Participants:
| Scene Title | Before Paths Cross Again |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | On a hot summer day, Kaylee sees a man she never thought she'd ever see again, but this is a much younger version of him. |
| Date | July 01, 1890 |
A Street Market
The sweltering heat of the New York summer seemed to radiate off the cobble stone and brick roads, making everyone miserable. Even the horse that where the main vehicle of the era walked with dragging feet and lowered heads. The small bit of relief came from the fire hydrant that had been opened for the local kids to play through with squeals of delight.
Despite the heat, merchants had stalls set up all along the length of the street. Boxes of the years first crops stood stacked, withering in the heat.
Occasionally, people would have to scurry aside for some rich bloke, out for a joy ride in his fashionable automobile, with it's coughing and sputtering engine. At the time, the blocky and clunky vehicles were the Ford Mustangs of their times.
Standing under the shade of one of the shops awnings, Kaylee Thatcher watches one such car putter past, with pursed lips and furrowed brow.
"Think's he's bringin' the modern age to us." The comment from a shop owner behind her who watches, with hands on hips. Red hair, shot with gray, Mrs. Henderson watches the display with disapproval. "Mark my word, those auto things will be nothin' but trouble."
A small smile touches her lips and Kaylee turns back to the boxes of tomatoes, so that she can sort through them for the least bruised, Margaret needs a few for dinner that night. One arm looped through a basket, she carefully places each find into it. "I don't doubt your word there, Mrs. Henderson." Kaylee comments lightly, holding her tongue as to what she does know. Of a future full of smog filled skies and automobiles becoming an important part of everyday life.
"So Kaylee, deary, any letters from that husband of yours?"
It takes a lot to keep Kaylee from rolling her eyes, instead she moves down to to some of the offered fruit to see if any of it was good enough for a pie or some sort of desert bread. Bread was a favorite things for the telepath to make, she could take our a lot of aggression out when kneading the dough. "No, Mrs. Henderson."
"Pity. I should like to give him a piece of my mind. A lot of us would, I think." The much older woman comments as she flicks a fan quickly in an attempt to take the edge off. "Why I was just telling, Miss McFarland — " It was easy to tune out the woman, she never seemed to notice anyhow.
Kaylee herself misses being able to wear shorts and tank tops. In the Victorian like environment of 1890, it was only proper for woman to cover just about everything up. Wearing a white shirt, helped out a little, despite the high collar and the long sleeves. The worst part was the corsets, that was the fashion, to make such tiny waists. Personally, Kaylee would have like nothing more to throttle the man who invented them.
Paying for the tomatoes with a polite thank you and goodbye, Kaylee starts down the row of stalls and shops, aiming for Mr. Martin's stall where he was selling bags of flour out of the back of his cart, the inn needed a new bag desperately.
The thing with being in the late 1800s is that it was a time of change and revolution. The turn of the century meant that people's minds were aimed forward towards progressive thinking, new and exciting advances in science and medicine was leading the world out of the era that would be remembered for a bloody civil war and into what many were hoping would be an era known for enlightenment.
Kaylee Anne Thatcher knows she has at least one world war to look forward to, maybe even the second if she survives the maladies of the era. Typhus fever, cholera, too many diseases that don't plague her era could be the nail in her coffin. One man here in the market will come to know the bitter sting of losing someone he loves to illness, and fight against it.
But right now, he's arguing over the price of a mango.
"D'you have any idea how plentiful these are in India? I could walk down a street and pluck these up out of a low-hanging branch, and you want to charge me how much for one?"
The British accent sends a chill down Kaylee's spine, drives her focus away from Mrs Henderson and over towards a vegetable stall with an assortment of exotic fruits just brought in from a shipment in the harbor. With a mango clutched in one bare hand the way a psychopath may bradish a grenade, the shaggy blonde-haired gentleman in a brown tweed suit and black bow-tie looks decidedly at home in the end of the 18th century.
Even if he's lived through more than a couple already.
"You, sir, are a highway robber," is Adam Monroe's final assessment of the fruit vendor before tossing the mango up into the air towards him. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
Blue eyes widen and her breath catches in her throat. Of all the people, in all of… well… history to meet someone again, Kaylee just had to run into him again. The sight of him brings back fresh memories and a longing for home. However, her programing starts kicking in and her stomach churns and twists just at the sound of his voice.
Even so, as she watches him, being away from her time for so long, a part of her wants to take the risk out of desperation for something familiar.
With a swish of black skirts, Kaylee steps up beside the tall blonde man, with equally blue eyes as herself and smiles at the vendor. "I don't know." She starts out pleasantly enough, picking up one of the mangoes and seeming to examine it. "Sure it's great that you can walk down a street in India and pluck them from the tree, but — " She turns that smile on Adam, despite the way it makes her stomach protest. "— many of us are not so lucky to be so well traveled and may never leave the states. So we must suffer the costs to have just a piece of that experience."
Money changes hands and the mango is tucked into her basket, with everything else. "Besides, the fact that these come to the market in such good condition clearly makes them worth the price. Of course, it doesn't cost nearly as much as a trip to India. So… I think I win in that case."It helps that she knows the vendor as well, he holds the mango that Adam had to her, which she takes and in turn offers to the man who would change her life in the future, with a bright smile.
Well, his future.
One fair brow lifts as Adam turns to consider Kaylee with an askance stare. Eyeing the mango, there's a crooked smile that crosses his lips. "That's an awfully smart answer," is the surprised response he offers, tucking his hands into the pockets of his trousers with a furrow of his brows at the same time.
"Not that I'm saying I expected an uneducated answer, more that it's a refreshing change of pace." Then, there's a grimace from Adam as he jerks one hand out of his pocket and offers it out to Kaylee. "Where've my manners gone, my name's Adam." The name alone causes Kaylee's stomach to turn, "Adam Plante," isn't quite the name Kaylee was expecting, but a man as old as Adam is has undoubtedly gone through some aliases in his time.
Then, of course, there's that expectant quirk of his brow.
Who is this delightful flower?
"Or was it you didn't expect that sort of answer from a woman?" Kaylee states knowingly, obviously teasing the man, despite what her programming is screaming at her. Switching the mango to her other hand, after a moment of hesitation, she takes the offered hand.
Oh and what is that? A flash of gold on a particular finger as she takes his hand. "Kaylee." No reason to really hide who she is, maybe a part of her hopes it'll help her later on. "Kaylee Thatcher." She doesn't add a nice to meet you, her stomach might not be able to handle it… it's too much like trusting him. "Do you do much traveling Mr. Plante?"
The handshake makes a brief wave of nausea churn Kaylee's stomach, and as her hand comes away she is given firm reminder of the geas put on her by one of the Company founders, shortly before she was murdered. "Well, I didn't want t'put it quite like that, but… it is refreshing t'see a woman who has herself a proper education over here in the States. Especially a woman as beautiful as yourself. Combining brains and beauty can often be a dangerous pair." Then, with a crack of a smile Adam adds, "I should know!"
He's a much different man than Kaylee remembers. The Adam before his thirty year imprisonment by the Company, the Adam before both World Wars showed him the absolute lowest depravity of humanity. In a way, she is seeing him in his youth, even if it is a subjective youth. How old is he now?
"I travel as much as any man can," Adam admits after a moment of humble silence, "I've seen a good lot of the world. You wouldn't know it by my accent, of course, but I've just moved up north. This is my first time here in New York City since…" Adam's brows furrow and there's a dry laugh, "well, it's been a while since I've had reason t'come up north. The War didn't give much good reason t'travel."
The Civil War, he means.
Even with the nausea, Kaylee can't help but smile, it is a moment that reminds her of when things had been better between her and Adam. That thought alone, makes her stomach turn enough to make her worry for a moment, hand pressed her mouth just briefly. Last thing she needs is pregnancy rumors spreading around when her 'husband' has been gone for nearly five years.
Clearing her throat as if she has something caught in it, not fighting off some serious nausea, Kaylee lets the smile return to her lips. "Sadly, I haven't been outside the States." Which isn't completely true, but not no true trips that she got to do more then stay hidden or get shot. "And doubt I ever really will." Though she doesn't sound all that broken up about it.
There was a time she wanted to travel, but… life doesn't always give you want you want, now she would be happy to settle down in one place. "Either way, welcome back to New York, Mr. Plante. Do you plan to stick around for a time?"
"Maybe," is offered with a weak confidence from Adam as his blue-eyed stare diverts down to Kaylee's hands for only a moment. "I'd have said if perhaps there was a beautiful lady such as yourself waiting around for me, I might be more inclined to stay in one place a bit longer… but it seems like some lucky gentleman has already 'ad his way with your heart."
Lifting up one hand to touch fingers to his chest, Adam offers a gallant smile. It's only then that Kaylee notices he's— wearing a wedding band, despite saying all of this. "I'm thinking of headed up to Canada, truth be told. Never spent any time up there, and the allure or bright lights and big cities has started to dull on me as of late." With that note, Adam looks up to the sky, brows furrowed. "Montreal sounds nice… but," when he looks back down, there's a faint smile spread across his lips.
"I'm really in no hurry," he admits jokingly, "I've got all the time in the world."
That hand lifts to look at the band of gold on her hand, her smile faltering. "Something like that… yeah." Kaylee says softly, before making that smile return, if a sad one, as she looks at him again. "Though he's gone missing. A soldier, but…" The hand lowers to rest on the edge of her basket. "… I hold hope still that I will see him, again."
She studies him for a long moment thoughtfully, "You know… I believe you." Her smile widens a little more. "I imagine you will outlive a lot of people and I bet New York draws you back again." She glances around the busy street. "It will call you back." Kaylee comments lightly, a touch smugly, but only cause she has the inside information.
Adam's brows furrow, eyes narrow and a thoughtful look crosses his face for just a moment before he offers a laugh and a shake of his head, dismissing the commentary as something more innocent than it really is. "You're different," Adam opines as he tucks his hands into the pockets of his trousers again. "Not in a bad way, either. Opinionated, educated, very bright. You remind me of…" Adam trails off, replacing words with a feigned smile.
"Well— at any rate," there's a look up and over Kaylee's shoulder to the woman she was with earlier, who is watching their interaction from a nosy distance intently. "It was a fine pleasure making your aquaintance, an' I do hope that perhaps the next time New York draws me in to her embrace that we run into one another." A smile creeps up on the corners of Adam's lips, "Life can be funny that way."
Glancing over her shoulder briefly, Kaylee is forced to remember where and when she is, with a sigh as well. She seems sad, brows lowering with it, reluctant to break off this moment of familiarity. "It was nice to meet you Mr. Plante. A refreshing and flattering conversation at that." Smiling again, she pulls out the second of two mangos and offers it to him. "A welcome back to New York gift and a reminder of where you've been.
"And believe me when I say," Kaylee Thatcher's chin lifts a little with confidence as she states, "I am fairly certain we will meet again, though I doubt you will remember someone like me. But It is simply a matter of time before paths cross again."
Even with a churning nausea that threatens to make her loose what food she has in her stomach, Kaylee has been given a new sense of hope. She knows it's a false hope, but she feels she will get home again.
Hope is all she has anymore.