Participants:
Scene Title | Keeping a Promise |
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Synopsis | Two years and change ago he told her, "I will come back to you. I Will Find You." |
Date | Mar 27, 2011 |
Elisabeth's Apartment, Dorchester Towers
The apartment hasn't changed much from when Norton last saw it. Although there are a few subtle changes. Different, high-end deadbolts on the metal front door. A slide bolt that apparently goes far into the wall. A door-length hinge. It would take SWAT some concerted effort to get through there, he might note as she locks the door behind him.
Elisabeth gestures him into the living room, where coffee and some cinnamon rolls await. Not homemade, unfortunately. They're bakery done — Oh So Sweet's bag is sitting on the counter. "So, uhm…. " She seems uncertain. It's a feeling she doesn't like, especially in her own haven. "C'mon in… I've got coffee." She twists her hands together a bit, her brow furrowing.
Trask smiles and nods, "I see that." He comes in and takes a seat picking up one of the cinnamon rolls he takes a big bite and chews slowly savoring the taste. "So you wanted to speak to me?" He looks over and raises an eyebrow, a little icing in his beard.
She looks him over and can't help the grin. "You look like a friggin' mountain man," Elisabeth observes softly. She takes in a deep breath and moves to sit down near him. "The fact that I'm even having to ask the kinds of things I'm about to ask you… I hope you'll forgive." She hesitates, meeting his eyes. "You've never lied to me before. But there's so much at stake here that I…. " She trails off. "The men at the Institute had listed you as working for them. And when I heard that, I thought I was going to throw up. And then… they said it was just a lure. A way to get me up there to talk to them. But… I don't know if that was the lie."
Trask nods softly, "I heard that too. Apparently someone sent it down river along the Ferry that I was up here working for the institute thats one of the main reasons I came back, to find out what is going on. I can tell you where I have been. Though with the rumors of two Gabriels and two Cardinals I've been picking up, I won't garuntee that there isn't /a/ Norton Trask working for them.
Elisabeth looks down and says softly, "I figure the only thing they could ever offer you would be Cameron." She looks up, her blue eyes sad. "I'm sorry… that I couldn't grieve the way you were."
Trask shakes his head, "You had no reason to. You didn't meet him..didn't know him…he couldn't be real for you. For that matter he may still be out there…maybe not in our world, but who says when the future changes it actually ceases to exist. It could just still be there, we just lost our way to /that/ reality.
She smiles. "I like that idea," Elisabeth tells him quietly. She studies him. "But that brings us to this point. Where your return here is…. so convenient that I have to sit and second-guess your motives. And wonder if you're here to help… or to advance the agenda of a time traveler who thinks he knows what's best for us all. Because that's who's running the show up at the Institute. Someone who came from about 2030, saw the horrors that are coming, and is doing his level best to hold to the timeline he knows because …. unlike you, he's not strong enough to choose to change things and risk that his child might not be born."
Trask says, "Im sure he has everything plotted out then, laid it all out and has planned for every conceivable contingency. I'm sure he already knows about my return then. If so, well then we just have to do something unexpected. And if it is true, and I am working for him, then you just have to assume I'm the bad guy, till you find proof differently. It is what I would do."
Blue eyes are amused. "Well, …. he claimed that in his timeline you never turned back up. And in all honesty, I am prone to believing that. He knew it would be a way to lure me in, but … I don't think he'd have used your name like that if he'd been certain of how to locate you." Elisabeth pauses. "Which also puts you in a beautiful position to be the unexpected. If you're willing to work with me." She hesitates. "I'm still kind of doing the same thing I used to do…. just nowadays I head up FRONTLINE Manhattan while doing some revoluntionary work on the side. Phoenix is defunct. Helena went underground and never resurfaced after it came down that her own father was part of Humanis First." She grimaces.
Trask noddles, "Not yet at least. Who knows maybe I can see if I can contact her too. Get the band back together." He grins. "I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get a new id, Ferrymen International contacts are still working on it for me."
"Well, don't use anything at all remotely Phoenix related, for God's sake," Elisabeth retorts mildly. "Bennet Dean? Two people topping the most wanted lists? C'mon, Norton. You're smarter than that. No Harrisons, no Camerons, no Bennets or Deans. No CHesterfields!" She grins a little. "You're trying to keep a LOW profile, not wave a red flag at a bull and holler, 'Come and get me, fuckers!'"
Trask shakes his head. "The best cover is usually the one people won't expect. But if your sure, then maybe you can come up with something better?"
Elisabeth moves to stand up, pacing. She glances back at him. "Unexpected, yes. But some things … well, let's put it this way, babe. You're trying to keep a low profile from a man who loves me as much as you did." She shoves her hands into her back pockets. "The man running the Institute is a mega-fucked-up Cardinal. And current-time analog and I and others…. we're fighting a war on two fronts. One against Humanis First because they flat out need to be stopped, and one against the Institute. Which… is sort of like tryign to second-guess yourself, if you see what I mean."
Trask nods, "So you need a new perspective. Yeah I ran into a bit of a riot in central park over evolved homeless people. It's what I ended up seeing Elle at, apparently she is walking with a cane right now and can't run away from bigots all that well."
Elisabeth sighs. "Elle. Yeah… I figured you'd run into her too." She shoves a hand into her long hair, shoving it off her face. "AlterCardinal, who we're calling Ezekiel these days just for differentiation purposes, is running about in Tyler fucking Case's body. Swapping people's powers for his own ends. Hopefully their abilities will revert soon, but that also means we need to keep Elle way the fuck undercover — because he wants her bad. He wants her to use her ability to power some fucking machine that he's building, and we do not want that thing working. He's already killed one of my operatives — the one he shoved Elle's power into — trying to get it to work."
Trask winces, and nods, "If the person he put Elle's power in is dead, are we sure it will come back at all? Or is it possible that person's power will go to Elle when it wears off?"
"He's not dead…. Zeke killed him and has someone on staff who can … fix it." Elisabeth grimaces. "It's a long story." She sighs and walks back to stand in front of him. "I need you to just… flat out tell me whether I can trust you at my back, Norton. I'm…." She bites her lip. "We've been through hell together, and I… I have to be able to take you at your word. If you tell me that you've been working up there and you think he's right, I'm not going to cut you off… I'm just going … to ask you to keep your distance. Just… be straight with me about it. I … can't disbelieve you. Not with everything that's happened."
Trask rises and looks her in the eyes, still his eyes. "Liz, I've never met this new Cardinal of yours. I'm not working for him, and do not plan to be. The old Cardinal…well we might not have gotten along all that often, or agreed on everything, but i don't have anything specifically against him. What i can tell you, is that your new Cardinal is full of crap and his world could never have actually happened. You know how I know that? You know how I know that is a fact?"
She watches him stand up, clearly wanting to believe him. Elisabeth is silent as he asks her if she knows how he knows.
Trask waits a few moments, "What did he say about me? What did he say was my role in the future, what did he say I did?"
Elisabeth shakes her head. "He said you were never heard from again."
Trask nods, "Do you beleive that, do you beleive I never came back? That I left and I never came back? What did I once promise to you?"
Now she looks down, to hide tears. Elisabeth nods a little. "Well…. we knew he was a liar." She looks up and smiles for him. "You said you'd always come back."
Trask smiles, "So which future do you beleive? The one where you never see me again, or the one standing in front of you?"
Elisabeth smiles slightly. "So… I guess maybe it's time you and Richard met, hmm?" she asks, finally pulling her hands out of her pockets and moving toward him. She wraps her arms around his waist, burying her face in his chest.
Trask smiles and kisses the top of your head, his arms move around you, and hold you tight.