Participants:
| Scene Title | Evolution And Restoration |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | While one is starting to restore some of her past, the other is moving forward to a uncertain future. |
| Date | May 24, 2010 |
St. Luke's Hospital: Cafeteria
Back to work. The temperature has warmed enough that it's not a threat just to be outside for five minutes, though it's still far too damn cold for Veronica's liking. Back to work means she's back at St. Luke's Hospital to cull for clues on where Samson and Gabriel Gray may have fled after escaping the other day. Ths means interviews of hospital employees an shelter residents — the latter of the which have her attention after the first yielded nothing. Have you seen this man? Have you seen this man? Have you seen anyone who turned into smoke and floated away lately?
After two hours of fruitless questioning, her voice is worn to nothing more than a whisper. She heads to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee to warm her frozen vocal cords. At a glance, the Company agent looks like she belongs at the hospital — as a patient or the suffering family member of a patient. Her face is pale, her eyes weary, the areas beneath them dark from exhaustion.
At last Kat Marks is back to work. Though the temperature can still chill to the bone if not careful, she's plenty of protective layers to keep her from such. She just finished a shift and since there's still no electricity at her place, she's been crashing at the hospital in whatever cubby hole she can find. Of course, this also means having to eat cafeteria food. She has already shed most of her layers, though she keeps a pair of long johns and a long sleeve sweater and Gortex layered pants on.
Walking into the establishment, she gets into line and is given a sandwich and some soup and heads towards the coffee.
It's then that she spots Veronica Sawyer, former collegue and former sometimes lover sitting there looking like death warmed over. Just barely warmed over. She moves over and sets her tray down, "You don't look so well, Vee." She helps herself to a cup of coffee laying it all on a tray evenly spaced out and then she turns and looks at Veronica. "Are you sick?"
The agent looks up with surprise at Kat's voice from where she stands stirring the condiments into her coffee. Splenda and one of those creamers with added caffeine in them, since she needs the energy. Her snow parka off and carried over one arm, the rest of her is still a bit too warm for the heated room — turtle neck, sweater, scarf, jeans, boots, and a layer of long johns beneath all account for the sheen of sweat on her pale face. That and she just took the vaccine the day before.
"Just a cold," she says, mostly a whisper, and one hand goes up to touch her throat. "Lost my voice. I'm all right though." She smiles and turns away from the coffee to offer Kat a hug. "It's good to see you — I was going to call and check on you. You're doing all right? Working today?"
There's a soft shrug from paramedic as she leads the way over to a booth and slides in. "Sit. And that looks like far more than a cold. I am a trained medic now, you know. And yeah, I'm doing well. Just finished a shift, but have been staying at the hospital until the power comes back on at the apartment. Typically, just find a corner to crash in with a blanket. At least I'm back out on the street doing work again." She spend a while just helping out inside the hospital to keep busy.
She turns her eyes up towards Vee and admits. "I had an incident.." She leaves that rather vague.
"No getting anything by you, Kat," Veronica says with a chuckle. "It's just a cold, really. Plus a little bit of a chokehold and then a flu vaccination and this weather adding all into the mix." She just says flu vaccination rather than H5N10 — normal people still get flu vaccinations, right?
Her eyes dip down as she takes a seat. She wraps her hands around the styrofoam cup and brings it to her lips, taking a careful sip. A moment later, the eyes come back to survey Kat's face, brows knitting together. "An incident? Do you need my help with anything? You know I'm here if you need it, Kat," she whispers, worry in her eyes.
The seriousness of this 'incident' should be shown in Kat's eyes. She actually seems more alive now than she has since she was found wandering around Staten Island. "I think I'm starting to get some of the old 'Katherine' back." There is a small smile curling up at the corner of her mouth.
Veronica's frown deepens for a moment, but she smiles as well, a sincere expression that pulls the dimples from each cheek as she regards the former Company agent across from her.
"You seem more you, yeah, I noticed," she murmurs in her raspy voice, taking another sip of coffee. "Did you … did something make you remember what you … forgot?" As if it were as simple as forgetting an appointment or where she set her keys.
Kat shakes her head. "Nothing like that. I.." She pauses and reaches for her coffee and takes a drink, making a face as coming across Vee caused her to forget to add stuff to her coffee. She drinks it none the less to help chase off the chills. "I was on a call to an accident and during the accident, Liz Harrison was at the scene trying to help. A military truck bringing supplies toppled on the ice. It was a pretty bad accident. But these jokers came and tried to steal the supplies."
"Liz tried to stop them, and needed help so I instictly grabbed the weapon from her glovebox and drew fire for her until she was able to subdue him. I actually hit someone in the shoulder and I was actually aiming for it. I.. don't ever remember holding a gun before in my life, but here.. it was just instinctual."
The brown eyes of Veronica Sawyer widen a little with more worry, and she shakes her head. "Shit. I'm glad you weren't hurt," she croaks, forgetting to whisper. The whisper is worse for the swollen vocal cords, but the croak is worse for the ears of anyone listening to her. "I guess all that training is just ingrained so much that you know what to do," she adds, with a smile. "I'm glad of that, or else you could have been hurt seriously."
She takes another sip of coffee and leans on her hand, as if too tired to keep her head up. She tilts her head to look at Kat. "So you feel more you. Do you … are you considering doing something in that line of work again? Like … what I do, or what Liz does?" She frowns again at the latter — Frontline worries her. Kershner, as she said not too long ago to Gabriel Gray, is a snake.
There's a moment of silence as Kat mulls over that thought. This is not the first time she's mulled it over either. "I.. don't know. I've kinda gotten used to doing this. Helping people. I mean, I barely know what it was I did before. I know it was not always.." she shrugs and smiles, "something good, but I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do."
She cannot deny though, how alive she felt in the middle of all that chaos and the way she felt afterwards. Her heart racing. Her mind moving so fast. Like getting a shot of adrenaline. "That's my old life. One I hardly remember, so I don't know that I could go back, even if I wanted to." She reaches across the table and touches Vee's hand with her own, both still cold to the touch for sure, as she gives the other woman a curious sympathetic looks. "What's really going on with you? You look almost defeated. I don't think I've ever seen you like this, sickness aside."
"You're good at helping people. Don't stop that. It's just a different kind of help, I guess. But even… even what you did with me before? You were always about helping. You weren't like… like the rumors you might hear," Veronica says, squeezing the hand when it takes hers.
At the inevitable question of what's really going on, she looks down, brows knitting together at the metaphorical warmth of that hand in hers, the concern in Kat's voice. "It's been a rough few weeks. Rough cases. People trying to kill us, basically, turns out they're our own people," she whispers. She shouldn't say this much, but she can't lie to Kat. "Too many things have been lied about and covered up, and people are trying to make it right — in the wrong ways. Things have changed, but they don't see it, and they're striking out to make things right that they were a part of. If that makes any sense."
Veronica takes a breath, and sets down her coffee, looking down and then back up. "And I manifested an ability," she finally says. Kat is the first person she's actually told — her coworkers know because of a memo, but this is the first person she's said the words to.
"I.." Of course, this is news that may even cause the old Kat to be temporarily speechless.
She doesn't move her hand from atop of Veronica's, instead giving it another squeeze. "That's.." She stops herself from giving an opinion, only because she's not entirely sure how Veronica feels about having an ability. She watches the woman for a moment before asking. "How do you feel about that?" It's an obvious question, but really has to be asked before this conversation can continue. Well, maybe that's not the first question, but it's more important than what most would ask first.
There is a wry chuckle from Veronica. "To be honest, it's… like the least confusing part of what's been going on lately, but yeah, it's a little insane," the agent replies, smiling before bringing her free hand to her face to rub her face for a moment. "It's … it's fine. It's just strange. To stand on the other side of the fence, especially now…" Praeger's ominous words from the other day weigh heavy in her ears — unregistered technically, though all of the Company knows of her power.
"It's nothing inherently dangerous but there's some … nuances … that could be dangerous. To me, to others. But not… not you, so don't worry about anything around me, all right?" She smiles at Kat. "I haven't even seen Brian, since the grid went down. He doesn't know — you're the first I've told. Though everyone at work knows. No secrets there, right?" She gives a little huff at that. No secrets, or everything's secret — take your pick.
Kat doesn't really know. Not anymore. Just what she's been told, which has been very little, but she nods her head anyway. She offers a small smile. "Well, after all that's gone down, I imagine it has been a difficult adjustment. Going without and doing what you do, and now this. There hasn't been any trouble?" She shakes her head. "What is it you do?" It had to be asked at some point.
"It will be an adjustment. Something I'll have to take into consideration with every case from now on. Something I have to be careful with around others, because if they try to help me, it might… well, backfire." Veronica chuckles at the word. If this were a comic book, that might be the name of her character, given what her power can do.
"I guess the easiest way to explain it is I reflect a power that's directed at me. It doesn't seem to work on objects — if you throw a fireball at me, I'll still get burned. But … try to fling me across the room with telekinetic force, and you'll be the one flying." Her tone is light, but the example she gave — why did she give that example, of all the examples she could have given? — makes her wince, bringing back the memory of Paulson in his last living moments.
She swallows, and winces again as the mechanism of that motion hurts her throat. "Area things don't seem to work either. Just directional powers."
Kat tries to follow the line or reasoning, but damn.. that's a complicated ability. She would hate to find out how Vee narrowed down her power like that. "You sound like shit." There's the old Kat for you. "Whatever it is you do, just be careful with it and I think you'll be okay." She slides from the booth. "C'mon, let me take you upstairs and someone can look at that throat. Maybe you'll get a shot." Katherine grins, walking over to dump her tray of lunch aftermath into the trashcan and setting the tray on top for later collection.
"I'm on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, but it's not helping a lot. Maybe hydrocortisone is in order." Veronica's no stranger to the hospital. "Thanks for listening. I'll be okay. The power doesn't bother me… except that now certain things matter in a new way, you know? Not that I wasn't worried already. The current climate is… getting scary." She picks up her coffee and slides out after Kat. "But, the more things change, the more they stay the same, right?" It's the Institute that is the boogey monster now.