Participants:
Scene Title | Feeding the Enemy |
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Synopsis | Cassidy takes another visit to see Mortimer and finds that they are not treating him nicely. She ended up feeding him his food and learning more about the man. |
Date | May 17th, 2009 |
Mortimer's Hospital Room
Later in the morning, Mortimer has had a while to adjust to the situation. He's had hours upon hours alone with himself to just think. He's elevated, and there's a hospital tray in front of him. Apparently they're not too happy about him beating up a cop, even if he's ATF. His food is just sitting there, and all he has free is the nub below his elbow on his left arm, pushing the plate around in frustration as he tries to figure out what to do.
His legs and his good arm are strapped up, and he was left with a 'You figure it out'. So now he just stares at his food, some hospital pizza, pudding apple sauce, all the usual stuff, except he can't eat it. "Why would anyone choose to be a criminal, and for what, this? How could I even come close to swallowing the tripe I did before. Doing whatever I want in the name of fun? What kind of person am I…" He's talking to himself, but in a perfectly sane person way.
Exhausted. That's what Cassidy is, exhausted. She didn't sleep well the night before, so much had happened yesterday. Still wiping a bit of sleep from her eyes, she flashes her badge at the officers guarding the door. She pauses when she hears Mortimer on the otherside. Frowning a bit she, opens the doors and looks in. "What the hell?" She's looking back at the guards. "You ever heard of prisoner rights." She steps in and practically slammed the door in their faces. "Morning Mortimer." She doesn't sound all that happy, but at least she's not rude about it. "I see they are treating you well." The sarcasm dripping from that statement.
"I can't say I blame them." Mortimer retorts, not sounding all that happy himself, but he seems far more stable than the last time he spoke, having had time to really think about things. "I remember what I did, to that cop Dutch. I remember a lot of stuff from the past few days clearly. I cried, I yelled, I did a lot of that last night, but now I'm just wondering what to do with myself. I remember what I felt, I remember what I did and why I did it, and the more I think about it, the more I feel like i have to make up for it."
Then, raising his nub, he asks, "Um, how do I eat?"
Cassidy presses her lips together as she silently debates what she does next. "They are being cruel. You should have one hand free to eat. No matter what you did to Dutch, you still have rights." She moves to the door and opens it a crack so she can address the officers, snapping out the question "IS there a reason he's been left like that?"
"We were given orders…."
Cassidy just shuts the door in their face again. "I guess even brass wants you to suffer." She eyes the food, coming up along side his bed. "I swear… I can't believe I am going to do this." She says blandly, picking up his fork and starts working a piece off of the pizza. "This…" She starts spearing a small bite of pizza and holds it out to him. "…was not in the job description. So don't get use to it."
"You don't have t—" But before he can say anything, Mortimer opens his mouth almost on instinct, taking a bite. He smiles, because even hospital food is good when someone is feeding it to you… well, almost good. "I really appreciate this. I know I've said it so many times already, but I'm really sorry about breaking into your apartment. And I stole a picture, I'm sorry about that too. I remember why I stole it, but…" He looks up at her, sounding genuinely remorseful as he looks directly into her eyes. "If you don't wanna talk about this, I won't. But if it'll give you some kind of closure, you can ask me anything, and I'll answer to the best of my knowledge. I won't say anything else if it'll make you uncomfortable."
Once the bite is taken, Cassidy works on cutting off another one with the edge of the fork. "No…" She starts after a moment. "It's alright. Still not happy about it, but…. I believe you." She doesn't know or understand why, but she does. "Let's not talk about that. I want to hear more about /this/ Mortimer. Not the one that was naked in my shower." She offers bites one at a time. Oooooh what would Coren say right now. "What were you before you became the madman. I know you mentioned your dad and his book about whatever was happening to you at the time and that it resulted in.. how you were."
Mortimer opens his mouth and takes quick bites, speaking in between eating. "I never got the chance to find out what the book is, but I know he used his real name while trying to get published, Doctor Joseph Jack. My mother works for NASA as an engineer, I think my father was always jealous, she's Doctor Harleen Richards." he explains before taking another bite, his cheeks a slightly pink hue when he looks into her eyes and averts them to the fork again. "I was a soccer jock, in the chess club, I read a whole lot of books, I love Lovecraft. I never could decided what I wanted to be, but I was on the fast track to whatever I wanted…"
Nodding slowly to show she's listening, Cassidy pauses in her feeding him to pull out her notebook and pen. "Let me jot that down real quick. I'll try to find that book for you. As well as me, just cause I'm curious." As she writes she says. "So it sounded like you had your entire life ahead of you. And then…. " She makes a motion at his arm. "You became someone else?" She can't help but feel sorry for him. To have a bright future waiting for him, only to become a criminal. She stuffs the notebook away and picks up the fork digging out some red jello of questionable flavor. "It always happens to the good ones. I grew up knowing what I would be. I'm a 4th generation cop." A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.
"I feel like I'm afraid to remember exactly what happened, I've always been. And I have so many memories, so many things that I know aren't real. Even when I was just that, criminal, I was afraid to remember." Mortimer closes his eyes and relaxes on the bed for the time that she's done with the fork. "I don't wanna go back to being the way I was, I don't wanna be a criminal, I don't want you to hate me, I don't wanna be that anymore. I just want it all to end, and we can go have coffee or something, I don't know…"
A small smile tugs at the corner of Cassidy's mouth before she can stop it. It was like he was this young kid in her mind. Uncertain and scared. "Yeah, well I can't guarantee any coffee. I don't date. I haven't in years, I found it gets in the way of my job. So I just plain stopped trying." She glances in a glass on the tray and unwraps a bending straw to place in it. "Keeps life from being so complicated." She stops and frowns a bit. "Not sure why I just told you that.. Anyhow, I'd say you could end up in an institution. They maybe able to help you with that.. medication and whatever." She holds the glass where he can get a drink.
"That's too bad. I uh, meant a lot of the stuff I said about you, I mean, before…" Mortimer leans in, drinking a bit awkwardly at first, but quickly figures it out before moving away again. "God, I don't have the right to be making a pass at you, that's why I'm in the hospital in the first place. I, god, I beat up Dutch, and made a whole Internet show of it, just because I wanted to impress you…"
Cassidy manages a smile for the man and shrugs a bit. "And I admit I still haven't seen it. I was sleeping off alcohol." She doesn't mention that she never drinks and that she drank herself silly just so that she could sleep. "When my partner didn't show up, I made some calls and heard about it." She set's the glass on the tray and sighs. "I probably shouldn't have come back really, but… I had to check in on you."
"Why?" Mortimer asks in clear confusion, opening his strapped hand as if he wants her to place her's into it. "I scared you, I, god, I don't know, why would you check on someone like me? I'm still the same person I was before, the same person who was in your apartment, it's just, something in my head changed, it feels like something that was there is missing, something that made me such a horrible person…"
Cassidy slowly spread her hands out showing she's just as confused. "I.. wish I knew. Call it a soft heart. I dunno." Glancing at the open hand she gets a look of uncertainty. "And I am aware your still that person.. and that something changed. And as much as I know deep down what you say is true…" She glances up to meet his eyes "I admit that I still can't trust you enough to take that hand. I…. just can't."
"It's alright, I understand." Mortimer says in a tone that suggests he's not happy about it, quite disappointed in fact. "My men, the Locos, they have contingency orders, in case I died or got captured. I… just remembered." He looks over at her with a slightly worried look. "They're supposed to look for people who can help get me back, and if they fail to get me back, there's a whole list of people they're supposed to take as their next leader. And oh god, my boss is Linderman, I don't know how he's gonna react to this…"
Studying him, Cassidy shakes her head a bit. "I don't see how they will get to you. We've got you pretty well, guarded." She doesn't go into the how or the why. "And when I leave here I'll make sure the right people know." She tilts her head a bit and asks. "Linderman? I don't understand how THE Linderman can be in league with a criminal.. especially one that doesn't have a problem killing someone and carving up a body as a message." She really is confused about that.
"I…" Mortimer goes quiet when she mentions carving up a body, looking away from her. She clearly hit a nerve. "I, um. So, Linderman, yeah. We have an arrangement; I build whatever he wants me to, and he gives me parts and resources. He hired me because he doesn't want my inventions getting into the wrong criminal hands, and I agreed to do missions for free." He almost raises his left hand to hold his head, but when his arm raises, he realizes he doesn't have a left hand, and sighs. "I shouldn't be saying this, Linderman might be the one person who can get me out of here. But I'm not used to him anymore, I can't invent."
Pressing her lips together thoughtfully, Cassidy listens. She arches her brow and titls her head at him concidering. "Why can't you invent?" She asks. "Was part of how your inventing worked, part of the madman you were?" A part of her feels bad about poking and prodding, but the detective in her can't help it. "If it's your arm.. I've seen what you can do." She had seen the locks he had put on her place. "I don't think a little something like a missing arm could stop you….. depending on your sentence of course."
"It's, something else, the way I saw things, I called it my 'true sight'." Mortimer closes his eyes, then opens them again, gazing into her's so she can see clearly. "I'm not sure if I can do it, I'm not sure I remember how." He starts to concentrate, then suddenly it seems as if silvery liquid is starting to creep up from every direction of his eyes, beginning to cover the entire thing. He winces and groans in pain, the silver retreating, then he falls back and breaths heavily with his normal eyes again. "I can't do it, I don't remember how yet…"
Cassidy leans forward a bit as she notices the first glint of silver, trying to get a better look at the process. Her expression is one of awe and curiosity as she watches the progress, however it's replaced by concern as he groans in obvious pain. She straightens as she realizes she's being an idiot getting closer. "Well… don't try, just rest. Probably best if you don't try… if one of the officers see it, they may shoot first and ask questions later."
Mortimer keeps his eyes closed and lays there, his breathing starting to relax a bit. "I'm sorry. I think I'm gonna try to get some sleep, maybe think about how this is the last few days of my life some more." he says a bit pessimistically, his mood quickly souring. "This is it…"
Cassidy nods a bit. "Probably a good idea." She says after a thoughtful moment. "Try to get some sleep, Mortimer." She says turning towards the door, she shoves her hands into her coat pockets so that she doesn't reach out to give him a comforting gesture. With him being like that, it's easy to forget the criminal and feel sorry for him. "Take care." She pauses and slides the tray off the table, to take with her. She glances at him again before moving to let herself out.
Once the door shuts behind her, Cassidy turns to one of the officers looking really pissed. SHe shoves the try into his stomach, making him oof and double over a bit, but he does grab the tray from her. "Next time the nurse brings him food, she is to feed him his food.. even if one of you has to stand in there." Her voice is cold. "No matter what he did, he still has rights. And I will have the ass of anyone who doesn't recognize those rights." She turns so that she can glare at both. Both give small nods, which makes her relax a bit. "Good." She glances at the door, before turning and striding down the hallway, thinking about everything she had learned from Mortimer.