Participants:
Scene Title | Hidden Answers |
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Synopsis | Melissa visits the unopened Abbey, and both her and Abby hide the answers to questions from each other. |
Date | August 8, 2010 |
The Abbey
Construction will be ending soon, the outside of the newly opening bar has newspaper over the window, not even a hint to the name yet. But Mel's been told to come inside, the bar quiet since it's sunday and a lack of working on this day. Tomorrow though, construction hatted people will be amassing on the grounds. The large oak counter, already in the place, massive in it's length and the mirror'd back behind it.
The floors just polished, kept the way they were, she's going, it seems, to keep the victorian feel of the bar. There's a high backed stool, with a red seat and slatted back at the bar, Abby's sitting on the floor beside it, papers and business books in front of her, on the phone with someone as she flips through a catalog. "No, no it wasn't what I ordered. I request black seats, yes" Her finger lands on the same stool on the page as beside her. "Yes, item number…" She rattles off the series of Digits. "Nope, the inventory list said black, but I have red stools. My place opens in two weeks, I need someone to come take these ones back and I need new ones by then. Or the lord help you, I will come down there and get right in the face of whomever it is, that handle customer service and flaming baptists are not what you want in your store"
Flaming could just mean her religious fervor. "Thank you Darla. I appreciate your attention to this situation"
Coming on in is something Melissa does well enough. Especially when it's Abby's place. Who needs to knock when you're visiting your best friend, after all? She wanders in just in time to hear the comment about flaming baptists, and she can't help but bust out laughing. "Ahh…gotta love those double meanings!" she says with a grin as she heads over towards Abby.
By now Abby probably recognizes the signs of a healing Melissa well enough, though Mel is more towards the healed end of the spectrum than the wounded one. And she's wearing color again! This time it's dark blue leather pants and, well, a black corset. But there's blue! It's color!
THe cell phone hung up and a roll of her eye's. "I could just take the red, but then, there's already gonna be enough red with the wall when they're painted this week" She throws an arm around, gesturing to around them. "Brenda's been doing most of it, because i'm up to my eyeballs in work and preparing for going back to school, and Ferry and other stuff so.. you know"
She runs her hand through her blonde hair, peering up at the other woman and gesturing to the floor. "Welcome to The Abbey. What you see if pretty much what it's going to be like, I dont' think there will be dancing on the bar, but… everything else should remain the same. They're working on the rooms upstairs right now, and knocking down walls and the like so that it's another floor that I can hold private parties in or open up and there's gonna be a pool table in the back. There's been some folks nosing around out front.
Melissa feigns a pout. "No dancing on the bar? Aww…But I was looking forward to getting smashed and hopping up there!" Then she grins and glances around, nodding. "It looks good so far," she says before plopping down on the floor in front of Abby. "Now what's this about going back to school? More paramedic type stuff, I'm guessing?"
"To be a paramedic. I'm an EMT right now Mel. That's only like, a couple months of schooling. To be a paramedic, that takes a year or more. They're gonna drop me to on call next week, and I'll just have to keep my cellphone on in my off hours so that if they need me I can come in and probably on the weekends. Means Peter when he surfaces again from his 'family emergency'" Finger quotes in the air. "He'll likely get more hours with Trevor than with me" She pats the floor, she herself in her sunday best and sitting on a beach blanket so as not to get dirty, already having attended church.
"What's the diff between EMT and paramedic?" Melissa asks, frowning a bit. "I figured they were the same thing. Like…uh…vehicle and automobile. Same thing, different word," she says, shrugging a little. Mention of Peter has her leaning back, supporting her weight on her hands and falling silent for a moment. "Decided to take your advice. Try to date, I mean. Told Peter that even though I loved him, I couldn't live my life waiting for a wake up call that he may never get."
And that said, she abruptly changes the subject. "Me and Daph visited Francois yesterday. See how he was doing, try to cheer him up. That sorta thing. Got him food, pumped him full of alcohol, then made him watch Dogma." She grins. "You ever seen Dogma?"
"Peter's a paramedic, I'm an emergency medical technician, it's the difference between a learners permit and… an air brakes truck drivers license. See, I can intubate a person, get em on backboards, give them medications that are already prescribed or that I'm told by doctors to give them, or that peter tells me to. But Peter can just decide what medication to give and how much and not need permission, he can do tracheotomy's and other procedures in the field that I don't have the training to do"
There's a pause and a glance to Melissa. 'Well, legally. I can start IV's and the like and run saline. It's all about permissions and teaching. Once you become a paramedic, there's like.. this whole other world and a bigger salary that opens up. You can work on helicopters on life flights, your just better at stuff. Some of it all, I know what to do, beause I do it for the ferry but it's a matter of being legally able to do it for work"
Advice about the love life. "That's good Mel, I mean.. Peter's… peter's not in a state I think, to be having a personal life with anyone right now" As observed from living with him and spoken as she's starting to close catalogs, and slide them all into a large canvas carry all. "Yeah, he didn't come to the apartment, I figured he'd gone back to his place for something. He needs the company, it's good for him, until Teo can be gotten and saved" Dogma though. A shake of her head in the negative. She has not seen it.
Now that she's told Abby that advice was taken, Melissa strictly avoids referring to Peter, just sort of brushing over everything Abby said that mentions him. Instead she nods. "Yeah, he does. He's…Hell, Abby. He's a doctor, and he was playing with a gun while we were there. Cleaning it," she's quick to explain. "I can't say I blame him though. And I think it helped that I told him I'd recruited Daph to help with the rescue too. Another person he knows and trusts on the team, yanno?"
She smiles faintly. "Dogma is…well, it might not be as bad to you since you're not Catholic, but it's sort of a religious comedy. Very funny, very crude language. You'd never believe who plays god in the end. I'll bring it by sometime. You'll either love it or hate it. Like the platypus enthusiasts."
"He won't kill himself Melissa. If he was cleaning a gun, it's because he needed to clean it, or was making sure it was in working order. Francois would not kill himself, because to do so, would devalue the gift that is his life and the sacrifices that people made and did for him to be here."
A wrinkle of her nose as Mel explains as best she can, the movie is quickly met with a shake of her head. "I don't think, Mel, that that movie is one that I will like, in the least. I don't like crude language for the sake of crude language. Besides, I'm too busy. I gotta find someone to help me learn Russian. Well, as much Russian as I can cram into my brain before the time is up. I got Felix's grandfather, and I would have tried to find Sasha but.." But when he's face down in a river, what can you do.
"How's daphne? I haven't seen her in ages"
"I didn't mean I thought he'd kill himself," Melissa says, shaking her head. "I mean…doctors heal, they don't kill. But I think that he'd kill every person in the building where Teo's being held. And that sort of thing…" She glances away, towards the floor. "Even when it's necessary, it leaves a scar on a person that no healing can cure," she murmurs, even while thinking of the offer to have her own memory of a murder removed.
She looks back to Abby then, frowning. "Why do you need to learn Russian? And why not try to find Sasha?"
"Yet Darren killed" Abigail points out. "What you would do for the person you love Mel, transcends occupation and sometimes your strongest belief's. Would you imagine that I would ever kill, but I have, twice and Sasha's dead Mel, he was found, you called me and told me that while I was away. I need to learn it for something, and Cat just.. I want to learn it from someone who hasn't learned it from a textbook but I don't want to wear out Felix's grandpa. He's an older gentleman. Teo's kidnapped, can't learn it from him and I don't think Francois knows such, and Liz's Russian is so little and far between." Everything squared, cleaned up, she's heading behind the bar in her flat's, setting about to looking at other things there of the paper variety that Brenda had left out for her to look over.
There's a visible wince at Abby's second sentence, and again Melissa has to look away. But she, again, skips that and moves onto the next topic. "You also told me that there was no way he'd kill himself, remember?" She pauses, then frowns and looks back. "For something? And it can't be textbook Russian? You're being awfully vague now." Which seems to bother her.
"I don't know these days, what anyone would do and why. I would hope he's not dead because he's got an aweful lot to make up for, if he's even interested in making up for everything he's done, but some part of me thinks that maybe he might have, I don't know Mel, I'm not a bloody mind reader and people generally learn a new language because they are going to be conversing with people in that language. I've been to Russia, I spent a month there. I want to learn it so that I can not be a total idiot next time. I learned Italian so that I could talk to Teodoro in the language"
She looks over at the other woman, brows furrowed. "What is wrong Mel? You're touchy, even more so than the first day I met you and the corset. Listen, I just want to learn Russian. It's hard, and… I know some people who speak it and I don't wnat to be an idiot and it's polite to greet people in their native tongue, and it shows that you are making an effort to relate to them. It's respectful"
The question has Melissa frowning and actually taking a minute to think about her answer. "I don't know. Tired of everyone's secrets, maybe. Tired of being myself. Tired of seeing what I'm turning into for love. And by that I mean Kendall too, and all my friends. The people I may someday care about. I'm tired of not knowing where I'm going in life. Tired of not knowing what to believe. Tired of having to look at all the gray between the black and white and not knowing which side of the spectrum it really leans towards. Tired of being viewed as something I'm not, and not being able to argue the fact for one reason or another."
Mel shrugs and rises to her feet, hands running through her hair. "I'm just tired, Abby. I haven't slept well for the last few weeks. Maybe longer. I don't even know anymore. One day mostly just blurs into another, and I can't even really express myself well anymore except on paper, and that doesn't do jack for me."
"You don't change yourself for love Mel" Abigail stares at her, listening to the woman relay her thoughts and feelings. "You should never change yourself for love. Ever." Her lips flatten for a moment, worried about the other woman, shifting in spot as she leans on her elbows. "Love doesn't demand you change yourself, that's not love. If someone loves you enough, they take you, as you are. All the wrinkles and secrets and bad things all right along with the good things. And if they can't, then.. you're not mean to love them"
She shakes her head. "Mel, then you need to sleep. You need to turn off your phone, lock your doors, put your movies on and settle on the couch and just sleep. Before you burn out, and not in a good way. Go take a vacation and get away from this city. It can eat you alive."
Another frown though, a glance down in thought before she looks up. "Do you know something about Sasha that's not in the papers…" Another pause. "Mel… did peter hunt down sasha and do something to him?"
"That's not what I'm saying, Abby," Melissa says, shaking her head. "No one I care about is demanding I change. I'm changing to keep people I care about safe. God, the things I've done to protect Kendall. And I can't sleep, Abby. Too much to do, for one thing, and for another…anytime I sleep, I have nightmares. So it doesn't matter if my phone is off, and I can't lock my doors because I've got a house full of people."
She looks back at Abby, head tilting. "Why would Peter do anything to Sasha? Though no, Peter hasn't done anything to him." No, that was more her, though it was something good. For Sasha.
"Keep Kendall safe Mel. That's the only person, besides yourself, that you should ever change yourself to protect. We're all big kids, he's still a teenager." As for sleep, she's at a loss. The one who helped her, who helped Liz learn, has perished and passed, gone from the earthly coil. "Don't drink coffee, go find a shrink to talk to mel. If there's nightmares, it means that there's issues that… that maybe talking to someone who you know can't by law, divulge what you talk about, someone professional, will do you good. The lord alone knows, that I go see one very two weeks."
"I know why I'm having nightmares, Abby. And believe me, no therapist can help with those issues," Melissa says, shaking her head. "As for vacations…I've already got one planned. Me and Daph, and maybe Francois, will be going to France sometime after Teo is home safe. I've never been out of the country, and I'd like to. Though I don't want to go to Paris." Romantic city and all that.
A pause, then, "I can't just focus on Kendall either. I realized yesterday that I've got a major issue. I have like this compulsion to fix people. My house is full of broken people. Hell, met a stranger the other day, obviously broken, and I want to fix him. And I don't know anything about him other than he hates this priest guy who called him Ruskin, I think it was."
Say what?
"Ruskin?"
"And who in their right mind hates a priest" The younger blonde murmurs, checking off things on a list in front of her, scribbling in other things. "Welcome to the world Mel, you're just like me. Attracted to the broken so we can fix them, or maybe, attracted to the broken because we're just like them, and we hope that if by fixing what's wrong in them… we might fix what's wrong in us"
"Yeah, Ruskin. Why? Do you know a Ruskin?" Melissa asks, eyes narrowing slightly. People only have reactions like that when they know something. "And I think it was that the priest was trying to help him or knew him or something and he didn't want the help. In fact, I know he didn't want the help. I don't know. I wanna find him though, and find out."
"It's a name I came across in Russia is all" It's puzzling really. What are the odds? "What did he look like Mel?" She's lifting the papers aside so she can write down the name, and prepare to scribble the description. "For that matter, what did the priest look like?"
Melissa considers for a moment, then describes Nick first, then Amato. "I ran into the priest once before, at a thing at the Suresh Center. He's evolved, but I don't remember his name or what his ability was. I'll ask Doc Brennan though. Maybe he remembers."
"I know the priest" and the co-incidence of last name, can't really be co-incidence. "He used to have one hand, I healed it back for him. It was the last act of healing that I ever did. I think I upset him the other day though, he's a good man. I'd tell you his name, but he'd probably freak out if you suddenly knew his name or it wasn't what he gave at the suresh center"
There's an actual smile on her face at that. He went to the suresh center. Amato went to the Suresh Center. "No skin to skin, he won't like that. keep your hands to yourself, if you run across him and no, I don't know where to find him, he always finds me"
"No skin to skin? Well shit. The Ruskin person decked him. Fist to jaw. I took the pain away, but I think it was broken," Melissa says, grimacing. But it seems that this line of conversation has distracted her, and she doesn't look quite so depressed anymore.
"Oh lord, broke his jaw?" Hopefully, he had the smarts enough to seek out the Ferry or someone who could help him. SHe'd leave a message, the handful of place she could go to get it looked at. "Thank you, for taking away his pain. He's a good man, and he's… conflicted right now. I should go lock up Mel, I got a lunch date with…" Well, who else would she have a lunch date with.
"I think so. I mean, I'm no expert, but…" Melissa trails off, shrugging. Then she nods. "Sure thing. Tell Robert I said hi. And lemme know when the place opens and I'll be here. I'll drag my overage roomies too. Or most of 'em."
"I'll let you know. we're putting up ad's soon. But you'll know with everyone else who's got an In, when it'll be open. I'll give Robert your regards, give Jerry a kiss for me and a dog bone" A wide grin, she's gathering up her stuff, the bag of books, shoved behind the bar, and key's grabbed.
Melissa smiles and nods. "I will, though that dog is too damn spoiled already. And to think he was supposed to be a guard dog," she says, shaking her head. "Anyway, see ya, Abby," she says before heading towards the door, and out.