Participants:
| Scene Title | Institutionalized, Part II |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Doctor Brennan is visited by the other half of Liette and the man she has called Pop. The conversation is calculatingly civil. |
| Date | April 15, 2010 |
Looking at his reflection in a full length mirror, Doctor Harve Brennan is hard pressed to find anything unusual about both himself and his environment. The crisp black suit that was afforded to him by the Institute fits like a glove, down to the slate gray dress shirt and pinstriped necktie. It's the kind of clothing the Doctor hasn't been able to wear since taking on Liette as his ward, the kind of clothing that can't be used for urban spelunking and running from anyone and everyone trying to get their hands on her.
The room he's been left in for the last hour resembles a post-modern take on a hotel suite, from the glass table with virtual touch surface containing a currently locked personal digital organizer and other effects, to the simple queen sized bed with gray comforter and black sheets. Everything is sleek and smooth, the corners of the walls are curved, lights are recessed into the corners of the ceiling for optimal illumination and everything is controlled from the virtual desk surface, from heat to lights to the temperature of the heated bed.
Of course the door that leads into this room is hermetically seated, has no peep hole, and is magnetically locked to keep Brennan contained inside. The security camera above the door in a black plastic dome has been tracking him the whole time.
Amenities and comfort, but still here at the Institute, a prisoner.
What do you do, when you have a fan-fucking-tastic piece of engineering at your hands, that is only something from sci-fi movies or prototypes of future projects?
You play solitaire on the damn thing.
After fiddling with stuff, not trying to access the locked content, he's discovered that he could play solitaire. Three games later, he was still at it, his middle finger sweeping across the desktop to settle a card down atop a king and keep up passing time. This was better than the operating table he was on, and Harper watching him remove the IV, undress, redress.
"Wonder whether I can convince Michelle to spring for something like this" He mutters, corner of his mouth turned up into a smile as another card is maneuvered with his finger, other hand sunk into his pocket and weight shifted to his right side.
Men and technological toys. Times never change.
There's an audible chirp from the door behind where Brennan sits at the desk, and looking over into the mirror in front of him, he can see the light from the magnetic lock turn from red to green and a hiss come from the door as it pops open an inch. There's a whirring osund of the camera moving in its dome, and then as the door to Brennan's well-appointed cell opens up slowly, a sight that's striking enough to stop a heart emerges through the doorway.
It's a girl— Liette — or at least a remarkable facsimile thereof. She's the exact same height, but unadorned by any makeup, her blonde hair is clean and straw colored, straight and falling down past her shoulders in a manner far more near and proper than Liette's wild and wavy locks. The gray cotton dress she wears is sleeveless, feet bare as she walks into the room with her brows lifted, blue eyes wide and nose just a little reddened. The only thing she and Liette have in common are the dark circles around their eyes.
"Harve?" It's an old Frenchman's thickly accented voice that comes, not a little girl's. At first completely incongruous to the scene, Brennan only a moment later realizes it's coming from the gray haired old man walking in behind the young girl. Round in the middle and dressed in a brown suede jacket with leather patches on the shoulders, tan corduroy pants and white loafers Jean-Martin Luis could have a better sense of fashion to be sure —perhaps that's where Liette gets her bad taste from.
"I brought someone I thought you might want to see…" There's not much of an expression on Luis' sagging face, his curly gray hair looking uncombed, corner of his lips naturally downturned into a frown, as if disappointment were his default expression.
The girl though — the girl looks at Brennan with wide, shy eyes, standing only one step in front of Doctor Luis, watching Brennan the way any young child might when first confronted with a stranger.
For all that he was expecting Liette's sister to look like her, to see the twin, dopleganger or whatever it is you want to call them. Up from the desk and around he comes even as he's picking out the minute differences between the two girls. All cosmetic, nothing physical. Muss the hair, add pink, tack on the leggings, skirt and sweaters she favors.
"And this is the much missed and adored sister Jules" Brennan offers a smile before offering his hand out to Jules to take and shake if she wants to. "You're sister has told me much about you. She misses you a great deal and… I wish.. she was here to see you"
His attention diverts from Jules to Dr. Luis and offers his hand afterward to the Doctor. "And you're Pop. She talked about you too. She liked to read and stare at your magazine article."
Distrustful eyes do nothing to take Doctor Brennan's hand, and Julie's cold tone of voice is nothing like Liette's gentler one. "I want my sister back," she demands, eyes already beginning to water, jaw trembling and throat tightening, "I— " Luis rests a hand on the young girl's shoulder, squeezing gently as he takes a knee at her side and looks up at her with a weary smile.
«Julie darling, Doctor Brennan is our guest and you will treat him politely,» Luis switches to French reflexively, brushing back Julie's hair behind one ear with a careful touch of one hand, «he is going to help us get our darling Liette back, do not worry. I promise you, but you must be polite. You know what I have told you about manners.» At Luis' gentle chastisement, Julie's brows furrow and blue eyes avert to the floor as she offers a solemn nod.
Looking back up to Brennan, Julie reaches out ahdn takes his far larger hand gently in hers, giving it a squeeze. "It's a pleasure to meet you Doctor Brennan, I'm— I'm glad you've been taking care of my sister." There's a tightening of her grip there, just a tiny bit, and when Julie's hand comes away, it meets with the other in front of her and fingers lace together as she looks down at her feet.
«It's okay. I can understand why she's angry with me. She doesn't know what's been happening with her sister» French rolls off Brennan's tongue and maybe, perhaps, surprising the other two that he knows it. He is married to Michelle. He takes the young girls hand, nodding his head to her. «A pleasure and a delight to meet you Jules. I've been trying to keep someone else from getting a hold of her, and waiting for when I could bring her back. I've been helping her get a few more abilities to share with you and she'll have plenty of stories about what we've done» There's another attempt at a smile to her. «Maybe she can teach you sign language when she gets back, we've been working on that together»
But from the young woman and back up to Luis, taking in the scientist. «I imagine, that you are very cross with me. I apologize, but, there was very little that I could do to get her to you. She couldn't tell me anything at first and by the time that I knew, there was too much snow, the technopath and other factors involved. I wish..» He wishes a bunch of things. «You've raised an astounding and amazing young woman Dr. Luis and I hope my time with her has been at least, beneficial to her in some form»
Lifting a hand and waving it dismissively, Luis closes his eyes and makes the tired grumble of an old man. "Do not stress the need for French, Harve. I have been away from my home long enough that it mostly makes me sick with nostalgia, but I thought perhaps a polite way to talk behind your back…" there's a crook of a smile at one corner of the doctor's mouth, "you can take a man out of France but you cannot take France out of the man, as it were." Looking down to Julie and the way she glowers up at Brennan, the doctor lifts both of his thick brows and offers her something of a reproachful look.
"My name is Julie." The young blonde affirms to Brennan, "Not Jules," because it's the only thing she can snap at him about. "She gets to do everything fun," Julie notes with a roll of her eyes, "just bring her back home. I'm going down to the viewing room to play with Desmond." Julie explains with a brush of blonde hair away from her face, bare feet padding across the floor.
Luis opens his mouth, perhaps to offer another rebuking, but the strong-willed girl just slips out of the room thorugh the open door, beyond the air-lock threshold and out into the hall. Jean breathes in a deeply and then exhales a sigh, head shaking as he reaches inside the front of his jacket, removing a thin metallic tin. "Do you mind if I smoke, Harve? Children will drive you to this or drinking, it is sure."
"Julie" He takes the rebuking without a blink of his eyes. "Just Julie then' Jules seems to be something reserved for between the sisters. When she declares that she is off to play with Desmond, Brennan himself starts to cross the room, head for the desk and the game of solitaire that he quickly closes.
"No, please, I don't mind. I never developed that habit but Michelle did. She stopped when she took up MSF. So she wouldn't have to deal with needing a fix in the middle of the jungle." He waves his hand, giving the scientist leave to do what he wanted. This was his place. "Apples of your eyes?"
By the time brennan turns around from shutting down the game of Solitaire, there's already a click from Luis opening his engraved lighter, a tongue of flame sliding across the end of his ciarette, eyes focused down on that before the lighter snaps shut and a puff of smoke comes from the corners of his mouth. "Mmnh," Luis agrees nonverbally, tucking both the metal tin and his lighter back into his jacket, free hand bracing his cigarette as he takes a long draw off of it, then breathes out smoke thorugh his nostrils and plucks the cigarette from between his lips.
"They are my reason for being…" Luis offers as an explanation, looking over his shoulder to Julie's departure, then back to Brennan. "They are their own young women now though, growing up so fast. They may look identical, but the two of them are very independent young women." Slowly moving over to the bed, Luis makes a verbally creaking sound and settles down onto the corner, looking up at Brennan.
"Julie has not been taking her sister's absence well, and Desmond…" Luis's brows furrow, "the man you tried to punch?" There's a lift of the doctor's brows at that, cigarette waving in the air and trailing smoke behind it, "he told me some alarming things. He says that a man told him that Julie may be responsible for all this snow, the storm?"
The corners of Luis' mouth downturn into a frown. "This is possible, likely even. If Liette absorbed an atomokinetic ability and unconsciously transferred it to her sister…" he brings the cigarette back to his lips, drawing in a breath slowly before looking back to Brennan, turning his back so the camera above the door cannot see his mouth, "…very likely."
"Michelle tried to share her atmokinesis with Liette. Liette was unable to absorb it. She started to panic in Old Navy when we were getting her some clothes" Brennan doesn't make for the bed, sitting in the seat instead, back to the camera. Likely going to irritate whomever is watching. There's a hint of red in his cheeks at the mention of trying to punch Desmond. "She was terrified at the attack on the building. With being moved around so that the Technopath who wants her, can't get a hold of her, of late, it had gotten harrowing. His elbows rest on his knees, palms out in a c'est la vie type gesture.
"Conversation with her, things she said, I figured out why she couldn't take it. She can't possess an ability that her sister is in possession of. She ruminated the theory why. It made sense to me what with the emotions that seemed to be connected with it. A couple times, it just put Michelle into a depression because of the strength"
He too glances at the door and in the girls wake.
"Sorrow and many other emotions combined with evolved abilities, the two tie hand in hand most times. One manifesting on account of the other, or vice versa. Michelle blanketed Brooklyn a few months ago thanks to a fight we were having" Brennan straightens up, back making contact with the chair, little ache from where Tien had nailed him to the wall. "I can't get her back, not here, and if I just walk out and head to where the people who are now taking care of her, I'm not sure that they'd even give me access to her. They're a fairly paranoid bunch and the one who seems to be high in their ranks … lets just say, there is direct comparison to the hitler regime"
There's a tired sigh from Luis, and the cigarette pinched between his foreginger and thumb trails a wavering tendril of smoke up towards the ceiling. "Liette is a brilliant young girl, she and her sister both, very special… hopelessly unique." Looking up to Brennan, there's a furrow of the doctor's brows. "There is no one else in the world like these two girls, Harve, not even because they are my little girls— but because of the circumstances surrounding their birth. The odds of their birth… I cannot even imagine— high, very large numbers." Lifting his cigarette up, Luis' pauses between a draw off of it, then just breatheso ut the smoke with words as he continues talking.
"I have no doubt Julie is responsible for the storm, no doubt that none of you who have tried can stop her. She is strong on her own, but there are things here at the Institute, they make her stronger, adamant. I dismissed Desmond's concerns, fed him a lie about the weather… terrorists, who cares." There's a wave of Luis' hand in the air, brows creased and eyes alighting up to Brennan.
"If you think the storm is bad now, you have not seen anything yet. I will send this world into a second ice age if I have to, freeze the world until every city is a glacier and ever river a sheet of ice." There's a sharp, knife-edge tone to the Frenchman now. "We are going to send you back to your people, Harve. You are going to tell them to give us Liette, and we will arrange a time and a place and if they resist?"
Both of Luis' brows lift up slowly. "If they try to keep my daughter from me as hostage? I will bury everyone." What would Brennan do to save his own children, were roles reversed? Perhaps not hold the eastern seaboard hostage. "You try and play the Praeger card again on me, you will learn just how far I will go for my little girl."
"I never played the Praeger card" Bluntly replied. "I didn't know about the Praeger card until my rude awakening" Which means, he's not happy about the Praeger card either from the looks on his face. "I frankly don't know about that deal Dr. Luis. I was kept ignorant of everything and likely for a reason." But, he gets the message loud and clear. Give him his daughter, or else. "I have three, one was attacked by a feral dog on Staten Island and near made off with her" Which means it was a young child. "I can understand and well imagine, what a father with the world at his fingertips, and millions in funding, would do to get her back" or a daughter who can sink the seaboard into a day after tomorrow reality.
"They were cloned, from Juliette's DNA. About the only thing that I can imagine how they were made, possess the same ability and from how she speaks, that they were rescued by you, from tanks. They have their lives thanks to you and I have had.. a glimpse into what awaits me when Marlena hits that age. You can't begin to fathom what your daughter has taught me sir, I'm only sorry that this Rebel separated the two of you in the first place and that it will take this long to re-unite you"
"Cloned?" Luis snorts, rising up from the bed, "Don't be preposterous, cloning technology isn't nearly advanced enough to do something of that nature yet, maybe in ten years time but please Doctor Brennan, let us be reasonable. They are teenagers, the science to develop a human clone was simply a pipe-dream at their age. Their name…" Luis' eyes tighten at the corners, "is coincidence. I assure you, Doctor Brennan, these two girls were born from a single mother like any other person, but the heritage they share…" there's a slow shake of Luis' head as he turns around.
Clearing his throat, Luis scrubs one hand over his mouth, looking back to Brennan. "I'm glad we have an understanding, Doctor. I do not know when Doctor Broome will clear you for departure, or what other hoops he wishes for you to jump through, but you will be released back into your natural environment…" there's a furrow of Luis' brows, "and so help me God, you will bring my little girl back home safely."
"Even if it kills me" Or everyone else in the US of A. Brennan rises from his own seat when Luis does, not offering his hand. "I'm pretty sure there's a few more circus acts before I'll be allowed out of the tent." He sinks his hands into the pant pockets of his suit, slightly hound doggish with the tilt of his head and set of shoulders. "She really is a remarkable young woman"
"More incredible than you know…" Luis murmurs at the door, lifting his hand up to brush fingers over the metal before stepping out into the airlock with his cigarette, closing the door behind himself with a loud clank of the magnetic lock engaging and a chime as the green light turns red, indicating that it is locked.
Brennan will have plenty of private time to consider what's been asked of him.
Plenty of time to realize what's now at stake.