Participants:
| Scene Title | A Moot Issue… |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | … is what Cat's concerned about. |
| Date | May 25, 2009 |
A wrought-iron fence borders several small garden beds and the stone stairs leading up to the house's front door. The house itself is a structure of old stone - not even concrete blocks, but quarried stone — with natural-color wood doors and window frames. The windows on the ground floor are barred.
Inside, the level is divided into only three rooms. The first is the foyer, with polished hardwood flooring, a freestanding coatrack on either side, iron-dark against soft-amber interior walls. The main staircase spirals up from one corner of the foyer, girded by a wrought-iron railing.
To the right from the entrance is the kitchen. The walls just off from white, the floor tiled in dark gray. In the center of the kitchen is a black-topped island, matching the counters that line the room. One wall is dominated by an eminently modern stove framed by an anachronistic brick hearth. Cabinets above the counters have glass doors; the windows above the sink are framed in light-colored curtains, the illumination they let in adding to the expansive atmosphere.
The dining room takes up the back of this floor. The far wall is brick and stone, with a facade of a fireplace mantle in the center. Interior walls have been painted a tone intermediate between amber and ivory, which is also the accent color in the dark rug beneath the long dining table.
After leaving the company of Helena and Cardinal, Cat took some time to think, mulling over all that's been happening lately and the troubles to come. It's grim, but then it's been grim for a very long stretch of time. At least the current thing doesn't involve Nazis and viruses.
She can't, however, remain contemplative for long. There are things to do, places to visit. First task up is finding Abby to ask about something. But she's told the folks at the bar she'll be on vacation. She's heard that one before, it turned out to delay her being noticed as missing. This time, she's on top of that. Security footage is verified, and shows her Abby packing to stay somewhere else, getting help from Sal and Delilah. Curious, this.
Her next move, rather than asking either of those persons if they know where Abby was headed, is to find out if she's maybe taking advantage of the Ferry. It's not such a hard thing, really: Cat chooses not to even trouble Wireless or use the phone. She simply crosses the Village and makes her way through security at the Hangar, hoping to speak with Grace in person.
That's her intention when she arrives in the safehouse's foyer.
Only Grace isn't in the room. She might be somewhere else in the place but she's not in the foyer or the kitchen. Alistair was giving her an impromptu lesson on her laptop, and left her alone. Not hard to figure out who it is. She's dressed in the usual clothes for the redhead, the same shade of red that goes in and out on Cat's security system. Only her back is to the door, headphones on, a bowl of lucky charms in her hands as she sits cross legged at the table. Cat won't need to ask Grace where Abigail might be staying, she's got her answer within two feet of her.
Fortune hath smiled. Cat doesn't speak at first, thinking the headphones would make that pointless. She instead opts to sit nearby the woman at a spot likely to be noticed and wait to be given Abby's attention. She looks much the same as she often does, features calm. Warm weather has also led to dressing for it. Shorts, tank top featuring Janis Joplin…
Blue eyes flicker over to the movement in the peripheral of her vision. Recognition is enough that Abby plucks out a headphone, letting it dangle down. "Evening Cat. Phone didn't ring, is there something wrong?" She's not smiling and on the laptop is a computer program. Looks like the healer is learning.. Italian?
A quick mental decision is made not to let on anything. She instead covers with the easy, given the location. "I hope not," Cat replies. "I came to see Grace and talk about something. But it can wait. I've been meaning to come see you too. There's a lot happening, it keeps me busy."
Her eyes settle on the laptop and take in the computer screen for some moments without comment emerging, just enough to verify the language at hand.
"Well I'm here," Abby offers. "I think Grace is doing something somewhere here. What do you need?" God, please don't let it be healing. It's Italian on the screen, some sort of language learning program, and Abigail's quite obviously at the very start of it. "I don't have anything else happening tonight, taking a week off work."
"I've been wondering what you decided on Frontline," Cat tells her. "Helena will be looking for you also," Cat adds. She doesn't go into what, believing Abby already knows. "but I have to wonder if something's wrong, Abby. You being here and all, y'know?"
Her eyes dip to the screen again briefly, then back to Abby's face. "Good language. I like the sound of it. Easy, too. Tricky is one of the Eastern kind, reading wise. Everything goes right to left. Backwards."
"Helena paid me a visit a few days ago. We drank in the back room of Old Lucy's and just talked." Well, Helena drank, Abby didn't touch any alcohol. "As for FRONTLINE," Abby shrugs her shoulders a little, "I haven't decided of late. I said yes, but, I'm …" She's on the line now, thanks to recent events. "Just need a break Cat, I'm just really tired and feeling out of sorts is all. Some people defaced the church, you know that. Just…" Abigail shrugs again.
"How did that go?" Cat asks. "The cleansing. I hope the food arranged for was good and the supplies stretched enough." A quiet chuckle emerges, before she admits "I didn't want to have someone speak to me in the Pastor's presence, calling me by my name. He thinks I'm called Joan," she explains.
"It went good. Pastor Sumter was pleased. I think he smiled at seeing all the people come to help, even ones just wandering in off the street. The pizza went far, and the supplies were good. People from all walks came, gave supplies. Church was beautiful when all was done. Almost wouldn't have known that someone had defaced it. I'm sure that Pastor Sumter will thank you when you see him next. If you tell him."
"I might," Cat answers. "The vision he gave me, the first time I went there, it was positive. Elisabeth and I were able to turn it into stopping a murder. Details matched up with things I saw a few days later in an art paper, and gave a place to start."
But a silence follows there, she turns her mind back to another subject.
"I'm glad you haven't agreed to endorse Frontline, Abby," Cat states on resuming. "I had some visitors recently, one of them pointed out things happening around the world and shared a few facts that make me more concerned about that than I was. That it's about creating a Gestapo."
Abigail lifts her eyes to the other woman. "It's a moot issue now Cat. I appreciate that you wanted to warn me off of it, I understand your feelings on it. But it's moot. It's no more." The red head digs her spoon into her bowl. She might not have had the education that Cat did, but she knew enough German history.
There's just a nod as Cat's concerns are short-circuited, there's no need to discuss or convince, despite Cardinal saying he'd seen FBI at Old Lucy's recently. Explaining anyway is considered, and set aside, in favor of relating "Cardinal's back."
"Figured. If magnes is back, then that means that Cardinal is. Knew he was out there" Abigail supplies. "He's a good guy."
"Magnes, Cardinal, or both?" Cat asks. "That story he told, Magnes, in the video, sounded a lot like you."
There's confusion on her face. "I'm sorry, I'm not following, Cat."
"He was jumping around, saying things that sounded like your life story. And you said someone was a good guy, in the same sentence as mentioning both Magnes and Cardinal," Cat explains.
"Cardinal. Richard. Good guy," Abby clarifies. "Magnes too. He was trying to … protect me. That clip was from weeks ago." Another mouthful of Lucky Charms is consumed before they become too soggy.
"He is," Cat agrees. "I hope Mr. Varlane's okay. If need be he can be gotten a new face, given shelter. If he'd take it, that is. Since he's back, he may have already been grabbed by DHS or the Company, after having his face and name on video at a crime scene like that."
"I think he was with Delilah, Delilah's a neighbour. I can find out from her where he is, but he was at the church helping on Saturday, so I'm pretty sure he's fine. last I knew he was staying out on Staten Island."
"Thanks, Abby," Cat replies as she moves to stand. "I don't know the guy, never met him, but he was helping a friend in Japan, so…" That to her seems to cover it all. "I should let you get back to learning Italiano, so, ciao, Abby."
"Take care Cat. I'll probably be here for a couple days. Clear my head, Get things… in order. Tell Helena I say hello?" there's a summoning of a small smile for the other woman. "Learning Italian. So I can know what the heck Teo keeps calling me." Tesoro.
"I will," Cat replies. Footsteps follow, then the opening and closing of the door as she departs.