Extended Families

Participants:

brian_icon.gif gillian2_icon.gif

Also Featuring:

chandracat_icon.gif

Scene Title Extended Families
Synopsis Brian and Gillian discuss their family, themselves, their future and how things have changed.
Date July 25, 2009

Gillian's Temporary Apartment


A pencil scratches against paper while Gillian bites down on her teeth, making a small squeaking noise as she focuses on the black on white. Half a page filled, but if she flipped back a few pages she'd see pages filled in with details. A lot of this has question marks. Scribbles in the margins of her tattoos, some now ruined and barely recognizable. She'll have to get them redone eventually, has photographs of some of them, but can't go back to the original artists. Supposed to be missing. Maybe she should just get some of them completely erased…

"Oh come on, brain," she complains quietly, to no one. The only one in the room with her at the moment would be a large orange cat, sprawled out in a position that looks really uncomfortable, but sound asleep at the same time.

Losing perfect memory has made keeping a daily journal much more difficult than she remembers. A flash of memory, no where near as vivid as it'd been before, and she starts another sentance.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Gilli?" Brian asks softly as the door cracks open. Leaning in, Winters pokes his head in. "You decent?" The young man asks, not looking up. He looks down at the ground for now waiting for his sister to bring him in first.

Mid-sentence, Gillian forgets what she'd been writing at all, closing the notebook and rolling off of her bed. A glance down to check and make sure she is, before she hurries across the room. Locks unlatch, a chain— one would think she'd not bother with such things with how difficult it is to get to the floor her apartment is in anyway, but she still does. As soon as the door is opened, the taller of the siblings will have a bundle of dark clothes and hair moving out the door and hugging him.

The knot in the back of her head is luckily in place. No rain of naked brothers. Wait, the hug was a big awkward, wasn't it? She suddenly lets go, dropping away, but keeping hands on his arms. There's a few moments of silence, then finally a, "Come on in."

"Hey, Gilli." He murmurs as his little sister wraps him up. Letting one arm slide around her back he squeezes her softly against him. As she releases him he offers a soft yet tired smile as he allows himself to be lead into the apartment. Kicking the door shut behind him he turns to lock and replace the chain. For her piece of mind.

Stepping forward he leans close to plant a kiss on the top of her head. "You doin okay?" He asks, glancing over at the bed. "What y'doin?"

Shorter. But not little. Gillian would protest, but moving back into her room, she looks down at her hands and then shrugs. The shifts, and somehow ends up in an even more uncomfortable looking position, practically standing on his head, but doesn't get up. "I'm feeling better, but everything's fuzzier and… Fuck. I dunno. I got my old power back and now I wish I didn't— I know it's stupid, but I was just…" She was getting used to it. She had started to like it.

"Seems every time I start to care for something it gets taken away from me." In more ways than just ability. "I was worried about you." As one of the things she cares about, he could've been among that cycle.

"Everyone's getting worried about me." Brian says, giving a little shake of his head. "I'm not going anywhere, Gillian. You don't have to worry about me. You're not going to lose me." He insists, going to take her hand briefly and give it a brief squeeze. Stepping over to the cat, he runs his fingers over the animal gently.

"I would be pissed too if I had a power with a bunch of powers. I would really like to fly." He notes with a little frown. "And now.." A light sigh. "You still are.." Powerful? Useful? Dangerous? "You're awesome, Gilli. A million powers or just one. You're the best little sister I've ever had."

Flattering as that may be, and the slight smile it gives her, as soon as he says little there's an immediate change. The dimples disappear. A finger goes up and pokes at his chest. "I thought we agreed I would be the older one in exchange for me helping you out at the Lighthouse," Gillian says sternly, but it lacks much real conviction. "My power might be different, but I could make you drop an entire army of naked yous and you couldn't stop me."

Though he'd never experienced her power the same way as the other him has, it's been made clear that that'd been her original power, and is her power once again. "Not that I want to, cause ew, but I could."

"I'm not the other me, Gillian. I'm trained. I can control myself. So I'm not very threatened." Winters attests. Bringing his hand up it closes around Gillian's hand. Pushing her hand away, he steps forward and grins. Puffing his chest up somewhat to push her back a bit. "Yeah yeah. I think the agreement was that you could think you're the older one." His chest deflates.

"Turns out, Goodman is dead. So our link to our parents is gone." Brian reports somberly, giving a sigh.

"You've never had me augment you before. You could be surprised," Gillian warns even if he seems to have confidence. For all she knows, she may have gotten stronger in the last few months, even without her ability. It drew on her energy, and she had to learn to use and harness dozens of abilities, some while doing multiple things.

The agreement. Unfortunately she can go back in her memory and find out the exact wordings, but all she does is puff out a breath angerly, and then nod, "Yeah." She doesn't seem surprised about Goodman. Phoenix knew, and that was one piece of information that didn't stay up top. Even if it wasn't widely distributed. "But— hell, maybe there's another connection or two. We could ask some of the people who are good at computers and stuff to dig for us, or— or I could ask the parents who adopted me. They at least recognized the name Winters, and I think they were trying to help Arthur track the call when I asked them if I was adopted. It may not be much, but…" She shrugs. They can still find things out, maybe.

A smirk at the first part and then a sigh as she speaks out about computers and tracking down connections. "How.. How do you feel about your family? Your adopted family? Now that we're real family. I don't really know anything about your real family. Fake family. Whatever family." Brian mutters, bringing up his hand he supports his chin, scrubbing his stubble somewhat.

"My adopted family was huge. Eleven siblings. Twelve I guess. Counting you." He grins a little bit.

"My parents— they were okay, I guess," Gillian says, looking a little awkward at the question as she moves away, to settle on the end of the bed. "I was always the rebellious one who didn't do exactly what anyone wanted." In some ways it's how she ended up here. "I… had two siblings," she adds softly, glancing down toward the floor for a minute.

As if sensing the tension, the cat rolls over and sprawls out again, flicking his tail back and forth. "Both younger." She's used to being the older one! "My sister died last year." That might explain the tension, though the reason for which… "And… Victor's trying to become a cop— he's currently dating Abby." He knows her.

"One of my brothers died also." Brian murmurs. "Couple years ago." He reaches out to give a light squeeze on Gillian's shoulder. "I'm sorry about your sister." Abby. Wow. "Small world."

"What does that make him to me? My step-brother?" Winters asks.

Big city, small world. They'd met each other completely by chance and turned out they were twins. Gillian shrugs her shoulders. "I have no idea, honestly. Almost brother?" Is there a term for that kind of thing? She doesn't have the slightest idea, really. It's not a situation explored often, except in stuff like soap operas, which she would never watch.

"I don't know how we're going to find anything. I guess if my name used to be Stephanie…" She makes a face. "They might have some records about that, I don't know. Maybe even the Company…" They could have Goodman's paperwork, too, but it's not like she's willing to ask them… "Fuck, I don't even know if either of our birthdays are right. I could be twenty-three now and not even know it."

"The Company was blown up. If they had storage of filework or anything that Goodman kept." A sigh. "It's gone now. I could maybe try snooping around the Company. But.. that's risky. And I would have no idea where to even start. I could have my girlfriend look around maybe. I don't know if she would be willing to do it or not. She was the one who killed Goodman. Or helped. Something." He continues to scritch the kitty. "Whats'is name?"

"Yeah, I guess we could be screwed on finding anything out, like our real birthdays," Gillian says quietly, shaking her head as she focuses on the cat. His girlfriend killed their safest link? Or helped? At least she didn't kill one of his siblings. There's no words added on about that, though. "Chandra. I guess after the guy who wrote that book, the one on Evolution and Evolved." Though she has to wonder what he'd think of the formula, if that man had still been alive.

There's a pause, before she stands up. "We should pick a birthday, until we find out otherwise."

"May 18th." Brian murmurs, finding that a very suitable birthday. It has served him well for twenty three years. Going to sit on her bed he places his elbows on his knees. "What happened on the roof after I died by the way? And.. you don't have the link anymore, huh? So it doesn't hurt for you? Good." Brian murmurs.

"Think we would hate each other if we grew up together? We would probably have got in fights and stuff, you think?" Winters asks, looking around for something.. Anything. Picking up her notepad he goes to look through it. "What is this?"

"That's too far from my birthday," Gillian protests, looking mildly bothered. There's a lot of things going on in her head, but a connection with dead clones wouldn't be one of them. "The links broke as soon as he zapped me— I guess cause I lost the power all together." There's no way of knowing, really, but he was nice enough to give her power back… if you could call that nice.

Walking over, she reclaims her notebook with a swipe. "That's my journal. I started keeping it while I had a perfect memory. It's cause when Cat got depowered she reverted back to her 19 year old self, and I didn't want to fucking lose two months. But I didn't— it's just fuzzy." Which is kind of annoying.

"And I meant a birthday we could celebrate together. A second birthday. I didn't even get a birthday last year. Only present I got was a gun and a life of running away from shadows."

Brian's eyes shoot up as she retakes the notebook quite defensively. He gives an "Oooh." In mocking her quick and defensive reactions. He goes to stand and step away from the bed. Reaching out he goes to snag at the journal. Not that he's particularly interested in Gillian secrets. But when someone tries to hide something from you, you have to try and look!

Ripping the notebook back from her with both hands, he turns his back to her defensively to keep her from taking it back. "And today" He says in a high falsetto, "I found out I have the best brother in the whole wide world~."

"Oh you're just trying to prove we'd hate each other," Gillian growls, glaring at him as she dances around trying to take it back. He's better trained, stronger, taller— he's got every advantage known to man. And she doesn't even have the library file cabinet full of powers that she'd had before. All she has is the little knot in the back of her head, which she chooses to keep tangled up. A room full of naked brothers does not make for a good time.

"Give that back." Man. She's starting to think him and Victor would get along great.

Grinning he half turns and hands it over. "Here." But that doesn't keep him from giving her a nudge with his shoulder to shove her onto the bed. Giving the top of her head a little pat. "So what are you going to do now, Gilli? That Arthur's dead. Things going back to 'normal'."

With the notebook back, Gillian holds it against her after making sure none of the pages got torn. It's important, it would seem. And private. "I don't know. Fuck, Brian, I was counting on you getting the Lighthouse up and running and I'd work with you on that. I don't know how much longer I want to stay with Phoenix, but if Peter's really…" She trails off, there's something odd there in her eyes. "I don't know. I was getting used to the idea of helping you out with the Lighthouse, and Phoenix didn't seem that worried about it in the past."

"Well then let's do that. I have a few contacts lined up. We can find a place to keep the kids. Temporarily. And then we'll get the Lighthouse itself restored. So how bout it. We go lookin' for a place this week, go to the Ferrymen safehouses gather the kids and get em there while we work on getting the Lighthouse rebuilt?"

"Only contacts I have anymore are right here," Gillian admits quietly, glancing around the apartment. It's a nice apartment. "But Cat's fucking rich, it seems, so she might be able to help us in cash, donations, that sorta thing. I don't know about anything else. Dee, the cute redhead that went in with us, she went to the Lighthouse when it first opened, I found out. She said she'd be willing to help out, but I'm not sure if she can help with the rebuilding. I'm sure people in the Ferry would lend a hand if we asked."

"I have a few contacts who are a tad bit more.." Two fingers grind together. "Connected. I know people." He insists, going to take a seat next to her. His arm goes to slide around her. "So I'll come get you and we'll go out and take care of this stuff, right? We should get the kids, first. So tomorrow let's go hunting for a place we can put the kids up temporarily, alright?"

That— there's a narrowing of her eyes. Gillian gives him a long look, lips pressing together. In the last year she's learned to trust next to fucking no one, so the idea of vague connected connections makes her skeptical. People who are connected tend to want things in return, and usually they're not good things. But at least he's talking about them doing it together and not just taking care of all of it on his own. "Fine. As long as you keep me in the loop. I'm left out of enough things. I don't want helping at the Lighthouse to end up biting me in the ass. Or you either." She's lost too much lately.

Brian's lips go into a grin slowly. "You know what I think? I think you're making this sound like you're snagged in this agreement, stuck in it, whatever. Like I'm forcing you to do it. But I think, I think you're really excited about working with the little kids. Even though you're 'reluctant', I think you're really going to like this." Winters says confidently. "This could be fun, Gilli."

"Reluctant," Gillian repeats the word with a shake of her head. Disagreement, or perhaps just trying to argue more. Either way, she ends up shrugging, even smiling a bit so dimples show up (it doesn't take much for them to show). "I'll see how it works. Taking care of them was the last thing the other you asked me to do." The only thing he really ever asked her to do. "And I guess I could be a good mom, especially since I don't have to go through the baby stages."

"Seriously. I never want to go through the baby stage. If I ever father a child, I will get called away for the first three years on some heroic quest to fix something somewhere." Stretching his arm out he hugs Gillian to his side tightly, tilting his head to lean it against hers. "I'll come pick you up tomorrow. You should rest, okay?"

"I'll just adopt or something," Gillian says, momentarily trying to remember a dream, which has started to fade with the rest of her memories. She's trying to hold onto that one as long as she can. A young boy on the beach, once a statue of a cherub with a bullet through his heart, slowly transformed into a son she'll never have. In some ways she wishes she never knew— in others she's glad she did. It's a mixed bag. "All right. I'll see you tomorrow, Brian."


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License