Securities

Participants:

abby4_icon.gif delilah_icon.gif

Scene Title Securities
Synopsis Some people need blankets, others need something more human. Abby visits Delilah to catch up.
Date June 13, 2010

The Octagon Else and Delilah's Apartment

The apartments of the Octagon are among some of the most prime pieces of rental real-estate in New York City. Bright, open, and clean, these apartments are all painted an eggshell white and feature floor-to-ceiling windows that offer a sweeping, unobstructed view of the East River and Manhattan skyline. Hardwood floors spread from wall to wall and through the spacious bedrooms and private laundry rooms complete with washer/dryer utilities.

The open-concept kitchen in the apartment features stainless steel appliances, polished granite countertops, cherry finished cabinets and ceramic floor tile with all the convenience of a modern kitchen. The bathrooms are finished with classic subway wall tile and porcelain floor tile in bathrooms with elegantly designed corner-set curved showers wproviding more spacious shower area along with porcelain pedestal sinks.

Each apartment comes in two or three bedroom designs, each with spacious walk-in closets with individually controlled heating and cooling. The apartment is also set up with free Cable TV and Internet hook-ups in multiple locations.


Moving into The Octagon has been a steady stream of deciding what to keep and what to toss to Goodwill; for Delilah, this is not quite as easy. Else never had much, while she has to decide what to do with a load of clothes, crafts, or various other things that she has somehow rooted out of her space. Most of what she is keeping has been moved over already, and there are a few boxes that she is still going through at her liesure. The box that she has burped onto the living room surfaces seems to have been full of odds and ends. There is a shoebox for stuff she wants to keep, and as it is, it is already half full.

Samson has been moved as well, now; the big dog is set on investigating his new home every twenty minutes. At the moment, he is poking around in the kitchen, the sounds of his nails the only sign that he is. Delilah has long been perched on the edge of the sofa, diligently sorting things on the lap of a light blue dress.

One would almost imagine with the more modern feel of everything in this place, that a visitor is announced in an AOL voice would be singing "you got visitor, you got visitor" Instead it's that there's someone wanting to come up and visit, cleared and well on her way up so that she can knock on the door to Delilah and Else's new digs. Pink bakery box in hand and a present under arm that is small and wrapped gayley in blue paper embossed with rattles and blue ribbon.

She really does not need a couple of the things she puts in the box- she will realize later- and she is examining a weighty amber paperweight in the shape of a unicorn bust when the knock comes. Possibly wondering where it came from. Dee glances up, almost expecting the door to open, though after a second of deliberation she puts the unicorn down and goes to answer it. And look! A shiny new peephole! It magnifies quite well. When the door opens, Lilah is grinning.

"Abby! How are you? Like the new digs?" She almost starts bouncing, thinking better of it and waving Abigail in. "Come in?"

"I am envious of your digs, but I take comfort in knowing that in a few weeks, I shall likely be designing my own above the bar and can decide how I want stuff" Probably with one less bedroom and a bigger master bedroom. Better soundproofing." wet boots have dried since comin gup, but that doesn't stop her from passing over the boxes so she can take off her boots. Uniform blue beneath, hair pink above. "I saw you at the bridge. Kaylee's doing good, a bazillion stitches on her arm but she'll be fine. Teo taking you to an appointment?"

It seems, Abigail is in the know.

Delilah takes the boxes, curious, trying to pay attention properly while edging out of the way. She knows that she didn't tell Abby about everything, but news travels like wildfire in this community. "Cause of the crash? No, I got checked out myself- but if you mean 'is he taking me to my appointments', yeah. We went just last week. Got copies of the ultrasound. They don't amount to much of anything yet." Lima bean baby.

"So you were on the bridge? What did they do with that bus, anyway? Was everyone in there fine?"

"I didn't mean on the bridge. I'd heard that you were pregnant, I forget who spilled the beans. Just hadn't gotten around to telling you congratulations, bringing you something." A gesture to the blue wrapped box. "I have a feeling, his name will be Walter, and he'll be born on a stretcher in a store front, if what they say about what people saw is true" Boots off, she's entering into the apartment proper.

"The bus I think got pulled back and probably trashed, replaced, everyone got out fine. Much like me, just some whiplash and bruises, I think Kaylee was the worst with the cuts"

"Thank you." The redhead smiles earnestly. "What luck." Dee comments about the bridge, examining the blue box first and wandering towards where the kitchen counters are. Samson comes around from the other side, spotting Abby and bouncing over to her. Ahhh, Abby, Ahhh! Licking if she'll have it.

"That's the same one I had." Putting down the boxes, she peers over to the mop of pink. "I'll be eighteen weeks next Wednesday. There's not a lot yet-" She presses down her dress, and sure enough, there is a small bump when she points it out. "And the timeframe will fit with what they're saying about the visions. That it was on November 8th? He's due around then. Did you hear anything new about those? Causes?" Lilah is torn between asking Abby questions and wanting to see what is in the respective boxes. She settles for peeking into the pink bakery box first.

"Nothing that I've managed to figure out yet. A lot of people think they manifested and hit up the emergency room to get tested. Peter and I were run off our feet, and I had Kat as well as a partner. Ferry has some idea's. They think it was Gillian and Pastor Sumeter's ability messed around with. Accounts for it since Pastor Sumter just got back and can't remember where he was and Gillian's still misssing"

In the box are cupcakes with blue frosting, little gum paste rattles on top and the face of a baby on a couple of them. Half a dozen in all.

"Aw, these are cute- oh.. Oh no." The cupcakes are delightful. Abby's theory relay, not so much. Delilah looks over at her with the universally worried sort of expression. "He's fine otherwise? Do they think they know who took them? Who has her? God, I wish I was useful-" She trails off, squeezing her eyelids shut before peering down at the smiley babies on some of the cupcakes. Can't even help save her friends. Gillian's being will be weighing heavy on her sleep tonight.

"She doesn't deserve to be treated like that. Ever." Lilah murmurs this, eyes still cast down and her hands picking up the blue box to look at it. It's guilting, being happy when she knows these things. In the end, Dee slowly starts to open the blue box.

Rattle inside, silver and aged, nestled in white tissue paper, scrolled work and well loved. "Found it, at an antique store that I stopped by once, I remembered it and thought I'd see if it was still there. The institute probably, but they're not going to make a run on them because they don't know where they are and there's hope that if Joseph was turned loose, that maybe Gillian will be turned loose, like the others that were taken from midtown"

It reminds her of animal catalogers. Catch and release. Though the antique inside does not completely deter her, it does enough so that she assumes to be content that someone will tell her any news.

"Ah, this is just lovely, Abby. Do you know how old it is?" Dee carefully takes it from the box, mentally noting to polish it up some more. Silver may ding, but there is always a way to treat it. She shakes the bulb once, smiling softly at the rain-like rattling from inside, then up to Abby. Her cheeks are a little flushed, thinking back to the vision- and that at some point, this will be his. "Thank you. You are always so thoughtful. I really mean that."

"Walter will enjoy it. If it is a boy and if these things ring true that we saw. Come the 8th, of November, you and I will go park in front of a hospital. Because as much as I would be honored to have been the one to deliver Walter, I'd like to not, at the expense of Trevors life. I haven't told Trevor that I saw him die. I don't wish that on anyone"

A glance the rattle and a shrug. "Old enough to cost a pretty penny and promise me, that you will make sure he plays with it. Not something that stay's up on a shelf somewhere and only looked at. It's like wedding china. Why buy you wedding china when you never use it. It's meant to be used, and often"

"I can tell that it's been loved already. I wonder if it was passed down by some other family." Just maybe. "I promise we'll love it just as much. I don't mind being ready when the day rolls around. I recall you doing so great, but…" Dee does pause. "Trevor is your vegan EMT partner, right? The one that's going on about conspiracies? Or am I thinking of someone else? I don't want anyone to die if there's other ways." Hence why camping at a hospital isn't a bad idea.

Abby says, "Not the conspiracies, He's the one that goes on and on about why one should be a vegetarian, the list goes on. He's… sorta militant about it all. It really ticks Peter off. I'll advise him that that day, he needs to not be working and on a beach in maui saving a whale or something""

"Try telling him there's some rally at a plant of some kind. Though saving whales just sounds more fun." Delilah smiles a little, wagging a hand past Abby and towards the mess in the living room. Incidentally, Samson is investigating it too. "Sorry about the mess. I've been getting rid of some things. Moving, you know? What a bore. Want to share some of these cakes with me?" The sugar smells too good.

"What are you doing now that Lucy's is… toast? Are you living with someone in the Ferry?" She thought that she heard Abby say something about a rebuild.

"I'll have one. I'm living at the Rivage actually. Teo demanded that I move out in case something like that happened. So my important stuff that I couldn't live without day to day was at Rivage or at Francois's place. I'm going to rebuild it. Once insurance pays out, I'll try and get moving on it, try and have it up before winter sets in. It's either that or take the money and buy a new place but.." But her home was above it and it was nice not to pay rent. Easier trek to work when she wouldn't be EMTing.

Delilah offers Abby the box first, after putting the silver rattle away in its own. "I'll be honest, I miss it already. It was good to have a place that- was kind of-" She can't find a word, it seems. "Not so much netural- just someplace that everyone was at home when they went." Sentimentality for a building or location is not terribly uncommon. "I don't remember hearing what caused it. Everything was still so snowed in. It wasn't arson, was it?"

"Yup. Someone came in, tried to find shelter, weren't that smart and it went up in flame" Or so says the report. Thank you Matthew Parkman. One with a baby face is picked up from the box, face taken off and put to the side. Pink tongue darts out to lick at the cupcake and nod her head approvingly.

"So Teo's stepping up to the plate and doing good by you where Walter is concerned?"

"As good as Teo can manage." They both know how he can be. Whatever that is. Delilah smiles, taking one of the rattle cupcakes and seting down the box. She takes a fingerful of icing and offers it to Samson- who has seen that they have food and wandered back over. He sticks his tongue out to catch the lump of sugar as it falls. Oooh.

"He promised to do whatever I ask from him, within reason. So far it's only been what he always does- keeping each other company, pretty much. I said he did take me to my first real appointment- I thought he was going to fall over when we were leaving. Had to sit with him a while in the waiting room after. I have a copy of the ultrasound somewhere- would you like to see?" Even if Abby declines, Delilah starts to look for it in the kitchen anyway, heading towards a couple of the small drawers to rifle through. "Everything is everywhere, I hate the moving process…"

"Teo nearly fainted?" That's a surprise. "Please! We can do all the necessary girly stuff. Lord knows, that I shall never have tow orry about any of this for years" Unless she gets control enough for Robert.

"Haha, oh yes. I kept asking if he was okay all through the checkup and the ultrasound, and he kept saying that he was fine. Up til we got out of the exam room, he was. I think-" Delilah brandishes a paper copy of a black and white ultrasound, giggling and hopping it over to Abby. "I think it finally sunk in, is all. There, you see? Kind of like a potato with a head…" She points out the white outlines of the baby.

"Sometimes, when I have doubts about …keeping on this road, I get this out."

Lima bean! Abby takes it in hand, squinting eyes and peering at the picture in ti's strange cone. "What road is that? You mean, glad that you done kept the baby or…?"

"Yeah, something like that." Delilah's voice is soft, and about now she helps herself to cupcake for a few chews. "It's …not going to be easy. And this isn't the best world right now. I know that it is sort of selfish- keeping him- but when I look at this, I don't care if it is. I don't care, and my doubt goes away. That vision, it gave me more hope than it did scare me. It was like looking at one of these." She smiles to herself, and to Abby's squinting.

"I probably sound like such a Lifetime movie, don't I?"

"I can't say, that I'd be disappointed if you chose not to keep him, and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be surprised to hear that from me. But I don't think it's selfish and it may not be the best world, but I'm pretty sure that the world itself, Delilah, will be better for having him in it. I think every parent thinks that this isn't the best world to bring their baby into, but it is. It's your world, and you can teach him to be better than those who would make it worse"

"You sound like I think I do." Delilah smiles, looking somewhat misty and leaving the paper with Abby so that she can rub at her own cheeks. Massaging it away before it starts. "Thanks, Abby. I didn't realize I needed to hear something like that til you said it."

"It's the baptist in me. Even if you can't keep the baby, there's always someone who will want a baby who can't have one of their own" Abigail takes it fully, tracing a finger over the lima bean shape. Smile on her face, wide and happy for the englishwoman. "Maybe someday, this will be reversed and I'll be the one showing you m lime bean on a grainy black and white" She offers it back over, digging up a hanky from her purse to go with it.

"Is it terrible that I know I want him? So that I know I'll never be alone?" Delilah takes the kerchief and the picture, hiding behind the former when she asks this. "Gosh, I feel so silly, starting to blubber. I never know if it's my mind or my body doing it. Damned hormones and shit."

"No, not terrible. That'd be as bad as me saying that I like seeing Robert, because I know that no matter what, for some reason, he'll be there. I don't love him yet, but I like the security that he means. Walter-" Abigail reaches over, placing her palm on Delilah's middle. "Is your security"

Delilah's hand finds the top of Abby's, the other holding onto either piece of papery substance. She grins, despite herself. "Funny, he's so important and he doesn't even have fingernails yet." But what he does have, is a total circle worth of the proverbial It Takes a Village. People that already do and probably will- love him. Not to mention that nifty mystery power. Important, and not even aware.


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