Participants:
Also Featuring:
| Scene Title | Missive |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Wright passes on Silas's message to Liz, only to let Richard tell her himself. |
| Date | June 19, 2021 |
The Watchtower
New York Safe Zone
| く | W. Tracy | |||
| Saturday, June 19 ᛫ 4:19 pm | ||||
| Hey, I have a I’massage to relay to you if you’re free. Can text/call if that’s easier, pivot things are hectic out there | ||||
| Probably leaving the safe dome soon | ||||
| *message | ||||
| *obviously | ||||
| *zone, Jesus christ | ||||
| 4:19 pm | ||||
| I would love a massage ;) | ||||
| LMAO, you're almost as bad at this as Richard. He's got the kids teaching him emoji. | ||||
| Where you want to meet? I'm on my way out the door to you now. | ||||
| 4:23 pm | ||||
Elisabeth can feel her heart thudding heavily as she responds. It's nothing major. She would have called or showed up if it were bad news. Stop it. Too bad scolding doesn't stop the lance of fear from stabbing through her. She swallows hard, already in motion to leave her office. In person is better — it will let her check on Wright.
Funny how it works that someone becomes one of yours. "Sandro, I gotta meeting," she tells her bodyguard on the way out of her office door. The lanky man is immediately moving to shadow her out of the precinct. To the officer in her bullpen, she says on her way out, "I'm on my cell if you need me."
| 😎<- picture I took off Richard | ||||
| *of | ||||
| Governor's Island, probably. I don't want to find my escort. Can grab something to eat here | ||||
| I was thinking outdoors but it's smelling pretty car fire out there today | ||||
| Oh also sorry it's a good message | ||||
| Should have opened with that | ||||
| 😅 <- picture I took of me | ||||
| OMW! | ||||
| Now | ||||
Fort Jay, Governor's Island
A While Later
"Lieutenant Harrison, how can I help you?" the receptionist asks warmly in the busy greeting area. Federal officers seem to be buzzing in anticipation of a relocation; it's always a good day when the DOE finally leaves. "And is this one of yours?" she adds with a smile, gesturing to a small, blonde girl with a severe expression hidden behind large sunglasses, standing a few feet away.
Elisabeth's footsteps are brisk but not sharp-sounding. She's just got a purpose and place to be, there's no emergency. She notes the buzz of activity and nods to a couple of familiar faces with a pleasant expression. The receptionist can see the person behind Liz suddenly sharpen his gaze on the child when attention is drawn to her before relaxing and settling back to simply being a shadow.
For her own part, Elisabeth comes to a stop several feet back from the desk and raises both her eyebrows before taking a knee in front of the little girl, concern in her blue eyes. "Ames? Hey, kiddo, what're you doing down here on your own?" It's not like Wright or Marthe are helicopter parents, but it's unusual as hell for them to be too far off because Ames has a tendency toward adventure.
Glancing up at the receptionist, Liz does grin and tell her, "Nope, this one isn't one of my terrors, thank your lucky stars. But could you let Wright Tracy know I'm here?" She kind of expects the other blonde to show up from just out of her line of sight, honestly, but … one never knows. Elisabeth has most assuredly gained experience with adventurous kids.
“There you are, you little goblin!” Marthe says as she walks into the lobby. “How did you even get past me?” She stops to nod to the receptionist that the situation is under control.
“Hi Liz,” she says apologetically as she takes her daughter’s hand. “Sorry about that, she said she wanted to ask to go on a mission and then vanished.”
“Maaah stahp,” Ames says dismissively, you’re ruining it. Her face never leaves the overly serious expression.
“Don’t you Boston accent me, missy,” Marthe laughs, “It’s bad enough when your mother does it.” She mouths a further I’m so sorry” to Liz. The receptionist smiles and places a call for Wright as requested.
"Agent Ames, I wish I'd known you needed a mission. I would have assigned you to find out what Aura wanted for her birthday," Eisabeth says with a grin.
The blonde peacekeeper pushes back to her standing height and laughs, at ease with the whole business. "No worries, Marthe — Ricky is an escape expert, so I'm used to turning around and finding him missing." They had to put two people assigned to the kids when they're out for exactly that reason. The boy gives Liz heart attacks at the park. "He hates that I can find him no matter where he is — for a while he insisted I had telepathy too." She gives a casual shrug.
"How are things going?" Elisabeth appreciated the social evening of dinner at their home before Elliot and Richard departed and very much likes Marthe.
“Oh, you know,” Marthe says, “preparing for a potential wildfire at a school full of scared Expressive children. Busy busy busy.” She doesn’t seem genuinely stressed by the amount of work, smiling as she speaks. “How are things with you and the family?”
Ames, exasperated, removes her sunglasses and shrugs with an incredulous huff as she storms off while the adults talk. She’s intercepted before she can stray into the controlled areas of the building by Wright, who scoops her up off of the ground and places her over one shoulder. The receptionist quickly ends her unnecessary call for Wright.
“Maaaaaah!”
“Hi Babe, Hi Liz, sorry,” Wright gestures hello with a momentarily free hand as she juggles her daughter. “Hi Boog, not sorry.”
“MAH.”
Elisabeth ignores the chuckle from the man who is her shadow — it's not the man-mountain that Wright has seen before, a lankier guy. But he's clearly alert and watchful even here. He's also thoroughly amused at Ames. Liz is having a hard time swallowing the chuckles herself.
"Yeah," she replies to Marthe's workload. "We're keeping a close watch on the situation." Elisabeth's definitely aware and in the middle of fire prepping in this city. "Things are going… all right, though."
The brief hesitation may or may not be noticeable to Wright and her spouse, but Elisabeth's blue eyes flicker almost immediately to Wright when the question is asked. "Trying to keep the city from losing it and planning a birthday party at the same time isn't exactly my forte." Aurora's birthday is only two days away, and well…. Liz is making it a bigger deal than she usually would. For reasons. "She's bummed Richard has to be out of town for both his and hers. It's the first time he's missed since we came home, so having everyone around I think has her excited. You're still able to be there, yeah?" It's kind of a big deal to the child, celebrating her birthday with her father but a party. Well… ya know. Cake!
“Yessss” Ames says, wiggling hard enough to force her mother to either set her down or drop her on her head. Wright spins her daughter and places the child on her feet before she can do any real damage.
“I’ll be there!” Marthe says with an honest smile. “We’re stopping by to say goodbye to Wright before she goes on her trip, but we’re otherwise free.”
“I’m supposed to be shipping out sometime soon,” Wright says, “but if it isn’t immediate I will wrangle up a SESA detail and make an appearance.” This earns her another excited yessss from Ames. Wright nods them in the direction of the building’s secured spaces as Marthe puts a short guest laminate lanyard around her daughter’s neck before her own. There’s another handed out to Liz by the smiling receptionist.
Taking the lanyard, Elisabeth slips it over her head as she turns to accompany Wright and Marthe. The slender man who accompanied her onto the base remains where he is.
"Good, I'm so glad you'll make it!" Genuinely pleased that even Wright may be able to make it, Liz is trying to not look impatient too. The message is apparently good news, but that's no excuse to be rude to friends. "We've got pizzas and video games for the kids, and Aura's looking forward to showing off her flowers that she's been planting with her father. He got her into a bit of gardening," she grins. "It's good she inherited his green thumb instead of my black one."
“Nice!” Ames says, though provides no elaboration as to which topic she finds to be to her liking.
Wright weaves the group through the halls toward her quarters. “I’m gonna lock the family up in my room,” she says over her shoulder to Liz, “Then we’ll grab my conference room to talk.”
“Whaaaat?” Ames says, incensed. “Baby jail already?”
“She’s not actually going to lock us in,” Marthe assures their daughter. “But I’m going to tie you to a chair.”
“Woooo!” Ames says, fists raised in excitement. Marthe gives Liz a smile of parting for now as Wright opens the door to her room and corrals Ames in first.
Elisabeth is laughing at the antics of the small family. Baby jail. That's exactly what Liz used to call it when Aura had to be corralled. These days, it's all three of them — her daughter has finally begun to come out of the state of hyper-readiness that characterized their life before. And Ricky has his father's ability to find adventure anywhere. Family life is pretty amazing.
She waits easily for Wright while the other woman gets her family settled, and then she follows to the conference room. It's habit more than anything else that has her sliding a silence field around the perimeter of the room they're going to use to talk. Instinct drives Elisabeth to protect the conversation at all costs when talking of such things as they're getting ready to talk about.
She looks pensive as she rests her hands on the back of one of the chairs, blue eyes on Wright when she comes in and closes the door. It gives her a moment to study the younger woman's face, searching for … something. "I'm sorry to be impatient. You said it was good news?" she asks softly, curious and a hair on the concerned side but not panicked. Just unable to wait any longer to ask.
Wright smiles as Liz inspects the room. It's an absolute mess, too much furniture and an absurd amount of three-ring binders stacked atop all of it. She's made the place slightly cozier since she started giving reports from here. The table has been mostly cleared, several seats appear recently used. She doesn't take her usual place at the head of the table, instead rounding the room to sit opposite where Liz stands.
"Okay,” Wright says, pressing her hands against the table as her eyes lose focus for a moment. She drums absentmindedly on the tabletop for a moment, pauses, then nods. “I was given a message that Elliot was given by the captain of their ship, who in turn got it from someone else. I was going to quote it from memory, but I’m going to let Richard tell you in his own words.”
“Well,” she corrects herself, “I’m going to repeat what Richard says to Elliot and he’ll repeat to Richard what you say to me. Sound good?”
Elisabeth blinks. Several times. And then she lowers herself into the seat across from Wright and breathes out. "Okay." It's almost like she didn't honestly believe that she'd be able to talk to her husband — even though the link exists.
And for just a moment she has to look away to rein in some waterworks because she'd really rather that people she works with and respects don't see her as a complete basket case. "Right, okay," she says again softly, blowing out a shaky breath. Her eyes come back to Wright. "Let's do this."
Wright’s smile in seeing Liz unprepared for the communication is full of understanding. “This conversation is locked down on both ends,” she says. “You can trust us to be discreet. As long as you don’t try to pass a kiss through me and Elliot onto Richard we will extend you full doctor/patient confidentiality.”
The Manhattan Archipelago
The Flooded Timeline
“All right,” Elliot says, eyes returning to focus. “Obviously this will be slightly less intimate than a perfect scenario, but Wright will do her very best to transmit your words to Liz, and I’ll do likewise. If you want, I could link you in and lock you out of everything but Wright’s perception so you can see and hear everything as Wright does, though Wright will still have to relay your words as she hears you say them through me. Though I will understand if you are still reticent to do that.”
“So we’re not going to make out as a proxy while Liz and Wright do?”
Richard flashes a broad grin, hands lifting, “Joking, in case you were wondering. You remember, that movie, uh, Ghost?”
He always jokes when he’s nervous.
A hand comes up to rub against the back of his neck, the grin fading, ”I… yeah, but it’s nothing personal, I’m just– there’s already a lot of weird shit that my brain’s connected to, and I’m worried about weird interactions.”
Elliot sighs. “Haven’t seen it. But Wright just said we wouldn’t be kissing,” he says regretfully, “It would be weird to contradict her now.”
“I’d love to hear about weird interactions with shit your brain’s connected to,” he says with a semi-serious laugh, “as linking could be very useful at some point on this assignment. But I accept your no without reservation. We’re good to go here, feel free to talk to Liz.”
“Worst case is ‘everyone involved dies’ and I don’t like playing with those odds,” admits Richard with a grimace, “As useful as it might be. Some abilities get weird when you mix them, but– anyway, right, anyway.”
He pauses a moment, awkwardly uncertain before offering, “Uh. Hi, Liz?”
Fort Jay, Governor's Island
The Prime Timeline
“And he said it with kind of a confused question mark at the end like he’s not sure how talking to people works?” Wright adds, uptalk of her own demonstrating in jest Richard’s tone. “So now it’s your turn!” Exciting times.
Dropping her head, Elisabeth can't help the laughter. That man cracks her up sometimes. "We truly have the strangest life ever, Nerfherder." Her chuckles brighten her features and her blue eyes with humor and some amount of relief. Thank God Wright coached her to think of this like a phone call. "Hi. The kids all say hello — I told them we had a special phone that I couldn't bring home so I promised I'd tell you that first thing. Things are about as normal here so far; how are you doing there? Are you getting help from the locals?"
For his part, Elliot adds no embellishments.
“I don’t know, I’m sure someone has a stranger life,” quips Richard, “Maybe Eve?”
This is awkward, but he’s sure he’ll adapt after a bit. “Um– tell the kids hi, and that I love them, and to be nice to each other. Tell Ricky to stop climbing on things that his sisters tell him is too tall to climb.”
Clearing his throat, “We’re– doing alright, uh, as alright as we can be after the attack cost us most of our supplies. I imagine the OEI hasn’t told you shit about that, so I won’t ask. Some of the locals were talking about heading up to Alaska anyway, by serendipity, so we may be a big expedition up that way. Destiny and Edward are here, Nathalie’s here– um. Right, Silas! Turns out that son of a bitch actually survived, he was just sent home.”
There is a long pause as Elisabeth glances at Wright, debating on whether to tell Richard anything at all. She chooses her words carefully while she processes the shock of the Silas news. "OEI hasn't been in contact but I heard what happened. I'm still trying to get in touch with Chel, but she's okay. What the hell do you mean Silas was sent home?" She is appalled — "Is he coming back here again with you?" The man did so much for everyone, but… she also understands that is his home. "Tell him that I am really grateful to hear he's all right. I'll pass word to his roommate that he wasn't killed." Kain probably doesn't need to know more than that.
Biting her lip, Liz sorts through a dozen things that probably don't need to be said when they're only able to be communicating through third parties. She settles on keeping things simple. "Are you going to try to make the trip by boat or are you going to attempt a land crossing?" Either way is fraught with danger, but what choice is there?
“Obviously I’m not leaving him here, given the whole… point of this trip,” Richard replies with a shake of his head, “Same with the others I named. If we find a way home, I want to save as many people as we can…”
“We’re heading towards land. Seems that the Flood caused some serious environmental issues, there’s this massive storm that’s likely to last like, half the year or something ridiculous,” he reveals, grimacing, “Which is going to take us even longer, likely. Hopefully not too long.”
Wright gets a look at Elisabeth's expression, and it's not good. "The storm that used to hold in position out there? It's intensified?" She pauses. "Is it the same storm? Because I … had some vague notion that was artificial, though I can't recall why I think it."
Those months in the Pelago, it wasn't something that was an immediate worry; she was too busy surviving to worry about a storm that wasn't imminent.
“Yeah, well, the storm is the least of our worries…” Richard draws in a deep breath, “We’ve got a– situation that we discovered here, or more to the point, that they discovered but didn’t fully understand until we gave them some context.”
“Did you run into Crowley at all when you were out here? He was with the Sentinel.”
"No, thank God," she replies, alarmed. "They called him Confessor Crowley. And he was kinda the boogeyman. Is the Sentinel still culling people?" Elisabeth had hoped that the Pelago's survival meant the threat was neutralized.
“No, it’s… uh, so they recovered his body after the big fight,” explains Richard, drawing in a deep breath, “…and he was an android. Like– a Kaylee-style android. One of the Project Galatea models.”
"Whoa," Elisabeth breathes out, flabbergasted. "Okay… I've got about 150 million questions now." And Richard likely has almost no answers. "That suggests that Weiss-Renautas has some kind of ability to open a portal, doesn't it?" She pauses — that thought could be one she revisits at a later point. "Okay… what do you want me to do? I don't even know who to trust with this besides the obvious."
“Oh, uh,” Richard clears his throat, “No, it’s worse than that. He was wearing a miniaturized Looking Glass build into a bodysuit - presumably how he got into this timeline to begin with. He was using it for short-distance spatial hops, although it was lacking in safety features since he teleported himself into a stairwell and killed himself.”
“So… ah. I’m thinking time travel. Which is a bad sign. Because it usually means we lost.”
"Mother fucker," Elisabeth groans out, digging the heels of her palms into her eyes. Pushing out of her chair on the far end, she paces Wright's conference room in agitation. It takes her a long few moments to gather her thoughts and she drags her hands through her hair while she paces. Perhaps oddly enough for Wright, Liz seems less than surprised.
"If they've perfected the fucking tech, miniaturised it to that degree, and are sending androids both through time and through timelines, we are so far beyond fucked that it's not even funny, Richard." Great. Just great. "Okay … look, you do what the hell you need to do on that side. It's all going to be moot if the planet explodes in six months anyway."
Dropping into her seat across from Wright again, the audiokinetic says simply, "I wish you were here. The implications of this are frying my brain, lover. You know that I'm the kicking in the door part of this — and I like it that way."
“I’m not so sure the plan is to blow the planet up anymore, honestly,” Richard exhales a sigh, shaking his head, “They blew the rig after we were already deploying– I think they were trying to make sure we were through first. We’re following a plan here, and for once I don’t think it’s the one we want to be following.”
"␇␇␇WHAT␎?␄" Elliot types in the pockets of his hoodie.
Wryly, Richard notes, “I’m also not ruling out that it’s us who sent the time travellers, by the way, because I can’t imagine anyone except for mom who could perfect the technology to that degree.”
"WHAT␎!?␄" Wright types on the table’s edge.
“I wish I was there too, lover. I– um, Marlowe and Cat developed some tech to detect these androids, they promised to share it with us– Elliot, can you follow up with them and make sure that information gets to our techs on that side? At the very least we need to make sure Raytech and Wolfhound are clear of infiltration.
“…check Sera first, that would explain a lot, honestly.”
“I don’t know how much of a technical diagram Wright will be able to relay but I’ll ask them for what they have,” Elliot says. “Who do you want this to go to?”
“It can’t be too technical, these people are working with duct tape and double-a batteries. Shit, uh– probably, Liz can get her to Gatter, he’d be the best” suggests Richard.
“Might need to fly him to KC,” Wright says. “I’m guessing he won’t be at the party?”
As the information is relayed by Wright, Elisabeth frowns. "It's never simple," she grumbles mildly. She drags her hands down her face again and sighs. "All right. So I need to get hold of Dr. Gatter? I don't know if I've even met the guy, but will Kaylee or Val know how to reach him?" She nibbles her lip and shakes her head negatively to Wright. "No, the birthday party is just some of the kids from the school."
There's another pause and she asks, "Do you want me to let Chel know about this?" It's not exactly good news. Elisabeth considers. "The possibility that we would try time travel yet again for something when we know it always goes to shit is kind of terrifying. Because it would really take something major to get me to sign off on that and not hit you over the head," she mutters in a disgruntled tone.
"The fact of the matter is the guy was with the Sentinel. Which to me lines up with the whole Mazdek shit, so I'm thinking it more likely we fucking lost against them." Liz's brows are furrowed tight to her nose while she thinks aloud, leaving Wright to pass on whatever is happening at her discretion. "Is there anyone on this end that we can actually trust if we do find out Sera is some kind of robot? I mean… we already know of nearly a dozen people who've been taken and we still have no idea how to get them back."
“Or… they considered stopping you from getting to the Ark more important than you surviving, and tried to stop you that way,” observes Richard with a grimace, “From a detached viewpoint, the Entity did escape null-space that way, after all. If it scorched the Earth, or something like that…”
He shakes his head, “No way to tell. And yeah, Kaylee or Val can get you in touch with Gatter, he’s probably our biggest egghead short of Chel– and no, don’t tell Chel about this. Mom… is going to have enough to deal with as it is, I’ve got a feeling.”
"Wait… you think they wanted to stop us from getting to the Ark?" Elisabeth considers and admits, "Honestly, the thought never occurred to me. I didn't exactly feel like we were particular targets of the Sentinel back then, but… I suppose it's possible. But every time we've dealt with their bullshit here, they've been trying to get it out, or attempting to worship it or something, right? So why would they stop us from tearing open the rift if that is what they wanted anyway?"
“I don’t think it’s the Entity’s people who sent them back,” replies Richard carefully, “I think it’s the survivors who did. Like when the kids came back from the wasteland.”
Once more Elisabeth drags her hand down her face. "Okay," is all she says to that. Just… okay. "If you're right, they didn't manage to stop me from getting home and by extension failed in keeping the entity trapped. So now they're doing whatever the hell they're doing to get you to help fix it?" She hopes she understood that right. She so does not do conspiracy brain very well. "Honestly I'm not sure it matters except that I hope to hell it means you have more help than we currently know about. But all we can do is what we always do — work with what's in front of us. Besides getting Wright and Gatter together, is there anything else you think we can do from this end to help you?"
“Fuck if I know, he’s dead now, so… no way to question him,” Richard admits, “We gotta find a living time traveller so we can ask them what the fuck they’re up to, honestly, and you know how they never want to tell us that stuff.”
He sighs, “No, I wish there was, but– just make sure everything on that end is going well. I’m sure there’s plenty of bullshit happening there that I don’t know about.”
"Plenty," Elisabeth agrees. "I'll have Wright keep you apprised as much as I can on anything major. We've got bad wildfires right now, so that's the only big thing at this moment. We may have to do some evacuation of the Safe Zone, but if it happens, I'll send the kids and Harm up to Detroit. I'm still trying to reach your mother to check on her. And …. happy birthday, love. Aura's blowing out candles tonight for both of you on her cake."
Pausing, she clears her throat a bit awkwardly and then adds softly, "Be safe, okay?" There are so many other things she might like to say, but Elisabeth leaves it at "Love you."
“Thanks.” Richard pauses, “I’ll be as safe as I can. Love you too, and… oh. Shit. Uh. One last thing.”
He clears his throat, “When mom gets back with my sister… tell Doctor Pride to go see her. My sister, that is.” Now that’s a mysterious request if there ever was one.
"CHRIST␄" Elliot types.
"ABORT␎?␄" Wright asks, moving her hands to her legs beneath the table.
"NO␄" Elliot responds, there isn't enough time for a clean redaction.
On the far side of that link, Elisabeth stares at the bearer of these tidings clearly shocked beyond all belief. "What the hell do you mean Rianna is with your mother? She …. she survived?" Liz watched the girl throw herself into the vortex to power their return home. "She's… been here the whole time??" Would Rianna have been so cruel to her mother??
"NO␠CHANGE␎?␄" Wright asks, confused. They'd assumed the change would have carried past the Oil Rig in the two years since events started to be altered.
“…fuck, I figured they would have– they really need to get out of OEI custody and back home,” Richard breathes out a heavy sigh, “No, she escaped when we went through, it’s complicated, get together with her and Pride and it’ll all make sense, I promise.”
"WHY␠O␎?␄" Elliot wonders. What does Gideon d'Sarthe's lounge singer have to do with this? he asks himself in confusion.
Complicated, the man says. "Yeah… it always is" retorts his wife. "Okay. I'll redouble efforts to get in touch with Chel and I'll let Dr. Pride know what's up." Liz pauses and then adds, "She'll be glad for the confirmation that you're still okay. Scared both of us to death when her link to you snapped."
"OH␠FUCK␄" Wright types. O is the one who made the empathic link to Richard. Did she detect anything? she wonders.
Elliot hides the confused terror well. If Rianna Cranston is in fact Rianna Mas Price, the mother of Odessa Price, and if she's compelled to seek out her daughter as Eve explained, then it would make sense for Richard to ask the two to connect if "O␠IS␠ODESSA␄".
“I wasn’t expecting that either, especially given the– well, we know she has links to her other selves, however tenuous,” Richard admits, nose wrinkling up a bit, “I was hoping that’d keep it secure.”
"W␎.␏T␎.␏F␎.␄" Elliot types anxiously. None of my interactions with d'Sarthe can be assumed to have been insulated, he thinks.
"Not even a little. And her spouse was less than pleased with the aftereffects. So I'm trying to keep a bit of an eye on her anyway." Elisabeth is leery of Dessa's mister. "She'll relax when she knows for sure you're okay, and it'll make things easier. That was not the best day, for sure."
Sighing, she drags her hair back one more time. "Lover, if you have any other bombs you wanna drop on me, now's the time."
"ACE␎?␄". Wright grimaces apologetically for having extended Liz’s worry.
“Her spouse can go fuck himself with a rusty bit of iron. The only reason I haven’t killed the sonuvabitch is because she’d be upset at me.”
There’s a pause after that, and Richard ventures - hoping for a laugh, “I’m pregnant?”
It indeed makes her laugh, and Elisabeth fires back, "That's my line."
“All my material is derivative,” Richard chuckles, “Love you. See you soon, God and Edward willing.”
He said that just to get a reaction too.
Elisabeth mumbles, "Edward Fucking Ray" in a tone of disgruntlement. Wait….
"Edward is still alive there? Mom said he was dead!"
“Nah, Destiny and him got out,” Richard replies, “I’m dragging them with us.”
Pinching the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache, Liz simply sighs heavily. "Okay. I'll… let Chel know that too. And I'm pretty sure you're wrong. Even Eve doesn't have as strange a life as we do."
Shaking her head, she's forced to laugh again. "It's sick and twisted that I kind of missed this."
“We wouldn’t know what to do if our lives were normal,” points out Richard with a rueful chuckle, “We’d start assuming the sandwich guy was an enemy agent or something.”
At that, she bursts out laughing, the first time she has genuinely been relaxed since she arrived. "Not wrong," she admits, shaking her head in weary amusement. "Thought I was actually going to get rid of the paranoia when I came home — dumb thought."
She waves her hand at Wright as if the other woman is Richard on the far end of a video call. "Go do something useful to save the worlds, love. I'm holding down the fort so far." Her concern is evident in her expression as she murmurs, "I love you, too. Just for the love of God, be careful. You know what's going to happen if you get stuck there." It won't be the first time one of them has ripped apart time and space to get to the other. And Liz has Chel on her side too.
“It’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you, lover,” Richard replies, a smile - genuine, if tired - crossing his expression, “Go tell the kids I love them and I’m thinking of them, and… well, Kaylee might need some moral support when standing up to the government, they might think that she’s easier to push around than me. So take care of the family, too.”
"Always," Elisabeth replies quietly, amused at the thought that they might think Kaylee is easier to push around. They won't know what hit them if they try. Letting out a long, slow breath, she says, "Thanks, Elliot." Her blue eyes focus on Wright's gaze now. "Thank you both of you for doing this."
“Happy to help!” Wright says, smiling wide. “Any chance I could take up a little more of your time to ask what the fuck?”