Participants:
| Scene Title | Future Offspring Shall Not Time Travel |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | …or so says their Baby Daddy. Let us know how that works out for ya. |
| Date | Oct 25, 2010 |
Elisabeth's and Cardinal's Apartment, Dorchester Towers
It's been ages since she felt … good. It's a stunningly beautiful fall day outside, one of those Indian summer kinds of days where the high hit the low 70s. The balcony door is thrown wide to allow the soft breeze into the apartment, and Elisabeth has the stereo playing. Gotta love Santana and the way his music can bring the spirits up.
"Like a piece to the puzzle that falls into place/You could tell how we felt from the look on our faces/We was spinning in circles with the moon in our eyes/No room left to move in between you and I/We forgot where we were and we lost track of time/And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night"
The fast pace of the guitar coupled with the voices both from the speakers and the kitchen drown out any sound of entry. The blonde is wearing a pair of scuffed, torn blue jeans and a black V-necked T-shirt as she dances — is that really dancing? The hip wiggle is pretty impressive, and she appears to very much be enjoying herself — while she stirs something in a pot on the stove.
"Good morning." Well. It's morning by Cardinal's standards, and he's standing near the kitchen's entrance, leaning against the doorway with arms folded over his chest. He's wearing his jeans and a fitted t-shirt in black, a smile tugging up at the corner of his lips, head cocked a bit to one side, "Someone's in a good mood."
Elisabeth whips around at the sound of his voice, mid-gyration at the stove. "Eeep!" she squeaks! "Well, hi. I didn't wake you, did I?" She glances toward the hallway - did her control slip while she was prancing about? Oh lord… a faint blush climbs up her face. Setting the spoon down, she grins cheekily and reaches for the remote control to the stereo system to turn it down a bit. "I am," she admits, padding forward. Stopping in front of him, she smiles up at him. "You look like you got some good sleep."
That grin widens a bit, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Nah. I just woke up," Cardinal admits, stepping in closer, hands sliding to clasp with hers and pull them behind her back playfully — leaning in to brush the tip of his nose to hers, murmuring, "I slept alright. What's on the stove?"
There's a soft chuckle from her as the refrain gives way to the lyrics of the song in the background once more. Like a gift from the heavens,It was easy to tell/It was love from above that could save me from hell. Blue eyes twinkle as she twines her fingers into his and allows her hands to be gently pinned behind her back. "Veal marsala," she murmurs as he nuzzles her. Mmmm… sleep-warm male. She presses into him and rests her forehead lightly to his. Beef! Veal, no less! Damn, it's definitely a good mood.
"Now that sounds delicious…. lunch or dinner?" Richard's brow rests against hers as he looks down to her with that crooked smile of his, the tip of his nose rubbing against hers in an affectionate little gesture, "And man. Veal. You're overpaid."
Now she does laugh at him. "I am!" Elisabeth asserts. "Highly overpaid, and just wait til you see the payraise that comes with my promotion!" Although in all honesty, she's not entirely sure it'll be that nice. But hey, considering she's making well over six figures a year right now? Yeah… she's well paid. "Breakfast, I guess. For you, anyway," she says with a smile. "I thought I'd do something nice for us." They so rarely take the time — a day here, an hour there.
A half-step back, and Cardinal brings her hands around and up, lips brushing her knuckles in light kisses before he releases them. "Well, I should let you cook, then," he grins, his head shaking slowly, "I mean - veal for breakfast? I'm in fuckin' heaven here, woman."
Elisabeth simply smiles. "Well, to be fair, it is my dinnertime." After the kisses on her knuckles she slips her hands from his, pausing only long enough to stroke his cheek lightly. "You actually have good timing. It's about ready." It doesn't actually take that long to do and she knows his sleep schedule pretty well by now.
Heading back to the stove to check the pan, she says, "You can turn off the stereo if you want. Or change it to something else." The iPod docked with the stereo system has pretty extensive music programming — something for everyone, really. "I stopped by Abby's new place today. Christ, Richard, that place is fuckin' huge," she chatters as she finishes thickening the sauce in readiness for the meal. "Gotta be at least the size of my dad's brownstone," she admits. "Maybe bigger. Linderman pays damn well."
Cardinal's head tilts in against her hand briefly, and then he lets her head back over to the stove. "I can imagine," he admits, his tone a bit wry as he steps along back over to the open balcony doors, hands resting to either side as he looks out over the city, "He'd better pay well, for the kind've work they do…"
Glancing over her shoulder toward him, Liz takes the long moment to admire the silhouette against what's left of the light. The sun's not quite down yet, but that window looks east, so it's darker than it might otherwise be. A faint smile quirks her lips and she resumes the finishing touches on food. The pasta is in colander above a bowl full of steaming water, keeping it warm and just right on the moistness scale. She dishes up food onto plates, includes some of the green beans sitting in a bowl in the microwave, and brings them to the table quietly. Only then does she walk to the door where he's looking out and wrap her arms around his waist to study the cityscape over his shoulder. "You're thinking too hard for having just woken up," she observes softly.
"Am not." A gentle refutation as her arms wrap about him, Cardinal's weight sinking back against her a little bit, one hand lifting to rest on one of her arms. "I've got a lot to think about, though, admittedly. There's a lot going on, and I worry sometimes that I'm gonna lose track of something important…"
God knows, how he keeps track of all the details is truly beyond her. Elisabeth kisses the back of his shoulder and murmurs with a smile, "You're doing all right. You've got the best people we have working on stopping that broadcast, and you've got a billion other irons in the fire too. I keep checking for Francois and Jaiden — no word yet. And you know what? We gotta eat, so come enjoy it without brooding. You can tell me what things you see as priority for the next couple of days."
"I know, I know…" Cardinal closes his eyes, "…it's the whole Linderman situation that worries me. Hopefully I'll hear back from Niki soon, I assigned her to start working on that…" A half-turn, and he offers her a crooked smile, "Food sounds good, though. No point in wearing a hole in the floor."
"Mm," Elisabeth grunts good-naturedly in return. "See, now you're learning." It's a lesson she's been trying to learn too. Else she'll give herself 50 ulcers. "I'm probably going to be slammed for Halloween, but I was wondering if you were planning on hitting any of the things around town," she says as she slips an arm around his waist and walks back to the table with him.
"What, like… parties?" A bemused look towards her as he lets her pull him along, Richard's head shaking slowly, "I don't see how we'd have the time or leisure, really… 'sides, I don't have any costumes or anything."
Laughing quietly, Elisabeth says, "Yes, Richard. A party. You know… sort of like that thing you went to Rapture for, only… no fuckin' sunburn. No gunshots. No… goddamn ex-Feebs shooting int a crowd of people?" She grins at him, nudging him toward a chair. "Maybe being someplace that your lover can actually find you if she gets off work by some grace of the imagination on the one night a year that the insanity breaks loose?"
At the teasing, Cardinal's eyes roll in his head, and he walks along over to the chair— sprawling down into it, he smirks up at her, "I don't do parties very well, y'know that, babe. Me? Relax for that long?"
Shaking her head, Elisabeth slips into her own chair and says mildly, "Yeah, I know. The only time you relax for more than five seconds is in the bed. Against the wall. In the shower. The list goes on." Her expression is entirely deadpan, but the sparkle in her blue eyes gives away laughter. "Still…. you could make the effort for me if I can get off work. Seeing as it's my birthday and all."
"You're a Halloween baby?" Probably, Cardinal should've known that." He rakes a hand back through his hair, allowing easily then, "Alright, what do you want to do? I'll do whatever you're looking forward to, honest. I'm at your disposal."
The blonde chuckles. "God help me," Liz admits. "I am in fact a Halloween baby." She shrugs. "I don't generally make a big deal of it, but …. the last couple of years, it seems like celebrating such things is a little more important. If this one's destined to be the last one I have or something," what with ugly riots coming up, "I think I'd like to have a real night out, if … you know… it doesn't violate some kind of temporal prime directive or taunt the Fates or otherwise spit in the face of the universe so as to move the End of the World up to that very day," she laughs.
"I will turn you over my knee if you keep this up, woman…" Cardinal rolls his eyes at her teasing, then flashes over a grin, "…alright, a real night out. So, what, is someone throwing a party, or do you just want to hit some haunted houses - I mean, curfew'll be fucking with a lot of it."
Elisabeth picks up her fork and spears a piece of pasta in marsala sauce, admitting, "I'd settle for a real night out. Maybe a show, if there's something worth seeing." Her smile is easy. "It'll be something new and wonderous for us. A real date!" Certainly not something they do terribly often. "National Comedy Theater does an annual show," she offers. "Sort of…. Friday the 13th meets Whose Line Is It Anyway is how they bill it generally." She's not looking to put the man to sleep, after all!
Richard's own fork is lifted up, and he points it towards her. "Done. I'll look into tickets today," he allows easily, "Sounds like a fun evening… not like we actually get to spend many together."
"Wow…. that was easy," Elisabeth laughs. "Here I thought I'd have to twist your arm. You sure you don't need me to sweeten the pot and offer… well, I'd offer hot, steamy sex, but … eh, you get that whenever you want it." She winks at him.
"Flirt." A murmur of teasing around a mouthful of food, Cardinal's eyes closing as he chews slowly and contentedly, swallowing before he leans back a little. He reaches over for his drink, asking, "So how's work been, anyway? Do the others know about that promotion coming up?"
Elisabeth shakes her head instantly. "No. I gather Spalding knows, but Kershner's keeping it under her hat until she makes the announcement." She smiles faintly. "Something about not letting her enemies know what she's got in mind. Though she gave me express permission to tell you," she snickers. "Guess she figures at this point that having me keep much from you is a lost cause." It's true. Sad, perhaps, but true. "Mind if I ask you something minorly work-related, though?" She waits only for him to acknowledge the query — it's mostly rhetorical. "What the hell possessed Felix to pull his fucking weapon in the middle of the club when the raid came down?" As if he might know.
The tines of Cardinal's fork spear into the meal, his shoulders shaking a bit as he chuckles quietly. "To be fair," he admits, "There were a bunch've gangsters shooting at the SWAT… I'm guessing all that ingrained 'protect your peeps' thing kicked in and he started shooting back."
"Mmm-hmm," Elisabeth retorts around a bite. "Great. Honestly, he's the one person I thought I could count on not to pull a gun in a raid. I mean… " She just shakes her head. "He's lucky no one shot his fool head off." There's affection but it's mixed with exasperation.
"By the cops, no less," Cardinal admits with a slow shake of his head, "I didn't hear about any evos getting rounded up, so hopefully whoever the glowbug was… was registered, and all."
"I didn't hear much about it. It just came down the grapevine that Felix had pulled a weapon in a public venue during a raid." Elisabeth smirks. "I think Kershner must sleep with a fuckin' mouth guard, she grinds her damn molars so much. She informed me of it like she thought I was going to do something about it." She pauses and shrugs. "And I'll say something, but I figured I better get a feel for what was actually going down in there. And you've got a cooler head than most." She smiles at him. "Must come from being shot at and shit."
"I need to talk to her at some point… see if I can get some've Petrelli's faction of Messiah into her Einherjar program," Cardinal allows between bites of dinner, reaching over to wash it down with a drink, "Not that I mentioned the program to you, of course."
Elisabeth pauses around a bite of the tender veal, and asks, "Einherwhat?" He's never mentioned the project specifically. "What the hell is that?" she asks curiously.
"Oh." Cardinal pauses, "Did I not mention— oops." He gestures with a forkful of veal, "Of course, I didn't repeat this to you if the Shark asks, and don't tell anyone else. She's got this crazy plan to grab evolved with reasonable criminal records and turn them into FRONTLINE soldiers with non-public identities."
Both brows shoot skyward. "….. Reasonable criminal records," she echoes. "What exactly counts as reasonable?" she wonders aloud. "Hell, Richard…." She pauses with a bite near her mouth, considering. It occurs to her to ask, "Is that the team she wants to send out to Staten, then? She's been talking about putting a unit out there. She'll be personally overseeing it in the spring when I take on the Manhattan operations."
"Probably," Cardinal admits wryly, "She hasn't given me a lot of details. I should probably go and kick her about them at some point… during my copious free time."
"Yeah… that's sure a copious amount of spare time you got going on there," Elisabeth says on a laugh. "Rapture getting shot at, playing chess games with crazy men. Christ." She shakes her head. "Who knew life with you would be so interesting — in the Chinese sense of the word?" she asks on a grin.
"Yeah… probably." Cardinal admits wryly, "After the eighth… I seriously need a break or something. I've just got way too fucking much to deal with lately."
There's a long pause and Elisabeth finishes eating, pushing her plate away and picking up the glass of water in front of her to toy with it a moment. "Sounds like a plan." She tilts her head and looks at him squarely. "I came to a decision not too long ago that you should… probably stick in the back of your head and think about for a while." That sounds vaguely serious.
"Assuming we're both still alive and we're not dealing with Evo concentration camps and the like…. assuming the next world-level crisis is not looming at the door… " There's a whole lot of "ifs" in the matter, clearly — ones that she's not blind to by any means. "Next year when I take the desk job, I'd like to… try for a baby." She purses her lips, looking down at the glass. "It's the one thing about that almost-future that always stuck with me. If it's not something you'd like to be involved in, that's okay." When she looks up, she offers a smile. A faint one, but very sincere. "I'm not about to drag you into something like that if you don't want to be involved. It won't change anything about the way I feel about you. But it …. is something that I would like to do. So…. think about it. You don't have to decide or anything. I just figure… you gave me the opening and it was probably something that you were gonna need a lot of time to wrap your head around."
It wasn't something she'd planned on saying to him, but hell…. the opportunity arose.
Cardinal's still eating; he rarely bothers with anything other than take-out when left to his own designs, so he spends time savouring it as usual. As she speaks, he notices the serious tone in her voice and watches her equally seriously, finishing off a few more forkfuls of dinner. "Are you…" He hesitates, "I mean— are you sure it's not just… because of what happened in that future? I mean, is it really something you want - with me, and with your life?"
Elisabeth laughs. "No, Richard. That's why it's waited this long to be mentioned. I'm sure," she moves to stand up, walking into the kitchen to bring back two beers from the fridge. She didn't have a bottle of wine for dinner tonight; she forgot it. She also brings the bowl that has the last of dinner in it, setting it down so that he can help himself if he wants it at the same time she sets down his beer. "Abby told me something once… something like the idea that even when you know the future, it's not guaranteed to turn out the way you saw it, and that we should all just do the best we can to aim for the best parts of what we've seen and work toward them." She considers. "After what happened last year — the uhm… the false alarm?"
Liz grins a bit. "I've thought about it off and on, trying to decide if it was worth doing or not." She shrugs. "If I do it at all.. I don't want it to be by accident. And I would far prefer to have a child by the guy I'm stupid in love with. So yes. I'm sure. At least…. sure enough to bring it up and tell you about it."
Cardinal reaches out to take the beer bottle, twisting the cap off and bringing it to his lips to take a swig from it as she talks. It's set off to one side, then, and he turns to regard her seriously for a few moments. Finally he reaches out, fingers curling around hers, his other hand covering it. "Alright," he says finally, a faint smile crooking to his lips, "When you're ready, then, let me know, and we'll see what we can do."
That makes her raise both brows. "That's it? You don't want to think about this? And fester over the kinds of 'ohmygodendoftheworld' panics that might come from it first?" Elisabeth is mostly teasing him as she squeezes his hand, but there's a hint of truth to it too. He's not usually one to just jump off the deep end without… you know…. weighing every possible chess move on the board!
"So long as things have… calmed down," says Cardinal quietly, "And we're… you know… still alive, I'm all for it. I don't want to leave an orphan behind, but… I mean…"
"Yeah, well. That's another reason it's waited a year," Elisabeth admits with a rueful smile. "At the rate we're running through the extra lives in this video game, I'm not entirely convinced we'll get to that point anyway. But…. " She shrugs. "I'm told there's no such thing as the right time. And so there you have it." She picks up her beer and drinks from it, amused. "All the 'ifs' still apply and all. And it's not like I'm in a fuckin' hurry."
"Assuming I'm even still fertile, I mean, I did live through a nuclear bomb…" It's said jokingly, although there's an underlay of honest concern as well. Cardinal's fingers squeeze against hers firmly, an he flashes over a crooked smile, "…if all those ifs work out, then. Hopefully they have your looks."
Well, now there's a wrinkle that never occured to her. Elisabeth looks momentarily startled. And then she laughs. "Well, you know what? If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, then … it wasn't meant to, yeah?" she says as she lifts his hand this time to her mouth to kiss his fingertips lightly. "You should be careful what you wish for, you know — my looks could translate to girl. And then what the fuck would you do?" She winks. He said ''they''. It gives her a warm-fuzzy in the tummy — and a feeling of terror. Wow. She said it out loud and he didn't race for the hills or even TRY to dissuade her thought processes. What the hell's the world coming to? When'd they get to be grown-ups?
She takes a swallow of her beer and changes the subject entirely. "I'm jealous, by the way. Abby's got a tub that could seat like six people or some shit like that."
"I could be fine with a girl," Cardinal replies with a broad grin, "I mean, you've met Zu, haven't you? And me'n Jake only had around a year around her… imagine me raising one? She'd give Sigourney Weaver a run for her money…"
Elisabeth laughs outright. "Oh good. You would liken a girl to Sigourney Weaver, and someone said I'd be all Sarah Connor on the motherhood gig. We're doing well," she says, sounding pleased. "At least any kid of ours'll know how to kick ass and take names or we'll know why!"
"Exactly," Cardinal says firmly, "I won't have to threaten her boyfriend. She'll be able to kill him herself if there's any problems." Amusement glints in his eyes, "I draw the line at future offspring coming back in time to stop apocalypses, though."
"Ffft. And you think they'll have a choice?" This is Oscar we're talking about… no wait. Wrong show! Anyway —- Cuz c'mon… let's get real here. Their kids? Uh-huh. The example Dad and Mom set? Uh-huh. With the contacts Mom and Dad have out there who'll just live to get their hands on a kid as talented, trained, and brilliant…. yeah, never mind. Elisabeth just grins. "I'll leave it to you to convince 'em it's a bad idea to go mucking about in time."
"I'll start building a dummy of Nakamura," Cardinal suggests with a broad grin, "They can practice hand to hand and firearms practice on it."
"Oh, good… that'll be ever so helpful," Elisabeth rolls her eyes, giggling around her beer. "Just what we need. Our offspring squaring off with Hiro Nakamura." She shakes her head.
"Better them than me," Cardinal declares, bringing his own beer bottle up in a salute, "I'm sure they'll be ready for whatever they run into… hopefully they'll get a normal life." Right. That's gonna happen.
Yeah. The looks she gives him is entirely scoffing and Liz says not one. word. Because… yeah. That's gonna happen.