Participants:
| Scene Title | Interconnected |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | There's a school of thought that says souls travel together with you life to life, sometimes being one thing, sometimes another, cosmically linked together. Sometimes you have to wonder how much truth those ancients knew. |
| Date | December 31, 2014 |
St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Upper West Side
Cemetary of headstones, snow-covered.
She probably shouldn't be here. But New Year's Eve just has deep connotations for Elisabeth, and it's one of the times she misses home the most. Today is the first time she's ventured anywhere close to where Elisabeth Harrison is buried next to her mother. In Liz's home world, that place is occupied by a headstone that says Richard Cardinal. The snow on the ground seems a fitting blanket, white and fluffy where no one has touched it. The sky is a ridiculously brilliant winter blue, the kind of day that brings brisk wind gusts and puts color in the cheeks.
With her hands in the pocket of her black coat, Liz Cranston stands at the foot of the grave, studying the headstone quietly. "Felix says Cam's holding up. He's confused. Dad's a mess. Felix is a mess, though he doesn't really want me to know that." Her smiles is faint. "We know him too well to not know that he's beating himself up. Just like me." She sighs heavily. "Apologies do no good, Liz… and I feel kind of silly in some ways offering it. But I am sorry. For so much. I'll look out for them as best I can, though. I know it's not exactly reassuring, but…" It's really all she has. It's a whole new way of talking to yourself, though.
She remains still, not seeming to realize that someone else is heading in this direction — or at least not thinking anything of it. Until she turns to leave and comes face to face with the newcomer. And blue eyes go very wide.
“Liz?”
It had normally been a Christmas tradition to bring out flowers to some of the fallen co-workers. With the hard break-up with her boyfriend, Kaylee hadn’t really been in the mood to come down. Often times, she did this for those who had died in the line of duty and maybe didn’t have family around. Except for Elisabeth, the telepath did it as a friend.
This wasn’t the Kaylee that Elisabeth had been dealing with. The lanyard with her credentials and metallic badge gives away quickly which this was.
The fact that the telepath was standing there with mouth agape should be another clue.
“How…?” Leaning to the side a little, she sees the etched gravestone of her former partner. “Wait…” It clicks into place quickly. Straightening and staring at the living dead women, Kaylee asks curiously. “You wouldn’t happen to know a Magnes Varlane?” A pause. “Do you?”
Shit. The cop can see the thought pass across the oh-so-familiar features, but it's more in the resigned tone of Busted! when she says, "Detective Thatcher." The greeting is gentle. "I'm well acquainted with him. I'm sorry to have startled you. I… " She pauses, and admits, "I've kind of been avoiding this meeting. I didn't expect anyone else to be here today."
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she seems like she's not sure whether to stay or go. "I didn't figure seeing me would make this any easier."
There is a soft, huh. “It is definitely surreal,” another glance going to the headstone. “Magnes didn’t mention you, but sounds like he mentioned me.” There is a bit of numbness to her words, flat and tired.
Guilt flickers across her features though, then settles into sadness, “For a brief moment I wondered if she was back to haunt me, for not checking on her family.” She had been so tied up in everything going on in her life, she hadn’t thought to see them. “Just… so much started to happen and as you know… nothing flows uphill.” The doppelganger of her partner gets a bit of a smile.
"He told me… a lot, yes. Although I knew about you before that," Elisabeth admits quietly. A faint smile quirks her lips. "A little fairy told me that you and she were partners." That was a surreal moment for Liz herself — Kaylee back home and Kaylee in the Virus world were definitely not cops. "I'm sorry for your loss, Detective." She moves to reach out and aborts the move, uncertain whether it will be welcomed. "For what it's worth? She wouldn't have haunted you… I'm quite certain she thought the world of you."
Gesturing to the headstone, she offers softly, "It's a little strange to stand here and talk to your own headstone. I, uhm… " She starts to laugh suddenly. "Wow… it just occurred to me that I joined the club. Although I might be the only one who actually has a body in there." At the querying look, Liz tries to stifle the giggle. Gallows humor is a rather common thing among cops. "There are a lot of us who've done this. It's weird world."
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Kaylee says with at least some amusement, stepping round Liz, so that she can place the flowers, taking a moment to brush snow away from stone. “You ever talk to this one?” It’s easier to occupy her thoughts with questions, rather then realize her friend is alive… sorta. Crying didn’t feel much like and option… she spent enough time doing that lately it seems. It left her numb.
“Magnes did tell me there is another me around here, too.” She pauses, glancing over her shoulder and up. “It explained, the video of me, I saw talking to Peter Petrelli. Course he also said she was pretty unstable.” There was concern about that information. “There a lot of you running around?” There is a bit of a smirk and she waves off the question. “Don’t answer that.”
Quirking a brow, Elisabeth waits quietly while she lays the flowers. "No… I didn't want to upset her life in any way." Except, of course, that now she feels responsible for the other woman's death. "I'm not sure what Magnes is talking about in terms of 'unstable' — she's had a tough life, but I'd trust her at my back any day of the week." High praise, coming from the mirror image of her old partner.
"I won't," is her amused reply to the last query. She tilts her head. "You've managed to get pulled into this mess yet again, it seems. Given that you headed out with Tamara to Moab… does this mean that you'll be helping the undercover investigation into Pinehearst?" she asks softly.
It does say a lot about this other her, trusting that Liz couldn’t be too different from her own friend. So she takes some comfort in that.
Straightening again, Kaylee brushes the snow off the knees of her jeans, “A technopath pointed me there, when I asked for hard evidence against Pinehearst. I took Tamara and Colette with me.” Giving Liz a crooked smile, she added. “When you don’t know who to trust, sometimes you turn to your best friends.” There is a slow shrug and nods her head in the direction of the headstone. “Probably would have brought her.”
Looking out over the headstone, Kaylee nodding her head slowly. “Damn right I’m going to be doing what I can to take them down.” Lips press briefly, tight against a surge of emotions. “Though the worst part has been finding out my boyfriend— my ex boyfriend was one of Petrelli’s cover-up guys. Who knows how many of my cases he fucked with,” Kaylee sighs out those words, trying not to let still fresh emotions overwhelm her.
“Harrison had been pretty stoked I had actually let someone in… then she died.” Kaylee’s voice hitches a little, forcing her to clear her throat. “We had a conversation about Luther not long before.”
Oh geez. Elisabeth flinches in sympathy. "Oh fuuuuuuck," she drawls out, sounding for all the world like the same Liz. "I'm so sorry." Her sympathy is genuine and before she can think twice, she says to this Kaylee exactly what she'd have said to either of the others. "You want I should turn his brain to tapioca? Cuz I will! You just say the word." It is accompanied by a light shoulder bump in solidarity.
She looks a little surprised and then abashed. "Sorry… that … yeah." She just stops talking. She's gonna dig that hole all the way to China if she tries to apologize. "Can I offer you some wine?" she asks. "I mean… hell, I'm not your Liz, we both know that… but … if you'd like to talk…" She leaves the invitation there in the air between them, because she can't not make the offer to her all-but-sister-in-law's doppelganger. "And I can tell you who to work with to take those fuckers right on down," she sweetens the pot.
The comments, the bump on the shoulder… it manages to get a huffed out chuckle of amusement, but not for what Liz thinks. “This is sooo fucking weird,” she comments with a disbelieving shake of her head and a bit of a smirk. “Standing here talking to you, like you aren't laying in a box, right below my feet. I know you’re there, I saw the body at the scene. Went to the funeral.” Another side-eyed glance to the woman. “Very nice casket, by the way.” Odd comment…
“And as much as I wish I could drink, I can’t,” Her head shaking again. “I appreciate the offer, though… I wouldn’t mind knowing who I can trust. Though I hope you don’t get to upset, if I’m still a bit cautious.” There is an apology in her tone.
"I'd think you a fool if you weren't cautious." Elisabeth tilts her head. "And I'm willing to be fool enough for both of us, to gain your trust." She holds out her hand. "Look for yourself. If you know where I'm from, there's pretty much nothing left to hide from you. You have free rein." It's a literal chance that someone would only take if they trust.
Brows tip upward, if she wasn’t completely sure who this was, Kaylee does now. It is temping… As the moments stretch, it could make someone nervous, but then the telepath shakes her head. “Judah taught me better than that. Never the trusting ones, only the bad guys or when in danger.” Clearly, she didn’t see that issue in Liz.
Perhaps it was just as much a test to see what Kaylee Thatcher would do in this world… but it seems unlikely. For someone who knew Liz Harrison, it was as obvious as the nose on your face that she would have literally allowed Kaylee as far into her mind as she needed to go to ascertain the truth. The audiokinetic drops her hand and shoves it back in her coat pocket. "She trusted you to have her back. That's all I needed to know," she says quietly.
"It's not going to be fast or easy to take down Pinehearst," she observes. "In my world, we did it by killing Petrelli. In this world… if you want to have any hope of holding on to the good that Pinehearst has done while rooting out the rest, you'll have to handle it differently." Looking around the graveyard, Elisabeth pauses for a long moment. She smiles faintly. "It amuses me that here… you are my partner." She uses the present tense — for officers and soldiers, there's no such thing as a 'former' partner. Looking back at the other woman, she shrugs a little. "It rather makes me believe that old idea that life to life, souls travel together… stay close to the ones who mean most."
“Maybe,” Kaylee doesn’t seem overly convinced of that. “Though Magnes did say I was dating a pastor.” Yes, she finds that highly amusing. “He’s happily married here, with the most adorable daughter…. Though…” a thought occurs to her, “he is the pastor at my church,” So she guesses that pans out some.
Also makes her wonder if Luther was in there life somehow, in this other world. Or Colette and Tamara. There is a smile as she muses over this crazy notion. “Maybe,” she muses again.
It was still a lot to take in, gloved fingers push through blonde curls. “A month ago, my life was perfect, but now… “ Kaylee sighs out heavily, “I kind of wish I could go back to it, but I am just too far down that rabbit hole.”
"More things in heaven and earth, Horatio," Elisabeth quips gently. She listens and when Kaylee comments that part of her wishes she could just go back, Liz huffs out a soft breath. "Part of me wishes that too… I sometimes envy the people who live in blissful ignorance," she admits. The past few years have taken a toll on Elisabeth — as Kaylee takes the time to study her, the differences are more easily noticed. Lines around her eyes that are grooved a little deeper than the Liz she knows, eyes so much older. And far more weary.
Liz reaches up to rub the back of her neck and she observes, "The fact is, you can make that choice, Kaylee. No one said you had to make this your battle. It… is not the easy path, for damn sure. And we each step on it for our own reasons. I don't honestly believe anyone would think less of you for choosing smaller windmills to tilt at." She hesitates. "Think hard before you put yourself into Pinehearst's path, okay? I'm in no position to tell you what to do — look at the hash my life is in. I'm two timelines to the left of home and I still can't figure out how to get back," she points out.
Kaylee give a little humorless laugh, “Pretty sure, I stepped into those crosshairs the minute I decided to believe Robin Hood about a prison.” Then she grimaces and adds, “Not to mention Luther knows….” She’s been sleeping with her gun under her pillow since, probably not sleeping much; if the circles under her eyes were to be believed. “I guess we’ll see how loyal he is to his master.”
The heel of her hand, brushes across her eyes, when her vision blurs some. There is a look of annoyance at the moisture beading on the leather surface of the glove. “No… I’m diving down that rabbit hole. It’s the only choice I have at this point,” she says with a voice roughened with held back emotions
Watching the other woman, Elisabeth worries — both about stepping on toes or intruding where she isn't wanted as well as the ex-boyfriend who Knows Things. But she says quietly, "It's clear that you care about him very much… I'm sorry that you have to deal with this." She bites her lip. "I don't know him. I don't have a clue what his situation is. But Arthur Petrelli has taken in a lot of people over the years — and most of them honestly believe they're working for the greater good of everyone. For whatever that's worth to you." The shades of grey in her own life, what she's had to do to protect others… she has some sympathy, even without knowing the man.
Clearing her throat, she changes the subject. "Speaking of Robin Hood, by the way… " Because the best way to not talk about feelings and emotional baggage is TALK ABOUT THE APOCALYPSE. Yep. Definitely. "He got backtraced while he was helping the situation in Moab." Her tone is a bit grim. "I got him out just ahead of the black helos… but Kaylee. He's twelve." She's betting money that Liz's partner had no clue.
Care about him? “We were ready to spend our lives together.” Kaylee tries to shrug it off like it is nothing, but the pain is too clear. This one would take a long time to get over. If ever.
“But, yeah. I figured out Robin Hood was a kid as soon as he got made at Moab.” There is a heavy amount of guilt for that. “Had I known…” she trails off, cause all the wishing she could do wouldn’t fix that. Had Cyrus known? She shakes that off and say instead, “As soon as I realized what was going on, I told him to run.”
There is some relief in knowing Liz got there in time, that relief is turned Liz’s way. “Glad he made it. I didn’t know his name, so I was having a hard time tracking him down to make sure he was okay.” Last thing she wanted was that kid's death on her conscience.
Elisabeth flinches at the information that Kaylee was that close to this man… There are no words for the sorrow she feels for the other woman, but it shows in the way she goes to touch Kaylee's arm and then aborts the move, remembering that the ones she knows doesn't like to be touched. It's a shitty situation.
"You don't get to hold onto any kind of guilt over the kid's involvement," she tells Kaylee. "He's been working with the Guardians, apparently, for a while now. I'm… unclear on whether they realize his age." With a sigh, reaches up and pulls off her hat, ignoring the static in favor of the very-familiar movement of dragging her hand through her hair, though the soft almost-black color might be a shock. "As to finding him? It's likely you wouldn't have… I just had a little bit of insider information." The faint grin that pulls the corners of her lips upward is rueful. "We met back home when he came from 2019 for a 'visit'." A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — while Reed time traveled. And it's a testament to the true state of weird in both women's lives that it's not even the craziest thing either one of them has heard this month!
"Listen… " Should she say anything about the bombing stuff? She'd thought she was well and truly done with this kind of shit, but clearly not. Maybe it can be left for another time. "Just… remember it's never gonna be simple, huh?" She offers a bit of a smile. "And when you need to talk about the intel you have and how to bring it all crashing down? Go see SAC Ivanov." The name shouldn't surprise Kaylee — Felix was a fixture in Liz's life, Cameron's de facto father. It makes sense.
There is a slow nod of her head, Kaylee looks pleased that the kid was okay. “Well…” Kaylee pulls a wallet out of the inner pocket of her worn brown leather jacket and pulls out a pair of business cards with shiny embossed NYPD badges on them. “Make sure he gets one of these, if he needs me. I’m sure, he’ll find me if he’s desperate, but let him know I owe him and will have his back.” She’d hate to see the kid hurt, cause they didn’t know. “Other is for you, if you ever want to talk about things. Cell’s on there.”
A glance goes to the gravestone. “You never really know the friend you have in someone until, they ain’t there to be one when you need them.” For all she loves Colette and Tamara, sometimes you need a different perspective. There is a heavy sigh from the telepath. “Luther was there the night I found out about her death, too.” It would be awhile before things stop making her think of him. “Understood when I flew out of there like a bat out of hell.”
Realizing what she said, Kaylee gives a sharp shake of her head, “Sorry. But, yes. Ivanov. Got it. She talked about him often.” A small smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.
Elisabeth reaches out to take the cards and she hesitates, her expression softening to regret. "I'm sorry, Kaylee." She feels guilty as hell that Liz won't be here to raise her son and comfort her friend. This time she doesn't hesitate to reach out and grasp the other woman's wrist gently before it retreats fully. "If you ever need to talk… I'm not her. But I've had my share of boyfriends who turned out not to be what I thought." A rueful smile accompanies the words. "I'll tell you about a guy named Alec … I seem to have a propensity for guys with issues."
She releases Kaylee's wrist quickly and then says, "Ivanov loved her. He'll understand if you need an ear too." She can't bring their friend back or take her place, but maybe she can help Liz's friends find each other.