Participants:
| Scene Title | I Killed Someone |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Elaine shows up at Linus' door after a nightmare. |
| Date | September 20, 2010 |
Siann Hall: Linus's Apartment
It is the time that could be classified as late night or early morning, between when the city finally sleeps and when the birds chirp to signal a new day. Having fallen asleep on his couch, game controller resting across his chest, TV still on and making sounds of the game he had been playing, Linus is awakened by a frantic knock on his door.
Stumbling off the couch, controller falling and bouncing across the floor, he tiredly lumbers towards his door. He doesn't bother to check who is on the other side, instead just unlocking and swinging it open slowly. Bleary eyes blink back at the figure on the other side of the door frame. "Elaine?"
Clad in pajama pants, a tank top, and a hooded jacket that's far too big for her, Elaine shifts a little in the doorway, frowning as she seems to feel a bit awkward. "Sorry, I don't mean to bug you, I thought since it was late I'd knock even though you gave me a key, I mean… I'm sorry for waking you." She shifts, folding her arms over her chest and hugging them a bit. "I can go if you want to go back to sleep or something…"
"No, it's alright.. come on in." Linus is wearing what he fell asleep in, a pair of jeans and a simple white t-shirt. He hadn't even managed to kick his shoes off before his eyes closed against his will. He waits for Elaine to walk inside, then shuts and locks the door behind her.
He makes his way towards his couch, bending down with a bit of a tired sigh as he picks up the fallen controller to turn the system off. Then he starts to shuffle off into the kitchen, the sound of a fridge opening and closing and a faucet pouring on and then off can be heard before he returns with a bottle of Sobe and a glass of water. The water is handed to Elaine.
The water is accepted and sipped, the girl looking back over at him as she slowly moves to go sit down on the couch. "Thanks," she murmurs, though if it's in regard to being let in or for the glass of water, it's hard to tell. Elaine settles on the couch, hugging her knees as she sits, looking over to him. "I'm sorry, again… I needed somewhere to go."
Rubbing his eyes and face with one hand to clear his vision and knock the cobwebs from his mind, Linus follows Elaine over towards the couch where he sits down on one of the arms. "Well, I told you that you could come here when you needed. You don't need to apologize."
He twists off the cap of his Sobe, glancing to read what is said on the underside of the cap before he lifts the bottle to his lips to take a drink from it. The bottle is then lowered and recapped before he leans over to set it down on his coffee table. He's quiet, letting Elaine control the conversation.
"I know, but… I don't know if you meant I could show up this time of… night? Morning?" It's late enough that it could be either. Elaine frowns slightly, then looks back over at him. "Sorry… I just… I haven't slept well. I told Magnes I went on a business trip this week, but I didn't… and stuff happened that hasn't been the easiest to just… forget. Some things just haunt you, even when you're asleep."
Linus listens politely, planting his elbow on his knee for support as he props his face on his hand, head tilted to the side to keep eyes on Elaine as she speaks. "I'll be fine. When the sun comes up, I'll just go outside and get a burst of energy. It's not a big deal." He frowns about what she says. "Are you alright?"
"I-I.. I guess I am. I just… I tried to explain things to Quinn, to Sable… and it was okay, for a while, but I feel like I was just trying to push it aside to get over it quickly and I'm not over it." Elaine sips the water quickly.
"Okay, well.." This clearly isn't Linus' strong suit. He lets out a sigh, pushing his head away from his hand and scooting down onto the couch itself, off the arm. He reaches for his drink, uncapping it. "Is there anything I can.. you know, do?"
He takes a drink, swallowing a moment before the bottle is recapped. Then he scoots over further, closer to Elaine, close enough to reach out with one hand and pat gently on her pajama clad knee. "You can stay here as long as you need, that's no problem.."
The touch is comforting. Elaine sips the water, shaking her head a little. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you awkward, I just… Magnes thinks I went on a business trip and I'm not sure I want to tell him what really happened." If it's any indication, the bruises on her chest and shoulders aren't really a sign of a 'business trip', and the tanktop gives enough of a view to really notice.
Linus had not noticed the bruises at first, still a bit out of it from how abruptly he was torn from his sudden slumber. But now this close, close enough to lend a comforting touch, his eyes are drawn to them. He frowns noticeably, etched across his face. He reaches out again, slowly, hand gingerly moving across the bruises on her shoulder, almost not touching them at all. "What happened to you?"
"I was on a bus… truck crashed into it," Elaine states, frowning a bit. "Got banged up a bit… wasn't the nicest of crashes. Could've hit my head like Colette did…" She sighs. "Kinda scary, but that wasn't exactly the worst of my trip." She peers back at him.
The level of concern in Linus' eyes has clearly increased once he sees and feels the bruises and hears Elaine speak about the accident. "That.. that wasn't even the worst?" He frowns deeply again, hand moving to brush through her hair comfortingly. "Elaine, I'm so sorry."
Elaine shuts her eyes at the touch, letting out a soft sigh. "Not the worst experience, I mean… the bruises are all I really got as far as injuries. I guess I'm lucky in that aspect." She frowns, opening her eyes again. "I just…" She starts, but just lets it trail off.
Linus isn't even really aware that he might be verging on a level of comforting that is beyond what he should be doing. All he knows is that a friend of his is clearly upset, so he is doing what comes naturally. His hand moves again to her knee, this time remaining there and squeezing gently. "You just what?"
"I'm… I'm not sure I'm a good person, anymore." Elaine murmurs, looking down. "I-It was a scary situation, the whole thing, but… when it came down to it, I did something. I'm okay with that, at least somewhere in my head, and then I think about saying it… about having actually done it and I wonder how bad of a person I am…"
What happens next is probably, somewhere down the line, going to be considered a foolish mistake. But again, Linus was never very good at this sort of thing. "Elaine.." His hand moves up to cradle her jaw, tilting her head towards him. "Don't say that. I know you are a good person." Then he does the unimaginable, something he hasn't done in years. He leans in and kisses her, right on the lips.
Elaine's suddenly in a position she didn't expect to be in. She's being kissed. For a moment, she's distracted from her current train of thought. She leans into the kiss, not pulling away from it. It's distracting, she's not thinking… and then suddenly she is. She pulls back. But she's not thinking about what the kiss means, exactly, so much as she's stumbled back onto the train tracks of the train of thought she had been speeding along with before. "I killed someone."
For a moment, Linus is in sheer bliss. This is the equivalent of hitting a home run for him, as Elaine meets the kiss well and responds by moving into it. But then the umpire singles it a foul ball as she backs away and hits him with that statement. He looks dumbfounded and sick at the same time. "Uh.. I.."
The redhead's suddenly looking crestfallen, her lips parting as a stream of words forces its way out. "I don't know if it counts as killing someone, because I was time traveling, and we were going back to save Sable but we got there too late, because someone messed with time and caused her to do something bad, so we had to fix it… but her doing that bad thing made her develop into someone different… and that future person came back from that alternate future to stop us from making Sable the Sable we know and so this future Sable shot innocent people and shot Colette and she had a gun and was pointing it at me and I shot her. And she died… but I don't even know if it counts as killing someone because now technically she never really existed because we stopped that future from happening so does shooting someone who never existed count as shooting someone because they're a nonentity…?" Elaine lets out a breath, her eyes frantically glancing about.
Linus stares off into space as Elaine attempts to explain what happened. It looks like her words simply bounce off him, or go in one ear and out the other. There is a long, awkward pause where he doesn't move or say anything. Then he turns around, looks Elaine right in the eye, and takes her hand in his. "I know you would only do something like that if you had to. If it was the right thing. You are a good person. Nothing is going to change that."
Elaine looks back at him, still a bit on edge from her explanation. "You don't think I'm some kind of monster? I didn't know I'd do it… I didn't know if she was gonna shoot me, and she'd shot Colette too… more than once. I just… it was horrifying, shooting someone who I knew, in a way. Sable's got those… pretty yellow eyes, the weird ones, and so it was like… I'd stare and they were those same eyes.." She lets out a deep breath, squeezing his hand lightly. "Are you absolutely sure I'm a good person?"
The answer is simple, Linus craning his head to make sure he can look into Elaine's eyes when he says it. "Yes," is his anwer, his response to the squeezing of his hand to squeeze back. "I'm absolutely sure you're a good person, Elaine. You're not a monster. You're a scared girl in a scary world."
"I just… I just… it's hard to sleep after doing something like that, no matter how right it was." Elaine's gaze is caught, and she stares back at Linus, tilting her head in a slight nod after a moment, fingers squeezing silently as she watches him. "You're right. T-Thank you."
"Nobody could expect you to sleep easy after something like that, so you shouldn't expect yourself to either. Okay?" The hand not holding hers moves to push Elaine's hair behind her ear. "You can stay here as long as you need. I'll go get you a pillow and a cover. There's lots of books, movies, games.. TV, if you can't sleep."
Elaine smiles weakly as she looks back at him, another small nod. "Thank you, Linus." She murmurs, though it seems her run-on sentence of a rant has used up all the words, so she says nothing else. She does, however, keep that weak smile as she catches his eyes, fingers still squeezing at his hand.
Linus gives Elaine one last comforting look, one last gentle squeeze of his hand before he stands up to go find Elaine the promised pillow and cover. When he returns, quilt and pillow tucked under one arm, he sets them down on the sofa. "You know what.. why don't you go take my bed. I'll sleep out here. I was asleep out here when you stopped by anyway." He slumps back into the couch, hands on his knees. "Don't try to say no, either. You just go in there when you're ready, and I'll stay out here with you in the meantime."
Elaine is about to reply with an 'Are you sure?' when Linus counters with the 'Don't try to say no'. She watches him for a long moment before she smiles, this one much stronger than her last. "Thanks, Linus."