Participants:
| Scene Title | Motivation |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | After burying their oldest, the Brennans make plans for the future. |
| Date | September 01, 2011 |
The Brennan Home
Somewhere, on Staten Island, is a person. A target and a place for Brennan to channel his anger and grief. A tangible, physical, real thing to blame and point a finger at. It's the day after everything had been taken care of, their eldest settled into eternal rest in some green well manicured cemetery and her short life mourned by the many who came to pay their respects to the family. The youngest ones oblivious and relishing the attention lavished by family.
This early hour finds Brennan already out of bed, down in the kitchen. A map of Staten out, red sharpie marking off places already looked. Coffee steaming in a mug and a scruffy backpack that saw better days overseas and carrying medical necessities and equipment sitting on the kitchen table and holding appropriate clothing instead. He's planning another trip, likely to be sneaking out of the house before Michelle can get up. Grief can be channeled in so many ways.
Waking up to find her husband's side of the bed empty is not too alarming, given the circumstances, but enough to get Michelle to come down the stairs to look around. And to use the late our to catch a smoke break now that their house isn't full of people. It isn't a vice she dips in often, but grief and shot nerves are cause enough in her mind.
When she sees Brennan there in the kitchen, lighter and cigarette pack are slid into a pocket in her robe before she comes up beside him. "I hope you were planning to give me a kiss before you left," she notes with a glance to the backpack, then the map and then to him, one eyebrow lifted.
"Of course" Smooth lie, off the cuff and without even a glance up to her as he crosses off one street name, pushing back off his elbows to straighten up. "How many a day are you doing now?" He knows - How could he not - About the resurgence of her smoking. Can smell traces of it on her this last week.
"One." If he can lie, she can lie. Plus, she's not entirely sure it counts as lying when the other person knows. Michelle looks down at the map, moving to replace his elbows with her own as she looks it over. "The twins will be asking for you in the morning," she says, as if it were just a simple observation, but he knows better by now.
'Daddy had to go into work" Tell them a little white lie, while they're still too young to know that it's not quite a little white one. "There's some things I need to clear up and then I'll be going to the island, I'll be back later though" What exact time, he doesn't know or whether he'll end up spending a night instead of actually coming home is another thing. Depends on if he finds who they're looking for.
"I think… I think that we should move"
"I'll rephrase," Michelle says, straightening to look at him, one hand moving to her hip, "The twins will need you. When it sinks in that Marlena won't be coming back…" She lets out a sigh, shaking her head before she looks back to the map.
"I think that might be a good idea. Were you thinking to Chicago or to France?" It's possible she has been thinking along the same lines.
"France. Chicago will be the same, this country will be the same until someone actually changes things, takes a step back and really see's things." He dances around, makes no response to her clarification regarding the twins. "I was thinking, that we could sell the Group, sell it to the others, sell this place, find some home in one of the big cities, maybe something south, near Montpellier. Work for MSF. Office jobs, not back in the jungle. Away from the terrorists, away from everything here"
Away from where their daughter died. "We can take some of her ashes with us, we can scatter her at your parents and we can start over. Live in a country where you can fly in a plane wihtout it needing to be a private chartered one"
"We should see if your family will come, too." Possibly because once they're gone, she doesn't foresee them coming back. Michelle is in agreement, though. Selling it all, starting over. "We can take her to that tree she loved. Over the pond." A favorite play place she wouldn't be able to see without thinking about Marlena anyway. "My mother could take the girls back with her while we arrange things." Getting them to safety. She doesn't say so, but it's easy enough to guess her motivation.
The institute, or the Department of Evolved affairs might not take kindly to them thinking of moving to another country. Children make such fine leverage at times. Motivation for parents to do what they might not otherwise do. "My family won't come"He's sure of it. Unlike them, the are deeply rooted in Chicago, away from New York where most of the focus seems to be on those who are evolved.
He doesn't see them coming back either. If they actually go through with this and it's not all just talk. "We'd have to visit lawyers, get permission written up for them to go. School" Would be an issue and then maybe not. Kindergarten wasn't so big a deal that a tutor couldn't be found over there. THe logistics of eveyrthing starting to swim around in his head. Of how to pull up their own roots with minimal loss and destruction to things. It's doing possibly what Michelle is hoping, slowing down on the studying of the map and the slow grinding gears of how to track down Calvin Rosen. Focus on his wife instead.
"Do you think we could actually pull it off?"
Michelle frowns at those first words, her head shaking for a moment. "Perhaps we will keep a few rooms free, in case they change their minds later." She turns, leaning back against the table as she considers the rest. "I think if we're going to, right now is the best time. We can play it off like the children are going in the wake of Marlena's death. Staying with family while we all recover. It isn't so far from the truth."
She looks up at him, her head tilted lightly. "I think we can get them to my parents' without too much fuss. You and I can follow when we have things arranged."
So many logistics. Made marginally easier by the fact that they have money, that both of them come from comfortable families and have skills that can be used in nearly any country. Brennan nods his head, palm spread across Staten Island, nodding his head in agreement to Michelle's words. Get the children out first, the rest will follow.
"It shouldn't have been like this" The nodding turns to shaking his head, shoulders dropping. "It shouldn't have happened to her. We shouldn't feel like we need to go to another country to provide a better life for our children, a safer one. This is America. This is the better safer country, where dreams come true, where everyone is treated equal"
Her hand reaches up to touch his cheek and Michelle steps in closer to him. "It shouldn't, you're right. None of this should be happening. But this is where we find ourselves and from here, we do what we must for our family." She brings her other hand up to his opposite cheek, to turn his face her way. "Perhaps this was the safer place, years ago. Now it isn't. And I don't want to have to mourn another child."
"It's wrong Mish" To have to mourn a child. To know that no matter what you do, it seems that nothing will change. That things will only get worse. Spine and neck work in tandem with his skull and her hand, turning his face towards the woman he married years ago and the citizen of the country they're very well looking to sink roots into. "It's wrong" Quite admission with a touch of surrender. Staten Island abandoned for now so he can wrap his arms around his wife and pull her in tight, hold onto her. "We'll talk with your mother, we'll get this in order" Seperation will be hard, but it will be for the better, for the kids, for them, for the family. "We can do this"
Michelle wraps her arms around him, too, her face buried against his shoulder for a moment. Her fingers move to wipe at her eyes before she looks up at him, although it doesn't hide the little burst of tears. "We can." Or if they can't, they'll have the children out of this mess. "She'll help. And I think the girls will like to visit the vineyard again. A familiar place, they won't be too off put, I think. It'll work out."
