Home Is Not A Place

Participants:

elisabeth_icon3.gif vf_kaylee_icon3.gif

Scene Title Home Is Not A Place
Synopsis Kaylee and Liz have a moment.
Date March 18, 2018

Rebellion Camp


Months have passed since the travellers arrived in a war torn and robot filled world. However, after the initial shock wore off, they were integrated into the rebellion and given jobs. One of the travellers, in particular, seemed to be settling into this world and embracing the role that she’s been given by the camps task manager, Luther Bellamy. The gruff and unapproachable, ‘beast’ of the resistance. A man rumored to have eaten people and possibly robots.

In fact, Kaylee Thatcher early on had been dragged into the scavenging teams, becoming an a reliable asset and to the surprise of many… a permanent member of Luther’s own team. Even seeing combat here and there. In fact, something was changing in the woman. There was a new confidence to her and she didn’t seem so withdrawn. Only recently, rumors have been circulating that Kaylee had moved what little possessions she had into Luther’s tent.

Today, saw the return of the team from a little longer trip then normal. Supplies needed for whatever operation was in the works, but also a search for more desperately needed food. Kaylee’s job at the moment is to unload the canned goods they were able to find. Her rifle is resting against the makeshift shelves in what passes as the camp’s mess hall; while the telepath pulls out each can and sorts it on the shelves.

Knowing what she knows of Bright's Kaylee and her Luther, the situation between this Luther and the Kaylee, who has become as close as any sibling, doesn't surprise Elisabeth as she watches it develop. The audiokinetic has spent the months they've been here learning all that she can about this world and how it's different from the world that the FutureKids came from. She's reluctant to get very attached to anyone in this world, bracing herself against tilting at windmills that aren't hers to handle. She has no choice but to keep her eyes on the long-term goal … though it's not in her nature not to fight. She too has made herself very useful to the resistance in this world.

With the knowledge that the time to go into the Dome is at hand, though, Liz has other more personal worries on her mind. "Hey there," she greets quietly from the doorway. "They said you were in here." Pausing there, Elisabeth struggles to find words. "Kaylee…. I need to say some things. Do you… can we walk?" She's perhaps a little more strained than is usual, even for this world. These past weeks, Kaylee has seen far, far more of the woman who first tumbled into the Virus world than of the woman who became a singer in their last world and had finally been slowly accepting the idea that she'd likely never get home after five years.

Pulled out of her thoughts and work, Kaylee turns a can of beans in hand, to look at the woman behind her. Liz gets a bright smile. “Sure,” she says with a nod. The can is set on the shelf and pack is left on one of the rickety card tables. Either she’ll come back to it or someone would finish the sorting for her. However, the rifle is retrieved and slung over her shoulder. Luther would have her head if she left it there.

Crossing to close the distance, Kaylee motions for the woman to proceed her out the door. “What’s on your mind today?” The telepath is admittedly curious, but she doesn’t mentally pry for the answers, she let’s Liz speak.

"We're heading in," she says quietly, shoving her hands into the pockets of the jacket that came with her from Bright. It's in better shape than most, and fleece-lined so that it's at least decent protection against the chill. Elisabeth's blue eyes are restless as they start walking, and she automatically snaps a one-way field around them so that no one can hear them as they move. She has no particular destination in mind, obviously — she's just having trouble remaining still while her brain works through logistics of both the plan to go into the Dome and making sure Aurora is cared for and protected. "Soon." Too soon, in some ways. No matter how ready you think you are, it's never quite enough and Elisabeth knows it well.

Blowing out a slow breath, those blue eyes finally land on Kaylee's face and she says softly, "I don't know if I'm coming back out of there, Kaylee." It's rather like when they fled Bright. They had a conversation similar to this, because Elisabeth doesn't just have herself to care for anymore. It took everything she had to allow Kain to carry her baby to the evacuation point. To trust that he'd get the child there. And now, she's finding that duty is pulling at her again. She smiles just a little, though it's not really in amusement. "You're thinking about things. And you're starting to settle in. I need to make sure you're still going to be able to make sure Aurora goes home even if I don't make it. And if you don't go… I need you to make sure that Cassandra and Kain will be okay going the rest of the way alone with her." It's a request that … perhaps also has undercurrents.

She studies her companion, her sister. "You know that Kain's going to go nuclear, yeah?" She vividly remembers the conversation about Kaylee and her choices and Kain's reaction to the idea that Kaylee might stay here.

Her smile slides away at the mention that Liz’s team was heading into the dome soon and Kaylee looks away turning her attention to where they are walking. “It still feels like we only just got here.” There is an obvious conflict at the mention of the mission. The one that would take them away from this place. Her brow furrows even further. “Are you really counting me out, cause I get a little cozy with one of the natives?”

Though as soon as she says it, Kaylee knows the situation has definitely changed. “Just cause I’m settlin’ a little, doesn’t mean I won’t follow you. Family first.” she repeats the words spoken to her by her dad, though they sound a bit… forced. “To be honest, I don’t know what is going on between me and Luther.” There is a sigh, her head shaking a little in wonder. “I just know I - well - I feel connected to him.”

The mention of Kain’s potential reaction, well that gets an eye roll; not unlike a teenage girl’s reaction to her dad’s dislike for her date. “He and I can cross that bridge when we get there. Hell, it might be a moot point.” Kaylee hitches the rifle into a little more of a comfortable position. “I thought I might ask Luther to come with us,” she adds with an off handed shrug, offering the woman another smile. .

"I'm not counting you out," Elisabeth assures her quietly. "Not by a long shot. I just…. see you getting attached and I don't know which way the wind will blow, so I gotta cover all the contingencies, Kaylee." And if the telepath thinks about it, it is what Liz always tries to do. "If he wants to come with, you know that invitation is an open one — just warn him that it may not be any better than here. And could be worse."

Going silent for a couple of minutes, she finally says quietly, "I'm also bringing it up because of something your father said to Magnes," Liz admits. "He didn't want you to travel onward from here. I don't know why… I just know that in the last world, the Edward from Moab told Magnes to promise not to let you." She looks toward the ground as they walk along. "That has never been anyone's choice to make but yours," she tells Kaylee, though as she looks back up at her companion there is worry in her gaze. "But… I have to admit that it makes me wonder what's waiting for us on the far side. And why he'd be so adamant about wanting you to stay here of all the godforsaken places."

Kaylee relaxes a bit under the assurance that she isn’t so easily tossed aside, a smile returning to her her lips. “Don’t worry, Aurora is going to get where she needs to be. Promise. He won’t say it outloud, but pretty sure that little girl has Kain wrapped around her pinky. He wouldn’t leave her here.”

The mention of her father’s instructions, it is met with a furrow of brows and her stomach twists in irritation. Something about being told she can’t do something, it gets her back up. “Yeah… well….” There is a sudden blink and Kaylee looks to a spot next to her. Slowing to a stop, brows furrow. “You sure?” she says to no one.

“Um..” Kaylee turns her attention to Elisabeth again, “Tyler says that’s not true. He was there. Edward meant the next world.” Attention moves from the space next to her and the other woman, “Either way, I will make my own choice, when I’m ready. Neither dad or even you…” her gaze firmly on that empty space, “…will sway my mind.”

Elisabeth pauses, stopping her forward movement to peer intently at Kaylee. Although she knows about this apparent remnant of Tyler, she doesn't often see Kaylee engage it. It's… unsettling. She nods slightly, however. "It's entirely possible that Magnes misunderstood what was said or I misunderstood it when he said it the way he said it to me," she acknowledges. "Ultimately, what he wanted doesn't exactly matter — which is what I told Magnes and Kain both when the topic came up." She smiles slightly. "You're a grown woman and you've seen more than most. You get to choose your life, you don't have to listen to anyone else." She shrugs a little. "Hell, were I you, I doubt I'd ever listen to your fucking father." Edward has pride of conflicted place in Elisabeth's world — sometimes what he knows is useful and helpful, but he's a complete asshole about it.

There's a long pause and Elisabeth chuckles softly. "You ever think you'd see the day when Kain Zarek was all twisted up inside like a pretzel by an itty bitty girl?" she asks, amused as hell. She's seen firsthand how he handles her petite offspring. It's hilarious. And sweet. And here, at the end of the world, it's something she's beyond grateful for. "I don't know what I'd have done without you, Izzy, Cassandra, and Kain in this hellhole, Kaylee," she tells the telepath quietly. "This world… is a nightmare for me. Years ago, I had dreams of this world, of surviving… of what happened here. It's… different. Because of the changes that happened in 2011. But it's… still pretty much a nightmare that I can't wake up from." Grief flashes briefly across her face, swiftly hidden. "It's strange as hell to include Odessa in the people I consider mine now," she admits. "But … I need to get all of you out of here. I promised Lynette and Mateo that we'd find their son and Magnes and Elaine their daughter… I can't break that promise."

A glare is sent to the space and then she blinks in surprise…. Then her expression turns annoyed. “I wish he’d stop just popping in and out at random. It’s annoying!” That last is said as if Tyler couldn’t hear her if she doesn’t raise her voice. “It’s weird having someone in your head and you can’t control it, yet my ability is literally to control people mentally.”

There is guilt at the mention of the kids, Kaylee looks away and focuses on a point elsewhere. “Maybe…. Maybe Luther will go with us.” It’s obvious she is struggling with the idea of having to stay.

There is a sigh and she shakes her head, “I can’t guarantee that you will be taking all of us out of here…. I just…” Kaylee rubs fingers across her forehead. “I just know, I haven’t felt this way since Peter and I’m afraid to walk away from this just cause this world is shit.” She gives a bit of an amused huff, though there is an emotional tilt her voice. “When I am with him, I just feel like.. I would risk my life to stay, just for a chance to maybe be happy again.”

Elisabeth's smile is gentle. Of all the people here, she understands. "Then you should do whatever you need to. Ask him to come, or stay if you decide to. Kaylee… " There's a moment where she has to swallow hard. "Honestly, if it weren't for Aurora… I might have given up on going home. But she is the one thing I ever wanted — the best parts of me and your brother, all rolled up into a package that is beautiful and smart and perfect. I could have been happy to just live with her… but I wouldn't have been whole. To be that, I have to go home again." She looks at the telepath and meets her eyes. "I'm perfectly capable of living without your brother and kicking some serious ass, having a phenomenal life, while I do it. But he holds the deepest part of my heart. He makes me happy in the darkest moments of my life. Don't give up on it."

“You know, it’s still weird thinking about you and him. Or that Aurora is his daughter,” Kaylee comments with amusement. “But as you said they were different people, mine and yours. I’m glad he has someone to love him like that.” The telepath smiles a bit.

“I didn’t think I wanted to ever risk being close to anyone and getting hurt,” Kaylee admits. “What Peter did… it hurt so bad. It was easier not to let anyone close… and then Luther came rolling in all growly and grumpy at everyone. This… this… beast of a man.” Seriously, how could anyone get close to someone like that. “The more time I was forced to spent with him, the more I saw the person he was trying to hide under all of that. I saw him.” Her gaze drops to to the ground in front of them. “He’s just as broken as I am and he doesn’t see…” Fingers move to run along the scar that trails down the side of her face.

“I feel torn,” Kaylee says after a hard swallow. “You all are my family, but he feels like… I don’t know.” She looks up at Elisabeth confused, as she uses a single word, “Home?”

"Yeah," Elisabeth whispers, sympathy in her gaze. "Home." She smiles just a little. "I've been lucky enough to love several men in my life… but I've always been sort of adamant that there's no one person for each other person, you know? Nobody can be everything to someone else." She shrugs a little. "I still love those men to the depths of my being." Kaylee saw, perhaps from afar but definitely saw, Elisabeth with Felix Ivanov in Bright — the depth of connection there, and it wasn't even Liz's Felix, was obvious.

"But Richard?" She shakes her head, turning her eyes momentarily away and then back to her de facto sibling and fighting the lump in her throat. "Your brother is my safe space. He's my home." Even now, years later, the grief of what happened as she watched their world crumble is still there. "Even when he's pissed off and yelling his head off at me, he's where I want to be," she admits. "Always told me 'I see you… all bubblegum and roses under that badass outside.'" Now she grins a little. "Stupid nerfherder."

She gets it on so many levels.

There is a touch of amusement as Liz talks about all the men in her life. Attention on the path ahead of them as they continue their walk, something the two of them were known to do from time to time. “I- I am not sure I could deal with so many men at one time. Having Tyler in my head and Luther in my life is a struggle, but four men?” Her head shakes a bit. “You’re a wonder, Liz.”

Kaylee sighs a bit. “I just hope I can get Kain to listen and forgive me if I stay.” Though she hasn't even tried asking Luther, she seems already of the mind she might be staying. And Kain was someone just as important to her as Liz. “I know I’ll miss everyone.” there is a pause, “a lot.”

Funny. Didn't Kaylee just get upset when she thought Liz might be counting her out of the traveling? The audiokinetic doesn't remind her, though, simply grinning faintly as they walk, her hands shoved in the pockets of her jeans. "It's a talent, I suppose," she quips. "Jai once told me… something like that I loved without expectations, so it freed them up to love back the same way… or something?" She shrugs. "It's a theory." She mostly just accepts it for what it is. Just her life. Though as far as Kaylee knows, there has actually been no one in her life in the worlds they've traveled. Not even as she was finally settling down in Bright.

Looking at the woman who has become family, Liz says softly, "He'll forgive you. He's still looking for his home too," she says softly, a sorrow for the man who keeps his feelings generally to himself flashing through her blue eyes. "I'll miss you." It hurts to say those words. "Aurora will miss you most of all." The little girl still cries because Ygraine and Uncle Felix and Uncle Lee didn't come with them, and they were all just as close as Kaylee is. "If you do decide to stay… leave her a memory that won't fade?" she asks. Something the little girl can hold tight to her heart. She'll be losing the last of the family that she has known since she was born.

“If I stay,” Kaylee says firmly, as if trying to remind herself that nothing has been decided, yet. Many emotions play across her face, teeth catch at her lower lip and worry it for a several long moments.

“Don’t worry about Aurora. Kain and I will take good care of her…. Just make sure to come back.” Kaylee has to take a deep breath as she fights emotions over what could happen. “And if I am so tied up in that little girl, then whatever me is waiting in your home world, I’m sure she’ll love her just as much.” Her lip trembles and the telepath clears her throat. “I-” She sighs out a shaky breath, doesn’t matter the timeline, she wasn’t good with emotions. “I should go check in, turn in my rifle. A lot more to do once y’all are gone.” The team back at base wouldn’t be sitting idle.

Elisabeth's smile is faint when she stops walking and turns to look at Kaylee. "Whether here, the next timeline, home, or even dead and in whatever world I land then… you are my family, Kaylee. The you back there? She's a different person and I'm sure I'll love her eventually too — but you are my sister." She reaches out and, ignoring the usual dodge the other woman gives, she hugs the telepath tightly.

When she lets go, it's with a grin. "Tease Kain a lot. When you listen to Aurora talk about him, he might as well have hung the moon." Because they can't get all mushy, dammit! That's too much like admitting she's not coming back — and that ain't happening.

There is a strangled sound from Kaylee when Elisabeth hugs her, not cause of the hug, but what she says. “Dammit..” She growls out sounding a bit like the man she’s been hang out with. It isn’t an angry sound, more abashed and flustered. After a fierce hug, the telepath lets go. “You’ll always be my family,” she murmurs under her breath with a flush. “Can’t change that.” A glance flicks up to Liz and then down again, fingers brush at her eyes.

“I’m going before you really get me crying. I’m not saying goodbye, until it’s time.” Kaylee is backpedaling then, not really looking at Liz, doing that she might very well cry. “Don’t worry, Kain will get a lot of shit… not just from me either.” Ling no doubt would take a few swipes. “Just come back. Okay?”

"Quick as I can," Elisabeth assures her. "Can't be gone too long or Kain'll be teaching her how to build pipe bombs and shit. He's as bad as Eichard — never too young to teach survival skills or some shit, right?" She's mostly teasing… although this world lends some small amount of credibility to the thought. It makes Liz mutter, "Living in a fucking Schwarzenegger movie." Her eyes roll. "G'wan. Go spend time with your guy, lady. Keep an eye on the kids — and Aurora too," she teases about Ling and Kain, "and hold down the fort til I get back." She smiles faintly and pivots on a heel to head back to camp, where Cassandra has Aura safely engrossed with whatever they're doing this time. "I'll see you soon."


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