Participants:
| Scene Title | Eternal Rest, Grant Unto Them |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Veronica and Minea have a private irish wake for Katherine in a different kind of graveyard. |
| Date | May 1, 2009 |
Exactly where land gives way to water at this point of the island's edge is uncertain - first because of the saltgrass growing everywhere, both on dry earth and in the shallows, giving the illusion of solidarity; second for the structures visible in the distance, drawing the eye away from the deceptive ground, suggesting its reach extends beyond its grasp. Even if the structures are still recognizable as ships, and nothing that ever belonged on land.
There are a multitude of them, abandoned hulls of salt-stained wood and rust-pitted steel, dying slow and ungraceful deaths as wind and water claim their dues. Some still appear to rest upright, braced upon the debris of older, lost relics below; others list to one side, canted at an odd angle like someone who just struggled to the surface in search of a desperate breath. There are no hands to pull these hulks from the water, no ropes to save them from drowning; each has been surrendered to the sea, left to the ravages of unmerciful time.
At low tide, some of the closer ships can be reached - not without getting soaked, but such is the price of daring. Never mind that the rotting metal and splintered wood are the stuff of nightmares for any germophobe, definite hazards to the unwary. The more distant ships are distant indeed, beyond the reach of all but the most bold - and are all but submerged besides.
Minea rented a boat, though Veronica was the one that was driving it. They were heading out to Staten Island, though not the more dangerous part. Both parts. The Rookery and the Greenbelt were off limits in her mind.
The plantm is to get piss drunk and then stumble to a skeezey hotel that was rentable by the hour and hole up there. Mind you Veronica is the one that will get piss drunk. Minea's not supposed to frankly be drinking but one or two can's won't hurt her.
So they parked the boat at a dock, paid the exorbitant fee to keep it protected and made their way to the Boat Graveyard. One blazing bonfire later and the two Company Agents are sitting on logs, some beers already devoured, a box of likely now cold pizza, makings of some s'mores and drinking to the memory of a friend, almost partner and lover.
"What do you think she'd be doing, right now, if she was here? Do you think she was a double marshmallow… or a double chocolate kinda woman?"
Veronica chuckles at the question, her eyes squinting in the orange glow of the fire. "Double chocolate, for sure," Veronica says. Her voice is a touch huskier than it usually is, and she's still a touch pale. If anyone ever doubted Veronica had a heart, the last few days would have convinced them otherwise. She wipes a bit of chocolate from her mouth. "How long did you know her?" Vee asks curiously — she'd only known both Min and Kat since … what, February? How could someone mean so much to her in such a short time, and also be lost to her? She picks up her beer bottle and takes a long swallow of the cool fluid inside.
"Not long. About two days after I started work. An asshole in the break room started spouting his mouth off about how I was an opinionated bitch and that I chafed against authority. She didn't agree with him quite but she was pretty protective of her case file and well. I had a few outings with her. I think we realized we were likely going to be partners while in the market. She kept me from shooting imaginary purple spiders when someone went and evo'd hallucinogenic chemicals on me" Minea smiles at that. "She came into the hospital afterwards, to tell me that I was an okay person, even better when not hallucinating" Minea tilts the can towards her mouth, swallowing a mouthful and the crumpling the can. "You?"
Vee laughs a bit, setting her beer back down and wrapping her arms around herself despite the warmth of the fire. "Not long. A week or so after I started working here, I guess," she says with a shrug. "Aside from Brian, she was my first friend here. Maybe only friend here. Brian doesn't count — he's paid to like me." She's teasing of course, and 'like' is probably the understatement of the century. "Kat kept me sane, and kept the Feebs and PD off my back when Chinatown went all FUBAR." She waves a hand vaguely as if to fill in the details that of course everyone knows — things like Canal Street don't happen every day, even in this strange universe.
"Brian.. is an odd duck. I knew him, before he was Winters" There's a gesture off in the direction of wherever the lighthouse may be. The progenitor of all the Brian living there. "Chinatown, well Tyler Case's Case, that was FUBAR all around and IVanov, he's a dog with a bone when he sniffs something out. He'll follow it to death and beyond if he can. He's a right bastard, but he's loyal as fuck and good to have in a fight at your back. So was Kat" Minea watches the flames flicker and dance before them. "She fucked up Ver. She made some bad missteps with Mr. Monroe and she paid for it with her life. She stepped forward when she shouldn't have, She kept telling me to take off with Ms. Folioth, she was breaking all the rules right then and there. I don't know what it means but…"
There's an arch of eyebrows at Minea's comment of knowing Brian before he was Winters. Vee will have to hear that story, but some other time. She nods at the mention of Felix — he may hate her on duty, but he's a decent guy. Finally, Veronica frowns. Sure, she heard the basic story of how Katherine got hurt, but not the rest of it. "I don't care if she brought it on herself. He's going to pay for what he did to her," Veronica whispers.
"Which begs that eternal question. How do you kill Methuselah… when he regenerates like a son of a bitch?" There shall be no elaborating on her involvement with Mr. Fulk, not tonight at least. "But yes. He will. For the pain when I breath too deep as well. But mostly for her"
Minea leans over carefully, plucking up her third and final beer for her. Beer and painkillers don't mix.
Veronica stares into the fire and shakes her head. "I have no idea. Explosions? I mean, you have to have a central body to regenerate, right? Dismemberment? Decapitation? It's like a vampire or something, I swear." She shakes her head. "I… I admit I don't trust a lot of Evolved people. Being partners with Brian, being friends with Kat — I realize not all Evolved people are bad, but god, people like him shouldn't exist, should they? It's just… not right. It's not natural. People aren't supposed to live forever. Not when others die so early." Shit. Others means people like Katherine, and the sentiment brings tears to her eyes. She hasn't cried this much in a week since her father died.
"Nope. Nope they shouldn't. It's people like him, the few who do have abilities and use them in bad ways that fuck it up for the rest of the world. Old partner, he was evolved" Minea nods her head, beer can dangles from her fingertips. "He could pinpoint exactly where a biologic was in the area. How many behind that wall, how many behind that door. On and on. He was a little fucked in the head though. He thought that the bad ones, you just put down like dogs" Minea shakes her head. "But you get someone who manifests, doesn't know and BAM, they've just killed three people, all because they don't know what they can do" Minea shrugs.
"Marks, she sat beside me in the hospital bed, said she'd never known what to do with her ability before. Though it was useless, pointless, that it wasn't until she was working, and it looked like a bridge might just buckle right. And she fixed it with that ability of hers. Said she liked it then, she realized that it was something more" Minea nods her head. "Kat.. was good people. Little cold but, she was good" Minea looks over to Veronica. "She was more than another agent to you though. She wouldn't have put your name on there if she wasn't"
"She was a good person. Better than most, even if she could be a bit aloof. I don't know why she decided I was worthy of being her friend," Vee says it with some amusement, like Kat had condescended to allow Vee into her life. "But yeah. She was more than just an agent. She deserved better than I could give her, and she deserved a helluva lot more than what Monroe did to her." She clinks her beer against Minea's. "To Kat."
"To Kat" Minea agree's the dull thud of the two cans hitting each other in the stillness of a crackling fire and a groaning boat now and then that intercedes between lapping of water on the shores.
"May she rest happily wherever it is that souls go. May she get all that she deserves and more and woe be to anyone that tries to get between her and the pearly gates, they'll soon find themselves sitting on their ass in hell and her trying to bag and tag God himself"
Veronica chuckles at the image and shakes her head, though there's a tremor behind the laugh as she has to keep it from becoming a sob. Keep it together, Vee, she tells herself. "I wish I'd gotten there earlier," she says after a moment. "I don't know what I could have done — probably nothing to Monroe, but maybe I could have kept her alive." She sighs and tosses her can into the fire, causing the bonfire to flare a bit higher when the half can's worth of alcohol spills out.
Minea reaches over, an arm enfolding around the other agent, one younger than her and pulls her close. "I brought you out here so you could cry your fucking ass off and no one else but me, some dead boats and a fire would see. I don't know if it would have done anything Vee. I really don't. Even if you'd had the luck of having Ms. Beauchamp with you. Just know that, she's out of pain, and remember the good times you had eh?"
Sympathy, when one is on the verge of tears, is the surest way to open the floodgates, and so it does. She leans against Minea and closes her eyes, letting tears stream down her face. "I know she's better than being in that hospital bed, and i know she chose this dangerous career, and if neither of us were in this business, I'd never have known her but it still seems… unfair. Which it's not. It's what it is."
"It's never fair" Minea's hand rubs up and down Veronica's upper arm, resting her cheek against the other woman's crown. "It never is Vee. But you can do her proud by carrying on and doing the best that you can out of respect for her memory. Which I highly doubt that you'll fail to do"
Veronica laughs and shakes her head, rubbing the other woman's cheek a bit by doing so, without intending to. "Most everything I've done in this town, I've fucked up, Minea. Seeing Kat … the way she was, and you tell me it's because she messed up, too… I don't know." She wipes her eyes. "I only went into this sort of work because my dad was killed, you know? I was going to be a doctor, once. What's with me and these freaking life or death job choices? Next life, I'm going to have the ambitious calling to be a pre-school teacher or something like that."
"Oh, oh boy Veronica. I'll take this job over that. I can handle my squalling nephew long enough to look at him and then pas shim back to my sister in law" The hand still rubs at Veronica's arm. "I've fucked up too. But we all fuck up. Life is a series of fucking up and learning from our mistakes" Her head pulls away for a moment to take a pull at the beer and then lowers her head again. "Drink up. Your still coherent. Your not drunk enough"
Vee laughs, and opens another can of beer, having thrown her last into the fire. Down it goes, rather fast, to invite the numbness that intoxication will bring — she's not a mean drunk, nor a sappy one, but merely a slightly softer Vee, not as fast to quip or argue. "I'm not looking forward to the headache tomorrow," she manages after downing half the beer.
"I'll make you drink lots of water, ibuprofen and make you go pee. I promise, that by tomorrow morning, you'll barely have one" Minea smiles at that thought. "For the record. I like men. your hot, I'm secure in my hetero status to say that you are one hot piece of ass and I can acknwoledge why Kat probably made a move on you" Had to, come on, the woman gave her the power to pull the plug. "And I'll give you the bed, i'll take the couch."
Veronica laughs at the pre-emptive strike. "Well, Min, you're pretty hot too. And for the record… I like men, too. Kat was the only woman I've been with." Vee blushes a bit at the confession. "I promise not to hit on you," she says with a laugh. "I think I've hit my quota for a bit anyway." She smirks and finishes the beer. "I can't drink another beer. I really don't like it. Let's get outta here before some crazy Staten Islandian decides to come mug us."
"They'll be stupid if they try that" But there's been stupider things happening. "Ohhh, have you seen my new partner? Total nerd. Enhanced senses. He actually asked me if he could smell me while I was in the hospital bed. Kid you not. Had a list a mile long about things I can't wear" Minea shakes her head as they start to clean up and a convenient bucket is there to put the fire out. "I think we'll get along juuuust fine"
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen.