Participants:
| Scene Title | Fire Recovery |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Clean-up after a thermite-induced fire in the Dorchester Towers made everything a freakin' mess. |
| Date | Oct 6, 2009 |
Dorchester Towers, Elisabeth's Apartment
The side of the building housing the odd-numbered apartments is a frigging mess — the thermite burned through several floors down to the basement level from Apartment 403. Alec's apartment — 405 — has fire damage from where the fire spread, as do most of the odd-numbered apartments in the building from basement level to the fourth floor in some form or another. The even-numbered ones seem to have mostly escaped with smoke damage.
Alec is glaring into a cup of coffee with an expression that should turn the coffee into pure artic ice. Then kill it. Kill it hard. He's fuming, and in the far corner is a pile of his stuff sitting in her corner. "I'm going to beat someone. With a golf club." Apparently this is what happens when your smoke from your fire fries Alec's computer and he has to 'dispose' of any evidence against him before firemen bust down his down and demand he get to safety.
Although her own apartment escaped actual fire damage, there's still smoke damage. The place reeks. Elisabeth caught a shower at the precinct this morning and she's wearing jeans and a long-sleeved blouse with her shoulder holster over it even as she's sorting through clothes to send to the cleaners. "Soon as I can get an interview with Ms. Strauss this morning, I'll tell you who to beat." She looks up at him and says softly, "You can call me paranoid, but… I don't think we're going to like the answer."
Alec shakes his head, "Oh no. I'll like the answer. Because then I'll have a name to go with the set of irons I'm gonna buy tomorrow." he frowns harder, "If so much as a whiff of smoke touched Liz I'm gonna up it to a three wood so help me god."
Elisabeth smirks faintly, her eyes dropping back to the task in her hands. Almost every bit of clothing she owns needs to be cleaned… but at least she didn't lose anything. "She just openly registered. Are you honestly questioning who's behind it? I mean…. it's certainly possible that it's someone else, but… seems a little convenient, considering the examples they seem to be making." Liz's tone is neutral, but her body language isn't. "My friend Felix is finally awake. They've got him under heavy guard." Because he, too, was supposed to die…. and if this turns out to be HF…. it means they were in the building. They were in Elisabeth's building, and they got into Tracy Strauss's home, and that totally freaks her out.
Alec eyes Liz for a moment, "To bad she didn't have me do her security huh?" he says simply, a subtle reminder that she's more then a wee bit safe from even HF. "Still, it's just HF right? I can totally make enough golf clubs for the whole fucking lot of them."
"Mmm. Too bad indeed," Elisabeth replies without looking toward him. She has a mountain of clothes — several of them, really. One for dry cleaning, one for just being laundered. She's going to pay to have someone do all of it so she doesn't have to. "How big a loss is your place?" she finally asks him. He was right next door, after all. She already knows he stayed until the last possible moment, merely hugging him tightly when she let him in here this morning with a gentle cuff on the back of the head and a soft "Stupid."
Alec sighs, "I'm not sure yet," he raises his voice loudly, "some fucking Nazi's won't let me back in!!" then he quiets down again. "Bah. I got everything that could get me in trouble into the fire safe and set it off before I got dragged out, which is why I don't keep that much at home. But…" he shrugs his shoulders. "You know me. Anal about details and double checking." he frowns. "I don't like being told where to go."
Elisabeth laughs quietly. "Go figure." As if that's news to her. She pauses in her sorting to walk over to the counter and pick up her coffee cup. "Where are you going to stay while they clean up?" she asks as she sips from it.
Alec shrugs again, "I have renters insurance and a bitchin' agent who I personally helped land a solid home awhile back." he grins. "So… I'm pretty much set to stay where ever I want, bill's picked up by the company until this is all cleared up. Wanna crash at my pad? We can get a big bed, some magic fingers maybe?" he brow waggles at Liz, apparently deciding he's done being angry for now.
There's a roll of her eyes. "I'd take you up on that if it didn't sound absolutely sleazy," Elisabeth replies with a small smile. "I don't know where I'll stay." The library's kind of out. As is her father's place. "Probably a hotel. Or maybe I'll ask Cat about using one of the apartments in the Village Renaissance Building."
Alec chuckles, "I can make the room a double you know." he points out, "Prolly crashing at the Hilton. Thought about the Ritz or Plaza but not sure how far to push my agent friend." he sips the coffee. "Of course you'd have to um… ignore the occasional call I get and what have you." he gives her a childlike look of pure innocense.
"Nah," Elisabeth says, her expression grateful but resolute. "I'm … not exactly sleeping well. And I think sleeping in a strange place is going to exacerbate the problem," she admits quietly. "If I wake screaming, it's better that you're not associated with me in a public venue like that… if I damage something." She shrugs a little.
Alec barks a laugh, "Yeah, it's much better you're alone so that when you wake up losing your mind there's no one where to comfort you or hold you or make a joke about your bed head or cook you waffles. Yeah. That sounds much better." he rolls his eyes at her a bit, "But it's your call. I'm just the sexy hired homeless guy, what do I know?"
Elisabeth laughs softly. "You don't want to be outed, and I don't want to be the person who puts you on the radar, Alec. But I never said I'd be alone in any fashion. You're welcome to take a babysitting shift if you want to." Her tone is rueful — she's been asking for help as much as she can stomach to do so. Staying alone she's done a couple of times, but…. so far, she does better if someone else is in the apartment, though it's not required they're in her room with her necessarily anymore.
Alec nods his head, "Hey, always got more of me to spare. It's why I'm the perfect friend. That and I can do everything but babysit. And speak Mandarin."
Elisabeth mms. "You should learn Mandarin. Good job opportunities in China," she comments, apropos of nothing. She sips her coffee, looking at him over the rim. "How is your bridge project coming?"
Alec chuckles at that, "Well, considering everything that has to be done? Not to bad. We're behind schedule, but no more then we already /knew/ we'd be behind, so… I guess we're actually right on schedule. Construction work, it's a bitch. Only real issue is the shear magnitude of the project. It's more then just rebuilding the bridge, so much has to still be demolished, removed, I'll be here for prolly the next decade finishing this fucker up. Give or take a handful of years."
With a faint grin, Liz answers, "Well… I guess you have job security, then." She's teasing… sort of.
Alec smirks a bit, "Hey now, it's only my day job. The real money is actually in the dark of night stuff. If you knew what I got paid on one of those jobs you might actually shoot me and I couldn't take that today."
Elisabeth rubs her forehead, her fingertips worrying a particular spot above her temple and eye. "No, I won't shoot you," she says quietly. "Alec…. " She bites her lip. "Am I a fool?" She looks at him, her blue eyes betraying confusion. "To think… that the system, flawed as it is, has a place? Am I…. just a blind idiot? You told me once… that you're good at seeing people's weaknesses." Her tone turns just a hint bitter; he played her very well, after all.
Alec is quiet for a long moment as he stares into his coffee. "I may not be the right person to ask." he says, offering her the same level of honesty she offered him. "The system and I aren't what you'd call on speaking terms." he's quiet for a long moment, "The whole orphan foster kid thing… I don't know if you know what Detroit was like when I was there, or where I was in it at that time, but it's not a strech to compare it to Staten." he looks up, "But… Honestly? No. I don't think you're a fool. There are only two kinds of people in the world kitten, the strong and the weak. The weak cannot do for themselves so someone else has to and that's the entire point of the system. It's corrupt and fails more often then not, but it's that or we're back to Detroit. To Staten." he snorts, "And don't think the irony of a professional theif saying this is lost on me."
She watches him as he speaks, and she admits softly, "You're the second person who's called me strong. I used to believe that…. and now I just feel like I'm faking it all the time." She won't cry again, goddamn it. She turns away from him to go finish sorting her clothes so that she can take care of business. "Thanks, Alec," she says quietly.
Alec chuckles softly, "Listen kitten, there's a difference between strong and detached. I used to think that because nothing could touch me it meant I was strong, now I'm not sure anymore. Part of being strong is knowing when to lean on your supports. You have friends for a reason, use them. I didn't and look how long it took me to even get this close to human. I have trouble with only one friend! I honestly don't know how you do it."
She turns to look at him, those blue eyes holding an expression of confusion. "I don't know how you did it without them, Alec," she tells him. "I have…. a lot of acquaintances. And a few real friends." A faint smile quirks the corner of her mouth upward. "Most of my friends happen to be men — I don't do so well on the female friends front. For a lot of reasons. But… I don't know how you've lived entirely alone until now. It's… hard to think about letting anyone in right now. But I can't imagine NOT doing it. I …. think if I didn't have a few people, I would… probably have eaten the gun."
Alec shakes his head, "Maybe, maybe not. I prefer to believe you would have cried a little then put on your big girl panties and did what needed doing. Makes you all very heroy in my head, very… Wonder Woman with a gun and a bleach job."
Elisabeth laughs softly. "You really do have far more faith in me than I ever would have believed possible, Alec Bonder." She shrugs a little. "I wouldn't have… if only because he fucking wins that way." And the words 'I win' echo once more through her head, along with the sound of gunshots. Her expression goes gray, and she turns away so he can't see her sudden pallor. "So… let's move on to the rest. Make sure I know where to find you, okay?"
Alec snaps his fingers in front of her face when she fades a bit, trying to pull her attention back to him. "Hey." he says seriously, "That? What you just saw? It doesn't matter." he says softly. "It only has the power over you that you allow it to and you're stronger then some silly memory. You hear me?" he's put on his serious face. "As for finding me…" he shrugs, "You know me. I'm always around somewhere… everywhere."
Those blue eyes flicker back to his face, and Elisabeth grimaces a little. "Yeah… I know. Only the power I let it have." She says softly, "Cat…. blew his head off, Alec. I couldn't do it. I couldn't…" She bites her lip.
Alec shrugs, "And?" he says, as if that wasn't important. "I didn't kill anyone that hurt me babe, doesn't make me less for it. It's not what you do to them that makes you strong, it's what they can't do to you." he patpats her hand, "Now, stop making me all depressed and put on that LP I got you. I need cheering up and naked women. Since you're not naked, I demand you make with the music for the cheering up."
It wasn't quite what she was talking about…. but it'll do. "You don't actually want my naked. Not sure you ever did, you merely accomodated what I wanted," she tells him wryly. "Which is something of a blow to realize, just so you know." Elisabeth moves away from him and turns on the stereo system. The LP in question is already on the turntable, and as it spins up, the arm moves automatically to the beginning. The second side is up, and so the track begins to play while she goes back to work.
Alec snorts, "Yeah I know, I destroyed your fragile ego. If it's any consolation isn't like I didn't have fun you know. At least you wanted naked and grindy from me, you wouldn't believe what some people want. I had to learn to put diapers on a grown man once." he's not smileing. "Seriously. The things I could tell you…" he makes a face. Then the music starts and he stops talking, like magic. For a handful of beats he sits deathly still before unseen tension leaks out of his frame and vanishes on the wind. He really wasn't kidding about Miles.
Elisabeth glances at him and just shakes her head, her smile at him both amused and … perhaps a hair weirded out. "You're a strange, strange man. I don't even know why I like you," she comments, then lapses into silence to finish this before she has to go to the hospital to talk to Tracy Strauss.
Alec offers a reason, "My chest if cuddly. Abby said so."