Ice Cream Confessional

Participants:

elisabeth_icon.gif kaylee3_icon.gif

Scene Title Ice Cream Confessional
Synopsis Liz comes to find out what the f*** is wrong with Kaylee lately and brings ice cream as a bribe.
Date May 3, 2019

Raytech Industries - Kaylee's Apartment


She's left Kaylee to her silence on moving out from her house and back into the apartment at Raytech. Not that she's avoided the telepath at all — they see one another. But Elisabeth hasn't pressed. Some things, people just need time to process on their own for a time before well-meaning family push. And then there was the whole climbing in Devon's brain and winding up comatose! The woman deserved a break from questions and such so as to recover from that mess. She's already been hollered at quite enough about not pulling out when she found out that Adam was involved.

But having been patient enough (in her own estimation), Elisabeth shows up at the door bearing three kinds of ice cream — specially ordered and flown here for exactly this night! — and soda pop. They can't have wine, so damn it, they'll have chocolate and soda. She knocks, trying not to have the sound carry the Open up, this is the police! kind of sound to it. How the hell that's a real sound and why after all these years her knock has never quite lost that tenor there is no explanation for. It's just a Thing.

When the door opens, because Kaylee has to know she's not leaving, Elisabeth holds up her burden with a grin. "I come bearing gifts."

When the door opens, there is an exhausted looking telepath on the other side. “Hey, sis.” Since the announcement, Kaylee has fallen to calling her that in private. Hair is haphazardly pulled up on the back of her head and she might still be in the outfit she wears when she works out. Standing there, Kaylee almost looks like she is considering closing the door, but Liz has found the telepath’s weakness: Ice cream. So, instead, Kaylee steps aside and opens the door wider for Liz.

At least the apartment, though sparse, looks clean and put together; but it is obvious she isn’t making any effort to make it home. The only mess is the small kitchen table that is stacked with training manuals and various paperwork. In fact, currently a book of penal codes is open in front of one of the chairs. Next to it a plate sits with a simple, half-eaten peanut butter sandwich.

The telepath motions to the empty chairs, before moving to shut the book and drop it on the pile.

There is a reason ice cream was the bribe of choice! Elisabeth heads directly for the kitchen, dropping off the soda on the counter and putting two of the containers into the freezer immediately. Making herself right at home. "So since Mohammed is beating himself up so bad he can't come to the mountain, the mountain is descending in a rock slide on Mohammed," she informs the telepath in a vaguely cheery tone. It's perhaps a little forced, if only because she's worried about Kaylee. "You look like shit," she observes in the same tone.

Fetching spoons, after rummaging in the drawers of the kitchen for a while to find them, she returns to the table with the third container — Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownie. This is serious bidness, peoples!

She's careful to push the study materials aside so as not to mess them up for Kaylee, and then she plops down in the chair next to the one her de facto sister is clearly using, spoon held out. "It's time. You are looking worse and worse, you've taken a break from your marriage, and you're pushing yourself too hard. Spill." It's an order, and she's not leaving until you do.

Dropping to the chair she had been in, Kaylee watches Liz quietly not offering much of anything until the other woman is sitting there and holding out the spoon. There is an obvious hesitation to take the spoon, eyes on it for the longest time. After a few beats, she takes it. “What’s there to spill?” She asks flatly. “You said it all. It’s been a fucked up year.”

Realizing what she is saying and how she is saying it, Kaylee grimaces and sighs. “Sorry,” she murmurs, “ You don’t deserve that.” Looking at the spoon in her hand, lips press into a line. “Not your fault I’m..” what is she? “Lost.”

The container's lid is pried off and the container is set between them on the table. Two spoons, one container, and girl talk. Elisabeth doesn't often do this kind of thing, even before… and she realizes with a pang that she misses Ygraine, who was usually the one on this side of the 'OMGmylifesucks' part of things. Pushing that away, she dips her spoon in briefly and eyes the telepath.

"It's been a fucked up lot of years for me, but I can still sympathize with the fact that this year has been seriously fucked up for you," she retorts drily. "So… you've gone to somewhat great lengths to avoid talking about why you're freaking out and moving out. You're making massive changes to your career. And you're really pushing yourself to the far end of exhaustion."

Elisabeth reaches over and holds the spoon full of chocolate out like a prize. "Time to treat me like your sister… and your partner. Tell me what's happening in your head, Kaylee. What set you spinning?"

The question gets another sigh from her, but Kaylee leans forward and pushes the spoon into the ice cream. “You remember the Nightmare man?” It is weird invoking a name that hasn’t been spoken in a long time. "I mean, I know I had a major upset in my life when I had to leave Adam’s gang, but…” She pokes at the ice cream a bit, thoughtfully, before taking a spoonful of it. “I had one… I was in Grand Central, but also the garden of Eden. Joseph was there.”

The bite disappears into her mouth and she speaks around it, letting it melt on her tongue. “There was a black snake there telling me to take what I wanted. To make him mine.” The spoon is stabbed into the ice cream and left there for the moment. “Since that day, it has been there in my mind, whispering at me. Or was until y’all came home.”

Does she remember the Nightmare Man? The reason behind the worst case she ever worked? Yes. Yes, Elisabeth remembers very well. She swallows hard and her brows furrow when Kaylee says she had one. One…. what?

"Wait…" Elisabeth pauses, trying to form a picture where perhaps the pieces aren't all present. "I know that you have… things related to Adam Monroe that I don't quite have a handle on. Richard explained that things related to him can cause you problems like the one you ran into with Devon — a psychic block or something. But… you think that what happened then gave you your own version of the Nightmare Man too?" Okay, that's fucking huge. "And now you're telling me that… you think the thing that blasted through with us now … took it away? And somehow, that you don't love your husband, that the bad part of you just wanted him, and that's…" That's why you left. The words are left unspoken.

She pauses, taking a moment to slide her spoon into her mouth and savor the chocolate confection while she searches for words. "That's pretty fucked up," she finally agrees thoughtfully. And that's saying something, coming from her.

By the end of it Kaylee’s brows have lifted quite high on her face, eye a bit wider. “Uh… what?” she says after a dumbfounded moment “N-n-no. That is wildly off base. I still love Joseph… just… look, let me tell this?” Patience woman! However, there is a sound of amusement at the back of the telepath’s throat.

“So… this thing has been in my head,” She continues on, but not till after a suspicious look out of the corner of her eye. “Years and years of this, right? Shortly before y’all came back I had a nightmare. It talked to me… said she gave my father his ability.and has been pretty much guiding me all this time. That we are all being manipulated.”

The spoons is retrieved with a fresh bite of ice cream. “It told me that is was the Snake in the garden and that it would again see the face of god… then at Sunspot when that thing came through. It left me rather gleefully for that thing and became a part of it.” Before the bite disappears into her mouth, Kaylee says softly, clearly haunted by the moment, “ All this time, I was carrying a part of the Entity.”

Popping the spoon out of her mouth she adds. “What if it’s been in there my entire life? What if we all have a piece of it and mine just got exposed?” Kaylee has clearly been thinking about it a lot.

"Hey, when you've lived the crazy that I've lived, that's not even the weirdest thing I could jump to!" Elisabeth points out with a grin. That Kaylee is amused is good. If it's not as bad as all that, well… it will be much simpler to solve, right??

She helps herself to chocolate ice cream while she listens, still a bit amused at Kaylee's admonition for patience. But it's a little more serious than she'd hoped. A brow quirks upward at the whole manipulating people all along. Elisabeth manages to keep eating a bit, cuz… it gives her something to do with her hands and keeps her from blurting out questions that probably have no answers because her mouth is full.

Full enough that she looks gobsmacked at the actual explanation and can't swallow for a long time. There's no sound to it, but … well, something like that is bound to make a person a little anxious. Still, the good news is it's just a low-level, easily ignorable fizz against the skin. As if a subtle breeze is suddenly moving the air ever-so-slightly.

"I… " She swallows hard. Does she actually want to say this to Kaylee? "It's… not the dumbest theory," Elisabeth allows quietly. "I wish it were."

“What if,” Kaylee continues after Liz is done, “…everything that RIchard ever did for my father, was in the service of this thing? To let it loose on the world?” It was the same thing she pretty much her brother. “No fate… no making your own decisions. Only being manipulated our entire lives.” Kaylee throws her arms out on that last bit.

“How do you look at life the same after that?” Kaylee shakes her head and scrapes the tip of the spoon on the surface of the dessert. “How do you ever not question everything that has ever happened to you? Or every decision you make? Everything that Edward had done in the name of protecting his children.”

Another bite is consumed and then another, lips press tight as she fights a sudden surge of emotions. “I don’t know what to think about my marriage,” Kaylee finally admits. “Dad wanted me safe, who’s safer than Joseph….” Swallowing hard, she shakes her head. “I’m all over the place when it comes to that. What I feel here and what I felt there… it was different. Like comparing a light rain with a thunderstorm.” Liz gets a glance full of shame and a small shrug.

“Yet, everyday, I miss him.” Kaylee sighs out and slumps in her chair. “But my family needs stability. I… I just can’t give them that. Joseph deserves someone who can be what he needs. I know he doesn’t agree, but he’ll understand one day.” Especially, with where her life seems to be heading.

Elisabeth puts her spoon down and then rubs her forehead. "You know that the worst way to get to Richard is the idea that there is no free will." She sighs. "But I see your problem here. If you believe this thing in your head, then … yeah." Not to mention seeing a life — two lives — lived with another man. She'd wondered if that was part of this, and she hates that it is. She reaches out to hold Kaylee's wrist when she rests her hand on the table.

God, she hates that Kaylee is hurting so much. Her tone is gentle. "I'm so sorry that you're second-guessing yourself this way. But Kayle… Do not think that you married Joseph just because your fucking father wanted that." Elisabeth's tone is firm. "Take it for whatever you think it's worth. There isn't just one person for everyone. I've loved four men in my life. Each one of them has been a different kind of love, each just as deep and the emotional reactions that came with them as varied as the personalities of the men themselves. Just because one love is gentler than the other doesn't make it somehow less. Don't demean what you have with Joseph that way. If you're going to split for good, there's no shame in the realization that something was missing, if that's what's happening … but own the reasons."

Her mouth firms into a thin line for a long moment and she sighs as she leans back. "Christ, fucking overlays." Elisabeth grimaces a little. "I had one too. It… hurt in ways I can't even articulate. I'm really sorry that it triggered this for you."

Kaylee’s back straightens at Liz’s words and she twists her hand out of Elisabeth’s grip with a jerk. “It wasn’t just because of that,” she hisses out angrily, surging to her feet. “I didn’t leave my husband because of another me falling in love with another man,” Kaylee snaps out even louder pacing away, tears in her voice. “I love Joseph. I do… I just…”

Fingers curl into her hair as she puts distance between her and Liz. “After we got back, I tried to go back to our routine… back to how things were and… and I just couldn’t.” Her voice quavers, each word forced. “Same thing day by day. I felt different.” Kaylee chokes out, “It didn’t feel right anymore.”

There are tears streaking down her cheeks when Kaylee turns back to Liz, “What’s wrong with me, Liz. Why can’t I just be happy anymore?” She brushes her wrist over her cheek brushing at the tears. “I just… After talking to Donovan…. I just snapped. I needed to get away.” From her family or who she was?

Blue eyes flick upward when Kaylee surges to her feet, and Elisabeth makes no overt movement but there's a split-second shift to the wariness of a woman expecting to be attacked, an instinctive shoring up of mental defenses that will likely do nothing but maybe slow down a telepathic jab at her. Kaito could only teach so much defense to a non-telepath. And just as quickly, the flicker is gone — Kaylee is not a threat to her. But it took her those fractions of moments to quell the fight-or-flight reflex at the abrupt motion.

Sadness drags her expression into softer lines. "Oh Kaylee," she murmurs softly. She has no answers, and it's clear. She can empathize powerfully with the sense of disconnect, though hers takes a slightly different form… and coming home let her find her anchor whereas all of this mess seems to have unmoored Kaylee from hers.

She leans back in her own chair, pursing her lips. "Let me ask you something. What does feel right? I mean… really think about that. Everything in your world is cock-eyed. Does anything feel right?"

The question throws Kaylee off for a moment. Brows furrow a little as she thinks on the question. Her lip trembles and she nods a bit, a wavering smile on her lips, “Yeah… Carl.” Her little spark. “He is probably the only thing I don’t question about my life.” Her attention drifts over to the coffee table and the children’s book on it. Picking up the book, she holds the book in her arms, like she was hugging her son. “Best thing I’ve ever done.”

There is a slight drag to her step as Kaylee moves back to her chair and sits in it heavily, holding onto the book. “Life has never made sense, but for a few short years after Carl was born, I had peace. But then I came back here” That last bit comes out bland and flat, but then she sighs and admits, “But… until I came back… Well, until I came back I was bored.”

Kaylee huffs out a soft laugh and drags fingers through her hair, “What the fuck is wrong with me, Liz?”

Well… it's not the easiest question in the world, is it? Elisabeth reaches up and shoves her own hair back from her face with both hands, gathering it up into a scrunch at the back of her head for a long moment, lightly tugging on it before letting it go again. It's funny how that motion can help reduce stress sometimes. Sighing quietly, she finally admits, "I think, Kaylee, that there's nothing wrong with you. Some of us are just … hardwired with a need to serve a larger purpose. Or so I'm told. Not because we think we're all that or anything, but because we need to feel that we've… done something meaningful with our lives. Maybe it comes from having survived death a few times, maybe it just comes from some innate need, I don't know. But … I do know that people like you, and Richard, and me, people like the ones who ran the Ferry for so many years, people who… step up to be cops or firefighters or nurses or teachers… we're all looking for a way to make a difference. Not just to have a life but to live one."

She shrugs just a bit and admits somewhat sheepishly, "It sounds cheesy as fuck, but Kaylee? Look around us. There is nothing at all wrong with living a quiet life. I had one in the Bright world for a while… and it wasn't a bad life. I was even sort of happy for a couple of years. I cannot begin to tell you what Aurora is to me… she's my everything. But it's not the same kind of fulfillment that I get from… knowing that what I did mattered to someone other than me, that what I did helped people."

“Maybe,” Kaylee sighs out, unwinding her arms a bit to look at the book with watery eyes. “To be honest, I miss all my kids, but it is’t a good reason to go back. I have to figure myself out.” She sounds like she is trying to convince herself, really. “I broke their hearts.” That last just tumbles out with a sigh. “How can I even face them again. The girls have been abandoned enough… and here I go being my father.”

The book is dropped on the table and the spoon taken up again and a decent bite of ice cream scooped out and consumed. “I know it looks like I did this cause of the vision and Luther, but… it's not like that. It…is just a piece in what opened my eyes.” The words are a bit muffled around the ice cream. “More than anything, I can’t forget that nightmare and then that snake slithering away. Haunts my freakin’ dreams.”

Elisabeth retrieves her spoon and slowly starts eating from the container again as she rests on her elbows and considers. "I didn't think it was just what you saw, you know," she says gently. "Although to be quite fair? What you must have seen between them is enough to make anyone second-guess." She saw them together. She knows what the other Kaylee had to have felt to have stayed behind like that… and then finding out that the Bright Kaylee also had Luther? Well… it's definitely enough to cause questions. And fears. "Add in the snake? — and why the fuck is it always snakes and shit? The Adam metaphor there is just… horrible." She shakes her head.

Savoring another bite of frozen chocolate, Liz points her empty spoon at Kaylee. "You can face them again because they're your kids. You haven't abandoned them — you're still here and you still see them every day." Or she better, cuz Liz will otherwise kick her partner and sister right in the keister. "It's okay to show them you're not perfect, you're just a regular person who sometimes doesn't know what to do. They're hurting, yes. And they may not understand yet, but they will. And in the end, talking to them about it and having the strength to admit that you're struggling with something and needed a little space for a while so that you didn't yell at them or take your worries out on them is something that they will remember as they get older."

Elisabeth sighs, shoveling in another bite of ice cream and speaking around it. "Christ, how is it that I'm the person with this much friggin' therapy under my belt?" she grouses with a roll of her eyes. "You know it's bad when I'm the least fucked up of us!"

Elisabeth manages to get a bark of laughter from the telepath, but it quickly turns into crying. The spoon is still clutched in her hand as she leans forward to bury her face in her hands, while she lets out that news wave of tears that seem to skirt that area between sobbing and laughter. Elbows resting on the table, her head finally turns to look at Liz out of the corner of her eye as she admits with another huff of amusement, “Sis. I’ve always been fucked up, I just hide it well.” The woman gets a weak smile.

“Did my brother tell you about what I’m doing?” Kaylee finally asks after pulling herself back together some. Tears still sneak from the corners of her eyes, but for the most part she tries to change the subject. “One thing I realized as I’ve been breaking all these mental doors… I must have them, too. When did this thing get into my head? Was I born with it?” Shaking her head, brows furrowed in thought, “I don’t know… but I know I can’t affect my mind. So I’ve been trying other methods.” Looking a bit downtrodden, she adds, “No luck yet.”

Kaylee sighs out heavily, playing with the ice cream a little. “What I need is to talk to Adam.” Which she knows won’t happen, by her tone. “I can’t believe he didn’t know me when we met in that bar that first time. I just can’t believe that. My father worked for the Company for crying out loud.” She felt there were answers there, just out of reach. It was amazing to be able to think about him again and not get sick, letting the thoughts tumble out and not feeling anything.

Oh dear…. As Kaylee cries, Elisabeth drops her spoon in the container and scoots her chair around to hug the telepath tightly. Sometimes tears are a required pressure release valve. Resting her head on Kaylee's shoulder, one arm still wrapped tight until the other woman has pulled herself together some, she then finally leans back and smiles a little. "We are some seriously fucked-up people. All of us." She kisses Kaylee's damp cheek and assures her, "No matter what, I've got your back, Lucy," she teases.

Settling back a bit to give Kaylee room, she goes back to leaning on the table. As far as she knows, no one has told Kaylee about the foray into Devon's mind. That's something that Devon's only told his team and Richard at this point. "Adam Monroe has always been something of an enigma, as far as I'm concerned," she admits. "The fact that he had people like you and Ryans who believed in him… tells me there's something there. I just… never quite understood where he fit in the scheme of things… whether he was another Zeke or something else altogether." She shrugs a little. "I sincerely doubt you'll see him unless he decides he wants you to… and I worry that you'll wind up on an experiment table if that does happen," she admits.

There is a sad smile in thanks for the support. “Thanks,” Kaylee says quietly, brushing at the dampness, frustrated at herself for the moment of weakness. “I know everyone has my back, It just…” She sighs out heavily and shakes her head; allowing herself to go quiet for a long moment and eat a few bites of ice cream.

When it came to certain immortal… “I don’t know how I feel about Adam anymore,” Kaylee admits with a shake of her head, “It’s been so long and so much has happened. I’ve heard of some of what he’s doing, but… I still remember clearly the day he made me his heir.” Fingers pluck at her shirt where the helix necklace once sat many, many years ago. “And I can’t forget what he was like when I saw him in the in the 1890’s.”

Brows furrowed in thought, as Kaylee speculates, “Whatever the Company did to him, pretty sure it broke him.”

"Not exactly shocking, that," Elisabeth points out quietly. She's eating small bites slowly, thoughtful as she listens. "I don't have enough information really to make any kind of a guess as to what the hell is going on. I've been gone too long. Timeline jumping has I guess you could call it the benefit of narrowing your focus a bit. 'Getting home' and 'keeping Aurora safe' were the only two real objectives that I had. The rest? It was just noise. Now that I'm home? There are mountains of subtleties that I just… it's been so long, I'm going to have relearn them all."

She sighs. "What really annoys me in the end? Is that it never stops. Chop off one head and another takes over. Part of me? Doesn't even want to give a shit what Adam's doing," Elisabeth admits softly. "As long as he leaves me and mine the fuck alone." Looking at Kaylee, there's a hint of shame to her expression, as if saying that aloud bothers her. "Is that a bad thing?"

The look of shame gets hands held up in a ‘don’t look at me’ gesture. “I have no room to judge, Liz,” Kaylee comments with a bit of a lopsided smile. “I set out of a whole war cause all I wanted was to keep my family safe.” Straightening in the chair, but ice cream left alone for a moment. “Richard says what we did was important, but… I don’t feel that way. I find myself regretting not being out there with all my friends, no matter how horrible it was.”

Kaylee gives a huffed sigh, “I don’t want to feel that kind of regret again.” Which might explain why she throws herself into so like she does.

"Mmm," Elisabeth murmurs around a bite of her ice cream. "The funniest part is? You're the only one who is beating yourself up over that choice." It's the dead truth. "Not one person ever thought less of you or begrudged it. Hell… Richard has pointed out several times that if I wanted, I could walk away without judgment from anyone." She shrugs a little. "It's called an overdeveloped sense of responsibility." Her tone is dry.

She points her spoon at her companion. "And don't be thinking just because you're jumping into this mess feet first that recklessness will be allowed. Seriously. Once this squad hits the streets, some of us are going to be way more tempted than others to handle things in familiar ways. Law enforcement is constrained in the ways we're allowed to handle situations. The rules do apply to us." Elisabeth can't help a faint grin. "And it's just as much a reminder to me as it is to you, so…"

“The old ways are tough to fully shake, that’s true,” Kaylee admits with a small smile. “But don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything to screw over the department if I can help it. She did it somehow.” Elisabeth knows who Kaylee is talking about. The version of herself that was living another timeline.

“I am really nervous about this,” Kaylee lets that nervousness show. “It’s such…” She sighs and shifts nervously in the chair, “It’s such a big change and a complete one-eighty from the girl that followed around Adam.”

"I never thought you would," Elisabeth assures the telepath on the idea that she'd screw over the department. She has faith in Kaylee — far more than Kaylee may realize. Or perhaps she does and just doesn't know what to do with it. "You know," she offers softly around a bite of slowly melting chocolate, "it's really not as big a change for you as you think — maybe from back then, but… in all the years since then, Kaylee… you've done nothing but protect other people. This job is nothing more or less than protecting those who can't protect themselves. 'To protect and serve' is not really a motto — it's the calling of anyone who chooses to put themselves in the line of fire so innocent people don't have to." She shrugs a little. "In all the time I've known you — in all the worlds that I've known you — it's always been in your heart."

“You might not be far from the truth,” Kaylee murmurs quietly. Her head drops back to stare at the ceiling, Liz can see her getting lost in thought. After a moment, Kaylee murmurs softly, “‘You have never fought for yourself. Only for the needs of others. Finds your own desires. Find your true self.’” Her head comes up and she looks at Liz, “The thing that came out of the portal said that to me once, before that even happened. But.. what if my true self is the one that helps others.” There is an arch of her brow at that, looking aside to her friend.

“But I do wonder what I would have been like if I was never taken from Adam.” She looks towards the window her eyes not quite seeing what is outside. “No doubt there are timelines out there like that, but here I got lucky. I found the Ferry and I…” Her voices catches and Kaylee has to clear it. “I found Joseph,” she says voice heavy with guilt.

She thinks about Kaylee's words for a while before she responds, and Elisabeth's tone when she does is low. "It's funny, the impact certain people have. And how circumstances can change what a person is willing to do. In the Flooded world, Adam. was close to Ben Ryans. Trusted. And not what he is here. Something he experienced changed his trajectory." She shrugs a little. "In the Virus world, Ben and I stood on opposite sides of the fight — he fought for Volken. We are all capable of making the darkest of choices for a variety of reasons, Kaylee. It just makes us all human."

She's not sure it helps, but really… all she can do is be here.

“Ryans? Really?” Kaylee is kind of surprised on that one. “He doesn’t strike me as the Vanguard type.”

Leaning forward, she picks up the spoon again, an elbow resting on the table. The spoon turns in her fingers as she looks at her muted reflection in the worn surface. “I ever tell you, that I had a very nice conversation with Adam when I saw him in eighteen ninty. It was simply about the cost of mangos.” The spoon is flipped over and scraped against the surface of the ice cream. “It made me so nauseous, but it was the best thing that happened to me in a long time. Made me homesick and despite the curse; I went back and looked for him again… and again.” The spoon stops long enough for her to look at Liz, “He was wearing a wedding band, too. So… I think you are right. Something fucked him up and I am pretty sure it was the Company.” That said, she scoops up a decent sized bite and makes it disappear quickly.

"Shocking," is Elisabeth's exceedingly dry retort.

The memory of Ben and Lucille fighting in that yard is one she has to push away. It brings a host of complex feelings, guilt primary among them. "I would venture to guess that he was simply given an ultimatum about his kids or something," she says quietly. "Or at least… that's what I choose to believe." Because she cannot fathom a world where Benjamin Ryans actually believed what Volken stood for. She puts her spoon down and then says, "I wonder sometimes if we could find a way to just talk to Adam if there'd be a way to handle things that isn't the path he's on. He could be an incredible ally."

But she grimaces and adds ruefully, "And Richard would likely shoot his eyebrows to the ceiling and offer to find me medication for that level of insane optimism." How she even manages such a thought after all she's seen might be question she asks herself occasionally too.

“You know….” Kaylee’s tone is quiet, “You are not alone in that thought. I’ve seen the bad, but… Liz… I also saw the good, well… the capability for good.” There is a grimace as she admits that and takes another bite, allowing it to keep her mouth full while she gathers her thoughts.

“The suggestion that was put on me was that as long as I had feelings about him… Positive ones, mind you… I would die.” It was weird confessing that. “Since all this Adam stuff has started to happen, I’ve been fairly nauseous, because while everyone is all… Adam! Bad! I remember the man that kept me from becoming a complete monster and offered me family where I didn’t have it.” There is a look of guilt there. “and I see the man I argued about mangos with.”

Another spoonful is extracted from the container, Kaylee she doesn’t eat it yet. “I’m not saying he isn’t a monster or that he isn’t some sort of villian, but a part of me feels like I owe him a chance.” At least that… and now she is free from that curse. Maybe…

Kaylee gives a bark of laughter void of any humor. “I think Richard, Luither… Everyone would be disappointed if they heard that.” The spoon is popped into her mouth with a sigh.

She can't help the faint snickers when she and Kaylee together lightly dig at Richard over the optimism part, but she does reach out and take hold of Kaylee's free hand. "Well… he might be a good bit annoyed," she agrees mildly. "He was annoyed as fuck when I said the same thing about Zeke too." The roll of her shoulders is partially sheepish shrug. "Then again… in 2011 when a security video from our Alaska landed in Zeke's 2011 Alaskan facility… it changed his entire path. He died trying to stop what he'd set in motion."

Squeezing Kaylee's hand, Elisabeth admits, "I understand where you're coming from. I just don't know how we'd even attempt to see if it was viable."

“If Eve couldn’t find him when she was a seer, how is any of us going to find him?” Kaylee says in agreement and shakes her head. The squeeze of her hand is returned. “Maybe I’ll check in on Eve and see if she’s gotten any new information. Something that might give us a clue.”

Kaylee sighs out heavily, against another bite of ice cream. “I don’t know. Good intentions… they say the road to hell is paved in them, but if I don’t try… I’ll always wonder.”

"Don't go looking without telling him," Elisabeth recommends. "We're not playing with secrets among ourselves anymore, lady." She pauses. "And dammit, tell Eve to get her silly ass on the phone and fucking talk to me," she grouses.

“I promise nothing,” Kaylee comments blandly with cheeky grin. “Eve is the free-est, free spirit I’ve even met. More so since the change.” Another big spoon is consumed while giving Liz a knowing look.


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License