Participants:
| Scene Title | Scotch And Chocolate |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Scotch visits Helena during her recuperation. |
| Date | October 22, 2009 |
Undisclosed Phoenix Safe House
It's been a few days, and Helena is a little better. She's been a bit more ambulatory around the hidden apartment at Alley Cat Bronx, though as it might be reported, still suffering from morphine withdrawal effects. At the moment, she's in the kitchen, hands firmly wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. Her hands have a slight tremor, but not enough to spill.
From the door comes a simple knock, something to alert the owner of said room, before there is a try at the knob- Scotch really isn't one for just barging in places, let alone a young woman's apartment-though this reason above all seems to supersede his basic decorum, and all. "Helena?" comes the rough and tumble texan accent, when he is able to peek his head in, and hopefully come further into the room. Hey, look on the bright side, it wasn't a smokey/startled BAMF entrance. "Hope you don't mind me comin' round.."
Helena grins. "You knocked." she says, trying to hide her shaking hands as she sets down the chocolate. "That's an improvement on some folks, actually. Hello, Scotch, how are you?" Despite her seeming good cheer, she looks wan, as one might expect. They fed her during her time in Moab, and in-between tortures. No such luck with Humanis First. "Do you want some hot chocolate? I've got hot water left."
Scotch offers a grin back as he shuts the door behind him. Blue eyes though can catch just the little things-well some things at least, and so eyes flick back up before he is nodding just the same. "I would like that very much, Helena." It is odd..He had almost grown accustomed to the other face-though he is curious how that all will pan out. Somewhat. "We got some stuff we need to talk about, but that can wait- I just came by to see how you were holding up." given what you went through-what you saw. Even the pastor knows that's a lot to put on one mind, let alone body. Evolved, or not.
Scotch may or may not know about what the actual Helena endured - the drugs that were forced on her, the physical discomforts - but he did see the outcome of her father's suicide, and that might be enough for anyone to be burdened with. "I'm okay." she says, an affirmation as much for herself as it is for him. She walks to the kitchen and goes through the motions of making another cup of hot chocolate. Her efforts are careful and determined, but the slight tremor in her hands is a betrayal. "What did we need to talk about?"
"Well, before we knew what had really happened- and how Doc's power worked- I went and spoke to White, to see if there was anyway to fix ya up, or reverse anything done." Scotch offers after a moment before he's looking back, and moving to head on into the kitchen area. "Lemme help you." Though its not done nor said in thinking that she cannot handle it. "Saw some things and heard some things as well-figured we should be ready for em." A new front, always?
"And I am sorry bout your father." Even if he put her through hell, the man was still her father-and there is always something to be said about losing kin.
"I'm me." Helena says immediately, and notes, "I don't know if I'm ready to…be a leader again, just yet. I don't know." She puts down the kettle of hot water, indicating the mug with a monkey face on it intended for him. She flinches a touch at the mention of her dad. "Thank you." She sounds uncertain. Not for his thanks, but like she doesn't know how she feels about what she witnessed.
"I'm here." meaning to say that if she wants to talk about it. Still eyes are focused more on the mug, before he's bringing the cup over a little closer, and even one hand out to help with the pouring if she likes. "You know, the first time I was shot- I couldn't do shit for a week. I mean it." Scotch offers out. "Didn't think I would be able to carry a gun or muster out-I was a private then, way before I made PFC." A lick of his lips. "Killed my first man when I was an LC-Still nothing really shapes out as you would think.." This has a point trust him.
"The first time I killed someone…well, everyone who was there says it wasn't my fault." Helena shrugs, seeming indifferently. "This wasn't like being tortured in Moab. Less time, but more brutal." She leans against the counter, frowning a bit and lifting a hand to rub against her forehead. "I'll get over this. I mean, I have to."
"No one ever really gets over one thing, or the other. You either survive it, or you let it hold you down in one way or another." Scotch adds softly. "You're tough though-" as if that is to help with the situation. And he's looking back. "Did he?" well to say, did her Father have a hand in it, or did he leave it anyone else? "You know, I dunno- if I was him, if I could let it happen. Belief or not..Family is family.."
"You'd think." Helena says. "But he arranged the whole thing. His plan was to drug me so insensible that he could strap a bomb to me, leave me on the steps of a registration center, and blow it up. That was after he'd initially threatened to set me on fire. In the end, when he realized he was Evolved too…he just couldn't take it." She frowns, looking down at the counter.
"He was?" asked back, but then he doesn't seem to say more. "He probably still loved you, for what it was worth- I say if you're going to remember the man, least remember the good." And one hand reaches to touch Helena on the back just so. "You know." Scotch adds finally before he's reaching for the kettle so as to pour the cuppa. "They don't train you for this in seminary.." A laugh though it is devoid of any mirth. "I've dealt with, suicides. Deaths..All sorts of grief and loss, but really. I don't know what to say other than I am here for you Helena…An I always will be."
Helena cocks her head. "He wasn't though." she says. "He wasn't always there. You never heard what he said to me the first time I spoke with him after I ran away from home. I hadn't spoken to him in almost two, three years. He told me that I was a worthless little cunt and my mother was a bitch and he couldn't wait to stick me in a freight bin, fill it with gasoline, and light me on fire. When he stood in front of me crying and blaming himself for my being Evolved because he was himself? He obviously didn't love me enough not to pull the trigger in front of me." She shakes her head, eyes sad. "Don't promise what you don't know you can keep, Scotch."
"I can't speak for the hate he showed you, or your mother. I can't, nor can I really tell you that inside of a monster there was probably a man who at one time, loved his family- cause I don't know that shit." Scotch says, before he's looking back towards Helena- hot water done with. "All I can say, is it takes a lot, for a man to kill himself-for whatever reason. And even though he did that shit- if you love him, or loved him, doesn't make the loss any better.." A shake of his head, thoguh when blues meet Helena's, there's a frown. "I don't promise things, I can't keep. Hell, I went into the lion's den t' make sure you could get fixed."
Half smile there from the preacher. "Guess you could say I'll stick through thick an thin."
Helena looks at him sidelong, uncertain. "What'd I do to deserve that kind of loyalty?" she asks. It's not a question she'd ever asked Cook or Leo or Teo. Or even Cat or Delilah.
Scotch raises a brow for a moment, before he's reaching for his cup "Anything I need to add to this?" asked, before he is even touching that question. Once things though are added and stirred properly, he finds his gaze back on the other woman. "You wanna know what you did?" simple. "You remembered who I am."
And with that he's moving back towards the living room. "And that's the type of guy I am…I wouldn't sell you-or any of those others out."
Helena furrows her brow and now that her own is cool enough to sip, snatches it, holding it with her free hand underneath for extra help in keeping it steady. "I don't understand." she says. "Why wouldn't I remember who you are?" She smiles faintly. "I appreciate that you wouldn't sell us out, but that's not always the same thing as loyalty. Especially with that kind of promise." She takes a breath. "People leave me."
"No- Like you know who Iam. Not just a name or a title. Some damned face I've put on for so many years, but you know who I am." And he'll leave it at that, at least for that aspect. "It is a part of loyalty." he adds, as he moves to sit down before he's looking to her cup. He'll allow his to cool just a little before finally taking a sip. "Also- When you make a vow to something, whether it is defending your country- or others in our case, you stick by it. And I am not people." Scotch iterates. "I am, me." a chuckle into his hot chocolate. "That probably sounds odd."
"It doesn't sound odd." she says. "It just seems…like a dubious prospect, to me." she explains. Then, "From what I was told, you were pretty central to the planning and the execution of what went down."
"Well, it can sound as it is." And there's a beat, before the pastor is nodding back towards Helena. "I was.. Cat called me an Delilah in to come up with a plan. We decided that trying to be quiet and just disarm would be something to strive for." A grunt there. "That went out the window, huh?"
Helena smiles. "Isn't it a military saying that plans only work until it's time for them to be executed or something like that?" she says with humor. She closes her eyes a moment and has to set her cocoa down before even having a sip. With a sigh, "If that's an example for how you manage that kind of situation, you may end up in charge of that sort of thing quite a lot."
"Usually we say, the plan is fubard till it proves to not be." Scotch quips, before he is taking a sip and he's finally sitting his ass down. "Well, it generally is. I understand Cat, wanting to keep our nose clean. Just sometimes- you gotta kill- As much as I hate to say it. You do." A faint frown there. "Which reminds me-White's got something planned..Big. Had blueprints in his place and all that-Some tall fella came in…called knox?" a shrug at his own memory there. "Bringing in reinforcements..Either way it doesn't look good for Staten, or the city."
Helena looks unhappy at that. "Knox is with him?" she asks in dismay. She lets out a sigh and looks away. "I don't know." she says. "I'm afriad - I don't know if I can do this anymore."
"If you need a break-take it." Scotch says, finally. "You've carried this on your back for a long time, I spect- and if you need someone to take it over, then pass it on. But, take a break. Rest, because what you went through was hell.If you want back come on back an folks will be there ready. If you're done. No one will blame you." And with that he is setting his drink down. "People trust you Helena. Hell I do, and I understand, how it can feel." meaning the weight of it all, nothing more.
Helena shakes her head. "People see me." she says. "People recognize me. There are kids who wear our symbol out in the streets, did you know that? If I stop, I'll let them down. But I'm so tired." She sighs. "Maybe it's just the morphine." Then, "Have you ever tried Refrain?"
Scotch offers that hand again. "Taking a break, doesn't mean retiring. Not yet anyway- and I doubt you will let them down, if you rest for a bit." But that is his opinion. "You're tired, and you need the rest, so simply. break. Every soldier on the front gets furlough-hell I got it twice when I was in Kosovo." And then the other remark catches him entirely offguard. "No." he answers, "Why-You haven't, have you?"
Helena looks down at her mug. "Not of my own free will." she admits. "But when they moved Wendy, my father injected me with some. It felt," she licks her lips, looking momentarily anxious, "Really good."
"It probably did.." Scotch murmurs for a moment "However, I am going to tell you to nix that habit now, while it is in the fucking bud." A look back to the younger woman. "Don't get fucking hooked on that shit.." And here McCoy seems a bit more adamant. "I will literally beat our ass, if I find out you're doing that..It'll kill you." How's that for a PSA?
Helena leans back. "I don't - I don't have a crave, okay?" she insists. "I mean, right now, I don't want it. I don't even want to go out and get some. But I'm scared about what's going to happen if someone brings some around me."
"I Hope you got the type of friends that are better than that." A grumble from the Pastor as he's taking his time to just stare into that drink of his. "I drink and smoke- that's enough on the vices for me." Not to say he hasn't done other things, in his life- he just knows his limits. "I'd punch whoever injected you with that shit in the mouth…" But, that is already taken care of isn't it. "Helena…I hate to say it, but maybe a break would do you good."
Helena cocks her head. "Well, I'm afraid that's not possible, since his face kind of got blown off." The chuckle that follows is pretty humorless; it's whistling in the dark. "I have to at least make a broadcast. Let people know they don't have me anymore. And you know I'd…just get upset, when things started to happen without me."
Scotch shakes his head "I figured.." grave humor, he gets. And there is a chuckle to go as well. A grunt and his drink is set aside as he rises up "I'll be here in the city a little longer, Got a buddy watching the church as I have to figure out where White put Shard…or pieces of him.." One hand coming up to rub his brow. "So if you wanna talk or you know-do normal things, like eat an stuff. Holler to me. I get incredibly bored, when over here." A chuckle. "And think 'bout a sabbatical…Not a clean break-just…Just a time of rest- and one where you can hop right back into."
Helena frowns. "Wait, what happened to Shard?" she asks. "Norman has him? Norman might have killed him?"
Scotch looks back towards Helena "I rightly don't know-I haven't heard from any of Shard's people, and the way Norman put it? Hell sounds as if he killed him right off- Said Shard was dealt with for good, or something like that." A shake of his head "Shard deserved better- He was working for better, an I tried to help him as I could…" a kiss of his teeth "War's a comin.."
"Who else was Shard working with? Do you know any of his people? Maybe some of the Remnant might know what's going on." Helena starts to rise, and a hand with increased tremor begins to run through her hair. "A war's coming…I can't take a vacation."
"Peyton…I know for sure was with us.." Least that is where he first met the girl. "He's got a few others working with him on Staten..A wiry fellow with nappy hair..Some others. I'll go by and poke around for some names." And then he's looking back to her hand and then up. "Probably right." a kiss of his teeth. "After the war then. Nice sun shiny island…mixed drinks and trees." Scotch offers with a half grin, though there seems to be no warmth with it.
Helena is unable to resist, she wants to see if she can poke him. "Pastor, is this your way of trying to get me in a bikini? You realize I'm young enough to be your daughter." She waits to see if he fumbles.
Scotch blinks, and there's a laugh there as some goofy assed smile just barely shows there. And down it is sucked up. Nope- nothing more to see here. "Well." a pause and his hand is coming up to scratch at the back of his neck. "Seein as I don't have a daughter…You're not young enough to be her." A rub of his jaw "That wasn't a fair question." However there's no real answer there save what seems to be a retreat to the door. "You want me to come by later?"
Nice tapdance, Scotch! "Sure." she says, her smile experiencing a momentary increase and just as quick decrease. "That'd be fine."
"Alright.. I'll do so-maybe bring dinner." And with that he is quickly slipping out lest anything more incriminating comes out of his mouth.