Participants:
| Scene Title | Almost Sisters |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Gillian and Veronica escape a crowd that's just a touch too awkward for one of them, and discuss love, loss, and the future. |
| Date | January 18, 2010 |
USS George Washington, Infirmary
It took time for them to get her undressed and back into bed. The IV got hooked back up, and the doctors let Veronica back in and leaving them alone to talk, probably at Gillian's request. She'd asked Veronica not to leave for a reason…
The bed's moved upward, so she's practically sitting up, but not quite. It's leaning more than sitting upright. "Sorry for making you take me back early," she says, running a hand over her stomach, avoiding too heavy a touch, for the sake of the pain. "I just— seeing Peter… I didn't think he'd be up there."
"It's okay," Veronica says, moving into the chair in the corner, resting her crutches against the wall. "I'm sorry. It's not better, now that he's… not Kazimir?" she says quietly, reaching to touch the woman's other hand, that isn't on her stomach.
"It's better. I'm glad that he's no longer Kazimir— that he can touch people again without killing them…" Gillian says quietly, glancing up at the ceiling before looking back over at her. Her eyes are a little wet, like she might be wanting to cry. "But it's not … it's not what I'd wanted. He doesn't really… We're just friends." She shakes her head. Maybe now she understands how Aaron felt when she tried to tell him they were just friends.
"Oh, Gillie, I'm sorry," she says, moving from chair to the other side of the bed, careful not to jar her friend so half of Veronica's body is hanging off the bed. "I know you love him. But… there's more than one kind of love. He loves you too, even if it's not the kind of love you have for him. And I know that doesn't make it easier but it's there. You should have seen him when he saw you on the helicopter. He was so upset, so afraid for you. I think maybe he doesn't know how to care that way, after so long of having to turn it off."
"It's fine— I knew the chances that he would really want to be with me was pretty small," Gillian says softly, trying to smile, but failing a little. It's difficult to be smilie right now. "I know he cared about me— hell, he might even love me the same way I love him. He just doesn't want to be with me. Thinks we'd be bad for each other. And maybe he's right. Maybe we could just be bad for each other. But we don't really know cause…" She trails off, and then suddenly switches subjects, sort of, "Well, at least you and Brian might be happy. There is going to be a wedding eventually right?"
"Eventually. I don't know how to do it when I'm still with the Company," Veronica says, resting her chin on Gillian's shoulder and sighing softly. "I have to figure it all out. Now that you know me, you still approve?" she says, her cheek curving up into a smile that can be felt against the other's cheek. "Or are you going to tell him to throw me back, there's other fish in the sea?"
"I approve of you even more," Gillian says, reaching over and touching the hair of the other woman, almost the closest kind of hug that she can really manage right now. "I mean, fuck, you helped keep me alive in Argentina, you're here for me now— what more could I have wanted in a future sister-in-law. The whole Company thing… well, everyone has to have something wrong with them."
That makes Veronica laugh, gently, so as not to shake the bed and hurt poor Gillian's stomach. "It's going to be strange. I worked with all these people who … well, they are sort of supposed to hate me back home." She thinks back to the little impromptu soiree that was out on the deck. "Noriko… sounds like they wiped her. Wonder why." She doesn't know the woman's history prior to this mission, just that she overheard the woman asking for introductions as she and Gillian made their exit.
"I guess you're going back to work when we get back," Gillian says, trying to keep up the normal conversations, cause it's easier to talk about than… Peter. Or Cardinal. Or Gabriel. Or that french guy. "I'm thinking of going to school. That Agent lady offered me a scholarship to Columbia for what I helped do here… I think I might see if I could get a job in the library and take some classes on the side. Literature, maybe… possibly some art. I always liked drawing, but I never really took classes on it."
"That's a good idea. You can do anything you set your mind to, Gillian. I'm proud of you and what you did here. And you didn't do anything wrong. Be proud of yourself. Anything that happened because of your power — well, they knew the risks, and it was their fault if anything went wrong, okay? You saved us. If you hadn't augmented Magnes back in Argentina…" Well. They wouldn't have made it to Antarctica, and nothing else would have been possible. At least not in the way it worked out.
"It was Kazi— their idea," Gillian says softly, looking down at her hands. "He— they pulled me and Noriko aside to… I don't know why she got wiped, but maybe it's better. The Agent offered to edit some of my memories and when I went to go do that… I apparently augmented him and messed everything up. I'm lucky I didn't lose everything. That's when…" she gestures towards her face. "Kazimir, Peter, whatever— healed me. It fixed the brand this time." She's not sure why it hadn't the first time, but…
"I feel like I'm rambling. I just don't… Rico's dead. Cardinal's gone. Gabriel…" she trails off. "I just feel responsible. My ability wasn't supposed to go out of control like that. And this isn't the first time my ability has done something like this…"
"It's not your fault. At all. Stop it. It wasn't possible without you. Me — I'm a grunt. Anyone could have done what I did. You were important," Veronica says, stroking Gillian's hair. "Shh. Rest. The best way to remember them is to live and do good things, Gillie. You can do that. It's in your power."
"All right, all right," Gillian says, closing her eyes a bit. It's not her fault. It wasn't possible without her. But she disagrees, even if— it's really what she needed to hear. She's important, and her ability can do good things. "You're giving me a lot to live up to, Vee," she adds, leaning her head until her cheek rests against her possible future sister, eyes closing.
"Good. I'll hold you to it all, too," Veronica says, with a smirk. "Shh, sleep. We'll be home tomorrow. Think about that. Sleeping in your own bed, and we can go get you some chocolate pie, and we can see Brian and maybe go to a movie and eat popcorn and have Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled in one." She closes her eyes too, content to nap here until the doctors kick her out.