bodies. Not a one.

She steps out into the hall to be sure, head turning this way and that with a lump in her throat.

As soon as Kaylee sees the hall, color bleeds from her cheeks and her mouth drops open.

Pushing to her feet, Kaylee steps out past Asami, looking around frantically and shaking her head. “I don’t….” She rushes down the hall towards the entry and the receptionists desk, only to come to a sudden stop.

It was spotless.

There was no blood pooling on the floor. No arm laying on the receptionist’s desk. No vacant eyes staring at her in silent judgement. It was like nothing happened.

“I don’t understand,” Kaylee says softly, bracing herself against the chest height counter. “It… it doesn’t make sense.”

A soft giggle pulls her attention to the receptionist’s chair, where the little boy that had been haunting her sits, looking up at her with a bright smile. It was almost like he was laughing at her distress. Worry starts to worm its way through her and she looks up at the mirrored letters of the foundation across the wall behind him.

“We’re not crazy,” Kaylee tells the scowling woman looking back.

Asami knows that, too, able to feel what Kaylee knows she should be seeing when her mind goes to all the very specific things that are wrong with how the lobby looks. Still, she doesn't know what to make of it at all, her hand lifting up and running back through her hair while she slowly paces the lobby.

Because this shouldn't be possible.

"You're not crazy," Asami echoes the repetition, because she firmly believes that. She adds her next observation on in a soft voice, like speaking too loudly will somehow make this all that much worse. "But I don't know what the fuck is going on here."

"This shouldn't— they should all still be out here," she tries to rationalize, looking back to Kaylee with slightly widened eyes. After all, how else did she get covered in blood as she is?

As Asami talks she doesn't see the shift in the woman’s physical features, but neither does Kaylee move. Blue eyes watch Asami’s pacing with a flat emotionless gaze, it was almost… predatory.

“They had golden eyes.”

It was an angry almost growled accusation from the Petrelli heir. Kaylee still doesn't turn around, continuing to look at Asami through the reflective surface. “Just like you had when you made us like this and then they tried to kill us.”

Whipping around, Kaylee glares at Asami directly now, eyes filled with anger and hate. Her friend wasn't in control anymore.

sf_valerie_icon.gif

“Give me a good reason why I shouldn't break you right now,” Valerie snaps at Asami, as her fingers tighten around the edge of the desk, making it protest, before it breaks off from the bolts holding it to the floor. “And I suggest you best talk quickly, because from where I stand, you’re working for whoever wants us dead?”

The moment Kaylee's voice changes, deadens, Asami slides a step back away from Kaylee, on guard. It proves to be justified when Valerie is the one who turns to stare her down a moment later. "What?" filters from her in a single breath, struggling with this revelation. Their eyes were gold?

She slips closer to panicking, to running because she knows very well Valerie can follow through on her threat. But something holds her there, and she challenges back, "I would never hurt Kaylee. All I've ever wanted to do is give her the strength I knew she had all along." Which… apparently was her. Before Asami knows it, she adds: "You could say thank you, maybe."

It didn't feel like her, saying that. But the words are snapped out, unable to be taken back. More unnerved than before, Asami gestures violently toward the elevator. "And I didn't do this. I couldn't even if I wanted to, and what would I have to gain from trying to kill one of the only people who are trying to look out for me?" There's an edge of desperation to that, pleading for Valerie's understanding.

God, the last thing she wants to do is fight her, even in self-defense. It's Kaylee she'd be hurting.

“I didn't say you did this.” Valerie scoffs, the metal in the desk shrieking and crunching under her fingers, as she struggles to hold back the desire to flatten the other woman. Maybe it was some of Kaylee’s influence under it all. Begging her not to kill the other woman. “What I can't figure out is why they would have you change us, only to have us killed.”

A look of disgust pulls at Valerie’s lips, teeth white as she sneers. “She believes you are a good person, even after you changed us and our babies. She believes that you wouldn't really do this. That these people fucked you up for some sick and twisted, bullshit purpose.”

Valerie seems to be sizing up the other woman, as if trying to make a decision. “I personally don’t trust you, especially after the attack,” she says with an unnerving certainty.

With a huff and a roll of her eyes, Valerie appears to relax. A little. “However, we’re both convinced that you are the key to getting to these people and stopping whatever this is going on. And finding out what happened to Nathan.” She drops the desk, causing a slight vibration in the floor, and shrugs. “So, I’ll let you live. But if at any time you do hurt her or the girls, I will make it my personal mission to end you.” A brow twitches up as if asking her she plans to do about it.

A staggered exhale leaves Asami in an attempt to mask it and avoid it from being an extremely noted sigh of relief. Her hands lower, posture easing but not relaxing. It's impossible to do that around Valerie.

Maybe it always will be.

"I've been trying hard to find Violette," she admits, not immediately thinking on how her failure here is likely to become the focus. "She gave me her first and last name, but I can't find her anywhere. Not even a birth certificate, and I've checked every state. I've known her for forever, and I can't even find her online. It's like—"

Asami struggles with memories of a different v.iris briefly. One not Violette Iris at all. One that's not even a she. Trying to understand what the two different sets of memories mean in the ways they don't line up threatens to give her a headache.

She brings a hand to her forehead, rubbing before admitting bitterly, "I still don't know what to do to get us all the answers we're after. I'm not sure where I can go next with this. I tried laying low after the police chase and… now I'm starting to wonder if the only way to draw her out again isn't to get dramatic."

Dramatic, that we can help you with,” Valerie says with a smug and confident smirk. There is a tilt of her head, as if hearing something, before she advises Asami to, “Ask Kaylee about her media contact.”

Before Asami can ask her what that means, there is a blink and another and the woman’s demeanor completely changes. “What?” Almost immediately, the now in control Kaylee sees the demolished receptionist’s desk and gasps. “Oh god….” Wide worried eyes turn to Asami and she moves quickly to check her friend over. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry….” She murmurs, still not knowing what happened.

“She didn’t hurt you?” Is Kaylee’s confused conclusion when her inspection is complete. After the last time, it’s no wonder she’s worried. No need this time it seems. “Oh thank god,” she blurts out in relief, throwing arms around her friend and hugging her like her life depended on it.

Of course, Kaylee’s still covered in drying blood and viscera.

Oops.

Asami returns the hug, all too relieved Kaylee is herself again. Her eyes roll back before they close and she lets out a short sigh of her own.

"No— no, we just chatted. Politely, or near enough to it." She still can't believe the desk wasn't thrown at her, but she'll keep that to herself. "I told her Violette's still a ghost, that we might need to get dramatic to draw her out. She recommended we talk to a media contact of yours?"

She sounds hesitant about that idea, but she's willing to try almost anything at this point.

“Gabriella. She covers a lot of what the Foundation does. But going to her?… that… that puts you in more danger, Asami.” Kaylee doesn’t like that idea and it shows. Still, she doesn’t hesitate to grab the other woman’s hand and pull her into the CEO’s office, letting go once they are past the threshold.

Rounding her desk and dropping into the high backed chair, Kaylee boots up her computer. “I think I see what she means though, you’re already exposed. You can get as vocal or loud as you want… they already know you are wanted. You could easily expose what the government has been doing. Declare there are people with powers out there. Since you were told to stay quiet, time to bang the tin cup against the bars so to speak.”

Once it’s booted up, Kaylee pulls up Gabriella’s information and grabs a sticky note to write on. “She works for the Times, but she might like this exclusive story.”

Pulling the piece of paper off the pad, Kaylee is a bit hesitant to hand it over. “The only reason I’m agreeing to this is because we need answers. You’re my friend.. A real friend and I care about you. I don’t want you hurt.”

It's past midnight in a partly lit office, and they're talking about exposing government conspiracies to newspapers, regarding superpowers.

Asami feels like she's stepped into some particularly high-stakes novella, or a piece of history in action. She feels out of place.

But she smiles and reaches for the paper. "They'll have to catch up to me first, Kaylee. And even then, I'm much harder to hurt or keep down now." Her brow arches up. "I can handle this. And the truth… it's important it gets out." She looks confident, sure.

A splatter of blood is on her torso, transferred from Kaylee to her in their earlier hug.

"Let's get you cleaned up and home safe. Okay?"


Petrelli Manor

Upper East Side, Manhattan


Thankfully, the trip home had been uneventful. The tight knot of anxiety never left her as she drove or when she finally reached the quiet house.

Despite the hour, Kaylee is wide awake, with her mind still filled with the memory of the grisly scene. At least, she’s managed to shower and get into clean clothes. Sitting at the table of the breakfast nook, she cradles a cup of hot tea, while staring at the screen of a laptop in front of her.

She isn’t exactly looking at the web page in front of her, eyes are unfocused and lost again. After a moment, Kaylee sniffs and wipes a finger against the corner of her eye before taking a sip of her tea.

Asami pads into the kitchen after having slipped upstairs to take a shower of her own, towel around her neck and ruffling the growing length of her hair. She slows when she sees Kaylee curled up how she is, quieting her own mind so she can listen to Kaylee's.

"Hey," she says softly, hoping to pierce through the fog without causing too much startle. "Would have thought you'd be heading to bed…" Gingerly, she slides into the seat next to Kaylee's. She knows, some, but she asks anyway, "What's on your mind?"

Maybe talking it through would help, after all.

Slowly, watery eyes shift focus to the woman sitting across from her. Swallowing hard, she looks down and away, “I tried,” she admits, “But the sound of that elevator… the blood… it’s all waiting for me when I close my eyes.” Her voice is soft and a touch guilt filled.

“I’m worried, Asami,” Kaylee says, turning her attention to the laptop. “I still can’t wrap my head around what happened. Why friends and employees, good people suddenly turned on me.” Nails tick against the porcelain of her tea cup. “And then… it’s like it never happened.”

Kaylee sighs heavily and looks up at her friend again, “I’m not sure if it’s safe for the girls in this city anymore, what….” Her head shakes side to side, “…what if it happened to Brynn? To Jac? I have to get them out of here.” Her voice trembles, her mind a tumble of the worst case scenarios about what could happen to her girls.

Slender fingers push at the corner of her laptop, turning it to show Asami the screen and the real estate listings on it.

Asami's shoulders settle when she sees the real estate listings. She lets her hand hang around the towel like it's a scarf she's pinning closed, growing quiet.

"Isaac— I talked to Isaac. He said after he left here the day everything happened, a sudden traffic jam spontaneously happened. Drivers got more aggressive, murderous, if I'm reading between the lines right. This…"

She pauses, careful with what she's implying here. It… it doesn't make sense to her. So much in her head doesn't presently make sense, and this is just one more thing on top of it all.

"It's safer here in the city, ultimately," she repeats advice she was given previously, her brow furrowing. "If they were going to track us, it'd be harder in a sea of other people. If we leave here, there's less places to hide."

"I don't know that leaving will help, Kaylee," Asami says ruefully, brow furrowing as she looks back up to her. "It might just make things worse."

There is a touch of disbelief at what Asami says, Kaylee’s been outside the city many times. Not just that, how were they better off surrounded by people. In fact, “I was in a place, with a group of people and they turned on me.” She looks at the screen, “I was looking at a lake house, secluded. Wouldn’t that be better? Out of sight, out of mind?”

Kaylee sounds confused and almost desperate, grappling with the idea that they may not be able to leave. The blonde’s throat works against the surge of emotions and the growing sense of helplessness.

Asami doesn't have a strong answer for that either. She gapes for a moment, fishing for a better answer, one more knowledgeable, and finally lets out a strangled sigh.

"Maybe," she admits, sounding miserable for it. Not knowing who to trust, and knowing she can't even trust herself on the subject lends her to feeling just as helpless as Kaylee is. "Maybe it's worth looking into after all."

"In case we need some place to fall back to?" Asami glances back up at Kaylee from the screen. Searching at the very least couldn't hurt, could it?

That small affirmation at the idea, brings about a change in Kaylee. The heiress seems to physically relax, letting out a soft relieved sigh. A touch of hope returns in the form of a smile. Hope that maybe it could work for them all.

“A fallback would be useful,” Kaylee agrees, turning the laptop screen back towards her so that she can continue the search, “Cause this place won’t be safe forever and people are going to notice….”

Kaylee looks back to her friend with an almost guilty look, “Tomorrow I’m giving my staff here at the mansion notice and I’ve got legal drawing up documents to appoint a new CEO for the Foundation.” Fingers fidget with her teacup again, nervously, as if uncertain if it was the right choice. “I have been neglecting everything since I started seeing things and… it felt like it was time. For all they will know, I’m finally taking me time.”

Asami slowly exhales away the knee-jerk reaction that wants to come from her. She tries to keep the panic from reflecting in her eyes. This isn't her fault, or at least it isn't entirely, but becomes convinced nonetheless all her presence has done for Kaylee has been to unravel the purpose she'd carved for herself— taking away her safety, her happiness.

"Kaylee," she says with a quiet touch of mourning. Her eyes close, expression conflicted, and then she finally gives a small nod. "… Okay."

This isn't her decision to make. It's Kaylee's, for herself.

Slipping from the chair, Asami reaches for Kaylee and wraps her arms around her shoulders in a firm, supportive hug. "I just want you all to be safe. I know— I know I fucked that up for you, the kids, for everyone, so just… whatever you feel is best, I'll do anything I can to support you."

When she pulls back, she's wearing a small, if sad smile. "And I'm here if you need any help with that. Small or large."

The hug is appreciated and leaned into with her own sad smile, even if Kaylee’s hands remain firmly around the cup. “Thank you, Asami. It’s nice having people in my life who don't only look at my social standing and net worth.” Her nose wrinkles some at the thought. “I don’t blame you for all of this… I don’t. I blame Violette.” She returns that sad smile, with a bit of apology added in.

“You want to know a secret?” Kaylee asks quietly, looking past Asami to the doorway before admitting. “I was… feeling like I was in a rut before this happened.” Her head slowly shakes, “I’ve spent.. So many years just burying myself as deep as I could in the work of the foundation and the girls. Just feeling… dead inside.”

One hand finally, lets go of the mug to lace a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “I might feel scared all the time, nervous and uncertain, but… is it crazy that I feel more alive?” Kaylee’s blue eyes study Asami’s so closely. “Am I crazy for feeling that?”

Kaylee gives a soft, huffed laugh, “Hey, maybe Valerie is just all my repressed anger and pain, that I’ve been squishing down every time I have to hear another person talk about how rich they are.” Does she really believe that? Shoulder lift in a small unconvinced shrug.

Asami has to bite her tongue when Kaylee assigns blame for everything to Violette. Her smile thins but persists for a moment longer before fading. She knows Kaylee knows the way she feels regarding Violette, at least, sees the apology for what it is.

It is what it is. Violette saved her, but then left her to hang, essentially.

"Don't leave me. Do you hear me? Don't…"

"Don't you dare."

Asami worries her lip as she looks away from Kaylee, reflecting. She shouldn't have let Violette go how she did. The hacker had said

“You can’t come where I’m going, because I’m going back into the fucking Lion’s Den where I work so that I can stay on the inside. But if anybody notices I’m gone, I’m fucked.”

Violette presses the keys into Asami’s hand. “Stay with a friend, stay off grid, don’t go back to your apartment. I’ll be in touch.”

Just how long was Asami supposed to wait?

Kaylee's realization that the world seems more simple, more real in the moment than it did even before brings another faint smile back to Asami's face, because she sympathizes more than Kaylee knows. Before, she felt trapped. Now, she feels free in ways she can't ascribe words to.

"Even for all the stress," she agrees quietly, meeting Kaylee's lighter eyes with calm understanding. "I'm not sure I'd change it. There's things I wish I could do differently, but…" Her smile threatens to become self-deprecating again, but she shakes her head at herself and it brightens. "Who wouldn't change things if they could do them a second time?"

The mention of Valerie, though— Asami's smile tics smaller. She turns over a thought in her head like a worry stone. "I don't know— maybe," she admits, but her tone's already changing. Something else aside from the joke is clearly on her mind. "Kaylee, what if— what if I told you something happened the other night, and now there's this— whole other person in my head, too?"

She lifts both hands up in a sudden gesture for calm, maybe for herself more than Kaylee. "Not even— it's not even like Valerie. It's a whole other… me." Asami struggles for a moment before admitting, "A me from some whole other world. Where superpowers are normal, and I…"

Sheepishly, she fades off, her gaze breaking from Kaylee's. It sounds like too much when she starts to say things like that.

Maybe it is too much, Kaylee is looking at her with an odd look. It was one thing to believe in the government suppressing abilities, it was a bit harder to wrap one’s mind around other worlds. The only thing that keeps her from laughing at what must be a joke, is that Asami looks serious.

Did she really believe that?

A whole other her?

Kaylee holds up her hands, “Whoa. I’m just barely wrapping my head around having powers… well, sort of having powers, as mine are locked away.” Which Kaylee didn’t sound like she minded. As long as she kept her cool, she should be fine. “Now you have another version of yourself running around in your head?” Kaylee sounded as confused as she felt.

"And in that world, you're a different you. You have Jac's ability, the telepathy." Asami opts to just dive right back into the absurdity, because it needed elaborated she wasn't just fighting a discrepancy in self-image. "You've got a partial stake in a family-owned tech company called Raytech. I contract there, so I know you, but we didn't really know each other? You— you'd left all that and went off to be a cop from a special superpowered unit. It— it's…"

She lets out a quiet laugh, if pained. "And Valerie— she's this sweet, bright woman, paralyzed and gets around through either a wheelchair or her superpower. And she's not a twin of you. It's all…"

Asami looks down, holding up a hand near her head. "It's all there. In there, now. Different, but the same, but different."

Kaylee still doesn’t look convinced, but she doesn’t belittle the other woman’s revelation. “Raytech?” Kaylee can’t help but give a small laugh at that. “My dad would get a kick out of that.” Looking down at her teacup, her smile slides away a little.

Her dad. Her mom.

What would they think of this… or her? Of what she’s become. What she had done last night… or Valerie had. She can’t even remember when she last talked to them, had Sunday brunch. Kaylee suddenly missed them.

“It all sounds even more surreal then what is going on in our world,” Kaylee gives her an apologetic look. “Telepathy, huh?” She scrunches up her nose, “Not sure I want to know what people actually think about me. Takes some of the fun out of mystery when you meet someone and you like them.” As soon as she says that, she looks in the general direction of Jac's room. “Poor kid.”

When it's clear this doesn't stick or hold the same weight for Kaylee as it does for her, Asami closes her eyes and smiles, tries to brush it off. "Yeah," she says softly. "Surreal."

Tell her about it.

She takes in a breath and looks off in the same direction Kaylee does in quiet contemplation. "She'll be all right. It's better to know. Safer." At least, that's her take on it.

As much as she tries to avoid commenting on that which she shouldn't hear, Asami suggests on looking back, "You should get some rest, Kaylee. Maybe call your parents tomorrow. Tell them your friend had a funny dream, and about the company." She smiles again, small but true.

Kaylee gives Asami a mildly disapproving look when it’s evident that the woman could hear her thoughts, but she doesn’t get mad about it. Instead, she turns to the suggestion. “And you should get some rest as well,” she points out. “You’re going to burn yourself out and that won’t do at all. We need you at your best.”

Shutting the laptop lid, Kaylee looks pained to do it. It was hard to push away the idea of just running. Taking the girls and just hiding away from the world.

“Thank you, Asami, for showing up when I needed someone,” Kaylee says softly before standing and taking her tea cup to the sink to rinse before retreating to her room.

"Always, Kaylee," Asami answers, continuing to sit by the window even after she's alone. She finds herself staring off into the night for longer than she knows, worried and perplexed by her situation as much as Kaylee's.

Finally, with a bleary blink, she too shifts off to bed.

Maybe better answers will come with the morning.


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