Participants:
| Scene Title | Threeway |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Liz calls Abigail to gives some last minute instructions, thinking she's in New York and not in Mexico. Cardinal eavesdrops and offers sympathies and insight of the male perspective. |
| Date | January 10, 2010 |
Telephone Lines
Elisabeth has been standing at the railing of the observation deck looking out over the water for an hour, fingering the phone in her hands. Trying to decide whether to make phone calls. What the hell would she tell her father? 'Get out of town, Dad. Go to the Rockies and go skiing for a couple of weeks.' Shyeah… that's not going make her parent demand what the hell she's involved in, right? Would he even do it? Maybe…. maybe if she asks Abby to go personally, perhaps. Certainly Abby will believe her, though. Finally Liz dials the phone to connect to Abby's cell, listening to the ringing on the other side of the world.
Re-inforcing your lover, possible lover, former lover's shanty is a time consuming job. Even more so when you have to steal said individuals el-camina, rely on your phone's GPS, and buy hammers, nail, pile in wood that's bought from somewhere while dealing with a language difference once again. She's pretty sure that she got screwed on the price in the wood but she intends to stick it out here for a bit whether Deckard likes it or not. She left Raquelle to see about the act of re-gentrification of Flint while she did.
But she'd made it back, clothing, basic bathroom amenities, a pair of fresh brand new cots, cases of bottled water, non-perishible food, everything needed for long term camping and filled up the tank of gas. She could thank Flint for having at least picked a ghost town near a city.
So unloading of the camino is slow going since she doesn't have young men to unload it like they did loading and she still has her broken ankle. She's not going to live here like he did for the next few days in squalor - her idea of squalor - and at least going to make it like rough camping. She can handle that. Mind you that meant that this morning she staked out one of the buildings, cleaned it as best she could and used it to take a shower that means she took a cloth and washed herself down from a bucket of cold well water. In the process of hauling one case of water out of the car, her phone rings and prompts her to answer. Could be Elias and the end of the world is happening right this moment. "Hello?" A breathless Abigail answers.
"Abby?" Elisabeth is surprised that the blonde sounds so out of breath. "Hey… it's Liz." It's not Elias, but … perhaps close enough for government work?
"Liz! Liz. Lord, how is it? How are you? Is everything okay?" THe water is dropped - the one end of it - to the ground and she straightens up to lean against the car. "Please tell me everything is fine, everything's done?"
"I wish," Elisabeth replies quietly. "Almost. We've tracked the warhead to … freakin' Antarctica." She sounds disgruntled. Cold, snow, eew! "Abby… listen, I think you should… watch the news really carefully for the next few days, and keep your phone handy, okay? If things go well, I will definitely call you and tell you. If you don't hear from me, though… I'm kind of worried about this. The warhead is bigger than we thought. It actually has the capacity to… do like Elsa's song suggests."
"I have a teleporter who's gonna let me know, if things start.. heading south" Abby assures Elizabeth, squinting up at the sun. Antartica? Fabulous. She's really maybe a little jealous. Dealing with bigger than expected nuclear bomb. Abigail glances towards the part of town where Flint is hiding out. Mind you,s he's dealing with bigger than expected Nuclear Bomb of the human variety. "I'm not at home, I'm in Mexico right now. I had to track down flint cause he ran away. Teo should be catching up with you'all real soon so he probably would have told you that" Her thumbnail scratches at flakey paint with a wrinkle of her nose. "Let Francois know that would you? And teo. That it's not going well. Is there uh, if things go south, you want me to have my friend grab your folks? He's set to grab Raquelle's girls and get them to safety"
There's a pause when Abby says 'teleporter' and Elisabeth smiles faintly. "If your friend wouldn't mind checking in the library to pick up Mack and Peyton… and my dad? Yeah, Abby… I'd be eternally grateful if you guys wouldn't mind looking out for those people for me." She shoves a hand through her hair and leans on the railing. "I'm sorry to hear it's not going well with Flint," she says sincerely. "I hope that he's okay. Teo hasn't caught back up yet, but I imagine they're dropping him off shortly." She looks out over the water and says, "Miss you, Abs."
"Just uh, text me his address and i'll see what I can get E to do about picking them up, there's a place not far from New York that Teo says will be fine, and you know, Ferryman supplies. I'm prepared for it down here, there's another place not far from here and if I have to drug Flint to get him there, well, i'll just have to drug him" She's not above that. She told Teo she'd fight for Flint's life too.
"Miss you too. I'm.. grateful Teo came back with me. I had a few nasty nightmares, ethan, Lgoan, all that" Flint in one. "I uh, hey, I met an old company agent before I hightailed it down here." Abigail glances over in tehd irection of the well, checking out the town.
Leaning on her elbows on the railing, Liz tips her head as she listens to Abby on the phone. The sounds of the aircraft carrier are muted around her, though obviously she can't mute the sound of the breeze. "I'm glad Teo went back with you too. I was afraid you'd have some nightmares. I'll get the address to you as soon as I hang up." She smiles a bit at the information that Abby'll just drug Flint. "Old Company agent? Is that significant?"
A shadow has carefully crept up the audiokinetic's back while she was distracted on the phone, bleeding down over her shoulder and arm before it's in view; just a hint of shade moving over her as if a cloud were passing over the sun, though there's nothing that would cause it, slender fingers of darkness crawling over the phone itself to better listen in. Nosy bastard.
"No, dont' think so.just someone who was in the library. He worked from Primatech, and I took a guess. Left just after the bomb. I guess If reaked him out by calling him Agent and he tracked me down when I went in to see about finishing school. He seems okay" WHich doens't mean much when it boils down to things Company. "Peyton wants to know who all made it out okay? She's been worrying about you all"
There's a frown as Abby says 'someone in the library.' "Tell Peyton that so far, we're all okay. Everyone's here. Claire's… had a bit of a rough go. She took a gunshot to the head and lost some memories. Sound familiar?" She smiles a little and it shows in her voice as sympathy, not amusement. "I'm trying to help her out with it. Who is this Company agent?" She doesn't note the shadow immediately; her eyes are on the horizon, not on her arms as Cardinal's shadow form wraps itself around her.
"Benjamin Ryans, and not that library" as if she knew what Liz was thinking. THe news about the others, that is shoveled away for when she gets back to the city and it's not flooded. "How's Francois doing?" The tone of her voice suggesting maybe something a bit more than normal concern.
The name means nothing to her, but Liz will pass it on anyway. "And what'd he want?" She pauses. "Francois's….. perturbed would be a good way to put it, I guess. Why?" She hasn't spent much time with the Frenchman, so she's not sure what Abby's asking. "There's been a good bit of drama back and forth on this whole situation, honestly. What in particular are you worried about with Francois?"
"There's the… expected tension between him and Kazimir, of course," Cardinal murmurs between the phone and Elisabeth's ear, thus audible to both. It's like having a second person on the line, without having to set that up or call between multiple people! "He seems to be in good health, if poor humor. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him personally."
"Just worried about him is all" He's adrift in another decade and with no home and very little things to call his own. "He's just, alone, is all and I guess people forget that he's only just now going about life without his ability. Not 16 years" Perturbed though, she's sure. "You know me. Worry about everyone and everything"
"Liz, he left the map, Flint left the map so that in case someone needed healing, he could be found. He didn't leave the map for me ot come find him. He didn't… He doesn't want me here, he wants to be alone in a broken bar, with a cat and stinking from not bathi-" She cuts off at the sound of Cardinal which causes a smile to rise unbidden. "Richard. How are you?"
And now she jumps! Holy shit! "Richard!" Elisabeth gasps. And then she laughs quietly, looking down to realize that she's wearing the shadow like… a shadow! "Dork," she says affectionately. Resuming her position leaning on the rail and letting Cardinal remain in shadow form to eavesdrop doesn't seem to be an issue at this moment — though in truth, the way he did that has made her adrenaline surge. If he can sneak up on her, so can that bastard Lazzaro, and that idea gives her the heebie-jeebies. "Well…. I don't have much in the way of advice on that one, Abby," she says regretfully. "Flint's always been sort of a contrary sort. I hope that you can work it out, though. I'll try to make a point of touching base with Francois before we make landfall, okay?"
A low, hollow chuckle stirs against the phone as he's shouted at. "I'm well," Cardinal murmurs, "I've definately had worse fuckin' days. Good to hear your voice. Flint gone off the reservation or something?"
"PLease? Tell him i'm thinking of him. And that, I hope he considers New York on his destination post thwarting of apocali. He's got a room if he wants it. Even if I have to build another story to the bar or a penthouse apartment on the roof" Cardinal she's sure, is going to get an ass kicking in the end of this phonecall. "Yeah. He left" Abigail recaps for Cardinal. "He's.. He won't answer my questions, stinks like he hasn't had a bath in ages. I'm going to try and talk to him again, and at least tidy up this … ghost town he's taken to living in so that if I can't convince him to come back to town, at least he'll have a roof over his head"
"Christ," Richard swears, "I'd offer some advice, but… I've never understood the old man, really. I used to consider him a friend, but, I haven't been able to talk to him for months without him just staring at me. Best of luck getting through to him, Abigail." There's a pause, then he asks, "How're you doing?"
How is she doing? Richard always asks her that. "I'll live. Don't think you can get over your heart being shredded and cut to bits but, i'll live. Nightmares, same old same old. I'll rest better when you all save the world" Abigail points out. "My part in it is done, with only a broken ankle and a lifetime of never paying taxes again as a reward" They both know her, she'd have refused the tax thing if she could.
Elisabeth chuckles softly. "Abigail Beauchamp, your part of saving the world is never done… don't you know that yet? You are the touchstone for all of us." She wishes she knew what to say about Deckard. "Maybe he's not talking to you because he feels bad about what happened between you," she suggests quietly. But she doesn't really know what to suggest. "By this time next week, I'm hoping we're home. I promised Claire a spa day — you're coming too. Pedicures, massages, the whole bit. We're going to celebrate."
Maybe he's hoping that one of these days he'll get a better answer. He knows she worries about others more than herself - someone needs to worry about her. "No taxes, eh? Good for you, good for you…" The shadow of Cardinal exhales a faint chuckle, then grows more serious, "You can get over it. He'll either turn around, or you two'll go your separate ways, and you'll recover. If you could recover from everything else you've been through, Abigail… you can do this too."
"recovering from a broken ankle and a cracked tooth Richard, is a lot easier than recovering from a broken heart" But he's right, Richard is always right. "I haven't let him heal my ankle yet, not that he's offered, I think he's afraid of me. Teo claims that he loves me but.." But.
"Spa day sounds good. Spa day sounds really good, i'll mark that down on my calander"
A faint smile accompanies Abby's agreement, and Elisabeth hesitates before she says softly, "He probably is afraid of you, Abby. Things did not go well the last time you saw one another, and he probably feels pretty damn guilty for hurting you and …. maybe he's just trying in typical dumb-guy fashion to keep from doing it again. Without getting the clue bat that doing this just hurts more." It's a strange conversation to have with Richard Cardinal draped in shadow form across her body, but you know? Whatever. "Teo would know — he probably knows Flint better than anyone. But even when you love someone….. it doesn't make things suddenly simple between you." She grins slightly, unable to help herself. "Then again… maybe I'm not the person to talk to about relationships. Everything's better with a spa day and chocolate, woman. Seriously girl-talk then when I don't have shadowman draped around my shoulders like a sweater."
"It's not the physical hurts I was talking about, Abigail." The shadow falls silent for a bit, then chuckles faintly, "…hey. I'm a sweater now? Maybe I should be something more interesting, like lingerie."
"I'll have Richard back soon enough and i'll make him go bird" She hears the rest of what they're saying but is choosing to let that meander through her mind instead of commenting on it. She understood richard. She understands folks a lot more than they think that she does.
"I gotta see if there's a way to get on the roof of his bar, put up some boards up there, salvage stuff from the other places here. If not, well, i'll see what I can do about the inside. I brought a tent that I just pitch in one of the buildings. Raquelle's with me, but he'll be going back soon, I only got a babysitter for so long for him. I should let you both go" Not that she did the dialing, Liz did. "Get going on some things before the sun is too high"
"Ooooh… now there's a bit of kink I never considered. Shadow lingerie. You can ride around inside my clothes with me while we're traipsing around Antarctica!" Elisabeth teases, tongue firmly in cheek. "It'd be a good way to stay warm, yeah?"
But she lets the healer off the hook with a brief, "Take care of yourself, Abby. We'll be home as soon as we can, okay? And if you need anything, the number I called from is Felix's satellite phone. You can get to it, assuming it has a signal. It's obviously not entirely secure, but… better than nothing. Hang in there, okay?"
"Yeah, take care of yourself. Tell the girls at the bar I said h'lo, eh? And keep an eye on that Thalia chica, I don't trust her." Richard's shadow chuckles faintly, "See you soon."
"Richard.. dear." he doesn't know. "Liz, you tell him where I am. Then beat him across the shoulders when he's not being invisible. I love you both" Is uttered over the line before she pulls it away and with a press of a button, ends the call. THere's water to drag, things to see to, and a grumpy old man to deal with.
"I will," Elisabeth promises as Abby hangs up. Curling the phone down into her neck, Elisabeth rests her jaw on it. "She's in Mexico," she murmurs to Cardinal. "Deckard left a map as to where to find him if people needed healing. She followed it to try to see him." She sighs heavily.
"Mexico? What, did he decide that Abigail wasn't enough for him and took a trip down to catch the donkey show?" Now that the phone's hung up, Cardinal lets anger bleed into his tone, his darkness spilling off of her and up the wall behind as if it were her own - assuming she had a male silhouette, which she doesn't.
Turning to look at the man — shadow — with a look that merely says 'MEN,' Elisabeth replies, "No… I think he ran like hell from the fact that he hit her, Richard. And now he doesn't know what to do, can't figure out why she might still love him or forgive him, can't forgive himself, and is probably trying to figure out if he really is that big a prick. Deckard's …. one of those guys. Lives as self-destructively as possible. And suddenly he's got a woman who is the next best thing to a saint telling him that she loves him. And willing to overlook the fact that he hit her — this one time. He hasn't got a fuckin' CLUE what he's doing." She sounds pretty certain.
"I imagine that it doesn't help that he's got Francois's personality dancing around in his head, or at least he did the last I heard…" An echoing sigh stirs in the shadow, Cardinal's 'arms' folding there, "…I never understood him even when he wasn't schitzophrenic."
Elisabeth gives a derisive chuckle. "Yeah… tell me about it. But I owe the man my life, too. So…. I gotta hope that it works out for them. Someone deserves a happy ending, don't you think?" Leaning back, she sighs quietly. "She's got a teleporter on standby to get some people out of town. She'll send them for Peyton if we fail." She looks at the shadow and says quietly, "We're not going to fail. Right?" Because that briefing pretty much scared the hell out of her.
"No." Cardinal steps out of the shadow slowly, darkness clinging to him like a shroud before fading back into his own dim shadow; a faint, wry smile touching his lips as he steps over, a hand raised to touch her cheek, "We're not. It'll all work out, Liz, I promise." Of course, if it doesn't, he'll be dead. No need to apologize!
Turning her cheek into that light touch, Liz nods slightly. "If we all keep telling each other that, we'll make it happen by sheer force of will." She smiles faintly. "Kicking ass and taking names seems to be our specialty."
"Damn straight," Cardinal replies with a slight, crooked smile, "I'm too stubborn to lose… and unlike the other side, we're following a plan. We might not know all of it…" A brush of his thumb over her lower lip, "…but I believe in it." So maybe, finally, he knows how Abigail feels when she talks about God's will, in his own strange way.
Studying him for a long moment, Elisabeth is quiet. She reaches up with her free hand to capture the hand on her cheek and turns her face to drop a kiss on his palm. "That's enough for me, lover," she comments softly. God help us if Edward Ray is just playing his own gambit to take over the world, but faith has to start somewhere.