Participants:
| Scene Title | Potential Futures |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Mel visits Abby, and they talk about current events and potential futures. |
| Date | April 21, 2010 |
Greenwich Village - Francois' Home
Lots of time spent, to get Abigail out and back home after the visit from Peter, but she's out and settled at Maison Allegre, up to the third floor since it has it's own bathroom at least and a little self enclosed bubble. The menfolk residing the floors below. She's beside the window in an armchair, leg up, pill bottles, half eaten food, half drunk coffee and eyes closed. She's determined that acting normal is better than curling up in a ball and sinking below a painkiller haze. Normal means a jersey skirt and long sleeved shirt with a knit scarf to hide what might otherwise be very livid bruises around her neck.
Melissa's called Abby, since the former healer wasn't at Old Lucy's or her new apartment, and was surprised to hear that she knew the address where she could be found now. So she trekked on over to Francois's place, and made nice until she could come up here to Abby's room. She raps lightly on the door before calling out quietly, "Abby? It's Mel."
"In here" hands and arms resting on the arms of the chair, blanket and pillows, she cracks open her lids to slant a look over towards Melissa, make sure it's Melissa before closing her eyes again. "Hi" Quiet, so quiet. She's giving what Peter said, a go. Stay quiet. Stay calm, don't touch anyone and don't make skin contact.
Melissa slips inside and smiles, looking Abby over. "Hey girl. Been a while since I saw you last. Figured you needed some Mel time. Because, let's face it, everyone needs some Mel time every once in a while. It's good for the soul. Better than chicken soup," she says, moving to perch on the edge of the bed facing Abby. "How ya doin'?"
"Terribly, horribly. I'll live" She informs Mel, not a hint of a smile on her face. "I think I need to share these painkillers with Francois. They don't make me loopy. Not too Loopy. which is good, it's really good. You?"
Melissa frowns. "Painkillers? You're in pain? Dammit, Abby. Why didn't you say so right off?" She closes her eyes and draws in a deep breath. Still a chore to do this without touch, but she's working on it, slowly but surely. And it's the same way that she nulls the pain that the other woman may still be feeling. "You know you don't have to hurt when I'm around, Abby. And frankly, I don't want you to."
"Mel, my left leg is in a cast and I had surgery on it, the painkillers take care of i-" Take care of most, usually at this point, just provide a disconnect feeling. What Mel's doing, wicks away the background pain. "Don't strain yourself Mel, it'll be fine. What brings you around? How was, how was the other night. you called, I told you to go get drunk" she prompts.
"I'm not straining myself," Melissa says, though her voice is a little tighter than it was a minute before. Of course, it could be the mention of that night. "I got drunk. That's what happened. Wasn't fun. Neither was slicing my hand open, or getting shot in the shoulder, or being told that my safehouse was just a front and it was meant to be raided. I've left the Ferry."
She draws in a deep breath and lets herself fall back onto the bed. "I've left the Ferry, I've moved into a house that's barely liveable and has a skeleton in the basement. I went to a woman who I thought could barely stand me to ask a favor, and may be going to work at the Suresh Center. Oh, and let's not forget the random arguments that I have with this one guy anytime I run into him. The jackass."
"You left the Ferry?" She's know of people who walked away, the network isn't a 'you're in, and you're never out' kind of affair. You're just expected to shut up and never talk about it. The first rule of the Ferry, you don't talk about the Ferry. "I'm sorry Mel, for all of that. Really. Who's the woman though and the Suresh Center, there's some real good people there" She points out, shifting in the chair to regard the older woman sprawled across her bed.
Melissa nods, arms folding beneath her head, which makes her wince a little. Shoulder isn't healed up just yet, and she can't take her own pain. "Yeah, I did. I was brought from Georgia to New York to run a fake safehouse to appease the DoEA. A fake safehouse where I had little kids. Wasn't something I could just forgive or forget," she murmurs.
The other questions…they have Mel pausing for a moment. "I went to talk to Mama Petrelli. To ask her for help getting a pardon. I've got plans, Abby. Plans that don't involve me getting shot at or raided or something every week. Since I got to New York there's been very little good, and I don't want to die wishing that I hadn't wasted my life. I want it to be what I want it to be. Not what it's forced to be."
"Can't subvert fate Mel, Divine Providence. The lord has reasons for everything. If you hadn't come up here, come to run that fake safehouse, would you have met people up here? Met me, met Peter or Mama Petrelli to ask for help with the pardon? Or have Kendall, or your house with the skeleton."
No smile, but no frown either. "Or have had someone suggest the whole attempting to take away pain, instead of just causing it. If you had stayed in Georgia and ate nothing but peaches and iced tea"
"I hate peaches," Melissa admits in a grumble, wrinkling her nose. "Don't knock the iced tea though. I miss a good glass of southern iced tea." She sighs and sits up, rubbing her hands over her face. "You…you I'd miss. Kendall…he's growing on me. God. Remind me to tell you what the little jerk did with the skeleton. Mama Petrelli may not even be able to help me. And Peter…" Her gaze drops there and she shrugs. "Peter's just complicated," she says softly.
"You have to use a simple syrup to sweet while boiling the tea" Abigail agrees, determined to some day teach Francois how to do it. He'd appreciate it. "I could use an entertaining story to keep me occupied, I'm sticking up here, away from the others. What did Kendall do to the skeleton and a skeleton, in your basement. What did you do with it? What if it's someone who was murdered? You should have someone turn it over to the police"
Melissa doesn't answer immediately, then her lips curve into a faint smile. "I was showing them around the house. Started with the basement, right? And down there it's cinder block walls. All except for this one. So we started speculating about what was behind it. Someone…had to be Colette I guess, made this ghostly face appear on the wall. Freaked a couple people out. Then Magnes said that he felt a skeleton behind it, right? Not what I wanted to hear, but he was pretty damn positive."
She shakes her head and leans back, arms bracing her. "Kendall…he made it look like a brick fell out of the wall, and had this skeletal hand reaching out to grab Odessa. I swear I think Magnes wet his pants. Odessa freaked, Colette disappeared…And he was just cracking up. At the time it wasn't funny. He scared people, yanno? But I'd been trying to get him to see his ability as something fun and useful. Not the curse that his parents made him believe it was. And man…he had fun with it."
"As for what we're gonna do…We're going to take it out, put it someplace where it can be found, and make sure that Colette's cop father finds it. Right now I just can't risk having cops in my house. Not with me being wanted and Kendall not legally being mine."
"Just so long as you do it, that someone finds the body. That's someones boy or girl and probably looking for them" Abigail murmurs. "Colette's strange, we've never really gotten along. Strange.. story that involves healing, and threats of turning me in. But she's part of the ferry now. Odessa, I'm glad she's got a friend in you, she needs it. She saved my life the other night." This pain free thing without the high, is nice. Francois would probably be happy to have a dose too from Melissa.
"Try getting him to use it more often, just little harmless things, for fun. Like, temporarily decorate the house? I mean, there's a good way to figure out what color you want to pain the walls Mel, have him turn them different colors? Or Colette do that"
"Yeah…Colette was very big on not just getting rid of it, which was what Magnes wanted to do. I agreed with her, and Odessa backed me up," Melissa says, nodding. "What happened though, the other night? What'd she save your life from?" A pause, then a smile. "He did that actually. The decorating the house thing. When I first showed him the place. I think he's slowly coming to see abilities as not a bad thing, it's just taking time."
Magnes just wanted to toss a corpse? The hell. That doesn't seem like him. Not in the least. "Just something. I don't know exactly what, but something happened. Odessa stopped time and we got upstairs above the bar. We're still trying to figure out what happened. Peter stopped by the hospital to see how I was, he thinks maybe I manifested and didn't know it. So it's.. a pretty safe bet to not touch me right now. I don't.. want anything to happen. Whatever it might be"
"Did he…" No, dammit, she won't be cliched and ask if he said anything about her. "No touching? So your ability is touch based, you think? But you don't know what it is? Weird. Hope you figure it out soon though. Don't want it to drive you nuts."
Too late. It had driven her out of the hospital where she could guarantee that she could be here, not be touched by anyone and get Teo and Francois's help to figure out what it was that the Formula had done to her. "He said to stay calm, don't get excited. He's gone to talk to his mother, talk to Robert and find out what happened when he touched me. I don't think it's healing Mel, not at all"
Which means maybe, Richard is shit out of luck? She won't discount it yet, but she has a back up plan then, for Richard in the form of Peter. "Robert came over to tell me he was going to Vegas on business might be gone a bit. He touched my foot and Peter thinks that whatever ability it is that I have, affected him. I hope so, it's bad of me to hope so, but it's a lot better than thinking the guy i'm dating, would try to kill me otherwise and think i'm someone else"
"Yeah…calm is good." And the mom that Mel is now thinking is a precog? Couldn't hurt. "He tried to kill you though? That's…I'm sure he just wasn't himself, Abby. I don't figure you'd pick a royal loser to hook up with. You're too smart for that."
'He thought I was someone impersonating me. It's happened before, when he was with us oversea's. The Russians. Odessa stopped time, he dislocated my ankle, choked me, buggered up my ribs a bit more. I'm not going to be back at work for a long time. Peter's determined to talk to Robert and see what happened, get his side of things."
Precog's see potential future's Mel, potential futures and not everyone's. "You going to be okay Mel? I mean, the peter thing and all and the house, Suresh center and such" She cracks open her eyes, having closed them at some point. You warm enough at your place? If you want you and Kendall can take up in my place at the Rivage"
"Wait, it happened before? Then maybe it's an issue with him and not you. Maybe he's sick or something. Or being mind fucked," Melissa says, frowning again. "Sucks that you got so hurt. Wish I could make the pain go away permanently. Just call me Tylenol."
Mel shrugs and rises to her feet, pacing slowly. "The furnace got fixed today, so we've got heat out there. Plumbing is next, once the pipes thaw out. Not sure about the Suresh Center yet. That depends on whether I can get pardoned and whether or not it's a Hotel California hiding in plain sight." But she doesn't mention Peter. And she's usually so eager to talk about him.
'Hotel California hiding in plain sight?" She's not an eagles fan, for all that Cat has tried endlessly to educate the younger southern blonde.
"You get in, but you can't get out," Melissa explains. "If the Suresh Center just tries to draw evolved in on the pretense of helping them, then won't let them leave? It's a Hotel California."
'Alexander works there Melissa, it's not a Hotel California. I promise" She murmurs, gesturing to a chair for her to sit in if she wants to. "It's on Roosevelt Island though, so.." Which means she can't go there. "I never really went there, but you can go there for learning more about your ability, medical care, all these other things. I think you can start calling Roosevelt Island, evo island at this point though. They've seen a lot. Humanis first tried to take them out one day"
"He does? Okay…good," Melissa says, nodding, and looking as though she's relaxing a little. "It sounds like a great place…I guess that's why I'm so distrustful of it. Tired of candy coated shit."
"I'm sure many people are. If you're in doubt, talk to Al, he'll tell you what goes on, he works security. I brought him lunch all the time in the summer and fall. He's staying at the other place right now" Abigail shifts again, trying to figure out what to do, when mobility is very limited. "You bring any movies?" Hopeful. Something to take her mind off everything.
Melissa smiles and pulls a movie case out of her pocket, offering it to Abby. "You're asking the movie queen if she brought a movie? Please. Don't insult me. It's Men In Tights. Figured I couldn't go wrong with a comedy."
"Oooh" Men in tights! That sparks a smile. "Go call Francois, tell him it's movie time. He's trying to catch up on the 90's. you should see all the movies he's rented. Tell him to bring sharpies too, you both can color on the cast, you just, you just can't touch skin" She hopes it's just skin. Or that she stays calm enough to not provoke anything.