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Scene Title | Not a Person |
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Synopsis | Abby and Kaylee consult two avian telepaths on the subject of their goshawk. |
Date | March 4, 2011 |
By now, this bird, this person inhabiting this bird, has been pretty much a great many places around the city and outside of it. The thirty dollar cage keeping her confined, safe - well, more everyone else safe from her - and with gratuitous helping of store bough rats, one pigeon found dead and cold in a back alley they are once again back on Staten Island.
Only instead of the Greenbelt, they're in the Garden, waiting for Eileen to show up. The cage on the main table, the somewhat mostly abandoned safehouse is occupied so far with just Abby and Kaylee. The former of the pair parked at the table, arms folded and chin resting on her forearms while she watches the goshawk. The feathers, her beak, wondering who put her in there, why they put her in there and where the woman's body was buried.
Most of all, who is this kid that the woman quite possibly would be looking for. "How long do I keep you in here? I mean, if I let you go, what are the odds that you'll fly away? Or will you just try to have another go at me?" Her stitches still irritated, she's started taking the antibiotics for them, since she can't hightail it back to the Island yet. She lets out a sigh, looking away and around. Hopefully, soon enough, they might be able to get this place occupied again. THe urge to clean whatever layers of dust there is upon furniture and other surfaces is quelled by tiredness from all the walking that they've been doing.
"See her yet?"
The one thing about Abby is that her thoughts are always a little louder then most, her and Colette make an interesting group of people that it's hard not to hear. Though the effects of the vaccine have started to make her mental hearing stutter and drop out on occasion. Making it a little less reliable.
Arms folded over her brown leather jacket, Kaylee leans against the wall to one side of the window, looking out into the world outside, with one booted foot hooked over the top of the other. "Not yet, tho… I don't imagine she'd be too much longer." Her head tilts a bit listening in more ways then one for the sign of others outside. Fingers lift to tuck a length of blonde behind her ear, before glancing towards the woman at the table.
"My money is on the fact she might make a go at you before taking off. I mean… It's a hawk and it's in a cage. Can't be too happy, even if want to help," the telepath muses softly, giving her friend a bit of a half smile.
Mist rolls in thin, smoky waves across the frozen earth outside the Garden, the cloudcover too dense for the sun to penetrate and burn off the fog that's been lingering on the island since the early morning. That's good news for the people who live there and are wanted by the American government — it's easier to evade patrols when they can't see you through the gloom.
Even so, Eileen is not alone, though her choice in companions has nothing to do with the dangers associated with traveling the roads outside the woodland these days. She appears as a shadow in the company of a much larger shape drifting along the dirt road that leads up to the property, and through the window Kaylee will glimpse their outlines as a key turns in the gate's lock, and a moment later it creaks open on its hinges.
It could be Jensen Raith, or it might be someone else — it doesn't particularly matter, because the Englishwoman is already knocking on the door.
All greys and blacks, make up Gabriel's wardrobe, which is the case of his black-brunette hair woven through with strands of grey-silver, premature age, a distingishedness that doesn't apply, scattered through the stubble also that grows into the beginnings of beard on his face. No new lines at his eyes, save for the usual ones that denote weariness, stress, his age slumping into mid-thirty and being dragged over the coals towards it — maybe sooner than anyone realises, considering his ability to stop time when no one is looking.
He lets Eileen knock, stopping rather than phasing his way inside. No need to be rude. He tips a look skywards to assess what the walk home will be like, the dome of blank grey telling nothing of rain or shine.
The fact that Kaylee straightens from her lean against the wall is the first clue there are people, even before the sound of hinges squeaking reaches them. Blue eyes narrow through the fog, but maybe it's the familiar feel of mind that has her moving to get the door. It's opened enough to allow her to peek and confirm the avian telepath's presence, before opening it further.
Which is when she spot the younger woman's companion and any smile she had falls away in a touch of shock. She has faded memories of his face on the TV and in nightmares — even had his ability in one for a short time — but Kaylee doesn't remember having seen the Midtown Man face to face.
She's heard stories from Colette, so maybe that's why she opens the door wider for the pair, holding it for them so she can close it again. "Hey," Kaylee offers in soft, polite greeting. "Thanks for meeting with us." That she manages a touch more brightly with more of a genuine smile as she composes herself.
Kaylee wouldn't open the door unless it was Eileen, and as Abby's eyes seek out the door and who else is joining her, there is Eileen. No smile from the former healer, it's not like this is an occasion to really smile. "Hey" She does call out, thereby beckoning them further in. "Haven't had any problems since we've been here but we haven't tried to light a fire or anything, just in case" But there are lights, the room is lit by a handful of lanterns.
She sits up proper then as Eileens companion comes into sight, well, Abby stands up. Things are just a bit more formal now, maybe, possibly. Last time she saw Gabriel, it was when birds went beserk on the boat and the man had appeared in the furling smoke she's associated with Wu-long. "Gabriel" The same warmth afforded Eileen, to the other man. "It good I think, that you're here too. You made it onto Staten fine enough?" SHe'd say easy enough but… getting onto Staten is not easy. "We have a guest" She gestures to the goshawk.
Eileen steps into the cottage, coat bundled around her small frame. She can't feel the warmth of the lanterns from where she's standing on the threshold, but their light washes over her pale face, exaggerating the shadows under her eyes and the ones produced by her cheekbones, giving her a gaunter appearance than direct sunlight would. The first thing she does is remove her lambskin gloves and tuck them into her coat's pocket, though the gesture is more symbolic than it is practical.
She's here and ready to work even if she shouldn't have to use her hands. Booted feet creak over the old floorboards. "So I see. What have you determined so far?"
A dark-eyed glance to Abby communicates that getting onto Staten Island wasn't trouble for him whatsoever. Doesn't put to words why, offer explanation, or greet her with the same respect of the equivelant how are you. But that's Gabriel. His shoulders hike up in what could be a socialable shrug, or simply protection against the cold, a compulsive gesture. Seeing as he isn't wearing a coat, maybe.
He glances towards Kaylee's face, scanning it, trying to find something familiar, and if he does or doesn't, that goes without comment as well. He's preoccupied with looking beyond the two woman towards the hawk, and he breaks off from Eileen's trajectory in favour of independent movement — he stalks closer towards the caged bird, his own avian telepathy all knotted up and as unattainable as he could make it with effort.
"So far?" Kaylee repeats the question, but not cause she doesn't understand. It's more like she's trying to compose her thoughts and decided how best to answer that. Once the door clicks shut, she moves to stand near the table. "It's not just a hawk. There is the mind of a woman stuck in there," the telepath supplies, voice turning serious at the task at hand.
"From what I could tell, she no longer has a body." Kaylee glances between the two, though for a brief moment she stares at Gabriel, before staring at the cage again. "Killed in a raid on her house, final blow possibly a cut throat. Family either taken or killed. Though…" Now her gaze goes to Abby, "We think taken. At least when it comes to her child.
"It was… admittedly a weird situation, being in her head like that." Kaylee sounds rather curious and in truth a part of her wants to go back in for answers. Of course, it's not the first weird mental trip in as many weeks "No idea how long she's been there." Added as an after thought.
"That and she really hates me" The hair tucked behind her left ear, it's not hard to see the angry black stitches and pink there of inflamed skin. "Benji said she's crazy, I asked him to take a crack at her the first time around and he told me that I pissed her off something good. What he managed to get from her, that he would tell me was she said when the sky goes dark she would take back everything that was hers and destroy the rest. I think…"
It's a big leap, at least to her. "Possibly, she might have been around the boat way back when we were meeting up with Brian and… uhh… Koshka?" A glance to Gabriel, he knows when. "We think, given when Benji said, and then what Kaylee saw, that she's looking for a .. baby. I mean, might be older than a baby now since I'm pretty sure to get as crazy as he says she is, she'd have to have been in there for a bit. Maybe a kid now, teenager?" Abby reaches up to scratch near her temple then retracts her hand, mentally smacking herself to remind not to touch it.
"I've been feeding her rats and some birds, don't know how long I can really keep her in here, Raith cleared her for the other place" The Island "So long as the cover was over her cage. She was at the warehouse we were scouting. She attacked me, sorta kept us from blowing up the place, but…" But. "What do you two think?" And then, seeing the look Gabriel gave Kaylee…"Gabriel, Kaylee, Kaylee, Gabriel. He's okay"
The bird's ember eyes snap in Gabriel's direction as he approaches, beak parting around something that should be a sound, though no noise comes out, not even a thin hiss. The feathers around its neck stand out like dark quills. Eileen, on the other hand, seems reluctant to come any closer than is absolutely necessary; her facial expression is careful but not as guarded as it would be around people she isn't as familiar with. Her mouth makes a shape of concern, either on the hawk's behalf or the woman caught inside it.
"Exactly what is it that you'd like us to do?" she asks, and although her tone is not unkind, it lacks urgency.
There's a scrape of the chair, Gabriel sitting down like maybe it's time for dinner— chicken, on the menu?— and the bird's own intense stare near matched, for all that it's physical body is not particularly important at this point. Fingers fold hands, crack knuckles, and Eileen's relevant question is seconded silently with a look swung up for the bird, lazily skimming from Kaylee and to Abby again. Us being a liberal interpretation of the women's expectation — Gabriel is rarely invited to these things anymore.
"I have a simple solution," he proposes, in such a flat tone of voice that there isn't a shadow of doubt that his hands could find such a thing in a single twisting motion.
The introduction has Kaylee giving Gabriel a slightly nervous smile, but she does manage to nod politely to him to recognize that they've now been properly introduced.
The question from Eileen is one Kaylee diverts to Abby, with a glance in her direction. With the woman there, any confidence the telepath had has kind of wilted and now she is asking herself the very same thing. Maybe she just doubts herself in general at times.
"You do have a unique view into things like this." Kaylee does decide to state, a touch uncertainly, but the rest she leaves to Abby. Though Gabriel's mention of a simple solution is met with a bit of stare. A part of her is thinking 'What? Blow it up?', but wisely she keeps her mouth shut. Instead, she slides into a chair at one point of the table.
Abby nods to Kaylee, her attention that of a guppy, debating whether it's worth it to try and heat some water or not for tea. Would they be here that long? "Her name. If you can get her name from her, if you could… She talked to Benji, she just yanked Kaylee in, Kaylee flopped like a fish till she was punted back out I think. Get anything at all from her, that will help us find what she's looking for" Abigail looks to the bird then to Gabriel. 'Well, she certainly likes you. She's forever hissing her fool head off at me. She really doesn't like me."
Derailed though, she shakes her head as if to clear cobwebs and put her attention back on Eileen. "I don't… I don't know Eileen. I'm at a loss what to do with her. I've been carting her everywhere and that's no life for a bird. I'm afraid to turn her loose lest she try to kill me, but.. lookit her. I don't… I don't really know. Birds aren't my thing, beyond Pila. But Pila doesn't try to kill me"
But Gabriel has a simple solution and she looks to the man sitting beside her. "That is a last resort, if you please. I've thought about it too when she first took a run at me. But it's not… at least I don't think that it's to that point" And even if he doesn't please. It's no condescending tone, just a quiet one, like she's thought of that and dismissed it. "But Kaylee's right, you do have a unique view, the both of you, on this. I'm glad Eileen brought you"
Eileen presses out a slow breath. "A name," she repeats, and her fingers work the buttons of her coat as she crosses to Gabriel, then shrugs out of it, draping it over her arm and then offering it for either Abigail or Kaylee to take. "I know this bird.
"It's the same one that attacked Teodoro and I when we were in New Jersey, and during the last council meeting we had at Primatech it was just outside the window." She glances over at the once upon a time healer, maybe looking for confirmation that she remembers without actually looking at all. If she's seeing anything, it's through the bars of the cage she's lowering herself to crouch in front of, both her bare hands resting on the inside of her thighs, which are clad in faded denim and paired with a sweater in blue-green wool a few shades off from her eyes, veiled by lashes.
"Kaylee, you're sure about what it is that you saw?"
The starlings in the snow and the girl folded up in front of them, speaking to an audience or created into a puppet. This is the memory that Gabriel picks through, accompanied with no real words that Kaylee could overhear — but maybe impressions of the icy air, and a kiss hotter at its core than the numb lips that framed it. His knuckles graze beneath his chin as he observes the quiet bird, and his hesitation in addressing it is probably for the presence of the woman on the other side of it.
His brown eyed stare shifting through the bars to Eileen's blanker set. His own stare sharpens, then, looking at Kaylee with whites around the irises and a line of tension denting his brow. He starts to speak but ultimately holds his tongue on whatever bright idea lit up behind his eyes.
The compulsion to take the cage and leave is almost too great.
Enough that a name slips through his own telepathic guard, brushing by Kaylee's mind as opposed to the more avian inclined in the room: Natalie? It almost drowns out what slips through out loud: "What did she say about her son?"
"I was in there." Kaylee sounds fairly certain of what she saw, folding her arms across her chest, eyes on the cage. "In that cold lonely home, sorta face to face with the woman. It felt familiar, but I still can't put my finger on why. It was probably bleed off from her, for all I know, but I'm very certain of what I saw… what I felt and what I heard." She's not defensive about it, just matter of fact.
"I could show you, like I did Abby."
It's offered to Eileen even as her gaze flicks up to Gabriel, eyes narrowing a bit at the edges. There is a small interested tip of her head, but Kaylee doesn't say anything out loud. "She couldn't really speak, not out loud anyhow. Whatever was done to her, there was that cut." Her fingers brush her neck, that stir of sympathy in her. "Just she showed me her holding the baby, with the father there. She seemed happy… then…" She waves that hand at the cage. "It was taken from her, but I was out again before I could see who."
Kaylee has the answer to that, Abby doesn't as she only saw, thanks to Kaylee and Benji was nervous, or Beni was something. " I don't remember a bird at the meeting but birds are your thing, so if there was one there, then…" There was one there. Abigail remains quiet after that, gaze flickering to whomever is talking, keeping her own fingers and hands away from the cage, unaware that Gabriel might actually know who it is. "Something, upstairs, she showed Kaylee something upstairs and there was screaming and… that was it."
Eileen doesn't appear as though she's listening anymore — her eyes have taken on an even glassier quality than their usual sheen, and she reaches up with a hand to show the goshawk her fingers through the bars of the cage. The bird presses its beak to the back of her knuckles, a razor grazing pale skin, and opens it around the joint as if about to snap it off, though the guillotine does not come down, exploring the hand presented to it instead.
Her focus is on what's in front of her, and although she can still sense Gabriel in periphery, what she's doing requires such intense concentration that she doesn't not pick up on the same things Kaylee does. His anxiety, if she can feel it at all anymore, is mere background noise. "Sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings. Little blue pigeon with velvet eyes—"
"Be careful," is a rough order from Gabriel, if quietly delivered — just sudden, as if deciding that none of this was a good idea after all. He probably isn't really talking about that sharp beak resting open around her knuckle either. The concept of Eileen getting bitten by a bird, or even one with an avian telepath inside it, rings wrong enough for this not to be his worry, especially seeing as his tone holds concern for something more dire than a bird bite.
But he doesn't stop her. Too curious. Morbidly.
Watching Eileen, the telepath's breath catches as if she's waiting for the bird to do something suddenly. Kaylee doesn't say a word, even if she wants to say 'Be careful'. Eileen is one of those people she doesn't doubt, but doesn't make her any less nervous for the woman.
Kaylee can only watch and wait for the verdict.
Abby's breath sucks in, holds as Eileen sticks her fingers in the cage, the bird opening it's beak to go around the knuckle. Gabriel's not the only one who cautions Eileen to be careful, though his is the only verbal one, her more mental, even as she pushes away from the table carefully, feeling like she's intruding on some sort of private conversation, some intimate moment. Clearly something is happening even as her chair is pushed back, trying to make as little noise as possible. Her footsteps then, tip toeing to the kitchen area to try and find stuff to make some tea while waiting for answers. Some sort of answer.
Or to sew Eileen's finger back on when the bird goes beserk from being sung to.
Something shifts. Gabriel will feel it first, then Kaylee, a sensation like air being displaced in the room, only it happens on a plane inaccessible to the senses that someone like Abigail has at her disposal — to her, all that happens is a sharp breath drawn in as Eileen steps back from the cage and presses the heels of her hands to her forehead. Her eyes squeeze shut, face pinched into an expression of pain that's accompanied by a sound building in the back of her throat that rises in pitch and transforms into a low, keening wail caught behind a closed mouth and clenched jaw.
Fingers tangle in her hair and tear it from the twist at the nape of her neck as nails bite into her scalp and she staggers abruptly back, shoulder coming into contact with the nearest wall with enough force to resonate through the cottage and rattle framed pictures hanging off nails.
Her legs give way. She slumps to floor, bent at the middle, and begins to tremble violently around the same time the scream straining to break loose rips free.
Inside the cage, the goshawk is shrieking too.
The bird's distress is an attack on Gabriel's senses, but through the noise, a brief avian telepathic glance reveals him nothing human inside that little pea brain, which means that rather than sharing a feathered body with a simple goshawk—
He's moving by the time Eileen hits the ground. A chair knocked off its balance, clattering loud where it tumbles onto its back, the table shuddering as he near shoves it aside, hands out as if to ensure that Eileen can't hurt herself. Or the woman in Eileen can't hurt her in turn. Loud enough that it echoes in true thought for Kaylee to hear as loud as it reverberates through that avian telepathic link: Get out of her!
Something happens and Kaylee knows it, she seems to straighten a bit more in her seat. For a moment Kaylee can only stand frozen as she watches Eileen start to freak out. She barely gets out of the way as Gabriel reacts.
Maybe it's that thought that has Kaylee's head snapping to the bird, her head shifting to the side, before her eyes widen a little and her attention snaps back to Eileen. "Oh.. oh god." She moves to Gabriel's side, not really caring at the moment that he's this big time killer. Her concern is only for Eileen, fingers moving to touch the avian telepath to confirm her fears.
She pulls her hand back quickly with a hiss of surprise. "How the hell she do that?" Kaylee of course has her own suspicions since the woman didn't do it to her. "I'd try to manipulate her into wanting out, but I don't want to accidentally effect Eileen." This said to Gabriel, her head shaking a bit as her confidence wanes a bit. "I've forced personalities to sleep, but…" How would it work with two very different minds?
Something has happened though, shrieking bird, Eileen's shaking and screaming, Gabriel coming up to a stand violently, hands out and Kaylee's own actions. Hers is a physical ability, useless in this situation, whatever this situa- oh.
Oh
This isn't good. Not in the least. "Eileen still there or… eileen in… the bird…" Is the woman in the bird in Eileen? Oh, this could get confusing real fast. "What can I do to help?" Flap her hands? scream as well? Stand still and look unthreatening?
Eileen twists and thrashes on the floor with all the desperation of a rabbit with a wire snare looped around its neck. Her legs kick out, her booted feet leaving a dent in the wall, and she arches her back off the hardwood at the hips. Gabriel is both stronger and larger than she is, however, and her body ultimately poses little difficulty when it comes to restraining or subduing her.
Her chest rises and falls in an erratic rhythm — most of the air she's able to taken in is spent on pushing it back out again in a voice that's anguished, raw, and not at all like anything that sounds like it should be coming out of Eileen. Though that she's capable of making noise like this isn't a surprise to Gabriel, who has been subjected to her emotions at their most volatile before.
She lacks the energy to keep it up for very long. As if the part of her that's still Eileen can sense who it is with his hands on her, she gradually begins to lose the fight in her. The heels of her boots scrape against the floor. Her writhing slows. The haggard sound of her breathing replaces the screams, interspersed with the occasional shuddering moan.
"Animal telepaths— we can interact with others like us."
He has Eileen's slender wrists crossing over one another, pressed to her chest. A knee pins down a thigh with gentle weight, and Gabriel only glances up towards the other two women when she's stilling. "She and I can sense each other like we sense the birds. When we enter bird bodies, we can leave our own behind — and theoretically jump into another's. She let— someone take her's, briefly, but she had to be out of it. That said— " Lecturing on the mechanics of a power when he has his girlfriend pinned to the ground, her reedy breathing underscoring his words, might be a little odd.
Unless you are Gabriel Gray."That said, if someone is strong enough… Kazimir and I shared a body. I shared Teo's. Someone with experience…" And that's all he has left, anger tensing his jaw. "This isn't the first time. The first time— I thought she was sleepwalking."
And it might be odd that Kaylee is listening with interest, eyes on Gabriel as he… well… lectures. By time he's done, the telepath is looking at Eileen again clearly worried. "So this…" She almost says that name she caught in his thought out loud, but stops herself. "… other woman has been following Eileen around looking for these opportunities to… to sneak in?" There is a grimace for the younger woman, maybe even sympathy.
After a moment she looks back up at Gabriel, after a quick glance to Abby. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Kaylee doesn't like to just do things to those she considers friends… even if the term is loosely used for Eileen. The two haven't really had much interaction. "I'm willing to try…" something.
"Get it back in the bird" Abigail moves a little closer, then over to the cage, grabbing the heavy canvas cloth that had been used to cover the bird in it's cage and throws it over it, cutting off the light, hoping that by doing so, the screeching from the bird would stop.
"Get it back in the bird, get it out of her, so I can snap it's neck" There's anger on Abby's face, utter rage when Gabriel lists off what's happened, what it's done and done before. She's been possessed by someone before, ended up dancing across her bar and half naked while the possessor used her to taunt someone. "Get her out of Eileen"
Eileen's fingers flex and curl. She rolls her shoulders and Gabriel will feel her thigh pressing against his knee. Whatever it is that's inside of her, even though it cannot see, is in the process of a realization.
It— She has a body again. Her mouth tries to form words, but either her voice is too strained from shouting or she's been without one for so long that she doesn't remember how to speak. There is talk of snapping necks, and her hands clasp tight at the bigger ones holding her wrists captive in a silent, shaky plea. "Nn—"
"Shut up," is sneered towards Abby, teeth flashing white and severe when Gabriel's mouth pulls into a warning snarl. "Let it talk. While it has a human mouth and brain to work with — you can't even imagine what it could be like, having nothing else." He turns that amber gaze from her to Kaylee to make his instruction loud and clear. "No one's killing anything unless I say so."
You can't see. The words aren't actually clear to the woman he pins down — just for Kaylee to pick up on should she choose to, but it's the empathic sentiment he's trying to convey. Like observing the finger movements making a chord. This is normal. You're okay. Nothing is wrong. Calm down, stop hurting yourself and I'll let you go.
Her hands come up in a warding gesture, to clearly state that she didn't have that thought at all without saying it out loud. She's been in that other's thoughts, she can sympathize. Just doesn't want her in Eileen's head. Kaylee settles in to sit and listen, instead of expressing all that.
She might not be the type to do that normally, but this is one of those situations that Kaylee feels the need to pay attention. Eyes watch the possessed Eileen, teeth worrying at her bottom lip.
When the reformed - or maybe not so reformed - serial killer tells you to shut up, you shut up, if you're smart and this is one of those instances when Abigail is using the brain that God did have the sense to put in her head (Gabriel tried, a few times to make a pass at it) and she falls back, back to the counter, back away from Eileen on the floor and the amalgamation of abilities in play. Playing the role of observer.
Eileen tightens her grip on Gabriel's hands and makes a breathy noise halfway between a sob and a whimper. Her eyes blink back tears and the expression on her face switches to something startled when she can feel the warmth seeping down her face, the wetness on her cheeks. She opens her mouth to try to speak again. Tastes salt around pursed lips and presses out a ragged hhh through her teeth.
Her body isn't cooperating and while she might not be trying to turn it into a loop on the floor anymore, she doesn't seem to have control over the tremors yet. "Nn," she says again. Then, "Mm," finding the right consonant. "Mmmy—"
It's not the most articulate monologue, but it does seem to have a captive audience. Gabriel, anyway, as he falls silent to listen — by the time the tremors have reduced, he's slowly shifting back some. The dull pressure of his knee on her thigh lifts, his hands loosening even as he allows her's to clasp his fingers. He settles into a crouch, a knee taking the floor beside her hip.
Eileen tries to form another word with her mouth, shaping it around a vowel that thins out into a hiss of strangled frustration, then gives up on this after only the second attempt. Crying must be cathartic because she's making no effort to stop. Her breath whines in and out through her nose.
This is a problem. Beneath the surface, Kaylee senses a ripple of psychic movement more familiar than the presence in control of the body, dark and shark-like, a shadow skimming dangerously close to the top. When it breaches, Eileen goes abruptly still.
Her breathing stalls. Stops.
Resumes in a thin, rasping rush. "Fuck."
Gabriel's hands and presence veer away as soon as things change. Or change back to normal. Which he should be glad for.
Before she can completely arrive at coherency, his hands slip out from her's — phasing, in fact, no need to force her fingers off his own. There's a brief shimmer of invisibility that flickers compulsive over his body, but he staves the temptation away as he crabs back several inches, palm of his hand balanced against the wooden floor, legs awkward. He doesn't offer anything verbal this time — no growled orders for the ladies, no urges or words of comfort to convey, whether psychic or not.
Where Gabriel is quiet, Kaylee offers a quiet and worried, "Welcome back, Eileen." Though it's partially for Abby's benefit too since she's kinda out of the loop. There are a lot of questions floating around the telepath's head, but it is not the time or place.
Instead, Kaylee inches forward a little, ready to offer Eileen help up if she need it, sending a quick uncertain glance to Gabriel.
Abigail still keeps her distance, hands lax at her sides, regarding the somewhat retreating Gabriel where Kaylee greets and moves to help. Eileen is back, in charge and … whomever the other person is, has sunk down, likely - she imagines - pressed against Eileen's skull like Teo has been in hers before, tooling around as can be.
The first thing Eileen does is wipe the tears from her face with her hands, then her hands on the front of her sweater. The canvas cloth on the cage prevents her from using the goshawk to map out her surroundings. She knows she's on the floor on her back and that she's been crying. Her shoulder hurts. The wrist in the brace feels stiffer than it did a few minutes ago—
Or what she perceives as a few minutes ago. She turns her head away from the sound of Kaylee's voice as she rolls onto her side, showing the others her back. "That's not a person," she gravels out, and maybe she'd be accepting Kaylee's hand up if she had any confidence in the strength of her legs.
Gabriel isn't getting up either, for what it's worth, an adolescent kind of sullenness to the way he sits in broken leg sprawl, a slouch to his back, a jut to his jaw. His amber-brown stare wanders over her in cursory check to see if she's alright — she isn't, but she doesn't need him. Not yet, anyway.
Teeth press into her lower lip for just a moment, looking between Eileen and the others. Kaylee isn't quite certain what to do or say to the avian telepath. "Just take some time. Get your bearings. Then we can help you up when your ready and get you settled a bit more comfortably."
Kaylee doesn't move to even touch her, only settles back into silence again ready to help Eileen when she's ready for it.
"So Benji was right. She's crazy" She, whomever was in the bird and is now… in Eileen? Back in the bird? "Uhh, lets just.." This isn't a situation she's used to. She runs a hand through her dark hair, running her teeth over her lower lip before shuffling back a few steps. "Kaylee, maybe you can take the cover off the bird, and.. I'll get some tea going" Because tea cures everything. Everyone needs tea right? That will give Eileen a chance to compose herself and Gabriel to… do what Gabriel will do.
Eileen's hand goes out and splays fingers against the wall. She agrees with Kaylee about needing to get her bearings, but makes an attempt to get up under her own power. Her progress is halting, jerky, and requires her to lean her weight into it as she rises to stand. Her heartbeat counts out the time that elapses between drawing herself upright and stepping away from the wall, brace cradled in the clasp of her opposite hand.
"I don't know what you're on about," she snips out tersely at Kaylee, and later she will regret the tone she takes with the telepath, defensive bristling where she should be expressing gratitude.
Vulnerability hurts. Her guard is down. "Settled. Where's my coat?"
There isn't much in the way of trust, the look that Gabriel gives Eileen as pride more than physical and mental soundness drives the lady to her feet. But he's getting up as well, languid in his movement, injured as well if in some unknown, withdrawn sort of way. He glances for the goshawk, now, sensing it within the canvas tossed over the cage, and mouth pulling into scowl at the radio silence of human activity within it. But he doesn't draw such attention to any of the women in the room.
Back to that sullen silence he'd arrived with, now staring at Eileen in a way that would be more unnerving for her if she had her own eyes to see it.
After Eileen gains her feet, Kaylee slowly rises to her feet. The words cut, but she doesn't show it. There is a soft huff and a quiet, calm "Fine, if that is how you want it." The telepath backs away from the younger woman, giving her the space and control over the situation.
Turning back to the table, Kaylee hesitates on removing the cover, "I don't think that's a good idea. The dark will help keep it calm, I think." She hazards a guarded look Gabriel's way. "Are we okay to release the hawk? Or do we need to figure out what to do with it… " Her gaze shifts over to Eileen, worry and concern unseen by her. "Just in case?"
There will be no settling it seems, and likely tea. Not when Eileen is asking for her jacket and everyone is going quiet. "It's by the chair" Of which there are more than a few so she's weaving around the room, giving everyone their personal bubble so she can pick it up, shake it out with a snap. As if it had been there long enough to gather dust or who knows what else. She doesn't take Eileen's hand and guide it to the jacket, instead just pressing it gently against the side of the woman's hand, so she can sense it there, grab it, slide it on. Salvage some pride. Time to pretend that Eileen wasn't just on her ass and something strange didn't just happen.
"You can take the bird with you, if you like, if not, we'll just turn it loose"
Eileen is grateful for Abigail's tact, snags the coat when it's offered and pulls it on over her arms. Fastening the buttons gives her hands something to do, chin tucked against her collar out of habit. She can sense the eyes on her even if she can't see them, and her nostrils flare in irritation, colour creeping into her cheeks at the same time it's bleeding out of her knuckles.
Abigail can pretend. She can pretend. That doesn't make it true. "It's only a bird," she answers. "It was only ever a bird. Vessel." Her voice grows tight. "Do what you will."
"Did you kill it?"
This to Eileen, Gabriel's question direct and quiet. The kind of narrowness that would come with being alone in a room with someone, Abby and Kaylee ignored in the meantime.
"As you wish." Comes a tight response from the telepath. Kaylee moves to take the cage carefully, eyes shifting to Abby. There is jerk of her head to say, lets give them space. Since they are clearly not needed there. Their mission pretty much done it seems to her.
Abby can grab her coat, take Kaylee's silent cue. She doesn't want to start the trip back to the Mainland, but they can do it. She was hoping to stay the night here. But instead, the brunette takes up her jacket, hiking pack, letting Kaylee take care of the goshawk still in it's cage. Time to turn it loose, hope it won't kill the two of them, see if they can't make it back to GCT before there's too many robots or patrols patrolling.
"No," Eileen's response is immediate. Her voice cracks and her hands clutch at the collar of her coat, the topmost button fit snug, though that isn't what's choking her, and maybe Kaylee's job isn't as done as she thought.
"I still have it."
He'd relayed stories of Teodoro and himself, sharing a 'vessel', as it were, and it overturns fresh in his mind again at this news. The telepath and the fire mimic are leaving like the case is closed, but for Gabriel, there's still more to work through. But maybe not today. His expression strangely sullen, as if Eileen had said something insulting, but he nods once, almost too subtle to see.
Not a person, she'd said.
Gabriel retracts a step, and then heads for the nearest wall to pass through like a ghost. He'll meet her outside, when it's time to leave.
Kaylee pauses at what Eileen says, lips pressing together. She twists a little at the waist to look back at avian telepath, with a sudden reluctance to leave. However, the other woman already did the pushing away. So for now, yes… they are leaving.
However, much like anything… curiosity will bring her back. Kaylee's not going to be able to ignore the fact that Eileen is two people. For now it's for another day.