It's A Small, Inbred Little World

Participants:

elisabeth_icon.gif trask_icon.gif

Scene Title It's A Small, Inbred Little World
Synopsis A conversation between Trask and Elisabeth that brings up an interesting little tidbit or two.
Date December 1, 2008

Central Park


Life is starting, very slowly, to get back to normal. At least for Elisabeth — this time she's not the one who lost someone. She only has to deal with survivor's guilt in the aftermath of the attack on the school. She has made a point for the last several days to just try to put her life back on its daily routine…. although there've been a few relatively minor changes. She's carrying her pistol again, for one. It's in its inner-pants holster in the front of her waistband, tucked just beneath where her arm is slinged — easy to get to, though it would cost her a couple of seconds to pull it. Being an ex-cop in good standing is nice for concealed carry permits. The other change in her routine she hasn't talked to Norton about… as yet. In spite of the fact that he's been at her apartment at night more often than he's been at his own this past week, she's been reluctant to mention what she's doing. But lunch in a chilly but sunny Central Park? That seems like a good place. So she invites him to meet her for a walk or lunch there, whichever he can fit into his day.

Trask has changed for lunch, he figured she might not want to walk with a uniform right now, besides it would put her in danger in the current climate. She can see him coming though from a little bit away, walking and whistling and looking for her.

The sight of him makes her smile. He seems …. well, he's always got this air about him. Like things are weighing on him. He hides it well, but today he looks like maybe it's not quite as heavy a load. Or maybe it's just a nice day. "Hey, you. Goin' my way?" Her greeting might throw him - it *sounds* like she's right next to him, but she's still more than 50 feet down the path, standing still and looking toward him with an expression of amusement.

Trask turns a little surprised by how she snuck up on him, then frowns as he doesn't see her….He starts to look around a little confused.

"Eyes right, doll." Elisabeth waits until he looks around and then waves in his direction, resuming her casual stroll. She stops just outside of the range of his ability and whispers, "Pretty neat, hmm? Can hold a whole conversation with just you from across the park." He can hear her as plainly as if she whispered directly into his ear. And she waits only long enough to let it register with him, then steps closer to lean up and kiss his cheek. "Hi."

Trask smiles and puts his arms around her, holding her as she kisses his cheek, "Hi…Showoff…." He smiles and winks.

Elisabeth laughs at him. "Yeah… I know. But only to you. I decided that it's high time I do a little experimenting. The range of things I can do is…. well, somewhat scary, actually." She shrugs her good arm, and then she tucks herself in next to him so they can walk together. "Do you want to walk or eat? I wasn't sure how much time you'd get."

Trask says, "We can do both…if you can stand a Central Park irradiated rat dog?"

Elisabeth shudders delicately, and then shakes her head. "Oh, that imagery is just wrong. Seriously. There's a stand over there." She points as she says it. Cuz you know… hot dogs? Cops? Sure thing.

Trask guides the little binary cluster toward the hot dog stand, he gets his with chilli and cheese, and asks her what she wants.

Opting for a plain dog with mustard due to the sling that still immobilizes her left arm, Liz also takes a bottle of water to tuck into the crook of said tied-up arm for while they walk. She's getting good at this juggling everything with one hand. "Glad it was my left arm that got broken," she quips mildly as they get their lunch.

Trask says, "Because your right feels like a stranger?" He lets out the joke before thinking better of it, then smiles sheepishly over at her.

Elisabeth looks at him in confusion, totally not getting the joke. She grins at him in spite of it, though, telling him, "I don't know if I'm ever going to quite get your sense of humor," with a shake of her head and a chuckle. She walks with him a little distance, until they're pretty much isolated out in their public space. "How's your day going so far?"

Trask says, "Nice and quiet, mostly traffic duty lately actually. How has yours been?"

Elisabeth takes a bite of her hot dog as they walk, shrugging her good arm. When she swallows the bite, she says, "Pretty good. I've been… practicing." She glances up at him. "Testing the range of my hearing, testing how far I can actually throw my voice, things like that."

Trask nods, "How is it going?" He takes a bite of his hot dog, there is now a nacho cheese mustache and a chili ring around his mouth.

Pausing in her forward motion, Liz is forced to snicker. "You know, Norton…. if you weren't my best friend…. " The mess is just almost too funny to tell him about. If he were her partner, she'd have left him like this! "Grab your napkin — you're gonna dribble bigtime," she tells him on a laugh. "And you should be glad I like you so much. That right there would end some relationships."

Trask takes the napkin and dabs at his face, wiping it off, "The ultimate test of a relationship is the chilli cheese hotdog."

"Uh-huh," Elisabeth replies easily. "Well, lucky for you we were friends first, hmm? I've seen all your disgusting chili cheesedog habits. I should have left you like that — would have served you right," she teases lightly. And then she answers more seriously. "It's going pretty well. And I have…. someone… who's offered to help me train. Someone with similar abilities."

Trask says, "Oh really…there are others with your power…I haven't run into anyone who matches mine."

Elisabeth looks curious and asks, "Would you even know? I mean…. given what you can do, how would either of you KNOW the other could do that?" And then she says, "I ran into someone that I knew from back when I was in uniform, it turns out that he's got a similar powerset. He was forcibly registered after being hauled in one time." She grimaces. "But he offered help, and frankly…. the more experience I have at this point, Norton, the safer I'm going to be when I step foot into this arena." She's very careful about keeping her voice soft between the two of them, and they are keeping a big distance between themselves and anyone else. "He's already taught me that it's not only my own voice I can use to amplify or layer sounds, I can use ambient sounds too. When I'm not standing next to you, that is," she smiles a little. "Conrad's an ex-con, but… he's always struck me as a decent sort. Not necessarily trustworthy, but in this instance,…" She shrugs slightly. "I need the help."

Trask blinks, "Wozniak? Conrad Wozniak?" He looks at Elisabeth like she just grew a second head.

Pulling back startled by his expression and the fact that he apparently knows the guy, Elisabeth stares at Trask warily. "Uhm…. yes? But how the *hell* did you know that?"

Trask nods, "I have had some run ins with him." He shrugs, and smiles taking another bite.

Elisabeth eyes Norton, a faint frown between her brows. "You've got that look on your face. Like… 'if you only knew'. Like I've done something really stupid and you're going to laugh at me when I figure it out. What?"

Trask kisses your cheek, "I'm sorry…it's not important."

Elisabeth rolls her eyes. "Well, then, if it's not important, you should definitely tell me. Cuz now it's going to be this huge big deal or something when I do figure it out." Girl logic, go figure. Now that it's happened, she's not going to let it rest.

Trask looks at her, and says softly, "If I ask you to let it go..will you? I could say that I arrested him once, or that I ran into him at the club, but…I'm not going to."

Elisabeth pauses and then nods slowly. "All right. I'll drop it." Because …. well, hell. That gives her a good bit to chew on right there. She gives him a look, though, that is sort of like a nonverbal "REALLY???" Shaking her head in complete amazement, Liz resumes walking with Norton and changes the subject with a smile. "What time are you off this evening? And am I seeing you?"

Trask smiles softly, as you walk "I should be off in a few hours…assuming you don't have a full dance card, it might be availible."

It's a measure of her trust in him that she does leave it go. As a cop, Elisabeth was known to be a bulldog with things that didn't make sense. But she promised Norton not to push certain things, and she won't. Still, it will make life really interesting now. "Well, I don't *think* my dance card's full. I think I'm meeting a friend for coffee later. You know, that blonde waitress we thought was being beat up by her boyfriend or something? She mentioned you'd checked up on her. I ran into her the other day and we sort of hit it off. But call me when you get off work, and I'll meet up with you, okay?"

Trask misses a step at that, almost dropping his hot dog, he gets out a "that's nice" and shoves the remainder into his mouth in one big bite.

Elisabeth gives him the 'what the hell did I say NOW?' look. "For Chrissakes, Norton, you're starting to make me completely paranoid!" She shakes her head. "Go off to work before I make you sit on a bench so I can interrogate you," she says in a wry tone.

Trask makes a break for it, after giving her a little kiss on the cheek, leaving a chili lipstick mark.

Elisabeth calls after him "Eeew! That's gross, Norton!" as he runs.


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December 1st: Favors for Friends
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December 1st: See SCOUT Flirt
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