Participants:
| Scene Title | It's Gonna Take a Bit |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Liz wakes up to one of her caretakers and it takes a bit to convince her that she's not hallucinating. |
| Date | August 27, 2009 |
Ferryman Safehouse
The blonde should be in a hospital. Deckard's healing was significant — much of the damage Elisabeth suffered was internal, not counting the gunshot to the head. It took everything he had to merely stabilize her, though. Abby's expert eye can tell this healing will require being done in stages…. and if this is what she looks like after the initial one, good heavens what must have been her state beforehand?
She looks to be bruised on nearly every inch of skin that's exposed. Deep, dark purple bruises. Many of the smaller cuts have healed, but there are several gashes across her face and head that were probably bone-deep originally. Her hair is wrapped in a towel where either they're hiding the matting in it or else perhaps some kind soul tried to wash it for her. The blankets are pulled up around her and she's wearing some kind of gown that hides a multitude of other injuries. An IV stand with a bag on it drips fluid and probably painkillers into her arm. And yet in spite of it all, Elisabeth is slowly waking. And not waking well.
Silence.
Silence has preceded every horrific thing that has happened to her so far. Liz's body tenses beneath the blankets and her mind struggles from zero to as fully alert as she can get with as many drugs as she has in her. It's not the first time she's woken here, and each time the silence panics her into immobility.
It was the change in breathing that alerts abby to Liz's waking. That prompts the creek in the arm chair that was dragged over and placed the younger blonde in the other woman's view. The textbook is quietly closed and put down as she scoots forward to peer at the woman.
"Liz?" Softly, almost as if afraid that the woman is still asleep and she's just hearing things. "It's Abby, are you awake?"
The sound of someone moving only makes Elisabeth go more still, if that's even possible. Like a rabbit caught in the open by a ravenous wolf, she waits. And then it's Abby's voice. At first, she doesn't respond, wondering if she's dreaming. But with the voice that is not Doug's or his friend's, a little more coherent thought is able to struggle through the mire of panic. She slits her blue eyes and they dart frantically around the room, immediately coming to rest on Abigail's slender form. "A… Abby?" she hoarses softly. Her voice is scratchy and nearly ruined.
"Its me" Soft southern drawl and all. "You thirsty? They made some fresh tea. Or I can help you drink some broth. I have chicken or beef, ready to heat" She's trying to be the support this time around, that Liz was for her those first few days off the island. "Need me to get someone to give you something for pain or is it okay?" Worried blue eyes settle on Liz's wary ones. She doens't make a move to touch her either.
There's a long silence while Elisabeth processes the words being said to her, weighing them for hidden meanings, tricks, and traps. It shouldn't be this way. Her eyes flicker uneasily around the room and come back to Abby's. "Water… please?" she finally says in a near whisper. "Where's Richard…?" Because both of the other times she's woken, he's been here. She thinks. Or was that a dream? She wants to ask any number of things, but she isn't even sure she has words right now. She watches Abby move around the room the way that bunny would watch a snake, as if she expects any minute for the entire situation to morph into reality.
"He needed.. a break Liz. He'll be back later" Water. There's a pitcher off to the side, kept cool with water and she gets a kiddie cup, and a straw, filling it up with the liquid before she moves back to Liz's side. Sweat pants, tank top, flip flops and her little gold cross. Hair done up in a ponytail is classic Abby. "If you want, I can have someone call him over, I think he went for a walk. You know how it is. One minute he's here, the next.. he's a bird on the wall and moving twice as fast" It's a skill to give water and not touch someone. She's afraid of touching Elisabeth right now without permission. Afraid she'll hurt the woman. But the glass is held near her cheek and the straw bent at it's proper accordion placement so that all Liz needs to do is open her mouth and suck.
Elisabeth watches her every move and flinches when Abby gets right near her face, dropping her eyes. She sips the water from the straw. And then as Abby draws away, Liz's hand comes up to grip the other woman's wrist wordlessly. Seeking something as she searches Abby's face, though she doesn't ask any question.
"It's me. I promise. I swear it Liz" She'd been acting like this and Abby was getting used to it. No movement made to take her wrist away, or even movement towards. "I can prove it if you want. If it'll help. Anything." her own blue eyes watch back. "I can tell you that.. Alec, is a guy I've been prodding you to date, though I kinda see now, that it was pointless. Guess you prefer the really bad boys to the arrogant pricks" There's a hint of a smile. "You told me I should change my hair to purple one day. I… once went two days wearing your clothes when Jessica pilfered me right out of the hospital" Abigail babbles on, little things that Liz would know, some not secret, some more so.
"You used to sit up with me and sound bubble me, when I woke up from nightmares screaming. I still remember the look on your face and the way you held me Liz. Oh, I could go on. And you're always the one to break bad news to me. I think it's like, divine providence or something"
A cross between relief and gratitude passes over her face and Elisabeth relaxes a little. It wasn't just that she was uncertain it was Abby — it was that she was afraid it wasn't Abby and she'd just given away someone else's name. "We're just friends," she rasps quietly, automatically. "I…. I'm sorry, Abby. For…" Her blue eyes fill with tears. "For always being that person. To bring you bad news, and… not believe that you know what you're doing, and… think that you're too innocent to know what's out there. And for… always sticking my foot in my mouth and saying the wrong thing to you, and hurting you." Her breath hitches on a sob. "I just… wanted you to know."
"Shhhh" The cup is put down, and a finger laid to Liz's lips to try and stem the flow of apology. "No apologies needed Liz. Really. You do it all the time, apologizing to me. I'm grateful for it. Really. You keep me on my toes and you.." Abby smiles. "You make sure I'm okay and bring really good croissants and I'm sure if my dad met you, he'd be proud that I have such a protector in this modern Babylon"
Even as she ducks away from Abby's finger on her mouth, Elisabeth continues to hold tightly to Abby's other wrist. She's struggling to stop the tears, the sobs that want to rip out of her chest. Ragged breaths are accompanied by a pained grimace. "Th… they shot me. One of them… " She bites her lip and looks up at Abby. "And one of the things…" She stops and swallows, merely nodding a little bit.
"I know Liz. I was told. They did a lot of stuff to you. But you're not there anymore. It's gonna take a bit, but you'll figure it out. You're here. You're with us and we're not gonna leave you alone" She pulls her one hand away to rest it on top of the hand round her wrist. Abby slips down into the armchair. "What do you need, right now Liz, to make you more comfortable? Flint needs to rest some more, before he can work on you some more and I promise, you're gonna feel ten times better, but what can I do right now, to make you at least one times better?"
Pulling her tears under control, Elisabeth bites her lip and looks around with a vague frown. "I, uhm…. I don't really know," she replies quietly. "I …." Her other hand comes up to rub her forehead, absently touching near the very spot that Danko's bullet ripped through her head and out the back, while her other still has not released Abby's wrist. There's a faint smile as she realizes it and slowly releases Abby… or at least loosens her grip. Her eyes have that look that Abby must recognize. "I've been…. a negotiator. I've been… on the other side of this and watched you cope. And I… don't know if I'm as strong as you," she finally says softly.
"Complete and utter bullshit Liz and you know it. Tough love from me lady. you get two days of us feeding you broth, btu after that, you are totally feeding yourself, and sorry, but you'll totally have to go to the bathroom on your own. Oh, and dress yourself. Yeah, yeah, you got two days of laying around and playing the wounded damsel, but after that, you are up, and fending for yourself" She's teasing, making fun of things. In two days the woman will be completely physically healed and take care of herself. "I have a feeling too, that we are going to be sharing the same white pills for a bit, and with your badge, we can go and do the midnight run for rocky road and skip the blockades"
Liz wants to smile. Abby can see it. But there is a wealth of guilt in her expression. "I told them," she whispers. "I told them about the safehouse. Teo shouldn't have given me an address to give them…. if I didn't know, I couldn't have told them." Little white pills? Yesplzthx. Anything to make the memories go away. "Are you .. still taking them?"
'yeah, I'm still taking them. probably still take em for a bit. The daily ones. The like, emergency ones. Well, Lets say that after what happened in the bar, I took a few." While Liz has loosened her grip, Abby turns her hand around to just hold Liz's. "After January, Matthew Parkman came into the bar. He didn't realize that I worked there. But when he did, he asked, about everything that happened."
She doesn't know really how many people know about her visiting Homeland. "He kept me out of jail, he asked pointed questions, about what happened at the bridge in a Homesec interrogation room. But he made good on his promise that I wouldn't end up squirreled away" IN other words Liz, don't be sad or feel guilt. "They'll forgive you. I forgive you. Everyone will forgive you. It's how you carry yourself afterward Liz, that will show the measure of you. They'll still trust you. Even Helena, I'm sure, would have given a safehouse. besides, you had permission"
Her head tilts so that she's looking back at the ceiling, tears streaking back toward her hair. "I had permission to … get however many people died there killed. That's comforting," she husks bitterly. "And yet… I sit here, alive. And I'll be just fine in a couple of days, right? Because Deckard can heal all wounds." Except the ones that Abby and Liz now both battle. The ones that have no physical cure but time. "I don't understand why I'm still alive," she admits softly. "Every time I wake up, I think it's a dream. I keep waiting to wake up." Her mouth twists in a wry smile. Richard's sort of the proof in the pudding that it's a dream. "I'm going to close my eyes, and I'll hear them again. Or I'll hear… that fucking song… or the click of the hammer."
"You'll be fine. You'll be fine Liz. And… because God's not done with you yet. You still have something to do. Like, lay here and later, we'll open my envelopes from the university and see if I passed, and if so, we have celebratory milkshakes, Deal?" Her hand is squeezed gently. "You'll hear it, for a long time. You'll deal with it. It'll lessen, with time. I can promise that Liz. I see Logan's eyes less and less when I close my eyes" There's a thought to visit roosevelt Island, to tell Hokuto about Elisabeth. Give the woman a jump start on taking back her life.
God's not done with her yet. "God and I had a lot of talks while I sat on that floor, Abby. God and I've had a lot of talks through my whole life. And right now, I pretty much think he's a fucking moron. But that milkshake sure sounds good," she says on a watery smile. "Show me your grades, woman." Because it's something normal … something not this. It takes her away from her own headspace.
"God's not a moron" Spoken like a woman who firmly believes what she says. "He has a reason. He had a reason for what happened to you, and a reason for having taken my tongue. There's a lesson to learn from this. We'll learn it Liz, now however, Milkshakes. You be okay if I leave you be for a few minutes while I get someone to make em, or shall I use the intercom?" Gauging the woman's level of need from the simple question.
There's a nod from Liz on the being alone. "I think I'm all right… I feel a little dopey," she reports, "but I'm awake. For a while, at least." She can't decide if awake and remembering or asleep and nightmaring are worse. "How long was I actually gone?" she thinks to ask.
"Two and a half days Liz" Abby replies, giving Liz the answer that she was told of. "You just rest, I'll go see about a thick chocolate milkshake okay?" Likely with some protein powder snuck in. Anything, something to help the blonde out on the road to recovery that Deckard won't be able to take care of. She slips away from the bed and towards the door, lingering there till she's sure that Liz will be okay alone then darts down the stairs.