Participants:
| Scene Title | Multi-Ability Temper Tantrum |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Wanting to go home, Liette throws a temper tantrum, forcing harsh action to stop her. Claire Bennet finds herself in the presence of the girl that Rebel asked her to find. |
| Date | April 14, 2010 |
The Garden used to be the quietest safehouse of all the Ferry. Back even a year ago, before Mage's death, the only concern here was the glow of fireflies in the back field and who was making dinner come evening. Ever since Mage died, since Amato Salucci and Lucrezia Bennati moved out, the Garden has increasingly become more and more active, with a heightened level of dangerous individuals and crisis situations appearing on its doorstep; the rabid dogs attacking one of Brennan's children the latest…
…before tonight.
Somewhere in the kitchen, the young redheaded Ferrymen Jonas is sitting with a blanket around his shoulders, eyes closed and rocking back and forth slowly, murmuring to himself in fearful quality about the horrible scene that played out just a few short hours ago. The entire safehouse is up in arms, yelling conversations have moved outside, arguments about who failed at what end of the command chain and fearful rumblings about which safehouses could be next.
Adjacent to the kitchen in the living room, the tiny, blonde figure of Liette — the girl at the heart of all this disaster — sits with her stocking clad knees pulled up to her chest, mouth tucked away behind her knees and eyes wide, staring down into a lit and roaring fireplace that casts a ruddy illumination across her brow and reflects dully on glassy, still teary eyes.
Melissa Pierce hasn't left her side since the helicopter landed and the group was evacuated, the same can't be said for Raith and Eileen, it's hard to tell where they headed, but likely to tie up loose administrative ends and get word out to other safehouses. But for all the residents of the Garden — Ferrymen and visitors — tonight is nothing like it used to be.
Melissa sits to Liette's left, and her arm lifts to wrap it around the girl's shoulders. She's not having a fun night either, her shoulder killing her from how much she used it tonight, especially dragging Liette up the stairs. And her focus is split. Jonas is freaked out, Kendall is elsewhere, and Mel…she has a scared kid to try to calm down. Three months ago her life was a lot quieter than it is right now.
"Liette…he'll come back. You were scared when we left the Den, right? But he came back then. He'll come back this time too," she murmurs, trying to reassure the teen, glancing towards the kitchen.
She doesn't speak, having spent most of her time since arrival absorbing the viewpoints of others and offering commentaries here and there. While during the rescue and extraction Cat was focused and commanding, giving sharp instructions to get moving and stay that way, not to mention her use of the door gun, now she's pensive and perhaps seemingly troubled. Wandering up to where Liette and Melissa are parked, Cat settles slowly into another nearby seat. "We'll find him, and get him back." How isn't elaborated. For Melissa's mind, she doesn't have to. She was at Moab and saw.
When Claire left that afternoon to check in with a few people, so imagine the regenerators surprise when she stumbled upon people arguing outside. Brows high on her head, the dark haired woman, eyes them as she passes by so that she can make her way into the safehouse. There is a small frown on her lips when she steps in and finds even more people. She was kinda liking the fairly quiet nature of the place so the sudden intense activity is throwing her off some.
Lips pressed in a thin line, she starts stripping off her hat, revealing the long dark tail of that ponytail she's been sporting lately. The coat and scarf go across the back of a couch, brows dropping as she looks at any occupants there. Blue eyes scan other faces and spots Cat, a familiar face at least. "Cat…" She says moving in her friends direction. "What — what's going on here?"
Then those eyes fall on Melissa and Liette, a blink of surprise, before she looks to Cathrine again, with brows raised a bit. "All was quiet when I stepped out… what happened?"
There's not much for Liette to say to Melissa's reassurance, that tiny blonde sitting at the former safehouse operator's side is stone silent and focused on the fire. Liette may see Claire, but the girl doesn't so much as blink, from the furrow of her brows she's clearly either concentrating or just giving Melissa the angry silent treatment that young teens are wont to do. All things considered Liette has every right to be livid, and it shows on her face.
Claire's question goes unanswered by Liette, but it wasn't wholly directed at her either. It's only when clomping bootfalls come down the stairs from the second floor and the crisp intonation of a Brit's voice plays out that Claire is given her first response. "We got bloody jacked by those wankers in the government. They raided one of our safehouses in Midtown, captured a bunch've people, used this soddin' gas on us that took away people's powers. It was bad, girl, real bad."
Melissa looks at Cat when she joins her and the teen, then to Claire, a stranger, and one that has her arm tightening protectively around Liette. Then the mention of the gas has her features hardening. "I'd like to meet the person who invented that gas. Just for five minutes," she mutters.
Looking down to Liette, Mel murmurs, "I'm gonna get you something to drink, honey. Want some hot chocolate?" she asks, before rising to her feet. The girl needs something anyway, and luckily the kitchen is right there. And she can check on Jonas.
"It's what he said," Cat replies for Claire's benefit with a nod toward Andy Rourke. Melissa is glanced at when she makes her comment, then Claire, but she opts not to speak of Claire having met the man and suffered at his hands. It's her story to tell. Instead, she focuses on Liette and speaks in a subdued voice.
"You've never seen anything like that before, and hopefully won't have to ever again. I have, and probably will again, Liette. Nothing will change what I've seen and done. The best way I can describe it is due to some things I've done, some people aren't alive anymore, but so many millions more are. You're one of them, whether you'll believe that or not."
She pauses here, to make eye contact and see what if any reaction her words bring to the girl's face and eyes, before adding somberly "The things I could tell you, you may well not want to hear. But you deserve nothing less than truth. Are you willing to listen, and ask questions, Liette?"
Gas
Claire turns quickly to stare at the person coming down the stairs, the concern evident. "Gas? Are — of course, your certain." There is a small shake of the regenerators head, as she looks down at the floor between her feet. "I know the gas your talking about. Yellow, thick, makes your skin tingle." There is disgust in her words . "Nasty stuff. I tend to avoided it if I can." She has too, else it could possibly be, Bye bye, Clairebear.
Eyes lift to glance at Melissa, Claire studies her for a moment. "The stuff was developed in Madagascar, so good luck with that." A small quirk to her lips, but there is no humor in it, more apologetic then anything. "Though one of the scientists, I think it might be the one who made it, is in government hands, I'm pretty sure. Eileen knows just as much about it as I do, she might remember more, too. My memories of that particular scientist are hazy at best." Something else Claire doesn't like remembering, but at the same time it's probably a blessing.
"I don't wanna' talk to you," Liette murmurs to no one in particular, "unless you know where Pop or Doctor Brennan are go away." At that insistance, the fireplace roars larger, crackling brightly and burning a lighter shade of yellow before dying back down to its normal shade. Liette's lips purse, nose wrinkles and she curls up just a little tighter in that ball. That seems like a no for cocoa.
"Fuck me sideways," Andy curses, rubbing a hand over the top of his shaved head. "if they got more've that gas, we are proper fucked, ain't we? They got all that military hardware an' stuff, if we ain't got our powers' what've we got? Jack and shit and runnin' scared."
While Andy curses and splutters in the living room, Melissa's entrance into the kitchen is punctuated by the sounds of a phone conversation by one of the Ferrymen outside, loud enough to come ringing through the back windows. "No, Scott I don't have any idea who was there. Tien's gone do you hear me? Gone. We got Rourke and a couple other residents who volunteered, nobody who knew the names on the list. Don't— don't fucking yell at me I have no idea! A chopper just landed in the front yard and dropped them off, ask Ruskin!"
Jonas is still seated at the table, eyes wide and thermal blanket wrapped around himself, looking pale in the lantern light from the lamp hanging above his head, creating more shadows on the dark circles beneath his eyes than is attractive. His eyes drift up to view Melissa, then wordlessly go to the floor; he's still in shock.
Melissa frowns at Cat, clearly not liking the way the conversation is going. Liette's answer has her glancing back to the teen, but she continues into the kitchen anyway, to set about finding some of those packets of instant cocoa to fix up for Jonas and Liette.
The conversation outside has Melissa sighing and shaking her head, but she doesn't stop what she's doing. She does, however, make conversation. "Hey Jonas. You okay? I mean, you didn't get hurt or anything, did you?" she asks quietly. "I know it was a clusterfuck back there, but it could've been worse." They could have all been taken.
"I believe," Cat replies with unchanged solemnity, "your Pop works at a place called the Institute in Massachusetts. He's probably there, where he keeps people in tanks and does experiments on them. The men who attacked earlier, we believe they round people up to be put in tanks like that, and they may well have put Doctor Brennan in one. I know you care for your Pop, Liette, but think about what you've seen where he works. Should anyone really be doing that to another person?"
She rises then, moving to slowly be other than near Liette in case she remains unwilling to talk.
"I don't know. Madagascar they had that gas and yet that small resistance took them down with some support." Claire shrugs watching Andy, sometimes when a situation looks hopeless… "Might seem bad, but you all have pretty resourceful people working with you." AKA Her dad for one. They may not be talking, but she's a bit biased toward the ex-company man.
Her eyes move to Liette sitting there, the corners of her mouth tug down slightly in thought. She recognized the young girl right away, but she never figured she'd see her. A glance at others, the regenerator turns towards the teenager and then the fireplace. She almost looks like she wants to say something, but glances at Cat.
"N— No I'm…" Jonas' blue eyes are wide when he looks up to Melissa, brows furrowed and color still drained from his face, "I'm okay. The— the short bald dude saved me. I— I think he saved the old man too," Tugging the blankets tighter around himself, Jonas looks haunted, sounds haunted, and likely will be haunted by the sights he saw.
In the living room, Cat has touched a nerve. "I said I don't want to talk to you!" Liette sharply protests, wind kicking up around her and sending curtains fluttering, the flames in the fireplace rising up again and a static hiss in the back of Cat's mind that is likely unintentional psychic projection. "Don't talk about my Pop you don't know him! Don't talk about him! Don't tell me about my home you don't live there! You've never been there! How could you know what it's like!" Throwing her blanket off of herself and rising up off the sofa, "I'm going to go find Brennan myself!"
Because that's the worst possible idea anyone's had all day, and with that snarled note, Liette's booted feet are clomping angrily towards the front door. The problem is, how does someone stop a girl with as many powers as she has and the recklessness to utilize them in a fitful hormonal teenager temper tantrum?
There's a clatter in the kitchen as Melissa drops a cup and it breaks. Or maybe she slammed it down. It's hard to tell unless you're Mel. It cuts her palm, but she doesn't seem to care. She doesn't even seem to notice. Instead she's stalking out of the kitchen and towards the angry teen.
"Liette, you stop right now. You're acting like a spoiled brat. And if you go out that door, all you'll manage is to get yourself killed. So your experimenting father and Brennan won't have the chance of finding you. Is that what you want? To be selfish?" she demands of the girl, her temper snapping. Too much in too short of a time, and the girl that they all risked their lives for acting like she is? It's the straw that broke the camel's back. And unfortunately, with a loss of temper, comes a loss of control. Luckily for those in the room, it's a minor loss, and the pain that radiates from around her is little more than a headache.
Mel points towards the kitchen. "In there is a boy who is in shock and will no doubt have nightmares the next time he sleeps, because we were trying to save you. If you walk out that door right now, you're saying that he doesn't matter. That the people who got shot back there by your father's people don't matter. That no one matters but you. Is that what you think, Liette? Do you only care about yourself and your sister? Do I not matter? The person who had a snowball fight with you and did your makeup? Do I matter to you at all? Because if I do, you will sit your little ass back down and listen rather than pouting and throwing your ability at people who are just trying to help you."
Mel will need to apologize to the operator of the Garden later, when she calms down. Since she's dripping blood all over his floor.
The panmnesiac, meanwhile, is far calmer. Subdued, troubled a bit too by her expression, but rising to the occasion. Cat makes no effort to interfere with Liette's path to the door. A glance goes to Miss Bennet, followed by a quietly spoken request. "Claire… I don't like asking this, but would you come with me so we can help the young lady safely blow off some steam, get all of this out of her system?" She seems unaware of Melissa bleeding, her goal being to use Liette's desire to leave and Claire's presence to get the girl safely away from the building so she can just cut loose.
If the young woman had any doubt, the use of Liette's name confirms it, tho the pain Melissa radiates, gets Claire's attention, but it doesn't even really affect her. Now if she was negated, that would be another thing, so it's ignored for Claire to turn and stare at Cat. "You want me to stand there and let her tear me apart?" There is amusement in the regenerators tone.
"You know… I know technically, I'm a living target dummy, but I'm not sure that it's a good idea to encourage it." Claire glances back at Liette, lips pressed together in thought. A part of her thinks it's good her uncle never developed his ability this early… Emo teenagers and multi-abilities are a bad mix.
"I don't care about any of you!" Liette screams in a shrieking tone of voice, whirling around from the door, balling up her fists and throwing her hands down at her sides. Andy's gone quiet in the altercation, slipping into the background with only so much as one raised brow as Liette marches a few paces away from the door. "I don't care about you! All I want is my Papa and my sister again! I want to go home! You people aren't my family, I don't care, I don't care all I wanna' do is go home! I don't want to be here any more, I don't wanna' be here! Let me go, let me go home let me go find Doctor Brennan!"
She's a fitful, irrational top of temper and frustration, and she can't even hear the conspiratorial tones shared between Cat and Claire. When the headache pain from Melissa hits Liette it comes back twice as hard from the young girl, but much more intentionally. It blankets the room, a single sharp push of prodding pain, like getting something jammed under a fingernail, brief but intense.
Everyone's nerves are shot, patience is worn thin, and when that wave of pain hits Andy Rourke where he'd been circling behind Liette, he has a plan that's much less drawn out than Cat's. The moment the butt of his pistol cracks against the back of Liette's head it is both started and ended. The blonde teen crumples like a piece of cloth, tumbling forward before collapsing onto her knees and then the floor. Andy is left standing, shoulders heaving and one hand clutched at the center of his chest where the pain hit him, gun held out and brows furrowed, lips downturned into a snarling frown.
"Bugger!" Andy hisses in response, "Fucking bugger this whole sodding day!" His gun is tucked back into his under-arm holster and both hands sweep over the top of his head as he turns his back on Liette's unconscious form.
That'll leave a mark.
Melissa can't help but see Andy circling Liette, but maybe it was the pain from Liette, maybe she's just had it, but she doesn't even make a move to stop him. "I was thinking this month, actually," she mutters in response to Andy, shaking her head and starting towards Liette.
Kneeling beside the girl, Mel asks, to no one in particular, "We got anything that'll keep her under for a while? Until we can figure out what to do with her?" She checks to make sure that Liette is still breathing and all that, before straightening and running her hand through her hair, leaving the blonde streaked with red.
"See," Cat remarks quietly to Claire, "the girl might lose it, and if she does, better she isn't here to damage the place or the people in it. So I'm not so much for stopping her from walking out, that'd just maybe make her snap right here and now. She's been through trauma, anyway, at least in her limited perspective. Doesn't compare to anything you and others have been through, but to her it's like nothing before."
She looks away from Claire briefly, now catching Liette's turn back from the exit and her spoken words, and winces with a shake of one hand from the wave of transmitted pain. Then there's Rourke and his pistol solution, the crumpled Liette. Cat grimaces.
"Point's moot, now," she tells Claire with her eyes rolling. "Problem now is how to stop her from killing him over that." She demonstrates no intention of being between Rourke and Melissa, choosing instead to cross and tend the fallen teen, quickly examining her head for the extent of any injury caused.
Eyes tighten a touch at the pain, but it doesn't cripple her, though she does let out a soft breath as Rourke hits the teen over the head. "His idea was better though." Claire says blandly looking back at Cat. "Cuase if she gathers abilities like Peter, then do you really want her to have mine?" Brows lift as she stands matter of factly.
"Especially, if he is at the Institute. You really want to give Gregor another living operation toy?" A look goes to the form crumpled on the floor, there is a brief haunted look there. It might not be something she remembers but she's heard. "I know I don't." Claire glances back at Cat, her words soft.
"Jesus fuck I'm sorry…" Andy finally blurts out, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand and pacing from side to side, "Christ I just cold-cocked a little girl, fuck— Christ I'm so sorry." Both hands now settled atop his head, Andy's pacing like a caged tiger, breathing in noisily thorugh his nose, nostrils rankled and brows furrowed. "Fuck, she— might be out for a little bit— is she okay? Jesus."
Jonas is in the doorway at that moment, maybe he saw Andy smack Liette on the back of the head, maybe he didn't. But the redhead just turns, wordlessly, and creeps back into the kitchen and out of whatever just happened in the living room. Andy looks down at Melissa, then up to Cat and over to the unfamiliar face of Claire, finally realizing her doesn't recognize her at all. "God I— I don't normally just— " Rourke's shoulders slouch, "fuckin' hit little girls? Jesus Christ." It appears that no, he doesn't have any idea how to keep her out cold longer than blunt force trauma to the head will offer.
Melissa sighs and looks at Cat. "Hello? Any drugs to keep her under? You are the doctor type person, yeah?" She looks to Andy then, shaking her head. "She was out of control and would've hurt someone. There's a reason why Brennan stayed with her. It was as much for everyone else's safety as hers." She pauses, then asks, "Can someone carry her to a bed or couch somewhere? Just off the floor? I would but…" she shifts her sling-clad arm and shrugs.
Seeing the movement in the doorway Mel glances over, then grimaces and follows Jonas, leaving the others to tend to psycho multi-ability girl. "Jonas? You okay, hon?" she asks, still not yet noticing that she's dripping blood everywhere.
"I've got something she can be given," Cat provides, "which will help. I'm a Juris Doctor, not a medical doctor, but I read a lot and I have contacts." She isn't going to say it was Len Denton, or that she got them to give Maya. Bending then, she lifts the girl up and moves her to a place to be laid out comfortably. "They're at home on Manhattan, but I can get them soon enough." Liette's head is checked again for signs of blood where she was struck.
"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do." Claire knows that one all too well. Shifting over to the girl, the regenerator crouches down, her head tilting back to look up at the British man. "Besides, I really do think it was the best solution. Not like we have tranq guns." She doesn't touch the girl though, hands come up. "Call it caution, I don't know how her ability works, so I'm not going to pick her up.
Climbing to her feet, Claire takes a step or two back letting Cat deal with her. "That kind of an ability runs in my family, but in different ways. My grandfather stripped me of the my ability when he took it… So… I'm sure you can understand I'd like to keep it now that I have it back again."
Jonas is on the other side of the kitchen when Melissa enters, all sheet pale and blanket wrapped, red hair made to seem redder by the orange glow of the lantern hanging near his head. "I'm— " he doesn't answer, instead just lifts a hand to his nose, dabbing there demonstratively. "You've— got some red on you," he comments with an anxious raise of his fine brows.
Out in the living room, Andy's giving a look to Claire that is mostly all raised brows and who the fuck is this girl all spread up and down his befuddled expression. "Right, well— I'm— goin' to go upstairs, an' see if there's a free bed we can put her in later, once we know she ain't going to go atomic on us or nothin'," admittedly poor taste on Andy's part, had he been aware.
"I'll…" The Brit shakes his head, moving towards the stairs, "try not to inadvertantly crack someone upside the head while I'm rootin' through the linen closet."
Melissa pauses and looks back at Claire, eyes narrowing. "Liette's ability does?" Because she's personally only met one person with a similiar ability. "Who's your family?" But then Jonas is speaking, and she frowns. "I do? There? Shouldn't," she says, lifting her hand to wipe the back of it under her nose…and then noticing the cut. "Oh christ. One week. I'd like to go one fucking week without hurting some part of me." She shakes her head and moves to the sink to rinse her hand off. "You gonna be okay, Jonas?"
Examining the girl, Cat comments "She's got a cut. Could someone get me the medical supplies? I need a strong painkiller to help keep her asleep, and a suture kit." She's quiet then for a few beats, to focus her thoughts.
"Not the best timing, I admit, speaking to her with all of that, but it was overdue. She should've been edged toward the possible truth of what they do there much sooner. I don't know exactly what it's like there, so much needs to be learned, but it was the girl herself who told us about the people sleeping in tanks, and admitted by omission they do experiments. Said it was secret, she couldn't tell us."
As her eyes settle on Claire, she informs "I showed her images of Doc Carpenter, she recognized him as working with her Pop. Gregor she claims not to have seen before. Edward Ray, she claims, is sleeping in a tank. Doctor Luis she avoided looking at." Focus shifts to Melissa. "Did she share anything else about where she came from?"
There is a shake of Claire's head at Melissa's question. "Something like it…" She glances down at the girl and narrows her eyes, then shrugs. "Kind of scary how many people have that type." Family, seems to be a topic she doesn't plan on going further into tho.
Moving away from the girl, Claire lifts her brows at Catherine. "Just because she hasn't seen him… doesn't mean he's not somewhere. I'm not taking the risk." In fact, Claire moves for her jacket, starting to shrug it on, glancing at the British man. "Hey.. if there isn't any spare beds. Go head and toss her on mine. I can snooze on the couch."
"I'm— " Jonas takes a step away from Melissa, "I'll be fine." He's saying that as he departs the kitchen, obviously not fine, for the relative seclusion of the dining room and the candle light glowing in there. As far as Andy is concerned in the other room, silence and departing from this mad-house of a night is the best thing for him. He probably heard Claire, probably heard the commentary directed to him, but the non-comittal grunt he offers is return is the closest anyone is getting to an answer from him any further after how the night's gone.
"Funny, I've only met two. Her and…" How to describe him? Melissa decides to go Claire's route and just shrugs and shuts up. "I can take care of the pain, Cat. I'm more worried about keeping her asleep. And no, I don't know anything else about it, other than she wants her family."
When Jonas departs she looks over, watching him leave, and she sighs softly. "Great," she murmurs, shaking her head. A towel is grabbed, wrapped around her hand before moving back to the other room.
"I know you can take away pain," Cat replies, "what I'm thinking more of is the quality of pain drugs to cause drowsiness and keep people asleep outright. It'd take me some time to reach Manhattan and get back, after all, and I really don't want to test curfew after what went down earlier." Not that she has transportation to go there at hand, having come by helicopter and not her own means.
If medical supplies aren't brought to her, no worries. She'll go in search.
Coat on, Claire reaches for the door, but pauses long enough to say to Melissa. "She is the forth I've seen." And four is scary to think about, considering half of them were crazy killers. So she slips out the door and into the cold again.
She's got to check on something.