I'm Telling

Participants:

colette_icon.gif kaylee2_icon.gif

Scene Title I'm Telling
Synopsis Kaylee and Colette discuss Joseph while snowed in during the blizzard.
Date December 20, 2009

Brick House


To say Kaylee has been busy would be putting it mildly, whoever thought it would take so much damn work to give hundreds of kids a decent Christmas. While she's been meaning track down the teenager for sometime, there has been situations with Operation Santa that has been keeping her away… not to mention her work at Summer Meadows. However the blizzard has put a halt to a lot and the blonde telepath decided she needed to step away from everything and finally seek out Colette.

Crunching her way through the snow was not fun, but taking a vehicle only got her so far. When she finally gets into the main portion of the Brick House, Kaylee is freezing cold with her jeans clinging wet to her legs and her clothing damp from the snow that landed on her. She dressed warmly, but obviously not well enough. Teeth chattering and body shivering she quickly hunts down a floor heater to stand in front of to try and get the feeling in her limbs back. Tugging off gloves and letting them drop to the floor Kaylee bends down to hold cold reddened hands before the glowing coils, fingers spread wide.

"Not my smartest idea.." She murmurs to no one but herself, sighing softly afterwards as she can feel the warmth trying to creep in. "Shoulda listened… Waited out the storm and the roads to clear."

With only two windows in the whole building, the Brick House is more like a Brick Oven at the moment; in a way it's merciful. The ground-floor hearth is roaring with a fully-stoked fire, and the ratty furniture surrounding it is surprisingly devoid of anyone in them to enjoy it. The kitchen lights are on, coffee in the pot half full and turned on — though its freshness is dubious given the tendencies of this safe-house's Operator. He too seems conspicuously missing from the building, perhaps tucked away somewhere up on the second floor, or trapped in another part of town buried by the blizzard.

The safe house's only resident at present seems to be — thankfully — the one Kaylee is looking for. Curled up in a high-backed armchair seated squarely in front of the fire, Colette Nichols sits with a lined notebook in hand, pen waggling back and forth as she writes in it. Green eyes are focused entirely on the notebook until she hears Kaylee's approach. Distracted eyes flick up, brows furrow and messy bangs are swept to one side so she can better see who's let themselves in.

"Oh— " Hastily folding the notebook closed and tucking it under the afghan she's wrapped around herself, Colette sits up straight in the chair, eyeing Kaylee with an awkward expression on her face. "I— Oh god I'm sorry! I didn't even hear you knocking!" Slapping one hand over her face, Colette is quick to slouch back against the chair, biting down on her lower lip. "I— God I'm lucky it was you…" It seems she really is the only one here, especially if no one else was watching the back door.

Jumping slightly as she realizes she's not alone… Yeah, hard to do with a telepath, but Kaylee isn't exactly paying attention to anything but getting feeling back in her extremities. Relaxing when she sees Colette, the blond presses a hand to her chest to calm her beating heart. "Colette… Thank god.. Sorry I didn't see you at first. What…. where is everyone? Andy?" She glances around, eyes unfocusing for a moment listening, "No wonder I had to dig out the hatch door." Couching down to press her back to the wall and then sliding down to sit heavily. Eyeing the teenager, she brings up one knee so she can starts to unlace one of her boots with cold clumsy fingers. "I figured with this storm the place would be full of people."

She works to pull off the boot and lets it drop beside her and she works the cold soaked sock off her foot with a grimace. "I was hoping I'd find you here." Kaylee glances at the girl briefly before she tries to rub life back into frozen toes. "Haven't seen you around…" so… she got a bit worried.

Grimacing, Colette rubs at the side of her head and works fingers across her scalp. "Andy left this morning, said he was going to go see Scott at the Hangar. He took a few people with him, told me to, uh…" Colette's eyes drift to the side, "hold down the fort." She makes a somewhat rueful smile and shrugs her shoulders, pulling her legs up beneath herself to hide them under the warm blanket. "I guess I got distracted." Dark brows creased together, she looks back to Kaylee and finally notices the melting snow clinging to her jacket and the soaked-through quality of her jeans.

"Oh!" Feet are quick to come out from the comfort of the blanket, mis-matched socks striking the floor as she whips her blanket off of the chair and scoots the whole thing back a bit from the fire. "Crap you're probably freezing, I'm so sorry— " quick to re-double the blanket on the floor, Colette lays it down in front of the fire and goes to grab another one off of the ratty sofa nearby. "Here I ah— you should warm up." A comforter is taken from the sofa back, slung around her own shoulders. It's clear she hasn't gone anywhere today, looking dry and comfortably warm in a t-shirt due to how hot it is in here. The screen-printed old carnation red shirt bears a likeness of Che Guevara on the front, with the silkscreened words Never Too Late below his face. Jeans dappled with paint look old and worn and not nearly thick enough for this weather.

"Wait you— were looking for— " Colette grimaces, immediately shaking her head. "I— I haven't found Matilda. I… can't find her. I don't know where she went. I— I've been having a lot of trouble finding anyonw who can help us look for Joseph…"

The other boot and sock is pulled off an dropped beside while watching Colette work. When the comforter is brought, Kaylee gives her a thankful look. "Thanks.. Yeah.. my luck has been just as crappy. I've been keeping an eye out when I'm out at Summer Meadows.. but.. I've stayed so damn busy." She looks like she feels a bit guilty about that. Pulling off her jacket finally, revealing just a plain read sweatshirt, the blond finally scoots over in front of the fire. Drawing her knees up and pulling the blanket tight around her, she sighs softly. "I feel like I'm not doing enough, but there I've got all this responsibility… course I didn't expect Joseph to go AWOL either.

Tucking her nose into the musty blanket to get warm, her eyes flick over to Colette with a look of concern. "How you holding up, Kiddo?" She asks after a moment, her tone soft. "You seemed beyond strung up that night with the letters. Is it just Joseph bothering you?"

The question seems to make Colette shrink back a little, head quirked to the side and brows furrowed. She settles herself down on the same blanket in front of the fire, folding her legs beneath herself as she sits next to Kaylee. "It's…" apparently not an easy subject in the way she dithers, eyes focused on the glow of the embers in the fire, the snapping pop of a log burning warmly, shedding dry heat out from the hearth. "Just the card I got…" Colette murmurs, folding her hands in her lap and dipping her head down, bare arms straight as she hunches her shoulders forward. "I— lost my family when I was young." Green eyes lift up to Kaylee, brows furrowed. "S-why I have two last names; Nichols-Demsky." There's a faint smile on her lips, even if it is an awkward one.

"My mom got sick when cancer when I was young, she passed away when I was… thirteen or fourteen," she isn't sure? "She died and… I mean, I wasn't really upset. I was never close to her, not— not really. My dad— " she snorts, sharply. "He didn't die soon enough." There's a vitriolic bitterness there, "He may as well have died when he abandoned me after the bomb. I— was in a fucking hospital, in a coma, and he just… left me there to die. He's…" she shakes her head slowly, green eyes closing, "he's dead now too, for real. So I just… that kid's letter reminded me of a lot of bad things, is all."

Only her eyes show over the top of the blanket for the moment, brows lifting slightly as Kaylee listen. "Wow.. yeah. I can see how that letter could have been rough." She goes quiet, turning her head to watch the flames dance happily. "Though.. you seem to think of your dad, much like I do mine. He was a total asshole, but I never had to meet him. His office was like.. right there ground zero." A small frown tugs at her lips, "If Midtown hadn't blown up that day.. I have no idea how I woulda reacted to meeting him face to face." Teeth scrap lightly on the inside of he cheek. "I'm … not sure it would have gone well and I… might have ended up doing something I would have regretted."

Fingers lifts to brush through her hair and she huffs a bit. "What about your adoptive family now?" She asks curiously, turning to look at the teenager again. "You seem to be always hiding from them as well. I'm guessing not all is well there either?" Kaylee glances around them and adds. "It's a hell of a time of year to be alone."

Green eyes go down at that question, and Colette's voice is smaller than before. "Judah…" she says in a whisper, "He's… he's a great dad. He cares, he's— I did something I'm not proud of, and… and it's just been hard to face him since. He's not really home much, he's a detective, works for the police." Green eyes alight to Kaylee, and his job alone might well be their sticking point. "He knows what I do, and— he doesn't stop me but at the same time, it's like… I feel like he doesn't approve either? I— I don't know. I love him," there's a smile creeping up on her lips, "I've never really had a father I loved. He takes care of me, he trust me, I just… " it's as if she's trying to convince herself why she should stay away, when she knows better. "I guess we both lead busy lives?" It's a flimsy excuse.

"I'm not really… alone, I guess. I mean, Ygraine's around, an' she's an old friend of mine. And— and there's Tamara," Colette's lips creep up into a smile as her eyes focus on the fire's captivating glow. "She's everywhere, sort've. She's… like us, but different. I know Tamara's always with me, 'cause she knows I love her… and…" there's a faint smile there, "I know one day everything'll be alright. Because somebody told me that— that in the future, we're happy together. So… so I'm not worried."

"I can see where the trouble would be with this life and having a cop for a dad." Kaylee gives her a lop-sided smirk. "Being Christmas and all… I bet he misses you and would love having you around for that at least." Chuckling the telepath shakes her head, "Listen to me.. the girl who's staying away from her own family. Fat good I am giving advice, but like you.. I've done things… I'm a bad person deep down trying to be good and I don't want my family to see that. My grandmother.. sometimes I think she's a freakin' mind reader."

Her head ducks down and for a moment is partially obscured by the blanket. "I'm jealous though.. You have some idea of what your future is going to be." Kaylee's head lifts and turns enough to look at the teenager out of the corner of her eye. "Me… I'm just trying to get by each day. I almost didn't even have that, so I'm grateful for each day I have.. but… what is ahead of me to look forward too?" She frowns a bit, looking a bit sad, not something that Kaylee shows all that often. "I dunno.. I imagine that's a question people ask themselves all the time."

Colette's green eyes stay settled on Kaylee for a time, watching her in silence even after she's done speaking, not much more than the crackling pop of the fireplace to serve as a noise to fill the silence. "You're not a bad person…" Colette states without a shred of doubt, a naive smile spread across her face, or perhaps just a stubborn one. She shifts her legs around, unfolding them and drawing her knees to her chest, mirroring much in the same way Kaylee's posture, sans a blanket.

Resting her cheke on her knees, she looks over to Kaylee with a faint smile. "Knowing the future doesn't change it, so it doesn't matter." Admittedly Richard Cardinal would disagree with Colette, but she has her own stubborn beliefs. "It doesn't matter, sometimes I think I'd probably be better off not knowing, but— " closing her eyes, she offers a weary smile to Kaylee. "I don't know what, like, you've lost?" Her lips purse to one side, "but I know what you've got. That's us," she says with an awkward but affirming nod of her head, "s'a pretty big extended family."

"No.. I'm a bad person.." Kaylee counters with a touch of amusement. "I help Adam Monroe put Refrain on the streets.. I was there when he took it out of Pinehearst.. I was there when he made the deal with the Triad." Her body gives a shudder at the memory of the glowing vial as Adam rolled it to Liu… it had seemed to wrong even then. "When I was in at Pinehearst.. I…" She trails off and shakes her head, her voice soft as she continues, "It was bad.. and when I did that… I enjoyed the feeling of controlling someone with just a few suggestions in their head." She doesn't look at Colette just stares at the flames, as if she can see the memory of it in the licking tongues of the fire. "I haven't told many about that… I can imagine the look on Joseph's face if he heard me say that." a sad smile touches her lips. "It's part of the reason I haven't really seriously even looked for any kind of relationship. As much as I'd love to have somone that doesn't see me as an object.. or a quick roll. "

Her eyes finally, move from the fire, to give Colette a haunted look, "My ability… it's dangerous. I don't want to risk it.. you know?" Her dreamed showed her that. "If I gave in at Pinehearst…. who is to say I won't again." She echo's Colette's weary smile,with one of her own. "I haven't lost as much as you have.. So I don't have much to complain there.. but I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of loosing everything or gaining everything. Kind of scary you know?"

Kaylee leans over enough to bump her shoulder with Colettes. "I have to say though.. I've felt more accepted and trusted to know what the hell I'm doing with you all… and your right.. it's like a big family."

At first it's a smile that Colette offers, then something more haunted. She's silent, even when Kaylee bumps into her, and while she shifts her weight to lean against the blonde, there's an echo of a word that comes from her lips in whispered procession. "Pine… hearst?" Green eyes lift up to Kaylee, wide and mixed with conflicted emotions. The brunette turns her head, resting her chin on Kaylee's shoulder and looking up at her intently, as if trying to read her mind, even if it doesn't really work that way.

"You— you were at Pinehearst too?" Dark brows lift up beneath the messy fringe of Colette's bangs at that rhetorical question. "I— were you with the people that Phoenix had upstairs? I— I know you weren't with my team, or the team in the basement." Wrinkling her nose, Colette's brows furrow and she leans her chin up a little off of Kaylee's shoulder, peering at the blonde intently.

"I was..You were?" Kaylee sounds a touch curious and a bit surprised as she turns her head enough to really look at the girl, studying her. "No.. We weren't with the Scoo…. Pheonix…" She has to correct herself from using Adam's favorite term for the firebirds. "We, Adam and his Gang.. we were.. like in one of the labs." She frowns a bit as she thinks back. "We knew Pheonix was in there.. Adam had a meeting with their leaders earlier on.. Cat and Helena." A corner of her mouth twists up on one side as she adds with amusement. "I doubt they like seeing me with the Ferry truthfully. Anyhow," Kaylee shifts as she rests lightly against Colette's shoulder. "Adam was refused when he asked to go along.. So he went in to steal what he could from Arthur Petrelli." Yes, she knows that name too. "We found Refrain when searching the computers and took that with us along with other things we could manage."

Kaylee looks ashamed of that really, her tone bland, "We weren't there to help take down the place. We were there to make Adam richer."

Looking a bit puzzled, Colette's head shakes slowly. "I'unno this Adam guy," she admits a little wryly, brows creased at the notion. "I… was there to help the, um," she grimaces at the name, "Phoenix out. My ability, like, helped sneak them in. I guess I helped them do something like that in the future too, they said I could do all kinds of crazy stuff with my ability, so I've been trying real hard to get a handle on it. The um, Pinehearst wasn't what I thought it was going to be. This old guy, he totally tried to kill me. He had like, he had lasers." Colette's brows furrow, lips pursing to the side. "Oh, look— " She leans away from Kaylee, tugging at the collar of her t-shirt and pulls it down over one shoulder, revealing the perfectly straight and smooth, but considerably deep scar that runs across the top of her shoulder.

"S'a laser scar," she says with a crooked smile, proud of of it like a red badge of honor. "I… wound up meeting a lot of people at Pinehearst. There's these guys called the Remnant, my friends Gabriel and Eileen are a part of them, they're like— soldiers or something. Then there's this scruffy british guy named Ethan, and the King of Sword— I don't think that's really his name though."

She seems unphased by Kaylee's explainations, as if somehow being there to help out Adam doesn't seem all that terrible to her. Maybe if she knew Adam it would. "Flint was there too, he— he totally saved my life from this huge metal dude. Then— then I helped save Eileen's. It— I sort've had to grow up really fast there."

Fingers move to touch the scar lightly, as if it wasn't real unless she did. "Wow.. lasers? That's a new one." She murmurs, before he hand disappears into the blanket again. "From what I saw.. and want I fought… I can see how you would have had to grown up some." She finally shrugs off the blanket some as she's starting to get warm now. "I know two of those Remnants… Joseph might be the one who convinced me to help.. but Eileen is the one that took me into Ferrymen care and sent me to McRae's Safehouse to live. Ethan… he was teaching me how to actually use a gun."

She chuckles a bit, "I haven't heard from him for awhile, so maybe he thinks I'm a lost cause. He's an asshole.. but a good guy." She gives Colette an amused look. "Though I never pictured Flint the time type to be all Action Jackson.. Of course, the few times I've met him he hasn't exactly shown that side of himself." She rolls her eyes a bit. "He was either drunk.. or just being.. well.. what seems to be him." She chuckles softly. "I still can't believe he outright asked me and Joseph if we were an item."

Biting down on her lower lip, Colette looks down to Kaylee's hand when the exposed scar is touched, and it's a bit more than firelight that reddens her cheeks. Green eyes are quick to alight back to Kaylee when she talks, swallowing down an awkward smile on her lips as Colette lets the collar of her shirt pull back to cover her shoulder. "I um…" she's distracted herself again, and there's a feathery edge of somewhat inappropriate thoughts ghosting on the edge of Colette's rather open-book mind as she tries to collect her thoughts to speak.

"F— Flint was like, all, kapow with a shotgun down there. Like I said, he pretends to be a jerk, but, he really cares deep down inside. He's totally a good person, just doesn't like anyoen else to know." Dark brows rise up and Colette offers a crooked smile, awkwardly shifting her feet as she bends her legs and sits on her side, hesitantly leaning her head back down against Kaylee's shoulder again. Right up until her comment about Joseph dislodges Colette's thoughts.

She doesn't move but she does look right up at the blonde with a wide-eyed expression. "Uh, a— are you two an item?" There's a touch of nervousness in that question.

Any oddness to Colette's thoughts are missed by that question. Kaylee's cheeks redden and she gives a nervous chuckle. "No. Not at all, I don't even think he'd be interested anyhow. Like I asked Flint. Do I look like his type?" She manages to give the girl a matter of fact look, despite the pink of her flushed cheeks. "Men like him… they are not interested in girls like me.. or really if they are…." She trails off and shrugs a bit with the shoulder not being leaned on. "He deserves someone who better for sure. He's a man of God.. and a relly good man."

Shaking her head slowly, Kaylee sighs. "The men I tend to end up with are the worse types. They think of me as nothing more as a plaything." She reaches up and touches her cheek, the firelight doesn't show very well the small faint scar there. "The types that would rather hit a girl then treat them well." Brows furrow lightly.. "Those I don't have a problem with using my ability on." It takes a moment but then her eyes flick over to Colette with a look of alarm as she realizes how bad that might sound.

"I never made anyone hurt themselves." It's added in a rush of words. "Only made them go away and blocked their memories of me… or changed what they remembered of me." Her words trail off and she looks down and away.

"If anybody ever hits you I'll— " Colette's brows furrow, nose wrinkles and green eyes slowly fall shut. She's quiet for a moment, then makes a soft sound in the back of her throat and leans off of Kaylee's shoulder. "You shouldn't talk 'bout yurself like that. Joseph can like whoever he wants, and if it's you then you better like him right back," she says with a feigned threatening tone, lips pursed to one side after she speaks.

"You keep sayin' how bad you are, an' all I ever see you do is pick up letters for kids, an' try to make Christmas awesome for everyone, an' volunteer an' all sorts of stuff." Colette exhales a huff of a breath, "You're just like Flint," Colette admits with a roll of her eyes. "You don't want people t'think you're a good person, because— uh— " her nose wrinkles, "because!" Clearly that is the best defense against any rebuttal Kaylee might have.

"I'm not friends with bad people," says the girl who's friends with Sylar, "so you can't be bad. It's pretty much just as simple as that, y'know?" Turning around to sit completely backwards from the way she was, Colette offers her back to the fire, the other side of her way too warm now. She scoots close to Kaylee, leaning to the side to stare up at her. "Besides, now that I know you like him I'm totally gonna tell him— " Colette cuts herself off, from the logical realization. She grows suddenly quiet, the teasing look on her face facing as she stares down at her lap, hands wringing.

"As soon as we save him…" Colette murmurs, "I'm totally telling him."

"What? Wait.. Noooo…" At first she looks confused and then… eyes widen, "Nononono." Kaylee shakes her head looking slightly panicked. "Colette.. you can't tell him that!" She sounds flustered as she frantically tries to think of a way to get the girl off that train of thought.. but then the change in the girls demeanor is like ice water on the fire. Shoulders slump, she moves to sit cross legged and her own eyes go her own lap. Her hands rub against the legs of her jeans. "Listen to us… Talking about who he does or doesn't like when he's still gone." She chides softly, "Need to find him. I just…. wish I knew……" Her head hangs, her eyes closing. "I'm at a loss as to what to do. I feel.. helpless."

Where at first there would have been shared amusement there is instead shared grief. Teeth press down into Colette's lower lip, and she nods her head slowly in agreement to Kaylee. "I… I know how you feel. When Joseph went missing the first time I— " one of the girl's hands rubs over her face, covering her mouth as she exhales a sigh into her palm. "We'll find him," Colette affirms, looking up to Kaylee for some semblance of agreement from the blonde, an unspoken right? at the end of her sentence.

"We— we gotta find him. But beating ourselves up won't do any good, you— " She's trying, trying her damnedest to be strong. "You know he wouldn't want us worrying like this, he's cluck his tongue and folds his arms and shake his head all disapprovingly," and to emphasize that point, Colette folds her arms and shakes her head and clicks her tongue disapprovingly.

Then, not quite being able to manage a laugh, she instead cracks a smile and looks up to Kaylee with furrowed brows. "We're gonna find him…" Colette rises up, sitting straight and wraps her arms around Kaylee's shoulders, forehead resting against the blonde's. "We're gonna find him." She's got to be strong, for Joseph.

"But i'm still gonna' tell him," she adds at the end, cracking a smile.


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