Participants:
| Scene Title | Cop Out |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | I need you is a cop out, Ghost lied, and the last person to the roof has to sing. Abigail and Leonard unwind after work, school and last minute shopping plus a visit from the condom fairy. |
| Date | September 14, 2009 |
Old Lucy's: Upstairs
Though one might remember when a certain fiery woman lived here… Now the living area above Old Lucy's has changed hands. The open living room and kitchen are homey, a commingling of two people's tastes. The leather couch sits kitty corner to a one of red suede and a bit smaller. A large bird cage for it's budgie inhabitant takes up it's own corner beside dark paneled walls. Bookshelves with literary pieces of a variety both academic and not take up another small section.
The kitchen is large, with a rolling wood and black marble island to give more counter space to work on. Pots and pans hang from the roof and track lighting keeps it not gloomy. A proper oak dining table has been set up with matching chairs instead of the 70's castoff that the residents have been known to own and a bowl of fresh fruit sits in the center.
Down a hall lay's multiple doors. A master bedroom occupied by the oldest resident and occasionally have a pervading smell of whiskey and smoke coming from it when the door is open. A second door with a cross above it, a third with no marking that is occupied by the third resident of the premises. Two other doors lead to a linen closet and bathroom respectively. A black cat with a red velvet collar and a little swarovski charm dangling from it can be found meandering at will.
There's no note on the door warning Leo that for the next hour or so, the apartment is occupied. That's because it's a school night for Abigail. No possibility of Flint Deckard doing unchristian things to the Christian girl that lives here, he's like off somewhere snorting lines of coke unbeknownst to the blonde. Scarlett has long since abandoned the livingroom in favor of a bedroom and a window that she can mournfully glance out of in the hopes of some day being freeeeeee. There's a stethoscope tossed onto the kitchen table beside a backpack and a small duffle bag ready for the next day, a half filled pitcher of swamp sludge on the counter and the cutlery drawer is slightly open.
Abigail's parked on the couch with on leg up and the other dangling over the side, a pint of just plain old vanilla Ben and Jerry's being slowly consumed by the blonde as she watches Leonard. The TV is on but sound off and her head is angled to the right. Curfew will be soon, people rushing quickly to their homes and the bar below is in the last stages of closing down for the night.
Leo comes slouching in with some last minute groceries in a bag over his arm. He's really not said much of anything re: Deckard. However, the condom fairy has left a box of Trojan extra-thins by her bedside, while she was out. "Hey," he says, quietly, as he pads into the kitchen to put away milk and bread and soda.
"IS 'I need you' worse than, better than, or equal to.. 'I love you'?" Abigail doesn't move from her spot, though those trojans that the condom fairy left, those got moved. They got moved to a drawer, under a box of tissues, with the other condoms and her pill. Abigail is stalwart in making sure that her parents will not be grandparents before she ever gets married. "Ride back was good. We got to work on a really sophisticated strange dummy that tells you where it hurts. And CPR. Did you know that you can honestly break ribs when you do CPR properly?"
Leonard slants a look at her. "Sure 'nough," he says, wandering back into the living room, bottle of root beer in hand. "I have medic training, you know. Never got much beyond that, but I do 'member it."
"Nice way to avoid that first question Leonard" Abby points out with her spoon, streaks of Vanilla on it. "Deckard told me.. in french, that he needed me. After that.. well.." The spoon that had been pointing up, makes a 180 and sinks down into her ice cream with a falling missile sound. "We were having fun adn then.. no more. He just.." Abigail shrugs.
"'I need you' is a cop-out," Leo says, after a moment's considering frown that makes him look like a pit bull trying to figure out how to get a kitten out of a tree. "That's what it is. And no more what?" he says, giving her a fierce look. Someone is likely to get his fingers broken, he messes with Leo's room-mate.
"He pulled away, walked around the room in the dark, ran water in the bathroom then came to sit on the bed. Told me that… My ability was fucking him up. But he wouldn't elaborate. Flint does not elaborate" I need you is a cop out. "It's a cop out for I love you or for something else and get that look off your face. You touch him or threaten him Leonard, I will turn all your clothes pink in the washer!"
"I imagine it is," Leo agrees, perching on the edge of the couch, eying her. "No. If he loved you for real, he'd have the balls to say so. 'I need you' doesn't mean much of a damn thing. Need you to what? For what? For sex? For affection? For guidance?" He takes another long swallow of the root beer, Adam's apple bobbing. "And no offense, doll, but I know the look of a man who's spent a long time burrowed under rocks. I'm not trying to tell you who you should be with. But having God's hand on you is a burden for those who ain't steeled to it. Being a saint or an equivalent isn't a burden easy to bear, and I'll eat my dog tags if he has a fraction of your faith."
"He has no faith in himself Leonard, how can he have faith in something else?" The bent leg is unbent, foot placed flush to the ground before she curls her toes inwards then out repeatedly. "My faith in him right now, has to be enough, I cared for him on some level before Tyler case took what was mine and gave it to him" She still calls it hers, though with the months that has passed, and as of this morning at the homeland offices, it's no longer hers. She has the little bruise on the inside of her elbow to prove it.
"He doesn't want to do dinner, or date or the like. That's fine with me. I'm happy to love him with my heart and my body just.." She looks over. "He's changed, since having it. He's got less whiskey on his breath, less smoking, he shaves and looks more kempt. Gabriel once asked me, outside the church one evening, when I was making the deal with him for two more weeks. He asked me if he thought when he got my gift, whether it would change him"
That glower of his fades a little, and it leaves Leo looking merely sad. "You're going to get hurt over this. Bad hurt," he says, simply. "I don't know how to stop it, or help you. When the light shines in, darlin', it burns away impurity. And that can hurt like all kinds of hell."
"Then I'll deserve it Leo. I'll deserve it for the hurt I visited on Victor and the hurt to his heart" The spoon digs into the vanilla, carving out a little hole as the stainless steel is brought to her lips and swallowed. She lets it melt over her tongue as she staring at the off white confection. One swallow later and she's closing her eyes in the hopes of warding against the freezing burn that inevitably comes. "I can't help him if he won't talk. What is it with men and not talking. Don't tell me that something is fucking you over and then not answer questions in the hopes that it can help. Oh Leonard, he's trying so hard. I dunno whether he's trying to deserve it or trying to.. live up to what I did with it"
Oh, no. Oh, no, she doesn't. Leo levels a finger at her….and it's weirdly reminiscent of AL in drill sergeant mode. "No. Karma don't work like that," he says, firmly. "I don't know. He'd better fuckin' try. We need all the saints we can get."
That finger pointing makes the blonde turn in on herself, look down at her nose oh so briefly and then back to Leonard. She sighs softly before deciding to get off that subject lest it go to places she doesn't want to discuss. "Hows the center?"
And he is not fooled, giving her one of those dark-eyed glares. "It's all good. You tell your boy he better treat you right, no matter his emotional issues, or I'll knock his teeth out."
"Tell him yourself" she's not gonna play messenger. 'Seriously, how's the center? Worries me, you there. So afraid Humanis First is going to try something stupid there and you're gonna get yourself dead"
"No, I won't. We got police eyes on it, mosta the time," Leo says, succinctly. "I survived Eye-rack, I survived Moab, these two bit hoods ain't gonna do for me."
Abigail heh's at that, shaking her head. "You did" She concedes that. "Coming to sit and watch TV or are you going to go play on the roof for me and tell me how things are with you and Teo?"
Now it's Leo's turn to look a little shy, a little uncomfortable. "Sure. If you want some music, I'll play for you," he says, simply. "I dunno. It's just quiet. We went on a date, but it's more hanging out. I guess all we can be is friends, now, and that'll have to be okay."
"Friends is a good start Leo. He's been.. through stuff. He's not the same, I don't remember him like this. he barely stops in to see Pila anymore. Maybe ghost lied to us and didn't give him back untouched" Abigail's nose wrinkles. "Lets. I need to relax. I can work on my homework tomorrow." She heaves herself up from the couch, opting to take her ice cream with her and the smoothie of sludge. "Oh, and today, today I am just Abigail, mundane citizen. No longer a registered evolved" She smiles, just a fraction at that.
"No, Ghost didn't. I don't know who's in there now, but it's not the Teo we knew. I think he is gone, even if some of him is in this new guy," Leo agrees, softly. "Sure. And good. Good. I'm never gonna register in this name. I tried being on the right sideof the law, and look where it got me?"
"Ostracized and imprisoned. Mind you, the imprisonment was for completely different reasons" But, there's food for though with regards to Teo. So that was how it was. She didn't like it. She didn't like it and she should have done something when she'd first found out. 'Race you to the top? Last person there has to sing!"
"No need to race," Leo says, amused. He ducks into his room, opens the closet and drags out his guitar, and then heads up top at a fairly sedate pace.
"Party pooper" but she's already heading up the stairs, not so sedate pace. "Play me something good Leo" Tossed over her shoulder as her feet thud towards the tarr'd roof that will be warm with the days sun on it, despite the ever cooling evening.