Participants:
| Scene Title | Cast Out Of Eden |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Two of the future fugitives contemplate what it means to go back to the past. |
| Date | May 11, 2019 |
Cat's Penthouse - Rooftop
Alex never tires of the sight of that green park. So much of the most expensive real estate in theworld devoted to that memory. To the new world that's come. He's up there now, smoking a cigarette with that starveling air he has, no matter how lauded and pampered they've become. His air remains grim, despite the beauty of the sight, as he props himself on the low wall that edges the roof.
Helena likes it up here. Of course she does, gardens were always something of a necessary luxury for Helena wherever she opted to put up her feet, at least when she was doing so willingly. That's why it should probably be no surprise that she's come up, even if she herself is surprised to see the person already there. "Alex." she greets quietly, moving up along side him. A small breeze blows his smoke away from her, and otherwise being in her sphere of influence will keep him
He reflexively pinches it out, stows it behind an ear, when she draws close. Rude to keep doing it in the presence of one who doesn't care for it. "Hey," he says, putting an arm around her and drawing her close, as if for comfort. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"It is." she admits, letting her head rest against his shoulder. "But you know we can't stay." Her moments of heavy doubt were assuaged by Teo's certainty.
"I know," he says, and his voice is leaden. "It makes me angry. It's like having the gates of Heaven shut in your face. Or being cast out of Eden. Not to sound too dramatic about it." He strokes her hair, looks down at her.
Helena looks up at him and says quietly, "Seems like it, doesn't it? Except for me, it's a very personal version of Hell." She looks out over the park. "I want to go back. I know you're happy here with Teo, and I'm sorry. You could - you could stay, if you wanted."
Alexander shrugs, and there's nothing but that weary fatalism in his eyes. "No. It's like a fairy tale, and that ain't how it works. I know it, much as I don't want to. We all go back, we all do," He sniffs at that, harshly.
Helena lets out another sigh. "I'm really sorry, Alex. But look - when we get back, we'll know at least a little, that what we do really can make a difference. I want to get started and get back into it, you know? I don't know what Phoenix is up to these days, or even if it's still alive."
"You have a point," he concedes, with the reluctance of a pit bull being ordered back to its dog house. "I do want to get back to work, in that sense. Though…..if the breakout worked, we're all still wanted men. Public enemies #1, right? We're gonna have to look like someone else."
"Not me." Helena says for certain. "I'm not giving up my face. We just have to be smart…careful about it. At least, I do. And we don't necessarily know if we'll be Public Enemy #1. If that much fuss is made about us, then if we just disappear again, there'll be questions."
Alexander peers at her. Gabriel's epithet for him, Fido, seems ever more apt. "What do you mean? Escaped and dangerous Evo prisoners? Of course they'll be after us."
"I know." she says. "But I don't think they'll be anymore so then they were before. At least not publically. At any rate, I'm not changing my face." She's stubborn about that. "If you do, I'll support you, of course. Do you think when you go back, you might be able to sort things out with Teo?"
"If he weren't in love with someone else, maybe," Al doesn't sound sanguine about it all. "It's not just that I fucked up. He's got someone, and he's treated well. I'm not sure it's fair of me to even try to mess with that."
"Hunh." Helena says, thoughtful. "Yeah. I don't know if I could counsel you pushing on ahead with him. I haven't really gotten to know the guy." She gently pats his stomach. "We need to find you someone new. When we're not, you know, defying the government and running for our lives and being flung about through time the way some college boy flings his socks around the room."
Alexander snorts. "Yeah. Let me tell you, I am seriously sick of all that bullshit. I….it's sad when your dream focus on sitting on a dock and just watching the waves come in, sitting and drinking a cold coke." He waves a hand. "I don't need anyone else new, not like that. If I had any brains I'd've never've let Teo know I was queer enough to want him."
"I think that sounds like a lovely dream." Helena protests mildly. "It's funny how things like that become a really big deal when you no longer have the option." Then, "Did you hear? Abigail's tossed all the folks staying with her out of her house, because she's convinced we're going to end the world. She almost didn't heal Gillian."
"I don't suppose I can blame her," He leans both hands on the parapet, now, as if trying to commit the sight of the park to memory. "It won't be long now. I…want to take something concrete back with me. To prove this wasn't a dream."
"I don't think that'll be a problem." Helena notes. "I think Cat has a whole packet she plans to have go back with us."
Alexander slants a look at her. "Just something for me," he says, quietly. "I don't know what."
Helena is thoughtful. "Be careful about something like that, then." Helena says thoughtfully. "I wish you could be as happy back home as you are here." She leans back. "Everyone's been telling me that when I go back, I shouldn't just walk to the gallows. Even though it could change a lot of things. What do you think?"
"I don't know," he says, trying to keep his voice even. "I keep wondering that. Does my death do more good than my life? Will this future or something as good ever come to pass?" his knuckles are white on the edge of the wall.
Helena considers a moment, and then, "I've been wondering the same thing. But everyone - even Gillian - has been telling me to live, and she's the one who stands the most to lose."
He swings his gaze her way again, away from the verdant wonder of the park. "Oh?"
"Oh." Helena confirms. "That was before she tried to kill me anyway, but we did figure out that wasn't her fault." She sighs. "I just can't seem to stop apologizing to you Alex, I'm sorry."
Alexander is just peering at her. "Angel, explain the Gillian thing. You lost me a few steps back. And there's nothing to apologize for. This is what it is. And part of me is glad to have seen it, no matter what happens."
"She picked me up the other day," Helena begins. "She said she had something to show me, and when we got to her house - her and Peter's house, she attacked me. I think Arthur got in her head somehow, put in a suggestion for her to kill me. But at one point she ended up augmenting me so powerfully I sort of destroyed everything around us, and we both ended up really hurt from all of the glass. So I called Teo, and he brought Abby, and at first Abby refused to heal Gillian because Gillian was part of those who are helping us to return."
Alexander just shakes his head. "That's completely fucked up." The things he misses, spending his days under Teo.
"I know, right?" Helena says wryly. "This world Alex, it seems so beautiful on the surface, but there's cracks."
"Any world where a non-lobotomized Gabriel Gray is a cop, yeah, it has its weird points," Al concedes, with a chuff of laughter.
"I know, right?" Helena says yet again. "I met him. He had ice cream. With sprinkles. It was mundane and horribly weird. And he's married to Eileen."
Alexander's lips pull back in what isn't a grin. "I know. It's unreal. I don't believe he's different. I just don't,"
"I suppose we'll see if he comes after us?" Helena muses. "We've got some plans to consider though, regardless. Tamara's foreseen some things and we have to be ready."
It's that wolfish, wary look he gives her. "Like what?" The drawl is molasses slow, almost teasing.
Helena gives him a faintly exasperated. "You look like I'm offering you porn. There's going to be a time anomaly that will occur on a certain day, there are things we gotta do, though."
"The gate back to the isle our ancestors came from, out of Narnia?" Al says, unable to stifle a grin. "Like what?"
Helena digs her fingers into his ribs. "The anomaly is at the top of Pinehearst Tower, but there's something behind a particular door - Room 2112, we have to get there first."
Alexander nods. He doesn't question further, not aloud. But clearly remains curious.
Helena holds up her hands. "I don't want to have to repeat everything about it more than once." she admits. "But Colette's going to help us get to that room, keep us all invisible."
"Good," Alex says, with that biting satisfaction.