Participants:
Scene Title | Really Really |
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Synopsis | Colette approaches Kaylee with some unexpected news about Joseph. |
Date | February 2, 2010 |
The afternoon hours of the safehouse, it's still silent as people have not started sneaking back in yet, respecting the owners request. There is a chill in the house, even with the fire and heaters. With Doyle snoozing away, Kaylee has decided to take some time for herself to relax. Of course, shouldn't be too long before the puppet man can go back to McRae's, but at the moment, the young telepath is still playing nursemaid when he's up. Currently, bundled up in her jacket, sweater and jeans, a blanket wrapped around her, she's tucked into a corner, her head leaning against the wall, eyes shut. One side of her face has gone from a nasty red and blue.. to a mottled combination of yellows, greens and blues of a healing bruise.
She hasn't been sleeping well… or maybe she's hoping to sleep, wanting to talk to Joseph about the fact that she might have to do something drastic… and it scares her. A college catalog rests half in her lap, having partially slid off her lap.
Creaking, groaning and clanking is the usual warning that someone is headed inside. The noises from the basement are the sounds of the subterranean entrance being wrenched open, and the scuff of feet and distant sound of voices indicate that a handful of people have come in. The safehouse has been quiet nearly all day, with Else down in the basement keeping watch on the door, and the only two other residents upstairs sleeping the day away. Now, though, life and noise seems to be returning in clunking footsteps coming up from the basement.
When the door to the basement opens into the kitchen, a familiar voice accompanies the sound of feet on the floor. "…so then he just handed me both of them and sent me back. It's pretty cool actually, I guess since I didn't break the first pair he let me have two!" Colette's cheerful tone is a surprising addition to the Brick House's normal quiet. It's been several days since she and Kaylee had seen one another, not since that meeting in Grand Central, despite their near miss at Eileen's; It seems she's been keeping busy.
"You often sneakin' 'round wi' military 'ardware in yer shoppin' bags girl?" Andy Rourke is another easily recognized voice, with that slinking British accent and bubbly cadence to his voice. The pair come around from the kitchen, emerging into the living room. Colette, first, carries a pair of plastic grocery bags with her, though they don't seem to hold anything resembling sustenance, from the black straps and cables hanging out from inside. Andy on the other hand is carrying an armful of paper bags marked with a local grocer's logo on the front.
"More these days, seems like…" Colette furrows her brows, teeth toying with her lower lip in the moments before she notices Kaylee sitting in a corner of the living room with that blanket wrapped around her. The lack of natural light in the Brick House makes every room gloomily lit and difficult to discern detail in, which furthermore makes it hard for Colette to notice Kaylee's bruise right away.
Setting the shopping bags down on the tattered, worn-out sofa, Colette gives a silent nod to Andy, who just shrugs his shoulders and circles towards the pantry with those bags. Colette, instead, makes her way over to where Kaylee is leaning, crouching down in front of her place on the sofa, small hands smoothing out the front of her jeans before resting her hands on her knees and looking up at the blonde like a curious housecat. "Hey…" Colette utters in quiet tones, reaching to to gently lay a hand on Kaylee's knee. "You alright?"
She's under enough that the voice and hand on her knee startles Kaylee awake, a hand comes up out of instinct as if about to throw her ability at whoever is assaulting her, that's before she realizes who is there. Her whole body seems to sag with relief. "Colette… you scared me." The lifted hand moves up to comb fingers through her own hair, pushing the long lengths away from her face. "I'm fine… just tired."
Flipping the course catalog she tosses it aside, before reaching out to try and draw the smaller girl into a hugged greeting, or maybe needing a bit of comfort from a friend. "Been a really long couple of weeks… I'm starting to think it's catching up to me. I'm just glad that Andy hasn't tossed me out like McRae did."
Having flinched at the hand but little more, Colette seems steady enough despite Kaylee's wobbly energy. Slightly exasperated in her sigh, Colette rises up from her crouch and moves ot fill the spot on the sofa at Kaylee's side, pushing the crinkling plastic bag of whatever oddities she'd gone out to get aside. "It's been a long couple'a weeks for us all," the teen asserts with a hand restingo n Kaylee's blanket shrouded shoulder. "I dunno what you've been up to Kaylee, but ever since that thing that happened at Summer meadows, I've been busy as hell trying to get ready to go after Joseph. You remember Joseph, right?" There's a bit of a chiding tone in Colette's voice.
"Scott said we should go scope out the place tomorrow, and that includes you." A firm squint of Colette's eyes comes after that, and she gives a firmed squeeze to Kaylee's shoulder. "M'gonna need your help on this one, so whatever rest you need to get, you've got until tomorrow night to get it."
Then, after a moment of debate she moves her hand up and slaps Kaylee on the shoulder lightly. "And!," her nose wrinkles, "McRae kicked you out because you were going to do something totally stupid! Don't register, it's dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb! There was— is— I dunno— a serial killer dude who killed people in the registry. Don't be stupid!"
"Yes! I remember Joseph." Kaylee gives Colette a bit of a glare, rolling her eyes, sounding a touch exasperated. "Trust me.. I've been hoping to get back in his dreams again.. but so far no luck… I'm sucking at this dream stuff.." That seems to bother her a bit. "I'm worried the Nightmare Man is going to screw with him when I could be there to try and keep him out."
Blue eyes narrow at Colette, her head tilting a bit. "So… we're going to go scouting?" Hope starts to flicker in her chest, but then she gets smacked and she cringes. "I'm going to register.. no ifs ands or buts…" She leans over to grab up the catalog waving it at her. "That way I can go back to school with little worry… finish my undergraduate degree.. and starts into the law program."
"I figure it's high time to get over my issue with my daddy and him being a scuzzball lawyer.. and try to be one myself.." Realizing how that came out she adds quickly… "—minus the scuzzball part." She flashes a grin at Colette. "Then I can do some real good for the Ferrymen." She slaps the booklet against her hand. The girl has a plan.
"Fuck school." Colette ever so eloquently simplifies her words. "Fuck school and fuck registration." She's up off of the couch again, both hands animatedly flapping around as she speaks. "What good is school going to get you, you're not about school you're— this doesn't require you to get some useless dumbass degree. Besides, do you really think anyone out there is going to trust you knowing you're a telepath? I mean, who're you not gonna' cheat anyway? What'd be the point of going?" There's a look of distrustful confusion on Colette's face; not angled at Kaylee, but the world.
"We're not meant for that sort've life, Kaylee. We can't live normal lives. I never even graduated high school. I can't just— I can't go back. I have a hard enough time trying to manage the temp job Grace got me and my Ferrymen duties. How the hell do you think you're going to be helpful to anyone and take exams and write papers and— and— And do you really think lawyers are going to matter? They like— abduct people like us off the street and throw us into big scary prisons that don't exist. There isn't a law to protect us from that, we're like cowboys, Kaylee. Like cowboys in the wild west or some shit. Ain't nothin' that the law can do for us."
Huffing out a sharp breath, Colette throws her hands into the air, then turns around with a furrow of dark brows. "Yes we're going scouting tomorrow, that's been pinned up on my assignment board at Grand Central for four days, where've you been? Scott thinks if we get a shot at extracting Joseph we're gonna take it tomorrow too. Pull him right out've there and get him back and safe."
Angling her head to the side, Colette furrows her brows and wrinkles her nose. "Kaylee, I— I dunno about what's been going on with you. I— " Cutting off her words, Colette finally notices the bruise at the side of Kaylee's face. "Jesus. What— what the heck happened to you?"
"Well.. I'm trying for a little normal, while everything crazy has been happening," Kaylee mutters feeling dejected., since it seems like everyone is against it, glancing down and then up again as Colette finally notices, a hand liftting to pressed to that side of her face. "I was working at Summer Meadows when another attack happened. Some freakin' empath screwed with everyone.. I — " She looks down at her lap and then away. "It made me slip back.. I sent a guy after his own people." She sounds almost miserable admitting that.
"I got the empath out of my head.. but got hit for the effort… Barely had time to get Eileen and Raith thinking clearly enough to run before the cops showed up… I got away.. but if I hadn't.. and I was forced to register… it…." She glances at Colette. "I might not be sitting here. So… that's a plus for registering."
Dropping her hand away, Kaylee tries to divert the subject. "Now… are you sure? Tomorrow we're going in for him? For Joseph? Please… please tell me that's not a joke."
Deflating from all her high-horse fervor about registration, Colette sinks back down onto the sofa and reaches out to lightly touch near Kaylee's bruise. "You really make me wish I could heal…" she offers in such a small voice, thumb brushing just below Kaylee's eye before she pulls her hand away, furrows her brows and looks down awkwardly into her lap. "I— I didn't know you were there the other day. God, I'd heard about it but… I'm sorry."
Rubbing a hand at the back of her neck, Colette looks up to Kaylee with her brows still scrunched together. "Yeah, tomorrow night." She reaches out for those crinkling plastic bags, then brings them around to lay in Kaylee's lap. "I got two pair of thermal imaging goggles too from the Hangar. That'll help for if I have to bring more than you with me in invisibility. They take a lot of getting used to, since they're pretty much just like blurs of red an' white and blue an' stuff But— it's better than flying blind."
"I was.. but know what.. I'll live." Kaylee offers softy, giving Colette a wink and a small smile. "I've dealt with worse really." Hand reaching over to give her arm a reassuring squeeze. "If you could heal.. I'd be throwing you to Doyle, who needs it much more then me. A little bruising is nothing." Leaning against the young teen briefly she adds softly, "The thought that counts though.. Thank you for that."
She then works to extract the goggles from the bag. "Probably should also cover our faces as well.. just in case things work out and we go in for him." Kaylee's lips press together, as she turns them over in her hand. "Last thing we want is them getting some sort of picture of us."
"I'm worried what we're going to find there…" The blonde telepath says suddenly looking distressed as the goggles are lowered to lay on her lap. "If — they are experimenting with drugs.. and — and Refrain…" She grimaces at just mentioning it. "I'm very worried… watching him struggle to remember a long dead dog… all cause it it seemed this woman would be upset."
Hand tighten on the goggles suddenly, knuckles whitening. "I'm… worried what I'll do… If I find out who it is." Kaylee whispers so softly, Colette might have strain to hear it.
"I wouldn't worry about anything going on there…" Is all Colette says, growing remarkably quiet as she gets up from the sofa, the springs beneath the cushions creaking when her small weight is released. "You just worry about getting Joseph out've there, and I'll— worry about everything else." There's something haunted in Colette's expression when she says that, but the girl's guarded posture seems to be indicative of an unwillingness to talk about it. "M'not going to let anyone get away and hurt the people I care about— not again."
Swallowing awkwardly, Colette looks down to the goggles in Kaylee's lap, then over to the noise of Andy dropping a can in the pantry. She exhales a sigh, bringing a pale hand up to the side of her head, fingers raking through her hair. "I— I'm gonna call someone too, see if they might be able to help out. Eileen already said she would, but… I gotta' see if Mister Logan still wants to help out…"
There is no answer from Kaylee for a long moment, her eyes seeming unfocused, lost in thought. When they refocus, there is a brief flicker of something dangerous in Kaylee's eyes. "I can't not worry about it, Colette. I've been sitting around helpless to help him, when someone is… is… torturing him." Fingers flex around the goggles again, but then she gives a little shake of her head as if clearing it.
"Yeah.. Call Eileen.. see if Raith will help. I can pay if he requires it." The young telepath says, her voice has almost no color to it.. it's flat and dead. "I've seen him in action.. He'll help get the job done." Forcing herself to relax, Kaylee tucks the goggles back in the bag carefully. "See if Teo is in town too.. He might be willing to help."
"You haven't really seen him in action yet," Colette opines as she turns back towards Kaylee, watching the blonde carefully for a moment, "but— he's who I was going to call." There's a tightness at the corners of Colette's eyes when Teo is mentioned, a tilt of her head to the side and furrow of her brows. "I— haven't heard from Teo in like half a year. I don't even know how to get in touch with him anymore, the rate he changes cell phones."
Toying with her lower lip, Colette glances over towards the open door to the pantry, then back to where Kaylee is seated. The young girl makes her way over, settling down on the arm of the sofa. "If you know how to get in touch with Teo, that'd be cool. He's always been really good to me, I just— I don't know where he is these days."
Reaching out a delicate hand, Colette brushes a lock of blonde hair behind one of Kaylee's ears, looking at that bruise with a worried scrutiny. She'd panicked and fussed over Doyle enough as it is, this is something new for her to feel guilty about.
"I think I can track Teo down.. saw him.. a week or two back. Shouldn't be too hard.. He and I went out to a club with Dee… she insisted." Kaylee says softly, closing her eyes for a moment in thought. "So yeah.. I'll see if I can contact him in the morning."
Sighing softly, Kaylee pulls the blanket tighter around her and leans her head against Colette's arm, after that gesture. "Wish Doyle was well enough to go with us, he'd be useful.." her head comes up suddenly. "We…. shouldn't tell him we're doing this thing.. He might make us stay put or try to come with." Her head tilts back to look up her friend. "And he's not in shape to do that."
Colette's silent for a time, head bowed and brows furrowed, eyes downcast to her feet. She nods, showing that she's listening, but her thoughts seem distracted somewhere else. "See if you can find him, Teo's a good guy." Or so she last remembers, it's been a long time since the two shared any proximity, and Teodoro Laudani has been through a world of changes — most of which for the worse.
"As for Eric, I think— " the noise of an angry bee buzzing in Colette's back pocket startles the girl off of the arm of the sofa, one hand reaching to pull out her cell phone and flip it open. Green eyes scan the number showing up with wide-eyed surprise, then as she pages down through the text message a smile crosses her lips. "I um— " Green eyes dart back to Kaylee, and Colette's smile grows just a bit more. "Don't worry about Eric, he's too run-down to worry about us. But— I won't say anything." Something has Colette's mood doing a 180, and having the brunette moving for the basement stairs, which rather unintuitively lead out.
"Can you tell Andy I won't be back tonight when you see him? I gotta head back into the city, my sister's back from Vegas!" There's a broad smile spread across Colette's lips as she proclaims that, and without much more fanfare than that abandons the Brick House thorugh that basement doorway like a whirlwind of activity.
Though it does leave Kaylee to consider one heretofore unknown fact:
Colette has a sister?