Participants:
| Scene Title | Living Vicariously |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | 'Home' in all its glory. |
| Date | Mar 6, 2010 |
It's the weekend — though she's on-call (which is a constant state of affairs, really) — Elisabeth is off the base once more. She tends not to coop herself up there more than is required to do the work that she's been doing. But she's got a lot on her mind this week, and she needs the people in the library. Slogging through midtown in three- to four-foot drifts of snow, she's wiped when she gets to the place. And worried that the traffic patterns to the library are going to become obvious …. except for the fact that the damn snow KEEPS ON COMING. She's wearing a black wool hat that is glittering with crystals that are melting rapidly and warm pants, knee-high snow boots, and a heavy coat that she's stripping off even as she comes in. Blue eyes hold worry, and she looks weary. She calls through the library, enhancing her voice and letting it carry throughout the place instead of calling ahead. "~If this were rain, we'd need an ark. What the hell do you build to keep from being buried by snow?~" And she heads for the warmer environs below and within.
"It's a good thing that we raided the remnants of Shard's supplies…" Supplies… A shadow parts from the darker hallways of the library, a tattered ghost drifting along the wall behind her, "…we wouldn't be able to keep the generators running without the gasoline we scavenged." Scavenged…
The blond stops in the hallway, turning around to look into the shadows. "I'll make some arrangements to get you more. There's not a lot left to scavenge in Midtown anymore. Besides…" Her tone is a little bitter. "For the time I get the really good paydays, I may as well invest it here." She leans back against the wall across from where she thinks he might be, as if they're talking normally. "Richard… they're getting ready to start calling for quarantine camps. I don't think there's any way to stop it."
"We knew this was coming. Rebel warned us…" Warned us… Cardinal's unsteady shadow lingers upon the wall as she turns towards it, a vague and amorphous shape rather than the crisp outlines he used to manage. "…it could be to our advantage. If they start mistreating our kind, we can gather proof… more fuel for the fire. More soldiers for the war." The war…
"I…. don't know if I can do this job if they try to make FRONTLINE enforce this, Richard," Elisabeth murmurs softly, dropping her head back against the wall. "The reasons for it make sense. They do. If panic hits the streets about the Evo flu jumping to normals, we could have roaming lynch mobs." She bites her lip. "And I feel like a traitor for thinking that way, because I have the whole paranoid beyond belief thing tugging at the back of my head that they'll just round us all up and that'll be the end of this."
"That's why it's all the more important that you keep involved with this, Elisabeth… because if it starts getting bad… we need someone inside that'll be able to notice," states Cardinal in that hissing whisper of voice, "And if they try… they'll lose. I promise you that…" War…
There's a moment's silence, "…are there any current cases of bodies found… aged to death, Elisabeth?" Winslow…
She lifts her head, a puzzled frown pulling her brows together. "FRONTLINE isn't getting the NYPD docket, love…. why?" Elisabeth pauses. "And who is Winslow?" Because Elisabeth's attuned at this point to every whisper that he makes, automatically enhancing the range of sound that he's speaking in so that she can hear him without a problem from quite a distance at this point. "I can look into it, if it's important."
Cardinal doesn't respond just yet, before he replies in that tattered whisper, "I ran into him along the edge of Midtown… spurred a mugger to try and kill him for his wallet, then drained the man's life… youthened himself in the process." The process…
"I followed him home. He had… a lot of surveillance pictures." Peyton…
Elisabeth looks alarmed and says, "Wait…. He stole someone's LIFE FORCE?" she demands. "This isn't… Volken or something, is it?" Because after all, Cardinal's still alive, right? And Francois too — who thought he killed Kazimir, but maybe he's wrong! "What's he want with Peyton??"
"No, no, it seems to be more an… age transferrance ability," corrects Cardinal in a low hiss, "It's not Kazimir, I'm certain of that — even if the behavior matched, which it doesn't, the effects of his power were all wrong. He asked…" A hesitant moment, "…he asked me not to tell her about him. He claims to be her father." Her father…
There's a blink. Elisabeth reaches up and rubs her forehead, her coat dropping to the floor next to her as she sinks to sit on the floor in the hallway, her knees pulled close to her chest. "You know…. I didn't used to jump to conclusions. Coincidences happen and all. But…. I'm working on a squad with Peyton's birth mother. And now her birth FATHER shows up? That's just…. more than a little bizarre. More than that, I also found out that Edward Ray's got a kid, too — a girl working with the Ferry!" She looks up at the shadows. "And Yvette Volken's still on the loose, too. I'm still wondering about the connection between her and Dreyfus — whether Dreyfus is working alone. And what the hell 'the fires of Irving still burn' means. I swear to God, I'm starting to feel like I'm in the middle of a nightmare that I can't wake up from … like I'm missing something REALLY major and it's all connected somehow and I'm just too stupid to see it." She stops and murmurs morosely, "Or maybe I've just become as paranoid as Cat and I'm seeing conspiracy everywhere." She drops her forehead to her knees, hiding her face.
As she drops down to the floor, the shadow of Richard Cardinal twists along the wall and drapes down over her in a tattered shawl of ephemeral darkness. "He claims to be her father," he notes quietly, "You said her mother's on the squad…? Do you think you could try and find out about him? Casual conversation, or— " Then he stops dead, "— Ray had a daughter?" A daughter…
Turning her head to rest her cheek on her knees, wrapping her arms around them tightly, Liz nods slightly. "Sure, I'll touch base with her. The fact that Faye is Peyton's mother totally weirded me out," she admits. "I'll bring up the name Winslow and see what I can come up with." She sighs and reaches one hand up to her shoulder to stroke the intangible darkness. "Yeah. Apparently. Kaylee something."
"It's likely a pseudonym. He's aware the police are after him…" After him… The shadows are silent again for a bit, and then Cardinal speaks, startled, "Kaylee? I never would have - Edward's daughter?" Ray's daughter?
Now she sits upright, surprised. "You know her?" Elisabeth looks thoughtful. "Yeah, apparently she grew up believing he was a lawyer or something, but during the Nightmare Man situation, there was some kind of flashback or whatever, and Cat recognized him." She sighs and shoves her hand through her hair. "Not sure that it helps us all that much, if you want the truth. And I'm told that Hokuto's out of the hospital. I'm going to stop in and see her shortly too. I'd… really like to put an ending on the case." The 35. The one that actually sort of brought Cardinal into this mess originally. The inane thought makes her lips quirk into a half-smile. "I miss you," she whispers as she drops her chin back to her knees. "Things are snowballing so damn fast. And I'm stuck out on that base when I'd rather sleep here. I don't know if I'm even sleeping," Liz admits softly.
"I know her. She's a telepath… was working for Adam for awhile…" A stir of thoughtful whispers, "…Hokuto caused that? I can't— how could she have that in her? She seemed so… sweet, harmless…" Should have known better… Cardinal's threads of darkness coil about her more fully, a whispered sigh hissed into the air, "I miss you too, Liz."
There is dead silence from Elisabeth, her whole body goes taut beneath the incorporeal shadow of her lover. "What?" she whispers. Her head comes up, the weariness in her expression now enhanced into pure exhaustion and shock. "What the hell are you talking about, she caused it?"
"Angelina told me that she was the Nightmare Man… something like Niki and Jessica, maybe? You'd need to ask Angel for the details, she was there…" She was there… Richard admits quietly, "I don't know. There's so much going on, it's hard to keep track of…" To keep track of… Not that he used to have any problems with that. Hell, he was a master of multitasking.
"You know….. " Elisabeth sighs heavily. "I could have gone my whole fucking life not knowing that bit of intel, honestly. Niki/Jess/Gina are about as much multiple personality as any one woman should be asked to deal with." She drops her head to her knees again. "Okay," she says from that position, just a little muffled but perfectly audible to him since he's draped around her. "I know you're still having trouble pulling things together, babe. Tell me what I can do to help you manage the information flow." Her pause is fraught with tension and she smirks faintly. "Kershner's a shark, I don't really trust her too much — but I will tell you this much. Like Vee, like Kat Marks…. Kershner's doing the best she can within the structure. She's maybe not as good as Denton, but… if push comes to shove, I think we're going to be able to count on the squads, Richard."
Elisabeth hastens to add, "They're going to do their jobs, follow their orders. But if we come up against something and can PROVE it… I think they'll move on it."
"Kershner has her own agenda… I wouldn't trust the Queen of Cups further than I could throw her, Elisabeth… but that's good news, about the squads. Given who we have in them, we should be able to subvert them if things get… very, very bad," Cardinal whispers beside her ear, "This is why you need to stick with it, lover." Lover…
"Everyone has their own agenda," Elisabeth says tiredly. "Hell, even I've got an agenda." She shrugs a little. "Best we can hope for is that our agenda pairs up, right?" Moving once more to lean back, her head back against the wall, the blond considers. "So…. here are the priorities as I'm working them. 1) Arrange for a good supply of fuel for the generators. 2) Make sure you've got enough cash in a lock box to feed everyone without trouble. Since I'm staying on the base and room and board are mostly handled, I'd say that's simple enough. I'm betting Peyton hasn't considered it yet — I know I hadn't — but I want the group staying in the building to have a ready supply of cash for what you need. Can't believe I'm actually in a position that helping bankroll this is doable." She shakes her head a bit.
"3) Well…. technically this is number one…. Keeping my father and Abby's parents safe. 4) Touching base with Faye about Winslow or whatever his real name actually may be. Do you want me to let her know that he's come looking for Peyton?" Liz pauses. "5) …. What the fuck is five?" She breathes out a disgusted sigh.
"We're going to want canned goods and other nonperishables down here too, in case things get snowed in," Cardinal advises, then falls silent to listen to her priorities. "No, don't tell her about Winslow… unless you don't have any other choice. I want to confirm his identity before acting on it. And we're still working on subverting the Linderman Group, and locating those scientists…" And Edward…
There's a bit of a nod. "We're also going to have to work out travel patterns. Right now, the snow is covering everyone's tracks fast enough that it's not a problem. That won't hold true once the snow actively stops falling." Elisabeth reaches up again, the stroke of fingertips against the darkness is simply her stroking her own shoulder, but it's as close as either of them can get to comforting one another — though whether she's comforting him or herself is pretty much up in the air. "I think we need to pack in some snow shoes and if anyone knows how to ski, a couple sets of those could be helpful too. The drifts out there in some places — like the plaza out front — are nearly four feet already. And it's looking like it's going to get worse. I'm on 24-hour call right now to the National Guard for snow problems."
"Good ideas. We'll bring them up at the meeting… we're probably going to have to move completely underground," Cardinal admits, "At least those of you who have bodies…" Bodies…
"Alec's security measures will keep the upper floors secure. You should show Bones, though, if you haven't already, what the measures we have in place are, how to activate them. And see if he knows anything about the underground levels of the library. He may know ingress and egress routes that no one else is aware of. It'd be nice to be able to get in and out in a fashion that won't expose us — the snow is dangerous not just for the cold but because it can reveal that people are here far too often."
"Definately. If he doesn't, it may be possible to create them," Cardinal considers in a quiet whisper beside her ear, "One way or another, after all…" After all…
Elisabeth's smile is touched with true amusement. "Making things happen one way or another appears to be your specialty, love." She is quiet for a long time, merely sitting with him in the darkness of the hallway. And she finally asks softly, "Is it getting any easier to hold yourself together?"
There's further silence in the darkness of the chill corridor for long moment, and the shadow admits quietly, "No. Not… really. Anyway. I should let you go, do whatever you were here to do, Liz…" Lover…
"This is all I came to do, honestly," Elisabeth admits. "I can sit here, listen to you talk in my ear, and pretend that you're sitting behind me with your arms around my shoulders and your chin right there." She absently strokes her hand along her shadow-darkened shoulder. "We can talk about the mundane shit that always needs to be done around here, and the bigger shit that's happening outside, make the plans that need to be made. And it feels like home." Her blue eyes close even as she leans against the wall. "It's safe." For now.
The dismembered shadows of Richard Cardinal settle about her once more, shifting and fluttering in some ethereal wind as he makes himself 'comfortable' about her - the closest he can come to touching the woman he loves, right now, envying the sense of touch and warmth more than ever. "Alright," he whispers, "Tell me how things are going with your father?" Your father…
With her head tipped back the way it is, Elisabeth considers. "He's pissed." She grins faintly. "He's a guy. And his daughter, the person he still sees as a little girl in need of a lot of protecting, is out there playing with the big boys. Shooting guns, killing people, using superhuman powers to right the wrongs of the world." She sounds very dramatic, though it seems to take some energy to force her tone into joviality for that part. When she speaks again, it's once more weary but amused. "He's chafing like mad that I've asked him to stay inside the apartment. I considered the idea of asking him to be bait, keeping Abby's teleporter friend in constant contact with him…. but I'm not sure he wouldn't just chafe at that too. And he's… kind of stubborn." No, really? Knowing Liz's temperament, learning her father is stubborn?? Say it ain't so! "I'm not sure I'll be able to keep him cooped up much longer. His girlfriend's got to be shitting bricks by now."
"If he's anything like you, none of that surprises me…" A stir of faint humor from Cardinal's quietly whispering voice, "…and Abigail's parents? What about them?" About them…
Conversation passes on to small things, unimportant things in the grand scheme of things - but vital links to a society, to a humanity, that Richard no longer belongs to. But vicariously through Elisabeth, he can touch them, at least for a little while.