Participants:
| Scene Title | Have Each Other |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Even when losing so much, at least Gillian and Winters, the remaining Brian, still have each other. |
| Date | July 4, 2009 |
Hadley's Apartment
As far as one-bedroom apartments above a bakery go, this one is cozy enough. It's small, composed of a living room, a door that likely leads to a bedroom, a small bathroom, and kitchentte. The stairs in the corner spill out directly into the living room itself. Every bit of the room is full of… stuff. Knick-knacks, doileys, bits of unfinished knitting, photographs of family members, a lifetime or two's worth of clutter. It all has a place, it isn't a trashy mess, but it is very busy. Every scent from below rises up, as well as the heat from the ovens.
There's silence as Gillian changes into the clothes that more or less fit her, and the two siblings are left alone together. Her stomach growls a bit, but she ignores the hunger of overexerting her abilities in favor of settling her eyes on her brother. What's left of him. Maybe all that is left of him. "Did you get anything from opening up the connection again? I wonder if you could teach me how to do that…" In some ways it might suck, to lose the intel she could get from those clones, but at the same time, after experiencing death once…
"It might be helpful if I need to send a lot of myself out against Arthur— cause I'm going to kill him, or die trying. Son of a bitch has played with my life and the lives of those I love too fucking much."
"I can teach you to resist and eventually block it out." Winters informs quietly, tilting his head at her. He folds his arms over his chest. "No, like you said. The power was stripped away. All that's left is the residue of loss. And I don't need that, right now." Winters murmurs, tilting his head back. "Don't make plans like that Gillian. If this guy is as powerful as you say he is.." He tilts his head. "It will take time to teach you my tricks. And.. just throwing bodies at him. That could really damage you Gillian. Permanently." Brian says, "We need to be careful about this. Plan it out." Winters explains, before looking at her with a frown. "You just said you love me." He says with a little grin. "See? I'm not weird. You're weird." Maybe too soon.
Weird— she's the weird one. All of a sudden tears form again. They come so quickly these days, ever since her heart started getting broken on a near daily basis. Gillian growls and rubs at her eyes, like it's somehow their fault. "I didn't even get to tell him…" It's horrifying. It sucks. There's so much that… "If I just would have gone to visit him a day earlier— just a fucking day." One lousy day could have made all the difference in the world, couldn't it? "You're all that's left of him." All that's left of someone who used to be two people.
"I am him." Winters says confidently. "I just don't have the last two years of his memories. That's all. And I have Company training. And my moral compass is slightly more.. askew?" Winters offers, as if that would help her. "Don't start with the what if's, that's a horrible road to start on." Stepping forward he goes to wrap his arms around her. "Listen. You're my sister, and I'm your brother." Probably. "We have each other. Alright. You lost copies, I've lost copies. It sucks, but we still have each other."
They have each other, but right now Gillian can't even admit outwardly that she knows him. Because Phoenix fears he's still with the Company— part of the reason she'd gone to Brian that night was to try and get him to help convince the others that the part of him that got lost might not be a bad person, that he's still one of them— But now… "If— you know— we'd have an easier time being able to meet up if… if you could take over what he was doing." It's almost reluctant, but at the same time… hopeful.
Winters slowly releases her, tilting his head once again in curiosity. Taking a step back he takes a long moment to examine her. "What are you asking me to do?" Brian asks, screwing up his features for a moment. "What are you trying to say?"
"You're him," Gillian repeats again, looking sad for a moment as she doesn't want to add 'all that's left of him.' "I was— when I went to see him— I was hoping he could help convince the rest of Phoenix, everyone, to give you a chance. I don't think they'd trust me very much, but I trust you. And I believe you when you say you don't want to work with them again… And the children… they adore Brian. They won't— they've already lost their parents." They're orphans. That's what orphans means. And as someone whose recently lost so much of her family…
"You want me to be him." He just said that he was him, so now this argument is going to be very hard to make. "You want me to actually become him?" His arms come up a little bit as he backs up some as if in protest. "I—" They lost their parents. And now the only person watching out for them has been.. torn apart by some evil mastermind.
"You don't have to if you don't want to," Gillian says quietly, even if she leans back away from his hold this time. "I just— I'm tired of hiding things. I want to be able to tell people that you're my brother, that we're— I can't do that if you can't be around." It makes her shake her head. "Maybe we can tell Phoenix. I mean, fuck, if they can work with fucking Ethan they can handle you joining them. It'd… It'd give you somewhere to belong."
'Pretend to be the other Brian, they don't want him' Veronica's words. She had told him the Company wasn't interested in the other Brian. It was him they were after. It could be the perfect cover. Hiding in plain sight. A place Veronica could actually find him. The man remains silent for a long time, ignoring temporarily her talk about Phoenixes and Ethans. A long drawn out hum is pulled from his lips. "If we do this. I have a few conditions."
The other Brian may be unwanted by the Company, but he wasn't unwanted by Arthur. Gillian knows such a thing would be impossible until that man has been permenantly removed from the picture, destroyed, melted down, ripped apart. Whichever ends him faster. But for now— that he's even thinking about it makes her look relieved. "What do you need?"
"No one can know, that I'm not.. Him. Well I am, but.. you know? If I do this, we have to make everyone believe I'm him. I survived. Had a copy off the island, something like that. And you have to help me, with everything. I'm not taking care of a bunch of kids by myself, and I'm going to have to fake relationships with a bunch of people I don't know. You're going to have to tell me everything, about everyone." Winters explains, placing his hands on his hips.
"I don't know what your relationship is with everyone," Gillian says in startled surprise, looking at him in surprise as she blinks and frowns visibly. "But— I can find out. I can't promise it'll be completely accurate. I'll have to go by what's written in the Catabase. But I only knew the other you a little while. I think I've spent more time with you than I did with him." It's sadly true, but— "I'll try— god, you want me to take care of a bunch of kids too? I've never been good with kids." There's a noticable groan from her, "All right, if I do this, you have to promise I get to be the older twin." Even if birth records say otherwise.
Brian gives a nod, "That's the deal. You have to tell me everything you can about him. Do digging, I don't know. I need as much as I can. We'll have to keep my girlfriend a secret." Brian groans. "Your friends probably won't like that I have a girlfriend in the Company." He sighs, "Fine. You're older, when we're sixty you're gonna so regret that you made this decision, and I'm going to be the young one." Winters announces, giving her a little grin.
"Hell, you should know who my boyfriend was for the longest time…" Gillian mutters, in a way that shows she has no reason to rag on him over his choice in women. Nevermind she's also in love with the boss of Phoenix's boyfriend— unrequented and unreal as it may likely be… Arthur's messed with almost everything she cares about, with a few small exceptions. Either way, he's messed with enough…
"You'll only be younger by like a minute…" she says with the beginnings of a smile, finally. A smile that quickly fades. Much like she saw earlier tonight with one of him, he sees it now— on her face. Surprise, shock, and then… then she crumples, falling forward and a pained sound emitting from her as she grabs onto him tightly.
"Fuck." It doesn't take much thinking to figure out what just happened. His arms spread out to catch her as she crumples forward. Placing one foot behind him slightly to support himself, he wraps his arms fully around her to prevent her from any efforts she might make to hurt herself. "Shhh…" Is the only thing he can think of to say as he clings tightly to her. "Shhh.. I know. I know."
In many ways, he'd been the stronger of the two of them. Gillian doesn't immediately get back up and run off, instead choosing to hold onto him and close his eyes for a long moment. "He— he found one of me," she finally sobs quietly against him, shaking her head and then trying to just hide her face in his shoulder. They've both lost pieces of themselves, but she still has him. "I'm going to fucking kill him." Murder is not something she would probably want to have done before, but the past few days… he's run out his lease as far as she's concerned.
"I'm taking you to the island. We need to reabsorb all of yourselves, then we're coming back here. And you're going to rest." Winters says firmly. Leaning down he goes to plant a kiss on the top of her head. But for now, they're going to sit there and hate the world. "I know you are. We'll kill him together." Winters promises silently, holding her close to his chest.
There's shaking under his kiss, under his hold, but Gillian laughs at the things he says even as she finds some relief that he's there with her this time. She's not going catatonic. It's an improvement, at least. "Do you have a boat? Cause if not, it'll be really fucking hard to get over there. I— don't think I can manage to run on water again right now, not… not like this." The depression makes it difficult. The only thing that comes readily is the sudden pounding of rain again.
"Okay. Good point. Well.. Find a safe spot on Staten. I know it's hard to move right now. Have all of yourselves come together, and go into one, and just try to rest. I know it's going to be hard right now, but you need to do your best to relax." Brian says softly, letting his hand run up and down her back softly. "Try to get some sleep, Gilli."
"I'll tell them to find somewhere safe— out of the way," Gillian grimaces. Two deaths in a handful of days, but it's better than what happened to her brother, even if he didn't have to experience it. "I'll get some sleep— I'm… I'm glad you're here with me, Brian," she adds. Sleep will definitely be had. Unless another her dies.