Participants:
| Scene Title | Of Why The Sea Is Boiling Hot |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Liz comes in from out of town, late, to hide in her apartment. |
| Date | Jan 30, 2011 |
Elisabeth's Apartment, Dorchester Towers
The apartment smells like heaven! The linger smell of cookies, pies, and double chocolate brownies. The baked goods have all been set out on the counter in Liz's kitchen. The various things needed to bake: eggs, flour, sugar and a gun. The gun is sitting very close to within Aric's reach as he has decided to start making dinner now so that if Liz comes home she has a decent meal waiting for her.
His head is in the fridge as he hmmms on the various things inside the large white box of goodies.
Elisabeth texts ahead from the lobby. She doesn't want to get shot walking into her own apartment, for God's sake. On my way up from lobby. —EH And when she gets there, she even knocks as she puts her key in the door. It's past curfew, but … her badge gives her a few little privileges as long as she doesn't overuse them.
The smell of comfort food is actually… a balm. Elisabeth's features are tight with strain as she locks the door behind her and calls, "Aric, it's me." Because she's expecting a man with a gun somewhere.
At the first sound of the door, Aric's hand moves instantly for the gun yet when he hears Liz's voice he smiles softly and removes it instantly. He walks to the counter that looks into the living room and says, "Hey Liz. I am in the kitchen. I hope you don't mind. I just needed to do something useful."
She smiles a bit, shrugging out of her heavy jacket. She's wearing high-heeled boots and a dark skirt with a cream-colored cashmere sweater topping it. As she hangs it, she shakes her head. "No, it's fine…. so long as some of whatever is chocolate as sin makes it to a plate in front of me warm and smothered in chocolate ice cream too," she quips. The joke is, perhaps, just a little flat. "How're you holding up?" she asks the man as she comes abreast of the counter.
As he nods, "One order of death by chocolate coming up." He disappears as he begins to make her request and pauses at her question, "That depends on what you mean? Have I slept a full straight 8 hours? No…too many nightmares." As he continues to make the order, "Have I dreamt of how I would kill Tyler…Maddox….or Zimmerman? Yes…and I am scared of the things I came up. I am not sure what I want to do yet Liz. I could see it in Cardinal's eyes that he thinks I am fucked in the head now." As he comes around into the living room with a brownie all warm with carmel sauce and chocolate ice cream on top and sets it in front of Liz, "He might not be to far from the truth yet I want to help stop Tyler."
Plopping into the corner of the couch, Liz reaches down an unzips her brown boots, slipping her feet out. By the time he comes into the living room again, she's wiggling her toes with her feet propped on the coffee table, slumped into the cushion somewhat morosely. But she puts her own issues far, far to the back burner to say quietly, "I'm more concerned about the nightmares. I know what that's like." She reaches up to take the bowl. "If you need it, I have some leftover sleeping pills from when I was taking anti-anxiety medications. I may even have some of those left too," she admits. "I was on them for quite a while." She pauses, scooting upward in her seat to eat the oozing concoction presented. Around a bite, she adds softly, "Don't tell anyone, but I still suffer from agoraphobia to a certain degree. Being out in the open scares the piss out of me. I just… don't talk about it. It's not as bad as it used to be. The dark, though? I still can't shake that one at all." It's why there are nightlights all over the apartment.
As he plops down, his hair falling into his face he sighs softly, "It's not open spaces that bother me. It's being enclosed in small spaces. That cell…" He gets a bit softer, "The dreams of the cell and…" He looks up and pauses not to reveal Richard was the one in his nightmare, "The monster coming to get me and throw me into the pits of hell. I have to tell ya Liz. I don't remember seeing any light when I died. Does that mean I am going to hell?"
She grins around a bit, blue eyes actually twinkling. "Well, being as I don't think pagans actually believe in hell, no Aric, I don't think you're going there. Unless you subscribe to Catholic belief, which is that we're all going to hell from the moment we're born unless we're properly baptized in the Catholic Church," Elisabeth retorts in amusement. But there is sympathy and she gets a bit more serious. "I envy you in some ways. To have a face in your nightmares means that you have the ability to be able to … work through it. When I was picked up and tortured, there was…. nothing. Just black. They kept me b-b-b-blindfolded." The stutter appears suddenly and she clenches her jaw. It still has the power to rattle her — perhaps because she's already rattled and emotionally exhausted. "The nightmares were tough to deal with… even the dream manipulator who helped me had to do some serious tinkering to help me through it," she admits quietly.
Aric nods and says, "I do beleive there is a higher power out there. I just can't tell you if it is your God or a god. That is a whole discussion that could take hours. It is times like this I wish I had my telepathy back. I would figure out a way to lock these memories away or something so I do not have to see them or…them." He shivers as he sighs, "This is the life I have come too yet I have considered that when Tyler is gone and this Insitute is gone. I am going to take some time away….somewhere warm with a beach."
Elisabeth looks wistful. "Richard keeps promising me Tahiti." She pushes the Death by Chocolate aside, setting it on the tray. "Doubt that'll ever really happen, but hey… if you're going to dream, dream big," she tells Aric with a bit of a smile. "I wish I could help you in more ways than just giving you a place to stay, Aric."
"Trust me. I have a funny feeling that Jane Pak is looking for me or doesn't beleive me. I have no idea how I am going to become registered now with all this and who knows what Tyler has up his sleeve. Why keep me alive if I am to become this tratior? What do I do that is so bad that makes me so evil to my own "kind". This whole thing has left me with more questions then answers. Promise me something…that when you find him. I am on the team to hunt him down."
Elisabeth's gaze slips away from him. Her response is quiet. "I don't know what you did in a future that isn't happening anymore, Aric. I couldn't get those answers for you," she admits. "I needed my own first." And her appetite's gone. She moves to stand up. "I … I'm going to stay here tonight and I have to go back to the base in the morning. I'm…. sorry."
Aric nods slowly as he says, "I am going to go to Redbird tomorrow. I am gonna get some target pratice in. I will be careful and if not…well you will just have to come and rescue me. I can't be stuck inside any more or I WILL go insane."
She turns at the end of the couch, looking at him over her shoulder. There is regret in her expression, the strain having returned. But Elisabeth smiles for him. "Let Richard know you're coming, just in case — that way if you don't get there, we know to be looking. And Aric?" She pauses, and her tone is tight. "I promise you that if Ezekiel picks you up again? I'll take his head right off myself." There's an undertone to it that is harder to read without his telepathy in play, but she seems dead serious.
Aric smiles as he nods, "I know you will Liz. I will do all I can to help even if it costs me my last breath."
Did that happen already?
A flicker of her blue eyes and she nods just a little bit. "I'm sorry. For what he did to you. More than I will ever be able to say," Elisabeth says quietly. "Good night, Aric." And she escapes into the privacy of the master bedroom, locking the door behind her.