Participants:
| Scene Title | Lesson Learned |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Vee returns home after a weekend away and incommunicado — Brian assumes it's for payback. The truth is more difficult to handle. |
| Date | September 27, 2009 |
Dorchester Towers Veronica's Apartment
Messier than usual, thanks to Brian.
How can a town she's only lived in for half a year have so many memories? After leaving Kat on Friday, Veronica seemed to see "ghosts" of Kat's former life, former personality everywhere she looked. Even Fort Hero — a place Kat never worked — reminded Vee of various memories from their old work place. She found herself driving for hours on end, into the night; she'd been pulled over, shown her Homeland Security badge, kept driving. Sometime in the morning she ended up in Niagara Falls, of all places — someplace she'd never been before. She certainly had no memories of Kat in that place, or of anything else.
Cell phone off, any calls would have gone straight to voice mail. She's fairly certain that Len would know why she was AWOL if he tried to contact her and didn't reach a live voice on the other end of the line. The only other person who would call her is Brian — he would not know why she was AWOL, of course. But it's her turn to disappear this time.
It's now Sunday evening, and the door suddenly clicks as a key unlocks it on the other side, and Veronica walks in, dropping the gym bag she brought with her on her retreat.
While the cats away the worried mice will freak out. Brian has been in sole control of the apartment, and with plenty of voice mails sent to her phone he has tried to coach himself into the mindset that he did this, so it's ok if she does. But it's really not that easy. In wake of being so distraught, Brian has forgotten to clean up after himself.
An empty pizza box sits on the counter of kitchen, discarded clothes are thrown in several places and empty beer bottles line the table. Brian is currently sitting on the couch, on the coffee table sits a plate of half eaten pasta and a bowl of melted ice cream. Jerking his head over to the door his eyes widen and breath hitches as she enters. Brian, stay cool.
Leaping to his feet, his arms are thrown around her back almost immediately.
She drops her gym bag and lets him hold her, her own arms going around his neck. She's had almost no human contact in 48 hours — hardly a record, as she tends to take solo vacations in remote locations whenever possible. She buries her face in his shirt and just holds him for a moment, and lets him hold her. There are times that that is enough.
Veronica sighs, a long and shaking thing, and finally tilts her head to kiss him softly. "Hi," she says quietly, and adds, before he can question, "I'm sorry."
"I'll never do it again." Brian says quickly as if this whole thing was a lesson. "You're right. It feels horrible and I won't ever do it again. You were right and I'm so sorry." He says rapidly, bending his neck so he can meet the kiss. "I don't deserve you and I'm sorry, I will never leave again without telling you everything."
With that verbal vomit out of the way, his shoulders relax some. Going to let his forehead clunk against hers he smiles softly. "I missed you." He's trying ver hard not to ask where she went.
Veronica's brows furrow as she looks up at him with confusion. "I'm right? What did you do?" she says, before his words finally register. She laughs weakly, shaking her head. She moves further into the apartment to collapse on the couch, tossing her keys into a bowl of rocks that adorns the coffee table. She raises a brow at the various remnants of his food, but kicks off her shoes and props them up on the table. "I didn't do this to make you feel bad, Brian. I'm sorry it did. It was selfish of me. I just needed time away. How are you?"
"No, no, no. Lesson learned. I'm fine. I was worried. But, I'm good now." He glances around the apartment frowning slightly. "I'll clean this up first thing in the morning." He doesn't feel like cloning right now. So instead he goes to drop onto the couch next to her, going to lower his head over to her ear. "You okay baby?"
She brings a hand up to run through his hair, stroking softly and smiling. "I'm sorry I worried you," she says quietly, distractedly as she considers how to answer his question. "I'm … I don't know what I am, Brian. You remember Kat Marks, right?" she says, glancing at him a little uneasily.
Brian pauses his breath for a moment slowly nodding. "Yeah. Of course I remember the girl you…" Yeah. "Adam killed her. What about her?" The ex-agent asks bowing his head so her hand can run through it. His hand goes to rest on her stomach.
Veronica's eyes drop and she shakes her head. "She's not dead. I don't know how, except that it had something to do with Pinehearst. They somehow … they took her body and somehow resuscitated her after I — I watched her die, I had to be the one to say to pull the plug, and I watched her die, and yet somehow she's still alive. They found her wandering around on Staten Island, going by the name of June. She doesn't really remember things, but she remembers faces and names. I don't understand it. And she's … I don't know. Not the same." She frowns and rubs her eyes. "Did you ever hear the name Alison in connection to Pinehearst at all?"
Alison. Brian slowly frowns down at her. What with his recent decision to tell less secrets and be more open with Veronica he does indeed open up for his fiancee. "Yeah. I killed her." He says softly, bringing his hand up to cup her cheek.
She has that hurt and confused look on her fact that makes her look younger than she is, more vulnerable, more fragile. How she would hate that look if she ever caught sight of it in a mirror. "How is Pinehearst still managing to screw with our lives, Brian?" she says, reaching up to take his hand in hers. "You killed this Alison person? What was she? A doctor? Some sort of mad scientist type? I don't understand how they fixed Kat, when the doctors and the Company healers couldn't. And while I'm happy Kat's not dead, God, of course I'm happy she's not dead, I don't know how much of her is there in June, and all the feelings that should be happy that she's alive are overwhelmed by anger… that someone had her all this time and we didn't know, and what kind of science did they use, and do I even want to know?" She sighs and rests her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. Anyway, I just needed to get away after I saw Kat. June."
"I don't know what she was. Remember when I told you we were raiding Pinehearst? Well, I saw Peter Petrelli. I pretended to hate him for the crowd, make it look like I was Fulk. And then this woman comes out suffering from some disease. Peter starts whining, you have to help her, help her. The phoenix kiddies start looking at their guns, I shot her in the forehead." Lowering his head he plants a kiss on her forehead. "I understand baby. I'm sorry all this is happening… I… What are you gonna do?"
Veronica listens and nods. Brian's life is a mystery more often than not to her. "It made me angry that there was no one to get revenge on, you know? When she said she was in Pinehearst. And I don't know. What can I do? Go visit her, bring her stuff to spark her memory. But if … if she stays the way she is, it's like he killed her twice you know? Because it's not Kat, not really, not the way she is." She sighs, pulling her feet to the couch and wrapping her arms around them. "Any guesses on how they resuscitated her? And speaking of the devil, literally, anything new with him?" She means Monroe, of course.
"No idea. I wasn't there very long." Brian says softly of Pinehearst. He lets out a sigh going to kiss her forehead again. "Yeah. That makes sense. If you want me to help I can. I didn't know her very well, but I knew her. Maybe I could help a little." He offers before shaking his head. "Not really, nothing yet."
From afar, Aaron snugs.
"You know that I love you, right?" Veronica says softly, knowing it is probably difficult for him to offer his help with Kat, when he and Kat never were that close of friends to begin with. She strokes his cheek and bumps her forehead against his. "I don't deserve you."
"I know." He affirms, bumping his head back, he elevates himself somewhat before going to cradle her head to his chest. "And I love you. I don't deserve you." He says softly, tilting his head so his lips press into the top of her head.
Veronica laughs, the sound husky and warm and weary. "You're right. You never did anything bad enough to deserve me," she teases back. She curls up, closing her eyes. "I missed you, too, by the way," she murmurs, her words a bit muffled. "Thanks for understanding. Everything's okay here? Nothing blow up or anything while I was incommunicado?"
"I was actually just watching the news. Humanis First attacked Suresh Center and the Guiding Light church." He goes to unmute the television pointing at it. "Lots of explosions. New York remains scary and explodey even while you are away." He smirks at her first words, letting out a little yawn. "Shutup."
She makes a face and glances at the television. "Well, at least no one can blame me for it being scary and explodey if it continues in my absence," she says with a chuckle. "No one we know hurt?" she asks a little more gently, yawning a little as she watches the television.
"Not that I know of." Brian says softly, grabbing the remote he goes to turn the station. Something less serious. The food network channel is brought on and then some show about ghosts, it goes on and on for a while. All the while, his hand running through Veronica's hair softly, his head leaning against hers.
Veronica's quippy comments mocking the ghost hunters dropping off until there is nothing but the regular rhythm of her breathing. It is the first time in three days she has slept; content and warm and safe for now, she finally falls asleep.