Participants:
| Scene Title | Life Will Find A Way |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Early Easter Morning, Ryans and Elisabeth have a talk about kids and the future. |
| Date | April 24, 2011 |
The clink of glass against ceramic can be heard from the kitchen area, it echos in the early hours of the morning. The few people living in the tunnels are still tucked in bed… well, most of them. Some of them have kids who will wake them before long since it's Easter morning. Not that those that live in the tunnels can afford much, but even just a chocolate bunny can mean a lot to a little kid.
Benjamin has always been an early riser, but more so since the dream with his youngest daughter. Stepping away from the kitchen, with a mug in one hand, he looks like he could use more sleep. Fingers rub at tired eyes even as he stifles a yawn.
He settles into a chair at the large table that sits in Grand Central, taking a few moments to relax and enjoy the coffee before he heads out into the world above.
Elisabeth's arrival into the tunnel goes largely unnoticed except by the sentries. She's carrying a bag with her, as if she went shopping… though that's not exactly what she was doing. When she reaches the lights of the communal dining area, she can finally breathe again, and the gentle hum that echoes a bit in the tunnels and can luckily be passed off as other things generally eases to just a vibration near her skin. The sight of someone actually awake surprises her — it's barely after dawn.
The blonde hesitates, and then she steps all the way into the dining area and murmurs softly, "Did you make enough for a lonely stranger to have some too?" Liz asks mildly. Because seriously — coffee is the only constant in this world. She comes closer and sets her bag on the table. It's a plain white plastic one, and some things in it click when they settled. "Happy Easter," she tells him softly.
There is a jerk f his head and a mildly surprised look angled her way. After he recognizes the face that goes with the voice, he relaxed into the chair again. "Hello Harrison," he greets with a slow incline of his head. "There is plently." His head jerks towards the kitchen. "Better get your's before there is a rush."
He glances at the watch on his wrist, something you don't see everyday, and adds, "Shouldn't be too long before the parents are up." He sounds almost amused about it, but it's also the voice of someone who has been there and done that.
She leaves the bag on the table and tells him, "Courtesy of St. Paul's. You get to play Easter Bunny, though." Elisabeth walks toward the coffee pot to pour herself a steaming cup full of the stuff, and then makes her way back about the time he gets the bag open and sees probably a hundred plastic eggs. "Maybe you can get some of them to the Lighthouse kids too?" she asks around a sip of coffee.
Brows lift at the bag and then at her. Him? Does he look like he has a fluffy tail and ears?
He takes a sip of his coffee as he ponders this… eyes on one of the eggs he's extracted from the bag. "Been years," he admits in a gruff voice. Looking to Liz over the top of his coffee. "Mary use to dress the girls in frilly pink dresses and those little shiny black shoes." He chuckles softly and drops the egg back into the bag. "I'll see what I can do. If anything I'll make sure some of these get to someone headed to the Bay House."
As she lowers herself into the chair across from him, Elisabeth replies, "Thank you. It's not much, but… I thought it might make a nice treat for them." Because who knows when they might get it again? Looking down at her coffee, she asks, "Have you…. had any more dreams?" When her blue eyes come back up to him, there's something else to her gaze — a wariness. "Or anything else interesting that ties in?" She hesitates and says, "I'd like to tell you guys something, but… I'm unwilling to share it if you haven't already sort of tweaked onto it yourselves." It wouldn't be fair to take that away from the people who should be allowed to tell for themselves.
"No future ones. No." Benjamin takes the time to even fold the bag closed, keep curious eyes from seeing the contents. "I met a woman, who had a dream about possibly being married to me and having a daughter." Lips fall into a straight line, before he adds, "But only kind of dream I had was my daughter visiting mine the other night. It's the only way we can really talk right now, with her living in those slums."
He turns the mug in his hand thoughtfully. "Had some interesting things to talk about." Well, beyond what a bad parent he is. "Mainly about these dreams and time travel."
"Yeeeeeeah," Elisabeth drawls quietly. "Somehow I thought that would be a topic that came up soon." She sighs heavily. "What'd she have to say?"
“Mostly that there are people that have come back, I believe with the idea of changing this future we are seeing in these dreams.” Ryans shakes his head slowly and sighs softly. “I know some are Ferry, just from what she said. I know Delia has met one of them, told me of another. I think I can figure out some others.” Ryans seems reluctant to really say that Delia has met a son from their future and that there is another future grandson of his is there as well, even if the promise he made was about the Council.
Elisabeth takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. And then she nods a little bit. "I've…. met my son. The one that I was pregnant with when I fled in that dream." Ryans is one of the few she's told the details of that dream. "He's… one of the ones that came back. I know of five, including him. Possibly a sixth, though I don't have a name on that one." She nibbles her lip. "They're…. they want to approach this themselves, so I'm leery of giving you too many details and stepping on their toes in this one. But… for what it's worth, I believe they are who they say they are." She looks up at him. "It's not a good place they're coming from. I don't think they'd risk it if they felt they had any other options."
"Themselves?" Ryans hmms softly at that. "Then why the dreams if they don't want the assistance?" He doesn't sound like that's happy about the idea of just sitting around. "Either way, I know of two… possibly three. I could probably think of four others on top of that, just knowing the two that Delia mentioned."
Fingers tap on the side of the mug as he finally offers, "Two of my grandsons and possibly my future daughter have traveled back." Which for him the idea that he has yet another daughter is surreal. The grandkids are a given.
"I gather the dreams… are being sent to those of us connected to let us… I don't know. See what's coming? See and understand why they've taken this risk? Coming here at all is at the least going to negate the very existance of some of them. Certainly it will change the circumstances of their births for others." Elisabeth shrugs a little. "Christ, Ryans… that's at least eight kids. Unless a couple of the ones I know about overlap the ones you know about." She runs a hand through her hair. "This is a mess
"If there are that many kids back here, then I'd say it must be a dire situation," he comments after taking a drink from his coffee. "Not like it isn't the first time kids have gone back. My kids and some of their friends, took a trip to Vietnam to save me." Course he only knew that later on. He had thought many of them hippies at the time and the memory faded after that.
"You're right, of course. I doubt I was suppose to know that Nicole was to be my wife later down the road." Brows furrow a little bit in thought. "It's not something I've really thought about." Even if he was seeing someone… someones sorta. "And Delia was suppose to have a daughter in the next year and she doesn't want her. Her and the father no longer have an interest in each other. Doing that might negate the son she's suppose to have later… the one she met."
Elisabeth nods slightly. "I took a trip back myself. I know several other people who've done the same. Usually it's to keep the timeline from changing…. in this case, I think they're desperate enough to give up their own lives to change it for the better if they can." She pauses and then winces. "My son tried to kill his father," she admits to Ryans. "Delia's in a tough place… I think seeing that you're going to lose a child to something you can't really stop is one of the worst outcomes I've seen. I might make the same choice in her shoes." After another momentary hesitation, she says quietly, "Remind Delia of something for me? Life finds a way, Ryans. And the things that are meant to be will find a way too."
"I told her that she'll have to put her faith in God for this one." It had been hard for him to say those words and mean it. "That if she is meant to have this son that it will happen, but not to have a child she doesn't want just to have him." Not an easy choice.
"I think it's worse having met them, I think. Cause now you've met them. Know who they grow up into." Of course, he's nervous that his own daughter will come to him. He doesn't know what will happen with that. "Now a part of you probably feels obligated and wants that child."
Elisabeth smiles faintly. "A part of me… yes. I've seen the man he'll become," she says quietly. "But I'm in a unique position to know people caught in the Moab incident who went forward and met another son of mine. One that would have, in that timeline, been born in the next year. I never met him, but his father did. And … he will never be born. We both know that. It's only now that I understand the grief he must have felt leaving 2019 and knowing that by coming back here, the chances were that his son would not be born. I looked at mine the other night and realized that regardless of whether I still wind up having a child, it won't be the young man who stood in front of me. It can't be."
Benjamin can only nod in agreement, because it's true. So very true. "I can't really see what would posses me to have another child." He admits after a moment of silence and a few sips of coffee. "I have three grown children and I might look young enough still, I'm going on sixty. I've walked the walk." There is more amusement to it then anything.
"I don't know what to think of the woman who was suppose to be my wife either." Not to say that Ben didn't think she was nice enough. "But, I'm curious enough about it, that I might talk to her more. She's suppose to join the Ferry, I'll need to get to know her anyhow."
Elisabeth smiles slightly. "Well…. in another time and place, obviously you and this woman had something special. Or…. you had an 'oops.' I've seen two futures, Ryans…. one where the Company was torn down by Arthur Petrelli and I bore a son with a man who I considered my best friend in the world. He came back from that future and told me about it — I'd gotten pregnant by accident in April of 2010. He was killed in May of 2010. And I raised that child alone. And the other…. my son came back to our present and tried to kill his own father to stop him from becoming that bastard who runs the Institute. In trying to stop that from happening, his own friends have taken the man I love out of time, from what I can gather. So who knows if my son will ever even be conceived?" She hesitates. "Just knowing what's coming sometimes alters it — because you can choose to try to make it happen or to try to avoid it. And either way… you've altered the circumstances that created it in the first place. So…. live in the now. Do what's in front of us."
"I live my life in the now, for the most part." Ryans points out with a small smirk. "I honestly can't imagine living out the year. Each time New Years or my birthday comes around, I am amazed I made it."
Finishing his coffee, Benjamin takes another glance at his watch. "I should get on with my day. I need to make a few calls and I promised Neil I'd make a delivery." Pushing to his feet, hands pressed on the table, he adds, "I guess if anything, enjoy the time you do have with your son, even if you haven't birthed him yet. If he's here to change things, it means he can't go back…"
The blonde has to laugh quietly. "Yeah… I know what you mean," she admits, sipping her coffee. "I went to Mass this morning just… to give thanks for seeing another Easter. I don't go to Mass more than a couple times a year." Elisabeth sets her cup down. "No," she adds softly. "He can't. I hope…. that I can have some kind of relationship with him." She shrugs and then jerks her chin. "Go on. Once their little group has made their appearance, I've got…. some plans that may be something you and Raith would be interested in. I just need to see how it'll play out first."
"I haven't been to mass since Mary's funeral mass," Benjamin admits quietly. "I'm not really on speaking terms with the big guy." Straightening from where he leans on the table, he snags up his jacket from the back of the chair and swings it up to drape over one shoulder.
"Delia has asked my back my grandson when he talks to council. If you can, don't discuss what I've told you with anyone Ferry? I'd be in your debt." Ryans takes a step back from the table, "As for whatever those plans are… you know how to reach me." He gives Liz a true smile, if a faint one, "It's good to see you again, Harrison. Keep safe."
"I won't say anything. I figured you might need to know that something was coming down, but… I think we owe to them to be able to break their news their own way," Elisabeth says softly. She smiles for him. "I'll see you around, Ryans."