Participants:
Scene Title | Fuck The Odds |
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Synopsis | In the beginning of the the Hub evactuation, Ruiz goes to find Kaylee in an attempt to fulfill his promise. The odds are stacked against them both in many ways. |
Date | January 16, 2012 |
The Hub
There’s a lot of commotion going on in the Hub. People are running down the halls carrying whatever they can in their hands, gathering up whatever they can carry. One runs by carrying a car battery instead of a box of food like would be sensible. And Ruiz carries nothing at all. Everything he needs he has on his person. Two rings, one on his finger, one around his neck, a watch around his wrist, a piece of paper folded up in his pocket and a single small notebook. That’s all he needs and all he cares about anymore.
Except for a promise.
“Kaylee needs to leave. She deserves a life. Promise me.”
“Kaylee!” a voice comes from the hallway outside where she sequestered herself, until the metal creaks and the door starts to open. It’s Ruiz, sounding rawer than she’s ever heard him. His grief for his sister had been tempered by the happiness of engagement, but she had been there when he held his dying wife— had been there when he sang to her as she exhaled for the last time.
The man who came into view through the door crack was broken. Broken but determined. “Kaylee, grab whatever you can’t leave behind. We have to go. Now.” He doesn’t even wait for the door to open all the way. Had he said this to other empty rooms? To people who were not Kaylee? Possible.
He’s in such a hurry he doesn’t wait to to see if it’s her.
The sound in his head, the rolling thunder, the beating of a thousand birds wings, the buzzing of all the evening bugs all at once— that might block out most of his thoughts, assuming she can hear them at all.
Even as the door starts to swing open, there is the sound of something hitting it and weight… pressing trying to keep him out. “No… Don’t come in,” Mateo can hear the edge of panic to the voice within the room; just on the other side of the door. It’s Kaylee for sure.
On the other side of the door, Kaylee leans there, eyes red from too many tears shed. Her pack is lying where she dropped it… she had been getting ready, but she was trying to wait. Minimize the damage her presence would cause. Her body feels weak still, a hand pressed to her side; her sudden lunge for the door pulled at her wound. Teeth press tight against the pain, her breath hissing softly through them. “Just go. Okay? I’ll meet you,” she half shouts to be heard through the door. She couldn’t allow him to get infected.
He and Peter were the last of the people left in this shitty world that she cared about, outside of her family.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Ruiz responds, but he doesn’t keep pushing on the door at least— she could be getting dressed or something, but he can hear the edge in her voice, something else that seems akin to what he feels deep down inside. Near hopelessness. Resignation. And some emotions that his voice definitely doesn’t hold. He’s worried, but he’s not afraid. Not in the least.
It’s difficult to be afraid when you’ve already lost everything that you actually cared about. And that noise in his head isn’t allowing him to think much. All he knows is he had a couple promises to keep and he intended to. Those promises were the only things he had to live for.
“We have to go, right now. Whatever you have to bring, get it and get out here!” Despite raising his voice to yell through the door, it isn’t mean, though it is forceful. More so than he normally would have been.
Sighing heavily, Kaylee’s head thumps against the door and shakes side to side a little. She could see what Lynette saw in him. A stubborn man… of course, she could be stubborn, too. “And I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for someone like me.” Her head rolls to the side to look at the edge of the door, though her attention is beyond it. “People need you to get them out of here. Just go!”
Moving to where she can crack the door open a little, Kaylee hazards a peek at the man on the other side of the door. It’s heartbreaking to see him so broken. The single eye that he sees is red and puffy from crying…. Though she ran out of tears a little while ago. “Why are you doing this?! You need to go get the people out of here.” She sounds so helpless and defeated in that moment.
“They’re not leaving without me and I’m not leaving without you, got it?” Ruiz responds simply, as he sees her. She’s red and puffy and has been crying, but he doesn’t know why exactly— but he figures it was probably Peter Petrelli’s fault. He’d heard Edward ask him to go see Kaylee. It had been a while ago, but he still imagined it had been that man’s fault. He never knew what any of the women seemed to see in him!
“I promised your father I would get you out of this hellhole of a world and I’m going to do just that, all right?” The way that Ruiz says that sounds as if that promise happens to be one of the only things keeping him going.
“If I can only get one person through, it will be her. I promise.”
It was a bit confusing to have someone, other than her father so determined to save her. Brows furrow a little with that thought. “Did he tell you I’m infected, too?” It’s harsh, it’s blunt, but there you have it. “It took longer…” It’s why she didn’t show it in quarantine, “but I am.”
“Seriously, Mateo… Go.” Her voice softer now that she doesn’t have to yell through the door. “Odessa would never forgive me if I let you get infected. I’d never forgive myself.” She told her father she wouldn’t tell but in the light of things… in the light of his stubbornness, she sees it as the only way to save him. It was her thing down her… push people away. She only let a handful of people in.
That— had not been among the things that her father had told him, from the way his expression drops. Does it change his promise? “It doesn’t matter if you infect me. I might not even survive another portal attempt. Your father didn’t think I would.” Ruiz states with a shake of his head. He’d given him some pretty unfavorable odds of survival if he did what he’s planning to do.
But he hadn’t given the same odds to his daughter, sounds like.
“Fuck the odds. If Hana could survive out in the city after infection, so can you. We’ll figure it out, but you’re coming with us.” It’s a risk he’s willing to take because the only thing he’s living for now is something that seems completely impossible.
Seeing the woman who died in his arms alive again, in another world.
“Of course, he didn’t.” Kaylee murmurs softly with a sigh, her forehead thumping against the edge of the door. All he cared about is that she gets out. “Damn it, Daddy…” how many people would he be willing to sacrifice. Clearly, everyone since Mateo… the one that would save them was standing there arguing with a dead girl. With a heavy sigh, Kaylee lets go of the door, which slowly starts the swing open.
“You know you’re being dumb, right? And stubborn…” When a person knows they lost, sometimes they say things… She sounds little like she is pouting. “But, fine…. It’s your funeral.” There is a strain to her voice as she says that, glancing back at him with tear-filled eyes. Kaylee brushes at the tears and gingerly moves to retrieve her pack where she dropped it.
The downtrodden and disheveled young woman manages to shrug on the pack, only grimacing against the pain.
“Yeah, your dad kept a lot of secrets,” Ruiz mutters, but he stops himself before helping her out too much— he needed to hide this now, if he would get her to the portal and through it in hopes that, somehow, she might survive. Maybe it’s only a chance, a tiny one, but he’d already lost two of the women he cared about— he did not wish to lose one of the last.
“Come on. I’ll carry your bag at least.” As long as she didn’t bleed on it or use it to stifle a cough, it shouldn’t be more dangerous than just standing next to her. “We’ll beat the odds. Somehow.” Both of them. He’ll beat them by surviving what he needs to survive, and so will he.
Because both of his promises seem impossible now. If he manages one, maybe he’ll manage the other.
It is with much reluctance that she offers up her pack for him to take. However, Kaylee doesn’t let it go right away, this way he has to look at her. “I’m sorry, Mateo,” she means it, he can see it in the way she looks at him, with those red-eyes and that tear-stained face. If she wasn’t carrying an infectious disease she might even hug him. Even though the Vanguard was closing in, she offers that softly spoken apology. It could be about anything. It could be about everything.
“Come on…” she says, her eyes focus on the hallway beyond. “Let’s get you to your date with destiny.” There is a touch of determination to those words. Swinging the door open, she starts to move past him; but, pauses. “Just like I want Peter finds his Gillian.” She swallows a little, pushing down the emotions that threatened her again, “I want you to survive and find your Lynette again.” She gives him a sad smile, one with dim hope, before heading out into the hall. Only waiting long enough for him to join her.
Find his Lynette again.
“I buried my Lynette,” Ruiz responds quietly before he hefts the bag up onto his shoulder and moves after her. It’s almost bitter, but at the same time— it’s true. He just buried the woman he loved. And even if they find another world, even if he survives the trip itself, even if he finds her, even if he keeps both his promises— it will never quite be his Lynette.
What are the odds a second Lynette would love him, anyway, after everything?
“Don’t let the others know,” he adds as he follows after. Just so she knows— they need every chance they get to beat the odds already laid out before them.