Participants:
| Scene Title | Here, Now |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | When her plans fall through, Berlin makes her way back home. |
| Date | March 31, 2019 |
It's been a few days since Rory and Berlin said goodbye, not certain of when they might see each other again. A few days that have been strange for Berlin, to say the least. She comes back to the trailer, no worse for wear. Not noticeably, anyway. Her key slides into the lock and she pushes the door open softly.
"Rory?" Her voice is quiet, too, like she's worried about disturbing him. Or maybe surprising him.
The trailer hadn't changed much in the time since she was last there, except for a few random things placed differently. The second bed was put away, though. She hadn't even used it the last time that she'd been here. The door opening had alerted him before her whispered voice, allowing Rory to step into the doorway looking out from the bedroom.
He had expected a bike messenger or something, a message dropped off to let him know what happened, since phones were unreliable. But no—
This was better than a message.
"Berlin," he whispers in the same volume level, before he steps closer, crossing the small distance quickly enough so that he can wrap his arms around her, pulling her into a firm hug.
Berlin smiles when he comes toward her and she hugs him back just as tightly. Then her hands find his face so she can kiss him. She was pretty set on going through with turning herself in, but in this exact moment, she's happy it didn't work out the way she planned. "My boss wouldn't let me go through with it," she says when she leans back, "he stepped in when he found out. He told them it was an op gone wrong." She shakes her head a little, but there's no hiding the fact that there's a weight off her shoulders. It's not that she feels any less guilty, it's that things are different now than they were before. She feels different.
"I'm so glad to see you," she says on an exhale, sliding her arms back around him again.
"Remind me to thank your boss if I ever meet him," Rory responded with a soft laugh as he reaches up to touch her face gently with his fingertips. Just enough to run over her cheekbones and down to her neck, as if to convince himself that she was there, looking at him, and not somewhere else.
"I'm sure there's places you can go to get help that aren't quite as…" he trails off, unable to figure out the right words. "I'm glad to see you too," he continues after a moment, letting his hands drop down.
He'd been worried he would never find out what happened to her. Even if this country was better for their kind, he remembered people just disappearing in his home country and it was difficult to forget that fear.
Berlin echoes his laugh, mostly because she's happy to be here, but also partly because of the idea of him meeting Avi one of these days. She will have to ask Emily just how Dad he gets over boyfriends. Of course, how Epstein he is is probably the bigger concern.
"Oh god," she says, as it all starts to hit her, "you probably will meet him one of these days. We found out he's my father." Her hands brush through her hair and she looks over at him. "The last few days have been a little crazy." To say the least. "Can we sit down?" she asks, taking his hands to bring him along with her as she goes. "That's something I'm working on, finding another option for help."
Bringing him along with her to wherever she might want is easy, because he looks stunned as he processes the possibility that her boss also happens to be her father. Rory isn't exactly worried about meeting family, because he thinks he's a pretty good guy in general, but there's always the fear of fathers. And this one was her boss, which meant he probably knew how to kill someone quietly and cover it up.
"And here I'd been concerned about your friend…" Her not-quite-but-more-or-less sister of sorts, who also looked like she could dispose of a body if she really wanted to. As he dropped into the seat that she leads them to, without even really thinking too much about it, he keeps a hold on her hand.
"I'm sure we'll figure out something… To help you with your abilities, I mean."
"Don't worry. He's gruff, but he's a good guy. And also don't worry, because we're not at boyfriend meeting status. It's a little new." The father part, not the boyfriend part. Which is the opposite of how this must normally go, but then again, they've been doing things their own way from the beginning. "It's kind of a whirlwind. You try to turn yourself in, but end up being less of an orphan by the end of it. That's not… normal."
Not even a little.
Her fingers tangle with his and she leans against him, giving him a nod. "We'll figure it out. I have to now." Since she can't count on a jail cell to keep her from hurting anyone.
"You're a very special woman, so I wouldn't expect much with you to be normal," Rory admits with a small smile that pushes the corner of his mouth and even touches his eyes a little.
It seems, at least, he's still not afraid to touch her, cause his fingers lace in between hers and he wraps his other arm around her. "Felt empty without you here."
She'd often spent time away with her job, but it had been different this time.
"That's good, because I'm not sure I can promise anything will be normal." Berlin chuckles lightly, settling in when his arm moves around her. She lets out a sigh and turns to look at him. "It won't be empty again for a while," she says, her voice closer to a whisper. She leans in to press a kiss to his cheek. Her forehead rests against his temple and she smiles warmly. "I think I love you." She's never experienced it herself, but there are memories lingering in her head, loves stretched over the ages, hearts beating faster, soft words whispered between lovers, kisses shared in the dark. She doesn't mind adding her own racing heart to the mix.
That confession seems to take him by surprise, by the way his hand twinges under hers. Not pulling away, not tightening too much, but still moving. Rory hadn't expected her to say that, but he doesn't even try to stop smiling as he leans to press his lips against her hair.
Breath brushes against her much like that kiss as he speaks softly, "I feel the same. I think I realized I was in love with you when I noticed how lonely it was here without you."
He'd put away the bed she'd slept in every night except the last because he kept looking at it and missing her. He's think about seeing her as he opened the door before he remembered she might not be home ever again.
He'd had girlfriends before, even thought he'd been in love a few times, but he didn't know if he'd ever missed someone as much as he had missed her the last few days.
It doesn't seem to occur to her to be nervous. She knows that even if he didn't feel the same, he would be gentle about it. But when she sees him smile, she can't help her own widening. Her hand lets go of his, but only to slide around him instead, as if she's not entangled with him quite enough. He can feel the press of his bracelet between her wrist and his back.
"I'm sorry I made you lonely," she says, her smile softening, "I don't plan on doing it again." She leans in, then, pressing a kiss to his lips, gently like she plans to linger there.
"You're here now," Rory murmurs softly against her mouth, as if that was what mattered. He can't manage to say much more, because he intends to continue the kiss just as she does.
He lifts her up from the seat and pulls her toward what was now their bed in this small trailer.