Participants:
| Scene Title | Holding It Together |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes vents some frustrations to an equally worried Elaine. |
| Date | July 13, 2010 |
Gun Hill - Magnes' Apartment
It's late, but Magnes hasn't come to bed immediately like normal, he's been in the living room for hours, just punching and kicking, throwing an empty gun clip into the air and slamming the bottom of the handle into it to reload, then suddenly pulls a blade from his jeans to slice across where a neck would be. He's doing drills, he has no reason to since he trains fairly often, but he has one of those looks that says he's got a lot of stress. He's not even dressed for bed yet, and it's nearly 3AM.
Elaine'd spent a bit of time with Quinn and Sable earlier, making sure to catch each of them respectively as a point to make sure they were okay. Even though the actual victim of the situation had been Elaine, she was well-aware of how it must have felt for her friends to find her like that. She'd spent some time making the two of them certain that she was okay, then headed home. She'd gone into the bedroom to relax for a bit, flipping through some of Magnes' comics. But the flipping had turned into reading as Magnes never came in to join her. Her eyes glanced to the clock—1 AM, 2AM… finally, she set the comics aside. Pushing herself off the bed, she limped her way to the bedroom door, dressed for bed in her usual pajama shorts and a tank top. "Magnes…"
"Yeah, Elaine?" Magnes asks with a knife in one hand and an unloaded gun in the other, his back turned to her before he finally makes the slow spin around to her. His mood's… well, it's about where it is whenever he talks about Claire, which is not good at all.
Elaine leans on the doorframe for support so she doesn't have to put any weight on her bad leg. "Are you coming in to bed or do you still have more to do?" She was asking the question out of politeness. While she asked the question, her eyes made it clear that she was asking it for his sake—she clearly wanted him to come sleep, but she was giving him the option, a way out.
"Sorry, just… a lot on my mind." Magnes starts walking over to her, then into the room as he goes through drawers, putting his weapons where ever he usually hides them with his back turned. "I'm afraid, not for me, but… of losing you, of not being strong enough to protect you, of everything with Claire happening again. It was so close, Elaine, so close, anything could have happened…"
Watching him as he moved about, Elaine hobbled back over towards the bed. She climbed onto it, lower lip drawn in to be bit, teeth dragging along it. "I survived six months with him, Magnes. I didn't die then, I won't die now. He loves me in his sick, twisted way. He doesn't want me to die, I don't think. He wants me to come back with him." The words are meant to soothe him, but they're ones she isn't so sure of herself. He'd never used a weapon before. Never outright attacked her like that. He was desperate. Desperate people do dangerous things. Elaine pulls the covers back and slips underneath.
"And what if he decides if he can't have you, no one can? I was only a cop for a few months, but I heard stories." Magnes turns around, peeling his shirt off and tossing it on to the floor, then kicks his shoes and jeans off, down to his blue boxers, and crawls into bed with her. He still sits up, hunched forward and restless as he speaks. "I've killed people before, because I thought I had no choice, and in all honesty, I didn't, we'd be dead if I didn't, the entire planet, but even under those circumstances, it didn't feel any better. The first person I ever shot, it was a man who stole my ability, or at least I assumed he did, I was never sure, I've never had the heart to check. But I shot him, in the head, just because I was afraid someone was getting away after stealing my ability, afraid that he'd kill people and commit crimes because of me, so I went and committed the ultimate crime…"
He was cracking. Elaine swallowed hard, reaching to put a hand on his shoulder. She had to make sure he could keep himself together. "You're saving lives, Magnes. I entirely believe that if you have to do something like that, it's because you're saving lives. This isn't any different. You did good before, you saved lives before, there's no reason you can't do the same now. Relax, you know how to handle it. You're alright… I slipped up and fell for a trick. I won't do that again, okay? I'll stay here or go out with someone like you or Quinn or Sable. I won't be alone. You aren't going to lose me."
"Life feels so fragile, way more fragile than it should feel… it's getting harder to savor anything." Magnes slips down, laying flat on his back while he stares at the ceiling. "I feel like I'm dying suddenly, like everything's starting to close in again, like right before I met you…"
This was getting hard. Elaine bit her lip, teeth pressing down harder against it than they had been earlier. "Magnes. It's okay, I swear, everything's going to be okay. Don't let it get to you." The words were a desperate attempt on her part, but she got the sinking feeling they would do little, at the moment.
"I'm sorry, Elaine. I try really hard, I really do…" Magnes leans over, wrapping his arms around her waist so he can lay his head against her stomach, sighing. "We can fly anywhere we want. Paris, India, England… but I can't leave everyone behind. I just…" His grip tightens, right along with his shut eyes. "I want a break."
"I wouldn't want to leave everyone behind either." Elaine seems soothed by the arms, shifting to allow Magnes to rest against her. Her fragile mood wouldn't break now. She'd be alright, for the time being. "So rest. If it's stressing you out, I'll stay with Quinn or Sable and you can do whatever you need to do to feel better. Call in sick to work, get out of your responsibilities. Stay home and sleep and play video games and watch cartoons. If you need a break from all the things stressing you, no one is stopping you."
"I need you, Elaine, don't ever think you're one of the things stressing me. I just wanna protect you." Magnes' tone gets softer as he seems to relax more, his grip loosening while his head slides down to her lap. "Just don't leave and I'll be fine, I just need to calm down. I'm so used to losing things. In a year so many people I care about have died."
Elaine's fingers slide into Magnes' hair, stroking softly, trying to calm him. "Magnes, I'm here. I'm not going. You aren't going to lose me, okay? I don't want that to at all be your worry. We're going to fix this. No matter what, you'll still have me. I'm not going to die."
"If you die, I'll go to heaven and pull you out." Magnes promises, voice getting lower and lower as he begins to drift off occasionally. "That ex, I'm gonna have to take drastic measures, but I still don't want to kill him. There's a few options I have, I hope…"
Elaine smiles, leaning to kiss him on the forehead. "I'm not dying. I'll stay alive, I'm resourceful, if it comes down to it. And I won't take chances." She strokes his hair a little. "Just promise me you'll stop him for good, Magnes. I mean it."
"I promise, Elaine, I honestly do." Magnes rolls over on to his back again, and motions his arms for her to come over to him. "Let's get some sleep, for once I'm too tired for anything else."
"I'd like to just sleep anyways." Elaine admits, moving to settle into his arms. Shutting her eyes, she's asleep almost instantly as she curls up against him, breathing easing into a slow and steady pace.