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| Scene Title | Little Brother, Big Sister |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Secrets are shared, and Gillian and Brian finally reach a decision about who the older one is. This may change. |
| Date | December 2, 2010 |
"Go fish."
With a hefty sigh, tiny fingers slap the top of the deck reluctantly. The motion of pulling away the card is extremely exaggerated and irritated. Lance adds the Ace to his ever increasing hand. Glowering at his hand, his eyes peer over the top of his cards to practically shoot laser beams at his opponent.
Brian purses his lips for a moment. "Any Aces?" With a gigantic roll of his eyes, Lance throws the recently acquired card at the adult before returning his tiny hands of fury to his deck. Smiling, Brian places the four Aces down on the ground. It's getting to be evening, and the Lighthouse crew is killing time on Pollepel island. A few empty bowls are stacked nearby, Joe is face down in a matt, probably asleep already. The room, oddly, or maybe not quite so oddly is lined with mirrors. As many mirrors as they could get their hands on. On the walls and leaning against their things, either Brian has grown extremely vain or something else is afoot.
Just outside the open room, another Brian walks back and forth with Kasha swaddled against his chest. Rocking her gently, Brian glances in the room every now and then. The looking provides a great view of Lance's back… and his cards. Soft humming is being performed for the child, a light smile playing on Winters' face.
"Brian," a voice suddenly comes from the entrance doorway, where Gillian stands, hands crossed over chest, and the locket their mother gave her in the past partially visible in the bunching of her warm shirt. Warmth is hard to find these days, though not nearly as bad as the spring that never was. Her hazel eyes are directly pointed at the Brian carrying the baby— and acting as a spy.
"I don't mean to interupt your winning streak…" she says, shifting her eyes toward the brother that is actually playing. "But I wanted to talk to you. And please don't make another you. I don't think my eyes could stand it." The nakedness, being the issue, no doubt.
"Gilli!" Brian pipes out excitedly. He grimaces right after, wincing down at Kasha. Though he slowly relaxes once he realizes she didn't wake back up at it. He then looks back up at Gillian. Features lighting up brightly, Brian shuffles over to her enthusiastically. He starts to lean forward but stops suddenly as if her words have some affect on her. He pauses, he was most likely going to replicate. But has since decided that it's a bad idea. Nearing her, he then leans again to touch his shoulder to hers. Leaning his head over to press against her head in a makeshift hug. "Hi." He says somewhat affectionately. Obviously very happy to see her.
After straightening back up he sobers up somewhat. "Okay. Sure. What's up? You alright? I have something to talk to you about too.. But yeah. Hey. I missed you." He adds in quickly, acting something like an excited puppy at the moment.
"Sorry, you'd think even on a small island we'd see each other more," Gillian says, closing her eyes rather than pulling out of the hug. No doubt Lance is making aface about how girly the whole thing is, but she's not paying attention.
"I'm okay," she says simply, leaving out any details about how in certain ways she probably is not okay. But as okay as she can be right now. "I'm glad you came out here," she adds, with a hesitantion in her voice, as if she's wanting to supply awkward apologies and explainations for why she hasn't come to see him. They're never voiced.
"Want to go for a walk towards my corner of the castle and we can talk about your stuff on the way." Whatever her stuff is, it's on the other side of the castle. "And these mirrors are freaking me out a little."
"Yeah. That's what I have to tell you about." He hugs Kasha to his chest tightly, giving Gillian an awkward smile. "Paul is kind of…" He looks to the left for a moment. "Gone." He looks back with a bit of a grimace. "Yeah. So I met this girl. Her name is Samara. I don't know if you heard about her. She thought she was dead because she used her power in the bomb… and thought she died and was a ghost. But turns out she's really a phaser." He clears his throat, and starts to walk beside her.
"And.. sure enough. So is Paul. Surprise! I thought maybe Paul could get her un-stuck.. but uh.. he got stuck too. So now they're both intangible, invisible, and inaudible. You can only see them in reflective surfaces." He pulls the baby up a little more, as if using her for protection from Gillian. "So right now… Paul is our imaginary friend until I figure out how to get them un-stuck." A bright charming smile is given to his sister.
"Paul phases…" Gillian repeats as if to get that picture clear in her head. "And now he's invisible and can walk through walls and no one can hear him… He's going to end up as perverted as you used to be, you know that, don't you?" she says, though her voice stays down, to keep the baby quiet. With a gesture, she's trying to get him to walk away, even if all those mirrors apparently have a purpose.
"I have a birthday present for you. I've been working on it for a while now," she explains, trying to get him to move. "If you don't want to bring the baby then get Ace over there to join me.
"Is there any way to help them? Paul and this other girl?"
"When the flipper was I perverted?" Brian asks, a little irritation in his voice. Looking down at his baby, he glowers back at Gillian. Though it's hard to be taken seriously when you curse with words like flipper. But still, his no cussing around the kids rule remains. So… "Kay. Hold on." Turning around with Kasha in tow, he heads back for the room. Jogging out of the room, the card playing Brian jogs over to catch up with her.
"As I was saying.." Glancing over his shoulder. "When the fuck was I perverted?!" He asks in a hushed yet annoyed voice. It's amazing how fast his lovely sister can take him from joyous to RAAAGE. Pushing his hands into his pockets, he lifts his chin up indignantly. "I've never been perverted. You're perverted. And besides. He has Samara with him. She won't let him go anywhere I think.. And.. Well. Yeah. He's going to be doing a lot of pipe cleaning work when he gets a handle on his ability, I'm sure. Him and Lance are going to commit some major felonies, probably."
As if his irritation had never occured he peers at her excitedly. "A birthday present? I never got you anything. I hope it isn't a good one. I have no idea what to get you." Brian admits. Before blinking a little. "When's our birthday again?"
"Yeah.. I don't really know. I've read Suresh's book like twelve times trying to get a clue. But.. nothing. I have no idea how to get them unphased. I was thinking if we knew someone who could phase… I was thinking maybe.. You know. That asshole you know."
"October twenty-ninth," Gillian explains, giving him a sidelong look. "I know it's different than the one you used to have… we'd decided to celebrate a birthday that was between the two of ours. I think it was supposed to be in August, but I forget now." They never did it because she got kidnapped, and all kinds of other stuff happened…
"It doesn't matter, this is a birthday present, and…"
She trails off, as if trying to think of someone who can phase For a moment, she opens her mouth, closes it again, and shakes her head. That's someone she's not sure she wants to mention to her brother. Peter Petrelli will forever be a sensetive topic, and she can't blame him for it being sensetive…
"I think Gabriel Gray can phase, or at least he could once. Probably still can. Though I'm not sure where he is. Eileen probably knows."
"If you can get ahold of him, then do it." The way he says it, is obvious he's not talking about Gabriel Gray. "I can suck it up for as long as it takes if it brings Paul back." The brother takes a deep breath, waving his hands loosely. "Like really, if you know where he is.. He could probably help." Finally he eases on down, the sensitive subject being dropped.
"Right. October twenty ninth." Looking over at her, he tilts his head. "Aww.. Little sister. What did you get me?" He asks with a big smile Because by the way, he's the older one. "Well. Happy birthday Gilli. Sorry I couldn't be there for yours." He smirks a little.
"I thought your telepathy only worked with your clones," Gillian says with a mutter, but then she smiles as she leads the way along. Her room isn't too far away, actually. "I'm not sure if Peter's still on the island. Last I heard he was planning to leave, but knowing him…" She's not tried to seek him out, but she's not actually left either. Such things are difficult, at times.
"I'll see if either of them can help, but Peter'd need someone who can phase to borrow the power from, and I think he'd borrowed it from Gabriel— so Gabriel's probably the better bet. He's also the one who taught me what was broken with my power, so if anyone can help Paul and your imaginary friend, he can." More-so than Peter, in her mind, it would seem.
"Did I tell you I went back in time?"
"Who do you think I was talking about when I said asshole? Or assface, whatever his ass is." Winters murmurs before dancing on to the next topic. "Okay. If we can get Gabriel, that'd be awesome. The kids are starting to get scared for Paul. And it's only a matter of time before they start blaming me for 'losing' Paul. And this girl is really cute… Oh by the way. Vee broke up with me. I can't remember if I told you that or not." He gives a big fake smile and brings up a thumb. "You remember Vee. My fiancee." Brian looks dead ahead and frowns deeply. "So.. Yeah. I'm trying to make a lot of stupid decisions." And then..
"No. How was it?" Brian asks with a big smile. The past that is.
"Assface," Gillian says with a small smile in her correction, though not wanting to say that he happened to have just gotten his assface back. It's a long story, but she gets distracted by mention of… "She did what? When did this happen? Why? What did you do?" Because in a girl's mind, it must be the guy's fault. It's certainly distracted her from her storytelling for the moment, as she turns on her brother to await an answer.
"I didn't do shit Gilli." Brian spits back defensively. "She said she still loves me, all this stupid shit. But she wants to protect me. Protect me! Me! So she thinks protecting me involves breaking up with me and being a stupid whore." Brian growls before shaking his head. "I don't really think she's a stupid whore but when I talk about it I like to say that so I sound like I don't care." He rapidly admits. "I miss her a lot." Comes the sad confession with a breath. "Would you think less of me if I told you I've cried about it." He thins his lips before shaking his head with a bit of a laugh.
"Anyway. Enough about her. Tell me about the past. How is time traveling? Does it make you tingly?" A beat. "By the way I resent the fact that you jumped at me. Like I would be the one that did something wrong. I was a great boyfriend slash fiancee."
"Wow, what is it with us Winters and our ability to have people we love leave us for our own good," Gillian says, looking empathetic to what has happened to him, and apologetic even at that last bit. "Sorry. You're probably a pretty good boyfriend. You'd never miss a date even if you had to do other things at the same time." Which makes him, in some ways, the best boyfriend ever…
"I went back to see our parents," she finally says, looking away as she keeps walking. "It's kind of a long story, but… the important part is I met them. We were around two— you were throwing spagetti onto the ceiling… And they loved us." That's the important part. Her hand shifts to the locket around her neck, which she thumbs open. "Mom gave this to me. I tried to warn them, to give them some way to save themselves without changing history… but I don't think it worked… But this is them… and that's us." A wedding picture on one side, and two babyfaces smooshed together on the otherside.
This causes Brian to stop walking. All thoughts of Veronica are temporarily dropped. Staring at the locket dumbly, his mouth hangs open. No words come out of him for a long time. Taking a step forward he leans in to get a better look at the locket. Millions of questions come together, and then the prioritizing game comes into play. Which one to ask first, which one to ask later. It's a very complicated process. And as the information settles in and his questions play twister in his brain he just stares at the locket. Bringing up one hand his thumb goes to gingerly touch at the wedding picture.
"Did.." His voice is weak when it first starts. He takes a moment to gather himself. His thumb drops from the locket. Glancing up he goes to match her gaze. Gathering his voice he is able to form the words. "Did you find out who is older?"
"I don't think it really matters," Gillian admits with a sad smile, looking down at the locket and the contents again. She's guarded it with her life more than she'd like to admit, because it's one thing she's wanted to hold on to. It's something her mother gave her. She doesn't have many people who qualify as 'mother'.
She stops trying to move away, at least, looking him in his lighter eyes. "You have her eyes," she adds with a grin, touching him on the nose. Their mother's blue eyes are visible. "But no, I didn't ask who was born first. So we can still argue about it for the rest of our lives… but I don't mind you being the older one. Not anymore." She used to. But— not so much now. If only her hair didn't look so weird— the roots have grown out since she got it died, so the red coloring stands out even more, because it suddenly cuts off where the growth has happened. Hair dye is near the bottom of the list of essential supplies on the island.
"What I got you— well actually I kind of made it— I asked if I could have some pictures besides this before I left, and… I made you a picture album. Of us as kids, of our parents… I kept one or two for myself, but— I got the locket, I think you deserved the picture book."
"If you don't care then I don't care.. I'm the youngest." Despite his jokes, Brian is a little out of it. His eyes are watery now, eyes still locked on the locket. "I.." His throat chokes up this time. That pain that comes with holding back the tears. That way too tight feeling around the neck. Closing his mouth tightly, Winters closes his eyes. His hand drops, his chin lowering to his chest. A long moment passes as he tries to fight himself.
"Gillian." He says in a completely neutral tone. "Is there anyone on either side of us? Because I'm about to cry profusely and would like to slobber on your shoulder." It's offered in a completely professional tone. "So.. just let me know if anyone's watching right now."
"We're about as alone as we're going to get," Gillian says gently, letting her hand drop away from the locket as she pulls her brother down closer to her height so he can do as he said he would. Luckily her shirt is thick, because of the winter weather and the need for extra warmth. It's not going to bother her.
"I cried too… that's why it took so long to tell you or anyone really…" It's hard to keep the tears back now, as she's blinking them away. The moisture is still there. Mourning parents that he never got to know. "I wish you'd gotten to meet them too… they loved us very much… They actually weren't going to experiment on us. They had decided not to— but I told them to go ahead and do it. That… you'd want your ability. So I guess maybe I was supposed to go back."
Burying his face in her shoulder, his arms wrap around her back tightly. As she speaks, he begins to convulse. The sobbing coming out in uncontrolled pulses. The bursts are few and far between, but rattling. It's been a while since he's cried. He's not sure he's even cried while going by the name of Winters. Regardless it's not something he's going to figure out now.
He wishes he would have gotten to meet them too. Judging by how his weeping intensifies.
"Did.. Did they give you like a message to give me or anything?" His weak voice penetrates his weeping as he pulls his face from her shoulder. "Did.. Did they say anything?" His bleary, red eyes train on his sister. Desperate for anything she might have to tell him. "Did.. What.. Anything?"
"They loved us," Gillian says quietly, even as she closes her eyes and presses her face into his lighter hair. The lightest of their whole family as she discovered. This means she can't keep look out for them, but… she's trying to keep from crying, because he deserves the right to mourn as she had been doing for the past month.
"I wish I'd been able to save them, but… the important part is they loved us, and I'm sure they'd be proud of you…" There's a verbal pause, an inhale of breath. It's as if she's trying to keep from showing her own emotion. It doesn't quite work. Instead she tries to add with a forced smile. "Little brother."
An excess of lliquid is wiped away from his hand, flinging his hand to dry it off he leans into her heavily. With one big deep breath he straightens up. Taking a moment to compose himself he gives a firm nod. Turning to face the way they were going. Taking a shaky breath, the older or younger brother reaches down to take her hand.
"Lighthouse meeting this weekend.." He murmurs lightly. "Going to decide where we're going with the kids. How we're going to get money all that…" It seems his mourning time is finished. At least his public mourning period. Giving her hand a squeeze he nods to the hallway ahead of them. "Let's go cry over this picture book."
"I have some ideas on that I can offer," Gillian says, smiling a bit as she leans against his shoulder as they start walking again. Squeezing her hand or not, she's practically hugging against his arm as they move. It's one of those days. "I'd been thinking on it ever since it became likely we'd need to do something, I even talked to a few people. We're not going to be getting money from Linderman, sadly."
And she's not sure if her 'saved the world' money will even exist, considering she wants the government to think she's dead.
"But we can talk about that this weekend with everyone else." After they get done crying over parents that never got to really know.
Tilting his head over to rest on top of hers, Brian lets out a long breath. "It would suck if we had to do this alone right. Like if I was an only child." Winters murmurs, holding her hand against him tightly. "Yeah I figured our Linderman piggy bank was drying up." He gives a light shrug. "It was good while it lasted. We're going to have to make our own money." He sniffs lightly. "I'm glad you said you have have ideas. Because I'm fucking clueless at this point."
"I love you Gilli."
"And I was never perverted you bitch." Another squeeze of the hand.
"Don't call me bitch, dickface," Gillian says with a shove of her shoulder against him, but there's a tearful smile. It's all in good fun, just like she's sure his bitch had been the same way.
That's how siblings are supposed to be, right?