Participants:
| Scene Title | Breakfast Beer |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Beer has all the carbs and calories you need to deal with horrible things and foreshadowing. |
| Date | Sep 26, 2009 |
NYPD squad room and Fat Cat Billiards
Saturday morning should be a quiet time for a detective, but…. well, nothing's ever quiet around the NYPD. Elisabeth's struggling to catch up on paperwork, having been dealing with several random cases all week. She's sitting at a different desk these days, one where she can see the door at all times and her back is to the wall — though she's not watching the door at the moment. Her eyes are squinting at a computer screen while she types up one of nine reports that must be filed by Monday. Geezus, they're trying to kill her with paperwork, she's sure of it. She's wearing comfortable clothes today, though, not expecting to be called out — soft chocolate pants, a soft camel-colored blouse and a matching blazer that hangs over the chair behind her, leaving her shoulder rig clearly visible. Her blonde hair is caught up in a brown clip to keep it off her face, which accentuates that she's dropped a few pounds since Minea last laid eyes on her. She's not looking sick yet, but she can't afford to lose many more. She's scowling at the moment at the screen.
The rap of knuckles on the door belong to Minea, hale, hearty, little tired from spending the night and going over the finger that Leland brought in over and over. This meant making sure that Murdoch took his pills, stuffing him full of food and typing out what he told her when he couldn't do it anymore. Anything to help lead them to the three missing people.
But it was the tidbit revealed by the finger about the man having been occupied by a foreign entity and talking with Liz that brings the homeland agent to Liz's door, watching her close. "How many guns are under your pillow now lady?"
To her credit, Elisabeth doesn't jump a mile. She merely goes very still, her eyes pulled to the door by the voice. And she moves to stand immediately, her instant wariness replaced by a conflicted expression — relief warring with a faint frown. "Too many," is her soft answer. She searches the other woman's face and says quietly, "You're a sight for sore eyes, woman. I wasn't sure at first that they didn't just put a bullet in your head."
"I was warned, when I was sicc'd on Humanis First, that some old friends might not be that friendly. But when I signed on, I was told that bullets to the head were not the Ess Oh Pee with them. So… Can I come in proper or am I persona non grata?" She's willing to walk away if she is. She understands. She did something bad, she can't remember what she did, but to them, she did something bad.
Elisabeth tilts her head and says quietly, "You're persona non grata in the sewing circle, but not with me. Hell, we shared a guy! You weren't ever anything but honest with me about where you stood, Min." She smiles tiredly and moves forward to offer… handshake? She might have once offered a hug. "Whatever you told them of what you saw or knew…. it's their own faults for assuming. And maybe mine for taking you there in the first place. I'm so goddamned glad that you're in one piece, it's ridiculous. I don't think I can take too many more friends on the ground this month." And she does count Minea Dahl among them, though perhaps she sometimes thinks she oughtn't.
"Harrison, I don't remember a damn thing from whatever time I spent with them. But it sounds like they did a stupid and are paying for it." Her hand closes around liz's to squeeze it firmly, give a shake before her second hand closes around the one. "But I'm glad to see you in one piece. God knows, what you went through" Well no, Minea actually has an idea, far more than others. "Listen. I need to talk to you actually. About that. Do you think you're up for it?" That's why both her hands are on Liz's, so that she can judge herself whether Liz might be up for it or not.
There's immediate tension in the blonde, and her hand tightens instinctively at the question. Her body language goes from cautious relief to absolute stress bunny nearly instantly, her face going pale. "Sure," Elisabeth says quietly, the silence bubble slamming up around them and muting their conversation from the world at large. "You want to… get a cup of coffee or something?" she asks, slipping her hand back out of Minea's and moving to grab her jacket. "I don't want to talk here." She gestures toward the door out. Clearly it's not going to be anywhere in the precinct either — outside.
"Tell you what, Lets go get blotto. Because I think i've earned it, and you'll be happy at least with something I can tell you. There's this place called Fat Cats. Lets go there. I'm pretty sure that we can pay enough for the owner to let us have a pool table and to leave us be" Minea offers, a last squeeze of Liz's hand. "Besides, you'll want the alcohol after I ask you what I need to ask you"
Elisabeth checks her pockets and then nods. "All right," she says. She shoves her hands into the blazer's pockets and walks out with the brunette, heading toward the vehicle they'll take. She's watchful as they walk, skimming the people coming in and going out. "You drive," she tells Min quietly. "I'm not sure where this place is."
"Greenwich. Not far" She's amenable to driving, she can give the good news in the car and let the woman have her shock and not worry about traffic. "First off, the reason why I need to ask about a specific incident that occured while you were in captivity was that we came across some physical evidence, that gave us an insight to Emile Danko. But it was skewed slightly, Something was off. But i'll get to that after we've had a beer" Out the door they go, heading toward the ever present black SUV. "Billy Jean Cambria was recovered. She somehow got away from the people who have felix and the Pastor from the Guiding Light. She and a big black dog. I have the dog at my place, but, the young girl was recovered out in New Jersey yesterday thanks to the evidence that popped up"
Once she's sitting in the car, her stress ratchets down just a hint. Minea's information about the 'specific incident' make Liz leery. "I didn't know he'd tell you," she comments quietly. "It hasn't been reported, so if you want to talk about it, not at the precinct." Elisabeth looks out the window as they drive, and then the bombshell falls. "Oh shit!" she says, whipping her head around to stare at Minea. "Good fucking show, Min! Excellent!!" And then the shock hits. "Humanis had the Cambria girl?? And they have Pastor Joseph?" That makes her visibly pale and demand, "Pull over. Pull over now." She barely manages to wait until Minea does before she's wrenched the door open, not even making it all the way out of the car before she's heaving. The thought of the pastor and the kid in their hands just …. yeah. Her voice, when she finally quits doing that out the door between her feet, is raspy. "And you didn't find Felix or the Pastor there." It's not a question.
Minea wants to protest that it wasn't here, it was Bolivar and Murdoch. She'd just provided some information and drove people around. But the blonde is heaving the moment she pulls over the vehicle and Minea's out, going around the car to reach into a gym bag in the back for a bottle of water from a couple that were in with her gym clothes.
The clear liquid is pushed over when Liz has finished loosing her lunch, a hand up to her nose to block the smell. "They were moved. From what we got, she escaped during then, we were too late by a week, but we're looking. We're looking still. But they were both alive when they moved them"
Liz takes the bottle of water with a shaking hand and rinses her mouth out with a mouthful of it, spitting it on the pavement. And then she nods slightly. "I think I'm done… let's go," she says quietly. She can't even be mortified by the action when her gut is in knots over the thought of Joseph in their hands — which she didn't have a clue about — and Felix still ALIVE in their hands. Fuuuuuck. Even as they get back in the car, Elisabeth pops a pill from a bottle in her jacket pocket and swallows a couple more mouthfuls of water before she can talk again. "Sorry about that," she says finally, quietly.
"Don't want to hear that from your mouth again today Harrison. Not after the conversation we're going to have to have. Ready for the second bit of good news? The one that, frankly, I don't know if i'm allowed to tell you but seeing as you were.. partnered up with her enough before I was supposed to" Minea gets back in, making her way to the drivers seat and once again they take off.
'Marks is somehow alive. Alive and well and we currently have her in homeland custody under observation"
She just…. stares. Elisabeth is looking out the front window, seeing nothing. "How the hell is that even possible?" she finally asks, looking at Minea in confusion. "Didn't someone actually come and pull the PLUG on her? Christ on a fuckin' crutch!!"
"One word i'm sure will explain it all" Minea licks her lips, flicking the turn signal and a few moments later, following through. "I was with Sawyer when she turned off the machines, we saw them cover her up, saw her heart stop and everything" There's a shrug of Minea's shoulders.
"Pinehearst"
For a long moment, Liz is silent. As if she's not entirely sure what to say. "Is she…. okay? I mean…." She and Kat weren't friends. Not really. But she respected the woman. "That's a foolish question, if she was at fucking Pinehearst and never called anyone or anything else, but…."
"She is and she isn't. She's remembering some things, other things she isn't. She called herself June, was wandering Staten Island fixing things, like literally walking along and fixing things. We got a call about a strange isotope somewhere out on staten and someone returned with a picture" Minea herself is sporting one of those isotope marks now too, hatch marks on the back of her neck. "SO I went out with Martinez and.. there she was. Right there and very much alive. Get this. She's been saving up her money for a jacket. Her old blazer she wore all the time. She remembered my name, just didn't remember what it was that she knew me in relation to. "
Elisabeth listens intently, never looking at Minea as the woman recites, and nods very slowly. "If you …. " Then she trails off. "Never mind. I doubt I'd be much help anyway. We weren't friends." But there's something in her tone when she says it that might bely those words. They weren't exactly friends.
"I was going to ask, if you wanted in to see her. I'm trying, we're all trying to give her things, to jog her memory. I'm gonna try and take her down to the canal street market. See if she remembers what happened there. Maybe something about you will trigger something with her. DO you think, that you could also look up the name, with the folks who don't like me of Dr. Alison Mier? Meyer? Something like that. Supposedly that's who was in contact with Kat when she was with Pinehearst"
There's a nod and Liz's reply is immediate. "I'll start putting out feelers immediately. I'd like some answers about why they'd do that myself… though you and both know we'll probably never get any." Finally she takes another sip of water and caps the bottle, then looks at Minea. "But yes…. if that's possible, I'd really like to see her."
"I'll see about getting you permission, if not, i'll take her out for a walk or something and meet up with you. If you got anything you think she'd remember, assosciate with you, bring it" But soon enough they're pulling up to the Billiards hall and Minea's gratuitously using her fed status to get a parking spot where one really shouldn't park. "In we go. Hard questions coming up. Hope you can keep up your bubble while drinking"
Elisabeth smiles faintly. "My tolerance is getting damn good," she admits quietly. Still a little self-medicating going on over and above the little white pill. Which is not helping her anxiety over the upcoming conversation much, truth be told. She gets out of the car with Minea and walks with her into the pool hall, glancing around as if expecting to be jumped any second, really. New places always make her very uptight right now, and she visibly checks doors, halls, all the egress and ingress points. She points to a table. "Might as well begin as we mean to go on," she comments — it's not a billiards table she points at, it's a table back in the corner that's just being abandoned.
Pool is eschewed in favor of a booth. "Go get it, i'll get the drinks" Though for now, she might just stick to one, which she does. A bottle of beer for the both of them and an order of something appetizer like from a little bar menu before she's making her way to the back table and anticipating the bubble of silence.
THe brown bottle pushed across, Minea regards Liz before her. "There was one point during your captivity that there was an individual approached you" Minea proceeds to describe roughly the man that Azrael had inhabited during his visit to liz. "What happened then? He talked to you for a bit, tried to take care of you, and at some point not long after, Emile danko met up with him and shot him without regret"
Once they're settled and the silence field in place, Elisabeth plays with the bottle in front of her. Very bluntly she tells Minea quietly, "I don't know the description — I was blindfolded the whole time." After she listens, though, to the explanation of the situation, Liz goes silent. "The only person who tried to 'take care of me' would have been …. Azrael. Evo serial killer I'd been chasing before being picked up by Humanis. He inhabited a body, probably the one you described." She looks at Minea and takes a sip of her beer and says, "Ask better questions."
She hadn't known liz was blindfolded. Evo Serial Killer. Well, scratch that being one of theirs, as Murdoch had so said. Or maybe he'd been referring to an Evolved person as the individual. " The man who this Azrael possessed was Jim Dannigan. He was one of the men under Emile Danko from way back when. We're talking, way back to when they were deposited overseas to do Op's."
Here comes the kicker. "He was also Emile Danko's lover, one of two"
There's a long pause from Elisabeth as she assimilates that information, her body language giving away that even this much is difficult. "And?" she finally asks. She has to get past this to be able to do her job anyway.
And. And. Minea looks down to the bottle of beer then back to Liz. "You didn't report this. And that's fine, I can respect it. But is there anything, any names that you rememeber, of people who were with Danko. Did you come across him in your time in their care. I have files on him, names of people. I think I even have the reason why he has such a hard on for people who are evolved. But.. Do you have anything that can help me find Felix or even Danko. If we get our hands on Danko again, we can take a telepath to his mind and find out where they'r ebeing kept now"
Her expression goes faraway and Elisabeth seems to be studying the door behind Minea's shoulder. Her voice is quiet… and sad. And perhaps a touch angry, though not at the brunette for asking the question. "Do you think if I had anything that would help, I wouldn't have already gone after Felix myself, Minea?" She bites her lip and finally focuses her eyes on the agent. "I caught the name Doug… he's the man who…" She trails off, her face paling even further if that's even remotely possible. "I know from Teo…" She swallows. "That Danko pulled the trigger and blew my brains out. "No one…. ever spoke to me except … Doug and his friend. I never got a name." Her hands are starting to shake and her forehead sheens with sweat. She averts her eyes and they skip around the bar. "I never… saw anything, and most of the time… they played music. Except… when they wanted answers."
"I know you would have harrison, with the pack of birds at your back, armed with god knows what weaponry and bombs, ready to tear him to shreds for laying a hand on one of theirs. Btu what information you have, combined with what I have, patched together from various places, from a man who touched the finger of the guy that this serial killer possessed and saw what was done to you. Saw Felix, and saw Pastor Joseph Sumter and BJ. You know what my speciality is. Gathering information from various sources and disseminating it. Connecting two and two together. Of pulling miracles out of my ass" But Liz just gave her one. Doug. Another name from the list of people under his service.
Elisabeth had already given that to Len, she thought. But perhaps not. "What information are you looking for? I can't really help all that much in terms of things you don't already know. I gave Denton everything I had on Danko. I knew the service record was unlikely to yield much, but … " She finally picks the bottle of beer up and sips from it.
"Nothing ti seems. I wasn't looking for anything that isn't already known" Minea frowns. She's not about to give the second name, of the other person that shares a bed with Danko. "Come on, lets drink to finding the Cambria girl. Jsut this one drink then some food and we'll taxi back to the precinct"
The blonde hasn't missed that Minea's not offering certain things. She's debating whether she wants to ask as she sips from the beer again. Finally she does. "Is Danko's other lover someone we can locate or put the squeeze on? Anyone we know?"
"Not a squeeze. I think we're going to keep an eye on him. The guy who was posessed was only his casual, come to him when I don't have anyone else sort of deal. So it seems. But he knew about another guy who Danko was more serious with" Given with how easily Danko killed Dannigan, no wonder. "It can lead us to Danko. This, Harrison, i'll let you know when you can share it with your friends. I really don't want Phoenix deciding to play civilian arrest on this. I brought Danko down at a public gala, and look what happened. He's not someone that a bunch of teenagers and good meaning terrorists can just waltz in and take down"
Elisabeth shakes her head slightly and says quietly, "I won't say anything. Not unless or until you give me the all-clear. I don't care how they go down, I just want them to go down. If you've got an in… do what you can. I heard about the gala." She studies Minea and says quietly, "Just…." She pauses and shakes her head, deciding that what she was about to say didn't need to be said. "The only thing I'd really like…. is if you get Doug…. I'd really like to see him. Just…. to put a face to him." She looks down. "Sometimes I wonder if he's going to just waltz up behind me on the street someday and …" She trails off playing with the label on the glass of her beer bottle.
"I can get you a picture of him Liz." She was gathering pictures of the people who had survived angola. She had surmised that hte people who had survived Angola and been honorably discharged would be liable to stick around him years later. "Gala was a fuck up and Denton should have had my badge. I didn't expect him to have calvary. Fuck liz. I had him. He didn't have a clue, he just stood there and then he fell, I tranqued him. And then there was a canister going off against my back and someone hit me on the back of my head" FUBAR as they call it.
When she looks up, Elisabeth is thoughtful and nods slightly. "If you don't mind sharing pictures of the people you do know about, it would be helpful. Not for the birds, but there's another … loose… group out there who've been doing a lot of keeping their ears to the ground. With faces, they might be able to point to locations if they run across people." She shoves a hand through her hair and blows out a breath. She seems to be calming again. "This been the main case on your desk since it happened?" She looks at Minea again. "Denton seems like good people." She smiles a little. "I got a girlfriend who thinks he is just the sexiest thing on two legs… think we should hook 'em up?"
"Dahl, find Felix or else. You got him kidnapped, now you have to find him" She imitates the texas drawl, tipping her finger to her forehead like a cowboy hat. "Get him laid. He needs it" She offers a smile then, tip of her bottle neck to the other woman. "I'll drop pictures off when I get em, and I got some other people that I need to deposit the information with. Now come on, we're done business talk. Lets drink, our foods coming" Quite literally.
Dropping the silence field as the appetizers approach, Elisabeth takes another drink from her beer. She watches the waitress the entire time she's at the table with the attitude of someone expecting trouble. She can't help it. When the young woman finally walks away, Liz looks back at Minea and smirks faintly. "Speaking of getting laid…. you hanging with anyone worth chatting about lately?" Cuz well, you know… girls and beer, they gotta talk booty.
"Nope. Celibate since our favourite criminal. Think i'm starting to get cobwebs. I got my eye on someone just, I don't know whether it be a smart thing to do or not" Minea shrugs.
Elisabeth snerks around her beer at the cobwebs comment. She can't help it. "Christ, seriously?? Celibacy sucks." She tilts her head and asks slyly, "Anyone I know?"
Mayeb it is. Likely. "Actually. Yeah. Detective Murdoch." The older detective, the one fresh from the funny farm thanks to his ability. "We've gotten to know each other. I bring lunch now and then. His wife's been dead for more than a few years now. Hell, I invited him to France wiht me if I don't find felix and loose my badge"
Pursing her lips, Elisabeth considers and smiles. "Good choice," she tells Minea quietly. She nurses that beer and asks softly, "You think you're going to find him alive?" Part of her is seriously hoping that Minea says no…. because she doesn't want him to have been suffering all this time.
"All signs so far, point to yes. We have the Cambria girl, and from what we know, last she knew, both of them were alive. We can only pray and hope and if Kat is any indication, maybe if he isn't, we'll find someone who can bring them back from the fucking dead"
Elisabeth nods slowly, not sure whether to be glad or sad. "Okay," is what she finally replies. And then she looks up at Minea with those blue eyes shuttered. "Let me know if there's anything I can do. I'm coming up blank all the way around. No one's got anything useful. They haven't in days."
"I will," Minea promises. "Damn straight I will." If only so the woman can get some closure. "Now shut up and drink your beer. Lets enjoy ourselves, and tell me what you know about Murdoch. " She winks to the woman, lifting her bottle up to her lips to take a pull from it.